Duplication in Biological News

Ancestral genome of present-day African great apes & humans had burst of DNA sequence duplication

... us to learn," Eichler added, "was that sequence duplication acceleration occurred in an era when other types ... increase in genome activity in both the number of duplication events and the number of base pairs of DNA that ... To understand the pattern and rate of genomic duplication during evolution, the researchers constructed a ...

Which came first, the chicken genome or the egg genome?

... In the past, the highly complex patterns of DNA duplication including duplications within duplications have ... these long DNA duplications. To crack the duplication code and determine which of the DNA segments are ... of the human genome experienced elevated rates of duplication activity at different times in our recent genomic ...

Aberrations in region of chromosome 1q21.1 associated with broad range of disorders in children

... population, no microdeletions were found. Two controls had one small duplication at the far end of the region under study, and only one had duplication of the entire region. The authors explained that the genomic structure ...

Duck-billed platypus genome sequence published

... from ancestral reptile genomes. The reptilian lineage displays a similar duplication of venom genes, but that duplication appears to have occurred independently during the evolution of reptiles, ...

Plant geneticists find veritas in vino

... especially those of crop plants, have been produced by at least one duplication of a smaller ancestral genome. Whether this was true for grapes had been ... this study clearly shows that ten of the 19 chromosomes resulted from a duplication that occurred shortly after the lineage of grapes diverged from that of ...

Mutant sperm guide clinicians to new diseases

... in November 2006, the team, led by Dr Matt Hurles, showed that losses or duplication of 'chunks' of the human genome occurred frequently in apparently healthy ... mechanisms thought to produce CNVs would be expected to produce about one duplication for every deletion: however, clinical records for genomic disorders show ...

DNA replication behavior in complex organisms may foreshadow leaps in genomic discoveries

... understanding of human biology, such as in stem cell research. Faithful duplication of the genome (the hereditary information that is encoded in genetic ... a complete set of genetic materials identical to parent cells. This duplication occurs in the section of the cell cycle known as the S-phase. Extensive ...

Genetic finding could lead to targeted therapy for neuroblastoma

... called a "copy number variation" in a single chromosome is associated with neuroblastoma. Copy number variation has to do with the gain, loss or duplication of snippets of DNA. "This is part of series of papers that creates the bigger picture, an understanding of the genetic mechanisms that lead to ...

Prostate Cancer Translational Research in Europe meeting: Search for biomarkers continues

... not only vital to sustain the progress achieved in recent years but also to streamline current efforts between researchers and clinicians and avoid duplication or overlaps. This was amongst the goals of the two-day Prostate Cancer Translational Research in Europe (PCTRE) Meeting which opened today in ...

DNA template could explain evolutionary shifts

... generated genomic rearrangements ranging in size from several megabases to a few hundred base pair during normal cell division, resulting in the duplication or even triplications of individual genes or the rearrangements of single exons (the coding region of genes). "This phenomenon occurs throughout ...

Countries unite to reduce animal use in product toxicity testing worldwide

... of Environmental Health Sciences, part of the National Institutes of Health. "This agreement will help us achieve greater efficiency by avoiding duplication of effort and allowing us to leverage limited resources." Birnbaum signed as the U.S. representative on behalf of the NTP Interagency Center for ...

'Experiment of nature' examines how mother's diet may impact on child's health

... determines our make-up from our parents: 50% of our DNA from our mothers and 50% from our fathers. Apart from the occasional mutation, deletion or duplication of information, this DNA remains unchanged between generations. The environment, for example our diet, whether we smoke, and the toxins that we ...

Scientists deconstruct cell division

... Baltimore, MDThe last step of the cell cycle is the brief but spectacularly dynamic and complicated mitosis phase, which leads to the duplication of one mother cell into two daughter cells. In mitosis, the chromosomes condense and the nucleus breaks down. Fibrous structures called spindles ...

Weizmann Institute scientists show extra copies of a gene carry extra risk

... and recent research has hinted that some of these may involve variations in gene number. Our study is the first to demonstrate the effects of the duplication of a single gene in a mouse model and tie it to a new 'copy number variation' human disease.' ...

Scientists uncover evolutionary keys to common birth disorders

... Boston-- The work of Forsyth scientist Peter Jezewski, DDS, Ph.D., has revealed that duplication and diversification of protein regions ('modules') within ancient master control genes is key to the understanding of certain birth disorders. ...

Systems biology brings hope of speeding up drug development

... University of Amsterdam, who was co-convenor of the ESF conference as well as head of the SBMS initiative. A big problem in medical research lies in duplication of effort and in particular creation of large sets of data that are difficult to share between projects, according to van Driel, who said that ...

CSHL scientists identify new drug target against virulent type of breast cancer

... to a gene mutation that results in the accumulation of multiple copies of the erbB2 gene. Other genes that undergo such "amplification" due the duplication of DNA segments include brk, which is the gene that instructs cells to manufacture the enzyme Brk. This enzyme is absent in healthy cells but is ...

Monash researchers uncover cancer survival secrets

... has installed key cell surveillance checkpoints where molecular 'wardens' slow down DNA replication to try and correct mistakes to get the cell duplication back on track. Normally, PTKs are turned off in the face of compromised DNA replication, but when PTK pathways remain on, unscheduled cell ...

Purple extremist thrives under inhospitable conditions

... For this purpose the team has selected a so-called DNA ligase. Enzymes of this type play a central role in important metabolic processes such as the duplication of genetic material in dividing cells and the repair of genetic damage. All DNA ligases investigated so far, including the DNA ligases of the ...

