Primers in GENETICS

Are you looking to introduce more primary literature into your course? Primers in GENETICS are guides that help instructors use peer-reviewed articles in their classrooms when teaching about research methods and model organisms. These guides provide a road map that allows educators to use cutting-edge research published in the GSA journal GENETICS to demonstrate core competencies in the classroom.

Two kinds of Primers are published in GENETICS. Each Research Primer is tied to a current article and lays out vital background before guiding the reader through the article’s hypothesis, methods, and conclusions. Each Model Organism Primer describes an experimental model organism, including its life cycle, history, tools, advantages, significance, and more. Model Organism Primers are especially useful when assigned to students alongside a Research Primer featuring that model organism. They are also useful for all researchers starting out in a laboratory and looking for background on their new study system.

Read more about Primers in The Other Life of Articles.

From the Primers archives:

Counteracting Environmental Chemicals with Coenzyme Q10: An Educational Primer for Use with “Antioxidant CoQ10 Restores Fertility by Rescuing Bisphenol A-Induced Oxidative DNA Damage in the Caenorhabditis elegans Germline”
Beatrix R. Bradford, Nicole E. Briand, Nina Fassnacht, Esabelle D. Gervasio, Aidan M. Nowakowski, Theresa C. FitzGibbon, Stephanie Maurina, Alexis V. Benjamin, MaryEllen Kelly, Paula M. Checchi
GENETICS December 2020 216: 879-890; https://doi.org/10.1534/genetics.120.303577

Using Drosophila melanogaster To Discover Human Disease Genes: An Educational Primer for Use with “Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis Modifiers in Drosophila Reveal the Phospholipase D Pathway as a Potential Therapeutic Target”
Surya Banerjee, Shimshon Benji, Sarah Liberow, Josefa Steinhauer
GENETICS November 2020 216: 633-641; https://doi.org/10.1534/genetics.120.303495

How Not To Be in the Wrong Place at the Wrong Time: An Education Primer for Use with “Deposition of Centromeric Histone H3 Variant CENP-A/Cse4 into Chromatin Is Facilitated by Its C-Terminal Sumoylation”
Yee Mon Thu
GENETICS October 2020 216: 333-342; https://doi.org/10.1534/genetics.120.303493

Fear and Foxes: An Educational Primer for Use with “Anterior Pituitary Transcriptome Suggests Differences in ACTH Release in Tame and Aggressive Foxes”
Julie H. Simpson
GENETICS May 2020 215: 15-24; https://doi.org/10.1534/genetics.120.303046

Detecting Adaptation with Genome-Scale Molecular Evolutionary Analysis: An Educational Primer for Use with “RNA Interference Pathways Display High Rates of Adaptive Protein Evolution in Multiple Invertebrates”
Brian P. Lazzaro
GENETICS November 2018 210: 773-780; https://doi.org/10.1534/genetics.118.301453

Bioinformat-Eggs: An Educational Primer for Use with “LIN-41 and OMA Ribonucleoprotein Complexes Mediate a Translational Repression-to-Activation Switch Controlling Oocyte Meiotic Maturation and the Oocyte-to-Embryo Transition in Caenorhabditis elegans”
Deborah Thurtle-Schmidt, Te-Wen Lo
GENETICS July 2018 209: 675-683; https://doi.org/10.1534/genetics.118.301139

Biology in Bloom: A Primer on the Arabidopsis thaliana Model System
Andrew W. Woodward, Bonnie Bartel
GENETICS April 2018 208: 1337-1349; https://doi.org/10.1534/genetics.118.300755

New Role for an Old Protein: An Educational Primer for Use with “The Identification of a Novel Mutant Allele of topoisomerase II in Caenorhabditis elegans Reveals a Unique Role in Chromosome Segregation During Spermatogenesis”
Ruby Boateng, Anna K. Allen
GENETICS January 2018 208: 79-88; https://doi.org/10.1534/genetics.117.300482

CRISPR Technology Reveals RAD(51)-ical Mechanisms of Repair in Roundworms: An Educational Primer for Use with “Promotion of Homologous Recombination by SWS-1 in Complex with RAD-51 Paralogs in Caenorhabditis elegans”
Carolyn A. Turcotte, Nicolas P. Andrews, Solomon A. Sloat, Paula M. Checchi
GENETICS November 2016 204: 883-891; https://doi.org/10.1534/genetics.116.195479

