http://www.hindawi.comThe latest articles from Hindawi Publishing Corporation© 2008, Hindawi Publishing Corporation. All rights reserved.http://www.hindawi.com/GetArticle.aspx?doi=10.1155/2008/634283Cohesin is a protein complex that regulates sister chromatid cohesin during cell division. Malfunction in chromatid cohesin results in chromosome missegregation and aneuploidy. Here, we report that mutations of MCD1 and PDS5, two major components of cohesin in budding yeast, cause apoptotic cell death, which is characterized by externalization of phosphatidylserine at cytoplasmic membrane, chromatin condensation and fragmentation, and ROS production. Microarray analysis suggests that the cell death caused by mutation of MCD1 or PDS5 is due to the internal stress response, contrasting to the environmental or external stress response induced by external stimuli, such as hydrogen peroxide. A common feature shared by the internal stress response and external stress response is the response to stimulus, including response to DNA damage, mitochondria functions, and oxidative stress, which play an important role in yeast apoptotic cell death.Qun Ren, Hui Yang, Bifeng Gao, and Zhaojie Zhang© 2008, Hindawi Publishing Corporation. All rights reserved.http://www.hindawi.com/GetArticle.aspx?doi=10.1155/2008/879023Cryptosporidium parvum and C. hominis are related protozoan pathogens which infect the intestinal epithelium of humans and other vertebrates. To explore the evolution of these parasites, and identify genes under positive selection, we performed a pairwise whole-genome comparison between all orthologous protein coding genes in C. parvum and C. hominis. Genome-wide calculation of the ratio of nonsynonymous versus synonymous nucleotide substitutions (dN/dS) was performed to detect the impact of positive and purifying selection. Of 2465 pairs of orthologous genes, a total of 27 (1.1%) showed a high ratio of nonsynonymous substitutions, consistent with positive selection. A majority of these genes were annotated as hypothetical proteins. In addition, proteins with transmembrane and signal peptide domains are significantly more frequent in the high dN/dS group.Guangtao Ge, Lenore Cowen, Xiaochuan Feng, and Giovanni Widmer© 2008, Hindawi Publishing Corporation. All rights reserved.http://www.hindawi.com/GetArticle.aspx?doi=10.1155/2008/623145Orientia tsutsugamushi, the causative agent of scrub typhus, is an obligate intracellular bacterium that belongs to the order of Rickettsiales. Recently, we have reported that O. tsutsugamushi has a unique genomic structure, consisting of highly repetitive sequences, and suggested that it may provide valuable insight into the evolution of intracellular bacteria. Here, we have used genomic information to construct the major metabolic pathways of O. tsutsugamushi and performed a comparative analysis of the metabolic genes and pathways of O. tsutsugamushi with other members of the Rickettsiales order. While O. tsutsugamushi has the largest genome among the members of this order, mainly due to the presence of repeated sequences, its metabolic pathways have been highly streamlined. Overall, the metabolic pathways of O. tsutsugamushi were similar to Rickettsia but there were notable differences in several pathways including carbohydrate metabolism, the TCA cycle, and the synthesis of cell wall components as well as in the transport systems. Our results will provide a useful guide to the postgenomic analysis of O. tsutsugamushi and lead to a better understanding of the virulence and physiology of this intracellular pathogen.Chan-Ki Min, Jae-Seong Yang, Sanguk Kim, Myung-Sik Choi, Ik-Sang Kim, and Nam-Hyuk Cho© 2008, Hindawi Publishing Corporation. All rights reserved.http://www.hindawi.com/GetArticle.aspx?doi=10.1155/2008/571023RNA methylation, which is a form of posttranscriptional modification, is catalyzed by S-adenosyl-L-methionone-dependent RNA methyltransterases (RNA MTases). We have identified a novel silkworm gene, BmRNAMTase, containing a 369-bp open reading frame that encodes a putative protein containing 122 amino acid residues and having a molecular weight of 13.88 kd. We expressed a recombinant His-tagged BmRNAMTase in E. coli BL21 (DE3), purified the fusion