The story of life’s beginnings gets stranger when you look closely at viruses. These tiny entities seem to sit at the edge of biology.

A giant DNA virus pulled from a Japanese freshwater pond is forcing scientists to rethink how complex cells first acquired their defining feature: the nucleus. Named ushikuvirus, the newly ...

Genetics tools have advanced significantly in recent decades, and have allowed scientist to sequence all of the genetic ...

In a new study, published in Cell, researchers describe a newfound mechanism for creating proteins in a giant DNA virus, comparable to a mechanism in eukaryotic cells. The finding challenges the dogma ...

Herpes simplex virus partially liquefies the tightly packed, gel-like interior of human cell nuclei to copy itself faster, a new study shows. The research centers on how the nucleus of each human cell ...

DNA that humans acquired from ancient viruses plays a key role in switching parts of our genetic code on and off, a new study has found. Nearly half of the human genome consists of segments called ...

CRISPR-Cas9 is a customizable tool that lets scientists cut and insert small pieces of DNA at precise areas along a DNA strand. This lets scientists study genes in a specific, targeted way. (NHGRI via ...

A tiny, four-fingered "hand" folded from a single piece of DNA can pick up the virus that causes COVID-19 for highly sensitive rapid detection and can even block viral particles from entering cells to ...

Around 8 percent of human DNA is made up of genetic sequences acquired from ancient viruses. These sequences, known as human endogenous retroviruses (or Hervs), date back hundreds of thousands to ...