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Changes incis-regulatory sequences, especially enhancers, make a substantial contribution to phenotypic diversity among and within species. Recent studies have begun to uncover the mechanisms underlying cis-regulatory divergence, such as the types of mutations that occur and their influence on transcription factor binding.
Synthetic biological devices can be engineered to achieve high levels of precision and specificity, which makes them ideally suited for use in clinical settings. Devices are being developed to meet a range of biomedical needs, including specific cancer therapies and metabolic control.
Repeat sequences in DNA remain one of the most challenging aspects of next-generation sequencing data analysis and interpretation. This Review explains the problems and current strategies for handling repeats; ignoring repeats risks missing important biological information.