http://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. Mapping all of the chemical, or epigenetic, changes to chromosomes that affect which genes are turned on or off—and thus determine the fate of genomically identical cells in the body—usually requires a large amount of starting cellular material. This technical limitation has impeded the analysis of gene regulation in many rare cell types and in small clinical biopsy samples. Now, a team of biologists led by A*STAR scientists has developed a protocol for characterizing these changes that requires up to 100 times fewer cells than previously needed. As a proof of principle, the researchers used the approach to chart which genes are activated or repressed in mouse reproductive cells that eventually give rise to eggs or sperm. http://phys.org/news288425279.html Biology Wed, 22 May 2013 07:30:01 EST news288425279 (Phys.org) —It is easier to copy something than to develop something new - a principle that was long believed to also apply to the evolution of genes. According to this, evolution copies existing genes and then adapts the copies to new tasks. However, scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology in Plön have now revealed that new genes often form from scratch. Their analyses of genes from mice, humans and fish have shown that new genes are shorter than old ones and simpler in structure. These and other differences between young and old genes indicate that completely new genes can also form from previously unread regions of the genome. Moreover, the new genes often use existing regulatory elements from other genes before they create their own. http://phys.org/news283512389.html Biology Tue, 26 Mar 2013 10:40:04 EST news283512389 During embryo development, genes are dynamically, and very precisely, switched on and off to confer different properties to different cells and build a well-proportioned and healthy animal. Fgf8 is one of the key genes in this process, controlling in particular the growth of the limbs and the formation of the different regions of the brain. Researchers at EMBL have elucidated how Fgf8 in mammal embryos is, itself, controlled by a series of multiple, interdependent regulatory elements. Their findings, published today in Developmental Cell, shed new light on the importance of the genome structure for gene regulation. http://phys.org/news281276307.html Biology Thu, 28 Feb 2013 12:18:58 EST news281276307 Researchers at the A*STAR Institute of Medical Biology (IMB) have discovered a critical checkpoint protein that controls when human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) begin to differentiate. http://phys.org/news281175750.html Biology Wed, 27 Feb 2013 09:10:03 EST news281175750 (Phys.org)—In biological research, a typical process would be to conduct experiments and then analyze the collected data to reach conclusions. A new model-based analysis approach from computational biology scientists at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory demonstrates that integrating computations into experimentation enables researchers to obtain more robust quantitative information about cell kinetics. http://phys.org/news273222529.html Biology Tue, 27 Nov 2012 07:08:57 EST news273222529 Humans share over 90% of their DNA with their primate cousins. The expression or activity patterns of genes differ across species in ways that help explain each species' distinct biology and behavior. http://phys.org/news271440619.html Biology Tue, 06 Nov 2012 19:30:05 EST news271440619 Popularly dubbed "the book of life," the human genome is extraordinarily difficult to read. But without full knowledge of its grammar and syntax, the genome's 2.9 billion base-pairs of adenine and thymine, cytosine and guanine provide limited insights into humanity's underlying genetics. http://phys.org/news260353596.html Biology Sun, 01 Jul 2012 13:00:01 EST news260353596 In exploring how proteins interact with crucial DNA sequences to regulate gene activity, researchers have shed light on key biological events that may eventually be manipulated to provide new disease treatments. http://phys.org/news258289351.html Biology Thu, 07 Jun 2012 12:02:44 EST news258289351 Each fall millions of monarch butterflies from across the eastern United States use a time-compensated sun compass to direct their navigation south, traveling up to 2,000 miles to an overwintering site in a specific grove of fir trees in central Mexico. Scientists have long been fascinated by the biological mechanisms that allow successive generations of these delicate creatures to transverse such long distances to a small region roughly 300 square miles in size. To unlock the genetic and regulatory elements important for this remarkable journey, neurobiologists at the University of Massachusetts Medical School (UMMS) are the first to sequence and analyze the monarch butterfly genome. http://phys.org/news241274029.html Biology Wed, 23 Nov 2011 12:33:57 EST news241274029 Over the past 530 million years, the vertebrate lineage branched out from a primitive jawless fish wriggling through Cambrian seas to encompass all the diverse forms of fish, birds, reptiles, amphibians, and mammals. Now researchers combing through the DNA sequences of vertebrate genomes have identified three distinct periods of evolutionary innovation that accompanied this remarkable diversification. http://phys.org/news232894634.html Biology Thu, 18 Aug 2011 14:00:05 EST news232894634 A team led by researchers at the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI), part of the National Institutes of Health, has captured the most comprehensive snapshot to date of DNA regions that regulate genes in human pancreatic islet cells, a subset of which produces insulin. http://phys.org/news207922351.html Medicine & Health Tue, 02 Nov 2010 13:12:45 EST news207922351 (PhysOrg.com) -- Scientists have devised a new computational model that can be used to reveal genetic regulatory elements responsible for development of the human heart and maintenance of its function. http://phys.org/news185725335.html Medicine & Health Thu, 18 Feb 2010 14:50:01 EST news185725335