Like thread tightly wrapped around a spool, DNA is wrapped around histones and packaged into structures called nucleosomes. Scientists at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital are exploring how a type of transcription factor ...
Cell & Microbiology
May 24, 2023
0
137
New insight into proteins called "pioneer factors" helps to explain their unusual ability to open up the typically dense genetic material within our cells. This behavior makes the genetic material accessible for proteins ...
Cell & Microbiology
Apr 20, 2023
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20
New research provides insight into how an enzyme that helps regulate aging and other metabolic processes accesses our genetic material to modulate gene expression within the cell. A team led by Penn State researchers have ...
Cell & Microbiology
Apr 14, 2023
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97
DNA and associated proteins in active regions of the genome are condensed but behave like a viscous liquid at the molecular level. This finding greatly increases our understanding of the physical nature of expressed genome ...
Cell & Microbiology
Apr 5, 2023
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195
In organisms whose cells have a nucleus, like plants and animals, the basic packaging units of DNA are the so-called nucleosomes. A nucleosome consists of a segment of DNA wound around eight proteins known as histones. Gene ...
Bio & Medicine
Mar 6, 2023
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12
RIKEN researchers have shown how a gene-reading enzyme manages to dismantle bead-like structures of DNA and reassemble them at high speed, without disrupting the integrity of genomic organization. Their findings, now published ...
Cell & Microbiology
Nov 17, 2022
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38
A key protein for converting adult stem cells into cells that resemble embryonic stem cells has been visualized in unprecedented detail by an international team of researchers around Hans Schöler and Vlad Cojocaru of the ...
Cell & Microbiology
Sep 22, 2022
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16
Human life hinges on the ability of our cells to cram six feet of DNA into a 10-micron nucleus—equivalent to fitting a mile of string inside one green pea. But stuffing genes into cramped quarters is only half the battle. ...
Molecular & Computational biology
Sep 30, 2021
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811
How can proteins bind DNA in the cell nucleus, where it is present in form of chromatin, tightly wrapped around histones and therefore mostly inaccessible? Recently, several studies began to uncover the various strategies ...
Cell & Microbiology
Jun 29, 2021
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9
A team of researchers working at the Institute of Genetics and Molecular and Cellular Biology in Illkirch, France, has found that the MeCP2 protein binds to DNA in a way that prevents it from being wrapped up in nucleosomes. ...
