A component of the human intestinal flora that has been little studied to date is the focus of a new study from Germany. Plasmids are small extrachromosomal genetic elements that frequently occur in ...

Human egg cells are often prone to chromosomal errors. As women age, the error rate increases sharply — and can contribute to infertility, pregnancy loss, and ...

For much of the 20th century it was thought that the adult brain was incapable of regeneration. This view has since shifted dramatically and neurogenesis—the birth of new neurons—is now a widely ...

The cracking of the genetic code in the 1960s has revealed genes that make RNA but not proteins; these included transfer RNA 1 and ribosomal RNA genes 2. Since then, additional classes of noncoding ...

Researchers use zebrafish models to discover that the RLS risk gene MEIS1 regulates Purkinje cell survival and motor control.