Genetic Information News and Research

RSS

Cellular senescence is caused by irreversible damage to the genome

Researchers have demonstrated that the aging of cells is dependent on a genomic instability mechanism that causes the disease.

15 Nov 2021

Study uses artificial evolution to search DNA molecules for light producing deoxyribozymes

Once thought to function primarily as a storage molecule for genetic information, it is now known that DNA can also catalyze chemical reactions. Although such DNA enzymes (deoxyribozymes) have not been identified in nature, they can be isolated in the lab using powerful methods of artificial evolution.

22 Oct 2021

Decoding the large and complex onion genome

"In this study, we challenged the limits of how far we can go in deciphering a DNA sequence consisting of 16 billion base pairs," said paper author Masayoshi Shigyo, professor in the Laboratory of Vegetable Crop Science, Graduate School of Sciences and Technology for Innovation, Yamaguchi University, and researcher at the National Institutes of Natural Sciences.

8 Oct 2021

Plant responses to light can be altered to encourage food growth

Scientists have figured out how plants respond to light and can flip this genetic switch to encourage food growth. The discovery could help increase food supply for an expanding population with shrinking opportunities for farming.

7 Oct 2021

Active genes do not form clusters and share resources during early development in fruit flies

Active genes do not form clusters and share resources during early development in the fruit fly, according to a new study by New York University and Princeton researchers published in the journal Current Biology.

6 Oct 2021

Supercoiling and looping can transmit mechanical stress along the DNA backbone, shows study

When people think of DNA, they visualize a string-like double helix structure. In reality, the DNA double helix in cells is supercoiled and constrained into loops. This supercoiling and looping are known to influence every aspect of DNA activity, but how this happens has not been clear.

28 Sep 2021

How does the KLF4 transcription factor influence gene expression?

Scientists have led a research group to identify a mechanism using which transcription factor KLF4 can influence gene expression.

24 Sep 2021

Genetic and epigenetic origin of pediatric liver cancer uncovered

Researchers at Hiroshima University have analyzed the molecular findings of almost 160 pediatric liver cancer cases and discovered molecular markers that should help to understand and treat the considerable variation in prognoses.

22 Sep 2021

Premature aging of the tracheobronchial stem cells could contribute to chronic lung disease

Are prematurely aged or overworked stem cells a significant factor in chronic lung disease? Findings of a study just released in STEM CELLS Translational Medicine (SCTM) say this is likely so.

22 Sep 2021

Changes in epigenome responsible for reduced stem cell function upon aging

The bones become thinner with age, resulting in frequent fractures and making them susceptible to bone diseases like osteoporosis.

From The Max Planck Institute 20 Sep 2021

Programmable DNA-based microfluidic chip for performing complex mathematical calculations

The term 'DNA' immediately calls to mind the double-stranded helix that contains all our genetic information. But the individual units of its two strands are pairs of molecules bonded with each other in a selective, complementary fashion.

15 Sep 2021

Study identifies C9orf72 repeat expansion using novel genetic marker

Research offers a new genetic tool to pinpoint C9orf72 repeat expansion-carrying frontotemporal lobar degeneration from huge population-based cohorts.

25 Aug 2021

Scientists develop a novel approach to analyze tumor evolution

A group of scientists from the University of Texas at Austin created a novel approach to tag tumor cells to identify how they evolve and change eventually to resist cancer treatments.

16 Aug 2021

New universal toolkit for phylogenomic research on flowering plants

How do you study a group of organisms with over 300,000 species, dispersed across all seven continents, and with up to 50 times as much DNA content as the human genome?

27 Jul 2021

Study unravels novel centromeric functional protein

Scientists have discovered a new centromeric functional protein and dubbed it Adaptor of polo1 (Apolo1). The findings of the study were reported in Cell Reports.

27 Jul 2021

Researchers decode the genome information of photosynthetic sea slugs

Plants, algae and some bacteria are able to perform photosynthesis, which is the process of transforming sunlight energy into sugar.

16 Jul 2021

New method to analyze the genomes of museum specimens

Natural history collections exhibit museum specimens that hold a wealth of underused genetic information because their DNA is poorly preserved.

16 Jul 2021

Study reveals how cells “read” synthetic ingredients added to a genetic code

If the genome is considered the recipe for life, then base pairs represent the individual ingredients. DNA is made up of these chemical structures, and every living thing on the planet has just four of them.

21 Jun 2021

Study reveals the key role of motor proteins in mitotic spindle elongation

Proper chromosome segregation into two future daughter cells requires the mitotic spindle to elongate in anaphase. However, although some candidate proteins are implicated in this process, the molecular mechanism that drives spindle elongation in human cells has been unknown, until now!

16 Jun 2021

Novel platform may lead to more improved gene therapies

Researchers from RCSI University of Medicine and Health Sciences have developed polypeptide-based materials that serve as effective vectors in delivering gene therapies.

11 Jun 2021