Learning to Fish with Genetics: A Primer on the Vertebrate Model Danio rerio
Nathalia G. Holtzman, M. Kathryn Iovine, Jennifer O. Liang, Jacqueline Morris
GENETICS July 2016 203: 1069-1089; https://doi.org/10.1534/genetics.116.190843

Genetics on the Fly: A Primer on the Drosophila Model System
Karen G. Hales, Christopher A. Korey, Amanda M. Larracuente, David M. Roberts
GENETICS November 2015 201: 815-842; https://doi.org/10.1534/genetics.115.183392

An Ancient Yeast for Young Geneticists: A Primer on the Schizosaccharomyces pombe Model System
Charles S. Hoffman, Valerie Wood, Peter A. Fantes
GENETICS October 2015 201: 403-423; https://doi.org/10.1534/genetics.115.181503

A Transparent Window into Biology: A Primer on Caenorhabditis elegans
Ann K. Corsi, Bruce Wightman, Martin Chalfie
GENETICS June 2015 200: 387-407; https://doi.org/10.1534/genetics.115.176099

Location Is Everything: An Educational Primer for Use with “Genetic Analysis of the Ribosome Biogenesis Factor Ltv1 of Saccharomyces cerevisiae”
Gretchen Edwalds-Gilbert
GENETICS February 2015 199: 307-313; https://doi.org/10.1534/genetics.114.173641

Drosophila Oocytes as a Model for Understanding Meiosis: An Educational Primer to Accompany “Corolla Is a Novel Protein That Contributes to the Architecture of the Synaptonemal Complex of Drosophila”
Elizabeth T. Ables
GENETICS January 2015 199: 17-23; https://doi.org/10.1534/genetics.114.167940

Budding Yeast for Budding Geneticists: A Primer on the Saccharomyces cerevisiae Model System
Andrea A. Duina, Mary E. Miller, Jill B. Keeney
GENETICS May 2014 197: 33-48; https://doi.org/10.1534/genetics.114.163188

A Roadmap to Understanding Toll Pathway Changes: An Educational Primer for Use with “Regulation of Toll Signaling and Inflammation by β-Arrestin and the SUMO Protease Ulp1”
Rebecca L. Schmidt
GENETICS April 2014 196: 923-929; https://doi.org/10.1534/genetics.114.162289

Examining the Process of de Novo Gene Birth: An Educational Primer on “Integration of New Genes into Cellular Networks, and Their Structural Maturation”
Seth Frietze, Judith Leatherman
GENETICS March 2014 196: 593-599; https://doi.org/10.1534/genetics.113.160895

SMG-ly Knocking Out Gene Expression in Specific Cells: An Educational Primer for Use with “A Novel Strategy for Cell-Autonomous Gene Knockdown in Caenorhabditis elegans Defines a Cell-Specific Function for the G-Protein Subunit GOA-1”
Philip M. Meneely, Jordana C. Bloom
GENETICS December 2013 195: 1201-1207; https://doi.org/10.1534/genetics.113.157701

Studying Recombination with High-Throughput Sequencing: An Educational Primer for Use with “Fine-Scale Heterogeneity in Crossover Rate in the garnet-scalloped Region of the Drosophila melanogaster X chromosome”
Caiti S. Smukowski Heil, Mohamed A. F. Noor
GENETICS June 2013 194: 335-339; https://doi.org/10.1534/genetics.113.150771

New Roles for Old Characters: An Educational Primer for Use with “Vps Factors Are Required for Efficient Transcription Elongation in Budding Yeast”
Andrea A. Duina
GENETICS May 2013 194: 27-33; https://doi.org/10.1534/genetics.113.150763

To “Bee or Not to Bee” Male or Female? An Educational Primer for Use with “The Am-tra2 Gene Is an Essential Regulator of Female Splice Regulation at Two Levels of the Sex Determination Hierarchy of the Honeybee”
Andrew M. Schurko
GENETICS April 2013 193: 1019-1023; https://doi.org/10.1534/genetics.113.150417

Population Genetics and a Study of Speciation Using Next-Generation Sequencing: An Educational Primer for Use with “Patterns of Transcriptome Divergence in the Male Accessory Gland of Two Closely Related Species of Field Crickets”
Patricia J. Wittkopp
GENETICS March 2013 193: 671-675; https://doi.org/10.1534/genetics.112.148171

Suppressors, Screens, and Genes: An Educational Primer for Use with “A Network of Genes Antagonistic to the LIN-35 Retinoblastoma Protein of Caenorhabditis elegans”
Elizabeth A. De Stasio
GENETICS August 2012 191: 1031-1035; https://doi.org/10.1534/genetics.112.142943