Researchers at Case Western Reserve University report in the August 22 issue of Nature how magnesium activates microscopic ion channels in the membrane of a cell. These particular ion channels are important in controlling blood pressure. Scientists, the researchers say, can use this new finding in the quest to understand how magnesium helps to decrease blood pressure and also treat heart failure and stroke.
Calcium activated potassium channels are important microscopic pathways in the cell
In this month’s Genome Biology, Mitch Kostich and colleagues from the Schering-Plough Research Institute (NJ, USA) have identified and mapped an important group of molecules known as protein kinases. These molecules are central to the communication of information both within and between cells, in a process known as cell signaling. Defective protein kinases are associated with hundreds of human diseases, including some types of cancer, and it is hoped that this map, which shows the relationships betwe
Scientists at the Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory have obtained the most complete protein coverage of any organism to date with the study of a radiation-resistant microbe known to survive extreme environments. This research potentially could open up new opportunities to harness this microorganism, called Deinococcus radiodurans , for bioremediation.
A study published in the Aug. 20 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences observed a
Herpes viruses enter the body and hide away in cells, often re-emerging later to cause illnesses such as shingles, genital herpes and cancer. How these viruses evade the immune system remains poorly understood, but researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis discovered that a mouse herpes virus uses molecules that mimic a cell’s own proteins to help thwart an immune attack.
The findings also suggest that a branch of the immune system known as the complement sys
DNA of Xenopus tropicalis will provide new clues to vertebrate development
In their continuing search for new clues to how human genes function and how vertebrates develop and evolve, researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Joint Genome Institute (JGI) are gearing up to map the DNA of a diminutive, fast-growing African frog named Xenopus tropicalis .
Frogs have long been a favorite subject for biologists because their growth from eggs to tadpoles to
Before the pancreas is a pancreas, it is just two tiny bumps–two groups of cells sprouting from a central tube. What makes these cells bud off from the main group? How do they go on to make all the cell types of the mature pancreas? These are the kinds of questions that drive the research efforts of Vanderbilt developmental biologist Chris Wright and colleagues. The answers could pave the way toward limitless supplies of pancreatic cells for transplantation therapy of diabetes.
“It has bee
Laboratory experiments led by Hopkins scientists have revealed that so-called “jumping genes” create dramatic rearrangement in the human genome when they move from chromosome to chromosome. If the finding holds true in living organisms, it may help explain the diversity of life on Earth, the researchers report in the current (Aug. 9) issue of Cell.
“Jumping genes,” or retrotransposons, are sequences of DNA that are easily and naturally copied from one location in the genome and inserted els
Find has implications for preservation of endangered species, livestock
With pinhead-sized grafts of testicular tissue from newborn mammals, scientists at the University of Pennsylvania have induced mice to produce fully functional sperm from evolutionarily distant species. The result has important implications for preserving the germ lines of critically endangered species as well as prized livestock.
The study, in which male mice produced functional gametes first from other mice
Stress happens, and over the eons all species of living things have evolved all sorts of ways to cope. Now, new research has revealed that organisms as diverse as humans and plants share a common set of stress-protection maneuvers that are choreographed by the metabolic machinery in their cells.
The research led by Sarah M. Assmann, the Waller Professor of Plant Biology at Penn State, will be published in the 15 August 2002 issue of the journal Nature.
“We have shown, in more deta
Biologists at Vanderbilt and the University of Missouri have uncovered what could be a major clue into the mysterious molecular processes that direct cells to the correct locations within a developing embryo.
Understanding the molecular basis of these processes, and how they can go wrong, may ultimately lead to treatments for many birth defects, such as spina bifida that afflicts between 800 to 1,000 babies born each year in the United States.
Writing in the August issue of the sc
To make an omelet, you need to break some eggs. Not nearly so well known is that breaking eggs also can lead to new information about the evolution of birds and dinosaurs, a topic of hot debate among leading biologists.
Drs. Alan Feduccia and Julie Nowicki of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill have done just that. They opened a series of live ostrich eggs at various stages of development and found what they believe is proof that birds could not have descended from dinosaurs. Th
Commercial fishing practices can reduce genetic diversity in fish populations, possibly threatening their productivity and adaptability to environmental change, new research has found.
An Australian zoologist now at the University of Melbourne, along with colleagues from the United Kingdom and New Zealand, was the first to record a decline in the genetic diversity of a commercially exploited marine species.
Their findings, published in the latest volume of the “Proceedings of the
Birds may have a basic understanding of physics, recent research by Oxford zoologists suggests. In an article to be published in Science this week [Thursday], the researchers report the findings of an experiment in which New Caledonian crows bent wires to make hooks appropriate to retrieve food from a cylinder. This is the first time any animal has been found to show some understanding of cause and effect, and to make a new tool for a specific task.
The experiment built on a chance observat
Dartmouth Medical School geneticists have found a molecular shortcut from light reception to gene activation in their work to understand biological clocks. Their research has revealed that the protein called White Collar-1 does double duty: it perceives light and then, in response to light, directly turns on a key gene called frequency, which is a central component of the clock.
Biological clocks are molecularly driven and are set, or synchronized, by the daily cycles of light and dark. Usin
After two years of stubborn persistence, scientists at Johns Hopkins have determined the 3-D structure of part of a protein called HER3, which should speed efforts to interfere with abnormal growth and cancer.
“It took us more than two years to interpret the data and get HER3’s structure,” says Dan Leahy, Ph.D., a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator and a professor of biophysics in Hopkins’ Institute for Basic Biomedical Sciences. “Now that we have it, it might take only
A physical map of the genetic makeup of a mouse – the mouse genome – is 98 percent complete and is being released online by the journal Nature. Researchers at the Genome Sequencing Center at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis played a major role in the international effort, as they did in the sequencing and mapping of the human genome.
“The mouse plays a vital role in research on human biology and disease,” says John D. McPherson, Ph.D., associate professor of genetics a
Feedback
