Next-generation sequencing articles from across Nature Portfolio

Directed evolution is a process of mutation and artificial selection to breed biomolecules with new or improved activity. Here the authors develop a directed evolution platform (PROTein Evolution Using Selection; PROTEUS) that enables the generation of proteins with enhanced or novel activities within a mammalian context.

We introduce volumetric DNA microscopy, a technique that enables three-dimensional imaging of tissue morphology and gene expression in a single measurement. This feat is achieved by forming a huge intermolecular network of DNA barcodes within an intact specimen and encoding their pairwise proximities into a DNA sequence library.

In this Tools of the Trade article, Goronzy (Guttman lab) describes the development of ChIP-DIP, a high-throughput, split-pool barcoding method that enables genome-wide profiling of hundreds of regulatory proteins, transforming our ability to study the regulation of gene activity across cell types and biological contexts.

In this Tools of the Trade article, Carly Tyer describes the development of Telo-seq, a method to enrich and sequence all telomeres within a sample, and highlights its use in distinguishing between the two telomere maintenance mechanisms used in cancer cells.

In this Tools of the Trade article, Jeroen van den Berg (van Oudenaarden lab) presents a new method based on pulse-labelling of nascent DNA to study the dynamics of DNA replication in single cells.

Exome-sequencing analysis in a Chinese cohort of 1,578 children with cerebral palsy established a genetic etiology in 387 of the patients (24.5%). Children with cerebral palsy for whom perinatal asphyxia had been recorded at birth were found to be more likely to carry pathogenic or potentially pathogenic variants.