Epigenetics Research News

June 20, 2025

Top Headlines

Cannabis Pangenome Reveals Potential for Medicinal and Industrial Use

May 29, 2025 — Scientists analyzed almost 200 cannabis genomes to create the most comprehensive, high-quality, detailed genetic atlas of the plant to date. The atlas reveals unprecedented diversity and complexity within the species, sets the stage for advances in ...

A High-Fat Diet Sets Off Metabolic Dysfunction in Cells, Leading to Weight Gain

May 29, 2025 — Researchers find high-fat diets set off metabolic dysfunction in cells, leading to weight gain, but these effects can be reversed by treatment with an ...

Study Discovers DNA Switch That Controls TB Growth, and Could Help Unlock Its Antibiotic Resistance Secrets

May 26, 2025 — The bacteria that cause tuberculosis (TB) may have an 'on-off switch' that lets them pause and restart growth, according to a new study. The research helps explain why TB is so hard to treat with ...

Modulation of Antiviral Response in Fungi Via RNA Editing

May 23, 2025 — The molecular pathways involved in antiviral defenses and counter-defenses in host-pathogen systems remain unclear. Researchers have used Neurospora crassa as a model organism to explore how RNA editing influences fungal antiviral responses. They ...

Scientists Track Down Mutation That Makes Orange Cats Orange

May 15, 2025 — Many an orange cat-affiliated human will vouch for their cat's, let's say, specialness. But now scientists have confirmed that there is, in fact, something unique about ginger-hued domestic felines. In a new study, researchers have discovered the ...

Marsupial Research Reveals How Mammalian Embryos Form

May 15, 2025 — Researchers have revealed insight into why embryos erase a key epigenetic mark during early development, suggesting this may have evolved to help form a ...

Not All Orangutan Mothers Raise Their Infants the Same Way

May 14, 2025 — Sumatran orangutan mothers differ from one another in how they behave with and take care of their infants and how flexibly they adjust their mothering behaviors as their infants grow. Whilst mothers differed from one another in their maternal ...

Bacteria: Recording Gene Activity More Efficiently

May 8, 2025 — Analysing the gene activity of every single bacterial cell in a colony? A new technique of single-cell transcriptomics developed in W rzburg can do this much more efficiently than other methods: It reliably detects 300 to 600 genes per bacterial ...

How DNA Self-Organizes in the Early Embryo

Apr. 23, 2025 — An international research team has provided a detailed insight into how the spatial organization of genetic material is established in the cell nucleus of early embryos within the first hours after fertilization. Surprisingly, embryos demonstrate a ...

Researchers Use Machine Learning to Engineer 'Bespoke Enzymes' for Gene Editing

Apr. 23, 2025 — Genome editing has advanced at a rapid pace with promising results for treating genetic conditions -- but there is always room for improvement. A new paper showcases the power of scalable protein ...

New Tool for Cutting DNA: Promising Prospects for Biotechnology

Apr. 14, 2025 — A team discovers a new family of enzymes capable of inducing targeted cuts in single-stranded DNA A few years ago, the advent of technology known as CRISPR was a major breakthrough in the scientific world. Developed from a derivative of the immune ...

Key Mechanism to Obtain Brown Algae-Derived Compounds With Biotech Applications

Apr. 13, 2025 — Every year, thousands of tons of brown algae are extracted from the seabed to obtain compounds such as alginates, a polymer composed of sugars that has high density and strength, offering potential ...

Latest Headlines

updated 11:55am EDT

Protein Necessary for Fruit Fly Fertility

Apr. 11, 2025 — Researchers have found a new role for the transcription factor (proteins that regulate the transcription, or copying, of genes). In the fruit fly, this transcription factor, named Traffic Jam, ...

From Bacterial Immunity to Plant Sex

Apr. 9, 2025 — Could it be that one of only three known markers directly targeting the DNA does not exist outside the realm of microbes? Now, researchers have demonstrated that this marker -- N4-methylcytosine ...

How a Critical Enzyme Keeps Potentially Dangerous Genes in Check

Mar. 30, 2025 — The new study reveals a remarkable way that cells keep us safe from transposable elements (TEs) gone wild. The researchers found that cells have taken advantage of an entire protein network to ...

The Evolution of Low-Temperature Adapted Enzymes

Mar. 25, 2025 — Enzymes originally evolved in high-temperature environments and later adapted to lower temperatures as Earth cooled. Scientists discovered that a key shift in enzyme function occurred over ...

How Chromosomes Shape Up for Cell Division

Mar. 24, 2025 — For successful cell division, chromosomal DNA needs to be packed into compact rod-shaped structures. Defects in this process can lead to cell death or diseases like cancer. A new study has shown how ...

Want to Preserve Biodiversity? Go Big

Mar. 12, 2025 — Large, undisturbed forests are better for harboring biodiversity than fragmented landscapes, according to recent research. Ecologists agree that habitat loss and the fragmentation of forests reduces ...

Strong Link Between Western Diet During Pregnancy and ADHD

Mar. 4, 2025 — New research reveals that a mother's diet during pregnancy -- characterized by a Western dietary pattern high in fat and sugar and low in fresh ingredients -- may increase the risk of ...

DNA Origami Suggests Route to Reusable, Multifunctional Biosensors

Feb. 24, 2025 — A team has used a process known as DNA origami to make electrochemical sensors that can quickly detect and measure ...

