They can live for more than 100 years and weigh up to 250 kilograms – Aldabra giant tortoises. Researchers at the University of Zurich have now decoded the genome of Aldabrachelys gigantea, one of only two remaining giant tortoise species worldwide. The findings will help to ensure the long-term survival of the threatened species. Aldabra giant tortoises are vulnerable to extinction according to the Red List of the International Union for Conservation of Nature, meaning that the species faces a…
Scientists drive oil accumulation in rapidly growing aquatic plants. Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Brookhaven National Laboratory and collaborators at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) have engineered duckweed to produce high yields of oil. The team added genes to one of nature’s fastest growing aquatic plants to “push” the synthesis of fatty acids, “pull” those fatty acids into oils, and “protect” the oil from degradation. As the scientists explain in a paper published in Plant Biotechnology Journal, such oil-rich…
Bitter protein fragments stimulate gastric acid secretion. Casein makes up the majority of the proteins in cheese and quark. Although casein itself does not taste bitter, its digestion in the stomach also produces bitter-tasting protein fragments (peptides). This has been proven for the first time in a study led by the Leibniz Institute for Food Systems Biology at the Technical University of Munich (LSB). The study also suggests that the bitter peptides are able to stimulate acid secretion from gastric…
A protein that helps make neurons also works to reprogram scar tissue cells into heart muscle cells, especially in partnership with a second protein, according to a study led by Li Qian, PhD, at the UNC School of Medicine. Scientists at the UNC School of Medicine have made a significant advance in the promising field of cellular reprogramming and organ regeneration, and the discovery could play a major role in future medicines to heal damaged hearts. In a study published…
This is an unprecedented animal model that can be used to investigate Ewing sarcoma and to screen for compounds that may serve as lead molecules for the development of therapeutic drugs. This novel model has come about from a close collaboration between the laboratories headed by Dr. Cayetano Gonzalez at the Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB Barcelona) and Dr. Jaume Mora at the SJD Pediatric Cancer Center Barcelona (PCCB), in Sant Joan de Déu Barcelona Children’s Hospital – IRSJD….
A new UV-visible protein allows researchers to see gene expression in plants without special equipment. The Science Biologists often use green fluorescent protein (GFP) to see what happens inside cells. GFP, which scientists first isolated in jellyfish, is a protein that changes light from one color into another. Attaching it to other proteins allows researchers to find out if cells produce those proteins and where within cells to find them. This in turn shows how cells deliver and use genes….
Full-transcriptome sequencing of hard-to-access cells in intact tissues facilitates deeper understanding of disease and biology. Under the microscope, researchers often observe different cell types organizing themselves in peculiar patterns within tissues, or sometimes a rare cell type that stands out by occupying a unique position, exhibiting an unusual shape, or expressing a specific biomarker molecule. To determine the deeper meaning of their observations, they have developed approaches to also access cells’ gene expression patterns (transcriptomes) by analyzing the gene-derived RNA…
A research team at the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology in Jena, Germany, shows in a new study how leaf beetles could successfully use new and previously indigestible food sources in the course of evolution. The insects acquired enzymes from microorganisms via horizontal gene transfer that enabled them to degrade pectins, solid components of the plant cell wall. Since the degradation products resulting from pectin digestion are not per se crucial for the growth and development of the beetles,…
Proteins in the gut of the nematode C. elegans are not degraded when its temperature sensors are disturbed / At the same time, the worm’s lifespan is extended. Scientists from the group of Professor Dr. Thorsten Hoppe at the Cologne Cluster of Excellence for Aging Research CECAD have found that in the nematode C. elegans, the perception of changes in ambient temperature via a defined network of sensory neurons is important for the maintenance of protein degradation in the gut….
How tardigrades survive freezing temperatures. Tardigrades are excellent at adapting to harsh environmental conditions. Back in 2019, Ralph Schill, a professor at the Institute of Biomaterials and Biomolecular Systems at the University of Stuttgart, proved that anhydrobiotic (dried) tardigrades can survive undamaged for many years without absorbing water. Whether they age faster or slower in a frozen state, or whether aging even comes to a halt, was previously unclear. But the mystery has now been solved: Frozen tardigrades do not…
How can pure hydrogen be produced in a climate-neutral process, independent of solar radiation or wind strength, and then utilized to operate fuel cells or for application in the semiconductor industry? This is the question being addressed by a current research project involving the Fraunhofer Institute for Surface Engineering and Thin Films IST, the Fraunhofer Institute for Environmental, Safety and Energy Technology UMSICHT, and Veolia Umweltservice Süd GmbH & Co. KG. Their plan is to use organic waste as a…
Discarded electronic devices, such as cell phones, are a fast-growing source of waste. One way to mitigate the problem could be to use components that are made with renewable resources and that are easy to dispose of responsibly. Now, researchers reporting in ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces have created a prototype circuit board that is made of a sheet paper with fully integrated electrical components, and that can be burned or left to degrade. Most small electronic devices contain circuit…
This year, about 240,000 people in the U.S. will discover they have lung cancer. Some 200,000 of them will be diagnosed with non-small-cell lung cancer, which is the second leading cause of death after cardiovascular disease. Georgia Tech researcher Ahmet Coskun is working to improve the odds for these patients in two recently published studies that are essentially focused on understanding why and how patients respond differently to disease and treatments. “What we have learned is connectivity and communication between molecules and…
Layers of gene control allow DNA to flexibly add new information. Genes and their genetic switches are organized into functional units to turn genes on or off just as needed. Disrupting these units can lead to disease, but a new study makes clear that they are more robust and flexible than previously thought. An international team of researchers found that a gene may still function even when new DNA segments get inserted in the same genomic organizational unit. Two meters…
Heidelberg neurobiologists gain new insights into formation of nerve cells. In the brain of adult mammals neural stem cells ensure that new nerve cells, i.e. neurons, are constantly formed. This process, known as adult neurogenesis, helps mice maintain their sense of smell. A research team led by Dr Francesca Ciccolini at the Interdisciplinary Center for Neurosciences (IZN) of Heidelberg University recently discovered a second stem cell population in the mouse brain. This new type of stem cell, and not the…
Ultrathin polymer-based ordered membranes that effectively remove salt from seawater and brine could provide a promising alternative to existing water desalination systems, a KAUST-led team demonstrates. “Water desalination membranes should simultaneously exhibit high water flux and high salt rejection,” says Yu Han, who led the study. Carbon nanomaterials, such as carbon nanotubes and graphene, are expected to meet these requirements because of their unique surface chemistry and propensity to stack into channels with diameters smaller than one nanometer. Yet, channel alignment…
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