DNA News and Research

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DNA, or deoxyribonucleic acid, is the hereditary material in humans and almost all other organisms. Nearly every cell in a person’s body has the same DNA. Most DNA is located in the cell nucleus (where it is called nuclear DNA), but a small amount of DNA can also be found in the mitochondria (where it is called mitochondrial DNA or mtDNA).

Faster, less expensive technique for mutating large, non-gene stretches of DNA

Genes account for only 2.5 percent of DNA in the human genetic blueprint, yet diseases can result not only from mutant genes, but from mutations of other DNA that controls genes.

19 Jun 2007

Alcohol may protect against rheumatoid arthritis

New data presented at EULAR 2007, the Annual European Congress of Rheumatology in Barcelona, Spain, suggests that alcohol may protect against rheumatoid arthritis, with three units a week exhibiting protective effects and ten units a week being more protective still.

19 Jun 2007

Many of the areas of the human genome previously thought to be deserts are in fact teeming with life

Most known human genes in the genome map are still incompletely annotated, says Professor Alexandre Reymond, from the Centre for Integrative Genomics, University of Lausanne, Switzerland and the Department of Genetic Medicine, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland.

19 Jun 2007

Otosclerosis gene identified

A gene responsible for the single most common cause of hearing loss among white adults, otosclerosis, has been identified for the first time, a scientist told the annual conference of the European Society of Human Genetics in Nice, France.

19 Jun 2007

Common DNA variations underlie susceptibility to fever after smallpox vaccination

Their finding is the first to link individual differences written into the genetic code with a vaccine-related complication, albeit a mild one.

19 Jun 2007

True nature of heterochromatin revealed

Not so long ago, the difficult-to-sequence, highly repetitive, gene-poor DNA found in regions of chromosomes known as heterochromatin was called "junk." Like dark matter in the universe, the true nature of heterochromatin was unknown.

19 Jun 2007

Scientists discover proteins in blood that accurately identify colon cancer and precancerous polyps

Initial studies of the proteins, CCSA-3 and CCSA-4, suggest they could be used to develop a blood test to identify at-risk individuals.

19 Jun 2007

New understanding of how the DNA helix replicates

A team of researchers led by University of Virginia Health System geneticists has uncovered a major secret in the mystery of how the DNA helix replicates itself time after time.

18 Jun 2007

Researchers use 'genomic pathway' to predict Parkinson's

A new Mayo Clinic study provides strong evidence that the joint effects of common DNA variations in several genes that encode proteins within a well-defined biological pathway largely explain why some persons get Parkinson's disease while others don't, and even predict with great accuracy at what age people might develop their first symptoms.

17 Jun 2007

Herpes virus hijacks DNA repair process

Scientists probing the details of viral infection have discovered an intriguing surprise: in mice, herpes viruses hijack their host cells' tools for fixing DNA damage and use those tools to enhance their own reproduction.

17 Jun 2007

Secrets of chromosome movement revealed

Investigators at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital have used the lowly yeast to gain insights into how a dividing human cell ensures that an identical set of chromosomes gets passed on to each new daughter cell.

17 Jun 2007

New rheumatoid arthritis genes identified

Researchers at the University of Manchester have identified evidence of several new genes behind the chronic inflammatory disease rheumatoid arthritis (RA), which affects 387,000 people in the UK.

16 Jun 2007

Biologists unravel genetic secrets of the silk of spiders

Biologists at the University of California, Riverside have identified the genes, and determined the DNA sequences, for two key proteins in the dragline silk of the black widow spider an advance that may lead to a variety of new materials for industrial, medical and military uses.

16 Jun 2007

U-M Health and Retirement Study scientists practice what their research shows most Americans want

When Bob Willis thought about retiring, he knew just how he wanted to do it. Slowly. Or maybe never.

16 Jun 2007

The unexpected connection of two gene regulation mechanisms points to new ways for the fight against leukemia

When the activity of individual genes it is longer required, there are two main mechanisms responsible for the “switching off”, mainly DNA methylation and the Polycomb protein complex. Sometimes, these mechanisms lose their efficiency and some of the genes that should be "switched off" remain active.

16 Jun 2007