News tagged with polymerase ii

New details about gene regulation explained

(Phys.org) -- When genetic information is read from the genetic blueprint DNA, RNA polymerase II translates it into RNA molecules. The C-terminal domain, abbreviated as CTD, is an important area of the polymerase ...

Biology / Biotechnology

created May 21, 2012 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0 | with audio podcast

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 ...

Biology / Cell & Microbiology

created Jan 17, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (4) | comments 5 | with audio podcast

Biologists offer clearer picture of how protein machine systems tweak gene expression

Indiana University biologists have found that specific types of RNA polymerase enzymes, the molecular machines that convert DNA into RNA, can differ in function based on variation in the parts -- in this case ...

Biology / Biotechnology

created Mar 01, 2012 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Gene transcribing machine takes halting, backsliding trip along the DNA

(PhysOrg.com) -- The body's nanomachines that read our genes don't run as smoothly as previously thought, according to a new study by University of California, Berkeley, scientists.

Chemistry / Biochemistry

created Jul 30, 2009 | popularity 5 / 5 (5) | comments 1

Stop and go: How the cell deals with transcriptional roadblocks

Gene transcription is central to cell function, as it converts the information stored in the DNA into RNA molecules of defined sequence, which then program protein synthesis. The enzyme RNA polymerase II (Pol II) is responsible ...

Biology / Cell & Microbiology

created Feb 23, 2011 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Correcting a trick of the light brings molecules into view

Conventional wisdom holds that optical microscopy can't be used to "see" something as small as an individual molecule. But as it is wont, clever science has once again overturned conventional wisdom. Secretary ...

Nanotechnology / Nanophysics

created Jul 14, 2010 | popularity 5 / 5 (20) | comments 1 | with audio podcast

How the wrong genes are repressed

The mechanism by which 'polycomb' proteins critical for embyronic stem cell function and fate are targeted to DNA has been identified by UCL scientists.

Biology / Cell & Microbiology

created Jun 11, 2010 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Ready, go!

Just like orchestra musicians waiting for their cue, RNA polymerase II molecules are poised at the start site of many developmentally controlled genes, waiting for the "Go!"- signal to read their part of the ...

Biology / Cell & Microbiology

created Jul 14, 2011 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

Transcriptional elongation control takes on new dimensions

Life is complicated enough, so you can forgive the pioneers of DNA biology for glossing over transcriptional elongation control by RNA polymerase II, the quick and seemingly bulletproof penultimate step in ...

Biology / Cell & Microbiology

created Dec 22, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0

Plant polymerases IV and V are special forms of Polymerase II

(PhysOrg.com) -- It's a little like finding out that Superman is actually Clark Kent. A team of biologists at Washington University in St. Louis has discovered that two vital cellular components, nuclear RNA ...

Biology /

created Jan 06, 2009 | popularity 5 / 5 (3) | comments 0

How RNA polymerase II gets the go-ahead for gene transcription

All cells perform certain basic functions. Each must selectively transcribe parts of the DNA that makes up its genome into RNAs that specify the structure of proteins. The set of proteins synthesized by a cell in turn determines ...

Biology / Cell & Microbiology

created Oct 09, 2009 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0