New research shows plants can shuffle and paste gene pieces to generate genetic diversity
... the usual fate because the duplicate copy usually mutate into oblivion." The discovery of thousands of Pack-MULEs in the rice genome indicates that this may be an important mechanism to create new genes and new functions in rice and in other plants where MULEs are known to flourish. Recent studies i...Anthrax enzyme images reveal secrets of antibiotic resistance, suggest new drug design
...inds to a part of the enzyme that is not likely to mutate and make the bacteria resistant to antibiotic molecules designed to bind there. This molecule (5-nitro-6-methylamino-isocytosine) binds to a part of DHPS deeper within the loops and folds of the protein structure of the enzyme than the sulfa-drug bin...'Smart antibiotics' may result from UCLA research
... "A problem with antibiotics is that bacteria can mutate and become resistant to a particular antibiotic, while the antibiotic is static and cannot change," said Jeffery F. Miller, professor and chair of microbiology, immunology and molecular genetics at UCLA, who holds UCLA's M. Philip Davis Chair in Micr...Streptococcus infects humans by thwarting blood clotting
...between bacteria and humans. "Clearly, if we could mutate our plasminogen so it still worked, yet was resist...tage," said Ginsburg. "But then the bacteria could mutate their streptokinase to keep up. So, you can see how one bacterial species and one host get locked in...Strep disrupts blood clotting to infect humans
...between bacteria and humans. "Clearly, if we could mutate our plasminogen so it still worked, yet was resist...tage," Ginsburg said. "But then the bacteria could mutate their streptokinase to keep up." The findings also suggest that subtle variations in plasminogen ge...Evolvability could be a driving force in drug resistance
...n bacteria, the fact that some immune system cells mutate much more rapidly than other cells in our bodies, as well as why some bacteria and higher-order organisms have a tendency to transpose or swap relatively long sequences of DNA," said Deem. Traditionally, a significant number of evolutionary biologist...'Search and destroy' protein turns tables on HIV
...d one described previously (APOBEC3G) can directly mutate HIV. Such proteins--called retroviral restrictors-...EC proteins that hitch a ride in the particles and mutate the virus' genetic material after it has infected a new host cell. Unfortunately for us, the AIDS v...Purdue scientists finding ways to outsmart crop-damaging bugs
...ecticides currently in use." Crop-damaging insects mutate over time so they are able to overcome the effects of chemicals developed to kill them. A toxin that protected a crop for more than a decade or two eventually may lose its lethality due to resistance in the insect population. According to the U.S. De...HIV finds new way to play hide and seek
The deadly virus HIV can mutate to prevent display of its components to immune cells, thus concealing itself from the body's surveillance system and resulting in faster progression to AIDS, report Philip Goulder and colleagues in The Journal of Experimental Medicine. This has impor...Bioreactor boosts chemical fermentation by 50 percent: study
...he fibers so the cells could grow and evolve -- or mutate -- in a harsh environment. "Most labs focus on mixing the right chemical or biological cocktail to grow cells," he said. "We are the only group that I know of that is working to optimize the cells' physical environment." The biore...Researchers model embryo implantation and tumour metastasis in fruit flies
... at the University of Toronto. "In mammals, if you mutate the basigin protein, the embryo can't implant, pro...tact with the wall of the uterus. In flies, if you mutate the proteins, two different extraembryonic membranes fail to maintain contacts and the result is dea...Studies offer new insight into HIV vaccine development
...chers have been studying the ways in which viruses mutate to "escape" recognition by the body's killer cells. Killer cells are white blood cells that perform immune "surveillance" throughout the body, detecting infected cells and eliminating them before the virus can spread. "Over 40 million people are now...Rapidly evolving genes providing new insights in plant evolution
...tionally used slowly evolving genes, or genes that mutate at a very slow rate, to understand the deep relati... understand deep-level relationships. Those genes mutate at higher rates than the slowly evolving genes. Although evolutionary biologists previously thought...Growing human organs on the farm
...y is that retroviruses lurking in animal DNA could mutate into forms that infect people. The US is more open to the idea, and a few clinical trials are under way, but health concerns mean Zanjani's technique would be expensive to develop. What's more, companies are unlikely to invest in the method because ...Scientists announce long-sought mouse model of human pancreatic cancer
...ymptoms of pain, nausea and weight loss. The genes mutate for various reasons: carcinogens such as tobacco smoke (smoking is a risk factor for pancreatic cancer), possibly dietary components and advancing age (mistakes in the DNA code of genes pile up and the body's DNA repair mechanisms fail to keep pace)....Adaptive mutation is common in E. coli, say IU researchers
...stances, the kind which might force a bacterium to mutate or die. But Foster and Layton have shown that a very common situation in nature -- one in which bacteria use up available food -- is enough to cause bacteria to activate Pol IV's gene, which in turn leads to increased mutations. "In many instances wh...... deliberately taken to other countries. They could mutate or recombine with other viruses. They could jump species. The consequences could be disastrous. The European house mouse may be an exotic pest in Australia, for instance, but in many countries it is a native animal and a key part of the food chain. N...Scientists: Cloak of human proteins gets HIV into cells
...fection offers the retrovirus a chance to survive, mutate and thrive in infected people. In general, our hypothesis makes HIV appear nastier than we think it is, and we already think it's a pretty nasty virus." But all is not lost, the Hopkins team says. The new hypothesis, and some quirky observations from...UT Southwestern researchers define regions of human genes highly prone to mutation
...o essentially define the likelihood of one gene to mutate relative to others as a function of both time and environment," said Monica M. Horvath, molecular biophysics graduate student and co-author. "cSNP trends are critical to quantify in order to develop hypotheses regarding the complexity and range of mu...... make new cells. Without the repairs, cells mutate "dramatically" and multiply. The studies were done in yeast cells the living cells used to make bread rise which have proved a useful tool for studying cellular activities. Previous work has demonstrated that what happens in yeast cells g...