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The study of ancient DNA is hampered by degradation, resulting in short DNA fragments. Advances in laboratory methods have made it possible to retrieve short DNA fragments, thereby improving access to DNA pres...
Upon maturation in the bone marrow, polyploid megakaryocytes elongate very long and thin cytoplasmic branches called proplatelets. Proplatelets enter the sinusoids blood vessels in which platelets are ultimate...
The ability of certain tumor cells of mammals and molluscs to spread from the original host to others reopens the question of distinguishing self from non-self. It is part of a wider phenomenon of cellular par...
High throughput methods for profiling the transcriptomes of single cells have recently emerged as transformative approaches for large-scale population surveys of cellular diversity in heterogeneous primary tis...
Developmental physiology is very sensitive to nutrient availability. For instance, in the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans, newly hatched L1-stage larvae require food to initiate postembryonic development. In addi...
H3.3 is an ancient and conserved H3 variant and plays essential roles in transcriptional regulation. HIRA complex, which is composed of HIRA, UBN1 or UBN2, and Cabin1, is a H3.3 specific chaperone complex. How...
The WW domain-containing oxidoreductase (WWOX) gene, frequently altered in breast cancer, encodes a tumor suppressor whose function is mediated through its interactions with cancer-related proteins, such as the p...
Cnidocytes are specialized cells that define the phylum Cnidaria. They possess an “explosive” organelle called cnidocyst that is important for prey capture and anti-predator defense. An extraordinary morpholog...
During hearing in mammals, “sensorineural” inner hair cells convert sound wave-generated mechanical input into electrical activity, resulting in glutamate release onto type I spiral ganglion neurons (SGNs) at ...
The original article was published in BMC Biology 2018 16:99
Perineuronal nets (PNNs) are specialized aggregations of extracellular matrix (ECM) molecules surrounding specific neurons in the central nervous system (CNS). PNNs are supposed to control synaptic transmissio...
The Commentary to this article has been published in BMC Biology 2018 16:105
Sexual reproduction is costly compared to asexual reproduction, in particular because males generally contribute little to offspring. Research published today in BMC Biology shows that some populations of a termi...
The original article was published in BMC Biology 2018 16:96
Sexual reproduction is the norm in almost all animal species, and in many advanced animal societies, both males and females participate in social activities. To date, the complete loss of males from advanced s...
The Commentary to this article has been published in BMC Biology 2018 16:106
The hierarchical organization of eukaryotic chromatin plays a central role in gene regulation, by controlling the extent to which the transcription machinery can access DNA. The histone variants H3.3 and H2A.Z...
CRISPR-Cas systems, the purveyors of adaptive immunity in archaea and bacteria and sources of the new generation of genome engineering tools, have been studied in exquisite molecular detail. However, when it c...
Defining the mechanisms that establish and regulate the transmission of epigenetic information from parent to offspring is critical for understanding disease heredity. Currently, the molecular pathways that re...
piRNAs have a constitutive role in genome defence by silencing transposable elements in the germline. In the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans, piRNAs also induce epigenetic silencing of transgenes, which can be ma...
Two of the most widely cultivated rice strains are Oryza sativa indica and O. sativa japonica, and understanding the genetic basis of their agronomic traits is of importance for crop production. These two species...
Global analyses of gene expression during development reveal specific transcription patterns associated with the emergence of various cell types, tissues, and organs. These heterogeneous patterns are instrumen...
Parkinson’s disease (PD)-associated E3 ubiquitin ligase Parkin is enriched at glutamatergic synapses, where it ubiquitinates multiple substrates, suggesting that its mutation/loss-of-function could contribute ...
Array tomography encompasses light and electron microscopy modalities that offer unparalleled opportunities to explore three-dimensional cellular architectures in extremely fine structural and molecular detail...
Biologists have long been fascinated by the striking diversity of complex color patterns in tropical reef fishes. However, the origins and evolution of this diversity are still poorly understood. Disentangling...
Proteins within the cytoplasmic membrane display distinct localization patterns and arrangements. While multiple models exist describing the dynamics of membrane proteins, to date, there have been few systemat...
Seventeen years after the initial publication of the human genome, we still haven’t found all of our genes. The answer turns out to be more complex than anyone had imagined when the Human Genome Project began.
Between the 1930s and 50s, evolutionary biologists developed a successful theory of why organisms age, firmly rooted in population genetic principles. By the 1980s the evolution of aging had a secure experimen...
Increased activity of the receptor tyrosine kinase Tie2 has been implicated in the promotion of pathological angiogenesis. This activity is mainly mediated through angiopoietin (Ang)1- and Ang2-dependent activ...
