Study finds role of Cul4 molecule in genome instability and cancer

Mayo Clinic researchers have shown that a molecule called Cul4 helps to deposit DNA-packaging histone proteins onto DNA, an integral step in cramming yards of genetic code into compact coils that can fit into each cell. When ...

Unspooling DNA from nucleosomal disks

The tight wrapping of genomic DNA around nucleosomes in the cell nucleus makes it unavailable for gene expression. A team of Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitaet (LMU) in Munich now describes a mechanism that allows chromosomal ...

How proteins read meta DNA code

Three-quarters of the DNA in evolved organisms is wrapped around proteins, forming the basic unit of DNA packaging called nucleosomes, like a thread around a spool. The problem lies in understanding how DNA can then be read ...

Regulating hematopoietic differentiation

Blood cells originate from a small pool of hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) through a complex process of differentiation steps that are tightly regulated at the transcriptional level. Dissecting the mechanisms underlying this ...

No evidence for 30-nm chromatin fibers in the mouse genome

Scientists in Canada and the United States have used three-dimensional imaging techniques to settle a long-standing debate about how DNA and structural proteins are packaged into chromatin fibres. The researchers, whose findings ...

New type of extra-chromosomal DNA discovered

(PhysOrg.com) -- A team of scientists from the University of Virginia and University of North Carolina in the US have discovered a previously unidentified type of small circular DNA molecule occurring outside the chromosomes ...

A foot in the door to genetic information

In the cell nucleus, DNA wraps around what are called histone proteins, forming regularly spaced spherical bodies called nucleosomes. Thus, large portions of the genetic material are inaccessible to the gene reading machinery. ...

Elusive Z- DNA found on nucleosomes

New research published in BioMed Central's open access journal Cell & Bioscience is the first to show that left-handed Z-DNA, normally only found at sites where DNA is being copied, can also form on nucleosomes.

New method pinpoints important gene-regulation proteins

A novel technique has been developed and demonstrated at Penn State University to map the proteins that read and regulate chromosomes -- the string-like structures inside cells that carry genes. The specific order in which ...

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