Publications by authors named "M L Neale"

Cigarette smoking is associated with numerous differentially-methylated genomic loci in multiple human tissues. These associations are often assumed to reflect the causal effects of smoking on DNA methylation (DNAm), which may underpin some of the adverse health sequelae of smoking. However, prior causal analyses with Mendelian Randomisation (MR) have found limited support for such effects.

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Psychiatric disorders are highly comorbid, heritable, and genetically correlated [1-4]. The primary objective of cross-disorder psychiatric genetics research is to identify and characterize both the shared genetic factors that contribute to convergent disease etiologies and the unique genetic factors that distinguish between disorders [4, 5]. This information can illuminate the biological mechanisms underlying comorbid presentations of psychopathology, improve nosology and prediction of illness risk and trajectories, and aid the development of more effective and targeted interventions.

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During meiosis, programmed DNA double-strand breaks (DSBs) are formed by the topoisomerase-like enzyme, Spo11, activating the DNA damage response (DDR) kinase Mec1ATR via the checkpoint clamp loader, Rad24RAD17. At single loci, loss of Mec1 and Rad24 activity alters DSB formation and recombination outcome, but their genome-wide roles have not been examined in detail. Here, we utilise two strategies-deletion of the mismatch repair protein, Msh2, and control of meiotic prophase length via regulation of the Ndt80 transcription factor-to help characterise the roles Mec1 and Rad24 play in meiotic recombination by enabling genome-wide mapping of meiotic progeny.

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