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The majority of human melanomas contain mutations in a gene promoter, suggesting mutations in regulatory regions may spur some cancers.Human metastatic melanoma cellsWIKIMEDIA, NATIONAL CANCER INSTITUTEMutations in the regulatory, or non-coding, regions of the telomerase reverse transcriptase (TERT) gene—a cancer-associated gene that encodes a component of telomerase, an enzyme known to help protect the ends of chromosomes and support cell longevity—may be at the root of most melanomas, according to two papers published today (January 24) in Science. In both studies, researchers identified mutations that created new binding sites in the TERT promoter for particular transcription factors and resulted in...

I have been meaning for some time to write about an interesting paper in JACS by Naoki Sugimoto’s group in Kobe. It found its way into an article that I wrote this week for Nature’s online news. So I’ve decided to simply post this article here – it’s not all strictly relevant to water in biology, but hopefully is interesting stuff anyway. This is the version before editing, which has more detail. Shape might be one of the key factors in the function of mysterious ‘non-coding’ DNA. Everyone knows what DNA looks like. Its double helix decorates countless articles on...

Genes alone don’t make the man — after all, humans and chimps share roughly 98 percent of their DNA. But where, when and how much genes are turned on may be essential in setting people apart from other primates. A stretch of human DNA inserted into mice embryos revs the activity of genes in the developing thumb, toe, forelimb and hind limb. But the chimp and rhesus macaque version of this same stretch of DNA spurs only faint activity in the developing limbs, reports a new study in the Sept. 5 Science. The research supports the notion that changes in...

When it comes to separating humans from other animals, researchers agree that it's what's between the ears that counts most. Indeed, changes in brain-related genes appear to explain the often vast differences between human and chimp cognition. Now scientists have discovered that the spaces between these genes can be just as important. Once thought of as junk, noncoding sequences of DNA fill in the gaps between genes and make up more than 90 percent of our genome. Recently, scientists have discovered that these stretches of DNA contain regulatory elements that control how and when nearby genes are turned on and...