Papers to watch

"Besides confirming that the natural 6S RNA acts as a decoy by mimicry of the DNA promoter open complex, the authors show that inhibitory RNA can act as a transcriptional template, and that the inhibitory complex is destabilized by such transcription."

Jim Maher
Mayo Clinic College of Medicine, United States

"This study uses both [genotype data and array-based hybridizations] in the analysis of 270 individuals, the largest number yet examined. Remarkably, the authors find that 12% of the genome is contained in copy number variants."

Jonathan Flint
University of Oxford, United Kingdom

"Depending on the position of the consensus sequence for an RNA binding protein (Nova) it can act as an activator or silencer. The genome-wide map also identifies targets regulated by Nova, supporting the notion that a protein co-regulates functionally-related genes. The authors also provide mechanistic insight in the regulation of alternative splicing."

Andrea Barta
University of Vienna, Austria

These papers were selected from multiple disciplines from the Faculty of 1000, a web-based literature awareness tool (www.f1000biology.com).