| |
 | Posted by Admin |
|
|
|
Some security mechanisms and folding of DNA have been clarified by a study that highlighted the key role of nuclear aggregates of polyamines
Some security mechanisms and folding of DNA and, therefore, the relationship between its structure and its function, have been clarified by a study by researchers at the Institute of Food Sciences, CNR, Avellino, in collaboration with the University of Foggia and Genoa, now published in the journal Biomacromolecules.
While the usual genome studies seek to explain their operations by studying the sequence, the new work has focused on issues related to the shape of DNA itself, believing that could affect numerous cellular functions, such as ontogeny, cellular homeostasis, up to development of pathological conditions.
Click to continue »
| |
| Posted by Admin |
|
|
|
Like UVB, UVA rays from the sun can damage DNA. French researchers have elucidated the mechanism.
The warm weather arrives and we have only one desire: to soak up the sun.But beware, the sun’s rays cause skin cancer.How?The development of cancer is a complex phenomenon that can be triggered by a chemical modification of DNA, and, contrary to popular belief, ultraviolet (UV) B of the sun are not solely responsible this type of alteration.Indeed, Akos Banyasz and colleagues at the Laboratoire Francis Perrin CNRS and CEA and the Laboratory of nucleic acid lesions of the CEA, characterized the statements “excited” of DNA that form under the effect of UV A and the DNA damage that results.
Ultraviolet radiation emitted by the Sun is classified into three types of photons: A UV photons having a wavelength between 400 and 315 nm, UV B, between 315 and 280 nanometers, and UV-C, 280 and 100 nanometers.Much of the UVB is filtered by the atmosphere, while UV-C is completely absorbed by the ozone layer and reach the surface of the Earth.Solar radiation to which humans are exposed is composed of 95 percent UVA and 5 percent of UV B.
Click to continue »
| |
| Posted by Admin |
|
|
|
A research study coordinated by Manel Esteller, Institute of Biomedical Research of Bellvitge (IDIBELL) has identified a substance that inhibits cancer growth by activating the so-called “dark genome (or non-coding DNA) and molecules micro-RNA. The study appears this week in the prestigious scientific journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Science (PNAS).
The human body cells have a genome (the set of our DNA) encoding our protein such as keratin in the skin or blood hemoglobin. This genome with DNA encoding only 5% of our genetic material. The remaining 95% is called the genome dark or non-coding DNA and its role is largely unknown.
Part of this DNA produces small charged molecules called microRNAs activate or deactivate genes. In recent years it has been shown that alterations in these molecules are related to tumor formation. Researchers have shown that small-molecule enoxacin, used in antibacterial compounds, binds to the protein that builds micro-RNA and stimulates their growth inhibitory activity of the tumor.
According to researcher Manel Esteller “is like a second hand car we put an engine just out of the factory.” I have found both in laboratory cells and in animal models and should now be studied in human functioning.
Click to continue »
| |
| Posted by Admin |
|
|
|
The double helix of DNA can take an alternative form, but functional, suggesting that there are multiple levels of information stored in the genetic code
The DNA has an alter ego that usually remains hidden, but occasionally shows up for a short time and distorts the building blocks to give it a different form. The unexpected discovery was made by researchers at the University of Michigan and University of California at Irvine, who sign a preview of an article published online by Nature.
It was already known that DNA can bend and twist in a unique way at times, but despite all its bases are paired in the manner described by James Watson and Francis Crick in 1953. With a refinement of the technique of magnetic resonance imaging, the group headed by Al-Hashimi, however, was able to observe transitional alternative forms in which some “rungs” of the classical spiral separate and reassemble into stable structures different from classical breeding bases Watson-Crick.
Click to continue »
| |
| Posted by Admin |
|
|
|
The luminescent markers are an indispensable tool for researchers working in genetics. However, they sometimes pose problems. Some tend to destroy the function and structure of DNA when they are inserted. Others emit so little light they can be detected only at the cost of lengthy and costly measures. Researchers are therefore looking increasingly to alternative markers.
A doctoral candidate, Department of Chemistry, University of Copenhagen may have found this new way, in collaboration with researchers from Chalmers Technical University, who did none of the two major drawbacks: a tool that could be called Molecular gauge. The student Søren Preus worked on luminescent properties of two DNA base analogs, and tCO tCnitro to determine whether it was possible to measure the structure of DNA without destroying it. His work has shown that the functions of DNA were totally disrupted by the insertion of the molecular gauge. Better: One of the base analogs is very effective for emitting light, while the other receives very well. As it is possible to cause transporting light / energy between the two luminescent markers, they can be used for a technique called FRET, or energy transfer between fluorescent molecules.
Click to continue »
| |
| Posted by Admin |
|
|
|
Comprising lizards and snakes, Squamata among their families living in one of the one with the richest biodiversity: about 7,000 species, ranging in size from centimeters to several meters. All these species have such different characteristics, however, a common ancestor. The process of causing mutations of this diversity have recently been highlighted in a study led by Dr. Denis Duboule of the University of Geneva and EPFL.
