Shedding Light On Circadian Rhythms
...cked the Cry2 gene.The researchers then used these mutant mice to measure whether the absence ofCRY2 affecte...rall circadian locomotor activity rhythms of these mutant flies wassurprisingly normal. The addition of a second mutation that leaves the fly eyesunresponsive......rkinsonism (FTDP-17). They found that, in FTDP-17, mutant versions of aprotein called tau are unable to fulf...re-emphasize that the disease-causingcapability of mutant tau must not be underestimated. "There's no doubt that tau tangles alone can lead to disease...Genetically Engineered Mice Exhibit Anxiety, Offering Insight Into Role Of Serotonin In Brain
...hree tests designed to test levels of anxiety, the mutant mice displayedbehaviors suggesting they were signi...archers also sought to compare the behavior of the mutant micewith that of mice treated with antidepressant drugs. While they stress thatfurther studies are n...Cellular Target Of Leprosy, Deadly Viruses Found
...archers also found they could "rescue"DG-deficient mutant cells by using a harmless virus that adds back the gene thatcodes for the DG protein. The interaction between DG and laminin also is critical to the process ofinfection. Experiments with the leprosy bacterium showed that it attached to DGonly in the...Gene Identified For Heart Defect That Causes Sudden Death In Young People
...members of the10 living individuals and linked the mutant gene that causes ARVD in the familyto chromosome 3. ARVD strikes about 1 in 5,000 people and accounts for about 15 percent of suddendeaths in young people, say researchers. It is an autosomal dominant disease,which means a person needs to inherit a ......lication detailing the research, entitled "Lipid A mutant Salmonella withsuppressed virulence and TNF-alpha ...ified lipopolysaccharide (LPS) from the msbB-minus mutant bacteria showedat least a 10,000-fold reduction in the induction of TNF-alpha by humanmonocytes comp......mouse model of AHC deficiency.However, producing a mutant AHC mouse proved a significant obstacle, becauselo...ultimately generated XY and XX mice that carry the mutant AHC genethrough the use of a sophisticated gene excision and recombination techniqueknown as Cre-lox...... onedirection through the cell. Scientists found a mutant of an arabidopsis plant that was shaped strangely.Since the plant looked like a knitting needle, researchers called it "pin" (Fig.1). When they looked to see what had caused this, they noticed that the plantcould not transport auxin properly. Modern ...Human Neural Stem Cells Advance Distant Prospect Of Reseeding Damaged Brain
... found that the stemcells restored a brain area in mutant mice whose cerebellar granule neurons donot develop properly. In all those experiments, the grafted cells integrated seamlessly intothe surrounding brain tissue, says Snyder. Even so, he does not know if theyactually function. To address thi......f the virus. In the case of leukemia,as with AIDS, mutant forms of the virus are often far more damaging tha...irus they sprang from. So finding the receptor the mutant virusesattach themselves to could be used as a clinical tool. "By identifying the receptor t......currently examining their working hypothesis using mutant mice that completely lack Neuroligins....Researchers Isolate Gene For Heart And Facial Defects
...ave been studying cardiac development,noticed that mutant mice with improper heart development had character...n mice with normal hearts but missingin those with mutant dHAND genes. The human corresponding copy of one of thosegenes, UFD1, is located on chromosome 22 in...Researchers isolate gene that helps plants take in iron from soil
...d by sequencing the gene, called FRO2, in the two mutant plantspecimens. Graduate student Catherine Procter of the Newcastle team found thatin both cases, the gene had mutated to a form which would render itnon-functional. Postdoctoral researcher Erin Connolly of the Dartmouth team moved a working copyof......ng the fruit fly, Van Vactor analyzed two types of mutant phenotypeswith derailed motor nerve development. I...roups onto other kinds of proteins.) Whenanalyzing mutant embryos that lacked both profilin genes and one copy of the Ablgene, the scientists found that cutti...UI Researchers Find Possible Genetic Link Between The X Chromosome And Ovarian Cancer
...ho developed ovarian cancerdue to inheritance of a mutant BRCA1 gene. "The uneven distribution violates a b...t, ratherthan in just half, of their cells. When a mutant BRCA1 gene was also present, 90percent of the women had this nonrandom X-chromosome inactivation. By...Better Binding Through Chemistry
...itz got the idea for their approach while studying mutant bacteria thatshowed enhanced affinity of rapamycin for its target, tor, a protein involved incell cycle regulation. Certain microbes block the proliferation of competingmicrobes by secreting rapamycin. The "drug" rapamycin achieves inhibition in twos...Genetic Mutations Linked To Rare Metabolic Disease
... together, accounts for 97 percent of the mutant Finnish chromosomes. Both mutations are in the Cubilin (CUBN) gene. Krahe, along with Maria Aminoff, a doctoral student fromthe University of Helsinki and vi...UI Study Reveals Important Information About Molecular Defect In Limb Girdle Muscular Dystrophy
...multaneous synthesis of all four sarcoglycans. Any mutant sarcoglycanblocks the complex formation and its insertion into the plasma membrane.Campbell and Holt's confirmation of how the sarcoglycan complex develops is astep toward learning more about the basic molecular underpinnings of thedisease. "If we c...Millennium Clones Diet-Induced Obesity Gene
...ceptor, and the mice canbecome obese. However, the mutant mg gene suppresses this weight gain, keepingagouti-yellow mice at normal weight, perhaps by preventing effective antagonismby the agouti gene product. Alternatively, the scientists suggest, the MG protein itself may be a signalingreceptor, but they ......ciate Tom Kidd and colleague Kim Bland usedgenetic mutant screening studies of the fruit fly Drosophila to pinpointthe Slit protein as a key repellent molecule in developing fly embryos. Thegroup had previously shown that the roundabout, or Robo, protein is a repulsivereceptor on the surface of growing ax...