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DNA, or deoxyribonucleic acid, is the hereditary material in humans and almost all other organisms. Nearly every cell in a person’s body has the same DNA. Most DNA is located in the cell nucleus (where it is called nuclear DNA), but a small amount of DNA can also be found in the mitochondria (where it is called mitochondrial DNA or mtDNA).

Study Offers Insights Genetic Variants Influencing Pubertal Timing

Genes can indirectly influence the age at which girls have their first period by accelerating weight gain in childhood, a known risk factor for early puberty, a Cambridge-led study has found.

2 Jul 2024

Targeting Pseudomonas aeruginosa Cell Wall Stress for Biofilm Control

Antibiotic resistant bacteria are experts in evolving new strategies to avoid being killed by antibiotics.

2 Jul 2024

TATSI Technology Enhances Crop Genome Editing with Transposase-Assisted Integration

With the goal of reducing the time and cost it takes to bring an improved crop to the marketplace, research conducted in the laboratory of Keith Slotkin, PhD, and his colleagues in the Plant Transformation Facility at the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center, was recently published in the scientific journal.

1 Jul 2024

Novel Epigenetic Tool CHARM Offers Hope for Prion Disease Treatment

In a new study in mice, researchers introduce "CHARM," a compact and versatile epigenetic editor that can be used to silence prion protein throughout the brain.

28 Jun 2024

Genome Assembly of Finger Lemon 'YaoJi' Reveals Genetic Underpinnings of Rind Color Differences

A research team successfully sequenced and assembled the genome of the purple finger lemon variety 'YaoJi', revealing a genome size of 314.63 Mb across nine chromosomes.

28 Jun 2024

New Tool IMPRINT Enhances DNA Transformation in Various Bacterial Strains

Bacteria, with their unique capabilities, hold immense promise for improving various aspects of the world.

27 Jun 2024

Unveiling a Reversible Pre-Commitment Stage in Cell Division

Researchers at Weill Cornell Medicine have uncovered a surprising new step in cell division.

27 Jun 2024

Bridge RNA: The Revolutionary Tool in Genetic Recombination

In a leap forward for genetic engineering, a team of researchers from the Arc Institute have discovered the bridge recombinase mechanism, a precise and powerful tool to recombine and rearrange DNA in a programmable way.

27 Jun 2024

Histone H3K9 Methylation Found to Act as a Dimmer Switch for Gene Regulation

Researchers led by Kannosuke Yabe, Asuka Kamio, and Soichi Inagaki of the University of Tokyo have discovered that in thale cresses histone H3 lysine-9 (H3K9) methylation, conventionally thought to be a mark of turning off gene transcription, can also turn on gene expression via the interactions of two other proteins and histone marks.

27 Jun 2024

One Size Doesn't Fit All: Study Reveals Stark Sex Differences in Mitochondrial Activity

Study comparing the genetic activity of mitochondria, the cell’s power plants, in males and females finds extreme differences, suggesting certain disease therapies must be tailored to each sex.

26 Jun 2024

Enhanced Maize Transformation Efficiency Through Ternary Vectors and Morphogenic Regulators

Maize is one of the classical model organisms for genetic research. However, the low transformation frequency remains an important bottleneck for many gene-editing applications.

25 Jun 2024

Primitive Endoderm Stem Cells Offer New Hope for Fertility Treatments

An unexpectedly versatile and regenerative stem cell in early embryos may be key to creating new effective fertility treatments, suggests a new study in mice from the University of Copenhagen.

25 Jun 2024

Unlocking the Role of Antisense RNA as a Gene Expression Booster

The function of non-coding RNA in the cell has long been a mystery to researchers. Unlike coding RNA, non-coding RNA does not produce proteins – yet it exists in large quantities.

25 Jun 2024

Genetic Influences on Lifespan Variance and Healthspan in Caenorhabditis elegans

Why do some people live for longer than others? The genes in our DNA sequence are important, helping avoid disease or maintain general health, but differences in our genome sequence alone explain less than 30% of the natural variance of human life expectancy.

25 Jun 2024

Small Molecule Restores TERT Levels to Combat Aging-Related Decline

Researchers at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center have demonstrated that therapeutically restoring 'youthful' levels of a specific subunit of the telomerase enzyme can significantly reduce the signs and symptoms of aging in preclinical models.

24 Jun 2024