Chromosome in Biological News

Double success for Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciencia scientists working on chromosome segregation

Lars Jansen's work on the formation of the centromere, a key cellular structure in powering and controlling chromosome segregation and accurate cell division, has just earned him a paper in Nature Cell Biology and a prestigious EMBO installation grant, of 50,000 euro per year, for a maximum of f...

Y chromosome and surname study challenges infidelity 'myth'

Our surnames and genetic information are often strongly connected, according to a study funded by the Wellcome Trust. The research, published this week in the journal Molecular Biology and Evolution , may help genealogists create more accurate family trees even when records are missing. It also s...

Mayo: Variants in gene on X chromosome associated with increased susceptibility to Alzheimer's

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. Researchers at Mayo Clinic have discovered the first gender-linked susceptibility gene for late-onset Alzheimer's disease. In the Jan. 11 online edition of Nature Genetics , they report the results of their two-stage genome-wide association study of patients with Alzheimer...

How chromosomes meet in the dark -- Switch that turns on X chromosome matchmaking

A research group lead by scientists at the University of Warwick has discovered the trigger that pulls together X chromosomes in female cells at a crucial stage of embryo development. Their discovery could also provide new insights into how other similar chromosomes spontaneously recognize each ot...

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

Researchers have discovered a submicroscopic aberration in a particular region of human chromosome 1q21.1 that appears to be associated with a variety of developmental disorders in children. The aberration can manifest itself as unexplained mild or moderate mental retardation, growth retardation, ...

Y chromosome study sheds light on Athapaskan migration to southwest US

A large-scale genetic study of native North Americans offers new insights into the migration of a small group of Athapaskan natives from their subarctic home in northwest North America to the southwestern United States. The migration, which left no known archaeological trace, is believed to have o...

X chromosome exposed

Researchers from the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Heidelberg, Germany, and the EMBL-European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI) in Hinxton, UK, have revealed new insights into how sex chromosomes are regulated. A chromatin modifying enzyme helps compensate for the fact that mal...

Workman Lab characterizes novel regulator of chromosome function

The Stowers Institute's Workman Lab has shed new light on a novel histone acetyltransferase protein complex called ATAC. Acetyltransferases are enzymes that introduce a new acetyl functional group into histone proteins, a process by which all chromosome functions are controlled. The findings ...

Bioclocks work by controlling chromosome coiling

There is a new twist on the question of how biological clocks work. In recent years, scientists have discovered that biological clocks help organize a dizzying array of biochemical processes in the body. Despite a number of hypotheses, exactly how the microscopic pacemakers in every cell in the ...

X-effect: female chromosome confirmed a prime driver of speciation

Researchers at the University of Rochester believe they have just confirmed a controversial theory of evolution. The X chromosome is a strikingly powerful force in the origin of new species. Biologists have argued for years whether the X chromosomethe female chromosome in most animalsplays a spec...

The story of X -- evolution of a sex chromosome

Berkeley -- Move over, Y chromosome it's time X got some attention. In the first evolutionary study of the chromosome associated with being female, University of California, Berkeley, biologist Doris Bachtrog and her colleagues show that the history of the X chromosome is every bit as interest...

Photosynthesizing bacteria with a day-night cycle contain rare chromosome

RICHLAND, Wash. -- Researchers sequencing the DNA of blue-green algae found a linear chromosome harboring genes important for producing biofuels. Simultaneously analyzing the complement of proteins revealed more genes on the linear and the typical circular chromosomes then they'd have found with D...

Cyanobacterium sequenced features rare linear chromosome

A team of researchers headed by biologists at Washington University in St. Louis has sequenced the genome of a unique bacterium that manages two disparate operations photosynthesis and nitrogen fixation in one little cell during two distinct cycles daily. Himadri B. Pakrasi, Ph.D., George Wi...

New technique will produce a better chromosome map

Researchers at the University of Illinois have developed a simple and economical technique for imaging and mapping fruit fly chromosomes. This new approach will enable them to construct the first accurate map of the chromosomes and tease out the secrets hidden in their stripes. Their work appea...