protein by metal-chelation affinity chromatography, and injected a New Zealand rabbit with the purified protein to generate anti-BmRNAMTase polyclonal antibodies. Immunohistochemistry revealed that BmRNAMTase is abundant in the cytoplasm of Bm5 cells. In addition, using RNA interference to reduce the intracellular activity and content of BmRNAMTase, we determined that this cytoplasmic RNA methyltransferase may be involved in preventing cell death in the silkworm.Zuoming Nie, Ruobing Zhou, Jian Chen, Dan Wang, Zhengbing Lv, Pingan He, Xuedong Wang, Hongdan Shen, Xiangfu Wu, and Yaozhou Zhang© 2008, Hindawi Publishing Corporation. All rights reserved.http://www.hindawi.com/GetArticle.aspx?doi=10.1155/2008/609684Autism is a complex neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by impairment of social interaction, language, communication, and stereotyped, repetitive behavior. Genetic predisposition to autism has been demonstrated in families and twin studies. About 5–10% of autism cases are associated with chromosomal abnormalities or monogenic disorders. The identification of genes involved in the origin of autism is expected to increase our understanding of the pathogenesis. We report on the clinical, cytogenetic, and molecular findings in a boy with autism carrying a de novo translocation t(7;16)(p22.1;p11.2). The chromosome 16 breakpoint disrupts the paralogous SLC6A8 gene also called SLC6A10 or CT2. Predicted translation of exons and RT-PCR analysis reveal specific expression of the creatine transporter paralogous in testis and brain. Several studies reported on the role of X-linked creatine transporter mutations in individuals with mental retardation, with or without autism. The existence of disruption in SLC6A8 paralogous gene associated with idiopathic autism suggests that this gene may be involved in the autistic phenotype in our patient.Nadia Bayou, Ridha M'rad, Ahlem Belhaj, Hussein Daoud, Ramzi Zemni, Sylvain Briault, M. Béchir Helayem, Lamia Ben Jemaa, and Habiba Chaabouni© 2008, Hindawi Publishing Corporation. All rights reserved.http://www.hindawi.com/GetArticle.aspx?doi=10.1155/2008/565631There has been much interest in CpG islands (CGIs), clusters of CpG dinucleotides in GC-rich regions, because they are considered gene markers and involved in gene regulation. To date, there has been no genome-wide analysis of CGIs in the fish genome. We first evaluated the performance of three popular CGI identification algorithms in four fish genomes (tetraodon, stickleback, medaka, and zebrafish). Our results suggest that Takai and Jones' (2002) algorithm is most suitable for comparative analysis of CGIs in the fish genome. Then, we performed a systematic analysis of CGIs in the four fish genomes using Takai and Jones' algorithm, compared to other vertebrate genomes. We found that both the number of CGIs and the CGI density vary greatly among these genomes. Remarkably, each fish genome presents a distinct distribution of CGI density with some genomic factors (e.g., chromosome size and chromosome GC content). These findings are helpful for understanding evolution of fish genomes and the features of fish CGIs.Leng Han and Zhongming Zhao© 2008, Hindawi Publishing Corporation. All rights reserved.http://www.hindawi.com/GetArticle.aspx?doi=10.1155/2008/254836To identify key regulators of subminimum inhibitory concentration (sub-MIC) antibiotic response in the Pasteurella multocida proteome, we applied systems approaches. Using 2D-LC-ESI-MS2, we achieved 53% proteome coverage. To study the differential protein expression in response to sub-MIC antibiotics in the context of protein interaction networks, we inferred P. multocida Pm70 protein interaction network from orthologous proteins. We then overlaid the differential protein expression data onto the P. multocida protein interaction network to study the bacterial response. We identified proteins that could enhance antimicrobial activity. Overall compensatory response to antibiotics was characterized by altered expression of proteins involved in purine metabolism, stress response, and cell envelope permeability.Bindu Nanduri, Mark L. Lawrence, Divya Swetha Peddinti, and Shane C. Burgess© 2008, Hindawi Publishing Corporation. All