https://phys.org/biology-news/molecular-computational en-us Medical Xpress provides the latest news on molecular and Computational biology New research finds around a quarter of Labrador retriever dogs face a double-whammy of feeling hungry all the time and burning fewer calories due to a genetic mutation. The results are published in the journal Science Advances. https://phys.org/news/2024-03-genetic-mutation-quarter-labradors-hard.html Molecular & Computational biology Veterinary medicine Wed, 06 Mar 2024 14:00:01 EST news628942750 A computational model of the more than 26 million atoms in a DNA-packed viral capsid expands our understanding of virus structure and DNA dynamics, insights that could provide new research avenues and drug targets, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign researchers report in the journal Nature. https://phys.org/news/2024-03-atom-packaged-viral-genome-reveals.html Cell & Microbiology Molecular & Computational biology Wed, 06 Mar 2024 13:17:03 EST news628953421 Whereas humans have one receptor on their tongues that can detect all sorts of sweet things, from real sugar to artificial sweeteners like aspartame, insects have many receptors that each detect specific types of sugars. Yale researchers have now uncovered one way insect receptors are able to be so selective, an insight they say will help us understand how animals decipher the chemical world and how we might mimic that ability in the future. https://phys.org/news/2024-03-insects-sugars.html Cell & Microbiology Molecular & Computational biology Wed, 06 Mar 2024 13:13:03 EST news628953181 Researchers from the Bhogaraju Group at EMBL Grenoble have gained new insights into how a cancer-relevant family of proteins bind their targets. The results of the study, published in The EMBO Journal, could potentially help in the development of drugs against certain chemotherapy- and radiotherapy-resistant cancers. https://phys.org/news/2024-03-relationships-cancer-proteins.html Molecular & Computational biology Wed, 06 Mar 2024 12:28:31 EST news628950509 Early experiences in an animal's life can have a significant impact on its capacity to thrive, even years or decades later, and DNA methylation may help record their effects. https://phys.org/news/2024-03-early-life-adversity-term-signatures.html Plants & Animals Molecular & Computational biology Wed, 06 Mar 2024 11:44:04 EST news628947842 Originally discovered in extreme environments such as hydrothermal vents, archaea, a single-celled microorganism, can also be found in the digestive systems of animals, including humans in which they play a key role in gut health. Yet, little is known about the function of these cells or how they form the distinct shapes they assume to match their environments. https://phys.org/news/2024-03-archaea-proteins-cell-function.html Cell & Microbiology Molecular & Computational biology Wed, 06 Mar 2024 11:09:04 EST news628945741 "Random DNA" is naturally active in the one-celled fungi yeast, while such DNA is turned off as its natural state in mammalian cells, despite their having a common ancestor a billion years ago and the same basic molecular machinery, a new study finds. https://phys.org/news/2024-03-synthetic-dna-mysterious-difference-cells.html Evolution Molecular & Computational biology Wed, 06 Mar 2024 11:00:01 EST news628942902 One of the fundamental goals of basic biology is understanding how diverse cell types work in concert to form tissues, organs, and organ systems. Recent efforts to catalog the different cell types in every tissue in our bodies are a step in the right direction, but only one piece of the puzzle. The great mystery of how those cells communicate with one another remains unsolved. https://phys.org/news/2024-03-universal-tool-tracking-cell-interactions.html Cell & Microbiology Molecular & Computational biology Wed, 06 Mar 2024 11:00:01 EST news628942911 Some of our genes can be expressed or silenced depending on whether we inherited them from our mother or our father. The mechanism behind this phenomenon, known as genomic imprinting, is determined by DNA modifications during egg and sperm production. https://phys.org/news/2024-03-revealing-evolutionary-genomic-imprinting.html Evolution Molecular & Computational biology Wed, 06 Mar 2024 11:00:01 EST news628942517 A multi-institutional team of geneticists in China has discovered the gene mutation responsible for a brown coat in giant pandas. In their study, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the group sequenced the genes of a captive giant panda with a brown coat and compared the results with the genes of hundreds of black and white pandas. https://phys.org/news/2024-03-gene-mutation-responsible-brown-giant.html Plants & Animals Molecular & Computational biology Wed, 06 