DNA tagged posts

Discovered: How to Unlock Inaccessible Genes

This image shows the binding profile of chromatin remodelers on 12,000 distinct genes. The researchers used bioinformatics tools to visualize a great number of genes, here aligned by their promoters and arranged according to their nucleosome distribution. Remodelers attached to nucleosomes (dark blue verticals lines) are present on each side of the gene promoter. The researchers identified two distinct nucleosomal architectures (represented by drawings at top and bottom). Researchers demonstrated that remodeler activity depends on this nucleosome organization: some are more specifically required for expression of genes at nucleosome-dense promoters (upper part), whereas others act preferentially on promoters with a low nucleosomal density (bottom part). Credit: Matthieu Gérard, University of Paris-Sud

This image shows the binding profile of chromatin remodelers on 12,000 distinct genes. The researchers used bioinformatics tools to visualize a great number of genes, here aligned by their promoters and arranged according to their nucleosome distribution. Remodelers attached to nucleosomes (dark blue verticals lines) are present on each side of the gene promoter. The researchers identified two distinct nucleosomal architectures (represented by drawings at top and bottom). Researchers demonstrated that remodeler activity depends on this nucleosome organization: some are more specifically required for expression of genes at nucleosome-dense promoters (upper part), whereas others act preferentially on promoters with a low nucleosomal density (bottom part)...

Read More

Researchers find out Cause of Mutations Not in Genetic Material

Lung cancer cell, ADAR1 extra copies of the gene are shown in green. In red the two normal copies of a control gene. Credit: IDIBELL

Lung cancer cell, ADAR1 extra copies of the gene are shown in green. In red the two normal copies of a control gene. Credit: IDIBELL

In human diseases, eventually DNA alterations modify proteins and they don’t do their normal function, either by excess or defect. But recently we have started to find alterations of proteins without an obvious damage of the gene that produces them. Manel Esteller, director of Epigenetics and Cancer Biology Program of the Bellvitge Biomedical Research Institute (IDIBELL), ICREA researcher and Professor of Genetics at the University of Barcelona provides an explanation for this phenomenon: existence of alterations in an intermediate molecule (RNA) which transfers the information contained in the DNA to protein.

“We found that 5-10% of lung tumors, instead of h...

Read More

‘Jumping genes’ ie L1 elements, may add to the Genetic Chaos driving greater than 3/4 of Esophageal Cancer Cases

L1 elements can uproot themselves and move to new areas in the DNA, sometimes accidentally moving into genes that control the cell’s growth. This happened around 100X in each tumour sample, and in some tumours it happened 700X. Cambridge Uni scientists used cutting-edge technology that can read DNA to study the genes of 43 esophageal tumour and blood samples to discover how much these mobile genetic sequences travel.

If a jumping gene lands in or near an important gene that controls cell growth, it can wreak havoc, changing how the gene works so that it inadvertently tells the cell to grow and divide out of control – which could lead to cancer. “Research has shown that this might also happen in lung and bowel cancers...

Read More