Independent Transposon Exaptation Is a Widespread Mechanism of Redundant Enhancer Evolution in the Mammalian Genome.

Many regulatory networks appear to involve partially redundant enhancers. Traditionally, such enhancers have been hypothesized to originate mainly by sequence duplication. An alternative model postulates that they arise independently, through convergent evolution.

Cancer Is Associated with Alterations in the Three-Dimensional Organization of the Genome.

The human genome is organized into topologically associating domains (TADs), which represent contiguous regions with a higher frequency of intra-interactions as opposed to inter-interactions. TADs contribute to gene expression regulation by restricting the interactions between their regulatory elements, and TAD disruption has been associated with cancer. Here, we provide a proof of principle that mutations within TADs can be used to predict the survival of cancer patients.

Pairs of Adjacent Conserved Noncoding Elements Separated by Conserved Genomic Distances Act as Cis-Regulatory Units.

Comparative genomic studies have identified thousands of conserved noncoding elements (CNEs) in the mammalian genome, many of which have been reported to exert cis-regulatory activity. We analyzed ∼5,500 pairs of adjacent CNEs in the human genome and found that despite divergence at the nucleotide sequence level, the inter-CNE distances of the pairs are under strong evolutionary constraint, with inter-CNE sequences featuring significantly lower transposon densities than expected. Further, we show that different degrees of conservation of the inter-CNE distance are associated with distinct cis-regulatory functions at the CNEs.

Dynamic processes in biological membrane mimics revealed by quasielastic neutron scattering.

Neutron scattering is a powerful tool to study relaxation processes in biological membrane mimics in space and time. Combining different inelastic and quasielastic neutron scattering techniques, a large dynamic range can be covered: from atomic to mesoscopic lengths and from femto- to some hundreds of nanoseconds in time. This allows studies on e.