Epigenetic switch turns on genetic behavioral variations

Epigenetic switch turns on genetic behavioral variations.

What roles do environmental factors, genes, and heredity play in shaping the behaviors of individuals? In his 1963 article entitled “Behavior genetics and individuality understood,” the pioneering behavioral geneticist Jerry Hirsch (1) eloquently articulated that “Individual differences are no accident. They are generated by properties of organisms as fundamental to behavioral science and biolo...

Genetic Diversity, Habitat Fragmentation and Epigenetic Variations

BolA Is a Transcriptional Switch That Turns Off Motility and Turns On Biofilm Development

UNLABELLED Bacteria are extremely versatile organisms that rapidly adapt to changing environments. When bacterial cells switch from planktonic growth to biofilm, flagellum formation is turned off and the production of fimbriae and extracellular polysaccharides is switched on. BolA is present in most Gram-negative bacteria, and homologues can be found from proteobacteria to eukaryotes. Here, we ...

The Rrop GTPase switch turns on polar growth in pollen.

Pollen-tube growth not only represents an essential stage of plant reproduction but also provides an attractive model for studying cell polarity and morphogenesis. For many years, pollen-tube growth has been known to require a tip-focused Ca2+ gradient and dynamic F actin, but the way that these are controlled remained a mystery until recently. Rop appears to be activated at growth sites by a t...

Genetic and Epigenetic of Medullary Thyroid Cancer

Medullary thyroid carcinoma (MTC) is an infrequent calcitonin-producing neuroendocrine tumor that initiates from the parafollicular C cells of the thyroid gland. Several genetic and epigenetic alterations are collaterally responsible for medullary thyroid carcinogenesis. In this review article, we shed light on all the genetic and epigenetic hallmarks of MTC. From the genetic perspective, RET, ...