Nature Genetics

doi: 10.1038/ng0905-913pmid: 16132040

doi: 10.1038/ng0905-914pmid: 16132041

Walton, Robert; Kimber, Martin; Rockett, Kirk; Trafford, Clare; Kwiatkowski, Dominic; Sirugo, Giorgio

doi: 10.1038/ng0905-915pmid: 16132042

Ahmadi, Kourosh R; Weale, Michael E; Roses, Allen D; Saunders, Ann M; Goldstein, David B

doi: 10.1038/ng0905-916pmid: N/A

Schübeler, Dirk; Elgin, Sarah C R

doi: 10.1038/ng0905-917pmid: 16132044

Jorde, Lynn B

doi: 10.1038/ng0905-919pmid: N/A

Thompson, Larry H

doi: 10.1038/ng0905-921pmid: 16132046

How the Fanconi anemia chromosome stability pathway functions to cope with interstrand crosslinks and other DNA lesions has been elusive. The identification of two new Fanconi anemia–associated proteins with helicase motifs, FANCM and BRIP1 (also called FANCJ or BACH1), implicates the FANC nuclear core complex in recognizing or processing damaged DNA and the BRIP1 helicase as acting independently of this complex.

Holmes, Edward C

doi: 10.1038/ng0905-923pmid: 16132047

The first replicating molecules were probably composed of RNA and undoubtedly small, limited in size by a self-destructing error rate. A new study shows that a relatively minor increase in replication fidelity may have had a large effect on the size, and hence complexity, of early replicators.

Lyon, Mary F

doi: 10.1038/ng0905-924pmid: 16132048

A proportion of wild mice carry a variant region of chromosome 17 that results in severe transmission ratio distortion in males. The genetic basis of this distortion has long been enigmatic, but a recent study begins to disentangle it.

Paulsson, Johan

doi: 10.1038/ng0905-925pmid: 16132049

Molecular noise, or random fluctuations in the levels of cellular components, arises spontaneously when there are small numbers of molecules and is transmitted to dependent processes. A new study shows how noise propagates through gene expression in yeast and shows that chromosomal position has a more central role than previously thought.