The human Y chromosome, responsible for determining male sex, finally has gotten an end-to-end examination. The Y chromosome is the smallest of the human chromosomes. “In the old time, people thought ...

The human genetic blueprint is deceptively simple. Our genes are tightly wound into 46 X-shaped structures called chromosomes. Crafted by evolution, they carry DNA and replicate when cells divide, ...

Among the many marvels of life is the cell's ability to divide and thus enable organisms to grow and renew themselves. For this, the cell must duplicate its DNA—its genome—and segregate it equally ...

Scientists have discovered a new property of the molecular motors that shape our chromosomes. While six years ago they found that these so-called SMC motor proteins make long loops in our DNA, they ...

How does DNA recombination work? It occurs frequently in many different cell types, and it has important implications for genomic integrity, evolution, and human disease. In the alternate pathway ...

Human fertility hinges on a delicate molecular ballet that begins even before birth. UC Davis researchers have uncovered how special protein networks safeguard chromosomes as eggs and sperm form, ...

The central area of chromosomes, the centromere, contains DNA that has survived largely unchanged for hundreds of thousands of years, researchers at UC Davis and the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory have ...

Genes get shuffled and re-dealt with every new generation, meaning many are relatively recent. But while exploring the "dark heart" of the human genome, geneticists have now found some of the most ...

There are only so many ways to cram DNA into a cell’s nucleus, a study suggests. A cell’s complete genetic blueprint, or genome, is densely packed into chromosomes, condensing meters of DNA into a ...