Team decodes another piece of the histone code puzzle

Inside our cells, DNA is tightly packed and spooled around proteins called histones. Packaging DNA in this way allows large amounts of genetic material to exist inside the cell in a final form called chromatin. Tiny enzymes ...

Advance in understanding actin sheds light on cell function

A tiny chemical modification on one of the most abundant and important proteins in cells, actin, has long been somewhat mysterious, its function not fully understood, but scientists from the Perelman School of Medicine at ...

Physical force alone spurs gene expression, study reveals

Cells will ramp up gene expression in response to physical forces alone, a new study finds. Gene activation, the first step of protein production, starts less than one millisecond after a cell is stretched—hundreds of times ...

Mathematical model reveals behavior of cellular enzymes

Everything a cell does, from dividing in two to migrating to a different part of the body, is controlled by enzymes that chemically modify other proteins in the cell. Researchers at Princeton University have devised a new ...

Altruism in bacteria: Colonies divide the work

Bacteria found in soil specialize in the colony by division of labor. Some of the bacteria produce antibiotics, even when it comes at the expense of their individual reproduction success, to defend their colony against competitors.

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