gene activity

How a cell achieves the coordinated control of a number of genes at the same time has long puzzled scientists.

Researchers have discovered a surprising answer. Just as human engineers control devices ranging from dimmer switches to retrorockets using frequency modulated signals, cells tune the expression of groups of genes using discrete bursts of activation.

Researchers have identified a set of genes in breast and colon cancers with a deadly combination of traditional mutations and "smothered" gene activity that may result in poor outcomes for patients.

A Finnish study of identical twins has found that physical inactivity and acquired obesity can impair expression of the genes which help the cells produce energy.

The findings suggest that lifestyle, more than heredity, contributes to insulin resistance in people who are obese.

Insulin resistance increases the chance of developing diabetes and heart disease.

Scientists have detected subtle changes that may make the bowel more vulnerable to tumor development. One of the mechanisms controlling gene activity is the "epigenetic code," a set of chemical tags attached to the DNA molecule.

Changes in the epigenetic code may begin to occur in apparently normal tissues, and the scientists are investigating whether diet could control these changes and delay or reverse the onset of cancer.

Aging leads to large changes in gene activity in the ovaries of mice, but only limited changes in testes, according to new research.

A lifespan-extending calorie-restricted diet reversed some of the aging effects -- but, unlike the widespread changes observed in somatic organs, it had an impact only in a small number of gonad-specific genes.

Compared to humans, bacteria have a much tidier genome. The tiny microorganisms pack their genes closely together, and don't carry around a lot of extraneous DNA, so-called junk DNA that fills in the gaps between genes.

Some 90 percent of the complete genome sequence of the bacteria E. coli contains sequences of DNA that code for protein, while 90 percent of the human genome is non-coding junk DNA.

By monitoring gene activity levels and changes in chromatin -- the protein spools that the genes wrap around -- researchers were able to detect epigenetic factors that make fruit fly cells resistant to radiation.

The discovery suggests that tumor cells may have similar protection from radiotherapy or chemotherapy, an insight that may lead to more effective cancer treatments.

A new study suggests that acute myeloid leukemia (AML) may occur in part because abnormally low levels of a particular microRNA result in the over-activity of two genes important to the disease.

The research involved 85 patients with AML and gene mutations called NPM1, seen in about one-third of adult AML cases, and FLT3.

The findings suggest new therapeutic targets for treating the disease and should improve the understanding of AML.

Just as cells inherit genes, they also inherit a set of instructions that tell genes when to become active, in which tissues and to what extent.

Now, researchers have built a device that, by allowing scientists to turn genes on and off in actively multiplying budding yeast cells, will help them figure out more precisely than before how genes and proteins interact with one another and how these interactions drive cellular functions.