rights reserved.http://www.hindawi.com/GetArticle.aspx?doi=10.1155/2008/451930We have identified two genomic islands, that is, BCEGI-1 and BCEGI-2, in the genome of Bacillus cereus ATCC 10987, based on comparative analysis with Bacillus cereus ATCC 14579. Furthermore, by using the cumulative GC profile and performing homology searches between the two genomes, the integration sites of the two genomic islands were determined at single-nucleotide resolution. BCEGI-1 is integrated between 159705 bp and 198000 bp, whereas BCEGI-2 is integrated between the end of ORF BCE4594 and the start of the intergenic sequence immediately following BCE4626, that is, from 4256803 bp to 4285534 bp. BCEGI-1 harbors two bacterial Tn7 transposons, which have two sets of genes encoding TnsA, B, C, and D. It is generally believed that unlike the TnsABC+E pathway, the TnsABC+D pathway would only promote vertical transmission to daughter cells. The evidence presented in this paper, however, suggests a role of the TnsABC+D pathway in the horizontal transfer of some genomic islands.Ren Zhang and Chun-Ting Zhang© 2008, Hindawi Publishing Corporation. All rights reserved.http://www.hindawi.com/GetArticle.aspx?doi=10.1155/2007/57513Nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) is a rare malignancy in most parts of the world, but is one of the most common cancers in Southeast Asia. Both genetic and environmental factors contribute to the tumorigenesis of NPC, most notably the consumption of certain salted food items and Epstein-Barr virus infection. This review will focus on the current progress of the genetic analysis of NPC (genetic susceptibilities and somatic alterations). We will review the current advances in genomic technologies and their shaping of the future direction of NPC research.Xiaofeng Zhou, Jing Cui, Virgilia Macias, André A. Kajdacsy-Balla, Hui Ye, Jianguang Wang, and P. Nagesh Rao© 2008, Hindawi Publishing Corporation. All rights reserved.http://www.hindawi.com/GetArticle.aspx?doi=10.1155/2007/35604The large amounts of EST sequence data available from a single species of an organism as well as for several species within a genus provide an easy source of identification of intra- and interspecies single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). In the case of model organisms, the data available are numerous, given the degree of redundancy in the deposited EST data. There are several available bioinformatics tools that can be used to mine this data; however, using them requires a certain level of expertise: the tools have to be used sequentially with accompanying format conversion and steps like clustering and assembly of sequences become time-intensive jobs even for moderately sized datasets. We report here a pipeline of open source software extended to run on multiple CPU architectures that can be used to mine large EST datasets for SNPs and identify restriction sites for assaying the SNPs so that cost-effective CAPS assays can be developed for SNP genotyping in genetics and breeding applications. At the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), the pipeline has been implemented to run on a Paracel high-performance system consisting of four dual AMD Opteron processors running Linux with MPICH. The pipeline can be accessed through user-friendly web interfaces at http://hpc.icrisat.cgiar.org/PBSWeb and is available on request for academic use. We have validated the developed pipeline by mining chickpea ESTs for interspecies SNPs, development of CAPS assays for SNP genotyping, and confirmation of restriction digestion pattern at the sequence level.B. Jayashree, Manindra S. Hanspal, Rajgopal Srinivasan, R. Vigneshwaran, Rajeev K. Varshney, N. Spurthi, K. Eshwar, N. Ramesh, S. Chandra, and David A. Hoisington© 2008, Hindawi Publishing Corporation. All rights reserved.http://www.hindawi.com/GetArticle.aspx?doi=10.1155/2007/60964Tandemly arrayed genes (TAGs) account for about one third of the duplicated genes in eukaryotic genomes, yet there has not been any systematic study of their gene expression patterns. Taking advantage of recently published large-scale microarray data sets, we studied the expression divergence of 361 two-member TAGs in human and 212 two-member TAGs