News tagged with dna strand
The next computer: your genes
(PhysOrg.com) -- "Human beings are more or less like a computer," Jian-Jun Shu tells PhysOrg.com. "We do computing work, and our DNA can be used in computing operations." Shu is a professor at the School of Mec ...
May 16, 2011 |
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Scientists create first 3-D map of human genome
(PhysOrg.com) -- For the first time, scientists have developed a method for generating accurate three-dimensional models of the entire DNA strand of a cell, known as a genome.
Jan 04, 2012 |
4.6 / 5 (21) |
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Scientists Build Nanostructures out of Single DNA Strands
(PhysOrg.com) -- With its unique double-helical structure, DNA has the ability to be used as a programmable building material to construct designer nanoscale architectures. Complex DNA architectures could ...
Nanotechnology / Bio & Medicine
Sep 08, 2009 |
5 / 5 (4) |
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Physicists say nanoparticle assembly is like building with LEGOs
New processes that allow nanoparticles to assemble themselves into designer materials could solve some of today's technology challenges, Alex Travesset of Iowa State University and the Ames Laboratory reports ...
Oct 13, 2011 |
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Researchers create the first artificial neural network out of DNA
Artificial intelligence has been the inspiration for countless books and movies, as well as the aspiration of countless scientists and engineers. Researchers at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) ...
Jul 20, 2011 |
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Overturning 250 years of scientific theory: Age, repeated injury do not affect newt regeneration
(PhysOrg.com) -- Scientists have been wrong for 250 years about a fundamental aspect of tissue regeneration, according to a University of Dayton biologist who says his recent discovery is good news for humans.
Jul 12, 2011 |
4.9 / 5 (14) |
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Control of gene expression: Histone occupancy in your genome
When stretched out, the genome of a single human cell can reach six feet. To package it all into a tiny nucleus, the DNA strand is tightly wrapped around a core of histone proteins in repeating units—each ...
Apr 30, 2012 |
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Origami: Not just for paper anymore
While the primary job of DNA in cells is to carry genetic information from one generation to the next, some scientists also see the highly stable and programmable molecule as an ideal building material for ...
Nanotechnology / Nanomaterials
Apr 27, 2011 |
4.6 / 5 (5) |
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A $1000 genome could be reached by 2013
(PhysOrg.com) -- A new report published in the journal Nature describes the new machine created by Jonathan Rothberg of Ion Torrent Systems which uses semiconductors to decode DNA and takes them one step c ...
Jul 21, 2011 |
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Tiny reader makes fast, cheap DNA sequencing feasible
Researchers have devised a nanoscale sensor to electronically read the sequence of a single DNA molecule, a technique that is fast and inexpensive and could make DNA sequencing widely available.
Nanotechnology / Bio & Medicine
Mar 26, 2012 |
5 / 5 (11) |
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Study uncovers how DNA unfolds for transcription
(PhysOrg.com) -- The human genome contains some 3 billion base pairs that are tightly compacted into the nucleus of each cell. If a DNA strand were the thickness of a human hair, the entire human genome would ...
Jan 17, 2012 |
5 / 5 (4) |
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Genes linked to cancer could be easier to detect with liquid lasers
Using a liquid laser, University of Michigan researchers have developed a better way to detect the slight genetic mutations that might predispose a person to a particular type of cancer or other diseases.
Chemistry / Analytical Chemistry
Jan 31, 2012 |
4.8 / 5 (4) |
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Reading life’s building blocks: Researchers develop tools to speed DNA sequencing
Scientists are one step closer to a revolution in DNA sequencing, following the development in a Harvard lab of a tiny device designed to read the minute electrical changes produced when DNA strands are passed ...
Nanotechnology / Bio & Medicine
Jan 06, 2012 |
5 / 5 (4) |
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Scientists crash test DNA's replication machinery
(PhysOrg.com) -- Important molecular machines routinely crash into one another while plying their trades on DNA. New research shows that the enzymes that copy DNA before cell division, called replisomes, are the kings of ...
Feb 10, 2010 |
5 / 5 (9) |
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Rapid method of assembling new gene-editing tool could revolutionize genetic research
Development of a new way to make a powerful tool for altering gene sequences should greatly increase the ability of researchers to knock out or otherwise alter the expression of any gene they are studying. The new method ...
Apr 09, 2012 |
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DNA
Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) is a nucleic acid that contains the genetic instructions used in the development and functioning of all known living organisms and some viruses. The main role of DNA molecules is the long-term storage of information. DNA is often compared to a set of blueprints or a recipe, or a code, since it contains the instructions needed to construct other components of cells, such as proteins and RNA molecules. The DNA segments that carry this genetic information are called genes, but other DNA sequences have structural purposes, or are involved in regulating the use of this genetic information.
Chemically, DNA consists of two long polymers of simple units called nucleotides, with backbones made of sugars and phosphate groups joined by ester bonds. These two strands run in opposite directions to each other and are therefore anti-parallel. Attached to each sugar is one of four types of molecules called bases. It is the sequence of these four bases along the backbone that encodes information. This information is read using the genetic code, which specifies the sequence of the amino acids within proteins. The code is read by copying stretches of DNA into the related nucleic acid RNA, in a process called transcription.
Within cells, DNA is organized into X-shaped structures called chromosomes. These chromosomes are duplicated before cells divide, in a process called DNA replication. Eukaryotic organisms (animals, plants, fungi, and protists) store most of their DNA inside the cell nucleus and some of their DNA in the mitochondria (animals and plants) and chloroplasts (plants only). Prokaryotes (bacteria and archaea) however, store their DNA in the cell's cytoplasm. Within the chromosomes, chromatin proteins such as histones compact and organize DNA. These compact structures guide the interactions between DNA and other proteins, helping control which parts of the DNA are transcribed.
For more information about DNA, read the full article at
Wikipedia.
This text uses material from Wikipedia and is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.