Mar 2024 10:02:11 EST news628941720 The 1986 disaster at the Chornobyl nuclear power plant transformed the surrounding area into the most radioactive landscape on Earth. Humans were evacuated, but many plants and animals continue to live in the region, despite the high levels of radiation that persist nearly four decades later. https://phys.org/news/2024-03-tiny-worms-tolerate-chornobyl.html Plants & Animals Molecular & Computational biology Tue, 05 Mar 2024 15:38:30 EST news628875504 Recent years have seen the rise of bacterial pathogens that have developed resistance to antibiotics. One such superbug, carbapenem-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii (CRAB), kills hundreds of critically ill patients in the U.S. each year, usually in hospital settings, by causing blood, lung, or urinary tract infections that don't respond to treatments. https://phys.org/news/2024-03-focus-flaws-superbugs-armor.html Cell & Microbiology Molecular & Computational biology Tue, 05 Mar 2024 15:12:05 EST news628873921 Every time a cell divides, its DNA is duplicated so that the two daughter cells have the same genetic material as their parent. This means that, millions of times a day, a biochemical wonder takes place in the body: the copying of the DNA molecule. It is a high-precision job carried out by specific proteins and includes systems to protect against potential errors that could lead to diseases such as cancer. https://phys.org/news/2024-03-newly-protein-dna-triplication.html Molecular & Computational biology Mon, 04 Mar 2024 15:57:36 EST news628790254 Research conducted by Dr. Shota Nakanoh in a collaboration between Dr. Teresa Rayon's lab at the Institute and Professor Ludovic Vallier's lab at the Wellcome-MRC Cambridge Stem Cell Institute has determined that the degree of cell crowding in the early human embryo influences whether cells develop as extra-embryonic cells or become a part of the embryo and eventually give rise to skin, hair and nails. https://phys.org/news/2024-03-degree-cell-crowding-early-human.html Cell & Microbiology Molecular & Computational biology Mon, 04 Mar 2024 15:12:54 EST news628787571 Charles Darwin described evolution as "descent with modification." Genetic information in the form of DNA sequences is copied and passed down from one generation to the next. But this process must also be somewhat flexible, allowing slight variations of genes to arise over time and introduce new traits into the population. https://phys.org/news/2024-03-life-evidence-rna-world.html Evolution Molecular & Computational biology Mon, 04 Mar 2024 15:00:01 EST news628757739 Plant genomics has come a long way since Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) helped sequence the first plant genome. But engineering the perfect crop is still, in many ways, a game of chance. Making the same DNA mutation in two different plants doesn't always give us the crop traits we want. The question is why not? CSHL plant biologists just dug up a reason. https://phys.org/news/2024-03-evolutionary-mystery-million-years.html Molecular & Computational biology Agriculture Mon, 04 Mar 2024 14:00:01 EST news628757086 Yale scientists have discovered a family of immune proteins, which they describe as a "massive molecular machine," that could affect the way our bodies fight infection. https://phys.org/news/2024-03-discovery-molecular-machine-immune-therapies.html Cell & Microbiology Molecular & Computational biology Mon, 04 Mar 2024 11:51:51 EST news628775506 The secrets of photosynthesis have been discovered at the atomic level, shedding important new light on this plant super-power that greened the Earth more than a billion years ago. https://phys.org/news/2024-03-advanced-microscopy-reveals-proteins-power.html Plants & Animals Molecular & Computational biology Mon, 04 Mar 2024 09:57:01 EST news628768616 For life on Earth, it is essential that plants carry out photosynthesis and ultimately produce oxygen and chemical energy with the help of sunlight. Researchers from Göttingen and Hannover have now succeeded for the first time in visualizing the copying machine of chloroplasts, the RNA polymerase PEP, in high-resolution 3D. https://phys.org/news/2024-03-succeed-generating-3d-visualizations-chloroplasts.html Plants & Animals Molecular & Computational biology Mon, 04 Mar 2024 09:28:03 EST news628766881 Put the word "evolution" into Google images and the results are largely variations on one theme: Ralph Zallinger's illustration, March of Progress. Running left to right, we see a chimp-like knuckle walker gradually becoming taller and standing erect. https://phys.org/news/2024-02-tails-ape-ancestors-evolutionary-advantage.html Evolution Molecular & Computational biology Sun, 03 Mar 2024 10:50:02 EST news628429534 Antibiotic resistance is a