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 ...

That means researchers can now use it to better understand how genes function, how diseases start and how to design better treatments. "Every single cell can have a different chromosome structure," ...

Holocentric chromosomes have evolved independently from X-shaped monocentric chromosomes multiple times in both animals and plants, but the mechanism behind the centromere-type transition is unknown.

Researchers at Rice University are making strides in understanding how chromosome structures change throughout the cell's life cycle. Their study on motorized processes that actively influence the ...

For the first time, a research team at the Leibniz Institute of Plant Genetics and Crop Plant Research (IPK) has succeeded in reducing the size of, or even completely removing, chromosomes in plants ...

Chromosomal rearrangements, such as chromosome segment inversions, may affect the epigenetic landscape as well as gene expression. Different kinds of chromosome segment inversions have been found in ...

The centromere is necessary for the transport of chromosomes during cell division and, therefore, for the correct transmission of genetic information. Most plants and animals have chromosomes with a ...