How viruses outsmart their host cells

Viruses depend on host cells for replication, but how does a virus induce its host to transcribe its own genetic information alongside that of the virus, thus producing daughter viruses? For decades, researchers have been ...

Co-evolution between a 'parasite gene' and its host

A Danish research team has delineated a complex symbiosis between a 'parasitic' noncoding RNA gene and its protein-coding 'host' gene in human cells. The study reveals how co-evolution of the host gene and parasite gene has ...

Viruses are sneakier than we thought

Viruses are molecular marauders, plundering cells for the resources they need to multiply. Of central importance for viruses is the ability to commandeer cellular gene expression machinery. Several human herpesviruses put ...

Gene activity in defenders depends on invading slavemaking ants

Temnothorax americanus is a slavemaking ant found in northeastern America. These tiny social insects neither rear their offspring nor search for food themselves. Instead, they raid nests of another ant species, Temnothorax ...

Weaker transcription factors are better when they work together

Bioengineers can tailor the genomes of cells to create "cellular therapies" that fight disease, but they have found it difficult to design specialized activating proteins called transcription factors that can throw the switch ...

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