LMU scientists have shown that a fundamental process of life works differently than previously assumed. The basic process of life, known as transcription, is the process by which the genetic ...

As imaging tools continue to get more sophisticated, researchers have been able to actually watch biological processes as they are happening in live cells. Scientists have now visualized loops of DNA ...

When people think of DNA, they visualize a string-like double helix structure. In reality, the DNA double helix in cells is supercoiled and constrained into loops. This supercoiling and looping are ...

A team of physicists working at the intersection of theory and experiment are shedding new light on the 'teamwork' of molecular motors -- called RNA polymerases (RNAPs) -- that mediate DNA ...

When the molecular machinery in our cells gets to work transcribing the genetic information encoded in DNA into messenger RNA (mRNA), it pauses shortly after starting. Known as promoter-proximal ...

In certain toy racecar tracks, sneaky players can flip a switch, trapping their opponents' vehicles in a loop of track. Cells employ a less subtle approach: they change the track's layout. In a study ...

Among the many marvels of life is the cell's ability to divide and thus enable organisms to grow and renew themselves. For this, the cell must duplicate its DNA—its genome—and segregate it equally ...

Mammalian physiology exhibits 24-hour cyclicity due to circadian rhythms of gene expression controlled by transcription factors that constitute molecular clocks. Core clock transcription factors bind ...

INDIANAPOLIS - Scientists have deciphered the structure of an essential part of Mediator, a complex molecular machine that plays a vital role in regulating the transcription of DNA. The research adds ...

Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) exhibits a degree of resistance to mutagenesis under genotoxic stress, and this study on the mitochondrial Transcription Factor A (TFAM) presents valuable data concerning the ...