University of Queensland researchers have for the first time introduced genetic material into plants via their roots, opening a potential pathway for rapid crop improvement. Professor Bernard Carroll ...

Around one million individuals worldwide become infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, each year. To replicate and spread the infection, the virus must smuggle its genetic material into the ...

Forty years after the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) was discovered as the cause of Aids, we have therapies that effectively keep the pathogen under control, but there is still no cure. The virus ...

Scientists have analysed the genomes – the complete set of DNA – of 240 mammals with an aim to understand more about the origins of human diseases. From dogs and bats to humans and monkeys, an ...

When a cell is able to take up free DNA or RNA, it is termed “competent”. Some cell types or microbial species, such as Bacillus subtilis, 11 are naturally competent and they can be induced to uptake ...

The story so far: In March 1953, James Watson, the co-discoverer of the structure of DNA, received a note from Harriett Ephrussi-Taylor, a friend from the National Centre for Scientific Research in ...

Science can’t decide if our genes have more or less value than the Baldwin brothers A debate is raging among science nerds and, for once, it doesn’t involve the words “Kirk” and “Picard.” Instead, ...

From the blueprint of life encoded in our DNA to the awe-inspiring complexity of our genetic inheritance, we will embark on a journey through the microscopic world within us and witness the remarkable ...

Scientists have uncovered new genetic evidence from the market in Wuhan, China, where COVID cases first clustered in late 2019. The findings add support to an animal origin of SARS-CoV-2, the virus ...