New roles for DNA-packaging proteins

How can human cells pack 3-meter-long DNA into their tiny nuclei and unpack it only where and when it is needed? This fascinating process is far from being completely understood.

Supercoiling pushes molecular handcuffs along chromatin fibres

Gene regulation relies on complex structural arrangements and processes at the molecular level. One of them, called 'chromatin loop extrusion', strikingly resembles the quick-lacing system of some trail running shoes: as ...

Harbingers of aging

Midlife crisis in the insect world: In a new study, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitaet (LMU) in Munich researchers have detected age-dependent alterations in metabolism and gene regulation in middle-aged fruitflies, and show ...

Error correction strategies of cells: Team proposes new hypothesis

Cells dynamically respond to environmental signals by turning appropriate sets of genes on or off. The "control system" that determines which genes need to be expressed at what time depends primarily on the interactions between ...

New mechanism in gene regulation revealed

The information encoded in our genes is translated into proteins, which ultimately mediate biological functions in an organism. Messenger RNA (mRNA) plays an important role, as it is the molecular template used for translation. ...

The TALE of new tools to study gene regulation

In nearly every organism's genome, scattered between genes that encode proteins, long regulatory regions stretch across expanses of DNA. Understanding what role these so-called enhancer regions play in controlling the activation ...

Scientists shed light on the 'dark matter' of DNA

In each cell, thousands of regulatory regions control which genes are active at any time. Scientists at the Research Institute of Molecular Pathology (IMP) in Vienna have developed a method that reliably detects these regions ...

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