Transposable elements, or jumping genes, are now known to be responsible for many human diseases. Keeping them repressed by methylation, RNA binding, or the attentions of the innate immune system is a full-time jump for ...
Only 1 percent of human DNA codes for proteins, and approximately half of the rest of the genome is made up of what used to be called "junk" sequences that can copy themselves into RNA or DNA and jump from one location to ...
Biotechnology
Dec 23, 2019
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"Jumping genes"—bits of DNA that can move from one spot in the genome to another—are well-known for increasing genetic diversity over the long course of evolution. Now, new research at Washington University School of ...
Biotechnology
Jan 24, 2020
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371
A team of researchers led by Feng Zhang at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard and the McGovern Institute for Brain Research at MIT has uncovered the first programmable RNA-guided system in eukaryotes—organisms that ...
Biotechnology
Jun 28, 2023
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Researchers Dr. Ádám Sturm and Dr. Tibor Vellai from Eötvös Loránd University, Hungary have made an exciting breakthrough in understanding how we age. They focused on "transposable elements" (TEs), which are parts of ...
Cell & Microbiology
Sep 25, 2023
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162
The world is filled with tiny creatures that find us delicious. Bacteria and viruses are the obvious bad guys, drivers of deadly global pandemics and annoying infections. But the pathogens we haven't had to reckon with as ...
Ecology
Jan 30, 2023
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130
A viable molecular explanation for the origin of compact myelin of vertebrates has been a long time coming. While many invertebrates are certainly capable of wrapping their axons with crude glial extensions, none can manage ...
In rare instances, DNA is known to have jumped from one species to another. If a parasite's DNA jumps to its host's genome, it could leave evidence of that parasitic interaction that could be found millions of years later—a ...
Biotechnology
Apr 21, 2016
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About half of our genome is made up of transposable elements (TEs), also known as transposons. These 'jumping genes' are short stretches of DNA that have the unique ability to duplicate themselves and change their position ...
Humans have been eating peaches and almonds for thousands of years. Although at first sight the products of these trees may seem to be very different, both species are part of the Prunus genus, and are genetically very similar—so ...
Plants & Animals
Sep 26, 2019
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