Monthly Archives: March 2021

ListicleDec 18, 2020| by Ruairi J Mackenzie, Editor for Technology Networks

Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) and Ribonucleic acid (RNA) are perhaps the most important molecules in cell biology, responsible for the storage and reading of genetic information that underpins all life. They are both linear polymers, consisting of sugars, phosphates and bases, but there are some key differences which separate the two1. These distinctions enable the two molecules to work together and fulfil their essential roles. Here, we look at 5 key differences between DNA and RNA. Before we delve into the differences, we take a look at these two nucleic acids side-by-side.

A Comparison of the Helix and Base Structure of RNA and DNA

Comparison

DNA

RNA

Both DNA and RNA are built with a sugar backbone, but whereas the sugar in DNA is called deoxyribose (left in image), the sugar in RNA is called simply ribose (right in image). The deoxy prefix denotes that, whilst RNA has two hydroxyl (-OH) groups attached to its carbon backbone, DNA has only one, and has a lone hydrogen atom attached instead. RNAs extra hydroxyl group proves useful in the process of converting genetic code into mRNAs that can be made into proteins, whilst the deoxyribose sugar gives DNA more stability4.

The Chemical Structures of Deoxyribose (left) and Ribose (right) Sugars

The nitrogen bases in DNA are the basic units of genetic code, and their correct ordering and pairing is essential to biological function. The four bases that make up this code are adenine (A), thymine (T), guanine (G) and cytosine (C). Bases pair off together in a double helix structure, these pairs being A and T, and C and G. RNA doesnt contain thymine bases, replacing them with uracil bases (U), which pair to adenine1.

Eukaryotic cells, including all animal and plant cells, house the great majority of their DNA in the nucleus, where it exists in a tightly compressed form, called a chromosome5. This squeezed format means the DNA can be easily stored and transferred. In addition to nuclear DNA, some DNA is present in energy-producing mitochondria, small organelles found free-floating in the cytoplasm, the area of the cell outside the nucleus.

The three types of RNA are found in different locations. mRNA is made in the nucleus, with each mRNA fragment copied from its relative piece of DNA, before leaving the nucleus and entering the cytoplasm. The fragments are then shuttled around the cell as needed, moved along by the cells internal transport system, the cytoskeleton. tRNA, like mRNA, is a free-roaming molecule that moves around the cytoplasm. If it receives the correct signal from the ribosome, it will then hunt down amino acid subunits in the cytoplasm and bring them to the ribosome to be built into proteins5. rRNA, as previously mentioned, is found as part of ribosomes. Ribosomes are formed in an area of the nucleus called the nucleolus, before being exported to the cytoplasm, where some ribosomes float freely. Other cytoplasmic ribosomes are bound to the endoplasmic reticulum, a membranous structure that helps process proteins and export them from the cell6.

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DNA vs. RNA 5 Key Differences and Comparison ...

SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. and PARIS, March 2, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- DNA Script, a leading pioneer in enabling DNA synthesis on demand, today announced that the company has been selected by GE Research to join a collaboration to develop a rapid response, mobile medical manufacturing platform to enable on-demand production of nucleic acid-based vaccines and therapies. The $41-million, five-year project was awarded as part of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency's (DARPA) Nucleic Acids On-Demand World-Wide (NOW) program. As part of the agreement, DNA Script will receive up to $9.35 million.

The collaboration, which seeks to create a platform that can produce thousands of ready-to-use vaccine doses at sites of need in under three days, will employ DNA Script's enzymatic DNA synthesis (EDS) platform to quickly generate high-fidelity nucleic acids to fuel GE's industrial-scale nucleic acid amplification production capability. Building nucleic acids by traditional chemical synthesis requires the handling and ventilation of hazardous chemicals and environmental conditions not amenable to rapid response mobile manufacturing. DNA Script's SYNTAX EDS system prints high-quality nucleic acids in a compact benchtop instrument without the need for toxic solvents or special conditions.

DARPA's NOW program, managed by Dr. Amy Jenkins in the Biological Technologies Office, was created to develop a rapid, mobile, medical manufacturing platform. The resulting DNA- and/or RNA-based vaccines and therapeutics would be used to better prepare deployed forces against biothreat attacks and emerging infectious disease as well as used for humanitarian operations. Developing a platform such as this would enable the deployment of vaccines and therapeutics like those developed to fight the COVID-19 pandemic in just days rather than weeks or months.

"Having the ability to produce small batches of ready-to-use vaccines in a few days could prove transformative to beat back a pandemic and avoid the emergence of more dangerous variants," said Thomas Ybert, Chief Executive Officer of DNA Script. "We are excited to collaborate with GE to employ the speed, efficiency and ease-of-use of our EDS technology to create a manufacturing platform that will enable much faster production and deployment of vaccines and ensure a much faster response to potential biothreats."

