Co-evolution between a 'parasite gene' and its host

A Danish research team has delineated a complex symbiosis between a 'parasitic' noncoding RNA gene and its protein-coding 'host' gene in human cells. The study reveals how co-evolution of the host gene and parasite gene has ...

Bioinformaticians examine new genes the moment they are born

Accumulating evidence suggests that new genes can arise spontaneously from previously non-coding DNA instead of through the gradual mutation of established genes. Bioinformaticians at the University of Münster (Germany) ...

A novel switch to control genome editing

A biological switch that reliably turns protein expression on at will has been invented by University of Bath and Cardiff University scientists. The switch enables control of genome editing tools that might one day regulate ...

Blue gene regulation helps plants respond properly to light

Researchers at the RIKEN Center for Sustainable Resource Science (CSRS) have discovered a process through which gene expression in plants is regulated by light. Published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences ...

Programming DNA to deliver cancer drugs

DNA has an important job—it tells your cells which proteins to make. Now, a research team at the University of Delaware has developed technology to program strands of DNA into switches that turn proteins on and off.

Expanding DNA's alphabet lets cells produce novel proteins

Scientists are expanding the genetic code of life, using man-made DNA to create a semi-synthetic strain of bacteria—and new research shows those altered microbes actually worked to produce proteins unlike those found in ...

In the fight against viral infection, spelling counts

For millions of years, humans and viruses have engaged in a constant tug of war: as our cells evolve new ways to defend us from our viral enemies, these pathogens in turn acquire new traits to sidestep those defenses.

Key to expanding genetic code described

Yale scientists have described the atomic structure of a protein that is the key tool in efforts by synthetic biologists to expand the genetic code.

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