Efficient nutrient usage is a trait under universal selection. A substantial part of cellular resources is spent on making nucleotides. We thus expect preferential use of cheaper nucleotides ...

There are only about 20,000 different genes in the human genome, yet our bodies are filled with an incredible diversity of cell types performing innumerable functions. The key to that diversity in ...

The central dogma of molecular biology states that genes make RNAs, which then make proteins. Researchers in Germany have now discovered how the crucial first steps in RNA synthesis are executed -- ...

Believe it or not, all of the cells within a multicellular organism (excluding red blood cells and gametes) contain exactly the same DNA. In which case, why is a heart composed of cardiomyocytes? Or ...

In a large joint project, a total of six research groups from the University of Cologne Cluster of Excellence on Cellular Stress Responses in Age-Associated Diseases (CECAD), the Max Planck Institute ...

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What new Howard Hughes Medical Institute president Robert Tijan said about the activities of our genes in 1995: They are tightly regulated by elaborate complexes of proteins that assemble on DNA.

This story is part of a larger series on viroids and virusoids, small infectious RNAs. It is also the sixth installment in a series on hepatitis D virus, a virusoid-like pathogen that causes serious ...