The first comprehensive analysis of antigenic switching in the malaria-causing parasite Plasmodium falciparum provides new insights into the process that prevents individuals from acquiring immunity to the disease.

A previously unappreciated histone methylation pathway helps limit DNA double-strand break formation and recombination in heterochromatin during meiosis.

Set1 has roles in chromatin organization and transcriptome control that are largely independent of histone H3 lysine 4 methylation.

Expression of the disease gene DUX4 inhibits RNA quality control in skeletal muscle, thereby stabilizing thousands of aberrant RNAs, including its own transcript.

Single-cell and single-molecule analyses of transient gene expression revealed hitherto unrecognized dynamics in heterochromatin function and defined novel roles for a heterochromatin establishment factor and an understudied sirtuin.

The yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae has informed our understanding of molecular biology and genetics for decades, and learning more about its natural history could fuel a new era of functional and evolutionary studies of this classic model organism.

Redundant pathways prevent heterochromatin spreading and ectopic heterochromatin assembly; and plasticity of heterochromatin assembly allows cells to adapt to heterochromatin stress.

In humans, non-crossover gene conversion events transmit GC alleles in 68% of cases and exhibit a complex pattern of multiple disconnected tracts clustered within 20–30 kilobase intervals.

In yeast, the secondary pathway for recruiting telomerase to chromosome ends requires a component of telomeric transcriptionally silent chromatin.

Expression of the lamina-associated polypeptide α (LAP2α) prevents premature cellular ageing caused by expression of progerin in Hutchinson-Gilford progeria syndrome.