A fossil fish skull from Latvia that researchers from Uppsala University, Sweden, describe in this weeks issue of Nature shows that the earliest land animals probably breathed through their ears.
“It looks as if the first step in the evolution of the middle ear had nothing to do with hearing. Our forebears developed ears in order to breathe through them,” says Professor Per Ahlberg.
The human sense of hearing is based on the interaction of two different organs: the inne
Researchers have found stronger evidence for a link between a parasite in cat faeces and undercooked meat and an increased risk of schizophrenia.
Research published today in Procedings of the Royal Society B, shows how the invasion or replication of the parasite Toxoplasma gondii in rats may be inhibited by using anti-psychotic or mood stabilising drugs.
The researchers tested anti-psychotic and mood stabilising medications used for the treatment of schizophrenia on rats in
Hot competition for sex threatens biodiversity in world’s richest regions
In biodiversity hot spots like tropical rainforests, a dearth of pollinators could be putting many species at risk of extinction, according to a new study that includes three University of Pittsburgh researchers. The finding is raising concerns that more may need to be done to protect the Earth’s most biologically rich areas.
The study, titled “Pollination Decays in Biodiversity Hotspots,” appe
Researchers have labored for decades to understand blindness-inducing neurodegenerative diseases such as age-related macular degeneration (AMD) and retinitis pigmentosa (RP).
It has been a painstaking scientific journey as AMD and RP each belong to a complex family of disorders, in which every disorder has many forms and each form is encoded with a distinct genetic recipe. Even AMD, a major cause of vision loss in people over 60, is actually a collection of more than 50 diseases
A new mechanism for regulating brain function
Non-coding regions of the genome – those that don’t code for proteins – are now known to include important elements that regulate gene activity. Among those elements are microRNAs, tiny, recently discovered RNA molecules that suppress gene expression.
Increasing evidence indicates a role for microRNAs in the developing nervous system, and researchers from Children’s Hospital Boston now demonstrate that one microRNA
Researchers have identified a new and unusual tumor suppressor gene that may be important in cancers of the lung and head and neck. The study shows that restoring the inactivated gene can slow the growth of tumor cells.
The gene, known as TCF21, is silenced in tumor cells through a chemical change known as DNA methylation, a process that is potentially reversible.
The findings might therefore lead to new strategies for the treatment and early detection of lung cancer,
Concepción Lecároz, a researcher from the University of Navarra, has developed a new therapy against brucellosis. This zoonosis —a disease or infection of animals which can be transmitted to humans under natural conditions— annually affects 500,000 people worldwide. This research project forms part of her doctoral thesis, defended at the University’s School of Pharmacy.
This study has permitted the development of a new treatment which significantly reduces infections in mice, a
In the world of genetic engineering one often talks about ‘transgenic organisms’. These are organisms that have been modified by the insertion of an alien gene into their genome. Now it turns out that there are naturally occurring transgenic plants. One such instance was found by Dr Lena Ghatnekar from the research team for evolutionary genetics at Lund University in Sweden. Her findings have just been published in the prestigious Proceedings of the Royal Society in London.
Sheep’s fescu
The absence of a key protein may lead to infertility.
Researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign report that experiments involving mice — to be detailed in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences — indicate that the transcription factor protein C/EBPb must be present in the uterus for pregnancy to occur. The study appears online this week at the PNAS Web site.
Without it, they say, an embryo cannot survive in uterine tissue or attach to
New insight into related disorders
An international research collaboration led by Mayo Clinic has identified a new gene involved in causing the inherited kidney disorder, Meckel-Gruber syndrome (MKS). Children with MKS have central nervous system deformities as well as abnormal cysts in their kidneys, and usually die shortly after birth. The findings appear in the current edition of Nature Genetics (http://www.nature.com/ng/index.html). In addition to Mayo Clinic, the collaborati
Researchers identify a compound in cocoa responsible for improving blood flow
While a growing number of studies has shown a link between flavanol-rich cocoa and cardiovascular health, scientists have now substantiated a causal relationship between specific compounds present in cocoa and cardiovascular health. Published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS) , this new study identifies the flavanol, (-)epicatechin, as o
Scientists have developed a novel mouse model for leukemia that reveals critical information about the mechanisms involved in leukemia progression and provides a model system for evaluation of new drugs for treatment of leukemia. The research, published in the January issue of Cancer Cell, utilizes a technique that allows induction and study of a key oncoprotein in adult mice. Previously, it was difficult to investigate this oncoprotein in the mouse, as the expression of this gene is associated w
Overactive growth controller could become drug target
Researchers at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute have identified a molecular interaction that triggers a particularly aggressive form of breast cancer, and suggest that attacking this target with selective drugs might improve treatment.
In the January issue of Cancer Cell, a team led by Qunyan Yu, MD, and Peter Sicinski, MD, PhD, of Dana-Farber report that the interaction of a certain mutated oncogene and the newly describe
People who lack a cell surface protein called CCR5 are highly resistant to infection by HIV but may be at increased risk of developing West Nile virus (WNV) illness when exposed to the mosquito-borne virus, report researchers from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The study, by Philip M. Murphy, M.D., and colleagues, appears online today in The Journal of Experimental Medicine. The findings may have cautionary implica
Max Planck researchers in Jena, Germany have identified a gene which produces a chemical ’cry for help’ that attracts beneficial insects to damaged plants
Corn plants emit a cocktail of scents when they are attacked by certain pests, such as a caterpillar known as the Egyptian cotton leaf worm. Parasitic wasps use these plant scents to localize the caterpillar and deposit their eggs on it, so that their offspring can feed on the caterpillar. Soon after, the caterpillar di
By deleting a single gene in a small portion of the brains of mice, researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center found that the animals were affected in a way resembling schizophrenia in humans.
After the gene was removed, the animals, which had been trained to use external cues to look for chocolate treats buried in sand, couldn’t learn a similar task, the researchers report in a paper appearing in today’s issue of The Journal of Neuroscience.
The resear
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