in mouse and examined the effect of sequence divergence, gene orientation, and chromosomal proximity on the divergence of TAG expression patterns. Our results show that there is a weak negative correlation between sequence divergence of TAG members and their expression similarity. There is also a weak negative correlation between chromosomal proximity of TAG members and their expression similarity. We did not detect any significant relationship between gene orientation and expression similarity. We also found that downstream TAG members do not show significantly narrower expression breadth than upstream members, contrary to what we predict based on TAG expression divergence hypothesis that we propose. Finally, we show that both chromosomal proximity and expression correlation in TAGs do not differ significantly from their neighboring non-TAG gene pairs, suggesting that tandem duplication is unlikely to be the cause for the higher-than-random expression association between neighboring genes on a chromosome in human and mouse.Valia Shoja, T. M. Murali, and Liqing Zhang© 2008, Hindawi Publishing Corporation. All rights reserved.http://www.hindawi.com/GetArticle.aspx?doi=10.1155/2007/89596Two-dimensional gel-electrophoresis (2-DE) images show the expression levels of several hundreds of proteins where each protein is represented as a blob-shaped spot of grey level values. The spot detection, that is, the segmentation process has to be efficient as it is the first step in the gel processing. Such extraction of information is a very complex task. In this paper, we propose a novel spot detector that is basically a morphology-based method with the use of a seeded region growing as a central paradigm and which relies on the spot correlation information. The method is tested on our synthetic as well as on real gels with human samples from SWISS-2DPAGE (two-dimensional polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis) database. A comparison of results is done with a method called pixel value collection (PVC). Since our algorithm efficiently uses local spot information, segments the spot by collecting pixel values and its affinity with PVC, we named it local pixel value collection (LPVC). The results show that LPVC achieves similar segmentation results as PVC, but is much faster than PVC.Peter Peer and Luis Galo Corzo© 2008, Hindawi Publishing Corporation. All rights reserved.http://www.hindawi.com/GetArticle.aspx?doi=10.1155/2007/21676Microsatellites are short tandem repeats of one to six bases in genomic DNA. As microsatellites are highly polymorphic and play a vital role in gene function and recombination, they are an attractive subject for research in evolution and in the genetics and breeding of animals and plants. Orphan genes have no known homologs in existing databases. Using bioinformatic computation and statistical analysis, we identified 19,26 orphan genes in the rice (Oryza sativa ssp. Japanica cv. Nipponbare) proteome. We found that a larger proportion of orphan genes are expressed after sexual maturation and under environmental pressure than nonorphan genes. Orphan genes generally have shorter protein lengths and intron size, and are faster evolving. Additionally, orphan genes have fewer PROSITE patterns with larger pattern sizes than those in nonorphan genes. The average microsatellite content and the percentage of trinucleotide repeats in orphan genes are also significantly higher than in nonorphan genes. Microsatellites are found less often in PROSITE patterns in orphan genes. Taken together, these orphan gene characteristics suggest that microsatellites play an important role in orphan gene evolution and expression.Wen-Jiu Guo, Ping Li, Jun Ling, and Shao-Ping Ye© 2008, Hindawi Publishing Corporation. All rights reserved.http://www.hindawi.com/GetArticle.aspx?doi=10.1155/2007/25751To elucidate the evolution of cyanobacterial envelopes and the relation between gene content and environmental adaptation, cell envelope structures and components of unicellular and filamentous cyanobacteria were analyzed in comparative genomics. Hundreds of envelope biogenesis genes were divided into 5 major groups and annotated according to their conserved domains and phylogenetic profiles. Compared