Long cast as a simple link between DNA and protein, messenger RNA has never offered much intrigue. But new research at The Rockefeller University suggests the molecule is up to something unexpected.
Cell & Microbiology
Dec 16, 2015
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47
Many animals gravitate towards heat, most often to regulate their own body temperatures. In rare cases, certain species—ticks, bedbugs, and some species of mosquitoes—seek out heat for food. For female mosquitoes, finding ...
Cell & Microbiology
Dec 15, 2015
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22
There are about 20,000 genes in the human genome, but not all are used in all cells at all times. At any given moment, a cell is converting only roughly half its genes into proteins. And of those active genes, about 75 percent ...
Cell & Microbiology
Dec 10, 2015
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12
For many living things, a roughly 24-hour internal clock governs the rhythms of life—everything from sleep in animals, to leaf opening in plants and reproduction in bread mold. Scientists have come to understand much about ...
Cell & Microbiology
Dec 2, 2015
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674
Sometimes, the molecules that make up life exhibit strange behavior. For instance, in simple organisms such as yeast, when genetic material becomes damaged, the affected DNA strands increase their motion, waving about inside ...
Cell & Microbiology
Nov 5, 2015
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DNA replication is essential to all life, yet many basic mechanisms in that process remain unknown to scientists. The structure of the replisome—a block of proteins responsible for unwinding the DNA helix and then creating ...
Cell & Microbiology
Nov 2, 2015
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73
Ribosomes, the molecular factories that produce all the proteins a cell needs to grow and function, are themselves made up of many different proteins and four RNAs. And just as an assembly line must be built before it can ...
Cell & Microbiology
Oct 26, 2015
3
34
Many millions of times per day, football-shaped structures called mitotic spindles form within the body's cells as they prepare to divide. The process is routine but mysterious, as the micro-mechanics involved are not yet ...
Cell & Microbiology
Oct 2, 2015
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38
A cell does everything it can to protect its nucleus, where precious genetic information is stored. That includes controlling the movement of molecules in and out using gateways called nuclear pore complexes (NPCs).
Cell & Microbiology
Sep 18, 2015
2
146
Caenorhabditis elegans, a tiny roundworm, spends much of its lifetime searching for soil bacteria to eat. This humble creature possesses 302 neurons, which may not seem like a lot compared to the billions of nerve cells that ...
Cell & Microbiology
Sep 15, 2015
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