Ribosomal in Biological News

Researchers solve piece of large-scale gene silencing mystery

... the silencing of an entire parental set of ribosomal RNA genes in a hybrid plant or animal. Since ... inherited from the other parent. Expression of ribosomal RNA genes drives the formation of these nucleoli. ... species, always "chooses" to express the ribosomal RNA genes of one particular parental species, ...

Researchers observe spontaneous 'ratcheting' of single ribosome molecules

... the dynamic, ratchet-like movements of single ribosomal molecules in the act of building proteins from ... N.Y., using cryo-electron microscopy, showed the ribosomal subunits in two distinct positions relative to ... to observe in real time the movement of the ribosomal subunits that is essential for protein synthesis. ...

Symposium marks 30th anniversary of discovery of third domain of life

... discovery which was based on an analysis of ribosomal RNA, an ancient molecule essential to the ... contains sets of genetic sequences in their ribosomal RNA that are distinctive. These genetic ... discovery came when the researchers looked at the ribosomal RNA (rRNA) of a group of methane-generating ...

Einstein researchers devise a fast and sensitive way to detect ricin

... proteins─a basic cellular function. Ricin does this by disrupting ribosomal RNA (the key component of ribosomes, the cell's protein manufacturing "machines"). The ricin attack causes ribosomal RNA to release a molecule of adenine. Dr. Schramm's assay detects and ...

Rhythmic genomics -- the yeast metronome and the walk of life

... clock. In a paper published in Genome Research scientists show how ribosomal RNA genes that are essential to all Earth's organisms provide insight into how genomes maintain their integrity on their evolutionary journey. ribosomal RNA sequence changes have been ticking away like clockwork for over 3 ...

Cellular discovery may lead to targeted treatment for rare form of anemia

... even stopred blood cell death. DBA has recently been attributed to a ribosomal protein defect that the UC team hypothesizes leads to abnormal activation ... research has attributed p53 activation to the passive diffusion of ribosomal protein L11 from the nucleolus, the part of the nucleus where ribosomes ...

Lost in translation

... the next," Green says. "But instead, we noticed that one mistake on the ribosomal assembly line begets another, and it's this compounding of errors that ... numbers," she says, noting that there's a clear biological cost for this ribosomal editing and jettisoning of errors, but a necessary expense. "The cell ...

Study finds DNA barcoding requires caution without closer examination

... proposed for plants, none of them serves as a universal barcode marker. Regions that have been proposed for plants include a section of the nuclear ribosomal DNA: the internal non-transcribed spacer region (ITS); and various plastid regions to include the trnH-psbA intergenic spacer and the plastid genes ...

American Chemical Society Weekly PressPac -- April 8, 2009

... to date for detecting ricin appear in ACS' Analytical Chemistry , a semi-monthly journal. The scientists note in the new studies that ricin, a ribosomal inactivating protein found in castor beans, is one of the agents most likely to be used in acts of aerosol or food-related bioterrorism. Ricin can ...

Penn biologists discover how 'silent' mutations influence protein production

... levels? Eventually, we looked at mRNA structure and discovered that this was the underlying mechanism." The stability of mRNA folding near the ribosomal binding site explained more than half the variation in protein levels. To understand this observation, the researchers simulated the spatial ...

Scientists fool bacteria into killing themselves to survive

... However, the opposite was true when both strains were exposed to tobramycin, a conventional metabolic antibiotic that targets the bacterial ribosomal machinery rather than the membrane. The researchers first reported on compounds that functioned as molecular "hole punchers" last year in the ...

DNA fingerprinting simplified

... successfully by middle school-level through graduate-level students and teachers. In this exercise, the internally transcribed spacer region of the ribosomal subunit for a fungus, plant, and insect are amplified and separated electrophoretically on agarose gels. A simple crime is solved using polymerase ...

