Archive for 'Biology'

The evolution of gene regulation

Posted on 27. May, 2009 by admin.

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How microbial neighbors settle differences
Even microbes are governed by the principle of supply and demand – at least at the genetic level. Not all of their gene products, the blueprints for proteins, are required at all times. That means most of their genes only become active when they are needed, as is the case in [...]

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Disappearing act of world’s second largest fish explained

Posted on 08. May, 2009 by admin.

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Researchers have discovered where basking sharks – the world’s second largest fish – hide out for half of every year, according to a report published online on May 7th in Current Biology, a Cell Press publication. The discovery revises scientists’ understanding of the iconic species and highlights just how little we still know about even [...]

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Why silkworms find mulberries attractive

Posted on 08. May, 2009 by admin.

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A new study published online on May 7th in Current Biology, a Cell Press publication, has found the source of silkworms’ attraction to mulberry leaves, their primary food source. A jasmine-scented chemical emitted in small quantities by the leaves triggers a single, highly tuned olfactory receptor in the silkworms’ antennae, they show.
The results are contrary [...]

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Visualizing virus replication in 3 dimensions

Posted on 08. May, 2009 by admin.

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Scientists at Heidelberg University Hospital present the first 3-dimensional model of dengue virus replication: article in Cell Host & Microbes
Dengue fever is the most common infectious disease transmitted by mosquitoes – some 100 million people around the world are infected. Researchers at the Hygiene Institute at Heidelberg University Hospital were the first to present a [...]

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Swine flu genes dissimilar to past pandemics

Posted on 08. May, 2009 by admin.

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Some genetic markers of influenza infection severity have been identified from past outbreaks. Researchers have failed to find most of these markers, described in the open access journal BMC Microbiology, in samples of the current swine-flu strain.
Jonathan Allen and Tom Slezak from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, America, published their analysis identifying 34 conserved amino acid [...]

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Random picks better than complicated process in gene identification

Posted on 08. May, 2009 by admin.

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WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - Researchers at Purdue University have found a way to save time, money and a little frustration in searches for specific genes that shed light on the biological processes associated with all forms of life.
Andrew DeWoody, a professor of genetics, and postdoctoral associate Matthew C. Hale have provided evidence that a step [...]

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CSHL scientists discover specific small RNA pathways protect germ line from transposons

Posted on 08. May, 2009 by admin.

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In the fruit fly ovary, germ line and somatic cells use different piRNA pathways in transposon defense
Cold Spring Harbor, N.Y. – Cells of higher organisms are in a constant struggle against some of their own DNA – repeated bits of DNA sequence called transposons that have infiltrated host genomes over the eons. Transposons damage the [...]

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Extreme makeover: Stanford scientists explore new way to change cell’s identity

Posted on 08. May, 2009 by admin.

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STANFORD, Calif. — Even cells aren’t immune to peer pressure. Scientists at the Stanford University School of Medicine have now shown that skin cells can be coaxed to behave like muscle cells — and muscle cells like skin cells — solely by altering who they hang out with: the relative levels of the ingredients inside [...]

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Gene may ‘bypass’ disease-linked mitochondrial defects, fly study suggests

Posted on 08. May, 2009 by admin.

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By lending them a gene normally reserved for other classes of animals, researchers have shown they can rescue flies from their Parkinson’s-like symptoms, including movement defects and excess free radicals produced in power-generating cellular components called mitochondria. The gene swap also protects healthy flies’ mitochondria, and to a large extent the flies themselves, from the [...]

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