Broad functional profiling of fission yeast proteins using phenomics and machine learning.

Many proteins remain poorly characterized even in well-studied organisms, presenting a bottleneck for research. We applied phenomics and machine-learning approaches with for broad cues on protein functions. We assayed colony-growth phenotypes to measure the fitness of deletion mutants for 3509 non-essential genes in 131 conditions with different nutrients, drugs, and stresses.

R-loops and regulatory changes in chronologically ageing fission yeast cells drive non-random patterns of genome rearrangements.

Aberrant repair of DNA double-strand breaks can recombine distant chromosomal breakpoints. Chromosomal rearrangements compromise genome function and are a hallmark of ageing. Rearrangements are challenging to detect in non-dividing cell populations, because they reflect individually rare, heterogeneous events.

Partial maintenance of organ-specific epigenetic marks during plant asexual reproduction leads to heritable phenotypic variation.

Plants differ from animals in their capability to easily regenerate fertile adult individuals from terminally differentiated cells. This unique developmental plasticity is commonly observed in nature, where many species can reproduce asexually through the ectopic initiation of organogenic or embryogenic developmental programs. While organ-specific epigenetic marks are not passed on during sexual reproduction, the fate of epigenetic marks during asexual reproduction and the implications for clonal progeny remain unclear.