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| GM CAN HURT THE BIRDS AND BEES: STUDY |
| The world's biggest study on genetically-modified (GM) crops has found they can have a harmful effect on insects, birds and other plants, fuelling debate over whether farmers should be allowed to cultivate such crops. |
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| CROP MANAGEMENT GETS VITAL ROLE IN TRANSGENIC DEBATE |
| Crops that are genetically modified to be resistant to herbicides could make weeds easier to manage without destroying valuable biodiversity. So says the first trial to compare transgenic and conventional crops farmed in rotation. |
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| GENETIC BARRIER TO SELF-POLLINATION IDENTIFIED |
| Many flowering plants prevent inbreeding and increase genetic diversity by a process called self-incompatibility, in which pollination fails to set seed if the pollen is identified as its own by the pistil. A research team, led by Teh-hui Kao, Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at Penn State, has announced, in a paper published in the May 20 issue of Nature, the discovery of a gene of petunias that controls pollen function in self-incompatibility. |
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| CLONED COWS GET SANE FUTURE |
| Researchers in the United States and Japan claim to have created cow embryos that cannot produce the protein responsible for bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE). Without it, the animals should be immune to mad cow disease. |
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| 'JUNK' DNA NOT JUNK BUT KEY TO COMPLEXITY |
| Humans, rats and mice have a set of ancient DNA sequences, separate to conventional protein-coding genes, which researchers say could be the secret of human complexity. |
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| EVOLVED DNA STITCHES ITSELF UP |
| Researchers have managed to create bits of DNA that can stitch themselves together without a helping hand from other molecules. By contrast, natural DNA needs enzymes to stitch itself up, correct mutations, or make copies of itself. |
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| A BIRD ‘LANGUAGE’ GENE PINPOINTED |
| The researchers, who published their findings in the March 31, 2004, issue of the Journal of Neuroscience, said that their finding will aid research on how genes contribute to the architecture and function of brain circuitry for singing in birds. |
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| GENETIC DOPING IS NEXT OLYMPIC THREAT |
| Athletes once used ginseng, opium and steroids from sheep testicles to enhance their performance. |
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| BIOLOGICAL CLOCK MAY CARRY ON TICKING |
| Female mice are can produce new eggs into adulthood and are not born with a limited number as previously thought, say U.S. scientists. |
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| STANFORD STUDY QUESTIONS IDENTITY OF ALLEGED ROMANOV BONES |
| One of the most riveting detective stories of the last century supposedly ended in 1998, when the Russian government declared that bones excavated from a Siberian mass grave seven years earlier indeed belonged to the Romanovs, Russia's last royal family, who were executed by the Bolsheviks in 1918. |
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| MOLECULAR MECHANISMS THAT TRIGGER FLOWERING IN SPRING |
| Max Planck scientists have discovered how plants initiate the formation of flowers depending on the length of day and time of year. |
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| HUMAN EVOLUTION AT THE CROSSROADS: INTEGRATING GENETICS AND PALEONTOLOGY |
| Advances in genetics during the last decade not only have influenced modern medicine, they also have changed how human evolution is studied, says an anthropologist from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. |
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| SPERM RELY ON CELL-DEATH TRIGGER |
| Molecules that tell cells to suicide also play a key role in the creation of sperm according to U.S. research on fruit flies. |
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| STEM CELLS CAN GROW INTO SPERM |
| Stem cells can be coaxed into forming sperm that can potentially fertilise eggs, according to U.S. research. |
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| BACTERIA-EATING VIRUS MADE IN RECORD TIME |
| An artificial bacteria-eating virus has been made from synthetic genes in the record time of just two weeks. |
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| HUNT FOR SPINA BIFIDA GENE PICKS UP SPEED |
| A gene in mice has been linked to the congenital birth defect spina bifida and the hunt is now on to see if the equivalent human gene is altered in sufferers, say Australian researchers. |
