One of the big mysteries in biology is why cells age. Now scientists report that they have discovered a weakness in a component of brain cells that may explain how the aging process occurs in the brain.

If you wanted to draw your family tree, you could start by searching for people who share your surname. Cells, of course, don’t have surnames, but scientists have found that genetic switches called enhancers, and the molecules that activate those switches – transcription factors – can be used in a similar way, as clues to a cell’s developmental history. The study also unveils a new model for how enhancers function.

Many living organisms suffer from parasites, which use the hosts’ resources for their own purposes. The problem of parasitism occurs at all levels right down to the DNA scale. Genomes may contain up to 80% “foreign” DNA but details of the mechanisms by which this enters the host genome and how hosts attempt to combat its spread are still the subject of conjecture. Nearly all organisms contain pieces of DNA that do not really belong to them.

A ‘gatekeeper’ protein plays a critical role in helping immune cells to sound a warning after encountering signs of tumor growth or infection.

Scientists have advanced a method that allowed them to single out a marine microorganism and map its genome even though the organism made up less than 10 percent of a water sample teeming with many millions of individuals from dozens of identifiable groups of microbes.

'Yellow biotechnology' refers to biotechnology with insects -- analogous to the green (plants) and red (animals) biotechnology. Active ingredients or genes in insects are characterized and used for research or application in agriculture and medicine. Scientists in Germany are now using a procedure which brings forward ecological research on insects: They study gene functions in moth larvae by manipulating genes using the RNA interference technology (RNAi). RNAi is induced by feeding larvae with plants that have been treated with viral vectors. This method -- called "plant virus based dsRNA producing system" (VDPS) -- increases sample throughput compared to the use of genetically transformed plants. 

Researchers have identified how resveratrol, a naturally occurring chemical found in red wine and other plant products, may confer its health benefits. The authors present evidence that resveratrol does not directly activate sirtuin 1, a protein associated with aging. Rather, the authors found that resveratrol inhibits certain types of proteins known as phosphodiesterases (PDEs), enzymes that help regulate cell energy.

Studying self-replicating genetic units, called plasmids, found in one of the world's widest-ranging pathogenic soil bacteria -- the crown-gall-disease-causing microorganism Agrobacterium tumefaciens -- biologists are showing how freeloading, mutant derivatives of these plasmids benefit while the virulent, disease-causing plasmids do the heavy-lifting of initiating infection in plant hosts. The research confirms that the ability of bacteria to cause disease comes at a significant cost that is only counterbalanced by the benefits they experience from infected host organisms.

Researchers have determined the critical role one enzyme, lysine-specific demethylase 1 (LSD1), plays as mouse embryonic stem cells (ESCs) differentiate. This research may provide targets for developing drugs to push cells with dysfunctional gene expression programs back to a more normal, healthier state.

Scientists analyzing the release of genetically modified insects into the environment have found that access to accurate scientific information can be misleading.