Baumann Lab defines proteins that distinguish chromosome ends from DNA double-strand breaks

Peter Baumann, Ph.D., Assistant Investigator, and Nancy Bae, Ph.D., Postdoctoral Research Associate in the Baumann Lab, have published a paper offering insight into the way cells protect chromosome ends from misguided repair. Published in tomorrow's issue of Molecular Cell, their paper entitled ...

'Signature' of chromosome instability predicts cancer outcomes

Microscopic examination of tumor specimens cannot always predict a cancer's aggressiveness, leading to increased interest in molecular approaches to diagnosis. Now, researchers in the Children's Hospital Informatics Program (CHIP) at the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology report...

Sex chromosome genes influence aggression andmaternal behavior, say UVa researchers

It has been well documented that, across human cultures and in most mammals, males are usually more aggressive and less nurturing than females. It's simple to blame male hormones, like testosterone, for male behavior such as aggression. But maybe it's in our genes, too. Indeed such social behavio...

Movement of chromosome in nucleus visualized

The cell is understood to be highly organized, with specialized areas for different functions and molecular motors shuttling components around. Researchers from the University of Illinois' Chicago and Urbana-Champaign campuses now offer the first imaging evidence from live cells of ongoing organiza...

Utah researchers confirm chromosome may harbor autism gene

Using technology that allows DNA from thousands of genes to be collected and surveyed on a 3 x 1½-inch chip, University of Utah medical researchers have confirmed that a region on a single chromosome probably harbors a gene that causes autism. The researchers at the U School of Medicine made the fi...

Normal chromosome ends elicit a limited DNA damage response

Researchers at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies discovered that cells co-opted the machinery that usually repairs broken strands of DNA to protect the integrity of chromosomes. This finding solves for the first time an important question that has long puzzled scientists. The natural ends...

Physicist cracks women's random but always lucky choice of X chromosome

A University of Warwick physicist has uncovered how female cells are able to choose randomly between their two X chromosomes and why that choice is always lucky. Human males have both a X and a Y chromosome but females have two X chromosomes. This means that in an early stage in the development ...

Growing evidence of marijuana smoke's potential dangers

...rette smoke. Marijuana smoke caused significantly more damage to cells and DNA than tobacco smoke, the researchers note. However, tobacco smoke caused chromosome damage while marijuana did not. ...

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

...und that a chromosomal inversion a genetic misalignment, where part of the chromosome containing the DLX5 gene gets flipped around during cell division cooperat...mutation in AKT2 may act as a "first hit" that makes the inversion on mouse chromosome 6, which contains the DLX5 gene, more likely. When the inversion happens, t...

Scientists discover gene mutation responsible for hereditary neuroendocrine tumor

...re associated with mutations causing loss of SDH activity. Although the gene for PGL2 had not been identified, we knew that it was located on the same chromosome as the hSDH5 gene." Rutter and his colleagues sequenced the hSDH5 gene in three individuals with PGL2 from a previously described Dutch lineage. Th...

Genetic marker linked to problem behaviors in adults with developmental disabilities

...abilities but without problem behavior, and a typically developing control group. Only white men were sampled because the MAOA gene is linked to the X chromosome and also is shown to vary by ethnicity. Forty-three percent of those with developmental/intellectual disabilities and behavior problems had the gen...

New research finds possible genetic link to cause of pregnancy loss and disorders

...cially in this group of females." Ordinarily, both copies of a gene in a chromosome must carry the same mutation in order for an organism to be adversely effec...oint hiccups when Bub1 is mutated, sometimes producing an egg with an extra chromosome or an egg with a missing chromosome. The team linked the issue to female...

Telomeres resemble DNA fragile sites

... of linear chromosomes, have an important function: They protect vulnerable chromosome ends from molecular attack. Researchers at Rockefeller University now show ...n as TRF1, which de Lange, in an effort to understand how telomeres protect chromosome ends, discovered in 1995. Using a conditional mouse knockout, de Lange and ...