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| VISION-PRODUCING CELLS FAIL 'TASTE-TEST,' TREAT KEY LIGHT-DETECTING MOLECULES IDENTICALLY |
| Johns Hopkins scientists have discovered that the eye's vision-producing rods and cones cannot tell the difference between their respective light-detecting molecules. The findings appeared in a recent issue of Nature. |
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| WIDESPREAD HYBRIDS RENEW GM CROP CONCERN |
| A national U.K. study, which has for the first time quantified how much hybridisation can occur between oilseed rape (canola) and related wild weeds, has reignited debate over the risks posed by GM crops. |
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| AGGREGATION OF CLONED MOUSE EMBRYOS IMPROVES SURVIVAL RATE |
| Scientists at the University of Pennsylvania have found a novel way to boost the paltry survival rate of cloned mammals: When two genetically identical cloned mouse embryos are combined, the aggregate embryo is considerably more likely to survive to birth. |
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| EATING PLANT MAY PROTECT AGAINST ASTHMA |
| Eating genetically modified plants could one day be used to 'immunise' sufferers against asthma, according Australian scientists who have engineered a new type of lupin. |
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| GOOD SUMMER NEWS - LESS FATTENING WATERMELON |
| A less fattening but no-less sweet variety of watermelon has been developed by a Hebrew University of Jerusalem agricultural scientist. |
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| PURDUE GENETIC DISCOVERY MAY AID PLANTS AND HUMAN MEDICINE |
| Many aspects of plant growth and development are dependent on the basipetally-biased flow of the hormone auxin, as evidenced by the effects of mutations and pharmacological agents that impair it. Rectification of auxin transport in stems is believed to result from the basal localization within cells of the PIN1 membrane protein, which conducts efflux of the auxin anion. Recently, mutations in two multidrug resistance-like genes were shown to block polar auxin transport in the hypocotyls of Arabidopsis seedlings, indicating that MDR-type (p-glycoprotein) ABC transporters function in the PIN1-dependent polar auxin transport process. Here we show that the mdr mutants display faster and greater gravitropism and enhanced phototropism instead of the impaired curvature development expected in mutants lacking polar auxin transport. The impaired auxin transport and tropism phenotypes are explained by the finding that the mdr mutations disrupt the special accumulation of PIN1 protein along the basal end of hypocotyl cells. Consequently, lateral auxin conductance becomes a larger proportion of the whole; loss of basipetal bias in auxin flow and greater growth differentials across the hypocotyl result. |
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| MALE Y CHROMOSOME HERE TO STAY |
| The human male sex chromosome does have the ability to repair itself and may not be headed for extinction as had previously been thought, according to a surprising new study. |
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| UCSD RESEARCHERS ESTIMATE APPROXIMATELY 400 FRAGILE REGIONS IN THE HUMAN GENOME THAT ARE VULNERABLE TO EVOLUTIONARY 'EARTHQUAKES' |
| Researchers from the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) Jacobs School of Engineering have uncovered evidence that major evolutionary changes are more likely to occur in approximately 400 ‘fragile’ genomic regions that account for only 5 percent of the human genome. The findings, reported in the June 24 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), undercut the widely held view among scientists that evolutionary breakpoints – disruptions in the order of genes on chromosomes – are purely random. Apart from its implications for evolutionary theory, the study could have major implications for medical research related to diseases such as leukemia, which are caused by clinical (rather than evolutionary) chromosomal breakpoints. |
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| MULE CLONING SHEDS LIGHT ON CANCER, AGEING. |
| The first successful cloning of a mule has unexpectedly shed light on human cancers and other age-related diseases, as well as making possible the cloning of champion horses. |
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| TREES AND FLOWERS MORE AKIN THAN DISSIMILAR, RESEARCH SHOWS. |
| Harvesting wood from weeds? Coaxing lumber from lobelias? Those possibilities aren’t as far-fetched as you might think. |
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| SCIENTISTS USE DNA FRAGMENTS TO TRACE THE MIGRATION OF MODERN HUMANS |
