Transcription in Biological News

Scientists shed light on inner workings of human embryonic stem cells

... stem cells, you have to sustain levels of transcription factors," said Kosik. "We also knew that stem ... said. "The way it's done, is that you take the transcription factors that are required for the pluripotent ... from differentiating as the concentrations of transcription factors rise. They also show that the control ...

Gladstone scientists identify key factors in heart cell creation

... Two of the three genes encode proteins called transcription factors, which are master regulators that bind to ... which genes get activated or shut off. The two transcription factors, GATA4 and TBX5, cause human heart ... Jun K. Takeuchi added different combinations of transcription factors to mouse cells, these two seemed ...

Learning how the pieces responsible for interpreting the human genome work

... many to be discovered). These proteins include transcription factors, chromatin histones responsible for ... challenges is elucidating the combination of transcription factors that regulate sets of genes, or the so called regulator code. Thousands of transcription factors work together in distinct combinations to ...

Shades of 1918? New study compares avian flu with a notorious killer from the past

... strains replicate rapidly and induce a massive transcription of genes associated with the innate immune ... to infection. The result of this overwhelming transcription induction, shown graphically in figure 1, is a ... outmatched by H5N1's rapid onset, overwhelming transcription induction of cytokine and chemokine genes and ...

Rewrite the textbooks: Transcription is bidirectional

... the established notion that they support transcription in one direction only. The results are also representative of transcription in humans. Investigating all transcripts ... the vast majority of promoters seem to initiate transcription in both directions. Not all of the produced ...

CSHL scientists discover new way in which ubiquitin modifies transcriptional machinery

... Cold Spring Harbor, N.Y. During gene transcription the process inside the nucleus of cells by which ... National Academy of Sciences . A "wedge" in transcription One of the mechanisms that influences critical interactions in transcription is called ubiquitylation. It involves the ...

Properties of unusual virus revealed in research

... bacterial cells, so it can begin the process of transcription without any help from the bacterial host's RNA ... N4 RNA polymerase finds the N4 DNA and initiates transcription -- and, ultimately, the creation of new N4 phages ... to investigate how the RNA polymerase initiates transcription of phage DNA from inside a bacterial cell. "When ...

Researchers study virus with unusual properties

... bacterial cells, so it can begin the process of transcription without any help from the bacterial host's RNA ... N4 RNA polymerase finds the N4 DNA and initiates transcription -- and, ultimately, the creation of new N4 phages ... to investigate how the RNA polymerase initiates transcription of phage DNA from inside a bacterial cell. "When ...

Stowers Institute's Workman Lab discovers novel histone demethylase protein complex

... up chromosomal DNA and preventing unwanted transcription of the message encoded in the DNA. Histone H3 can ... removal of landmark histone modifications during transcription elongation. "We discovered that dKDM4A can ... reversing methylation and helping to regulate transcription elongation," said Chia-Hui Lin, Predoctoral ...

New gene-silencing pathway found in plants

... bringing about changes in DNA that interfere with transcription -- the copying of DNA to RNA -- siRNAs can ... of DNA somehow in a way that prevents transcription in the first place." According to Pikaard, most ... been baffled by this alleged "junk DNA" because transcription seems to occur here, and just about everywhere, ...

'Junk' DNA proves functional

... technologies, GIS researchers showed that many transcription factors, the master proteins that control the ... from 18 to 33% of the binding sites of five key transcription factors with important roles in cancer and stem ... Thus, the set of genes controlled by these transcription factors is likely to significantly differ from ...

Formula discovered for longer plant life

... inhibit certain regulators, known as TCP transcription factors. These transcription factors in turn influence the production of ... of microRNAs present, the lower the number of transcription factors that are active, and the smaller the ...

Researchers identify cancer-causing gene in many colon cancers

... for producing other cell proteins. Although transcription factors are important regulators, this class of ... to target with drugs. Genes that influence such transcription factors, however, make attractive targets for ... with a focus on a protein called beta-catenin, a transcription factor that is overactive in nearly all ...

