Living cells are fundamentally nonequilibrium systems, meaning they constantly spend energy through seemingly one-way, irreversible processes, such as transcribing DNA into RNA, to keep life going.

How enhancers communicate with their target genes to influence transcription is an unresolved question of fundamental importance. Current models of the mechanism of enhancer–target gene or ...

A team of scientists has discovered surprising connections among gene activity, genome packing, and genome-wide motions, revealing aspects of the genome's organization that directly affect gene ...

Northwestern Medicine scientists have, for the first time, described the underlying mechanisms that regulate how cells ...

Life's instructions are written in DNA, but it is the enzyme RNA polymerase II (Pol II) that reads the script, transcribing RNA in eukaryotic cells and eventually giving rise to proteins. Scientists ...

We are providing an unedited version of this manuscript to give early access to its findings. Before final publication, the manuscript will undergo further editing. Please note there may be errors ...

While scientists have studied the molecular steps involved in gene expression for decades, many questions still remain about this fundamental process. To transcribe genes, RNA polymerase II (RNA Pol ...

A cell protein previously believed only to provide a scaffolding for DNA has also been shown to directly influence DNA transcription into RNA – the first step of the process by which an organism's ...

In biology classrooms, we often learn that genes are transcribed into mRNA, which is then translated into proteins—a tidy, linear process. But gene expression in living cells is far more intricate, ...

A team of scientists has discovered surprising connections among gene activity, genome packing, and genome-wide motions, revealing aspects of the genome's organization that directly affect gene ...

New research has uncovered more about the complexity of human gene regulation by identifying certain sequences of proteins called transcription factors that bind to DNA and regulate the expression of ...

Visualization of the genome (green) and a single gene (magenta) in a human cell nucleus, with genomic motions mapped by arrows and an example of a gene trajectory highlighted as a colored curve. A ...