LSUHSC research helps link schizophrenia to specific DNA region

...ing schizophrenia to a specific region of DNA on chromosome 6. This is the same area where key genes for immun...e ten clinical sites. The work, Common variants on chromosome 6p22.1 are associated with schizophrenia, along wi...schizophrenia, the researchers found variations on chromosome 6 that appear to be associated with higher risk. T...

Dogs, humans, put heads together to find cure for brain cancer

...lose one copy of almost the entire length of human chromosome 22. This chromosome is made of almost 50 million base pairs of DNA tha...e search: we compare the affected areas of a human chromosome with related areas on dog chromosomes. This works ...

GUMC discovery highlights new direction for drug discovery

...n as a translocation. The new EWS-FLI1 gene is created when the EWS gene on chromosome 22 fuses to the FLI1 gene on chromosome 11, and its product is the fusion protein responsible for cancer formation....

Chromosomal problems affect nearly all human embryos

...onic aneuploidy, an aberrant number of chromosomes, such as three copies of chromosome 21 that results in Down's syndrome. Therefore, little was known about the f...rate of chromosomal imbalances in IVF/ICSI embryos, it is probable that the chromosome instability observed in vitro also occurs in spontaneous pregnancies since,...

New test can detect both genetic and chromosomal abnormalities in embryos

...e range of applications is broad and includes single gene defects, abnormal chromosome number, structural chromosome abnormalities and HLA [human leukocyte antigen] matching in 'saviour siblin...

New, less invasive genetic test greatly improves pregnancy rates in older women with poor prognosis

...examined, CGH enables the evaluation of the entire chromosome complement. CGH was used to examine the fertilised...ss invasive way of obtaining information about the chromosome content of an egg and its resulting embryo than ot... that were extremely abnormal and carried multiple chromosome errors. This could explain the poor reproductive h...

Female human embryos adjust the balance of X chromosomes before implantation

...irst evidence that a process of inactivating the X chromosome during embryo development and implantation, which ... no Y chromosome, males have one of each. As the X chromosome is much larger then the Y chromosome, males and fe... in gene expression, females need to silence one X chromosome in every cell a process known as X...

ESHRE launches international study of polar body screening

... try to find out if a novel method of doing PGS using polar body biopsy and chromosome array analysis offers a possible solution. Professor Joep Geraedts, ESHRE... researchers believe that not only are they using a less invasive method of chromosome analysis, but also a more accurate one. "A biopsied blastomere, or very ear...

Genetic finding could lead to targeted therapy for neuroblastoma

...their initial findings, the researchers performed a second validation analysis, pinpointing that a glitch 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...

Is this the beginning of the end of plant breeding?

...haliana. By combining a mutation in this gene with two other previously described mutationsone that eliminates recombination and another that modifies chromosome segregationthe authors have created a strain of plant (called MiMe for 'mitosis instead of meiosis') in which meiosis is totally replaced by mitosis. ...

Scientists uncover mode of action of enzyme linked with several types of cancer

...se is associated with cancers, thereby suggesting a link between defects in chromosome condensation and the formation of tumours. "Pharmaceutical companies and in...r." In a preview article commissioned by Molecular Cell, world leader in chromosome dynamics Tatsuya Hirano, of the Riken Advanced Science Institute in Japan, ...

International Serious Adverse Events Consortium announces initial study results in its global research collaboration to identify genetic markers related to drug induced liver injury

...c. This risk-associated variant is relatively common in Europe, but less prevalent in Africa and East Asia. In addition to HLA-B*5701, variations on chromosome 3 were also found to influence the risk for DILI. These findings provide initial insights into the mechanism of DILI and may have the potential to he...

Slicing chromosomes leads to new insights into cell division

...f these forces might provide physical cues guiding chromosome movements. In this capacity, polar ejection forces...e of the fragment we removed and the direction the chromosome moved," Hunt said. "Not only did we observe a rela...es thinner than a human hair. Understanding how chromosome guidance occurs allows scientists to determine how...