Tag Archives: DNA
What’s in your water? Using DNA to keep drinking waters clean
Turn on a tap, and many of us will be greeted with safe and clean drinking water. This is something that people living in developed nations often take for granted, as contaminated drinking water is a significant
Yarrowia lipolytica: how a yeast becomes a workhorse for biotechnology
Yarrowia lipolytica is a yeast species belonging to the Ascomycota fungi phylum (like the well-known baker’s and brewer’s yeasts, both from Saccharomyces cerevisiae species). This innocuous yeast can be found in a large range of ecosystems (soils,
A factor that regulates the expression of HIV genes
Proteins are the machinery of life. Nearly everything in a cell is manufactured by, regulated by or composed of proteins, which are encoded in genes. When a cell needs a particular protein, the DNA encoding the protein
How tree frogs keep their Y chromosomes healthy
Sex chromosomes are the pair of chromosomes that fate whether we become male or female. Females carry two X chromosomes, while males carry one X and one Y chromosome. These chromosomes are quite special among the genome:
A new DNA methylation regulator
CGGBP1 (CGG triplet repeat-binding protein 1) was first identified as a protein that binds unmethylated CGG repeats. It acts as a transcription regulator with target sites at CpG-rich sequences such as CGG repeats and Alu-SINEs (short interspersed
Can hypertension and related cardiovascular diseases be caused by Dark-Matter-like RNAs?
Hypertension is a common but one of the most important health problems, because it is a major risk factor for many cardiovascular diseases. Hypertension is a multi-factorial disease involving complex interplay of genetic and environmental factors. To treat
Using tumor DNA to refine lung cancer staging and treatment
The treatment of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is guided by disease stage as assessed by clinical and pathologic criteria. Clinical tumor stage is determined by imaging including computed tomography (CT) scans, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), positron
Birth weight is not solely determined by genetic code
It is believed that genetic information carried by our DNA determines our metabolism and how we look. This is especially true for identical twins. The incidence of identical twins is around one in every 200 deliveries. Although
Virus containing mealybug DNA kills mealybug
One way of self-regulating protein synthesis by animals is suppression of the relevant messenger RNA (mRNA); molecules that translate into amino acids and act as building blocks for protein. The mechanism, called RNA interference (RNAi), works by
Helicase and ribosome share a common mechanism of nucleic acid unwinding
In the cell DNA is present in the duplex form and many messenger RNAs (mRNAs) can form duplex structures. To access the genetic information (represented by nucleotides or codons) on the single-stranded (ss) nucleic acids (NA) by
How selenium is incorporated into proteins: structural view of selenocysteine ‘recoding’
Selenium is an essential micronutrient for human health. It is present in proteins as a special amino acid, selenocysteine, which is the so-called 21st amino acid. Selenocysteine resembles serine and cysteine, where the selenium atom (Se) replaces
Tunicates : Can the study of obscure marine animals shed light on evolution?
Scientists agree that the current biological diversity on earth is the result of evolution: present life forms evolved from their ancestors by progressive modifications. The shape and behavior of an animal or a plant – what scientists
Whole-cell computational models can predict how genes influence behavior
Since the early 1900’s, scientists have known that cells are composed of multiple components, including small molecules, DNA, RNA, and protein. Over the past fifty years, scientists have systematically measured these individual components and their interactions. Despite
Genes are read backwards to restructure our DNA
In English, we read in one direction – from left to right across the page. We need to read words in a certain order, so that the information makes sense to us. In the cells of our
An important new tool to assess chemotherapy response in cancer patients
Although chemotherapy agents are widely used in the treatment of cancer, it is not widely known that for many patients with solid tumours, only a fraction receive a survival benefit from chemotherapy. This is particularly the case
A new general principle of virology
Shin et al describe for the first time a novel strategy used by persistent viruses to temporally regulate expression of the structural proteins that make up their virus particles. The viruses that infect humans and other mammals
Punching above their weight: how the smallest RNAs offer great promise for cancer biology
In recent decades, scientists have witnessed transformative developments in the field of RNA biology. RNA molecules are similar in composition to their more famous DNA counterparts (they are both nucleic acids), but are present in a variety
Is it possible reversible and irreversible aggregation of proteins?
The discovery of protein chain regions responsible for protein aggregation is an important result of studying of the molecular mechanisms of prion diseases, and different proteinopathies associated with the formation of pathological aggregations through the prion mechanism.
Human centromeric DNA is able to form quadruplex helices
The classical view of a chromosome that most of people have in mind is a cross-shaped figure, something like the letter X. Chromosomes look indeed like that when the cell is ready to divide and give rise
How to know transcription factors by the company they keep
The ENCODE project is a massive data-collection effort set out to understand the function of the human genome. The collection comprises many types of genomic data, including the localization of transcription factors onto DNA. Transcription factors are
