Homologous News and Research

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Unraveling the Mysteries of Brown Algae's Sex Chromosomes

Researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Biology Tübingen made a groundbreaking discovery, revealing that an HMG-box gene in brown algae plays a crucial role in determining male sex.

25 Mar 2024

SYCE2 Gene Variant Disrupts Alignment of Chromosomes, Potentially Leading to Pregnancy Loss

Scientists at deCODE genetics, a subsidiary of Amgen and their collaborators from Iceland, Denmark and USA published a study today in Nature Structural and Molecular Biology titled "Variant in the synaptonemal complex protein SYCE2 associates with pregnancy loss through effects on recombination".

30 Jan 2024

DNA Repair Breakthrough: Scientists Reveal RecA's Precise Helix Navigation

Researchers from Tokyo Metropolitan University have been studying DNA repair by homologous recombination, where the RecA protein repairs breaks in double-stranded DNA by incorporating a dangling single-strand end into intact double strands, and repairing the break based on the undamaged sequence.

22 Jan 2024

Zipping Up Chromosomes: The Synaptonemal Complex Revealed

We have two copies of each chromosome in every cell in our bodies except in our reproductive cells. Sperm and egg cells contain a single copy of each chromosome with a unique mix of genes from our parents, an evolutionary trick to give our offspring genetic variability.

4 Jan 2024

NICER Gene Editing Technique Reduces Unintended Mutations

The gene editing technique CRISPR/Cas9 has allowed researchers to make precise and impactful changes to an organism's DNA to fix mutations that cause genetic disease.

15 Sep 2023

'Orphan' Gene may Have Evolved to Give Seahorses Their Unique Brood Pouch

Teleost fish encompass a diverse group, among which seahorses display a unique morphology. The characteristic spines and brood pouch seen in seahorses feature distinctive epithelial cells-;called flame cone cells-;covered by a mucous cap.

25 Jul 2023

The Evolutionary Enigma: Unraveling the Origins of Seahorses' Flame Cone Cells

A brood pouch in male fish and bony plates gives seahorses their distinctive shape.

24 Jul 2023

Chemical Modification Improves Non-Viral Gene Editing as Well as a New Type of DNA Repair

Gene editing is a powerful method for both research and therapy. Since the advent of the Nobel Prize-winning CRISPR/Cas9 technology, a quick and accurate tool for genome editing discovered in 2012, scientists have been working to explore its capabilities and boost its performance.

12 May 2023

New Genome Editing Technology Achieves Precise Targeted Insertion of DNA Segments

A new genome editing technology was developed by GAO Caixia’s group from the Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS). This technology achieves successful and accurate targeted insertion of large DNA segments in plants.

26 Apr 2023

"Visual Biochemistry" Approach to Understand How the BRCA2 Protein Binds and Interacts with DNA

Using a self-built inverted microscope complete with laser optical tweezers to capture DNA, Yale Cancer Center and University of California Davis researchers for the first time created a visualization of the full-length human BRCA2 protein at the single molecule level.

3 Apr 2023

Novel mechanism by which bacteria colonize the gut identified

A new mechanism by which “good” bacteria colonize the gut was unraveled by scientists at Yale University. The finding could aid spur the development of new probiotic therapies.

20 Mar 2023

TurboID-based proximity labeling in meiotic cells of Arabidopsis thaliana

During meiosis, reshuffling of genetic information between homologous chromosomes through meiotic recombination creates variable gametes and hence genetic variation in offsprings.

14 Mar 2023

Discovery could establish an effective control environment for chromosome instability

A research team, affiliated with UNIST has unveiled a key factor involved in the DNA damage response (DDR), homologous recombination (HR) and DNA interstrand crosslink (ICL) repair.

8 Mar 2023

New insights into the distribution and regulation of meiotic DSB hotspots

A new method, DNA End tailing and sequencing (DEtail-seq), for meiotic DNA double-strand break (DSB) profiling was developed recently.

3 Mar 2023

Study suggests new strategies for controlling plant biochemistry

Plant biochemists at the U.S. Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory have discovered a new level of regulation in the biochemical "machinery" that plants use to convert organic carbon derived from photosynthesis into a range of ring-shaped aromatic molecules.

12 Jan 2023

Revealing the unappreciated role of POLQ in responding to DNA replication stress

Researchers at the Francis Crick Institute, in partnership with Artios, have discovered how an enzyme involved in DNA repair (POLQ) becomes critical to the survival of some tumors when the cancer cells lose the ability to employ a more frequent way of DNA repair.

1 Dec 2022

New explanation for how chromosome recombination is regulated during sexual reproduction

Scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research and the Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization (MPI-DS) suggest an explanation for the century-old mystery of how chromosome recombination is regulated during sexual reproduction.

From The Max Planck Institute 25 Oct 2022