The role of Hox genes, determining the specification of structures in the anterior-posterior axis of the body, has been highlighted. They control the number, position and shape of the vertebrae.
Click to continue »
| |
| Posted by Admin |
|
|
|
The results were recently published in the advance online edition of Nature March 28, 2010 are of great importance. By carrying out the sequencing and decoding the genome of Tuber melanosporum, that is to say the very famous black truffles, after five years of work carried out by a Franco-Italian consortium, ordinated by a team from the Centre INRA Nancy, and involving Genoscope, CNRS and Universities of Lorraine and the Mediterranean, researchers can now better understand the biology of this species so important, both agronomic and cultural, its formation and evolution of symbiosis between trees and fungi.
In 2007, from a line after a truffle harvested in Provence, Genoscope Directorate of Life Sciences CEA has completed the initial sequencing gross T.melanosporum. Two additional years were needed for researchers in various laboratories of the French INRA, CNRS, CEA and the Universities of Lorraine and the Mediterranean, and their Italian colleagues of Turin, Parma, Perugia, Urbino, Rome and Aquila to achieve a delicate and detailed analysis of the genome of this fungus prestigious.
Click to continue »
| |
| Posted by Admin |
|
|
|
Some Researchers at Ohio State University have found a new way to study how they move when certain enzymes repair the DNA damaged by the sun, and this discovery could someday lead to new therapies to heal burned skin.
Ultraviolet light damages the skin by making chemical bonds are formed in inappropriate places of the DNA molecules in our cells. Normally, other molecules, smaller, called photolyase, repair damage. Sunburn occurs when the DNA is too damaged to be repaired and the cells die.
The photolyase always been difficult to study, partly because they operate in a split second. The physical and chemical Dongping Zhong Ohio State University, and colleagues have used extremely fast pulses of laser light to spy on a photolyase when he was repairing a strand of DNA.
This is the first time I have seen the movement of this enzyme without prior Attachment of a fluorescent molecule, which disrupts their movements. The researchers could therefore see the movement genuineness of the enzyme while doing their work.
Click to continue »
| |
| Posted by Admin |
|
|
|
On 24 January 2008 the magazine Science published the results of research directed by Dr. J. Craig Venter on the chemical synthesis of a complete bacterial genome for the first time in the history of science, thus opening the door to synthetic genomics.
Everyone knows that genetic information is contained in the
DNA of organisms, but perhaps not everyone knows that such information is simply in the sequencing of the nitrogenous bases (adenine, thymine, guanine, cytosine) present in the segment DNA is a
gene. Through an encryption key (called genetic code), the sequence of nitrogenous bases in DNA determines, through the processes of transcription and translation, the amino acid sequence of proteins that genes encode, and thus its functional specificity. Hence the importance which was the discovery in the seventies of last century techniques of DNA sequencing that allow “read” the genetic information carried DNA. Sanger and Gilbert were honored by this Nobel Prize in 1980.
Click to continue »
| |
| Posted by Admin |
|
|
|
English, Japanese, American, Indian, German – all working flat out on one goal: to develop a cancer treatment that is tailored exactly to the genotype of individual patients. The radiation and chemotherapy, with their devastating side effects could thus be unnecessary in the future.
Cancer is a disease of genes. A person becomes ill from flu, you know that it has spread a virus. He becomes ill with cancer, his heritage has been damaged. Tobacco smoke, ultraviolet light have, the age or the fate of traces in the DNA and mixed up the sequence of their components.
To get it under control, U.S. and British scientists have launched four years ago, a company that will cost billions of euros. This company has evolved into a global medical research laboratory, the largest cancer research project ever. The International Cancer Genome Consortium (ICGC) now set about to collect the 50 major cancers, all changes in the genome and analyze.
Click to continue »
The warm weather arrives and we have only one desire: to soak up the sun.But beware, the sun’s rays cause skin cancer.How?The development of cancer is a complex phenomenon that can be triggered by a chemical modification of DNA, and, contrary to popular belief, ultraviolet (UV) B of the sun are not solely responsible this type of alteration.Indeed, Akos Banyasz and colleagues at the Laboratoire Francis Perrin CNRS and CEA and the Laboratory of nucleic acid lesions of the CEA, characterized the statements “excited” of DNA that form under the effect of UV A and the DNA damage that results.
Everyone knows that genetic information is contained in the DNA of organisms, but perhaps not everyone knows that such information is simply in the sequencing of the nitrogenous bases (adenine, thymine, guanine, cytosine) present in the segment DNA is a gene. Through an encryption key (called genetic code), the sequence of nitrogenous bases in DNA determines, through the processes of transcription and translation, the amino acid sequence of proteins that genes encode, and thus its functional specificity. Hence the importance which was the discovery in the seventies of last century techniques of DNA sequencing that allow “read” the genetic information carried DNA. Sanger and Gilbert were honored by this Nobel Prize in 1980.