to unicellular species, the gene numbers of filamentous cyanobacteria expanded due to genome enlargement effect, but only few gene families amplified disproportionately, such as those encoding waaG and glycosyl transferase 2. Comparison of envelope genes among various species suggested that the significant variance of certain cyanobacterial envelope biogenesis genes should be the response to their environmental adaptation, which might be also related to the emergence of filamentous shapes with some new functions.Yu Yang, Song Qin, Fangqing Zhao, Xiaoyuan Chi, and Xiaowen Zhang© 2008, Hindawi Publishing Corporation. All rights reserved.http://www.hindawi.com/GetArticle.aspx?doi=10.1155/2007/47304This meeting report summarizes the proceedings of the “eGenomics: Cataloguing our Complete Genome Collection III” workshop held September 11–13, 2006, at the National Institute for Environmental eScience (NIEeS), Cambridge, United Kingdom. This 3rd workshop of the Genomic Standards Consortium was divided into two parts. The first half of the three-day workshop was dedicated to reviewing the genomic diversity of our current and future genome and metagenome collection, and exploring linkages to a series of existing projects through formal presentations. The second half was dedicated to strategic discussions. Outcomes of the workshop include a revised “Minimum Information about a Genome Sequence” (MIGS) specification (v1.1), consensus on a variety of features to be added to the Genome Catalogue (GCat), agreement by several researchers to adopt MIGS for imminent genome publications, and an agreement by the EBI and NCBI to input their genome collections into GCat for the purpose of quantifying the amount of optional data already available (e.g., for geographic location coordinates) and working towards a single, global list of all public genomes and metagenomes.Dawn Field, George Garrity, Tanya Gray, Jeremy Selengut, Peter Sterk, Nick Thomson, Tatiana Tatusova, Guy Cochrane, Frank Oliver Glöckner, Renzo Kottmann, Allyson L. Lister, Yoshio Tateno, and Robert Vaughan© 2008, Hindawi Publishing Corporation. All rights reserved.http://www.hindawi.com/GetArticle.aspx?doi=10.1155/2007/90578Background. Normalisation is a critical step in obtaining meaningful information from the high-dimensional DNA array data. This is particularly important when complex biological hypotheses/questions, such a functional analysis and regulatory interactions within biological systems, are investigated. A nonparametric, intensity-dependent normalisation method based on global identification of self-consistent set (SCS) of genes is proposed here for such systems. Results. The SCS normalisation is introduced and its behaviour demonstrated for a range of user-defined parameters affecting sits performance. It is compared to a standard global normalisation method in terms of noise reduction and signal retention. Conclusions. The SCS normalisation results using 16 macroarray data sets from a Bacillus subtilis experiment confirm that the method is capable of reducing undesirable experimental variation whilst retaining important biological information. The ease and speed of implementation mean that this method can be easily adapted to other multicondition time/strain series single colour array data.Nicola L. Dawes and Jarka Glassey© 2008, Hindawi Publishing Corporation. All rights reserved.http://www.hindawi.com/GetArticle.aspx?doi=10.1155/2007/47161We have identified four repeats and ten domains that are novel in proteins encoded by the Bacillus anthracis str. Ames proteome using automated in silico methods. A “repeat” corresponds to a region comprising less than 55-amino-acid residues that occur more than once in the protein sequence and sometimes present in tandem. A “domain” corresponds to a conserved region with greater than 55-amino-acid residues and may be present as single or multiple copies in the protein sequence. These correspond to (1) 57-amino-acid-residue PxV domain, (2) 122-amino-acid-residue FxF domain, (3) 111-amino-acid-residue YEFF domain, (4) 109-amino-acid-residue IMxxH domain, (5) 103-amino-acid-residue VxxT domain, (6) 84-amino-acid-residue ExW domain, (7) 104-amino-acid-residue NTGFIG domain, (8) 