Study uncovers how DNA unfolds for transcription

(PhysOrg.com) -- The human genome contains some 3 billion base pairs that are tightly compacted into the nucleus of each cell. If a DNA strand were the thickness of a human hair, the entire human genome would be crammed into ...

Stop and go: How the cell deals with transcriptional roadblocks

Gene transcription is central to cell function, as it converts the information stored in the DNA into RNA molecules of defined sequence, which then program protein synthesis. The enzyme RNA polymerase II (Pol II) is responsible ...

Correcting a trick of the light brings molecules into view

Conventional wisdom holds that optical microscopy can't be used to "see" something as small as an individual molecule. But as it is wont, clever science has once again overturned conventional wisdom. Secretary of Energy, ...

How the wrong genes are repressed

The mechanism by which 'polycomb' proteins critical for embyronic stem cell function and fate are targeted to DNA has been identified by UCL scientists.

Exact pol(e) position—precisely where the polymerase is changed

Scientists at the Helmholtz Zentrum München, working with colleagues from the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, have developed a method for the thorough analysis of protein modifications. They mapped the phosphorylation ...

Designer of protein factories exposed

For 10 years, Patrick Cramer and his colleagues at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitaet (LMU) in Munich have probed the structure of RNA polymerase I, a crucial cog in the machinery of all cells. Now they unveil the full three-dimensional ...

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