Transcriptional elongation control takes on new dimensions

Life is complicated enough, so you can forgive the pioneers of DNA biology for glossing over transcriptional elongation control by RNA polymerase II, the quick and seemingly bulletproof penultimate step in the process that ...

Ready, go!

Just like orchestra musicians waiting for their cue, RNA polymerase II molecules are poised at the start site of many developmentally controlled genes, waiting for the "Go!"- signal to read their part of the genomic symphony. ...

Scientists observe single gene activity in living cells

Researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University have for the first time observed the activity of a single gene in living cells. In an unprecedented study, published in the April 22 online edition ...

Rethinking reprogramming: A new way to make stem cells

A paper published by Cell Press in the April 8th issue of the journal Cell Stem Cell reveals a new and more efficient method for reprogramming adult mouse and human cells into an embryonic stem cell-like state and could lead ...

Identifying molecular guardian of cell's RNA

When most genes are transcribed, the nascent RNAs they produce are not quite ready to be translated into proteins - they have to be processed first. One of those processes is called splicing, a mechanism by which non-coding ...

The 3-dimensional transcription film

Gene expression takes place in two stages: the transcription of DNA to RNA by an enzyme called RNA polymerase, followed by the translation of this RNA into proteins, whose behaviour affects the characteristics of each individual.

DksA polices the intersection of replication and transcription

DNA replication, the process by which a strand of DNA is copied during cell proliferation , and DNA transcription, the process by which the message in the DNA is translated into messenger RNA, involve the same "track" or ...

Our genes can be set on pause

New evidence in embryonic stem cells shows that mammalian genes may all have a layer of control that acts essentially like the pause button on your DVR. The researchers say the results show that the pausing phenomenon, previously ...

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