| Human beings may have made their first journey out of Africa as recently as 70,000 years ago, according to a new study by geneticists from Stanford University and the Russian Academy of Sciences. Writing in the American Journal of Human Genetics, the researchers estimate that the entire population of ancestral humans at the time of the African expansion consisted of only about 2,000 individuals. |
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| GENE MAY PRODUCE DROUGHT-RESISTANT PLANTS |
| The identification and duplication of a gene that controls production of plants' outermost protective coating may allow Purdue University researchers to create crops with increased drought resistance. |
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| HUMAN CLONING STILL LONG WAY OFF: EXPERTS |
| Science experts meeting in Germany have lashed out at 'charlatans' who claim to have reproduced human embryos and said that human cloning, while theoretically possible, is still a long way off. |
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| SARS: LESSONS FROM THE ANIMAL KINGDOM |
| The SARS virus probably originated in animals and may have lost the ability to infect its original host - increasing the possibility it can be eliminated in humans, says a U.S. virus expert. But an animal origin also has implications for the spread of the disease. |
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| VIRUS RESEARCHERS CLOSE IN ON THE SECRET LIFE OF DNA |
| Z-DNA, a long-known but still mysterious alternate configuration of DNA, is involved in cellular defenses against viral attack according to the results of a series of experiments linking Z-DNA binding proteins with lethality in pox viruses. |
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| INSTRUCTION AND PERMISSION IN EYE/BRAIN DEVELOPMENT |
| Researchers at UC Davis are challenging the conventional view of how connections form between the optic nerves and the brain. |
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| NEW HAIR IN 15 DAYS |
| Scientists at the University of Michigan Medical School have discovered that the transient activation of a protein called ?-catenin can induce new hair growth. |
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| TINY PROTEIN PREVENTS DISEASE-RELATED CELL DEATH |
| Researchers at The Burnham Institute have found that humanin, a small, 24-amino acid protein recently discovered in studies of Alzheimer’s Disease, suppresses activation of the protein Bax. Bax triggers pathologic cell death in a number of diseases, including Parkinson’s, stroke, heart attack and degeneration of ovaries during menopause. These results, to be published later this month in the journal Nature (currently available at the journal’s website), suggest a novel target for therapeutic design based on inhibiting the cell destructive activity of Bax. |
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| SCIENTISTS OBSERVE NANOSIZE MICROTUBULES 'TREADMILLING' ACROSS PLANT CELLS |
| A study in the journal Science is offering new insights into a long-standing mystery about plant growth. The scientists who conducted the experiment say their results could open new avenues of research for developing more effective herbicides and pharmaceuticals. |
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| CLONING HUMANS, PRIMATES MAY BE IMPOSSIBLE |
| The cloning of humans and other primates may not be possible with current techniques, U.S. scientists have found, after lab tests with cloned monkey cells showed inherent chaos during basic cell division. |
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| WHY HUMANS LOST THEIR SENSE OF SMELL |
| Humans rapidly lost much of their sense of smell as they evolved to place a heavier emphasis on their sense of sight, according to a recent genetics study. |
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| KEY TO CONTROLLING HAIR GROWTH DISCOVERED |
| The process that controls hair formation has been identified by U.S. scientists, giving new hope to people with too little in the right place or too much in the wrong place. |
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| ANCIENT DNA MAY BE MISLEADING SCIENTISTS |
| Ancient DNA in skeletons has a tendency to show damage in a particular region, resulting in misleading genetic data and mistaken conclusions about the origin of the skeleton, British scientists said. |
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| GLOBAL WARMING TRIGGERS CHANGE IN SQUIRREL GENES |
| Animals have been observed changing their genetic make-up in response to global warming for the first time, according to Canadian researchers. |
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| RESEARCHERS HELP TRACE ORIGIN OF MADAGASCAR’S MAMMALS. RESEARCH ANSWERS ONE OF NATURAL HISTORY'S MOST INTRACTABLE QUESTIONS. |
