Molecular Biology Content

Molecular Fossils Shed Light on Ancient Life

Andy Fell — December 07, 2023 - 9:00am

Paleontologists are getting a glimpse at life over a billion years in the past based on chemical traces in ancient rocks and the genetics of living animals. Research published Dec. 1 in Nature Communications combines geology and genetics, showing how changes in the early Earth prompted a shift in how animals eat.

New Light-Activated Technique to Track Protein Interactions

Andy Fell — October 11, 2023 - 10:10am

Biomedical engineers at ��ɫ��Ƶ have come up with a new tool for tracing interactions between proteins. The new, light-activated tool could have wide applications in cell biology.

Single-protein Images Show How E. coli Repairs DNA While Replicating It

Andy Fell — September 22, 2022 - 11:34am

The success of E. coli bacteria depends on their ability to multiply very rapidly by dividing into new cells. The bacteria can divide as quickly as they can make an entire new copy of their DNA while minimizing errors. New work from researchers at the University of California, Davis College of Biological Sciences answers a key question about how E. coli fixes damage to DNA in the middle of duplicating it.

Understanding Growth Regulation by Protein Degradation in Trees for Bioenergy

Andy Fell — September 14, 2022 - 11:58am

The U.S. Department of Energy is funding a project at the ��ɫ��Ƶ College of Biological Sciences to study the function of genes that regulate growth and wood formation in poplar trees. The three-year, $2.5 million project is led by Nitzan Shabek, assistant professor in the ��ɫ��Ƶ Department of Plant Biology together with Andrew Groover at the USDA Pacific Southwest Research Station in Davis and Justin Walley, Iowa State University.

Understanding Healthy Function of Tau, Protein Associated with Dementia

Andy Fell — August 25, 2022 - 11:23am

Insoluble tangles of tau protein are found in Alzheimers and other dementias. But the tau protein also has a role in healthy brains. A new study shows how tau modifies microtubules, helping to regulate cell functions.

Study Reveals How the Ovarian Reserve Is Established

Andy Fell — August 10, 2022 - 8:20am

Fertility is finite for mammalian females. From birth, females possess a limited number of primordial follicles, collectively called the ovarian reserve. Within each follicle is an oocyte that eventually becomes an egg. But with age, the follicles in the ovarian reserve decrease.

Start Here to Make a Protein

Andy Fell — September 03, 2020 - 4:39pm

Researchers at the University of California, Davis, and the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, U.K., have solved the structure of the complex formed when mRNA is being scanned to find the starting point for translating RNA into a protein. The discovery, published Sept. 4 in Science, provides new understanding of this fundamental process.

Study Finds Missing Link in the Evolutionary History of Carbon-Fixing Protein Rubisco

Andy Fell — August 31, 2020 - 10:49am

A team led by researchers at the University of California, Davis, has discovered a missing link in the evolution of photosynthesis and carbon fixation. Dating back more than 2.4 billion years, a newly discovered form of the plant enzyme rubisco could give new insight into plant evolution and breeding.

Rubisco is the most abundant enzyme on the planet. Present in plants, cyanobacteria (also known as blue-green algae) and other photosynthetic organisms, it’s central to the process of carbon fixation and is one of Earth’s oldest carbon-fixing enzymes.

New Cryo-Electron Microscope Powers Biological Sciences Discovery

Andy Fell — February 11, 2020 - 5:06pm

A new era in structural biology is coming to ��ɫ��Ƶ, and it is already yielding discoveries.

It’s called cryoelectron microscopy, or cryo-EM, and it allows biologists to capture three-dimensional movies of biological molecules down to the scale of single atoms.

Pew Scholarship Will Investigate Molecular, Cellular Effects of Traumatic Brain Injury

Kimberly L Hale — June 14, 2018 - 11:36am

When researchers revealed that the brain of late NFL player Aaron Hernandez showed signs of stage III chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE, a degenerative brain disease, Kassandra Ori-McKenney wondered if the hits Hernandez took as a tight end for the New England Patriots contributed to the athlete’s troubling, aggressive behavior and eventual suicide.