Less than 10% of the human genome contains coded information in the form of genes. The 30,000-40,000 genes in the genome are found grouped in discrete regions of the chromosomes. Chemical agents and radiation habitually cause a large variety of injuries to the DNA which interferes in many cell processes, like transcription and replication, and this can cause a loss of control of cell division and the appearance of tumours. In order to avoid this, the human genome contains more than 130 DNA repair gen
A new species of climbing milkweed has been named by Alexander Krings, curator of the North Carolina State University Herbarium (also NCSC, its international Index Herbariorum abbreviation). The species – Gonolobus tenuisepalus Krings – was first collected in the tropical rainforests of southern Costa Rica while Krings was a graduate student in the Department of Forestry.
“The flowers are tiny (about 6-8 millimeters in diameter), purplish to dark brownish-red and borne in
A chemist at North Carolina State University has made breakthrough discoveries that advance basic understandings of the nature of liquids and glasses at the atomic and molecular levels. Featured in the Sept. 26 issue of Nature, these discoveries could lead to the development of totally new materials with useful optical and electronic properties – as well as applications not yet foreseen.
Liquids and glass have long been understood by scientists to be amorphous, meaning “without structure.”
Scientists may soon be able to influence muscle formation more easily as a result of research conducted in the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases’ Laboratory of Muscle Biology. The researchers there and at institutions in California and Italy have found that inhibitors of the enzyme deacetylase can switch the pathway of muscle precursor cells (myoblasts) from simply reproducing themselves to becoming mature cells that form muscle fibers (myotubules).
It has
An international team of scientists led by researchers at The Wistar Institute has combined two different imaging techniques to uncover the molecular-level framework of a common bacteriophage, a virus that infects bacteria. The results, reported in the October issue of Nature Structural Biology, suggest that viruses developed a continuum of progressively more complex architectural strategies to cope with their increasing size as they evolved. An image from the study is featured on the journal’s
Finding may lead to new treatments for neurologic disease and nerve injury
Why do some nerve cells survive and regrow after injury while others shrink away and die? A new discovery by researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) shows that the expression of a particular gene may be responsible for protecting neurons from death. The results, published in the September 26 issue of Neuron, could lead the way for new treatment strategies for a variety of neurological diseases.
Charles Darwin, the founder of the modern theory of evolution, was an avid proponent of sympatric speciation, the idea that a single species need not be geographically divided in order to evolve into two separate species. In the mid-20th century, however, certain vocal scientists convinced the scientific community that geographically isolating two halves of a population was a necessary factor in creating a new species. It wasn’t until the last few decades that modern biologists began to reexamine Da
In the first look at the molecular diversity of the starch pathway in maize, research at North Carolina State University has found that – in contrast to the high amount of diversity in many of the maize genes previously studied – there is a general dearth of diversity in this particular pathway.
That’s important, says Dr. Ed Buckler, U.S. Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Research Service (USDA-ARS) researcher, assistant professor of genetics at NC State and one of the study’s
Cornell University researchers have demonstrated a novel method of separating DNA molecules by length. The technique might eventually be used to create chips or other microscopic devices to automate and speed up gene sequencing and DNA fingerprinting.
The method, which uses a previously discovered entropic recoil force, has better resolution — that is, better ability to distinguish different lengths — than others tried so far, the researchers say. They separated DNA strands of two differ
Two researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute are creating a faster, more efficient data-mining technique to determine basic rules of how proteins form. The researchers are Mohammed Zaki, assistant professor of computer science, and Chris Bystroff, assistant professor of biology.
Researchers can identify a protein’s biological function, and therefore its specific role in disease, if they know the 3-D structure of a protein given its amino-acid sequence.
Twenty simple amin
Zeolites are an extremely important class of inorganic materials that can separate gases or liquids on the basis of molecular size and shape. The backbone of a billion-dollar-a-year industry, these molecular sieves are used in numerous applications, from the production of biodegradable detergents, to the removal of moisture from natural gas pipelines, to the catalytic cracking of heavy petroleum distillates into gasoline.
Now, chemist Kenneth S. Suslick and colleagues at the University of Il
Microbes can withstand extreme levels of atmospheric ultraviolet light (UV) by producing their own sunscreens. Unlike humans, some bugs may even be able to survive without any help from the ozone layer scientists heard today (Thursday 19 September) at the Society for General Microbiology autumn meeting at Loughborough University.
“A group of microbes called cyanobacteria produce substances called mycosporines in response to UV light. We’ve shown that this is an ancient mechanism dating back
Researchers at Oregon State University have made an important advance in the understanding of “micro-RNA” molecules, which are tiny bits of genetic material that were literally unknown 10 years ago but now represent one of the most exciting new fields of study in biology.
The findings will be reported Friday in the journal Science.
They reveal for the first time a new mechanism by which micro-RNA can stop the function of messenger-RNA by literally cutting it in half, interfering wit
Researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas have discovered a protein that regulates growth and development of the heart from its fetal stage to adulthood.
Findings published in today’s edition of Cell report that the protein, named Homeodomain-Only Protein (HOP) by the researchers, is active in controlling heart growth at various stages of development in mice. Dr. Eric Olson, chairman of molecular biology at UT Southwestern and the study’s principal investigator, said the team
Scientists at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine have identified and described a small gene that regulates the delicate balance involved in the healthy growth and replication of heart muscle cells.
“This finding is likely to be important for our understanding of the causes of congenital heart disease. It is also relevant to our attempts to regrow damaged heart muscle,” said the corresponding author of the study, Jonathan A. Epstein, MD, of Penn’s Departments of Medicine a
Eavesdropping among animals influences their behavior, Lee Dugatkin, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Louisville, has found.
Dugatkin and a colleague, Ryan Earley of Georgia State University, studied eavesdropping among male swordtail fish they placed in an experimental tank. They put two fish on one side of a partition and a lone observer male on the other. In some cases, the partitions were clear and in others, opaque.
The fish that could observe their potential adve
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