We often talk about how difficult it is to estimate divergence times without an extensive fossil record, and how we essentially don’t a clue when different fly lineages diverged. Here is a recent paper in MBE that tackles this problem using new data and in a lot more detail than any previous studies.
Author: akopp Page 6 of 15
A quick heads-up: Sarah and Thad’s paper on genomic resources for the D. ananassae subgroup, Joel’s paper on sex comb development in Lordiphosa, Angus’ paper on the yeast communities of different Drosophila species, and Thad’s paper on the genetic basis of Dollo’s law are all in press now. See them on the Publications page.
NIH’s Encylopedia of DNA Elements (or ENCODE) project just published a blitz of papers in Nature. The project is an attempt to characterize all the non-coding elements of the human genome. There are six research articles and a slew of accompanying media. Perhaps fodder for the next WCB meeting?
NIH’s Encylopedia of DNA Elements (or ENCODE) project just published a blitz of papers in Nature. The project is an attempt to characterize all the functional elements of the human genome. There are six research articles and a slew of accompanying media. Perhaps fodder for the next WCB meeting?
The latest successes:
Raul has been selected as one of the eight students who will represent UC Davis at the Annual Biomedical Research Conference for Minority Students (ABRCMS) in San Jose, November 7-10, 2012. Raul will talk about his work on the evolution of ovipositor morphology and its role in ecological innovation.
And Bill has received one of the GREAT Best Research Awards for his summer project on tissue-specific doublesex enhancers.
Well done, guys!
Due to a very unsettled August schedule, regular meetings of the Wine Cheese and Bullshit club will resume in September. Feel free to bullshit on your own in the meantime.
This is actually an old mystery because the DNA-binding specificities of different HOX proteins, determined using biochemical approaches, are remarkably similar. How can they regulate different genes if they all bind the same site? Well, it looks like they don’t all bind the same sites. This paper in EMBO Journal shows that different HOX proteins associate with different genomic regions in vivo. How they end up there is still not understood, but presumably it depends on the specific interactions between the HOX proteins and other TFs that DO recognize different DNA sequences. This is a very intriguing paper – take a look.
After a long period of cryptic divergence, the literature on the evolution of butterfly wing patters is going through explosive diversification. Another recent paper in PNAS shows that the evolution of some pattern elements is associated with changes in the expression of a Wg homolog.
A new paper in Nature Methods describes a simplified approach for generating and assembling RAD libraries. From the paper:
“Here we describe a streamlined and flexible approach for RAD genotyping, called 2b-RAD for its use of type IIB restriction enzymes. These enzymes (for example, BsaXI and AlfI) cleave genomic DNA upstream and downstream of the target site, producing tags of uniform length that are ideally suited for sequencing on existing next-generation platforms.”
Check it out.
This year’s lab hike was to the scenic Mt. Agassiz in Desolation Wilderness. It was a great day – pleasantly shaded approach, just-adventurous-enough climb, great views from the summit, watermelon for lunch, and a swim in the cold mountain lake. Extra features included a bit of rappelling practice on the western gendarme and a dog-carrying session. The pictures are here:
Where should we go next year?
