TALEN-directed homologous recombination in zebrafish:
http://dev.biologists.org/content/141/19/3807.full
Soon enough we will be able to carry out any experiment we can think of. Technically speaking.

Tetrad analysis in the mouse:
http://www.nature.com/ng/journal/v46/n10/full/ng.3104.html
Just an extremely complicated way to show that yeast geneticists were right all along?

Genome of the common carp:
http://www.nature.com/ng/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/ng.3098.html
Really only interesting as a comparison to zebrafish...

Great minds think alike
http://www.nature.com/news/stone-age-groups-made-similar-toolmaking-breakthroughs-1.16002
Even if they are Neanderthal minds...

Call me cynical or insensitive, but what is the point of this story?
http://www.sciencemag.org/content/345/6204/1650.full
To get published in Science?

Have a great weekend

Finally, we have a well-defined in-bread zebrafish line analogous to mouse strains:
http://www.genetics.org/content/198/1/167.long
Now, let’s see if/how they will thrive in different facilities.

This is really cool: genetics of the placebo effect:
http://www.sciencemag.org/content/345/6203/1446.full
Now the question is: if you find out you are genetically susceptible to the placebo effect, does that knowledge then make you less susceptible? Or is there a genetic component to that, too?

Amazing precision of carbon dating human age among other things
http://www.biotechniques.com/news/biotechniquesNews/biotechniques-353999.html?utm_source=BioTechniques+Newsletters+%26+e-Alerts&utm_campaign=e698ec5859-cell-biology-newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_5f518744d7-e698ec5859-87700457#.VBoGf-dQaHb

Remember the thing about selective mating among humans (see June 6 below)? Here is some back-and-forth on the subject:
http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2014/09/16/1410781111.full.pdf?etoc
http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2014/09/16/1413105111.full.pdf?etoc
In a nutshell, what does “selective” really mean or imply?

This subtitle would make you think that too few female researchers have high Kardashian-index:



http://www.sciencemag.org/content/345/6203/1440.full
Not what you thought, hah? Not what the article meant, either. Stated by a male scientist with a K-index = zero (that would be me).

Have a great weekend everyone.

Darius

After a way-too-long break, the weekend reading list is back!

Here is a fantastic and highly speculative paper about altering ecosystems using molecular biology:
http://elifesciences.org/content/3/e03401.abstract?ijkey=83b407bcd04b3c8d76418c766a94a44c6a012840&keytype2=tf_ipsecsha
Of course CRISPR/Cas9 is the way to go. Now the limit is your imagination?

Let me get this straight: wild monkeys learn behaviors from video:
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v513/n7517/full/513146a.html
And we still argue if violent video games have an effect on Homo sapiens kids’ behavior?
Some humans clearly did not evolve from monkeys. More like “devolved”.

So it looks like caffeine-making genes evolved at least twice:
http://www.sciencemag.org/content/345/6201/1124.full
Just for the pleasure of us humans.

And last but not least, the last month has been good to our colleagues at Temple:

Khalili lab showed that CRISPR/Cas9 can be used to excise HIV and even to provide prophylactic effect:
http://www.pnas.org/content/111/31/11461.full
If you are going to engage in any behaviors (not learned from video games) that may put you at risk for HIV, you better get some anti-HIV gRNA into your blood progenitors. 

Habas lab described a new essential Wnt signaling component:
http://www.pnas.org/content/111/36/13099.full
Until told otherwise, I will assume they named their new gene Custos in appreciation of Temple custodial staff :-D

Enjoy.

Darius