Scientists at the University of York and the University of Sheffield have imaged two DNA double helices zipping together for the first time. The observation solves a fundamental puzzle in biology: how matching DNA molecules overcome their identical negative charges to draw close together.

An international consortium led by IRB Barcelona has produced the first comprehensive atlas showing how the DNA sequence determines its shape, flexibility, and movements at the hexamer level.

These physical properties influence how DNA interacts with proteins and organizes itself inside the cell and are essential for understanding genome regulation.

The analysis of 2,080 unique hexamers using long-duration molecular dynamics simulations provides evidence that this physical behaviour of DNA has influenced genome evolution.

In the pollination evolution of angiosperms, oil flowers represent a highly unique group. Approximately 2000 species across 11 families secrete lipids (rather than traditional nectar) through specialized oil glands as floral rewards. Oil-offering plants rely heavily on specialized oil-collecting bees for pollination, with females using specialized brushes on their legs to collect lipids for nest-building and larval provisioning. Among them, Macropis (Melittidae) is a classic genus of oil-collecting bees known for their strict oligolecty on the genus Lysimachia (Primulaceae). However, for decades, studies in Europe and North America generally assumed that Macropis bees primarily associate with oil-secreting loosestrifes, where males also patrol for mates. Prior to this work, specialized visits by Macropis bees—especially males—to non-oil, nectar-bearing Lysimachia species had not been documented.

Stowers Institute for Medical Research Investigator Julia Zeitlinger, Ph.D., and her team partnered with Google DeepMind on AlphaGenome Atlas, a new AI-generated resource released today that predicts the molecular effects of more than 9 billion possible single-letter DNA changes across the human genome. Zeitlinger's lab used the Atlas to map regulatory motifs — the short DNA sequences that help determine which genes are turned on and off — at base-pair resolution across hundreds of cell types, work that would be impractical to do experimentally. The one-petabyte resource is searchable through a web browser without writing code, allowing researchers to prioritize which genetic variants and biological mechanisms to investigate first. Researchers from Google DeepMind, Stowers, Broad Institute, the University of Exeter, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and Stanford University contributed scientific input and tested applications of the resource.

Researchers in Denmark have found that girls whose mothers took paracetamol during pregnancy had smaller ovaries, fewer ovarian follicles (the structures that contain immature eggs), smaller uteruses and lower levels of reproductive hormones at three months old. In a study published on Wednesday in Human Reproduction Open, the researchers said their results were consistent with findings from several previous studies in animals. However, they noted that, as this was an observational study, the findings do not establish a direct cause-and-effect relationship.

A new study reveals that horse personality is not only a matter of genetics, age, or breed but also systematically linked to how horses are housed, ridden, and cared for, and to the quality of the relationship they share with their owners. The findings underscore the importance of everyday management decisions for equine personality and welfare.

A research team led by Vicent Arbona Mengual from the Department of Biology, Biochemistry and Natural Sciences at Universitat Jaume I has secured a European project under the EIC Pathfinder Challenges programme whose main objective is to generate genetically modified citrus lines with greater resilience to adverse conditions caused by climate change and its exacerbating effects on pests and diseases. The project will focus primarily on sweet orange (Citrus sinensis) and mandarin (Citrus reticulata).Citrus fruits are functional foods that combine nutritional value with health-promoting properties thanks to their antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and cardioprotective effects. In addition to introducing genetic modifications to improve resilience to climate change, the project also aims to promote the biofortification of citrus fruits in order to enhance their nutritional properties by increasing both naturally occurring compounds (flavonoids and furanocoumarins) and non-native compounds (resveratrol). The latter, a stilbene found in grapes and cocoa, has been selected because of its cardioprotective and anti-ageing properties.