Somatic Cells News and Research

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Sae2 Regulates Critical DNA Repair Functions in Yeast

DNA damage is a cellular phenomenon that introduces structural abnormalities in double-stranded DNA. External factors, such as radiation or chemical agents, as well as internal factors, such as blocked DNA replication, can generate double-strand breaks (DSBs) in DNA.

29 Aug 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

NICER Gene Editing Technique Reduces Unintended Mutations

The gene editing technique CRISPR/Cas9 has allowed researchers to make precise and impactful changes to an organism's DNA to fix mutations that cause genetic disease.

15 Sep 2023

Reprogramming Human Cells to Mimic Embryonic Stem Cells

Australian scientists have overcome a long-standing challenge in regenerative medicine in a remarkable discovery published in Nature.

17 Aug 2023

Researchers Use the Bionanoprobe to Explore Role of Zinc in Follicle Development

The discovery that zinc is involved in the fertilization process earlier than initially thought was made with the help of the Bionanoprobe, a cutting-edge instrument at Argonne.

18 May 2023

Novel model system helps studying human ovarian biology

Despite the fact that we all start out as an egg cell in one of our mother's ovaries, these human reproductive organs are surprisingly under-studied. Scientists have been working on creating in vitro models of human ovaries so that we can learn more about them and develop treatments for ovarian conditions, but most existing models use a combination of human and mouse cells, which do not faithfully replicate human ovary functions and take a long time to grow in the lab.

22 Feb 2023

Insights into the role of the germline in de novo mutation

The male reproductive system is a hotspot for the introduction of new genes. Perhaps that might assist in understanding why fathers tend to pass on more new mutations than mothers do. However, it does not explain why older fathers pass on more mutations than younger fathers.

16 Jan 2023

Scientists demonstrate a potential new route for the generation of genetic diversity in corals

In a discovery that challenges over a century of evolutionary conventional wisdom, corals have been shown to pass somatic mutations – changes to the DNA sequence that occur in non-reproductive cells – to their offspring.

From Penn State University 1 Sep 2022

Scientists determine the contribution of DNA recombinations to genomic diversity in health and disease

Researchers from Japan’s RIKEN Center for Integrative Medical Sciences, working with colleagues from all over the world, found that recombinations of particular genomic sequences, which are reproduced millions of times in the genome of each human cell, are common in both normal and disease states.

28 Jul 2022

Key networks controlling pluripotency and apoptosis during development revealed

During the early stages of human embryonic development, a small collection of cells called human embryonic stem cells co-ordinates growth and differentiation finally giving rise to highly specialized human tissues.

1 Nov 2021

Researchers reconstruct structures in the ovarian environment using mouse stem cells

Researchers led by Kyushu University have succeeded in using mouse stem cells to reconstruct structures in the ovarian environment critical for the generation of mature egg cells.

15 Sep 2021

PNA-based method is a key component of the gene editing toolkit

The Somatic Cell Gene Editing Consortium has given an update on the status of their initiative to design safer techniques to edit the genes of disease-relevant somatic cells.

8 Apr 2021

Study reveals molecular mechanisms involved in the maintenance of naïve embryonic stem cells

Researchers have explained mechanisms that play a role in maintaining the embryonic stem cells in the most optimized state for use in regenerative medicine.

26 Mar 2021

Study reveals mechanism that regulates genes on sex chromosomes

In the human population, males have one X and one Y chromosomes and females have two X chromosomes. As a result, somatic cells have unique mechanisms that maintain the same gene expression levels on the X chromosome between both genders.

10 Mar 2021

New technological development could revolutionize the dairy industry

Might a new technological development of researchers from Tel Aviv University soon revolutionize the dairy products we consume?

7 Jan 2021

Study shows how telomeres protect chromosome ends

Telomeres are essentially specialized structures that are located at the end of chromosomes. These structures ensure a healthy cell division.

27 Nov 2020

Researchers unravel mechanisms behind organ-specific elimination of chromosomes in plants

Whilst we often think of somatic cells in an organism as containing the same DNA and therefore the same number of chromosomes, it is surprising, how often this is not the case.

3 Jun 2020