Month: September 2022

ALTERNATIVE DNA IN NATURE. "Local structural transitions from the common B-DNA conformation into other DNA forms can be functionally important. Such transitions within certain sequence elements of DNA can be induced by changes in environmental conditions, protein binding and superhelical tension. Several lines of evidence indicate that alternative DNA structures may exist in prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells. The data on their involvement in replication, gene expression, recombination and mutagenesis continues to accumulate." An excellent review. https://lnkd.in/dPQHwzR View in LinkedIn

MODIFIED DNA IN CELLS. "Guanine-rich DNA sequences that can adopt non-Watson-Crick structures in vitro are prevalent in the human genome. Whether such structures normally exist in mammalian cells has, however, been the subject of active research for decades. (We show that) Small-molecule–induced DNA damage identifies alternative DNA structures in human genes." https://lnkd.in/dj3aJwZ View in LinkedIn

PRIONS AND DNA. "Recent results show that PrP binds to nucleic acids in vitro and is found associated with retroviral particles. These findings suggest that PrP could be involved in nucleic acid metabolism in vivo." ( PrP = cellular prion protein). https://lnkd.in/dfswmuf View in LinkedIn

"THE PRION PROTEIN has DNA strand transfer properties similar to retroviral nucleocapsid protein." https://lnkd.in/dfswmuf View in LinkedIn

DNA STRAND TRANSFER. "Our results show that the human prion protein (huPrP) functionally resembles NCp7 of HIV-1. Both proteins form large nucleoprotein complexes upon binding to DNA. They accelerate the hybridization of complementary DNA strands and chaperone viral DNA synthesis during the minus and plus DNA strand transfers necessary to generate the long terminal repeats." https://lnkd.in/dfswmuf View in LinkedIn

WATSON AND CRICK'S DOUBLE HELIX just expanded to four. "G-quadruplexes, so-called because they form in guanine-rich DNA sequences, are not just a structural curiosity - they form at sites across the genome in living cells. Cancers are usually driven by genes called oncogenes that have mutated to increase DNA replication - causing cell proliferation to spiral out of control, and leading to tumour growth. The increased DNA replication rate during oncogenesis leads to an intensity in the quadruplex structures." https://lnkd.in/dn_e5kr View in LinkedIn

SEMI-SYNTHETIC ORGANISM. "Organisms are defined by the information encoded in their genomes, and since the origin of life this information has been encoded using a two-base-pair genetic alphabet (A–T and G–C). In vitro, the alphabet has been expanded to include several unnatural base pairs (UBPs)." View in LinkedIn

FIRST SYNTHETIC DNA LIFE. "Thus, the resulting bacterium is the first organism to propagate stably an expanded genetic alphabet." https://lnkd.in/dTaWawu View in LinkedIn

SIX LETTER CODE. "These data provide direct evidence, the first for any artificially expanded genetic information system, that a LIVE experiment can explore substantial fractions of sequence space in a six letter genetic system." https://lnkd.in/dinaF2C View in LinkedIn

SYNTHETIC DNA INHERITED. "The first living organism to carry and pass down to future generations an expanded genetic code has been created by American scientists, paving the way for a host of new life forms whose cells carry synthetic DNA that looks nothing like the normal genetic code of natural organisms." https://lnkd.in/eKdazAS View in LinkedIn