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Originally published by Impact Journals LLC on October 25, 2023 Autophagy contributes to cells’ survival during chronological aging. Credit: Aging (2023). DOI: 10.18632/aging.205102 A new research paper titled "Live while the DNA lasts. The role of autophagy in DNA loss and survival of diploid yeast cells during chronological aging " has been published in Aging . Aging is inevitable and affects all cell types. Thus, yeast cells are often used as a model in aging studies. There are two approaches to studying aging in yeast : replicative aging , which describes the proliferative potential of cells, and chronological aging , which is used for studying post-mitotic cells. In this new study, while analyzing the chronological lifespan (CLS) of diploid Saccharomyces cerevisiae cells, researchers Tuguldur Enkhbaatar, Marek Skoneczny, Karolina Stępień, Mateusz Mołoń, and Adrianna Skoneczna from the Polish Academy of Sciences and Rzeszów University discovered a remar

  Originally published by University of California - San Diego, on August 10, 2023 Upper: The bacterium A. baylyi can incorporate DNA from its environment through natural competence. This allows horizontal gene transfer and the integration of cell-free DNA into the A. baylyi genome. Lower: Researchers engineered A. baylyi to find the mutated KRAS gene, which helps colorectal cancers grow. Detection of tumor DNA activated an antibiotic resistance gene to confirm that a tumor was found. Credit: Cooper et al Pushing into a new chapter of technologically advanced biological sensors, scientists from the University of California San Diego and their colleagues in Australia have engineered bacteria that can detect the presence of tumor DNA in a live organism . Their innovation, which d etected cancer in the colons of mice , could pave the way to new biosensors capable of identifying various infections, cancers and other diseases. The advancement is described in the journal Science .

Originally published by Kim Krieger, University of Connecticu, on July 25, 2023   Materials scientists from UConn and Brookhaven National Laboratory built an exceptionally strong, lightweight material out of DNA and glass. The series of images at the top (A) show how the skeleton of the structure is assembled with DNA, then coated with glass. (B) shows a transmission electron microscope image of the material, and (C) shows a scanning electron microscope image of it, with the two right-hand panels zooming in to features at different scales. Credit: University of Connecticut Materials that are both strong and lightweight could improve everything from cars to body armor. But usually, the two qualities are mutually exclusive. Now, University of Connecticut researchers and colleagues have developed an extraordinarily strong, lightweight material using two unlikely building blocks: DNA and glass . "For the given density , our material is the strongest known," says Seok-

Originally published by Stephanie Pappas on May 10, 2023 published 1 day ago   A new version of the human reference genome incorporates genetic data from 47 individuals from around the globe, deepening scientists' view into how genes work.     A new human reference "pangenome" includes DNA data from 47 people. (Image credit: Darryl Leja, NHGRI) Scientists have published the first human "pangenome" — a full genetic sequence that incorporates genomes from not just one individual, but 47.  These 47 individuals hail from around the globe and thus vastly increase the diversity of the genomes represented in the sequence, compared to the previous full human genome sequence that scientists use as their reference for study. The first human genome sequence was released with some gaps in 2003 and only made "gapless" in 2022 . If that first human genome is a simple linear string of genetic code, the new pangenome is a series of branching paths. Rea