In recent years, technologies that allow scientists to study a person's DNA at single-molecule resolution have vastly expanded our knowledge of the human genome, the microbiome, and the genetic basis of disease. With such ...
Biotechnology
Jun 4, 2024
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41
The first protein-based nano-computing agent that functions as a circuit has been created by Penn State researchers. The milestone puts them one step closer to developing next-generation cell-based therapies to treat diseases ...
Bio & Medicine
May 26, 2023
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245
Hundreds of millions of years ago, a common ancestor of mammals, birds, and reptiles evolved a phallus. We don't know much about phallus evolution (external genitalia generally don't mineralize, so the fossil record is of ...
Cell & Microbiology
Oct 1, 2015
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141
Humans have long been fascinated by bird song and the cacophony of other avian sounds—from coos and honks to quacks and peeps. But little is known about how the unique vocal organ of birds—the syrinx—varies from species ...
Plants & Animals
May 23, 2024
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416
Plants are stakeholders in a subtle and complex chemical warfare to secure optimal growth conditions. Although it has been known for decades that plants produce and release chemical substances to fight their neighbors, it ...
Plants & Animals
Nov 6, 2015
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90
All species mark their DNA with methyl groups. This is done to regulate gene expression, distinguish indigenous DNA from foreign DNA, or to mark old DNA strands during replication. Methylation is carried out by certain enzymes ...
Cell & Microbiology
Aug 19, 2019
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255
Researchers from the Stowers Institute for Medical Research have discovered a new function of ribosomes in human cells that may show the protein-making particle's role in destroying healthy mRNAs, the messages that decode ...
Molecular & Computational biology
May 24, 2019
1
420
While it was once believed that genes regulated biological functions almost exclusively by being transcribed to coding RNAs that were then translated into proteins, it is now known that the picture is much more complex. In ...
Cell & Microbiology
Mar 1, 2017
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628
A simple, reversible chemical treatment can segregate X-bearing sperm from Y-bearing sperm, allowing dramatic alteration of the normal 50/50 male/female offspring ratio, according to a new study by Masayuki Shimada and colleagues ...
Cell & Microbiology
Aug 13, 2019
1
206
About half of our genome is made up of transposable elements (TEs), also known as transposons. These 'jumping genes' are short stretches of DNA that have the unique ability to duplicate themselves and change their position ...
