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Category: genetics – Page 15

Rogue DNA can move from cell to cell and change how they function

“We were looking at this in a two-dimensional culture, but in actual human tissue where cells are packed together very tightly, you might anticipate that this would occur even more frequently,” said Gary Gorbsky, OMRF professor and study co-author. “This opens up the possibility of a new process of genetic transfer of information.”

What effect did rogue DNA have on the new cell?

To test whether this new DNA that came from another cell had a functional impact on the new cell, the scientists engineered donor cells with resistance to a specific antibiotic. After combining donor and recipient cells in culture and inducing chromosome damage, they found that recipient cells acquired the same antibiotic resistance – direct evidence that mammalian cells can trade genetic material through simple cell-to-cell contact.

Genome tool places large genetic sequences precisely in rice and tobacco without DNA breaks

Researchers at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) have developed a new way to add large pieces of genetic information to plants, overcoming a challenge that has limited plant biotechnology for decades. The advance could help scientists build more complex traits into plants in the future, supporting research into areas such as crop resilience, sustainable agriculture, biotechnology and the use of plants as scalable platforms for producing therapeutics and biologics.

Published in Nature Biotechnology, the study introduces a new genome engineering approach that allows scientists to place large genes into specific locations within plant genomes. The approach was successfully demonstrated in both tobacco and rice, opening new possibilities for future research in agricultural biotechnology, synthetic biology and plant-based biomanufacturing.

New tool uncovers overlooked disease-linked genes by accounting for ancestry and family ties

Every person’s DNA tells a unique story. To unlock the full potential of genetic research, scientists need tools that reflect the complexity of the people they study.

Researchers at Baylor College of Medicine and Texas Children’s Duncan Neurological Research Institute (Duncan NRI) have developed a new computational method that enables scientists to more accurately identify genetic changes linked to disease by accounting for the ancestry and family relationships found in real-world populations.

Published in Nature Genetics, the new approach, called Tractor-Mix, addresses a longstanding challenge in genetic research. Many existing methods struggle to accurately analyze people whose DNA reflects ancestry from more than one ancestral population, as well as relatives participating in the same study. As a result, researchers often must simplify their data or exclude participants altogether.

Same carcinogen, different tumors: Mouse study reveals the role of genetic background

Why do cancers develop differently in different people—even when they are exposed to the same risk factors? An international research group, including the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), has demonstrated in mice that an organism’s genetic makeup significantly influences the course of cancer development.

The findings, published in Nature, provide new insights into the earliest stages of tumor development and could, in the long term, represent an important step toward more precise, personalized cancer medicine.

Gut microbial metabolites may shape vulnerability to stress-related mental disorders

Gut microbiome-derived metabolites may influence stress-related mental disorders through neural, immune, endocrine, and epigenetic pathways. Evidence is strongest for depression and preclinical models, while larger longitudinal human studies are needed to establish causality and clinical value.

Scientists map how the flu virus rewires the human cell from the inside

Researchers at EMBL Hamburg and collaborators at the Leibniz Research Institute for Molecular Pharmacology (FMP) have mapped how the influenza A virus rewires infected human cells in unprecedented detail. To do this, the researchers used a customized experimental workflow to directly observe how proteins interact inside intact infected cells.

Every year, seasonal influenza kills up to 650,000 people globally and causes serious illness for 3–5 million individuals. The influenza A virus, in particular, has been responsible for several pandemics, including the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic. When this virus infects cells, it releases its genetic material, called RNA, which contains blueprints for a handful of proteins. These proteins then spread throughout the host cell and repurpose its molecular machinery to make more viruses.

Scientists want to understand this process in detail because it would help in designing better drug therapies and vaccines against the flu virus. That’s why it’s crucial to figure out how proteins of the flu virus interact with proteins of host cells and subvert them to meet the virus’s needs. This is the first time scientists have mapped direct virus-host protein contacts at scale inside intact influenza-infected cells, with enough structural detail to model how the proteins fit together.

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Nature Ecology & Evolution divergence

Yellow-eyed penguins, also known as hoiho or takaraka (Megadyptes antipodes, pictured), are an endangered species endemic to Aotearoa (New Zealand) with only around 3,000 individuals left in the wild, and the only living member of the genus Megadyptes. In collaboration with Ngāi Tahu iwi (tribe) of the South Island of Aotearoa, whole-genome sequencing of 249 individuals that span the entire species range has identified 3 phylogenetically distinct lineages, which suggests that they exist as 3 subspecies that have been isolated from each other for several thousand years. Genome scans also reveal candidate gene variants associated with differential susceptibility to neonatal respiratory distress syndrome.

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