Rethinking transcription factors and gene expression

Transcription—the reading of a segment of DNA into an RNA template for protein synthesis—is fundamental for nearly all cellular processes, including growth, responding to stimuli, and reproduction. Now, Whitehead Institute ...

Study tracks the evolutionary history of a cancer-related gene

How and when evolution generates diversity or gives form to proteins, living beings' functional building blocks, are essential questions that still surround the theory of evolution. In humans, the majority of genes have emerged ...

True love: How transcription factors interact to create a heart

Scientists at the Gladstone Institutes have discovered that three transcription factors—proteins that direct gene expression—interact with each other and the genome to influence how a heart forms in an embryo. Without ...

Enzymes for cell wall synthesis conserved across species barriers

Plants have neither supportive bone tissue nor muscles, and yet they can form rigid structures like stalks and even tree trunks. This is due to the fact that plant cells are enveloped by a stable cell wall. The main component ...

Human Argonaute proteins: To slice or not to slice?

What makes one Argonaute a slicer and another one not? Human Argonaute proteins are key players in the gene regulation process known as RNA interference, RNAi. Professor Joshua-Tor's group of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory ...

Reverse engineering 3-D chromosome models for individual cells

Genome analysis can provide information on genes and their location on a strand of DNA, but such analysis reveals little about their spatial location in relation to one another within chromosomes—the highly complex, three-dimensional ...

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