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Comparisons of quantitative trait (QST) and neutral molecular marker (FST) divergence allow genetic drift and natural selection to be distinguished between as causes of population differentiation. QST–FSTcomparisons are being increasingly used to tackle a range of evolutionary and ecological questions.
A key challenge in genetics is predicting variation in phenotypic traits from the genome sequences of individuals. Work in model organisms indicates that a combination of genetic information andin vivomeasurements of biological states will be essential for useful phenotypic predictions, including in humans.
As the use of next-generation sequencing has proliferated, so has the range of sequencing applications and software tools that are available for assembling sequences. To help readers to make informed choices about assembly techniques, this Review discusses the available options and practical trade-offs.
The authors discuss recent advances — mainly gained through genomic methods such as RNA sequencing — in our understanding of the causes and consequences of differences in gene expression between females and males. Areas of progress include our understanding of the roles of sexual antagonism and dosage compensation.
Heritability estimates provide a useful means of understanding the genetic and environmental contributions to phenotypic variance. The authors define heritability, discuss how to estimate and interpret it in the context of disease and examine how biases in heritability estimates arise.
The Y chromosomes of many species, including humans, are gene-poor and degenerate. The recent application of genome-wide technologies to evolutionarily old and young Y chromosomes has provided insight into the processes that have shaped them and their future.
In addition to well-known roles in the cytoplasm, a growing number of functions for small RNAs in the nucleus are being discovered. These include roles in transcriptional repression, epigenetic modifications and genome stability. This Review considers examples from animals, plants and fungi.
With the increased cataloguing of human structural variants, our understanding of their influence on phenotype is ever improving. Here, the influence of structural variants on phenotypes including disease is discussed, and strategies for further characterization are presented.
