Cells Coordinate Gene Activity With FM Bursts, Scientists Find
Wednesday, October 1, 2008 - 23:35
in Biology & Nature
How a cell achieves the coordinated control of a number of genes at the same time has long puzzled scientists. Researchers have discovered a surprising answer. Just as human engineers control devices ranging from dimmer switches to retrorockets using frequency modulated signals, cells tune the expression of groups of genes using discrete bursts of activation.