Remember when encyclopaedias were books, and not just websites? You’d have a shelf full of information, packaged into entries, and then into separate volumes. Your genome is organised in a similar way ...

image: A study led by Princeton University researchers found that the pond-dwelling, single-celled organism Oxytricha trifallax (above) has the remarkable ability to break its own DNA into nearly a ...

In Oxytricha trifallax, 96% of the micronuclear genome is eliminated during formation of the macronucleus. The macronuclear genome in Oxytricha is composed of tens of thousands of tiny chromosomes.

Scientists have called it "junk DNA." They have long been perplexed by these extensive strands of genetic material that dominate the genome but seem to lack specific functions. Why would nature force ...

Genome-wide DNA rearrangements occur in many eukaryotes but are most exaggerated in ciliates, making them ideal model systems for epigenetic phenomena. During development of the somatic macronucleus, ...

A pond-dwelling, single-celled organism has the remarkable ability to break its own DNA into nearly a quarter-million pieces and rapidly reassemble those pieces when it's time to mate. This elaborate ...