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Life Sciences Commons

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Genetics and Genomics

Biology Department Faculty Works

2004

Articles 1 - 2 of 2

Full-Text Articles in Life Sciences

Genetic Analysis Of Song Dialect Populations In Puget Sound White-Crowned Sparrows, Jill Soha, Douglas Nelson, Patricia Parker Jul 2004

Genetic Analysis Of Song Dialect Populations In Puget Sound White-Crowned Sparrows, Jill Soha, Douglas Nelson, Patricia Parker

Biology Department Faculty Works

The relationship between cultural variation and biological variation among natural populations has been the subject of both theoretical and empirical study. Zonotrichia leucophrys pugetensis is one of three subspecies of white-crowned sparrow known to form geographical song dialects. We investigated whether these dialects correspond to genetic differences among Z. l. pugetensis populations. We compared allele frequencies at four microsatellite loci in males from 11 sites spanning six dialects over the subspecies' range in Oregon and Washington. Cluster analysis and genotype assignment tests indicated no tendency for sample sites within dialect areas to be genetically more similar than are sites from …


Mer1p Is A Modular Splicing Factor Whose Function Depends On The Conserved U2 Snrnp Protein Snu17p, Marc Spingola, Javier Armisen, Manuel Ares Feb 2004

Mer1p Is A Modular Splicing Factor Whose Function Depends On The Conserved U2 Snrnp Protein Snu17p, Marc Spingola, Javier Armisen, Manuel Ares

Biology Department Faculty Works

Mer1p activates the splicing of at least three pre‐mRNAs (AMA1, MER2, MER3) during meiosis in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae. We demonstrate that enhancer recognition by Mer1p is separable from Mer1p splicing activation. The C‐terminal KH‐type RNA‐binding domain of Mer1p recognizes introns that contain the Mer1p splicing enhancer, while the N‐terminal domain interacts with the spliceosome and activates splicing. Prior studies have implicated the U1 snRNP and recognition of the 5′ splice site as key elements in Mer1p‐activated splicing. We provide new evidence that Mer1p may also function at later steps of spliceosome assembly. First, Mer1p can activate splicing of introns …