36-amino-acid-residue NxGK repeat, (9) 95-amino-acid-residue VYV domain, (10) 75-amino-acid-residue KEWE domain, (11) 59-amino-acid-residue AFL domain, (12) 53-amino-acid-residue RIDVK repeat, (13) (a) 41-amino-acid-residue AGQF repeat and (b) 42-amino-acid-residue GSAL repeat. A repeat or domain type is characterized by specific conserved sequence motifs. We discuss the presence of these repeats and domains in proteins from other genomes and their probable secondary structure.G. R. Hemalatha, D. Satyanarayana Rao, and L. Guruprasad© 2008, Hindawi Publishing Corporation. All rights reserved.http://www.hindawi.com/GetArticle.aspx?doi=10.1155/2007/58721Previous studies in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae have shown that genes encoding subunits of macromolecular complexes have similar evolutionary rates (K) and expression levels (E). Besides, it is known that the expression of a gene is a strong predictor of its rate of evolution (i.e., E and K are correlated). Here we show that intracomplex variation of subunit expression correlates with intracomplex variation of their evolutionary rates (using two different measures of dispersion). However, a similar trend was observed for randomized complexes. Therefore, using a mathematical transformation, we created new variables capturing intracomplex variation of both E and K. The values of these new compound variables were smaller for real complexes than for randomized ones. This shows that proteins in complexes tend to have closer expressivities (E) and K's simultaneously than in the randomly grouped genes. We speculate about the possible implications of this finding.Laurence Ettwiller and Reiner A. Veitia© 2008, Hindawi Publishing Corporation. All rights reserved.http://www.hindawi.com/GetArticle.aspx?doi=10.1155/2007/43070It has been suggested that there are special evolutionary forces that act on sex chromosomes. Hemizygosity of the X chromosome in male mammals has led to selection for male-advantage genes, and against genes posing extreme risks of tumor development. A similar bias against cancer genes should also apply to the Z chromosome that is present as a single copy in female birds. Using comparative database analysis, we found that there was no significant underrepresentation of cancer genes on the chicken Z, nor on the Z-orthologous regions of human chromosomes 5 and 9. This result does not support the hypothesis that genes involved in cancer are selected against on the sex chromosomes.Rami Stiglec, Matthias Kohn, James Fong, Tariq Ezaz, Horst Hameister, and Jennifer A. Marshall Graves© 2008, Hindawi Publishing Corporation. All rights reserved.http://www.hindawi.com/GetArticle.aspx?doi=10.1155/2007/49356By combining crystallographic information with protein-interaction data obtained through traditional experimental means, this paper determines the most appropriate method for generating protein-interaction networks that incorporate data derived from protein complexes. We propose that a combined method should be considered; in which complexes composed of five chains or less are decomposed using the matrix model, whereas the spoke model is used to derive pairwise interactions for those with six chains or more. The results presented here should improve the accuracy and relevance of studies investigating the topology of protein-interaction networks.Luke Hakes, David L. Robertson, Stephen G. Oliver, and Simon C. Lovell© 2008, Hindawi Publishing Corporation. All rights reserved.http://www.hindawi.com/GetArticle.aspx?doi=10.1002/(SICI)1097-0061(200004)17:1%3CV::AID-YEA13%3E3.0.CO%3B2-C© 2008, Hindawi Publishing Corporation. All rights reserved.http://www.hindawi.com/GetArticle.aspx?doi=10.1002/(SICI)1097-0061(200004)17:1%3CVII::AID-YEA14%3E3.0.CO%3B2-BS. G. Oliver© 2008, Hindawi Publishing Corporation. All rights reserved.http://www.hindawi.com/GetArticle.aspx?doi=10.1002/(SICI)1097-0061(200004)17:1%3C1::AID-YEA3%3E3.0.CO%3B2-VThe rapidly accumulating genome sequence data from the plant Arabidopsis thaliana allows more detailed analysis of genome content and organisation than ever bafore possible in plants. The genome shows a surprisingly high level of genetic redundancy, with as many as 75% of gene products showing signficant