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As part of the early deployment of its technology and SYNTAX system, DNA Script also recently announced a partnership with the French Department of Defense to develop a rapid mobile manufacturing platform to enable the fast detection of emerging biothreats.

About DNA ScriptFounded in 2014 in Paris, DNA Script is a disruptive DNA synthesis company engineering biology to accelerate breakthroughs in life science. The company is pioneering an alternative to traditional DNA synthesis called enzymatic DNA synthesis, or EDS, making this technology accessible to labs with the world's first benchtop enzymatic synthesis instrument, SYNTAXTM System. By putting DNA synthesis back in the lab, DNA Script is transforming life science research through innovative technology that gives researchers complete control and unprecedented autonomy. http://www.dnascript.com

SOURCE DNA Script

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DNA Script Joins GE Research Collaboration to Develop On-Demand Vaccines and Therapeutics in Response to Biothreats for DARPA NOW Project - PRNewswire

Suddenly Family podcast explores shocking family discoveries through DNA

The podcast series Suddenly Family is exploring what happens when DNA tests reveal family secrets, such as best friends finding out they're actually sisters.

Two Maryland neighbors and best friends never understood why they felt so close to one another, closer than they did to their own families. Turns out, they were sisters.

Ana Zellers made the discovery through a DNA test where it was revealed that she and her childhood neighbor and best friend Joanne Smart shared the same father.

"I put all the pieces together," Zellers says, recounting the moment she broke the news to Smart. "I said, 'You realize that my son is the only living grandson of our biological father. And my son is your nephew...and my grandchildren are related to you."

The discovery is detailed on a new podcast from CNN called "Suddenly Family," hosted by journalist Samuel Burke.

"Eleven percent of people who take a DNA test will discover that one of their parents isn't their biological parent," Burke told FOX 5.

READ MORE:Marylands largest Powerball jackpot remains unclaimed but winners waiting to cash in is nothing new

He says the podcast episode about the Maryland women, titled "Girl Next Door," is one of the most moving of the series.

"She feels more at home with [the Smarts] than she does her own family," Burke says. "Well, it turned out that her mother had an affair with the neighbor's husband."

Other episodes of the podcast include stories about a gay man who finds out he has a child and even a personal anecdote from Burke himself about how he found out he wasn't related to his very own family.

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To listen to the "Suddenly Family" podcast, click here.

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Maryland neighbors and best friends discover they're actually sisters through DNA test - FOX 5 DC

Geneticists are expected to shed light on whether or not Richard III had a dark side

Art Images / Getty Images

History, it is often said, is written by the victors. Such has been the case of the much maligned King Richard III, the last of the Plantagenet line, who has been remembered rather unfavourably as the murderer of his two nephews, 'the Princes in the tower' and characterised as a villainous hunchback by Shakespeare, following his defeat at the Battle of Bosworth by Henry Tudor, the father of the dynasty of the same name and future King Henry VII.

Now, geneticists are hoping to discover just how true these allegations against Richard III might be through advanced genome science that might be able to reveal his personality, and whether he was pre-disposed to conditions such as narcissism or psychopathy.

The move comes after scientists at Leicester University - the same who managed to prove that bones excavated in a carpark in 2013 belonged to the 15th century monarch - have sequenced his complete genome, the first time that this has been done for a historical figure.

Professor Turi King

David Wong / South China Morning Post via Getty Images

Professor Turi King, of the university's department of genetics and genome biology, told The Times: 'Its really interesting and runs the gamut from his blood type to was he lactose intolerant to was he genetically predisposed to baldness or heart disease.'

As well as his health, including discovering the origins of his scoliosis, which gave him the curved spine he is remembered for in Shakespeare, it is also believed that scientists will be able to learn more about what Richard looked like. Following the 2013 excavation, they were able to work out that he was blond-haired and blue-eyed.

The next stage after that could see links being made between certain genes and personality traits, such as violent aggression, psychopathy and narcissism. However, it is important to caveat that discovery of any of these predispositions does not 'prove' either reading of Richard as crook or hero misjudged by history, with his environment also having an impact on his personality, as the endless debate over nature vs. nurture would point out.

Professor King will appear on BBC 2's new series DNA Family Secrets weekly from tomorrow at 9pm.

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Will new DNA technology dispel the myth that Richard III was one of history's villains? - Tatler

Do you like to take a nap during the day? (Getty)

If youre the sort of person who enjoys a little nap in the afternoon, you might not be able to help it because it could be in your DNA.

Researchers from Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) have found several gene regions that appear to be related to the tendency to take naps during the day,

They used data from the UK Biobank, which includes genetic information from 452,633 people for the study, published in Nature.

The researchers say some people who wake up early may "catch up" with a nap, while others need a nap because of disturbed sleep and others may simply need more sleep.

