https://phys.org/ en-us Phys.org internet news portal provides the latest news on science including: Physics, Nanotechnology, Life Sciences, Space Science, Earth Science, Environment, Health and Medicine. Chromosomal instability is a phenomenon characterized by rapid changes in the number and structure of chromosomes during cell division. It is very common in solid tumors and it is linked to the aggressive spread of cancer, that is to say, metastasis. Given that metastasis causes 90% of cancer-related deaths, it is vital to unravel the details of this process. https://phys.org/news/2023-09-chromosomal-instability-cancer-cells-dna.html Cell & Microbiology Tue, 26 Sep 2023 09:06:12 EDT news614937969 Whether radiation exposure of fathers can have consequences on their children is one of the most long-standing questions in radiation biology. Using the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans as a model, Professor Dr. Björn Schumacher and his team discovered that radiation damage to mature sperm cannot be repaired but is instead passed on to the offspring. https://phys.org/news/2022-12-paternal-dna-offspring.html Molecular & Computational biology Wed, 21 Dec 2022 11:00:05 EST news590839753 Testicles of most mammals are cooled in the scrota, and elevated testicular temperatures lead to spermatogenesis failure and male infertility. A research team led by Shosei Yoshida at the National Institute for Basic Biology in Japan detailed this process using organ culture and revealed that spermatogenesis is impaired at multiple steps in a delicate temperature-dependent fashion. https://phys.org/news/2022-05-spermatogenesis-failure-testicular.html Cell & Microbiology Thu, 26 May 2022 13:33:57 EDT news572790834 Chemotherapy and radiation treatments are known to cause harsh side effects that patients can see or feel throughout their bodies. Yet there are additional, unseen and often undiscussed consequences of these important therapies: the impacts on their future pregnancies and hopes for healthy children. https://phys.org/news/2021-01-mutated-sperm-fish.html Biotechnology Tue, 19 Jan 2021 10:37:28 EST news530275044 Although many people are aware that chromosomal damage and shortening contribute to the aging process, understanding how chromosomal defects occur is about more than just finding a way to turn back the clock. Large changes in the structure of chromosomes, known as gross chromosomal rearrangements, can result in cell death or genetic diseases such as cancer. https://phys.org/news/2019-01-chromosomes-role-heterochromatin.html Cell & Microbiology Thu, 24 Jan 2019 10:00:04 EST news467545005 For women in their 30s and beyond, the probability of a pregnancy that results in a miscarriage or a Down syndrome pregnancy is staggering with the risk increasing to 1 in 3 by the time a woman reaches her early 40s due to the "maternal age effect," the high incidence of mistakes in chromosome segregation that occur during the cell division process of meiosis, which gives rise to the egg. Now, in a study just published online in the PNAS (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences), Dartmouth researchers have provided the first evidence in an intact living organism that an increase of reactive oxygen species (ROS) within oocytes (the cells that undergo meiosis to form eggs) causes a significant increase in meiotic chromosome segregation errors. https://phys.org/news/2016-10-age-related-genetic-anomalies-contribute-maternal.html Cell & Microbiology Wed, 19 Oct 2016 11:39:30 EDT news396095963 The genetic information we receive from our parents in the form of chromosomes are mosaics assembled from the two copies of chromosomes each parent has. How such cuts—or breaks—in our genetic material are repaired is the research interest of Verena Jantsch and her group at the Max F. Perutz Laboratories of the University of Vienna and the Medical University of Vienna. Their findings give important insights into the processes that ensure the integrity of our genetic material, preventing genetic disease and cancer development. https://phys.org/news/2016-04-genetic-material-reproduction.html Cell & Microbiology Thu, 07 Apr 2016 12:47:15 EDT news379252028 Researchers have discovered that a cascade activation of several molecules triggered by the ATM protein regulates DNA repair during the production of spermatocytes by meiosis, the cell division process which yields spermatozoa. https://phys.org/news/2015-04-discovery-protein-capable-dna-sperm.html Cell & Microbiology Fri, 24 Apr 2015 09:50:04 EDT news349084304 