Science Daily August 25, 2023 A team of researchers in the US (University of West Virginia, South Dakota University, Arizona State University) have found limitations for its use by scientists who work with biological data utilizing computational methods to prioritize targeted treatment for cancer and genetic disorders. According to them bioinformatics tasks often require execution of third-party packages, access to annotation knowledgebase, and handling large datasets. Code Interpreter’s exclusive support for Python, no installation option for additional packages, inability to utilize external resources, and limited storage capacity could pose obstacles to its wide adoption in bioinformatics applications. To address these […]
Category Archives: Biology
How plants leave behind their parents’ genomic baggage
Phys.org May 20, 2021 An international team of researchers (USA – Cold Springs Harbor, Canada, France) discovered that after baby plants remove the epigenetic modifications, the SUVH9 protein puts back the ones they need to survive. Without SUVH9, plants develop poorly because the wrong genes turn on at the wrong time. The SUVH9 protein uses small snippets of RNA to look for the right places to reinstall the beneficial modifications, which are on mobile genetic elements known as transposons. The SUVH9 protein adds the epigenetic modifications to them, and this ensures nearby genes are turned off at the right time. […]
Audio long-read: Push, pull and squeeze – the hidden forces that shape life (podcast)
Nature Podcast January 28, 2021 Researchers are probing the subtle physical forces that sculpt cells and bodies. At every stage of life, from embryo to adulthood, physical forces tug and squeeze at bodies from within. These forces are vital, ensuring that cells are correctly positioned in a developing embryo. But they also play a role in diseases like cancer. Yet despite their importance, relatively little is known about how cells sense, respond to and generate these forces. To find out, researchers have turned to bespoke tools and methods, using them to probe lab-cultured cells and whole animals to get to […]
Scientists unwind mystery behind DNA replication
Science Daily October 17, 2019 Researchers at Cornell University have unraveled the mystery of how DNA’s double helix manage to replicate without being tangled up from a topological perspective. Using eukaryotes as their model system, they found that the intrinsic mechanical properties of the chromatin (a complex of DNA and proteins) determine how the chromatin fibers will entwine. This topology is crucial to the successful separation of newly replicated DNA: If the fibers twist too tightly too early, then the molecules are unable to properly segregate during cell division. They found that twisting a single chromatin fiber is much easier […]
Photosynthetic protein structure that harvests and traps infrared light
Phys.org April 4, 2018 Plants and algae use chlorophyll to absorb energy from the Sun to power photosynthesis at wavelengths up to 720 nm. Researchers in the UK studied photosynthetic LH1-RC complex from the bacterium Blastochloris viridis, which can harvest and use light at wavelengths over 1,000 nm. They showed how it converts near-infrared light into an electrical charge to power cell metabolism, which enables the bacterium to live at the extreme red limit of photosynthesis on Earth. The study gives an insight into the efficiency and limits of photosynthesis… read more. TECHNICAL ARTICLE
How fungi grow: A movie from inside the cell
Science Daily March 15, 2018 Fungi are used to produce food or medicine and in bioengineering. Using high-performance light microscopy, an international team of researchers (Germany, Greece, Belgium, USA – University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Japan) watched mold fungi as they grew in the cell. Mold fungi are hyphal fungi consisting of filamentous cells, hyphae, which may form large networks, mycelia. The hyphae of about 3 µm in thickness exclusively grow by directed extension of their tips. An important objective of biological fundamental research is to understand this growth on the molecular level, as hyphal growth plays an important role […]