| All of Madagascar's living Carnivora (an order of mammals that includes dogs, cats, bears, hyenas and their relatives) descended from a single species that dispersed from Africa to Madagascar, apparently floating across the ocean barrier aboard wayward vegetation about 24 million to 18 million years ago. Previously, scientists believed that Madagascar's seven living species of native Carnivora represented two to four separate lineages, which would have implied that these animals colonized the island independently several times. |
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| COMPUTER SCIENTIST LOCATES MORE THAN 1,000 NOVEL GENES IN MOUSE AND HUMAN. 'BEST LAID PLANS OF MICE AND MEN'. |
| Using both the mouse and human genomes, a computer scientist at Washington University in St. Louis and international collaborators have developed a method for predicting novel genes in both genomes. With the method the scientists have discovered 1,019 novel genes that are found in both man and mouse. The breakthrough is expected to speed up discovery of genes in both genomes as well as those of other mammals. Because it is efficient and cost-effective, laboratories are likely to use it and pursue genetic studies on a number of major fronts. |
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| RESEARCHERS DISCOVER ANXIETY AND AGGRESSION GENE IN MICE. OPENS NEW DOOR TO STUDY OF MOOD DISORDERS IN HUMANS |
| Researchers report finding a gene that is essential for normal levels of anxiety and aggression. Calling it the Pet-1 gene, researchers at the Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine Department of Neurosciences say that when this gene is removed or "knocked out" in a mouse, aggression and anxiety in adults are greatly elevated compared to a control (also called wild type) mouse. |
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| HOW CRAYFISH DO THE LOCOMOTION |
| Using computer models and experiments, researchers at the University of California, Davis, have identified the neurons and connections that are necessary for crayfish to swim. |
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| ONIONS WITHOUT TEARS? |
| Tear-free GM onions that still taste like onions may be possible following the discovery by Japanese researchers that the chemical in onions that makes you cry is not related to flavour. |
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| STUDY BACKS THEORY THAT ACCUMULATING MUTATIONS OF 'QUIET' GENES FOSTER AGING |
| A theory that suggests the aging process might be safely slowed by targeting genes that are quiet early but threaten damage later in life has gotten a boost from new findings from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. |
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| SCIENTISTS DECIPHER GENETIC CODE OF MALARIA PARASITE |
| In a landmark contribution to the age-old battle against malaria, a consortium of scientists including The Institute for Genomic Research (TIGR) announced today that they have deciphered the complex genetic code of the parasite that causes the deadliest form of the disease. Malaria is one of the world's most devastating infectious diseases, killing more than a million people a year in developing nations. |
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| BIG-BOTTOMED SHEEP HAVE A RARE GENETIC MUTATION THAT BUILDS MUSCLE, NOT FAT. |
| Scientists have discovered an elusive, mutated gene named for the Greek goddess, Aphrodite Kallipygos, that causes certain sheep to have unusually big and muscular bottoms. They hope the genetic mutation will illuminate how muscle and fat are deposited in these animals and possibly in humans. |
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| GENETICALLY MODIFIED CROPS MAY PASS HELPFUL TRAITS TO WEEDS, STUDY FINDS. |
| For the first time, researchers have shown that a gene artificially inserted into crop plants to fend off pests can migrate to weeds in a natural environment and make the weeds stronger. |
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| THE CONTRACEPTIVE PLAGUE |
| After more than a decade of trying, Australian researchers have created a highly infectious virus that could wipe out the country's rabbit pests by making them sterile. |
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| NEW WAY FOUND TO SEE LIGHT THROUGH NOVEL PROTEIN IDENTIFIED BY DARTMOUTH GENETICISTS |
| Dartmouth Medical School geneticists have discovered a new class of proteins that see light, revealing a previously unknown system for how light works. |
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| 'SLOPPY GENES' BEHAVE LIKE THEIR NEIGHBOURS |
| New findings reveal that the regulation of gene expression is much less strictly controlled than was previously thought.
