Study reveals how enzyme detects ultraviolet light damage

Damage to DNA is a constant threat to cellular life, and so it is constantly monitored and detected by a family of enzymes called RNA polymerases, resulting in subsequent repair to maintain genome integrity. In a paper published ...

Chemists use modified DNA nucleotides to create new materials

DNA evolved to store genetic information, but in principle this special, chain-like molecule can also be adapted to make new materials. Chemists at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) have now published an important demonstration ...

Physicists tease out twisted torques of DNA

Like an impossibly twisted telephone cord, DNA, the molecule that encodes genetic information, also often finds itself twisted into coils. This twisting, called supercoiling, is caused by enzymes that travel along DNA's helical ...

Monitoring Cancer Cell Changes With Quantum Dots

One of the earliest events that changes a normal cell into a malignant one is known as deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) hypermethylation, a biochemical alteration that inactivates critical tumor-suppressor genes. A team of investigators ...

Physics of gene transcription unveiled

(PhysOrg.com) -- A research team has made precise measurements of where and how RNA polymerase encounters obstacles while it reads nucleosomal DNA.

Scientists crash test DNA's replication machinery

(PhysOrg.com) -- Important molecular machines routinely crash into one another while plying their trades on DNA. New research shows that the enzymes that copy DNA before cell division, called replisomes, are the kings of ...

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