DNAresearch

In 1993, Victor Ambros and Gary Ruvkun discovered that a small piece of RNA that doesn’t code for protein, LIN-4, is able to repress the translation of LIN-14, a gene important for normal development in a worm model1, 2. Since then, the total number of small regulatory RNAs thought to be involved in disease has become overwhelming. These include microRNAs (miRNAs) and piwi-interacting RNAs (piRNAs) — which are slightly larger and more complex than miRNAs. There are roughly 900 miRNAs and more than 50,000 piRNAs identified in mammalian cells so far.

In a new study described in the journal Oncogene, researchers reveal how a key player in cell growth, immunity and the inflammatory response can be transformed into a primary contributor to tumor growth.

Phages in mucus aid immune system by killing invading bacteria.

A new study shows how complex biochemical transformations may have been possible under conditions that existed when life began on the early Earth.

Last night I listened squeamishly to my 13-year-old daughter and her friends compete in a (loud!)Fear-Factor-type eating contest in the other room (a sample dish: gummi worms covered in coleslaw – shudder). Fortunately for her (and all of us, really), the old adage “you are what you eat” is a vast oversimplification of nutrition science; many factors actually influence our overall health and body composition.

As depicted on Star Trek: The Original Series, the tricorder is a device that looks like the bastard love child of a Polaroid camera and a 1970s-era portable cassette deck. It was worn around the neck on a strap. It was black and clunky and definitely not what we would, today, call a sexy piece of electronics.

A new DNA assay developed by forensic scientists helps archaeologists reconstruct eye and hair color from old teeth and bones.

DNA casts doubt on Egyptian origin for ancient Cretans.

Genetics pioneer Craig Venter reveals what we have and haven’t learned from the human genome sequence, and the huge challenges we face as our population soars.

Finding of disrupted brain gene orchestration gives first direct evidence of circadian rhythm changes in depressed brains, opens door to better treatment

It has been argued that the evolution of plant genome size is principally unidirectional and increasing owing to the varied action of whole-genome duplications (WGDs) and mobile element proliferation1. However, extreme genome size reductions have been reported in the angiosperm family tree. Here we report the sequence of the 82-megabase genome of the carnivorous bladderwort plant Utricularia gibba. Despite its tiny size, the U. gibba genome accommodates a typical number of genes for a plant, with the main difference from other plant genomes arising from a drastic reduction in non-genic DNA. Unexpectedly, we identified at least three rounds of WGD in U. gibba since common ancestry with tomato (Solanum) and grape (Vitis). The compressed architecture of the U. gibba genome indicates that a small fraction of intergenic DNA, with few or no active retrotransposons, is sufficient to regulate and integrate all the processes required for the development and reproduction of a complex organism.

Random mutations and genetic drift, rather than design principles, may explain the emergence of regulatory network properties in E. coli.

A key question in biology is how novel biological complexities evolve, and an important example of this is the development of societies, when individuals within a species cooperate to function as a whole. Wasps are social insects and represent an attractive system for studying the genetic basis of such social behaviors. Seirian Sumner and colleagues in her lab at the University of Bristol investigate how the interactions between genes, the environment and behavior have led to the evolution of sociality in wasps. In a recent study in Genome Biology, they describe an RNA-seq analysis of the genetic mechanisms controlling alternative phenotypes in the eusocial wasp Polistes canadensis. We asked her to explain how the study came about and what were the main findings.

It’s been said metaphorically that too much focus on the trees can cause one to lose sight of the forest. In a similar check of perspective, a group of biologists, led by a University of California, Davis, scientist, suggests that decades of focus on genes has led the scientific community away from a balanced exploration of the organisms that those genes define — whether they be plants, animals or microorganisms.

From within an ancient German gravesite to laboratories under the harshest extremes of scientific scrutiny, traces of DNA from a deadly disease illuminate the cold pages of history with modern insight.

A team of scientists based at Cardiff University who found that a handful of genes are implicated in a wide range of debilitating neurological conditions have won £5m for further research.

One of the most astonishing secrets in biology is this: every plant you see makes two different plants from the same genome. And, scientists recently reported, a single gene from an ancient, powerful lineage can make the difference. How can such a truth be so little known? In most land plants, including conifers and flowering plants, one of the plants is tiny, and frequently hidden inside its doppelganger. But that doesn’t mean you haven’t seen them. In fact, they may have made you suffer.

Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory have discovered that DNA "linker" strands coax nano-sized rods to line up in way unlike any other spontaneous arrangement of rod-shaped objects. The arrangement—with the rods forming "rungs" on ladder-like ribbons linked by multiple DNA strands—results from the collective interactions of the flexible DNA tethers and may be unique to the nanoscale. The research, described in a paper published online in ACS Nano, a journal of the American Chemical Society, could result in the fabrication of new nanostructured materials with desired properties.

Albert Erives, associate professor in the University of Iowa Department of Biology, and his graduate student, Justin Crocker, currently a postdoctoral researcher at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) Janelia Farm Research Campus, have conducted a study that reveals important and useful insights into how and why developmental genes often take inputs from two independent “morphogen concentration gradients.”

Interstate 20 starts on the west side of Texas and runs east to the Atlantic ocean, passing through Dallas along the way. The highway has lots of truck stops, some of which are known sites of prostitution, serial murders, or both. About once a month, always on a Wednesday, Dallas police show up at one of these spots for an unusual sting operation.

Peter Aldhous visits a biosafety lab rushing to produce a vaccine that could be the main defence against an H7N9 flu pandemic that would threaten millions

Collaborative study will help overcome hurdles to using stem cells to treat diseases and injuries

A handheld diagnostic device that Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) investigators first developed to diagnose cancer has been adapted to rapidly diagnose tuberculosis (TB) and other important infectious bacteria.  Two papers appearing in the journals Nature Communications and Nature Nanotechnology describe portable devices that combine microfluidic technology with nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) to not only diagnose these important infections but also determine the presence of antibiotic-resistant bacterial strains.

Researchers at the Institute for Systems Biology in Seattle (USA) and the Luxembourg Centre for Systems Biomedicine (LCSB) at the University of Luxembourg have jointly developed a revolutionary method to analyse the genomes of yeast families. The team of Dr. Aimée Dudley from the ISB and Dr. Patrick May from LCSB published their paper in the renowned scientific journal Nature Methods on May 12th. It describes a new method called BEST: Barcode Enabled Sequencing of Tetrads (DOI: 10.1038/nmeth.2479).