Understanding how elephants use their trunk
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The elephant proboscis (trunk) exhibits an extraordinary kinematic versatility as it can manipulate a single blade of grass but also carry loads up to 270 kilograms. Using motion-capture technologies developed for the movie industry, Pr Milinkovitch‘s group demonstrates that the … Continue reading
Induction of a chromatin boundary in vivo upon insertion of a TAD border
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In mammals, the genome is spatially segmented in three-dimensional domains called TADs, which are separated by more or less strict boundaries. This organization seems to be important to properly implement gene regulation through the action of long-distance enhancers. Nevertheless, genome-wide … Continue reading
Chromosomes separation under focus
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During cell division, chromosomes are duplicated and separated so that one copy of each chromosome is inherited by each of the two emerging daughter cells. Correct distribution of chromosomes requires high accuracy and defects in this process can cause aberrant … Continue reading
DNA reveals the evolutionary history of museum specimens
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Museum specimens held in natural history collections around the world represent a wealth of underutilized genetic information due to the poor state of preservation of the DNA, which often makes it difficult to sequence. An international team, including Nadir Alvarez … Continue reading
Inherited memories of a chromosomal site
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Most biological traits are inherited through genes, but there are exceptions to this rule. Florian Steiner‘s and Monica Gotta‘s groups have been investigating the location of centromeres – specific sites on chromosomes that are essential for cell division. They found … Continue reading