Crystal study may resolve DNA mystery

Rice lab captures unseen details of replication, clues to how mutations can happen

12-May-2022 - When cells reproduce, the internal mechanisms that copy DNA get it right nearly every time. Rice University bioscientists have uncovered a tiny detail that helps understand how the process could go wrong. Their study of enzymes revealed the presence of a central metal ion critical toDNA ...

How the most common DNA mutation happens

05-Feb-2018 - Researchers describe how two normally mismatched bases in human DNA, guanine and thymine, are able to change shape in order to form an inconspicuous rung on the helical DNA "ladder." This allows them to survive by avoiding the body's natural defenses against genetic mutations. "When these two ...

‘Hypermutators’ Drive Pathogenic Fungi to Evolve More Rapidly

28-Sep-2017 - Mutations tend to get a bad rap, and deservedly so. A single defect in our DNA can strip us of our sight, thicken our lungs with mucus, prompt us to bleed to death, weaken our muscles or fill our organs with tumors. But in certain situations, a mutation can actually be a source of strength. For ...

New 3-D imaging reveals how human cell nucleus organizes DNA and chromatin of its genome

31-Jul-2017 - Sixty-four years ago, James Watson and Francis Crick described the now-iconic double helix structure of DNA. A team of researchers at the University of California San Diego School of Medicine and the Salk Institute for Biological Studies describe development and application of new electron ...

DNA damage response protein

25-Oct-2016 - Researchers at Vanderbilt University and Vanderbilt University Medical Center have determined that a previously uncharacterized protein called ETAA1 is a “replication stress response protein” with an essential role in maintaining the integrity of the genome. The finding by David Cortez , Ph.D., ...

More detailed analysis of how cells react to stress

09-Feb-2016 - Stress in the body’s cells is both the cause and consequence of inflammatory diseases or cancer. The cells react to stress to protect themselves. Researchers at the University of Zurich have now developed a new technique that allows studying a fundamental response to stress in much more detail ...

First living organism that transmits added letters in DNA 'alphabet'

09-May-2014 - Scientists at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) have engineered a bacterium whose genetic material includes an added pair of DNA "letters," or bases, not found in nature. The cells of this unique bacterium can replicate the unnatural DNA bases more or less normally, for as long as the ...

Going global

Stowers team reports genome-wide analysis of genes that drive cell division in a multicellular organism

04-Apr-2014 - In textbooks, the grand-finale of cell division is the tug-of-war fought inside dividing cells as duplicated pairs of chromosomes get dragged in opposite directions into daughter cells. This process, called mitosis, is visually stunning to observe under a microscope. Equally stunning to cell ...

Screening method for anti-HIV therapeutics?

20-May-2009 - A new and easy method for the detection of microRNA and RNase H activity could be used for screening anti-HIV therapeutics say Chinese scientists. Zhengping Li and co-workers at Hebei University have developed a rapid, quantitative and sensitive method for the detection of microRNA (miRNA) and ...

Singapore scientists synthesize gold to shed light on cells' inner workings

21-Apr-2009 - Highly fluorescent gold nanoclusters for sub-cellular imaging have been synthesized by researchers at the Institute of Bioengineering and Nanotechnology (IBN), one of the research institutes of Singapore's A*STAR (Agency for Science, Technology and Research). Measuring less than 1 nanometer in ...