UIC scientists discover how some bacteria survive antibiotics

... proteins the bacterium needs from moving through the tunnel. Some bacteria have learned how to sense the presence of the antibiotic in the ribosomal tunnel, and in response, switch on genes that make them resistant to the drug, Mankin said. The phenomenon of inducible antibiotic expression was ...

Researchers uncover details about how dietary restriction slows down aging

... life-span-related mutation to one of those parts. What we noticed right away was that the long-lived strains always had mutations in the large ribosomal subunit and never in the small subunit, said the study's lead author, Kristan Steffen, a graduate student in the UW Department of Biochemistry. ...

Regulation of TATA-less promoters

... the other core Histone genes (H2A, H2B, H3 and H4) are dependent upon TBP. Furthermore, depletion of TRF2 in Drosophila cells resulted in reduced ribosomal gene transcription, abnormal cell changes and chromosomal defects. ...

UCLA/VA partners with ASU to advance biosensor technology for urinary tract infections

... days. The technology relies on the ability to detect the genetic signature of a bacterial pathogen. The researchers will use 16S rRNA, a ribosomal molecule found in all bacteria, to identify the bacteria species. The research team will focus on enhancing the performance and validation of the ...

UIC researchers find promising new targets for antibiotics

... of evolution." "The ribosome is the perfect target," he said. "More than half of all known antibiotics arrest cell growth by interfering with the ribosomal functions and inhibiting protein synthesis. This is an innovative concept, targeting new sites in the ribosome." ...

Regulating the nuclear architecture of the cell

... at the specific site in the heterochromatin where ribosomal DNA -- consisting of large genes, repeated 300 to ... H3K9. The results were dramatic. Because the ribosomal DNA genes could not be silenced, rDNA ... of a single well-formed nucleolus where genes for ribosomal DNA were normally located in the heterochromatin, ...

Researchers find protein that silences genes

... nucleolar dominance, in which one parental set of ribosomal genes in a hybrid is silenced, Craig Pikaard, ... both histone deacetylation and DNA methylation of ribosomal RNA genes. Both types of modification are ... in nucleolar dominance was a result of one set of ribosomal RNA genes being selectively turned on. But in ...

Researchers make gains in understanding antibiotic resistance

... high-resolution structural analyses of the large ribosomal subunits bound to a number of the MLSBK ... diffraction of the x-rays. Steitz's group used ribosomal subunits from the primitive archaebacterium ... M and virginiamycin S ?bound to the large mutated ribosomal subunit. Steitz said these studies provided new ...

Scientists discover unique microbe in California's largest lake

... By analyzing sequence data for the small subunit ribosomal RNA gene, which encodes part of the ... than two billion years ago. The small subunit ribosomal RNA gene is widely used by scientists to infer ... appears that DNA encoding a small portion of the ribosomal gene in a proteobacterium jumped across the vast ...

Basic work on E. coli identifies two new keys to regulation of bacterial gene expression

... it is particularly weak at promoters that make ribosomal RNA, which means that other factors like ... evolution to regulate gene expression." ribosomal RNA makes up the bulk of ribosomes, the molecular ... energy is used to make ribosomes, control of ribosomal RNA transcription is particularly crucial to a ...

New method for identifying microbes

... the scientists can use the tag as a primer to sequence the entire attached ribosomal gene. This gene is about 1400 genetic-code-letters long, so this is a more time-consuming and expensive task. But since ribosomal genes have been sequenced and cataloged from more than 100,000 bacterial ...

Yale scientists identify structure for RNA quality control

... abnormal or misfolded RNAs that are not translated into protein -- such as ribosomal RNAs (rRNAs), transfer RNAs (tRNAs), and small nuclear and cytoplasmic ... abnormal or misfolded RNAs that are not translated into protein -- such as ribosomal RNAs (rRNAs), transfer RNAs (tRNAs), and small nuclear and cytoplasmic ...

