Scientists at the Stowers Institute for Medical Research have, for the first time, identified the exact location where human chromosomes break and fuse to form Robertsonian chromosomes. The discovery ...

The DNA packed inside every human cell contains instructions for life, written in billions of letters of genetic code. Every time a cell divides, the complete code, divided among 46 chromosomes, must ...

The human genetic blueprint is deceptively simple. Our genes are tightly wound into 46 X-shaped structures called chromosomes. Crafted by evolution, they carry DNA and replicate when cells divide, ...

Scientists have discovered a new property of the molecular motors that shape our chromosomes. While six years ago they found that these so-called SMC motor proteins make long loops in our DNA, they ...

In a time when what defines gender is being questioned and discussed, a new study reveals that single changes in DNA make ...

The structure of how DNA is stored in archaea makes a significant difference to how quickly it evolves, according to a new study by Indiana University researchers. The study, led by molecular ...

Small, cancer-associated DNA circles "hitchhike" on chromosomes during cell division to spread efficiently to daughter cells by co-opting a process used to maintain cellular identity through ...

Hidden within fish DNA are powerful genetic twists that may explain one of nature’s biggest mysteries: how new species form so quickly. In Lake Malawi, hundreds of cichlid fish species evolved at ...

Retrotransposons are sequences of DNA in animal genomes that can replicate and reinsert themselves back into the genome. Experiments in flies and other model systems reveal that retrotransposons ...