Researchers identify abrupt epigenetic aging of the colon
DNA methylation data provide extremely accurate age predictors, but so far, little is known about the dynamics of this epigenomic biomarker over the course of life.
20 hours ago
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DNA methylation data provide extremely accurate age predictors, but so far, little is known about the dynamics of this epigenomic biomarker over the course of life.
20 hours ago
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An international collaborative research team, including scientists from UQ's Queensland Brain Institute (QBI), has discovered a novel mechanism underlying memory involving rapid changes in a specific DNA structure.
Apr 19, 2024
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A specific genetic alteration, known as an ALK fusion, drives non-small cell lung cancer in some patients. This abnormality leads to excessive activity of the ALK protein, a key cancer promoter. These tumors can be treated ...
Apr 16, 2024
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A study has revealed how aberrant epigenetic regulation contributes to the development of atypical teratoid/rhabdoid (AT/RT) tumors, which are aggressive brain tumors that mainly affect young children. There is an urgent ...
Apr 15, 2024
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Despite many efforts to find better, more effective ways to treat cancer, it remains a leading cause of death by disease among children in the U.S.
Apr 11, 2024
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A new lab assay developed by researchers at Fred Hutch Cancer Center could make diagnosis and treatment of small-cell lung cancer and non-small cell lung cancer easier. The work is published in the journal Science Advances.
Apr 10, 2024
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Mutations are the changes in the DNA that gradually occur in human cells as they replicate, and the organism grows and ages. Some of these changes, particularly when they occur in genes, can be instrumental during the development ...
Apr 10, 2024
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Cockayne syndrome is a severe autosomal recessive disorder caused by defective DNA repair mechanisms. People with the disease have much reduced life expectancy and suffer from facial deformities; growth failure; neurological, ...
Apr 10, 2024
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A team of researchers at Nagoya University in Japan has discovered that aldehydes are metabolic byproducts associated with premature aging. Published in Nature Cell Biology, their findings reveal insights into premature aging ...
Apr 10, 2024
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A blood-based machine learning assay that combines cell-free DNA (cfDNA) fragment patterns and levels of the proteins CA125 and HE4 could differentiate patients with ovarian cancer from healthy controls or patients with benign ...
Apr 9, 2024
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Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) is a nucleic acid that contains the genetic instructions used in the development and functioning of all known living organisms and some viruses. The main role of DNA molecules is the long-term storage of information. DNA is often compared to a set of blueprints or a recipe, or a code, since it contains the instructions needed to construct other components of cells, such as proteins and RNA molecules. The DNA segments that carry this genetic information are called genes, but other DNA sequences have structural purposes, or are involved in regulating the use of this genetic information.
Chemically, DNA consists of two long polymers of simple units called nucleotides, with backbones made of sugars and phosphate groups joined by ester bonds. These two strands run in opposite directions to each other and are therefore anti-parallel. Attached to each sugar is one of four types of molecules called bases. It is the sequence of these four bases along the backbone that encodes information. This information is read using the genetic code, which specifies the sequence of the amino acids within proteins. The code is read by copying stretches of DNA into the related nucleic acid RNA, in a process called transcription.
Within cells, DNA is organized into X-shaped structures called chromosomes. These chromosomes are duplicated before cells divide, in a process called DNA replication. Eukaryotic organisms (animals, plants, fungi, and protists) store most of their DNA inside the cell nucleus and some of their DNA in the mitochondria (animals and plants) and chloroplasts (plants only). Prokaryotes (bacteria and archaea) however, store their DNA in the cell's cytoplasm. Within the chromosomes, chromatin proteins such as histones compact and organize DNA. These compact structures guide the interactions between DNA and other proteins, helping control which parts of the DNA are transcribed.
This text uses material from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA