At Least Bias Is Bipartisan: A Meta-Analytic Comparison of Partisan Bias in Liberals and Conservatives

Both liberals and conservatives accuse their political opponents of partisan bias, but is there empirical evidence that one side of the political aisle is indeed more biased than the other? To address this question, we meta-analyzed the results of 51 experimental studies, involving over 18,000 participants, that examined one form of partisan bias—the tendency to evaluate otherwise identical information more favorably when it supports one’s political beliefs or allegiances than when it challenges those beliefs or allegiances. Two hypotheses based on previous literature were tested: an asymmetry hypothesis (predicting greater partisan bias in conservatives than in liberals) and a symmetry hypothesis (predicting equal levels of partisan bias in liberals and conservatives). Mean overall partisan bias was robust (r = .245), and there was strong support for the symmetry hypothesis: Liberals (r = .235) and conservatives (r = .255) showed no difference in mean levels of bias across studies. Moderator analyses reveal this pattern to be consistent across a number of different methodological variations and political topics. Implications of the current findings for the ongoing ideological symmetry debate and the role of partisan bias in scientific discourse and political conflict are discussed

VAMP3/Syb and YKT6 are required for the fusion of constitutive secretory carriers with the plasma membrane

The cellular machinery required for the fusion of constitutive secretory vesicles with the plasma membrane in metazoans remains poorly defined. To address this problem we have developed a powerful, quantitative assay for measuring secretion and used it in combination with combinatorial gene depletion studies in Drosophila cells. This has allowed us to identify at least three SNARE complexes mediating Golgi to PM transport (STX1, SNAP24/29 and Syb; STX1, SNAP24/29 and YKT6; STX4, SNAP24 and Syb). RNAi mediated depletion of YKT6 and VAMP3 in mammalian cells also blocks constitutive secretion suggesting that YKT6 has an evolutionarily conserved role in this process. The unexpected role of YKT6 in plasma membrane fusion may in part explain why RNAi and gene disruption studies have failed to produce the expected phenotypes in higher eukaryotes

Assessing Computational Methods of Cis-Regulatory Module Prediction

Computational methods attempting to identify instances of cis-regulatory modules (CRMs) in the genome face a challenging problem of searching for potentially interacting transcription factor binding sites while knowledge of the specific interactions involved remains limited. Without a comprehensive comparison of their performance, the reliability and accuracy of these tools remains unclear. Faced with a large number of different tools that address this problem, we summarized and categorized them based on search strategy and input data requirements. Twelve representative methods were chosen and applied to predict CRMs from the Drosophila CRM database REDfly, and across the human ENCODE regions. Our results show that the optimal choice of method varies depending on species and composition of the sequences in question. When discriminating CRMs from non-coding regions, those methods considering evolutionary conservation have a stronger predictive power than methods designed to be run on a single genome. Different CRM representations and search strategies rely on different CRM properties, and different methods can complement one another. For example, some favour homotypical clusters of binding sites, while others perform best on short CRMs. Furthermore, most methods appear to be sensitive to the composition and structure of the genome to which they are applied. We analyze the principal features that distinguish the methods that performed well, identify weaknesses leading to poor performance, and provide a guide for users. We also propose key considerations for the development and evaluation of future CRM-prediction methods

Frontiers in RNA biology: Advances from a small fly Drosophila melanogaster

In this article, we discuss emerging frontiers in RNA biology from a historical perspective. The field is currently undergoing yet another transformative expansion. RNA-seq has revealed that splicing, and, more generally, RNA processing is far more complex than expected, and the mechanisms of regulation are correspondingly sophisticated. Our understanding of the molecular machines involved in RNA metabolism is incomplete and derives from small sample sizes. Even if we manage to complete a catalogue of molecular species, RNA isoforms and the ribonucleoprotein complexes that drive their genesis, the horizons of molecular dynamics and cell-type-specific processing mechanisms await. This is an exciting time to enter into the study of RNA biology; analytical tools, wet and dry, are advancing rapidly, and each new measurement modality brings into view another new function or activity of versatile RNA. Since the dawn of sequence-based RNA biology, we have come a long way

Frontiers in RNA biology: Advances from a small fly Drosophila melanogaster

In this article, we discuss emerging frontiers in RNA biology from a historical perspective. The field is currently undergoing yet another transformative expansion. RNA-seq has revealed that splicing, and, more generally, RNA processing is far more complex than expected, and the mechanisms of regulation are correspondingly sophisticated. Our understanding of the molecular machines involved in RNA metabolism is incomplete and derives from small sample sizes. Even if we manage to complete a catalogue of molecular species, RNA isoforms and the ribonucleoprotein complexes that drive their genesis, the horizons of molecular dynamics and cell-type-specific processing mechanisms await. This is an exciting time to enter into the study of RNA biology; analytical tools, wet and dry, are advancing rapidly, and each new measurement modality brings into view another new function or activity of versatile RNA. Since the dawn of sequence-based RNA biology, we have come a long way

Partisan bias and its discontents

Baron and Jost (this issue, p. 292) present three critiques of our meta-analysis demonstrating similar levels of partisan bias in liberals and conservatives: (a) that the studies we examined were biased toward finding symmetrical bias among liberals and conservatives, (b) that the studies we examined do not measure partisan bias but rather rational Bayesian updating, and (c) that social psychology is not biased in favor of liberals but rather toward creating false equivalencies. We respond in turn that (a) the included studies covered a wide variety of issues at the core of contemporary political conflict and fairly compared bias by establishing conditions under which both liberals and conservatives would have similar motivations and opportunities to demonstrate bias; (b) we carefully selected studies that were least vulnerable to Bayesian counterexplanation, and most scientists and laypeople consider these studies demonstrations of bias; and (c) there is reason to be vigilant about liberal bias in social psychology, but this does not preclude concerns about other possible biases, all of which threaten good science. We close with recommendations for future research and urge researchers to move beyond broad generalizations of political differences that are insensitive to time and context

Genome-wide identification of zero nucleotide recursive splicing in Drosophila

Recursive splicing is a process in which large introns are removed in multiple steps by resplicing at ratchet points - 5′ splice sites recreated after splicing(1). Recursive splicing was first identified in the Drosophila Ultrabithorax (Ubx) gene(1) and only three additional Drosophila genes have since been experimentally shown to undergo recursive splicing(2,3). Here, we identify 197 zero nucleotide exon ratchet points in 130 introns of 115 Drosophila genes from total RNA sequencing data generated from developmental time points, dissected tissues, and cultured cells. The sequential nature of recursive splicing was confirmed by identification of lariat introns generated by splicing to and from the ratchet points. We also show that recursive splicing is a constitutive process, that depletion of U2AF inhibits recursive splicing, and that the sequence and function of ratchet points are evolutionarily conserved in Drosophila. Finally, we identified four recursively spliced human genes, one of which is also recursively spliced in Drosophila. Together these results indicate that recursive splicing is commonly used in Drosophila, occurs in human and provides insight into the mechanisms by which some large introns are removed