kinetoplast DNA found in the genomes of infected patients and animals

Courtesy of The Natural History Museum, LondonSome liken DNA recovery from ancient sources to genetic time travel. But contamination remains a significant challenge, and museum curators cringe about recovery methods that involve drilling into bone and teeth. To overcome this concern, researchers in the United Kingdom have refined a method to extract genetic material from ancient hair.Thomas Gilbert, then a student in Alan Cooper's laboratory at Oxford University, says he tired of porous ancient

When an animal cell encounters a bacterial or chemical toxin, it needs to respond to ensure its survival, but how it does this is still poorly understood. Now, two independent studies clarify the involvement of the c-Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK) and p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) signalling pathways in these responses in Caenorhabditis elegans. Both JNK and p38 are well known mediators of stress responses in mammalian cells, and in C. elegans, these proteins, other components involve

Cindy MageeTrying to segregate disorganized chromosomes is a feat akin to unpacking tangled Christmas lights. But through largely unknown processes, proteins called condensins help organize DNA during cell division. Using optical-trap microscopy, researchers recently analyzed an Escherichia coli condensin, MukBEF, which works like a "molecular Velcro," says Carlos Bustamante, a professor at the University of California, Berkeley.Bustamante and colleagues mechanically manipulated a single molecul

reveals its normal function to be nonessential

TRANSCRIPTIONAL DIVERSITY:Horst Feldmann, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität MüchenTranscription by Pol II is dependent on a number of multi-subunit complexes including TFIID, a general transcription factor complex, and SAGA. Both deliver the TATA-box binding protein (TBP) to promoters and they share a number of TBP associated factors (TAFs). While they have overlapping contributions to gene expression, TFIID function appears to dominate gene regulation at 90% of the measurable genome, mos

SIRT1 may play role in why calorie restriction leads to longer life in rats

Arabidopsis

A non-protein-coding RNA regulates a neighboring gene by simply being turned on

Method measures selection pressures on a single genome without use of comparative genomics

Expression of a specific CD8 molecule enables the development of a memory T-cell pool

Study finds that Kisangani chimpanzees contain a virus unrelated to HIV-1