significant and growing medical problem worldwide. Researchers at the Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) and collaborators have found a novel genetic arrangement that may help a common bacterium in the human gut, Bacteroides fragilis, protect itself from tetracycline, a widely used antibiotic. https://phys.org/news/2024-03-team-vehicle-antibiotic-resistance.html Molecular & Computational biology Fri, 01 Mar 2024 15:50:04 EST news628530584 Proteins not only carry out the functions that are critical for the survival of cells, but also influence the development and progression of diseases. To understand their role in health and disease, researchers study the three-dimensional atomic structure of proteins using both experimental and computational methods. https://phys.org/news/2024-03-software-rapidly-simulates-glycoprotein-drug.html Molecular & Computational biology Fri, 01 Mar 2024 11:24:04 EST news628514641 Mitochondria are organelles that are known for providing the energy currency that fuels chemical reactions within cells, but they are also involved in other important processes vital for cell health including the innate immune response to pathogens like viruses, programmed cell death, and communication with the rest of the cell—processes that all play a role in health and disease. The signaling proteins that serve as the mitochondria's interface with the rest of the cell are key players in these processes. https://phys.org/news/2024-03-proteins-mitochondrial-surface.html Molecular & Computational biology Fri, 01 Mar 2024 09:30:12 EST news628507804 Assistant Professor Takahiro Kosugi from the Institute for Molecular Science, assistant Professor Yoshiaki Kamada at the National Institute for Basic Biology, and colleagues have developed an advanced molecular cell biology approach by integrating computational redesigning of protein complexes based on the predicted three-dimensional structure in yeast genetics. https://phys.org/news/2024-03-unveils-unique-roles-yeast-protein.html Cell & Microbiology Molecular & Computational biology Fri, 01 Mar 2024 07:36:04 EST news628500961 The vocalizations of humans, bats, whales, seals and songbirds vastly differ from each other. Humans and birds, for example, are separated by some 300 million years of evolution. But scientists studying how these animals learn to "speak" have time and again seen surprising similarities in the connections in brain regions that support this vocal learning. https://phys.org/news/2024-02-similar-genetic-elements-underlie-vocal.html Evolution Molecular & Computational biology Thu, 29 Feb 2024 16:08:12 EST news628445281 A technique originally devised to extract DNA from woolly mammoths and other ancient archaeological specimens can be used to potentially identify badly burned human remains, according to a new study from Binghamton University, State University of New York. https://phys.org/news/2024-02-scientists-bodies-technique-dna-woolly.html Molecular & Computational biology Thu, 29 Feb 2024 15:52:24 EST news628444342 Writing a commentary in the 50th anniversary issue of Cell, Fu Qiaomei and E. Andrew Bennett, both of the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology (IVPP) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, explored the contribution of paleogenomics to our understanding of the evolution of modern humans. https://phys.org/news/2024-02-human-ancient-genome-perspective.html Evolution Molecular & Computational biology Thu, 29 Feb 2024 11:00:01 EST news628421346 Researchers report February 29 in the journal Cell Reports that the Golgi ribbon, an organelle structure previously thought to be exclusive to vertebrates, is also present in animal taxa, including mollusks, earthworms, and sea urchins. https://phys.org/news/2024-02-golgi-organelle-ribbon-exclusive-vertebrates.html Cell & Microbiology Molecular & Computational biology Thu, 29 Feb 2024 11:00:01 EST news628421356 In a paper published February 28 in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), a research team describes the discovery of 18 never-before-seen species of bacteria of the Enterococcus type that contain hundreds of new genes—findings that may offer new clues into antibiotic resistance as scientists hunt for ways to curb these infections. https://phys.org/news/2024-02-scientists-species-gut-microbes-antibiotic.html Cell & Microbiology Molecular & Computational biology Thu, 29 Feb 2024 10:26:03 EST news628424761 Durable repression of a gene that has a role in controlling cholesterol levels, achieved without permanent genome editing, has been demonstrated in a mouse study published in Nature this week. https://phys.org/news/2024-02-silencing-gene-cholesterol.html Biotechnology Molecular & Computational biology Thu, 29 Feb 2024 09:57:39 EST news628423057