Wealth of genomic hotspots discovered in embryonic stem cells

... in vivo binding sites for 13 sequence-specific transcription factors in ES cells. These transcription factors play different roles in self-renewal, ... two major modes of binding that give rise to transcription factor co- localization hotspots. The ...

X chromosome exposed

... of chromatin tightly packaged DNA, to allow the transcription machinery to access genes on the DNA. We were ... suggests the enzyme as a universal regulator of transcription that has evolved to play a specific role in ... MOF binds mostly to the beginning of a gene where transcription starts. On the X chromosome in males, however, ...

Genetic 'tag team' keeps cells on cycle

... cell cycle activities are driven by a series of transcription factors (genes that switch other genes on and off), acting one after another. transcription factor one turns on the genes under its control along with transcription factor ...

Computation to unravel how genes are regulated and shed light on how cells become different

... Approaches to the Role of Epigenetic Marks in transcription Regulation. Epigenetics studies features of the ... that epigenetic features influence the transcription process whereby the DNA sequences of genes are ... the ability of genes to be accessed by the DNA transcription machinery. The result is that some genes are ...

Research sheds light on the mechanics of gene transcription

... The molecular machinery behind gene transcription -- the intricate transfer of information from a ... collect in a single place," he said. Instead, the transcription machinery assembles at the called-upon locus, ... are now looking at other molecules involved in transcription to see if they behave similarly. "We're hoping to ...

2 genes are important key to regulating immune response

... team identified the two genes responsible for the transcription (gene-directed production) of these proteins. These genes -- pre-B transcription factor 1(Pbx-1) and Pbx-regulating protein 1 ... "In that sense, their presence as immune system transcription factors came as a big surprise to us," Dr. Ma ...

HATS off to combat asthma

... intracellular signalling proteins called transcription factors which alter the DNA of the cell and activate messenger RNA. It is these transcription factors which activate the inflammation by ... and cytokines. The activation status of these transcription factors is determined by the balance between two ...

Regulation of TATA-less promoters

... The researchers demonstrate that different basal transcription factors drive expression of the histone gene ... explains Dr. Tjian. In eukaryotic cells, gene transcription is initiated when the RNA polymerase II machinery ... core promoter recognition factor to drive transcription of the TATA-less Histone H1 gene, while the other ...

Researchers expand efforts to explore functional landscape of the human genome

... Genome. This group has two goals: to identify transcription factor binding sites by using chromatin ... status of CpG-rich regions of the human genome. transcription factors are proteins and enzymes that initiate the transcription of a genes DNA sequence into RNA. Methylation ...

HARDY rice: less water, more food

... a specific type of molecule known as AP2/ERF-like transcription factor. transcription factors are proteins that bind to DNA and control ... that belongs to a specific class of AP2/ERF-like transcription factors. Shital Dixit, Graduate student at Plant ...

HARDY rice: less water, more food

... a specific type of molecule known as AP2/ERF-like transcription factor. transcription factors are proteins that bind to DNA and control ... that belongs to a specific class of AP2/ERF-like transcription factors. Shital Dixit, Graduate student at Plant ...

Enzyme alerts cell's powerful army to repair DNA damage

... do something about it. Thats what we think the transcription machinery is doing. RNA polymerase II is the ... of experiments to find out what happens when transcription is blocked. They found that using ... activate p53. These two proteins are saying, transcription has stopped, says Ljungman. These early triggers ...

Gene regulation in humans is closer than expected to simple organisms

... expression is regulated. According to consensus, transcription of human genes is regulated predominantly by factors that bind to sites whose distances from the transcription start site may vary widely and reach tens of ... performed a genome-wide study of functional human transcription factor binding sites that encompasses nearly ten ...

Muscle mass: Scientists identify novel mode of transcriptional regulation during myogenesis

... nearly 30 years, we have assumed that the basal transcription machinery, particularly the highly conserved TBP ... during myogenesis, a component of the canonical transcription initiation machinery a multi-subunit transcription factor called TFIID is disassembled and replaced ...