The inaugural issue of Journal of Biology features groundbreaking research that challenges the traditional view of how genes are controlled. Our current understanding of gene expression, the fundamental process by which proteins are made from the instructions encoded in DNA, is that the process is tightly controlled so that the correct amount of each protein is produced in the right place at the right time. |
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| NEW CELLULAR EVOLUTION THEORY REJECTS DARWINIAN ASSUMPTIONS |
| Life did not begin with one primordial cell. Instead, there were initially at least three simple types of loosely constructed cellular organizations. They swam in a pool of genes, evolving in a communal way that aided one another in bootstrapping into the three distinct types of cells by sharing their evolutionary inventions. |
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| RUTGERS GENETICISTS DISCOVER PROBABLE CAUSES OF HYBRID PLANT VIGOR |
| Agricultural breeders have long observed that when plants or animals from different strains are interbred, the offspring tend to be stronger, healthier or generally more fit than either of their parents, although no one knew why this occurred. Now plant geneticists investigating the maize (corn) genome at Rutgers' Waksman Institute of Microbiology have discovered a possible explanation for this phenomenon, known as heterosis or hybrid vigor. |
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| 'NATURE' REPORT: RESEARCHERS GENETICALLY ALTER MOSQUITOES TO IMPAIR MALARIA TRANSMISSION |
| Malaria kills about 2 million people annually, mostly African children under the age of 5. While conventional approaches to controlling the disease have been ineffective, Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) School of Medicine researchers are developing a genetically altered mosquito that one day could be added to the arsenal in the war against the disease. |
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| SOCIAL INSECTS COULD OFFER CLUES ABOUT GENETIC CONFLICT |
| Two Rice University biologists believe social insects like ants and bees could provide clues to why some animals -- including humans -- have developed a curious quality in which the genes of their parents vie in direct competition, waging a kind of biochemical war. |
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| MEN REGAIN EVOLUTIONARY DRIVER’S SEAT. MUTATION STUDY CONFIRMS STRONG MALE-DRIVEN EVOLUTION AMONG HUMANS AND APES |
| Researchers from the University of Chicago have estimated that genetic mutations – the raw material for evolution – occur 5.25 times more often in males than in females. This discovery should lay to rest any doubts raised by recent studies questioning the dominant role males play in producing mutations for molecular evolution. |
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| GONDWANA SPLIT SORTS OUT MAMMALIAN EVOLUTION |
| Placental mammals are a diverse group, with nearly 4000 described species (e.g., rodents, bats, elephants, humans) that bear live young and are nourished before birth in the mother's uterus through the placenta. In contrast, marsupials are commonly thought of as pouched mammals. While the latter also give live birth, they do not have long gestation times; the early development is completed instead in the pouch. |
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| EXPOSING INSECTS' SENSE OF SMELL |
| A key step in insects' sense of smell has been uncovered by researchers in Switzerland, the United States and Japan. The discovery could lead to insecticides that stop insects from communicating through chemical signals. |
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| REQUIRED ACTIVATION 'CASCADE' IDENTIFIED FOR P53 TUMOR-SUPPRESSOR PROTEIN |
| The innocuously named protein p53 is among the most vital of molecules for regulating cell growth in the human body, and it represents one of the body's leading defenses against the uncontrolled growth of cancers as a result. Damaged variants of the tumor-suppressor p53 protein have been found in more than half of human cancers. |
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| RESEARCHERS DISTINGUISH NEW TYPE OF LEUKEMIA |
| Researchers who have studied the activity of thousands of genes in a drug-resistant form of childhood leukemia are now proposing that the disease be called mixed-lineage leukemia (MLL) because it is a distinct disease, and not a subtype of the more prevalent acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). |
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| YALE RESEARCHERS DEVELOP NEW MOLECULE THAT ERADICATES CANCER BY DESTROYING TUMOR BLOOD VESSELS |
| Researchers at Yale have developed a new molecule they call "icon" that targets blood vessels in tumors for destruction by the immune system without harming vessels in normal tissues. |
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| TYPHOID FEVER BUG SEQUENCE RAISES HOPE OF COMPLETE ERADICATION |
| Scientists from Britain, Denmark and Vietnam have deciphered the genetic code of the bacterium responsible for typhoid fever, Salmonella typhi.