Worm-like marine animal providing

... 25 percent more genes than the amphioxus genome, according to Holland. During evolution, humans have duplicated genes for different functions. Such duplication has given humans and other vertebrates a much larger "toolkit" for making various structures that are absent in amphioxus, including cells for ...

EuroDYNA takes lid off the genome

... and chemical structure of the chromatin. Furthermore the overall state of the genome evolves during the life cycle of the cell, leading to its duplication if and when the cell eventually divides. All these inter-related processes need to be understood in order to unravel the complex network of ...

Brown to host conference on advances in neurotechnology

... by disease. We need to study the whole brain. I believe by connecting and coordinating neuroscience research across federal agencies, eliminating duplication and creating greater efficiencies, we will improve the quality of our research and accelerate discoveries, thus saving lives." The keynote address ...

Analysis of RNA role in spreading disease advances study of damaging plant infections

... COLUMBUS, Ohio Recent research that links specific pieces of RNA to an infectious organisms duplication and spread could lead the way to the prevention of viroids, pathogens that can kill or damage food crops and other plants. The findings and the ...

American Chemical Society's Weekly PressPac -- April 16, 2008

... the surface of the rose petal. Using these new insights, Feng was able to create a synthetic rose petal surface with same properties. The simple duplication of petal surface provides us not only a theoretical explanation of the phenomenon but also an inspiration for the preparation of biomimetic polymer ...

Is DNA repair a substitute for sex?

... underwent a whole-genome duplication, giving it four copies of each chromosome and hence of each gene. Normally, lineages that undergo whole-genome duplication lose the duplicate genes over time. The bdelloid, though, has kept most of its duplicate genes throughout its evolutionary history. We believe ...

Computer-based tool aids research, helps thwart questionable publication practices

... of biochemistry and internal medicine at UT Southwestern who developed the computer code along with his colleagues. Not only does the code identify duplication of key words, but it also compares word proximity and order, among other variables. The tool is especially useful for investigators who wish to ...

Recurrent genetic deletion linked to autism

... a microscope," said Christian. The most common known genetic cause of autism, linked to about one to three percent of cases, is a much larger duplication of part of chromosome 15, involving about a dozen genes. The chromosome 15 abnormality is associated with autism as well as intellectual disability ...

Copy number variation may stem from replication misstep

... from person to person. In some places, genetic material that was duplicated was similar to that nearby but it was thrust into the middle of another duplication of material. The question was how they got there, Lee said. The fork stalling, template switching mechanism explained the oddities, said Lupski. ...

Microbial biofilms evoke Jekyll & Hyde effects

... in various disciplines such as biotechnology, bioengineering or infectious disease research, leading to rapid progress, but also fragmentation and duplication of effort. The European Science Foundation (ESF) has stepped in to unite Europes effort and bring together scientists with the required skills in ...

Princeton engineers develop low-cost recipe for patterning microchips

... nanoimprinting method invented by Chou in the 1990s can use the gratings generated by fracture-induced structuring to create a mold that enables mass duplication of patterns with high precision at low cost. As with many scientific discoveries, the fracture-induced structuring process was happened upon ...

Massive duplication of genes may solve Darwin's 'abominable mystery' about flowering plants

... "paleopolyploidy" event, an ancient whole-genome duplication that preceded the appearance of the ancestral ... of duplicated genes that suggests a whole-genome duplication event in the earliest flowering plants," he says. ... breeders might be artificially selecting for duplication events in crop species by "selecting desirable ...

Parallel evolution: Proteins do it, too

... previous research in which Zhang showed that the duplication of a gene encoding a pancreatic enzyme helped ... Zhang's initial analysis showed that the duplication occurred about four million years ago, some nine ... into separate lineages. To confirm that the duplication occurred after the split, he analyzed DNA samples ...

Big differences in duplicated DNA distinguish chimp and human genomes

... even more difference between the species due to duplication events," said Eichler. "Now we need to learn the role of those duplication events in species evolution and disease." The ... of years. Most of the remaining one-third of duplication differences are due to deletion of segments in ...

How fish conquered the ocean

... genes in relation to the "Three round hypothesis" of whole genome duplication among vertebrates, and the functional end points of the vitellogenin ... that teleost vitellogenins have undergone a post-R3 lineage-specific gene duplication to form paralogous clusters that correlate to the pelagic and benthic ...

New clues to how sex evolves

... in DNA transcription, all very rapidly evolving," says Dernburg. "Gene duplication is common throughout the genome in all species, but unless a duplicated ... and zim genes suggest they all arose from a common ancestor through gene duplication and subsequent selection. This inspired Dernburg and Phillips to look at ...

Fitting in: Newly evolved genes adopt a variety of strategies to remain in the gene pool

... provides an ideal model for investigating the functional basis for gene duplication because a large proportion of genes involved in this biological process ... 1,500 of which are considered to be duplicates. An ancient whole-genome duplication event is thought to be responsible for the formation of many of these ...

Analysis of flower genes reveals the fate of an ancient gene duplication

... have provided insight into the present-day outcome of a single gene duplication that occurred over a hundred million years ago in an ancestor of modern ... function of the original gene can remain intact. In this way, the duplication of pre-existing genetic information provides the raw material from which ...

Exploring the dark matter of the genome

... and telomeres. In a typically bow-tie-shaped chromosome, the centromere is the knot. Centromeres play a crucial role in controlling chromosome duplication during cell division. Telomeres are a chromosome's end-caps; they help prevent the accumulation of genomic damage. Both heterochromatin and ...

First confirmed common genetic risk factors for breast cancer

... that previously had not been implicated as triggers of breast cancer. The genes carry the DNA recipes for proteins important to the growth and duplication of body cells and the signalling, or communications, that must occur between cells in order for the body to function normally. Previous ...