Watch: How to improve your sleep

Read more: Drinking Oolong tea could help you burn fat in your sleep

Hassan Saeed Dashti of Harvard Medical School said napping is "somewhat controversial", and that its difficult to disentangle napping from the culture around it, such as in Spain where it used to be part of the culture but is now discouraged.

"It was important to try to disentangle the biological pathways that contribute to why we nap, he wrote.

Participants wore fitness-band-style acceleratometers to monitor their activity and filled in quizzes on whether they napped "rarely", "sometimes", or "usually".

Read more: There might once have been life on the moon

The researchers performed a genome-wide association study (GWAS), which involves rapid scanning of complete sets of DNA, or genomes, of a large number of people.

A large number of the genes near or at regions identified by the GWAS are already known to play a role in sleep, such as KSR2, which has previously been found to play a part in sleep regulation.

Several gene variants linked to napping were already associated with a neuropeptide called orexin, which plays a role in wakefulness.

Iyas Daghlas, a medical student at Harvard Medical School, said: "This pathway is known to be involved in rare sleep disorders like narcolepsy, but our findings show that smaller perturbations in the pathway can explain why some people nap more than others.

Story continues

Read more: New theory on where space rock which killed dinosaurs came from

Dashti said: "This tells us that daytime napping is biologically driven and not just an environmental or behavioral choice.

"Future work may help to develop personalised recommendations for siesta.

Watch: Simple steps to a healthier life

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If you like to nap, the reason could be in your DNA - Yahoo Sports

SAN JOSE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--OmniTier announced today that its CompStor family now supports mitochondrial analysis in both its secondary and tertiary analysis appliances.

Accurate identification of the mitochondrial genome and its translocations into the nuclear genome are key requirements for researchers and clinicians seeking to improve their understanding of mitochondrial dysfunction.

CompStor Novos now generates small-variant identification that is compatible with GATKs best-practices for mitochondrial variants. Variant calling on the mitochondrial genome must overcome additional challenges that are not present in standard nuclear genome analysis. Because mitochondrial DNA is circular, standard linear analysis produces errors at the ostensible extremities of the mitochondrial sequence. In addition, the number of types of mitochondrial DNA that may be present in a single sample is not simply bounded. CompStor Novos handles these challenges optimally, producing accurate identification of multi-plasmic variants even at the reference extremities.

Uniquely, CompStor Novos also identifies structural variants (SVs) in the nuclear genome which have been copied at some point in time from the mitochondrial genome. These nuclear mitochondrial SVs (NuMTs) may modulate the action of mitochondrial genes and therefore can play an important part of any modern mitochondrial study. CompStor Novos typically identifies 10-30 NuMTs in a sample; the vast majority of these NuMTs (> 80%) are not detected by any alternative, generally available SV pipeline.

CompStor Insight, OmniTiers tertiary analysis appliance, has been expanded to include annotation and interpretation of known mitochondrial variants which are associated with various levels of plasmy and population frequency, according to several industry-standard databases. Exclusive mitochondrial DNA visualization technology within CompStor Insight gives researchers a complete summary of small-variant plasmy and population frequency at a single glance.

About Mitochondrial DNA analysis

Circular mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) chromosomes, inherited maternally, nominally contain 16,569 base pairs. mtDNA interests researchers and clinical scientists not only for tracing matrilineal phylogeny, but because it exhibits a higher mutation rate than nuclear DNA. mtDNA mutations have been associated with diverse forms of human disease and aging and may predispose individuals to Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease.

Availability

Mitochondrial variant identification, annotation and interpretation will be included at no additional charge for new CompStor customers, and for those customers on support and maintenance.

About CompStor Novos

CompStor Novos is a high throughput, low cost, integrated, easy to use, genomics secondary analysis appliance supporting Illumina, PacBio and BGI sequencers. Delivering complete, end-to-end, WGS and WES secondary analysis pipelines, CompStor Novos includes both alignment and de novo assembly for genome reconstruction.

About CompStor Insight

CompStor Insight is the first tertiary analysis appliance on the market and enables faster time-to-results, and low variant interpretation per-subject cost. With an easy set up and straightforward web browser interface, scientific teams can collaborate and take advantage of push-button workflows for annotation, filtering, visualization and querying of variant data.

About OmniTier

OmniTier develops AI and multiomics appliances and software for bioinformaticians and clinical researchers that deliver affordable analysis solutions. Its integrated appliance solutions accelerate data-intensive genomic workflows and analysis utilizing machine learning and AI. Founded in February 2015, the company has R&D operations in Milpitas, CA and Rochester, MN.

CompStor appliances are for research purposes only. CompStor Novos, CompStor Insight and CompStor are trademarks of OmniTier, Inc.

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Mitochondrial DNA Analysis Is Added to OmniTier's CompStor Family of Genomics Secondary and Tertiary Analysis Appliances - Business Wire