American Chemical Society's weekly PressPac -- Jan. 9, 2008

... note that researchers have known for years that guanine crystals in the skin underneath the scales of ... waters surface. However, the exact shape of these guanine crystals and how they work remained a mystery. The researchers extracted guanine crystals from the skin of the Japanese Koi fish ...

New nucleotide could revolutionize epigenetics

... studied a little genetics in high school has heard of adenine, thymine, guanine and cytosine the A,T,G and C that make up the DNA code. But those are not ... player is DNA methylation, which targets sites where cytosine precedes guanine in the DNA code. An enzyme called DNA methyltransferase affixes a methyl ...

Spookfish uses mirrors for eyes

... mirrors where something exciting. The mirror uses tiny plates, probably of guanine crystals, arranged into a multi-layer stack. This is not unique in the ... why silvery fish are silvery) but the arrangement and orientation of the guanine crystals is precisely controlled such that they direct the light to a ...

A new way to assemble cells into 3-D microtissues

... a simple repeat of two bases such as cytosine and adenine ... on one strand, which binds to a complementary repeating sequence of thymine and guanine ... on the other, up to sequences whose base order varies over the full length of the 20-base strand of synthetic DNA. The more complex the ...

Gene variation may elevate risk of liver tumor in patients with cirrhosis

... inherited gene on EGF levels in cirrhotic patients. The researchers focused on a known variation in the EGF gene the presence of the nucleotide guanine (G) instead of the more common adenine (A) in a particular location which has been shown to increase EGF secretion in blood cells and raise the risk ...

Novel mechanism for DNA replication discovered

... pairings for replication. In other words, if a guanine base is on the original strand of DNA then its ... of these carcinogens preferentially damage DNA at guanine - one of the four bases in DNA - blocking, in some cases, the ability of the guanine to partner with cytosine, which can lead to ...

Uncovering DNA's 'sweet' secret

... that homo-DNA has more flexibility in how the bases (rungs of the ladder) bind. The bases in normal DNA adhere to a somewhat strict binding scheme - guanine (G) binds with cytosine (C) and adenine (A) binds with thymine (T). In this "Watson-Crick" basepairing, the G:C bonds are much stronger than A:T or ...

'Pinball protons' created by ultraviolet rays and other causes can lead to DNA damage

... "bases," Adenine, Guanine, Thymine and Cytosine, and each one pairs with its opposite to form bonds where the "information" of life is stored. Thus, guanine pairs with Cytosine, and Thymine with Adenine. The team at the University of Georgia studied how the removal of a proton from the ...

Study finds 60 new genes controlled by DNA snippet

... under examination was the CArG box. The nucleotide building blocks of DNA chains may contain any one of four nucleobases: adenine (A), thymine (T), guanine (G) and cytosine (C). Any sequence of code starting with 2 Cs, followed by any combination of 6 As or Ts, and ending in 2 Gs is a CArG box. ...

Dog genome sequenced

... commonly held view, but instead that they preferentially fracture within ancient 'hot spots.' These fragile 'hot spots' contain an unusual number of guanine and cytosine DNA bases and appear to suffer higher rates of mutation." SINEs of genetic diversity Another study appearing in the dog genome ...

Scientists fetch useful information from dog genome publications

... commonly held view, but instead that they preferentially fracture within ancient 'hot spots.' These fragile 'hot spots' contain an unusual number of guanine and cytosine DNA bases and appear to suffer higher rates of mutation." SINEs of genetic diversity Another study appearing in the dog genome ...

DNA size a crucial factor in genetic mutations, study finds

... It's like a long, twisted ladder where each rung consists of two molecules that form a base pair. DNA has four bases: adenosine (A), thymine (T), guanine (G) and cytosine (C). A always pairs with T, and G with C. To copy itself, the DNA molecule unwinds and splits. Either strand is now a template to ...