While recent studies have identified higher than anticipated heterogeneity of mutation rate across genomic regions, mutations in exons and introns are assumed to be generated at the same rate. Here we ...

For decades, scientists believed the essence of life was written solely in four chemical bases: A, C, T, and G. Together, ...

In the genome, genes that code for protein are often divided into sections called exons, which are separated by spacers called introns. When a region of DNA is transcribed into messenger RNA (mRNA) or ...

One of the most long-standing, fundamental mysteries of biology surrounds the poorly understood origins of introns. Introns are segments of noncoding DNA that must be removed from the genetic code ...

The sequences of nonsense DNA that interrupt genes could be far more important to the evolution of genomes than previously thought, according to researchers. Their study of the model organism Daphnia ...

DNA is the genetic code that provides the biological instructions for every living species, but not every bit of DNA helps the species survive. Some pieces of DNA are more like parasites, along for ...

Our genome contains the genes that code for the proteins that carry out most biological functions, as well as a lot of other sequence. Some of that other sequence serves various regulatory roles, and ...

Researchers at Baylor College of Medicine and collaborating institutions have discovered that a protein called hnRNPM helps protect the integrity of the process cells use to make proteins. The protein ...

Scientists have discovered that some tiny segments of RNA thought to be junk instead have a functional role in suppressing production of certain messenger RNAs and appear to help cells respond to ...

A new study points to introners, one of several proposed mechanisms for the creation of introns, as an explanation for the origins of most introns across species. One of the most long-standing, ...