Ancient DNA From Neolithic Tombs in Britain Reveals the World’s Oldest Family Tree
Analysis of ancient DNA from one of the best-preserved Neolithic tombs in Britain has revealed that most of the people buried there were from five…
DNA
Recently Evolved Region of the “Dark Genome” Offers Clues to Treatment of Schizophrenia and Bipolar Disorder
Genes code for proteins — the building blocks of life. The current definition of a gene only accounts for around 1.5% of our entire DNA…
Next Generation Prime Gene Editing Systems Expands Technology’s Therapeutic and Research Applications
Researchers have boosted the efficiency of prime editing, a highly versatile CRISPR-based gene editing technology, and used the improved system to correct disease mutations in…
Colorful Sweets Look Tasty, but Synthetic Dyes May Pose Health Risks Such As DNA Damage and Cancer
Early-onset colorectal cancer incidence among the young, defined as those under age 50, has been rising globally since the early 1990s. Rates for colon and…
Mysterious Long-Range Four-Stranded DNA Structures Found To Play a Role in Rare Aging Disease
A special form of four-stranded DNA, recently seen in human cells, has been found to interact with a gene that causes Cockayne Syndrome when faulty….
Ancient DNA Discovery Reveals Woolly Mammoths, Wild Horses Survived Thousands of Years Longer Than Believed
Mere spoonsful of soil pulled from Canada’s permafrost are opening vast windows into ancient life in the Yukon, revealing rich new information and rewriting previous…
DNA Damage Response in the Elderly May Increase Susceptibility to COVID-19
DNA damage signaling induced by aging telomeres increases the expression of ACE2, the human SARS-CoV-2 cell receptor. SARS-CoV-2 causes the pandemic coronavirus disease COVID-19, that…
How Molecular Clusters in the Cell Nucleus Interact With Chromosomes
A new study finds the clusters form small, stable droplets and may give the genome a gel-like structure. A cell stores all of its genetic…
Neutron Crystallography Takes a Deep Dive Into Water Networks Surrounding DNA
Water plays several important roles within the human body, even affecting the DNA in our cells. The entire surface of a DNA double helix is…
Illuminating Dark Matter in Human DNA – Unprecedented Atlas of the “Book of Life”
In an unprecedented atlas, researchers begin to map how genes are turned on or off in different cells, a step toward better understanding the connections…
Mapping the Mouse Brain in Intricate Detail, and by Extension, the Human Brain Too
The circuits of the human brain contain more than 100 billion neurons, each linked to many other neurons via thousands of synaptic connections, resulting in…
Humans Had Significant Role in the Extinction of the Woolly Mammoth
New research shows that humans had a significant role in the extinction of woolly mammoths in Eurasia, occurring thousands of years later than previously thought….
New Computer Program Can Read Any Genome Sequence and Decipher Its Genetic Code
Yekaterina “Kate” Shulgina was a first year student in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, looking for a short computational biology project so she…
Powerful New Tool Can Peer Into the Vast Genetic Library Inside of Your Cells
The human genome can be thought of as a massive library, containing over 20,000 different “instruction manuals”: your genes. For example, there are genes which…
Tangles in DNA Strands Can Help Predict Evolution of Mutations
Researchers from the Milner Centre for Evolution have identified evolutionary hotspots in DNA where mutations are more likely. Tangles in unwound DNA can create mutational…
Physicists Discover How DNA Molecules Self-Assemble: Laws of Nature Harnessed To Create “Smart Materials”
A team of physicists has discovered how DNA molecules self-organize into adhesive patches between particles in response to assembly instructions. Its findings offer a “proof…
“Genetic Goldmine” Uncovered for Plant Survival in One of the Harshest Environments on Earth
Evolutionary genomics approach identifies genes that enable plants to live in the Atacama Desert, offering clues for engineering more resilient crops to face climate change….
How Bread Wheat Got Its Gluten: DNA Detective Work Uncovered an Obscure Ancestor of Modern Bread Wheat
Tracing the Impact of a Long-Lost Relative on Modern Bread Wheat Genetic detective work has uncovered an obscure ancestor of modern bread wheat, in a…