New lifespan extension genes found

... of toxic circular DNA molecules that accidentally get copied out of ribosomal DNA, an unstable area of the yeast genome that contains hundreds of ... showed that caloric restriction drastically reduces recombination of ribosomal DNA, and that deleting Hst2 and Sir2 blocks this effect. Very similar ...

New lab technique identifies high levels of pathogens in therapy pool

... assessed the microbe population in a warm hospital therapy pool through a ribosomal RNA analysis that involved cloning and sequencing genes. The team ... The new approach allowed researchers to survey more than 1,300 ribosomal RNA genes from different bacteria and fungi in the pool air and water and ...

New RNA polymerase discovered in plants

... form of either Polymerase I (Pol I), which makes the largest of the ribosomal RNAs, Pol II which makes RNAs for protein-coding genes, or Pol III, a specialist in making the shortest of the ribosomal RNAs and tRNAs. The big 'subunit' He and his colleagues looked ...

Novel antigen-cloning technique may boost efforts to develop a melanoma vaccine

... to clone an antigen recognized by a helper T cell. Already, Herlyn's group has used the new cloning technique to identify a new tumor antigen called ribosomal protein L8, or RPL8. Findings on the new cloning method and the newly identified tumor antigen will be published as a Priority Report in the April 15 ...

Biologists probe the machinery of cellular protein factories

... but it is now the accepted paradigm," said Noller, who directs the Center for Molecular Biology of RNA at UCSC. "Our latest results confirm that the ribosomal RNA is really the key to ribosome function. The proteins are also involved, but more peripherally," he said. To make a new protein, the genetic ...

Researchers barcode DNA of Venice museum's vast fungi collection

... elsewhere in the world. Rather than sequencing the entire genome of each species, the researchers are focusing on a non-coding region of the ribosomal DNA that is known to be unique in each species. The length of the region varies from around 450 base pairs to 900 base pairs, depending upon the taxa ...

Earth Rx: A microbial biotechnology prescription for global environmental health

... 1980s, with the advent of polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplification of microbial DNA and a new view of the evolution of organisms based on their ribosomal RNA. These technologies have advanced into high-throughput genomic and proteomic protocols that can detect specific genes and their metabolic ...

A real time look at interactions between RNA and proteins

... proteins from DNA's blueprint and specifies which proteins should be made. There are many types of RNA in the cells of mammals, such as transfer RNA, ribosomal RNA, and messenger RNA–each with a specific purpose in making and manipulating proteins. The workhorses of the cell, RNA-binding proteins regulate ...

Study findings offer potential new targets for antibiotics

... are other "hot spots" on a ribosome that could act as potential targets for antibiotics ?the researchers first introduced a mutated copy of the ribosomal genes into E. coli cells and looked for those rare mutations that could interfere with cell growth. It was known from previous studies that such ...

North & South American researchers find architectural abnormalities in T. cruzi ribosome

... the heart damage associated with Chagas disease is triggered by antibodies formed by an infected individual's immune system in response to a unique ribosomal protein from the parasite. Chagas disease exists only on the American continent, according to the World Health Organization. It is caused by a ...

Evolution of life on Earth may hold key to finding life in outer space

... a fundamental problem in biochemistry." One of only a small number of groups in the nation working on the history and evolution of the core ribosomal machinery, Fox and his team of scientists focus on comparing the sequences and 3-D shapes of biological molecules. Their research benefits greatly ...

New technique rapidly detects illness-causing bacteria

... DNA makes a pathogen easier to detect. The new process starts with genetic material that is extracted from a food sample. This material, called ribosomal RNA (rRNA), is responsible for translating genetic information carried in DNA into proteins. Nugen designed the computer software that allows ...

Family trees of ancient bacteria reveal evolutionary moves

... of Cyanobacteria, Blank drew up a backbone tree using multiple genes from whole genome sequences. Additional species were added to the tree using ribosomal RNA genes. Morphological characters, for instance, the presence or absence of a sheath, unicellular or filamentous growth, the presence or absence of ...