Open Questions: Gene Expression and Regulation

Prerequisites: Molecular biology and genetics

See also: Developmental biology -- Genomics -- Systems Biology

Science Functional Genomics Resources: Epigenetics: Very good annotated list of resources.

Human Epigenome Project: Web site of a consortium which will attempt to map how genes are switched on and off. More specifically, the project intends to catalog how methyl groups attached to DNA affect gene expression.
Histone.com: "This site is intended to keep you up to date on significant developments within the field of Chromatin research, specifically those involving histone modifications and enzymes which deposit those modifications."
miRNA Resource: A resource page with a number of links to information about miRNA, provided by Ambion, Inc.. There are a number of useful articles, and information resources. A good place to start is this graphic Introduction to microRNA.

Gene regulatory network: Article from Wikipedia. See also Gene expression, Transcription factor, Epigenetics, Imprinting, Chromatin, Histone.
Gene Regulatory Networks: Good, concise overview, from the Genomics: GTL site.
Epigenetics: A ScienceWeek "symposium" consisting of excerpts and summaries of articles from various sources.
Gene regulation by microRNAs: Good single-page overview of microRNA.
It's not all in our genes: November 1999 news article about how individuals with identical genotypes may have differing phenotypes.

The Hidden Genetic Program of Complex Organisms
John S. Mattick
Scientific American, October 2004
Evolution Encoded
Stephen J. Freeland; Laurence D. Hurst
Scientific American, April 2004
The Unseen Genome: Beyond DNA
W. Wayt Gibbs
Scientific American, December 2003
The Unseen Genome: Gems among the Junk
W. Wayt Gibbs
Scientific American, November 2003
Molecular Machines that Control Genes
Robert Tjian
Scientific American, February 1995, pp. 54-61: Genes provide the instructions for making proteins within cells, but most are inactive at any given time. "Transcription factors" consisting of protein complexes control when and how genes become active.

Eric H. Davidson -- Genomic Regulatory Systems: Development and Evolution
Academic Press, 2001: Davidson's career has been focused on understanding how the development of an organism is encoded in its DNA and how, as a result, animal evolution unfolded. The book gives a thorough and rigorous account of what he has learned. It assumes some understanding of the molecular biology of gene expression without going into detail. One is stimulated to wonder about the evolutionary steps that led the process of gene expression to work the way it does.
Walter J. Gehring -- Master Control Genes in Development and Evolution: The Homeobox Story
Yale University Press, 1998: Evolutionary theory, molecular biology, and developmental biology have come together in a fascinating synthesis which exposes how the mechanisms that control gene expression have evolved, and how the traces of this evolution remain in the way that the sequence of gene expression governs the development of individual organisms. Gehring, whose laboratory discovered the "homeobox genes" which play a key role in this synthesis, provides an excellent account of his research, full of details and real meat.