[
Genome Res,
2001]
The scientific method, and genetic analysis in particular, is based upon identifying variations between individuals of the same species. The study of Jones et al. in this issue reveals variation in transcript abundance between two developmental stages of the nematode Caenorhabditis elegns. In this case, the variation is not genetically specified ut is induced bt the environment as part of a shift to an alternate developmental form, the daur larva. In this type of whole-genome analyses, it is assumed that such studies would reveal differences in transcript abundance that would be casusall associated with distinct molecular and morphological transformations driving development. Much of this paper is conjecture about how the observed differences in transcriipt abundance specify observed differences in longevity(or, more precisely, in mortality rate).
[
Genes Dev,
2002]
The CM domain is a cysteine-rich DNA-binding motif first recognized in proteins encoded by the Drosophila set determination gene doublesex (Erdman and Burtis 1993; Zhu et al. 2000). As the name doublesex (dsx) suggests, this gene has functions in both sexes: Its transcripts undergo sex-specific alternative splicing, so that it can encode either a male-specific isoform, DSX(M), or a female-specific isoform, DSX(F) (Baker and Wolfner 1988; Burtis and Baker 1989). These proteins have the same N-terminal DNA-binding domain, but different C termini that confer different regulatory properties on the two forms. The expression of DSX(M) directs male development, and the expression of DSX(F) directs female development, throughout most of the somatic tissues of the fruit fly.