The factors involved in the removal of RNA primers during plastid DNA (ptDNA) replication have been unclear. We now identify a plastid-localized 5′–3′ exonuclease (PEN1) that mediates the removal of ...

Researchers discover that messenger RNA discarded by laboratories is the biological key to preventing essential proteins from ...

R-loop is a common chromatin feature consisting of a displaced single-stranded DNA and an RNA-DNA hybrid, and dysregulation of R-loop surveillance results in genomic and transcriptomic instability.

Cells have evolved careful checks to ensure DNA is copied only once, but how they switch on replication at the right moment ...

"DNA guides are far cheaper and easier to manufacture than RNA guides, and they are far more stable," Jain said. "While RNA molecules degrade quickly, DNA can remain intact for long periods." Together ...

IS110 transposons are a large, diverse family of bacterial insertion sequences (IS elements)—small, mobile DNA elements that ...

A chemical modification in the HIV-1 RNA genome whose function has been a matter of scientific debate is now confirmed to be key to the virus's ability to survive and thrive after infecting host cells ...

Chemists at UCL and the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology have demonstrated how RNA (ribonucleic acid) might have replicated itself on early Earth—a key process in the origin of life. Scientists ...

We’re celebrating 180 years of Scientific American. Explore our legacy of discovery and look ahead to the future. In 1957, just four years after Francis Crick and other scientists solved the riddle of ...

This diagram depicts the chemical structure of pyrimidine, a six-membered aromatic ring with two nitrogen atoms at positions 1 and 3 (highlighted in blue). The remaining positions are occupied by ...