Sea anemone shows a genomic landscape surprisingly similar to human genome, but also displays regulatory mechanisms similar to plants. The team led by evolutionary and developmental biologist Ulrich Technau at […]
Genomics, Proteomics, Bioinformatics
Posted inGenomics, Proteomics, Bioinformatics, Microbiology & Virology, Radiation
Understanding How Life Resists Radiation Damage
Capitalizing on the ability of an organism to evolve in response to punishment from a hostile environment, scientists have coaxed the model bacterium Escherichia coli to dramatically resist ionizing radiation […]
Posted inGenomics, Proteomics, Bioinformatics
Making Unnatural Amino Acids
Chemists at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) have devised a greatly improved technique for making amino acids not found in nature. These “unnatural” amino acids traditionally have been very difficult […]
Posted inGenomics, Proteomics, Bioinformatics, Origin & Evolution of Life
Pinwheel 'Living' Crystals and the Origin of Life
Simply making nanoparticles spin coaxes them to arrange themselves into what University of Michigan researchers call ‘living rotating crystals’ that could serve as a nanopump. They may also, incidentally, shed […]
Posted inGenomics, Proteomics, Bioinformatics
New DNA-based Naming System for All Earth Life
All living organisms on Earth could soon have a new name if a Virginia Tech professor has his way. Boris Vinatzer has developed a system that classifies and names organisms […]
Posted inGenomics, Proteomics, Bioinformatics, Origin & Evolution of Life
New Study Brings Scientists Closer to the Origin of RNA
One of the biggest questions in science is how life arose from the chemical soup that existed on early Earth. One theory is that RNA, a close relative of DNA, […]
Posted inGenomics, Proteomics, Bioinformatics, Origin & Evolution of Life
Modeling a Near-optimal Genetic Code
Researchers have created a model that may explain the complexities of the origins of life. Their work, which appears in the Journal of the Royal Society Interface, offers new insights […]
Posted inArctic / Antarctic / Alpine, Astrobiology (general), Extremeophiles and Extreme Environments, Genomics, Proteomics, Bioinformatics
Lake Vostok Contains a Diverse Set of Gene Sequences
Lake Vostok, the 7th largest (by volume) and 4th deepest lake on Earth, is covered by more than 3,700 m of ice, making it the largest subglacial lake known. The […]
Posted inBiophysics, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Genomics, Proteomics, Bioinformatics, Press Release
The Antiquity of Metalloenzymes
Astrobiologists funded in part by the NASA Astrobiology Institute have uncovered new information about the role of metalloenzymes in the origins of life. Metalloenzymes are enzymes where metals act as […]
Posted inGaia - Planetary Perspectives, Genomics, Proteomics, Bioinformatics, Nomenclature, Systematics, Natural History, Origin & Evolution of Life, Press Release
Untangling The Tree of Life on Earth
Two recent high-profile phylogenetic studies reached conflicting conclusions about whether snail’s closest relatives are bivalves or an enigmatic group called tusk shells. Vanderbilt phylogeneticists suggest that the cause of this […]