New research identifies the molecular mechanisms that keep a plant’s circadian clock running on a 24-hour schedule.
The study, reported this week in the journal Nature, is the first to describe the physical connection between two molecular components -– genes called TOC1 and ZTL — that keep a plant’s “clock” running at the right speed. Scientists have spent more than a decade trying to understand the interactions between the components that regulate a plant’s timing.
Knowin
Researchers at Ohio State University have created a DNA gene chip that contains thousands of the genes for a horse and one of the first gene chips for a domestic animal.
The new chip houses more than 3,200 expressed horse genes on a sliver of glass about the size of a postage stamp. When the researchers began developing this chip two years ago, only 200 horse genes were known.
This new chip will allow researchers to scan an individual horses genes at once to see which ones are acti
Mike Erice was shocked when a biopsy determined that he was one of the more than 220,000 men diagnosed with prostate cancer each year. Just a year earlier, results of his annual prostate specific antigen test (PSA) had been excellent, giving the 60-year-old private investigator a sense of security. This time, however, his doctor included a digital rectal exam and ordered the biopsy when he felt something suspicious. Because prostate cancer kills 28,000 men each year, Erice and his wife quick
Doctors regularly inject stem cells into patients whose bone marrow has been destroyed by chemotherapy or radiation, but they haven’t known where these cells go after being injected. Research at the Stanford University School of Medicine has yielded an unexpected answer: when injected into mice, these cells may set up camp in one tissue early on but then move to another location or disappear entirely.
Published in the Dec. 15 online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academies
The ink was hardly dry on his new contract as assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering at Lehigh, when Nelson Tansu announced a breakthrough in his research into high-performance lasers.
In two recent issues of Applied Physics Letters (APL) – on July 7 and Sept. 29, Tansu and other collaborating researchers reported the best threshold values to date for near-infrared-range (with an emission wavelength of 1300-nm), indium-gallium-arsenide-nitride (InGaAsN) lasers emitting fr
By studying the “memory” of the respiratory system, a group of researchers from the University of Wisconsin-Madison have identified a key player – a protein called BDNF that’s involved in learning – responsible for the body’s ability to keep breathing properly, despite the challenges it may face.
The findings, published Dec. 14 in the online edition of Nature Neuroscience, could provide ideas of new drug targets, which could lead to new treatments for or ways to prevent a number of
Duke University Medical Center researchers have identified the second of three genes that can each independently cause the disorder known as cerebral cavernous malformations (CCM), which is characterized by mulberry-like clusters of blood vessels in the brain. The finding paves the way for a new genetic test for the rare, familial disease, which typically lies dormant in patients for decades before its potentially devastating symptoms appear, said the researchers.
The vessel lesions in the
Purdue University scientists have peered inside a virus and visualized for the first time how it produces and exports genetic materials into a host cell, an advance in fundamental research that also could have implications for the development of antiviral agents.
Using improved microscope technology, a team including Purdue’s Timothy S. Baker and a colleague at Harvard has determined the structure of a reovirus (short for “respiratory enteric orphan” virus) down to the 7.6-angstrom scale, be
In a follow-up analysis of the most extensive study of its kind on the long-term effects of air pollution on human health, researchers have found that people living in U.S. cities face an increased risk of dying from a heart attack as a result of long-term exposure to air pollution. This increased risk was found to be as large as that associated with being a former smoker. The new analysis is published as a study in the rapid access issue of the journal Circulation, published by the American Heart As
The researchers — led by Lokesh Joshi, an ASU associate professor in the Harrington Department of Bioengineering of the Ira A. Fulton School of Engineering and a member of the Arizona BioDesign Institute — have found a pathway whereby plants can generate human-like proteins. This discovery could lead to an effective means of producing proteins that are medically important and do so with a method that could be effective and less expensive than current methods, Joshi said.
“The discovery ha
A US$53-million international project to sequence the cattle genome, involving CSIRO, was launched today (1pm, Friday, 12 December US, 5am Saturday, 13 December AEST) in Washington, United States.
The joint sequencing effort is led by the US National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI), which is part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and also involves United States Department of Agriculture; the State of Texas; Genome Canada; and Agritech Investments Ltd, Dairy Insight Inc. and
In an effort to stamp out one of the most costly quality control problems facing the Australian wool industry, CSIRO Livestock Industries – with assistance from the Australian Sheep Industry CRC – is investigating which Merino sheep genes are responsible for producing black or piebald offspring.
According to research team leader, Dr Belinda Norris, while the Australian Merino is renowned for its uniformly white fleece, a significant proportion of the national flock may carry gene(s) that ca
Launched on 2 June 2003, after a six-month cruise at an average speed of about 10 kilometres per second and covering a distance of about 400 million kilometres, ESA’s Mars Express will arrive at Mars on Christmas Day.
After a very complicated and challenging series of operations during the night of 24/25 December 2003, the probe will be injected into an elliptical orbit near the poles of the Red Planet, while the Beagle 2 lander – released from the mother craft six days earlier – is exp
Moscow biologists have proved that people can use the capability of some plants to protect themselves from vermin insects with the help of biologically active substances.
It has been found that plants can protect themselves from vermin insects. One way is to use substances which the plants synthesise to suppress insects’ hormones activity and to disrupt their development cycle. Having studied the way these substances act, people can try to use these substances for their own purposes.
AIDS immunisation is still to be improved. Russian scientists suggest that rectal vaccination could be the most effective prevention of HIV transmission. The work is supported by the Interdepartmental Research and Technical Program “Vaccines of new generation and medical diagnostic systems of the future”.
Researchers all over the world strive to obtain a vaccine preventing AIDS. Most promising are DNA-vaccines, which contain genes of human immunodeficiency virus. These genes function within
Research news from the Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture
15 December 2003: The presence of E.coli bacteria, found in foods such as egg white and apple juice, is a major public health concern. The bacteria have, in the past, been inactivated by heat pasteurisation — which can affect flavour and consistency. New evidence published in the Journal of Science of Food and Agriculture, however, suggests that UV irradiation may prove to be a better and more cost effective method
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