News tagged with transcription factors

Research finds key molecules involved in forming long-term memories

How does one's experience of an event get translated into a memory that can be accessed months, even years later? A team led by University of Pennsylvania scientists has come closer to answering that question, identifying ...

Medical research created Sep 10, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (6) | comments 3 | with audio podcast

Study uncovers molecular role of gene linked to blood vessel formation

University of North Carolina researchers have discovered that disrupting a gene that acts as a regulatory switch to turn on other genes can keep blood vessels from forming and developing properly.

Medical research created Apr 29, 2013 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Neurons derived from cord blood cells may represent new therapeutic option

For more than 20 years, doctors have been using cells from blood that remains in the placenta and umbilical cord after childbirth to treat a variety of illnesses, from cancer and immune disorders to blood ...

Medical research created Jul 16, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (5) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

New compound discovered that rapidly kills liver cancer

Scientists have identified a new compound that rapidly kills hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) cells, the most common form of liver cancer and fifth most common cancer worldwide, while sparing healthy tissue. The compound, Factor ...

Cancer created Mar 14, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (20) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Gene regenerates heart tissue, critical finding for heart failure prevention

Researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center have identified a specific gene that regulates the heart's ability to regenerate after injuries.

Genetics created Apr 17, 2013 | popularity 4.7 / 5 (3) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Study finds how to shutdown cancer's powerful master protein

The powerful master regulatory transcription factor called Bcl6 is key to the survival of a majority of aggressive lymphomas, which arise from the B-cells of the immune system. The protein has long been considered too complex ...

Immunology created Mar 03, 2013 | popularity 5 / 5 (6) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Team finds markers related to ovarian cancer survival and recurrence

(Medical Xpress)—Researchers at the University of Illinois have identified biomarkers that can be used to determine ovarian cancer survival and recurrence, and have shown how these biomarkers interact with ...

Cancer created Apr 30, 2013 | popularity not rated yet | comments 1 | with audio podcast

Study finds how stress, depression can shrink the brain

Major depression or chronic stress can cause the loss of brain volume, a condition that contributes to both emotional and cognitive impairment. Now a team of researchers led by Yale scientists has discovered ...

Psychology & Psychiatry created Aug 12, 2012 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (6) | comments 3 | with audio podcast

ENCODE project: Yale team finds order amidst the chaos within the human genome

The massive Encyclopedia of DNA Elements (ENCODE) unveiled Sept. 5 reveals a human genome vastly more rich and complex than envisioned even a decade ago. In a key supporting paper published in the journal Nature, the lab of ...

Genetics created Sep 05, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (6) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Regulating single protein prompts fibroblasts to become neurons

Repression of a single protein in ordinary fibroblasts is sufficient to directly convert the cells – abundantly found in connective tissues – into functional neurons. The findings, which could have far-reaching ...

Medical research created Jan 10, 2013 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Researchers and colleagues identify PHF20, a regulator of gene P53

Researchers at Moffitt Cancer Center and colleagues have identified PHF20, a novel transcriptional factor, and clarified its role in maintaining the stability and transcription of p53, a gene that allows for both normal cell ...

Cancer created Aug 24, 2012 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Scientists show how fatty diets cause diabetes

Newly diagnosed type 2 diabetics tend to have one thing in common: obesity. Exactly how diet and obesity trigger diabetes has long been the subject of intense scientific research. A new study led by Jamey ...

Medical research created Aug 14, 2011 | popularity 4.7 / 5 (15) | comments 13 | with audio podcast

Research team discovers genes and disease mechanisms behind a common form of muscular dystrophy

Continuing a series of groundbreaking discoveries begun in 2010 about the genetic causes of the third most common form of inherited muscular dystrophy, an international team of researchers led by a scientist at Fred Hutchinson ...

Cancer created Jan 12, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

SUMO-snipping protein plays crucial role in T and B cell development

When SUMO grips STAT5, a protein that activates genes, it blocks the healthy embryonic development of immune B cells and T cells unless its nemesis breaks the hold, a research team led by scientists at The University of Texas ...

Genetics created Jan 27, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (3) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Smokers could be more prone to schizophrenia, study finds

Smoking alters the impact of a schizophrenia risk gene. Scientists from the universities of Zurich and Cologne demonstrate that healthy people who carry this risk gene and smoke process acoustic stimuli in a similarly deficient ...

Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes created Mar 26, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Transcription factor

In the field of molecular biology, a transcription factor (sometimes called a sequence-specific DNA binding factor) is a protein that binds to specific DNA sequences and thereby controls the transfer (or transcription) of genetic information from DNA to mRNA. Transcription factors perform this function alone or with other proteins in a complex, by promoting (as an activator), or blocking (as a repressor) the recruitment of RNA polymerase (the enzyme which performs the transcription of genetic information from DNA to RNA) to specific genes.

A defining feature of transcription factors is that they contain one or more DNA binding domains (DBDs) which attach to specific sequences of DNA adjacent to the genes that they regulate. Additional proteins such as coactivators, chromatin remodelers, histone acetylases, deacetylases, kinases, and methylases, while also playing crucial roles in gene regulation, lack DNA binding domains, and therefore are not classified as transcription factors.

For more information about Transcription factor, read the full article at Wikipedia.
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