Chromosome

Found: Missing sequence of the human Y chromosome

Scientists report today in the journal GenomeResearch that they have successfully cloned and characterized apreviously intractable DNA sequence: a 554-kilobase-pair genomicsegment near the centromere of the human Y chromosome. This sequencecontains eight putatively active genes that could be implicated insex-associated height differences and gonadal tumor development. Thispericentrom...

Needling Chromosomes Reveals Cell Division Secret

By impaling individual chromosomes with glassneedles one thousandth the diameter of a human hair, a Duke Universitygraduate student has tested their "stickiness" to one another duringcell division. Her uncanny surgical skills have added a piece to thelarge and intricate puzzle of how one cell divides into two -- aprocess fundamental to all organisms.In the Dec. 14, 2004, issue of Current Bi...

Variation in women's X chromosomes may explain differences among individuals, between sexes

The first comprehensive survey of gene activity in the X chromosomes of women has revealed an unexpected level of variation among individuals, according to new work by researchers at the Duke University Institute for Genome Sciences & Policy (IGSP) and Pennsylvania State University. The results may have important implications for understanding the differences in traits among women and...

Chromosome Deletion Predicts Aggressive Neuroblastoma

When genes are deleted on a particular section of chromosome 11, the result is an aggressive form of the childhood cancer neuroblastoma. A new study suggests that detecting this genetic deletion during the initial evaluation of children with neuroblastoma may indicate to physicians that they should recommend a more aggressive regimen of chemotherapy to fight the cancer. Edward F. Attiyeh,...

Scientists analyze chromosomes 2 and 4

A detailed analysis of chromosomes 2 and 4 has detected the largest "gene deserts" known in the human genome and uncovered more evidence that human chromosome 2 arose from the fusion of two ancestral ape chromosomes, researchers supported by the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), reported today. In a study published in the Apr...

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 of chromosomes look just like broken strands of DNA that a cell's repair machinery is designed...

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 finding by tracing variations in the DNA of an extended Utah family that has a high occurrence of the...

Mouse to man: The story of chromosomes

The complete sequencing of human chromosome 17 and mouse chromosome 11 offers unique insights into the evolution of the genome of higher mammals, said a Baylor College of Medicine researcher who participated in this effort reported in today's issue of the journal Nature. The work represents the first time that a mouse chromosome has been completely sequenced and annotated, said Dr. James...

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 organization and transport within the cell nucleus. Genes that are active are located mainly in the...

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 behavior also has a genetic basis, according to new research on mice by neuroscientists at the Univers...

'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 that a genetic profile indicating chromosomal instability -- an increased tendency to develop chrom...

Researchers use multiphoton microscopy to watch chromosomes in action

Feverish fruit fly larvae, warmed in a toasty lab chamber, are giving Cornell researchers a way to watch chromosomes in action and actually see how genes are expressed in living tissue. Using multiphoton fluorescence microscopy, a technique pioneered at Cornell by physicist Watt W. Webb, researchers have for the first time been able to watch chromosomes change their form in order to activa...

Short chromosomes put cancer cells in forced rest

A Johns Hopkins team has stopped in its tracks a form of blood cancer in mice by engineering and inactivating an enzyme, telomerase, thereby shortening the ends of chromosomes, called telomeres. "Normally, when telomeres get critically short, the cell commits suicide as a means of protecting the body," says Carol Greider, Ph.D., the Daniel Nathans chair of molecular biology and genetics at...

Researchers attach genes to minichromosomes in maize

A team of scientists at the University of Missouri-Columbia has discovered a way to create engineered minichromosomes in maize and attach genes to those minichromosomes. This discovery opens new possibilities for the development of crops that are multiply resistant to viruses, insects, fungi, bacteria and herbicides, and for the development of proteins and metabolites that can be used to treat hu...

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 "A RAP1/TRF2 Complex Inhibits Non-Homologous End Joining at Human Telomeric DNA Ends" employed...

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. Fruit flies...

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

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 of a woman’s fertilised egg the cells need to silence one of those two X chromosomes. This pr...

Researchers shed light on shrinking of chromosomes

A human cell contains an enormous 1.8 metres of DNA partitioned into 46 chromosomes. These have to be copied and distributed equally into two daughter cells at every division. Condensation, the shortening of chromosomes, allows the cell to handle such huge amounts of genetic material during cell division and helps preventing fatal defects in chromosome separation. Now researchers from the Euro...