Digging Into a Decades-Old Hepatitis B Mystery Suggests a New Potential Treatment

Feb. 20, 2025 — In their effort to answer a decades-old biological question about how the hepatitis B virus (HBV) is able to establish infection of liver cells, ...

Warding Off Superbugs With a Pinch of Turmeric

Feb. 6, 2025 — The researchers showed that when curcumin is intentionally given to bacteria as food and then activated by light, it can trigger deleterious reactions within these microbes, eventually killing them. ...

Uncovering How Developmental Genes Are Held in a Poised State

Feb. 6, 2025 — New research has investigated the mechanism by which bivalency functions to poise genes for expression during cell differentiation, providing insight into a long-standing paradigm in the regulation ...

Octopuses Have Some of the Oldest Known Sex Chromosomes

Feb. 3, 2025 — Researchers have identified a sex chromosome in the California two-spot octopus. This chromosome has likely been around for 480 million years, since before octopuses split apart from the nautilus on ...

First Mouse With Two Male Parents to Reach Adulthood

Jan. 28, 2025 — A team of stem cell scientists have successfully used embryonic stem cell engineering to create a bi-paternal mouse -- a mouse with two male parents -- that lived until adulthood. Their results ...

Uncovering the Role of Y Chromosome Genes in Male Fertility in Mice

Jan. 23, 2025 — Researchers have uncovered which genes on the Y chromosome regulate the development of sperm and impact fertility in male mice. This research could help us understand why some men don't produce ...

Solving the Evolutionary Puzzle of Polyploidy: How Genome Duplication Shapes Adaptation

Jan. 23, 2025 — Scientists have developed a theoretical model that uncovers the dual role of polyploidy -- organisms carrying extra genome copies -- in evolution. Their findings reveal that polyploidy can stabilize ...

Can DNA-Nanoparticle Motors Get Up to Speed With Motor Proteins?

Jan. 21, 2025 — DNA-nanoparticle motors are exactly as they sound: tiny artificial motors that use the structures of DNA and RNA to propel motion by enzymatic RNA degradation. Essentially, chemical energy is ...

Revealing a Key Mechanism of Rapid Centromere Evolution

Jan. 1, 2025 — A research team has clarified a mechanism of how retrotransposons, genetic elements that can 'jump around' chromosomes and are known drivers of evolution, preferentially insert in the ...

Histone Modification Important for Correct Blood Cell Formation

Dec. 18, 2024 — Molecular biologists decode the epigenetic silencing of problematic retroviral gene ...

A New Twist: The Molecular Machines That Loop Our Chromosomes Also Twist DNA

Dec. 13, 2024 — 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 ...

Your Immune Cells Are What They Eat

Dec. 12, 2024 — Scientists have discovered that our specialized immune cells, called T cells, are what they eat -- their switch from functional to 'exhausted' depends on the switch from metabolizing ...

Fast, Rewritable Computing With DNA Origami Registers

Dec. 11, 2024 — DNA stores the instructions for life and, along with enzymes and other molecules, computes everything from hair color to risk of developing diseases. Harnessing that prowess and immense storage ...

A New Class of Antivirals Could Help Prevent Future Pandemics

Dec. 11, 2024 — Researchers discovered a vulnerability in viral enzymes that could lead to novel treatments for diseases as diverse as COVID-19 and Ebola -- while also minimizing side effects and reducing the odds ...

Human Disruption Is Driving 'Winner' and 'Loser' Tree Species Shifts Across Brazilian Forests

Dec. 10, 2024 — Fast-growing and small-seeded tree species are dominating Brazilian forests in regions with high levels of deforestation and degradation, a new study shows. This has potential implications for the ...

Close Encounters Between Distant DNA Regions Cause Bursts of Gene Activity

Dec. 6, 2024 — Researchers have revealed a new mechanism underlying how spatial distance between specific regions of DNA is linked to bursts of gene activity. Using advanced cell imaging techniques and computer ...

From One Gene Switch, Many Possible Outcomes

Dec. 5, 2024 — Scientists have uncovered surprising ways transcription factors, the genetic switches for genes, regulate plant development. Their findings reveal how subtle changes in a lipid-binding region called ...

Phosphorylation and Dephosphorylation Enzyme Groups Regulate Sleep and Wakefulness in Mammals

Dec. 3, 2024 — A research group has discovered that in mammals, a protein kinase A (PKA) promotes wakefulness, while protein phosphatase 1 (PP1) and calcineurin promote sleep. This study revealed that the balance ...

New Technology Points to Unexpected Uses for snoRNA

Nov. 22, 2024 — Researchers recently developed a new approach for identifying new cellular RNA targets of snoRNAs. They uncovered thousands of previously unknown targets for snoRNAs in human cells and mouse brain ...

Advancements in Genomic Research Reveal Alternative Transcription Initiation Sites in Thousands of Soybean Genes

Nov. 19, 2024 — Rosalind Franklin, James Watson and Francis Crick discovered the structure of DNA -- that molecular blueprint for life -- over 70 years ago. Today, scientists are still uncovering new ways to read ...

Secrets of Horse Genetics for Conservation, Breeding

Nov. 19, 2024 — Researchers are helping uncover new information about the Y chromosome in horses, which will help owners identify optimal lineages for breeding and help conservationists preserve breed ...

Dieting: Cause of the Yo-Yo Effect Deciphered

Nov. 18, 2024 — Researchers have discovered a mechanism behind the yo-yo effect: fat cells have a memory that is based on ...