To this end, using their tandem analytical technique the team was able to identify the formation of intermediate virion structures that differ from the well-known icosahedral shape commonly observed in these types of viruses. However, it would be nice to have methods that bridge computational, in vitro , and in vivo results. This is where fundamental research is going to be crucial. Reference: Kevin Bond, et al. DOI: smll. How do viruses protect their genetic information?
Researchers uncover the mystery of how viruses avoid encapsulating unwanted genetic material from the crowded cell cytoplasm.
Technological adaptation to climate change is written in our evolutionary history. The main idea behind it: split the long sequence of bases into many shorter fragments that can be analyzed in parallel. To do this, biologists use molecular machines: special proteins enzymes called polymerases. The core function of these proteins is to copy the DNA by running along the strand and building a replica from bases.
Primers contain a given sequence of nucleotides that can attach itself to a DNA strand at a place where it finds a corresponding sequence of complementary bases. Polymerase finds the primer and starts cloning the sequence, taking the building blocks from the solution.
Like every living process, all of this happens in a liquid form. Polymerase clones the sequence until it encounters a marker: a modified nucleotide that ends the process of building the strand further. There is a problem, however. The polymerase, DNA strand, primers, markers, and our building blocks, all are dispersed in the solution.
Continuing to the IT analogy, we can illustrate it in the following manner. Imagine that our DNA is a combination of bits: Using different primers and markers, we will go through all of the possible shorter sequences, and then infer the longer sequence based on the knowledge of what it is composed of. That may sound counterintuitive and complicated, but it works.
In fact, because we have multiple processes in parallel, this method reaches quite a good speed. That is, a few hours compared with months or years — not very fast from IT perspective, though.
After learning how to read DNA, scientists learned how to synthesize sequences of nucleotides. The Microsoft researchers were not the first to try writing information in the form of artificial DNA. First, the researchers have greatly increased the stored data volume, to MB. However, what is really new here is that they have proposed a way of reading part of the DNA, approximately bases bio-bits long, in each sequencing operation.
DNA was believed to be the sole medium for genetic information storage. So it came as a surprise when in , it was discovered that some viruses shift their genetic information from RNA to DNA. Even so, these viruses ultimately make proteins in the same way as higher organisms. The initial conversion of RNA to DNA — going in reverse of the central dogma — is called reverse transcription, and viruses that use this mechanism are classified as retroviruses.
A specialized polymerase, reverse transcriptase, uses the RNA as a template to synthesize complementary and double-stranded DNA molecule. Funded by The Josiah Macy, Jr.
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