A bacterial protein helps to stop transcription -- the process of making RNA copies of DNA to carry out the functions of the cell -- by causing the cellular machinery that transcribes the DNA to pause ...

Bacteria need to constantly adapt to compete against other species for nutrient sources and to survive against threats such as antibiotics and toxins. In an effort to understand how bacteria control ...

DNA, the long polymer curled up inside our cells, is often described as the instructions for life. But those instructions are stored in DNA’s chemical code, and reading that code requires the ...

DNA is commonly referred to as the instruction manual of the cell – a compendium of thousands of genes, the particular sequences of which determine the activities of the proteins they encode. But, in ...

Long interspersed nuclear element-1 (LINE-1 or L1) is the only active, self-copying genetic element in the human ...

Mayo Clinic researchers have identified a protein that acts like a traffic controller for DNA, preventing damage during cell ...

Molecular biologists have long believed that the beginning of a gene launched the process of transcription—the process by ...

Every living cell must interpret its genetic code - a sequence of chemical letters that governs countless cellular functions. A new study by researchers from the Center for Theoretical Biological ...

Our bodies’ molecular machinery breaks down with age. DNA accumulates mutations. The protective ends of chromosomes erode away. Mitochondria, the cell’s energy factory, falter and break down. The ...

Human stem cells can differentiate into any human cell. But the process of dedifferentiation, essentially differentiation in reverse, is implicated in several diseases. Now researchers have uncovered ...