homology to another protien of A. thaliana. Many duplicated genes occur in arrays of conserved order and indicate that A. thaliana is likely to have had a tetraploid ancestor. Analysis of the divergence of duplicated genome segments leads to the prediction of two major modes of plant genome evolution: macro-scale duplication and rearrangement of chromosomes and micro-scale translocation, duplication and loss of individual genes or small groups of genes.Ian Bancroft© 2008, Hindawi Publishing Corporation. All rights reserved.http://www.hindawi.com/GetArticle.aspx?doi=10.1002/(SICI)1097-0061(200004)17:1%3C6::AID-YEA15%3E3.0.CO%3B2-VVisualization of data is important for many data-rich disciplines. In biology, where data sets are becoming larger and more complex, grephical analysis is felt to be ever more pertinent. Although some patterns and trends in data sets may only be determined by sophisticated computional analysis, viewing data by eye can provide us with an extraordinary amount of information in an instant. Recent advances in bioinformatic technologies allow us to link graphical tools to data sources with ease, so we can visualize our data sets dynamically. Here, an overview of graghical software tools for comparative genome analysis is given, showing that a range of simple tools can provide us with powerful view of the differences and similarities between genome.Jo Dicks© 2008, Hindawi Publishing Corporation. All rights reserved.http://www.hindawi.com/GetArticle.aspx?doi=10.1002/(SICI)1097-0061(200004)17:1%3C16::AID-YEA6%3E3.0.CO%3B2-EPharmacogenomics is defined as the study of the association between genetics and drug response. This is a rapidly expanding field with the hope that, within a few years, prospective genotyping will lead to patients being prescribed drugs which are both safer and more effective (‘the right drug for the right patient’, or personalized medicine). There are many existing examples in the literature of strong associations between genetic variation and drug response, and some of these even form the basis of accepted clinical tests. The molecular basis for some of these associations is described, and includes examples of variation in genes responsible for absorption and metabolism of the drug, and in target and disease genes. However, there are many issues surrounding the legal, regulatory and ethical framework to these studies that remain unanswered, and a huge amount of education both for the public and haelthcare professionals will be needed bafore the results of this new madicine can be widely accepted.Ruth March© 2008, Hindawi Publishing Corporation. All rights reserved.http://www.hindawi.com/GetArticle.aspx?doi=10.1002/(SICI)1097-0061(200004)17:1%3C22::AID-YEA5%3E3.0.CO%3B2-SConclusions: Comparison of observed data to computer simulations suggests that 4000–16 000 chromosomal rearrangements have occured since Fugu and human shared a common ancestor, implying a faster rate of rearrangement than seen in human/mouse comparisons.Aoife McLysaght, Anton J. Enright, Lucy Skrabanek, and Kenneth H. Wolfe© 2008, Hindawi Publishing Corporation. All rights reserved.http://www.hindawi.com/GetArticle.aspx?doi=10.1002/(SICI)1097-0061(200004)17:1%3C37::AID-YEA11%3E3.0.CO%3B2-P© 2008, Hindawi Publishing Corporation. All rights reserved.http://www.hindawi.com/GetArticle.aspx?doi=10.1002/(SICI)1097-0061(200004)17:1%3C43::AID-YEA1%3E3.0.CO%3B2-ZIn addition, the group is taking advantage of the completion of the C. elegans genome sequence to develop whole genome DNA microarrays for expression profiling. At the Sanger Centre, DNA microarrays are providing opportunities to examine how development and physiology are regulated globally, because most nematode genes have now been identified at the sequence level. The group are being assisted in this endeavour by Dr Stuart Kim (Stanford, CA).© 2008, Hindawi Publishing Corporation. All rights reserved.http://www.hindawi.com/GetArticle.aspx?doi=10.1002/(SICI)1097-0061(200004)17:1%3C48::AID-YEA2%3E3.0.CO%3B2-H© 2008, Hindawi Publishing Corporation. All rights reserved.http://www.hindawi.com/GetArticle.aspx?doi=10.1002/(SICI)1097-0061(200004)17:1%3C56::AID-YEA12%3E3.0.CO%3B2-H© 2008, Hindawi Publishing Corporation. All rights reserved.