How a group of animals can abandon sex, yet produce more than 460 species over evolutionary time, became a little less mysterious this week with the publication of the complete genome of a bdelloid rotifer (Adineta vaga) in the journal Nature. https://phys.org/news/2013-07-survive-sex-rotifer-genome-reveals.html Biotechnology Mon, 22 Jul 2013 12:20:39 EDT news293714412 Researchers in Freiburg identify a protein responsible for the correct arrangement of the chromosome centromeres in the nucleus. https://phys.org/news/2013-04-protein-nucleus.html Cell & Microbiology Thu, 04 Apr 2013 12:35:48 EDT news284297715 Cod was once a staple diet across many European countries, and so important in fact that in the past some countries have even gone to war over this important resource. Their popularity, however, meant that they have become overfished in some areas leading to a shortage of large and old cod, which in turn has led to the fish becoming more sexually mature at a younger age. This, according to research conducted by the University of Gothenburg, Sweden has led to a serious change in cod stocks and could severely impact the fish's health, physiological ageing and reproductive capacity. https://phys.org/news/2012-10-large-females-key-sustaining-atlantic.html Ecology Mon, 22 Oct 2012 08:06:15 EDT news270111963 New research at the University of Rochester reveals a new role for lipid roles, as well as a fundamental shift in the concept of histone balance. https://phys.org/news/2012-10-lipid-droplets-unexpected-role-embryo.html Cell & Microbiology Thu, 18 Oct 2012 12:00:03 EDT news269775505 Cod are among Sweden's most common and most popular edible fish and have been fished hard for many years. One consequence is the risk of serious changes in cod stocks, reveals research from the University of Gothenburg, Sweden. https://phys.org/news/2012-09-large-females-overfishing-atlantic-cod.html Ecology Wed, 26 Sep 2012 12:42:34 EDT news267882142 Researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago College of Medicine describe for the first time a key target of DNA damage checkpoint enzymes that must be chemically modified to enable stable maintenance of chromosome ends by telomerase, an enzyme thought to play a key role in cancer and aging. https://phys.org/news/2011-11-key-molecular-telomere-extension-telomerase.html Cell & Microbiology Wed, 23 Nov 2011 13:08:22 EST news241276095 A new method developed in Wageningen should facilitate the early testing of drugs, reducing costs and the need for animal testing. https://phys.org/news/2011-02-bacteria-toxic-medicine.html Cell & Microbiology Tue, 15 Feb 2011 11:18:43 EST news216991110 Princeton scientists have identified genes responsible for controlling reproductive life span in worms and found they may control genes regulating similar functions in humans. https://phys.org/news/2010-10-genetics-advances-fertility-women.html Biotechnology Fri, 22 Oct 2010 12:10:05 EDT news206966331 (PhysOrg.com) -- A new study from UC Davis shows how, like a conjuring trick with interlocking rings, two interlocked pieces of DNA are separated after DNA is copied or repaired. The finding was published online Oct. 10 in the journal Nature Structural and Molecular Biology. https://phys.org/news/2010-10-dna-magic.html Cell & Microbiology Mon, 11 Oct 2010 16:40:33 EDT news206033970 (PhysOrg.com) -- Harris Bernstein and Carol Bernstein have proposed a new theory on the billion-year-old mystery of sexual reproduction evolution. https://phys.org/news/2010-07-sex-evolution-theory.html Evolution Thu, 08 Jul 2010 15:00:04 EDT news197817244 Proteins called cohesins ensure that newly copied chromosomes bind together, separate correctly during cell division, and are repaired efficiently after DNA damage. Scientists at the Carnegie Institution have found for the first time that cohesins are needed in different concentrations for their different functions. https://phys.org/news/2010-05-chromosome-scientists.html Cell & Microbiology Thu, 06 May 2010 13:30:01 EDT news192369966 Scientists have shown in multiple contexts that DNA damage over our lifetimes is a key mechanism behind the development of cancer and other age-related diseases. Not everyone gets these diseases, because the body has multiple mechanisms for repairing the damage caused to DNA by aging, the environment and other human behaviors - but the mechanisms behind certain kinds of DNA repair have not been well-understood. https://phys.org/news/2010-04-key-protein-aids-dna.html Biochemistry Sun, 11 Apr 2010 13:00:11 EDT news190207556