When bacteria cells replicate, they do so a little differently than human cells do. They don't undergo mitosis, a splitting that involves construction of spindles to carefully separate the DNA after ...

Scientists have discovered a new property of the molecular motors that shape our chromosomes. While six years ago they found that these so-called SMC motor proteins make long loops in our DNA, they ...

Maize serves as a vital model species for advancing our understanding of plant biology, yet many mysteries remain about the ...

Before a cell divides, its DNA is replicated so that each daughter cell inherits the same genetic information. The two copies, known as "sister chromatids," are held together by a ring-shaped protein ...

Not all DNA looks like the familiar double helix. Sometimes, parts of our genetic code fold into unusual shapes under certain conditions. One such structure known as a G-quadruplex (G4) looks like a ...

Researchers shed new light on G-quadruplexes, a type of secondary DNA structure that has attracted attention as a potential therapeutic target in cancer. Every day, billions of cells in your body ...

New work shows that physical folding of the genome to control genes located far away may have been a critical turning point for life on Earth. For evolutionary biologists, what most distinguishes the ...

A team of researchers at VCU Massey Comprehensive Cancer Center has identified a new pathway through which mutations in the ...