A new study finds that proteins known as linker histones control the complex coiling process that determines whether DNA will wind into long and thin chromosomes, made up of many small loops, or short ...

Histones are proteins that are used to organize and compact DNA. Some giant viruses called Marseilleviridae, which infect amoebas, have also been found to use histones; they wind their DNA around ...

In our cells, 6 feet (1.8 m) of DNA gets crammed into chromosomes that fit inside a 6-µm-wide nucleus. The proteins that help pack up that genetic material are histones, which act as spools around ...

UCLA scientists have identified a new function for histones, the spool-shaped proteins that regulate gene expression and serve as anchors for strands of DNA to wrap around. The researchers discovered ...

In the cell nucleus histones play a crucial role packaging DNA into chromatin. Histones are however very sticky to both DNA and RNA, so to ensure they are transported to the cell nucleus after ...

Lung fibrosis is a debilitating disease affecting nearly 250,000 people in the U.S. alone with 50,000 new cases reported each year. There is currently no cure and limited available treatment options, ...

Overproduction of histones also predicted aggressiveness of invasive breast cancer based on an analysis of 13 paraffin-embedded samples. One of the study’s co-first authors, Ye Zheng, PhD, then a ...

The paper Z. Li et al., “Lipid droplets control the maternal histone supply of Drosophila embryos,” Curr Biol, 22: 2104-13, 2012. The finding Excess free-floating histones are toxic to cells. Yet ...

This article was originally featured on Knowable Magazine. Every second, as we breathe, sleep, eat and go about our lives, millions of biochemical reactions are happening in our cells. Among the hurly ...