It's a common storytelling trope: the stubborn foe who is eventually revealed to be a much-needed friend. Biology has its own ...

The human genome contains approximately 1,600 types of transcription factors responsible for regulating gene activity across ...

Structures long blamed for blocking genes actually help them turn on, according to the Cornell Chronicle. Cornell scientists found that nucleosomes — the spools that package DNA — relieve twisting ...

RNA Polymerase (shown in blue) moves across a template strand of DNA (shown in purple) and transcribes it into RNA (shown in red). But DNA damage blocks the RNA polymerase, causing it to stall and ...

Northwestern Medicine scientists have discovered how molecular "traffic controllers" in cells influence aging and cellular ...

A cell protein previously believed only to provide a scaffolding for DNA has also been shown to directly influence DNA transcription into RNA – the first step of the process by which an organism's ...

Researchers have discovered that in thale cresses histone H3 lysine-9 (H3K9) methylation, conventionally thought to be a mark of turning off gene transcription, can also turn on gene expression via ...

Every living cell must interpret its genetic code - a sequence of chemical letters that governs countless cellular functions. A new study by researchers from the Center for Theoretical Biological ...

A team of physicists working at the intersection of theory and experiment are shedding new light on the 'teamwork' of molecular motors -- called RNA polymerases (RNAPs) -- that mediate DNA ...