During a large-scale study of complex single-celled microbes, Dr. Christopher Bellas, Marie-Sophie Plakolb and Prof. Ruben Sommaruga from the Department of Ecology at the University of Innsbruck made ...

In a quiet freshwater pond in Ibaraki Prefecture near Tokyo, researchers have pulled from the water a microscopic giant that ...

Every time a cell divides, it must copy its entire genome so that each daughter cell inherits a complete set of DNA. During that process, enzymes known as polymerases race along the DNA to copy its ...

Human DNA in its natural state inside cells (left) compared to eight hours after being infected with HSV-1 (right). The virus compacts the human genome’s size significantly and moves it towards the ...

Single-cell analysis helps uncover how the BK virus replicates, opening the door to new drug targets. BK polyomavirus (BKPyV) is a major cause of kidney transplant failure. Without a complete ...

DNA replication is a complex process with many moving parts. In baker's yeast, the molecular complex Ctf18-RFC keeps parts of the replication machinery from falling off the DNA strand. Human cells use ...

CRISPR-Cas9 is a customizable tool that lets scientists cut and insert small pieces of DNA at precise areas along a DNA strand. This lets scientists study genes in a specific, targeted way. (NHGRI via ...

DNA, though tightly packed in the nucleus, is constantly threatened by damage from metabolism and external stressors. One particularly severe form of DNA damage is the so-called DNA–protein crosslinks ...

For almost 60 years, scientists have tried to understand why DNA doesn't replicate wildly and uncontrollably every time a ...

Humans and baker's yeast have more in common than meets the eye, including an important mechanism that helps ensure DNA is copied correctly, reports a pair of studies. The findings visualize for the ...