Their achievement, reported in the magazine Nature 23.10.01., raises hope for the prospects of completely eradicating typhoid, which currently claims 600,000 lives a year globally. |
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| SEXUAL VS. ASEXUAL REPRODUCTION: SCIENTISTS FIND SEX WINS |
| Why are most organisms sexual? The question of why most species reproduce sexually and others reproduce asexually has stymied biologists for years (particularly since asexual reproduction has many advantages including producing more offspring.) |
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| WHY DOES A WORM NEED NEARLY AS MANY GENES AS A MAN? |
| The nematode worm, C. elegans, is the focus of an intense research effort in both developmental biology and genetics because it is one of the simplest multicellular organisms with a nervous system. A new article published in Genome Biology investigates why, despite its apparent simplicity, it needs 20,000 genes when animals as complex as humans make do with only 30,000 or so. |
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| LAMBS' SEX CHOSEN BEFORE CONCEPTION |
| Researchers from the University of Sydney and US biotech firm XY Inc have successfully selected the sex of 24 out of 25 lambs before conception. An Australian first, the breakthrough is expected to benefit sheep breeders, who can potentially use the technology to select either females for breeding, or stud rams. |
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| LEPTIN AND OBESITY: ALL IN THE HEAD? |
| In the absence of leptin signaling, mice, like humans, grow extremely obese and develop many of the common sequellae of obesity in humans, such as diabetes and steatosis of the liver. Introduction of leptin directly into the hypothalamus potently reverses the overeating and obesity seen in leptin-deficient animals. |
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| OPPORTUNITIES AND RISKS OF GENETICALLY MODIFIED FOOD |
| In its new publication, the Senate commission deals with issues concerning the objectives, application and legal framework of green genetic engineering. It comments on conceivable risks resulting from the cultivation and consumption of genetically modified plants or food and refers to safety precautions to protect the consumer. The statement focuses on food from transgenic plants. Animal food is to be dealt with at a later point in a separate publication. |
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| GENE THERAPY MAY BE A TOOL TO PREVENT BLINDNESS |
| Reduces blinding blood vessel growth by up to 90 percent in laboratory mice. Gene therapy may one day be used to halt or even prevent the overgrowth of blood vessels in the eye that blinds patients with macular degeneration and diabetic retinopathy, according to two recent studies led by researchers at Johns Hopkins' Wilmer Eye Institute. |
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| GENES EXPLAIN WHY MEN ARE TALLER |
| Over 4cm of men's height is due to the combination of just two genes, according to a new study undertaken at the University of Melbourne.
The research, published in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism this week, identifies one gene on chromosome 15 and one on the Y chromosome as contributors to height in men. These genes may also help explain why men are taller than women. |
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| MOTHERS TRANSMIT DNA THROUGH DAUGHTERS ONLY |
| Scientists have argued whether or not the often-studied mitochondrial DNA molecule is clonally inherited. It is with assuming clonal inheritance this type of DNA has been used to track the origin of modern human as well as to draw pictures of genetic relationships among other animals and plants. |
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| WHEN ANTIBODIES TURN AGAINST YOU |
| Australian immunologists have found that the Ross River virus uses antibodies, which normally neutralise viral invaders, to its own advantage. |
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| SYNTHETIC ANTIFREEZE COULD PREVENT ICE GROWTH |
| A fish swimming in icy polar waters is helping scientists find ways to protect food from freezer burn, save fruit crops from frost, and use low temperature storage in complicated medical procedures like human organ transplants, researchers report. |
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| YALE RESEARCHERS DISCOVER A GENETIC CAUSE OF HIGH BLOOD PRESSURE |
| Researchers at Yale studying a rare inherited form of hypertension have discovered mutations in two different genes that can cause this disease, clearing the way for new medications to treat both the rare and common forms of high blood pressure. |
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| REGENERATION IN THE MAMMALIAN HEART DEMONSTRATED BY WISTAR RESEARCHERS |
| Mammalian heart tissue may be capable of regenerating itself after serious injury, according to a new study by researchers at The Wistar Institute. Experiments with a strain of laboratory mice known as MRL mice detailed their potent ability to renew damaged heart tissue with minimal scarring. |
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| SORTING THE GIRLS FROM THE BOYS |
| IVF couples wanting a baby girl now have a 90 per cent chance of having their wishes fulfilled if the man's sperm is treated with a special sex-sorting technique before conception. The odds are the latest results from an ongoing clinical trial of the technique known as MicroSort, which can selectively sift out sperm cells carrying the X-chromosome. |
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| SCIENTISTS REPORT THE FIRST LIVE BIRTHS IN LARGE MAMMALS AFTER USING FROZEN OVARIAN TISSUE |
