Lynch M (2002) Science "Genomics. Gene duplication and evolution."

Lynch M

[Science, 2002]

Baker M (2011) Nat Methods "More options for gene editing."

Baker M

[Nat Methods, 2011]

Engineering precise genetic changes in a genome is powerful way to study gene function, and several recent papers describe new applications of gene-editing tools. Working with researchers at Sangamo BioSciences, Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator Barbara Meyer and her colleagues at the University of California, Berkeley, described the first systems for making targeted genomic modifications in the roundworm Caenorhabditis elegans, a valuable model organism (Wood et al., 2011).

Roush W (1997) Science "Worm longevity gene cloned."

Roush W

[Science, 1997]

A gene that helps control the life-span of the nematode C. elegans encodes the worm version of the insulin receptor, thereby providing a possible link between aging and glucose metabolism.

Keller W et al. (2002) Nature "Gene regulation: reviving the message."

Martin G, Keller W

[Nature, 2002]

O'Rourke SM et al. (2005) Nature "Genomics: frontiers of gene function."

Bowerman B, O'Rourke SM

[Nature, 2005]

Reinke V (2008) Curr Biol "Gene regulation: a tale of germline mRNA tails."

Reinke V

[Curr Biol, 2008]

Gene regulation often plays by different rules in the germline compared to the soma. In Caenorhabditis elegans, the spatial and temporal expression of germline genes is controlled post-transcriptionally via the 3'' UTR rather than transcriptionally via the promoter.

Mahalak KK et al. (2015) PLoS Genet "Orphan Genes Find a Home: Interspecific Competition and Gene Network Evolution."

Mahalak KK, Chamberlin HM

[PLoS Genet, 2015]

Erro R (2015) Mov Disord "VPS35 and EIF4G1 interactions and novel candidate genes for PD: from genes to pathways and back."

Erro R

[Mov Disord, 2015]

Emmons SW (1996) Nature "Simple worms, complex genes."

Emmons SW

[Nature, 1996]

Classical results in experimental embryology established long ago that cells of the developing animal have a regional identity. They can be characterized not only as 'skin', 'nerve' and 'bone', but also as 'arm' and 'leg'. But how cells know what body region they belong to, and what to do there, is not known. Results reported in this issue and in Development describe unexpected properties of a key player, one of the Hox genes-the dynamic, lineage-based regulation of a Hox gene in the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans is at odds with a traditional view of Hox genes as relatively fixed markers of regional identity.

Baumann K (2014) Nat Rev Mol Cell Biol "Gene expression: RNAi as a global transcriptional activator."

Baumann K

[Nat Rev Mol Cell Biol, 2014]