How does the body go about generating blood vessels? This question has been studied by a research team from Uppsala University in collaboration with colleagues from the National Institutes of Health in the United States. The findings show that a relatively unknown protein, CLIC4, forms blisters that later develop into the hollow interior of the vessel. The study is being published in the December 23 issue of Journal of Biological Chemistry.
The scientists in the project mapped what protei
A EU-sponsored project has developed a suite of tools that will enable biotech companies to mine through vast quantities of data created by modern life-science labs to find the nuggets of genetic gold that lie within.
The BioGrid project brought together six partners from the UK, Germany, Cyprus and The Netherlands to address one of the key problems facing the life sciences today.
“How to integrate the huge volume of disparate data – on gene expression, protein interactio
Rutgers geneticists have reported groundbreaking research on the genetics of fertility. They have discovered two genes, aptly named egg-1 and egg-2, required for fertilization to take place. The proteins encoded by these genes are similar to low density lipoprotein (LDL) receptors, known from cholesterol and fat metabolism but never before specifically implicated in fertilization.
One in six couples is experiencing fertility problems worldwide, and people are asking why. This is a
Seeking to catch an arms-race maneuver in action, researchers have uncovered new evidence to explain how bacteria in the process of infecting a plant can shift molecular gears by excising specific genes from its genome to overcome the host plant’s specific defenses.
Throughout evolution – in the wild and in crops cultivated by humans – plants have developed systems for resisting the attack of microbial pathogens, while these microbes themselves have depended on their abi
A sharper focus than that given by the previous collection of molecular and fossil studies
A team of researchers has proposed new limits on the time when the most recent common ancestor of humans and their closest ape relatives — the chimpanzees — lived. Scientists at Arizona State and Penn State Universities have placed the time of this split between 5 and 7 million years ago — a sharper focus than that given by the previous collection of molecular and fossil studies, which hav
Experts in ancient DNA from McMaster University (Canada) have teamed up with genome researchers from Penn State University (USA) for the investigation of permafrost bone samples from Siberia. The project also involved paleontologists from the American Museum of Natural History (USA) and researchers from Russia, the United Kingdom, France, and Germany. The researchers’ report on the first genomic sequences from a woolly mammoth will be published on 22 December 2005 by the journal Science on
Deciphering a paradox of evolution
Biologists at Georgia Tech have provided scientific support for a controversial hypothesis that has divided the fields of evolutionary genomics and evolutionary developmental biology, popularly known as evo devo, for two years. Appearing in the December 2005 issue of Trends in Genetics, researchers find that the size and complexity of a species’ genome is not an evolutionary adaptation per se, but can result as simply a consequence of a reductio
Three Major Papers Advance Understanding of Meiosis in C. elegans
Most cells in the body contain two copies of every chromosome, one from each parent. Sex involves gently scrambling the genetic material of the chromosomes to produce variations within each species, creating individuals variously equipped to meet life’s challenges. The secret of sex is meiosis, a specialized kind of cell division in which a cell replicates and then divides twice (not just once, as nonsex cells do),
Dr. Kathleen Collins and a graduate researcher in her lab at UC Berkeley have identified a second RNAi pathway in Tetrahymena thermophilia – introducing a heretofore unprecedented layer of complexity to small RNA biology in unicellular organisms.
The researchers describe a distinct class of 23-24-nt small RNAs that accumulate ubiquitously throughout the Tetrahymena life cycle. This novel class of small RNAs has unique features compared with the previously identified class of 27-30-nt RNA
Once described as DNA’s less-famous chemical cousin, RNA, or ribonucleic acid, recently has moved to center stage.
RNA, the genetic material that circulates throughout cells, orchestrates the building of proteins based on instructions provided by DNA, catalyzes chemical reactions and can alter expression of proteins that may lead to cancer and other diseases.
But finding compounds that bind to and inhibit an RNA sequence — as a potential new approach to designing d
Sweet taste’s ability to reduce pain is related to both sweet liking and body weight
It’s no secret that children like sweet-tasting foods and beverages. It’s also known that sweet taste acts as an analgesic in children, reducing their perception of pain. Now researchers at the Monell Chemical Senses Center report in the current issue of the journal Pain that the analgesic efficacy of sweet taste is influenced both by how much a child likes sweet taste and by the child
Bats have an “ear” for flying in the dark because of a remarkable auditory talent that allows them to determine their physical environment by listening to echoes. But an Ohio University neurobiology professor says bats have a “feel” for it, too.
John Zook’s studies of bat flight suggest that touch-sensitive receptors on bats’ wings help them maintain altitude and catch insects in midair. His preliminary findings, presented at the recent Society for Neuroscience meeting, revive pa
The ubiquitous and usually harmless E. coli bacterium, which has one-seventh the number of genes as a human, has more than 1,000 of them involved in metabolism and metabolic regulation. Activation of random combinations of these genes would theoretically be capable of generating a huge variety of internal states; however, researchers at UCSD will report in the Dec. 27 issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) that Escherichia coli doesn’t gamble with its metabolism. In a surp
Women with genetic variant were more likely to see their cancer return
One of the most commonly prescribed drugs for breast cancer, tamoxifen, may not be as effective for women who inherit a common genetic variation, according to researchers at the University of Michigan and the Mayo Clinic. The genetic variation affects the level of a crucial enzyme that activates tamoxifen to fight breast cancer.
The study, co-led by researcher James Rae, Ph.D., at the University of Mi
The recently emerged field of bacterial riboswitches may be a good hunting ground for effective targets against bacterial infection, according to a report by Yale researchers in the journal Chemistry and Biology.
Riboswitches are RNA elements that control gene expression in essential metabolic pathways. Researchers in the laboratory of Ronald R. Breaker, the Henry Ford II Professor of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology at Yale, showed that a riboswitch controlling vitam
System provides insight into chemical process with potential industrial applications
When threatened by predators, sea slugs defend themselves by ejecting a potent inky secretion into the water consisting of hydrogen peroxide, ammonia and several types of acids. A team of researchers with the Atlanta-based Center for Behavioral Neuroscience (CBN) has found that this secretion is produced from normally inert chemicals stored separately in two glands. The discovery, published in the D
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