What we're reading: Selective sweeps in HIV, and rates of molecular evolution in big plants

reading aloud: j reads Harry Potter (3)
In the journals
Leviyang S., 2013  Computational inference methods for selective sweeps arising in acute HIV infection. Genetics 194: 737–752. doi: 10.1534/genetics.113.150862.

HIV escape from CTL [cytotoxic T-lymphocyte] response forms a complex, selective sweep that is difficult to analyze. In this work, we develop a model of initial infection, based on the well-known standard model, that allows for a description of multi-epitope response and the complex mutation pathways of HIV escape.

Lanfear R., Ho S. Y. W., Jonathan Davies T., Moles A. T., Aarssen L., Swenson N. G., Warman L., Zanne A. E., Allen A. P., 2013  Taller plants have lower rates of molecular evolution. Nature Communications 4: 1879. doi: 10.1038/ncomms2836.

Crucially, the long-term rate of mitosis in the apical meristem is likely to be lower in taller plants, because growth slows as plants increase in size and because there are physical limits to the delivery of water and nutrients to apical meristems as they increase in distance from the root system.

In the blogosphere
The story of this retracted Nature paper involves a break-in, tampering with experimental materials, and a hidden camera. Forget the lost publication—who’s got the movie rights?

About Jeremy Yoder

Jeremy B. Yoder is an Associate Professor of Biology at California State University Northridge, studying the evolution and coevolution of interacting species, especially mutualists. He is a collaborator with the Joshua Tree Genome Project and the Queer in STEM study of LGBTQ experiences in scientific careers. He has written for the website of Scientific American, the LA Review of Books, the Chronicle of Higher Education, The Awl, and Slate.
This entry was posted in linkfest. Bookmark the permalink.