Genome-wide polycomb target gene prediction in Drosophila melanogaster.

As key epigenetic regulators, polycomb group (PcG) proteins are responsible for the control of cell proliferation and differentiation as well as stem cell pluripotency and self-renewal. Aberrant epigenetic modification by PcG is strongly correlated with the severity and invasiveness of many types of cancers. Unfortunately, the molecular mechanism of PcG-mediated epigenetic regulation remained elusive, partly due to the extremely limited pool of experimentally confirmed PcG target genes.

Diversifying selective pressure on influenza B virus hemagglutinin.

Influenza B virus hemagglutinin (HA) is a major surface glycoprotein with frequent amino acid substitutions. However, the roles of antibody selection in the amino acid substitutions of HA were still poorly understood. In order to gain insights into this important issue, an analysis was conducted on a total of 271 HA1 sequences of influenza B virus strains isolated during 1940-2007.