Nuclear membrane repairs the 'dark matter' of DNA

Scientists have found a new function of the nuclear membrane, the envelope that encases and protects DNA in the nucleus of a cell - it fixes potentially fatal breaks in DNA strands.

Detailing heterochromatin formation at the onset of life

Antoine Peters and his group at the Friedrich Miescher Institute for Biomedical Research (FMI) have elucidated the mechanisms controlling the packaging of chromatin in the early embryo. They have identified two molecular ...

Illuminating the dark side of the genome

Almost 50 percent of our genome is made up of highly repetitive DNA, which makes it very difficult to be analysed. In fact, repeats are discarded in most genome-wide studies and thus, insights into this part of the genome ...

Aging erodes genetic control, but that's flexible

Biologists at Brown University have found a way to measure the effects of aging by watching the ebb and flow of chromatin, a structure along strands of DNA that either silences or permits gene expression. In several newly ...

Do we owe our sense of smell to epigenetics?

(Phys.org) —Olfactory sensory neurons – nerve cells in the nose – directly sense molecules that convey scent, then send the signals to the brain. Biologists have long wondered how it's possible for each nerve cell to ...

Programming cells: The importance of the envelope

In a project that began with the retinal cells of nocturnal animals and has led to fundamental insights into the organization of genomic DNA, researchers from Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitaet (LMU) in Munich show how the nuclear ...

The role of H3K9 in bringing order to the nucleus

(Phys.org)—Scientists from the Friedrich Miescher Institute for Biomedical Research have elucidated the histone modifications that lead to the sequestration of silent genes at the nuclear periphery. In a study published ...

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