Homology Effects

Homology Effects offers contributions from an international panel of researchers whose aim has been both to introduce newcomers to the field of homology effects, and to bring colleagues up to date. Topic coverage includes dosage compensation, X-inactivation, imprinting, paramutation, homology-dependent gene silencing, transvection, pairing-sensitive silencing, nuclear organization of chromosomes, DNA repair, quelling, RIP, RNAi and antisense biology, homology effects in ciliates, prion biology, and a discourse on the evolution of gene duplications.

Advances in Genetics presents an eclectic mix of articles of use to all human and molecular geneticists. They are written and edited by recognized leaders in the field and make this an essential series of books for anyone in the genetics field.

Homology, the examination of similarity due to shared common ancestry, encompasses a fascinating class of phenomena in mammals, plants, insects, ciliates, nematodes, fungi, and bacteria. Homology effects concern processes that recognize homology at the level of DNA and/or RNA, as well as at the level of protein. Their collective history begins at the turn of the century and includes some of the most puzzling and extraordinary observations in biology. The volume covers phenomena that have often been considered unusual, exceptional to the rule, and "out of the ordinary" and, therefore, not for general study. However, it is now becoming clear that taken together, these phenomena represent a class of regulatory mechanisms that are widespread, as well as exceptionally powerful.

1. Sex and the Single Chromosome 2. Is X-Chromosome Inactivation a Homology Effect? 3. Homologous Chromosome Associations and Nuclear Order in Meiotic and Mitotically Dividing Cells of Budding Yeast 4. The Role of Sequence Homology in the Repair of DNA Double-Strand Breaks in Drosophila 5. The Origins of Genomic Imprinting in Mammals 6. Genomic Imprinting During Seed Development 7. Long-Distance Cis and Trans Interactions Mediate Paramutation 8. Homology-Dependent Gene Silencing and Host Defense in Plants 9. Quelling in Neurospora crassa 10. Non-Mendelian Inheritance and Homology-Dependent Effects in Ciliates 11. RNAi (Nematodes: Caenorhabditis elegans) 12. Antisense RNAs in Bacteria and Their Genetic Elements 13. Transvection in Drosophila 14. Pairing-Sensitive Silencing, Polycomb Group Response Elements, and Transposon Homing in Drosophila 15. Repeat-Induced Gene Silencing in Fungi 16. The Evolution of Gene Duplicates 17. Prions of Yeast as Epigenetic Phenomena: High Protein “Copy Number” Inducing Protein “Silencing”