The process by which a cell reads the genetic code in its DNA in order to manufacture a protein is complex, involving dozens of enzymes and other biological molecules working together.

Now, research at Cornell University, using the fruit fly as a model system, has confirmed a theory about one step in the process by showing that a protein complex known as FACT is positioned in living cells at sites where chromosomal DNA is unpacked so that its code can be read. It is part of what the resear

The genetic signal that makes a honeybee male or female has been identified by researchers in Germany, the U.S. and Norway. The finding, published in the August 22 issue of the journal Cell, shows how male bees can have no father, a scientific puzzle going back over 150 years and the explanation for why bees, ants and wasps often form colonial societies. It could also make it easier to breed honeybees.

The researchers found that female bees have two different versions of a gene called csd,

In the United States, nearly 2.6 million couples have been treated for infertility with about 40 percent of those cases thought to be due to male infertility. Now, a study published in the August 22 issue of Cell identifies a new protein that is required for a sperm to bind to an egg during the process of fertilization. This research provides important new insight into the molecular mechanisms that are involved in the initial events of sperm-egg association and may shed light on what underlies some i

Cancer patients could be benefiting more than they realise from diagnostic scans. Research published today in Breast Cancer Research suggests that a radioactive molecule widely used to evaluate advanced tumours can kill cancer cells.

Dr Ekaterina Dadachova and her team from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University, USA, examined how radioactive glucose affects breast tumours in mice. They found that, injected at certain doses, the radiation from the glucose killed cance

Scientists at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences have identified a gene called RFX4 that is responsible for the birth defect hydrocephalus in mice. Loss of a single copy of this gene in mice leads to a failure of drainage of cerebrospinal fluid from the brain cavity, which causes the skull to swell.

About one child in 2,000 worldwide is afflicted by hydrocephalus. Identification of the mouse gene provides a means for researchers to study the possible genetic origins of

Weizmann Institute finding may lead to new treatments for psychological trauma

Is it possible to intentionally forget specific memories, without affecting other memories? Many would undoubtedly be happy to learn that unpleasant memories might be erased. This ability could be especially significant when it comes to the kind of traumatic memories that are debilitating to those experiencing them. It may well be that in the future, we will be able to wipe out, or at least dim, certain typ

University of Utah biologist finds HIV gene makes a human gene turn bad

A human gene named ATR normally protects people by preventing the replication of cells damaged by radiation or toxic chemicals. Now, Utah and New York researchers have discovered how a gene in the AIDS virus hijacks the human gene and turns it into a weapon that prevents reproduction of immune-system white blood cells, leaving AIDS patients vulnerable to deadly infections and cancer.

The new study “puts

Two important questions face biologists studying the infectious proteins called prions: What stops prions that infect one species from infecting another species and what causes the invisible transmission barrier between species to fail sometimes?

In experiments with yeast prions reported in this week’s issue of Nature, Howard Hughes Medical Institute researchers have shown how point mutations in prions — which do not compromise their infectivity — can nevertheless cause prions to alter

Are there ’social behavior’ genes?

A rare genetic disorder may lead scientists to genes for social behavior, a Salk Institute study has found.

The study zeros in on the genes that may lead to the marked extroverted behavior seen in children with Williams syndrome, demonstrating that “hyper-sociability” – especially the drive to greet and interact with strangers — follows a unique developmental path.

The path is not only different from typical children bu

New discoveries about tiny genetic components called microRNAs explain why plant leaves are flat.

The study may be a first step, researchers say, in revolutionizing our understanding of how plants control their morphology, or shape. A plant’s ability to grow structures with a specific shape is critical to its normal function of capturing energy from the sun and producing products like grain and fiber.

As such, these findings could ultimately have profound implications fo

How vastly different animals arrive at the same body plan or pattern of ornamentation has long been a conundrum of developmental biology.

But now, thanks to the colorful derriere of a wild fruit fly, captured on a compost heap by a University of Wisconsin-Madison post-doctoral student, scientists have been able to document a rare example of molecular convergence, the process by which different animals use the same genes to repeatedly invent similar body patterns and structures.

W

Artemisinins are one of the only treatments for drug resistant forms of the malaria parasite. Drug resistant parasites are found in most parts of the world, and kill millions of children every year. Even though artemisinins have been used for decades to treat patients with malaria, no one knew how they worked. Now scientists at St George’s Medical School have discovered how artemisinins attack the malaria parasite. After years of clinical and laboratory based research, Professor Sanjeev Krishna and

Patients stay home, take a pill instead of IV chemotherapy

A doctor at the James P. Wilmot Cancer Center has developed a new brain cancer treatment that, in a pilot study, shows promise at keeping more patients alive longer than the best current standard treatments for the disease. Preliminary findings were presented recently at the American Society of Clinical Oncology annual meeting in Chicago, and now the study is continuing for adults and will be expanded to include children natio

The advantages of production in plants

According to Navarre Public University lecturer, Angel Mingo, this novel system of protein production is highly advantageous, not only due to its reduced costs with respect to cell cultures in bioreactors, but also because the method is free of the health risks associated with animal cell culture.

Moreover, the technology involved is easily accessible and enables targeting the accumulation of protein to specific compartments and organs

If you’re hunting for illegal drugs, you don’t have to leave your computer desk to find them. A simple internet search will turn up dozens of websites that let you order your drug-of-choice for home-delivery.

In fact, if you search for “no prescription codeine” through one of the standard computer-search systems, the odds are almost fifty-fifty that the first site you hit will provide an instant opportunity to buy drugs illegally.

That finding by researchers at the University of

There’s a lot said about a woman’s ticking biological clock, but male biology doesn’t age as gracefully as men might like to think.

By analyzing sperm from men of various ages, scientists from the McKusick-Nathans Institute for Genetic Medicine at Johns Hopkins have discovered that older men’s sperm is more likely to contain disease-causing genetic mutations that also seem to increase a sperm’s chances of fertilizing an egg.

The findings, which appear in t