Blocking 'engulfment' gives dying cells new lease on life
...ng signs of death. In essence, when the engulfment machinery was disabled, cells lived that otherwise would hav...e died. This finding indicates that the engulfment machinery actively contributes to cell killing, rather than merely eliminating dead cells. Because many featur...Researchers first to catalogue interactions of an organism's proteins
...organism with a well-defined nucleus. "Much of the machinery that's in yeast is inside us, in terms of the basic biology that makes the cell work," Dean explained. During their research, the scientists at Yale and NC State discovered a variety of previously unknown protein interactions that will require furthe...A closer look at the genomes black holes
... Normally, the elements of the mitotic segregation machinery would be expected to be highly conserved, as are other essential cellular machines, such as ribosomes. But the central question with centromeric DNA is why it hasn't found some optimal sequence and just stayed there. A key to stable centromere inheri...Scientists at the Scripps Research Institute find a way to block prions that cause mad cow disease
... cell culture. Significantly, the normal cellular machinery degraded whatever infectious prions remained, suggesting that the antibody has the potential to cure established infection. The finding is also significant because it provides a potential therapeutic targeta highly effective human drug might be desig...DNA vaccination places tumors in double jeopardy
...calreticulin interacts with the peptide processing machinery to facilitate loading of associated peptides with the Class I MHC complex. Building on recent evidence that presentation of tumor-associated peptides through calreticulin can promote tumoricidal immune responses, Cheng et al. have engineered a fusion...Slight molecular tweak, and flu virus becomes a killer
... viruses, like all viruses, depend on the cellular machinery of their hosts to reproduce and spread. The complicated surface landscape of a virus is the key it uses to attach to host cells and co-opt their reproductive capabilities. The surface proteins of flu viruses change readily to escape detection by the...A small genetic change makes flu virus deadly
...n enzyme that helps force the host cells molecular machinery to make more viruses, Dr. Kawaoka explains. We dont know if the mutation we studied is involved in that process, but our next step will be to find out, he says. Just over 10 years ago, researchers developed the ability to genetically engineer influ...DNA transcription is tuned to specific cells
...-- Researchers have found a new example of how the machinery that controls the transcription of DNA to messenge...concept of cell-type variations in transcriptional machinery was considered radical when first proposed, said Tjian. But he believes that evidence in favor of th...Fly genetics point to potential cancer-causing gene
..."The ago protein takes cyclin E to the destruction machinery in the cell. Cells that have mutated, inactive forms of the ago protein may have a growth advantage over neighboring cells because their cyclin E isn?t degraded," says Hariharan. Hariharan and his group identified the ago protein as a cyclin E regul...New pathway to understanding circadian rhythms
...bromatosis-1 (Nf1) gene links the body's circadian machinery to other circadian-governed cells. The scientists ...began to explore NF1s role in the circadian rhythm machinery because earlier evidence from other laboratories implicated a signal affected by NF1, namely, protei...Researchers report on possible biological effects of deep-sea CO2 sequestration
...bolic rates. Consequently, they lack the metabolic machinery required to compensate body fluid pH changes. Seibel and Walsh describe how even small changes in pH can impact these organisms. International agencies are investigating deep-sea carbon sequestration as one possible mitigation technique for emissions...Molecular motor packs DNA into viruses at greater than champagne pressures, researchers report
...or. Once there, the DNA takes over the replication machinery to make thousands of copies of the virus, filling the cell until it bursts. The first piece of the virus made is the empty capsid with a protein complex, called the portal motor, at the mouth. This motor grabs hold of the viral genome, a double stran...Two separate controls regulate chromosome copying in yeast
...st, one controller, the Cdc18 protein, helps build machinery that copies DNA, and the other, Cdt1, helps start that machine. The levels of both proteins normally rise before DNA replication and fall once it's completed. By disrupting the yeasts' ability to regulate the levels of Cdc18 and Cdt1, the Hopkins ......NA sequences, we infer that this signifies genetic machinery doing the same thing." The findings built on work over the past decade in roundworm mutants with striking developmental defects. In 1991, Lee and Ambros found lin-4, a surprisingly small gene that produced a particular hook-shaped RNA. This little g...Two Hopkins faculty members receive 'genius' awards
...Foundation. Her research focuses on the molecular machinery of reproduction and biological development, or how a single cell becomes a fully formed adult animal. Her work on the molecular genetics of worms called nematodes has identified the mechanisms that generate germ cells, which are precursors to adult ......ged. When the DNA is damaged, a cell's replication machinery will stop, spontaneously back up and form a Hollid...Holliday junctions and this allows the replication machinery to bypass the damaged DNA. Cancer cells are often defective in the mechanisms that sense damaged DN...New generation of leaders in cancer research honored
...he has described the key components of the protein machinery that maintains the lengths of these chromosomal ends. Loss of these specialized ends can cause chromosomes to stick together in ways that may contribute to cancer. "Normal cells eventually stop dividing because they lose telomere function and we bel...Molecular basis of mental retardation uncovered
...A) froma body cell's nucleus to its protein-making machinery - yet the specificmRNAs involved as well as the overall purpose of this protein remainedelusive. Now, the researchers present several important clues, which togethersuggest that FMRP may turn up or down the production of certain brainproteins by bind......ty should help scientists understand the molecular machinery that controls a plants responses to light. The studies may also offer insights into variation in other organisms. There little known about the genetic basis of natural variation in plants, but thats pretty much true for all organisms, and certainly a...... GCNF is likely just one cog in a complex cellular machinery that dictates pluripotency among the cells of mouse embryos, Schlers team believes it is a crucial player: without GCNF, restriction of pluripotency does not occur properly and the embryo eventually dies. "The identification of GCNF as a repressor ...