Mammals defend against viruses differently than invertebrates

Biologists have long wondered if mammals share the elegant system used by insects, bacteria and other invertebrates to defend against viral infection. Two back-to-back studies in the journal Science last year said the answer ...

Humans no longer have ancient defence mechanism against viruses

Insects and plants have an important ancient defence mechanism that helps them to fight viruses. This is encoded in their DNA. Scientists have long assumed that vertebrates - including humans - also had this same mechanism. ...

Scientists find the structure of a key 'gene silencer' protein

Scientists at The Scripps Research Institute have determined the three-dimensional atomic structure of a human protein that is centrally involved in regulating the activities of cells. Knowing the precise structure of this ...

Structure of RNAi complex now crystal clear

Researchers at the Whitehead Institute and Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center have defined and analyzed the crystal structure of a yeast Argonaute protein bound to RNA. This complex plays a key role in the RNA interference ...

Mammalian body cells lack ancient viral defense mechanism

A team led by Chris Sullivan, a professor of molecular biosciences at The University of Texas at Austin, has provided the first positive evidence that RNA interference (RNAi), a biological process in which small RNA molecules ...

Human Argonaute proteins: To slice or not to slice?

What makes one Argonaute a slicer and another one not? Human Argonaute proteins are key players in the gene regulation process known as RNA interference, RNAi. Professor Joshua-Tor's group of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory ...

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