Scientists explore how females shut off their second X chromosome

Researchers at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Heidelberg and Institut Curie in Paris have shown that the protein SPEN plays a crucial role in the process of X-chromosome inactivation, whereby female mammalian ...

A fundamental discovery about how gene activity is regulated

Researchers at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health have discovered a fundamental mechanism that regulates gene activity in cells. The newly discovered mechanism targets RNA, or ribonucleic acid, a close cousin ...

Resurrected protein reveals structure of important enzyme

To disarm toxic substances, many organisms including humans possess enzymes called flavin-containing monooxygenases (FMOs). Despite their importance, the structure of the enzymes has not been resolved, as the protein is too ...

Researchers discover molecular light switch in photoreceptor cells

How our eyes detect and respond to changes in light intensity is determined by specialized cells in the eye called photoreceptors. In addition to converting light into electrical signals, effectively allowing us to see, rod-shaped ...

How chromosomes change their shape during cell differentiation

The human genome is made up of 46 chromosomes, each of which has a length of about 100 to 200 million base pairs, the building blocks of the DNA double helix. Even during interphase, the period in between the cell division ...

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