Although a segmented body plan is a common feature shared between members of Chordata, Arthropoda and Annelida, the evolutionary origins of segmentation are far from easy to decipher. Shared traits among taxa can either represent an ancestral state, or be the result of convergent evolution. In the case of segmentation, the story is puzzled by… Read more »
According to the United Nations’ Demographers, the global population exceeded seven billion at the end of October 2011. Ensuring sustainable food production to provide adequate sustenance and nutrition for everyone therefore continues to be a matter of significant and urgent import. In March, the Commission on Sustainable Agriculture and Climate Change published their report on… Read more »
1The pond snail Lymnaea stagnalis has long been used as a model organism in the study of neuroscience. The mollusc’s relatively small neural system and bright orange neurons make it ideal to study the anatomy, molecular biology and electrophysiology of neuronal circuits both in vivo and in vitro, and to further understanding of the effects… Read more »
Steve Goff spoke on "Silencing of Retrovirus Expression in Embryonic Stem Cells and A New Retroelement in the Mollusc Mya arenaria" at the Wednesday Afternoon Lecture Series at the NIH on April 11, 2012. Goff’s presentation is available as a webcast at https://videocast.nih.gov/summary.asp?Live=10519 Goff’s lecture was hosted by the NIH Virology interest Group (https://sigs.nih.gov/VIG/Pages/default.aspx) At… Read more »
Retrovirology welcomes Dr. Persephone (Seph) Borrow of University of Oxford as a new Associate Editor. Seph takes Michael Lairmore’s place. At the end of 2011, Michael moved from Ohio State University to assume the Deanship of the School of Veterinary Medicine at UC Davis. We thank Michael for his many years of excellent service to… Read more »
This following is being posted on behalf of Pat Green who writes: Warner C. Greene, MD, PhD, Director, Gladstone Institute of Virology and Immunology, Nick and Sue Hellmann Distinguished Professor of Translational Medicine, Professor of Medicine, Microbiology and Immunology, Co-Director, UCSF-GIVI Center for AIDS Research UCSF, received the 2012 Ohio State University Center for Retrovirus Research Distinguished Research… Read more »
1It is expected that at some point during the 21st century there will be more older people than children in the world. Whilst our life expectancy has improved, the wellbeing of older people and society’s attitude to the elderly are not necessarily following suit. World Health Day, 7th April, focuses on improving the health of… Read more »
1As reported previously on this blog, Genome Biology is to publish a special issue on epigenomics in the late summer. For consideration in the issue, we are inviting submissions of Research, Method and Software manuscripts on all aspects of the epigenome, such as: methylomes (and hydroxymethylomes) histone modifications nucleosome positioning higher order chromatin structure genome-interacting… Read more »
With recent figures suggesting that one in every 125 children in the UK is classified as autistic, a rise of over 50% in 5 years, and a higher figure estimated in the USA it is more important than ever that we support research into this lifelong condition. World Autism Awareness Day aims to encourage awareness… Read more »