| French scientists have succeeded in using previously frozen ovarian tissue to produce live offspring in large mammals for the first time. The team, led by Professor Bruno Salle and Dr Jacqueline Lornage of the Departement de Medecine de la Reproduction at the Hopital Edouard Herriot in Lyon, reported that from six ewes there had been four pregnancies which had produced three live lambs, one lamb that died shortly after birth and two twins that died after a premature delivery. |
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| ALL RBS ARE NOT ALIKE: INSIGHT INTO RB IN THE PLANT CELL CYCLE |
| By identifying and functionally characterizing an RB homolog in a simple green algae, scientists have shed a surprising new light on the potential role of RB-like proteins in the plant cell cycle. |
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| IDENTIFICATION OF GENES MAY TELL HOW PLANTS RECOGNIZE POLLEN |
| Researchers have identified the genes that code for proteins that coat the pollen of the flowering plant Arabidopsis thaliana. The studies may help scientists understand how plants recognize pollen from their own species. |
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| NEW PEACH VARIETY HAS STRANGE SHAPE AND SWEET TASTE |
| A new peach variety from University of Florida fruit breeders looks like someone took a standard peach and flattened it. But don't let its odd, saucer-like appearance fool you -- the peach has a firm texture and the sweetest taste this side of the Georgia state line. |
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| INDIAN CASTE GROUPS HAVE DIFFERING GENETIC RELATIONSHIPS TO EUROPEANS AND ASIANS |
| A new study of genetic data shows that the ancestors of Indian men came from different parts of the world than those of Indian women and produced modern upper caste Indian populations that are genetically more similar to Europeans and lower caste populations that are more similar to Asians. |
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| PLANT GENOME CARRIES SECRETS OF LONG LIFE |
| The Arabodopsis plant is able to survive even without a ferment preventing it from aging. Researchers, who study chromosome ends of Arabidopsis thaliana belonging to the mustards family, discovered the existence of a genome responsible for aging. The said genome has a lot in common with a humans’. Experiments carried out with plants at the genetic level are likely to be crucial for medicine. |
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| SECRETS OF CANCER CELLS IMMORTALITY HAVE BEEN FOUND |
| The capability of a cancer cell to divide endlessly makes it practically immortal. British researchers identified a protein molecule which appr. 10 per cent of all malignant cells use to reach the state of immortality. Blocking this molecule, it’ll become possible to stop further division of cancer cells. |
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| FINLAND'S FATHERS |
| The origin of the Saam nationality living in the north of Scandinavia and Finland has long been a subject of discussions. The Saams and Finns are distinguished from majority Europeans by their intrinsic language culture. They speak the Finnish-Ugorsk dialect more than Indo-European ones. Genetics, trying to decode their unclear origin, had difficulties in selecting the true Saam nationality, since over 2,000 years the nations have strongly intercrossed with one another. |
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| A BREAKTHROUGH IN GENETICS. BIOLOGISTS ARE TRANSFORMING LEAVES IN PETALS. |
| Biologists from California University in San-Diego (UCSD) have found a way to genetically transform leaves in petals. This achievement is comparable, in biology level, with a wish of ancient-time alchemists to turn iron into gold. The UCSD’s scientists say that the recent discovery of a new class of flora-related genes and three other genes responsible for a flower growth allows to trigger a mechanism of leaves-to-petals transformation. The discovery will enable to obtain a lot of the same flowers in tropics and a lot of beautiful flowers in the modern-temperate zones in spring and autumn.
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| NEW INFORMATION ON VIRUS ORIGINATION AND REPRODUCTION MECHANISM |
| With a frightening and a practically 100 percent efficiency the HIV retrovirus uses only a negligible part of its genetic code to get protection from carrier organism cells and to infect new healthy cells.
These are results of a research conducted by scientists of Dana Farber Cancer Institute. They have discovered a way in which retrovirus leave an infected cell and hides in its membrane in order not to be killed by organism’s immune system. |
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| FUTURE OF GENE TECHNOLOGY |
| Progress in gene technology could slow down, if projects targeted at reproduction of calves having the same genetic code with their parents would further develop. Like the sheep Dolly, calves would become a complete analog of their "parents". |
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| WHAT CONDITIONS ARE REQUIRED FOR GENES TO GET ACCUSTOMED TO A CERTAIN LIFESTYLE? |
| Some genes of microorganisms allow to get accustomed to critical conditions of the environment. Scientists of Max Plank Biological Institute have analyzed microorganism genes which intensively develop in extremely acid medium (pH index is as low as 0.5) at temperatures of up to 63°C.
Having carried out research on the subject, scientists have informed of the existence of the so-called “lifestyle genes”. It was discovered that organisms, occupying the same ecological niche, exchange with each other with the genes which are able to adapt to various severe conditions...
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| WHO IS SMARTER? |
| Geneticists say that the level of mental development of the children born of parents who are cousins is expected to be lower than that of "ordinary" children. This fact is confirmed,
in particular... |
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