Native Americans of the Plains and Rocky Mountains are renowned for their horsemanship. Taylor et al. recently used ancient DNA and other bioarcheological approaches to document how horses dispersed throughout America and transformed Native American societies following their introduction by the Spanish in 1519, well before the arrival of European settlers.

Polygenic scores (PGSs) aggregate the effects of variants across the genome to estimate genetic liability, but have lower performance in external study populations. A new study by Ding et al. has applied a novel framework to estimate the individual-level predictive accuracy of PGSs, and demonstrates that performance reduction occurs linearly with genetic distance.

Transcription elongation requires elaborate coordination between the transcriptional machinery and chromatin regulatory factors to successfully produce RNA while preserving the epigenetic landscape. Recent structural and genomic studies have highlighted that suppressor of Ty 6 (Spt6), a conserved histone chaperone and transcription elongation factor, sits at the crux of the transcription elongation process. Other recent studies have revealed that Spt6 also promotes DNA replication and genome integrity. Here, we review recent studies of Spt6 that have provided new insights into the mechanisms by which Spt6 controls transcription and have revealed the breadth of Spt6 functions in eukaryotic cells.