Genome-wide association study follow-up identifies cyclin A2 as a regulator of the transition through cytokinesis during terminal erythropoiesis.

Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) hold tremendous promise to improve our understanding of human biology. Recent GWAS have revealed over 75 loci associated with erythroid traits, including the 4q27 locus that is associated with red blood cell size (mean corpuscular volume). The close linkage disequilibrium block at this locus harbors the CCNA2 gene that encodes cyclin A2.

MicroRNAs are required for the feature maintenance and differentiation of brown adipocytes.

Brown adipose tissue (BAT) is specialized to burn lipids for heat generation as a natural defense against cold and obesity. Previous studies established microRNAs (miRNAs) as essential regulators of brown adipocyte differentiation, but whether miRNAs are required for the feature maintenance of mature brown adipocytes remains unknown. To address this question, we ablated Dgcr8, a key regulator of the miRNA biogenesis pathway, in mature brown as well as in white adipocytes.

A multi-parametric flow cytometric assay to analyze DNA-protein interactions.

Interactions between DNA and transcription factors (TFs) guide cellular function and development, yet the complexities of gene regulation are still far from being understood. Such understanding is limited by a paucity of techniques with which to probe DNA-protein interactions. We have devised magnetic protein immobilization on enhancer DNA (MagPIE), a simple, rapid, multi-parametric assay using flow cytometric immunofluorescence to reveal interactions among TFs, chromatin structure and DNA.