Friday, August 7, 2009

Quote of the Week: Pseudo-Obscure

There seemed to be no end to the tricks that [Drosophila] pseudoobscura could do: one stock had odd sex ratios, another diplayed what seemed to be maternal inheritance, and so on. ... Pseudoobscura was so full of new tricks because it was an undomesticated, wild organism that had not yet been stripped of its natural genetic diversity, as melanogaster had long since been.

In, Lords of the Fly (1994) by R.E. Kohler, University of Chicago Press (Chicago, IL). pg. 260.

Wednesday, August 5, 2009

Breaking Report: RNAi Screen Analysis

Recommended reading:

Birmingham et al. (2009) Statistical methods for analysis of high-throughput RNA interference screens. Nat Methods. 2009 Aug;6(8):569-75.

PubMed PMID: 19644458.

Breaking Report: RNAi Saves Chocolate!?

Caribe dos Santos et al. (2009) dsRNA-induced gene silencing in Moniliophthora perniciosa, the causal agent of witches' broom disease of cacao. In Fungal Genetics & Biology.

Monday, August 3, 2009

Breaking Report: RNA Biology & Immunity

On my desk today:

Gruber et al (2009) Ars2 links the nuclear cap-binding complex to RNA interference and cell proliferation. In Cell.

Sabin et al (2009) Ars2 regulates both miRNA- and siRNA- dependent silencing and suppresses RNA virus infection in Drosophila. In Cell.

With accompanying comment.