Protecting cells from their neighbors

... . In the first hours of embryonic life, the egg cells show intense gene transcription activity to initiate development, with the exception of germ cells which ... as certain types of cancer." FROM FLY TO HUMANS The mechanism of transcription protection in somatic cells has been discovered in the fruit fly D. ...

Fox Chase researchers uncover one force behind the MYC oncogene in many cancers

... MYC promoter, which is a section of DNA where certain proteins known as transcription factors attach in order to recruit the cellular machinery used to ... happens, the cell begins producing the DLX5 protein, a multipurpose transcription factor that normally has a very limited role in adult cells. One of the ...

MS study offers theory for why repair of brain's wiring fails

... measured the activity of 1,040 genes. All of the genes they studied encode transcription factors, which regulate the activity of other genes. Their experiments showed that 50 transcription factors are working during key steps in myelin repair. The team then ...

American Chemical Society's Weekly PressPac -- June 3, 2009

... produce proteins. Malfunctions in these activators could lead to altered transcription patterns that lead to disease. For example, variations in the tumor ... Small Molecules Mimic the Binding Mode and Function of Endogenous transcription Factors" DOWNLOAD FULL TEXT ARTICLE: ...

Small molecules mimic natural gene regulators

... but Mapp and other researchers have been working to develop artificial transcription factors (ATFs)---non-natural molecules programmed to perform the same ... their natural counterparts. These molecules can help scientists probe the transcription process and perhaps eventually be used to correct diseases that result ...

The evolution of gene regulation

... are needed, as is the case in higher organisms. In the simplest case, a transcription factor will activate the gene in question at the right time. Genes that ... without the use of repressors: these genes are directly activated by a transcription factor that binds to them. These are only two simple examples of ...

Building the lymphatic drainage system

... drainage construction in the mouse embryo. The engineers are the transcription factors, Foxc2 and NFATc1. Foxc2 had been implicated in lymph vessel ... and NFATc1 physically interact and that many DNA binding sites for the two transcription factors are closely linked. This latter finding generated a long list of ...

6 young ASU faculty earn NSF Career awards

... DNA-binding proteins. These proteins are crucial for gene regulation, transcription initiation and DNA replication. Their binding is characterized by large ... Van der Vaart will focus on two representative systems -- the Ets-1 transcription factor (which is involved in embryonic development, angiogenesis and ...

CSHL-led team identifies key decision-point at which cells with broken DNA repair themselves or die

... we know of that acts in the cell nucleus to regulate genes what we call a transcription factor while, in other contexts, is also known to act as a phosphatase ... of phosphate molecules -- is related to its role, in other contexts, as a transcription factor (a regulator of gene expression). It is certainly a curiosity that ...

Missing piece of plant clock found

... of a larger effort to assemble a complete library of all proteins called transcription factors, which regulate genes, in Arabidopsis, a plant often used as a ... yield in the field," Kay said. Kay expects the growing catalog of transcription factors to be completed by the end of the year with more than 2,000 ...

Female embryonic sexual development driven by universal factor

... of cell proliferation and differentiation. When it functions as a transcription factor, it turns other genes on or off. Without beta-catenin, which is ... in males and females?" Yao said. When beta-catenin acts as a transcription factor it goes into the nucleus of the cell to interact with the DNA. The ...

Acoustical Meeting, Nov. 10-14, 2008 in Miami, Florida

... series of studies using electrodes placed on the scalp in which the neural transcription of music, and subtle changes in the nervous system, could be examined in ... her work has shown that some poor readers demonstrate a diminished neural transcription of those very sound elements important in reading. These readers don't ...

8 National Medals of Science awardees to be honored at gala, then the White House

... regulating the levels of specific mRNAs in target cells. Using cell-free transcription methods, they substantiated "initiation of transcription" as the ... regulate gene expression and defined steroid hormone receptors as transcription factors. Prior to serving at Baylor College, O'Malley spent four years ...