Your DNA holds the blueprint to build your body, but it’s a living document: Adjustments to the design can be made by epigenetic marks. Cataloguing these marks and how they work is important for ...

Epigenetics is the study of how our cells alter their function by modifying gene expression in our genetic code or deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA). In our cells, DNA is constantly being used to generate ...

Enzymes that cut DNA at specific sites are called endonucleases; these enzymes play many roles in genomic replication, fidelity, and defense. The initial discovery of restriction endonucleases in the ...

DNA is often seen as the blueprint of life—carrying the code to govern the development and traits of an organism—but “there are things beyond the DNA sequence,” says Xiaoqi Feng, a plant geneticist at ...

With advances in genomics, scientists are discovering additional components of the DNA alphabet in animals. Do these unusual chemical modifications of DNA have a special meaning, or are they just ...

Researchers have revealed a previously unknown DNA modification in zebrafish - one of human's distant evolutionary cousins. Researchers at the Garvan Institute of Medical Research have uncovered a new ...

Bacteria and the viruses that infect them are engaged in a molecular arms race as ancient as life itself. Evolution has equipped bacteria with an arsenal of immune enzymes, including CRISPR-Cas ...

CRISPR—Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats—is the microbial world’s answer to adaptive immunity. Bacteria don’t generate antibodies when they are invaded by a pathogen and then ...

The origin of SARS-CoV-2 remains unresolved. In a non-peer-reviewed preprint published on bioRxiv on Oct. 20, 2022 three authors present analyses that, according to their interpretation, suggest a ...

In white biotechnology, microorganisms serve as industrial bioreactors for large-scale production of fine chemicals, enzymes, active pharmaceutical ingredients, agro chemicals, and food additives. In ...