Often considered the world's oddest mammal, Australia's beaver-like, duck-billed platypus exhibits an array of bizarre characteristics: it lays eggs instead of giving birth to live babies, sweats milk, has venomous spurs ...
Plants & Animals
Jan 6, 2021
15
2980
Telomeres are specialized structures at the end of chromosomes which protect our DNA and ensure healthy division of cells. According to a new study from researchers at the Francis Crick Institute published in Nature, the ...
Cell & Microbiology
Nov 25, 2020
0
97
In high school textbooks, human chromosomes are pictured as wonky Xs like two hotdogs jammed together. But those images are far from accurate. "For 90 percent of the time," said Jun-Han Su, "chromosomes don't exist like that."
Cell & Microbiology
Nov 18, 2020
4
3117
In a new study, published Nov. 18 in the journal Genome Research, scientists in the lab of Whitehead Institute Member David Page present the first ever full, high-resolution sequence of the Y chromosome of a Hereford bull. ...
Biotechnology
Nov 18, 2020
0
59
Human females have two X chromosomes, and males only one. This chromosome imbalance also extends to other branches of the animal kingdom. Interestingly, the humble fruit fly has devised a different way to 'equalize' these ...
Cell & Microbiology
Nov 18, 2020
0
15
How life works may come down to dumbbell-like bits of DNA.
Cell & Microbiology
Oct 21, 2020
0
94
Molecules that accumulate at the tip of chromosomes are known to play a key role in preventing damage to our DNA. Now, researchers at EPFL have unraveled how these molecules home in on specific sections of chromosomes—a ...
Cell & Microbiology
Oct 14, 2020
0
252
The exchange of DNA between chromosomes during the early formation of sperm and egg cells normally is limited to assure fertility.
Biotechnology
Oct 8, 2020
0
33
New analysis of the DNA sequence of the male-specific Y chromosomes from all living species of the great ape family helps to clarify our understanding of how this enigmatic chromosome evolved. A clearer picture of the evolution ...
Evolution
Oct 6, 2020
4
1035
New light is being shed on a little-known role of Y chromosome genes, specific to males, that could explain why men suffer differently than women from various diseases, including COVID-19.
Cell & Microbiology
Sep 25, 2020
2
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