Our understanding of the regulation of gene expression has benefited from the availability of high-throughput technologies that interrogate the whole genome for the binding of specific transcription factors an...
Division of labor between reproductive queens and workers that perform brood care is a hallmark of insect societies. However, studies of the molecular basis of this fundamental dichotomy are limited by the fac...
The ubiquitin-proteasome system (UPS) controls the stability, localization and/or activity of the proteome. However, the identification and characterization of complex individual ubiquitination cascades and th...
The human genome is highly organized in the three-dimensional nucleus. Chromosomes fold locally into topologically associating domains (TADs) defined by increased intra-domain chromatin contacts. TADs contribu...
The timing of action potentials (“spikes”) of cortical neurons has been shown to be aligned to the phase of low-frequency (< 10 Hz) local field potentials (LFPs) in several cortical areas. However, across the ...
Membrane lipids play critical roles in the structure and function of membrane-embedded transporters. Salmonella typhimurium MelB (MelBSt) is a symporter coupling melibiose translocation with a cation (Na+, Li+, o...
Helicobacter pylori are stomach-dwelling bacteria that are present in about 50% of the global population. Infection is asymptomatic in most cases, but it has been associated with gastritis, gastric ulcers and gas...
Mammals display a wide range of variation in their lifespan. Investigating the molecular networks that distinguish long- from short-lived species has proven useful to identify determinants of longevity. Here, ...
Naked mole-rats (NMRs) are eusocially organized in colonies. Although breeders carry the additional metabolic load of reproduction, they are extremely long-lived and remain fertile throughout their lifespan. T...
Intrinsically photosensitive retinal ganglion cells (ipRGCs) drive an array of non-image-forming (NIF) visual responses including circadian photoentrainment and the pupil light reflex. ipRGCs integrate extrins...
Mitochondria are sensitive to numerous environmental stresses, which can lead to activation of mitochondrial stress responses (MSRs). Of particular recent interest has been the mitochondrial unfolded protein r...
The interaction between oomycete plant pathogen Phytophthora sojae and soybean is characterized by the presence of avirulence (Avr) genes in P. sojae, which encode for effectors that trigger immune responses and ...
The neural plate border ectoderm gives rise to key developmental structures during embryogenesis, including the neural crest and the preplacodal ectoderm. Many sensory organs and ganglia of vertebrates develop...
Fungal plant pathogens pose major threats to crop yield and sustainable food production if they are highly adapted to their host and the local environment. Variation in gene expression contributes to phenotypi...
Protein quality control mechanisms are essential for cell health and involve delivery of proteins to specific cellular compartments for recycling or degradation. In particular, stray hydrophobic proteins are c...
RNA-guided CRISPR/Cas9 systems can be designed to mutate or excise the integrated HIV genome from latently infected cells and have therefore been proposed as a curative approach for HIV. However, most studies ...
Genome-wide knockout studies, noncoding deletion scans, and other large-scale studies require a simple and lightweight framework that can quickly discover and score thousands of candidate CRISPR guides targeti...
In mammalian females, progressive activation of dormant primordial follicles in adulthood is crucial for the maintenance of the reproductive lifespan. Misregulated activation of primordial follicles leads to v...
The phenotypes of sperm are generally believed to be under the control of the diploid genotype of the male producing them rather than their own haploid genotypes, because developing spermatids share cytoplasm ...
The Correction to this article has been published in BMC Biology 2023 21:128
Domesticated from gray wolves between 10 and 40 kya in Eurasia, dogs display a vast array of phenotypes that differ from their ancestors, yet mirror other domesticated animal species, a phenomenon known as the...
Huntington’s disease (HD) is one of the most common tandem repeat disorders and presents as a unique trilogy of cognitive, psychiatric and motor symptoms. One of the major mysteries of HD is why it selectively...
Huntington disease (HD) is a fatal neurodegenerative disorder caused by a CAG expansion in the huntingtin (HTT) gene, leading to selective and progressive neuronal death predominantly in the striatum. Mutant HTT ...
The proteome of mitochondria comprises mostly proteins that originate as precursors in the cytosol. Before import into the organelle, such proteins are exposed to cytosolic quality control mechanisms. Multiple...
The Commentary to this article has been published in BMC Biology 2018 16:63
Tandem fluorescent protein timers are elegant tools to determine proteolytic stabilities of cytosolic proteins with high spatial and temporal resolution. In a new study published in BMC Biology, Kowalski et al. f...
The original article was published in BMC Biology 2018 16:66
Recent advances in clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR)/CRISPR-associated protein 9 (Cas9) genome editing have led to the use of long single-stranded DNA (lssDNA) molecules for ge...
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