Nature Genetics, Published online: 29 November 2019; doi:10.1038/s41588-019-0539-zTranscriptome and functional studies in human iPSC-derived neurons suggest that the phenotypic effects of NRXN1 deletions can occur through reduction in wild-type NRXN1α isoform levels and expression of mutant NRXN1α isoforms.

Nature Genetics, Published online: 29 November 2019; doi:10.1038/s41588-019-0553-1As the year comes to a close and we start to look ahead to 2020, we thought that we would highlight some of our favorite Nature Genetics papers from 2019. This snapshot also captures some of the topics and themes in genetics that we are most excited to see develop in the near future.

Nature Genetics, Published online: 29 November 2019; doi:10.1038/s41588-019-0534-4High levels of histone acetylation at rhabdomyosarcoma SEs, including SOX8, are detrimental to transcription via exclusion of RNA Pol II, but not BRD4, from phase condensates.

Nature Genetics, Published online: 29 November 2019; doi:10.1038/s41588-019-0540-6A new study presents a powerful experimental approach, CRISPRi-FlowFISH, for mapping regulatory interactions, and uses it to characterize thousands of putative enhancer–gene pairs. The results suggest that most current approaches for predicting enhancer–gene interactions perform poorly, but a simple mathematical model combining distance with enhancer activity shows promise.

Nature Genetics, Published online: 29 November 2019; doi:10.1038/s41588-019-0538-0Combining CRISPRi-FlowFISH to perturb enhancers with an activity-by-contact model to predict complex connections allows systematic mapping of enhancer–gene connections in a given cell type, on the basis of chromatin-state measurements.

Growing up in the wild makes plants tough. Wild plants evolve to survive the whims of nature and thrive in difficult conditions, including extreme climate conditions, poor soils, and pests and disease. Their better-known descendants—the domesticated plants that are critical to a healthy diet—are often not nearly as hardy. The genes that make crop wild relatives robust have the potential to make their cultivated cousins—our food plants—better prepared for a harsh climate […]

The Florida black bear will remain off-limits from hunters, but only for now.

Agricultural chemists from RUDN University have developed a new way to deal with cleavers, a weed that is the main enemy of winter wheat crops. They found a combination of herbicides that, as the experiments have shown, increases the yield of winter wheat by 46-60 percent. The results are published in Archives of Agronomy and Soil Science.

Simian immunodeficiency virus, the monkey- and ape-infecting virus that HIV originated from, may have influenced the genetics of chimpanzees, finds a new UCL-led study.

Humans have a "natural" lifespan of around 38 years, according to a new method we have developed for estimating the lifespans of different species by analyzing their DNA.