Scientists discover role for dueling RNAs
...When a gene is ready to produce a protein, the two strands of DNA that comprise the gene unravel. The first strand produces a molecule called messenger RNA, which acts as the protein's template. Biologists call this first strand of DNA the "sense" or "coding" transcript. Even though the other strand doesn't ......re arranged along this backbone. Two complementary strands of DNA form a double helix because the purine bases adenine (A) and guanine (G) form specific pairs with the pyrimidine bases thymine (T) and cytosine (C), attaching to each other through two or three docking sites. This type of structure could also ...Finding a cure for cancer: The holy grail of science
...e to DNA damage. By using a UV laser to damage DNA strands inside tumour cells, the Copenhagen team is able to directly observe the different checkpoints in the cell. Each time a cell divides its genetic information must be doubled in order for the genes to remain the same. A cell that is about to become t...Gene-bender proteins may sway to DNA
... which individual base-pairs that hold the two DNA strands together were transiently breaking. That led us to conclude that the DNA is able to bend or kink on its own, at weak points created by the transient opening of base-pairs, and that the protein recognizes and binds tightly to the bent DNA conformation...NIH Nanomedicine Center draws on NYU School of Medicine expertise
... back to its original length. By recording how the strands length changes, scientists can watch stages of a cellular DNA repair process. Usually you dont know where chromosomes are going to break, says Dr. Roth. In this instance, though, the breaks are not random. The researchers are using proteins with know...Regulating the nuclear architecture of the cell
... works is by unleashing the Dicer-2 enzyme to chop strands of RNA into short lengths, which can degrade messenger RNA and prevent gene expression. Karpen explains that "the RNAi pathway is a sort of immune system against viral DNA and transposons." Transposons are pieces of DNA that can "jump" to differe......fferent states of proteins. Aptamers are short RNA strands that adopt a specific spatial structure and, like antibodies, selectively bind to specific target molecules. So, why not riboswitches" Over several steps starting from a "library", a randomly generated large number of highly varied RNA sequences, the...Adenine 'tails' make tailored anchors for DNA
...ely simple technique for chemically bonding single strands of DNA to gold. Among other features, they report ...a convenient way to control the density of the DNA strands on the substrate, which could be important for optimizing DNA sensor arrays. Short DNA sequences ar...USC team reveals structure of APOBEC family protein
...saboteurs -- they all can introduce mutations into strands of DNA or RNA. Known as deaminases, APOBEC proteins catalyze a chemical reaction that changes the "C" (cytidine) of the genetic code into a "U" or (uracil). Even a one-letter change in the code can lead to a change or loss of function in an encoded p...Simple diagnostic test detects genetic signs of lung cancer in a patient's sputum
...absence, of a fluorescent signal produced when the strands bind can be detected and scored with use of a special microscope. "As a diagnostic tool to identify early stage lung cancer patients who would then benefit most from curative therapies, FISH is very cheap and convenient," Jiang said. "The technique...DNA gets new twist: Carnegie Mellon scientists develop unique 'DNA nanotags'
...ily assembled by mixing commercially available DNA strands and fluorescent dyes. And while the work described by the Carnegie Mellon team relied on a relatively simple two-dimensional DNA nanostructure, Armitage notes that the rapidly growing field of DNA nanotechnology is generating increasingly intricate t...Novel laboratory technique nudges genes into activity
...ey activated certain genes in cultured cells using strands of RNA to perturb the delicately balanced mixture ...ular genes instructions are "read" and "copied" to strands of messenger RNA, which then ferry the plans to protein-making "factories" in the cell. In its ex...Faster, low cost sequencing technologies needed to drive era of personalized medicine
...ridization, a process of joining two complementary strands of DNA, to sequence DNA by applying a sample to single stranded DNA probes attached to a chip. An atomic force microscope (AFM), like a caffeinated speed reader, can then rapidly scan the surface of the chip to see where DNA from the sample has h...Scientists see DNA get 'sunburned' for the first time
...agues in Germany used a special technique to watch strands of DNA in the laboratory sustain damage in real ti... than a picosecond. They took specially designed strands of DNA -- ones made solely of thymine bases, in order to boost the chance of observing a reaction be...FISH-ing for links between cancer and aging
... called a helicase that unwinds tightly coiled DNA strands when cells divide. Loss of WRN protein in individuals with Werner Syndrome is responsible for the disease. Explains Crabbe, now a postdoctoral fellow at The Institute of Human Genetics in Montpellier, France, "The lack of a single protein (WRN) induc...Nanotechnology meets biology and DNA finds its groove
...emplate with slits narrow enough to confine single strands of elongated DNA. The new technique is akin to threading a microscopic needle with a thread of DNA, explains Juan de Pablo, a UW-Madison professor of biomedical engineering and a co-author of the study. The team has a way, he says, of "positioning ...DNA ends: Common tool, different job
... of chromosomes could potentially look like broken strands of DNA that a cell's repair machinery is designed to fix. This has been a long-standing puzzle, because mending chromosome ends as though they were double-strand breaks would result in either unregulated degradation or end-to-end fusions. Such repair...New study may show how to forestall a fatal, virus-caused immune-system meltdown
...ke spider webspulling on one strand causes all the strands to move, and the Ingenuity system helped us see an...we would have missed otherwise. Connecting those strands is critical to diagnosing and restoring balance to an immune system gone haywire in a disease like L...UNC scientists discover cellular 'SOS' signal in response to UV skin damage
... new technique to visualize the replication of DNA strands exposed to ultraviolet radiation, Kaufmann and his co-authors noted a slowdown in DNA replication when Timeless and Tipin were present in the cell. Building blocks for DNA were labeled with fluorescent molecules so that tracks of newly synthesized DN......re designed to degrade and release the DNA. Large strands of DNA cannot normally penetrate cells, so Lynn constructs his films with special polymers designed to bundle the genes into small tight packages that cells can import. Once inside, the genes instruct the cells to make proteins. Lynn and his colle...