Blog Post

Cryptic genetic variation (CGV) is invisible under normal conditions but fuel for evolution when circumstances change. In theory, CGV can represent a massive cache of adaptive potential or a pool of deleterious alleles in need of constant suppression. CGV emerges from both neutral and selective processes and it may inform how human populations respond to […]

Argonaute protein is involved in RNAi, it recognizes and binds to siRNA duplex, cleaves and removes passenger strand, and allows guide strand to scan target mRNA. Argonaute (AGO) proteins have 4 discrete folding units: N-terminal: Acts as a wedge. PAZ domain: contains a binding pocket, anchors the 2-nucleotide 3′ overhang of siRNA like duplex. MID

Intracellular ratio of rNTP/ dNTP is very high. DNA polymerase: It actively discriminates against rNTPs via a “STERIC gate” formed by the Glu and Phe side chains, which excludes 2′-OH group of rNTP. But because of high concentration of rNTPs, they still get incorporated into DNA by Pol δ and ε. rNTP incorporation rate is

Before questioning Dark DNA existence, one should understand what is Dark DNA? We call the hidden sequence “dark DNA” as a reference to dark matter, the stuff that we think makes up about 25% of the universe but that we can’t actually detect. So the dark DNA is sequence which is present in genome; but