Breaking new ground in germ cell guidance
... with a screen for mutant flies, which uncovered a phenotype in which the flies' primordial germ cells, called "pole cells," showed defects during their migration: the pole cells died in large numbers at a stage when they would normally begin to associate with the gonadal mesoderm. The genetic deficiency respo...A genetic disorder yields insight into genes and cognition
...n processing in humans, and define a systems-level phenotype for mapping genetic determinants of visuoconstructive function." Such insights, they said, should help scientists trace the genetic origin and molecular causes of the disorder....Integrative biology of exercise APS Intersociety meeting October 6-9, 2004 in Austin
...ertrophy: factors controlling cell enlargement and phenotype transformations. Chair Kenneth M. Baldwin. AMP-activated protein kinase: regulation of metabolic and transcription processes in contracting skeletal muscle. Chair Neil Ruderman. Comparative biomechanics and muscle function in terrestrial vertebra...Engineering endurance: The future of the Olympics?
...d Evans and colleagues genetically engineer muscle phenotype in a manner that dramatically improves endurance and running performance. Hypoxia (the physiological state that occurs when oxygen levels drop below normal) governs how ATP is recycled and which energy-producing substrates (for example, glucose or fa...Heartless worms hold clues to cardiac arrhythmias, sudden death
... which seems totally unrelated to humans -- get a phenotype in vivo, and find evidence in humans that suggests this protein is relevant to cardiac potassium channel function," Petersen said. "We speculate that KCR1 might be useful in a therapeutic context to prevent HERG block." The investigators are now usin...Tips from the journals of the American Society for Microbiology
...so increased. "These results suggest a molecular phenotype in which discrete sets of differentially expressed genes are associated with genetically determined susceptibility (Il1b, Tnf, and Stat6) or resistance (Il15 and Selp) to alveolar bone loss, providing insight into the genetic etiology of this complex...Prions act as stepping stones in evolution
...eviously had been dormant. As a result, the cell's phenotype changes. And here's where evolution comes in. ...e in a new environment where they need a different phenotype until they can acquire the genetic changes that produce the same effect. These new traits are geneti...Fundamental change to Immunology 101
...h a common HSC-MPP-early T-cell lineage progenitor phenotype and none with the CLP phenotype. This implies that there is not a lymphoid stem cell, or CLP, that leads to all lymphoid lineages but has no myeloid potential. Although another research group found a cell in the bone marrow that they named the CLP, t...Genes may be central to cocaine addiction
...e addiction, the striking concordant neurochemical phenotype between Homer2 deletion and withdrawal from chronic cocaine treatment indicates that Homer is a particularly good candidate to play a central role in cocaine addiction," wrote the researchers. Since the Homer proteins are known to be regulated by coc......esis. The researchers observed an embryonic lethal phenotype and striking developmental abnormalities in Ago2 homozygotes. All Ago2 homozygous embryos displayed defects in neural tube structure, with half of the embryos showing complete failure of neural tube closure in the head region. The embryos also had en...A pathway to blocking autoimmunity
...d a pathway to make dendritic cells with a special phenotype that includes NKT cell induction." Dendritic cells wait in peripheral tissue, such as the skin, ready to engulf foreign invaders or dying cells. Once they take up fragments of these cells, known as antigens, they migrate to the lymph nodes, wher...OHSU scientists find gene influencing drug withdrawal
...use chromosome 4 that accounted for the withdrawal phenotype to an interval containing only five genes. "So for the five genes we found were expressed, we tested them for variations between strains that differ in drug withdrawal severity. These can be differences among individuals at the sequence level and/or...Gene alteration points to longevity, thinness
...ds to control that level. "The human lifespan is a phenotype determined by multiple genes," says Dr. Fei, principal investigator on the grant. "Our Indy gene is only one of the life-determinant genes. But I can say that when the function of this single gene is knocked down, the animal can extend its lifespan."...Early predictor of breast cancer aggressiveness
...hat reduced expression indicates a more aggressive phenotype and poor prognosis." They suggest that quantitative PCR, to measure the number of ALCAM transcripts in a tissue sample from a primary breast tumor, could be used to identify these more aggressive tumors at an early stage. As ALCAM is involved in keep...New insight into cancer metastasis
...rdson. "In this case we were seeing the exact same phenotype and gene expression correlation in human breast tumors." Although clinical applications of this research are still unclear, Richardson can see the potential for developing a Twist inhibitor, a drug that wouldn't kill a tumor but rather sto...Loss of circadian genes results in epilepsy
...'s group is already at work on the premature aging phenotype displayed by the triple knockout mice. "We already have some ideas on what these circadian transcription factors do in the liver, and we also have some clues (speculations) on why their elimination might provoke premature aging. But we would like to ...JCI table of contents, February 2, 2004
...ammatory polarization in diabetes but a regulatory phenotype in health AUTHOR CONTACT: Mark Peakman King's Coll...hat humans with a similar clinical and biochemical phenotype will turn out to have mutations in this gene." He continues "this result demonstrates the important ...Bridging the gap between genetics and motivations to drink alcohol
...are undoubtedly closer to the alcohol-use disorder phenotype than to upstream links in the mediational chain such as specific gene products and neuronal receptor function. However, given that the question of whether genes are important has largely been answered, we need to keep refining the question of how ...Predicting progression of common cancers
...ssion and metastasis and suggest that a wound-like phenotype is a general risk factor for metastasis and aggressive behavior in many of the most common cancers. And the serum-response expression signature provides a valuable new diagnostic tool for predicting tumor behavior and determining a patient's prognosi......wo cases have been identified, the desmosterolosis phenotype has yet to be fully delineated. However, it appears that during embriogenesis, rodents benefit from the cholesterol synthesized by mother, while humans' maternal cholesterol is not available at these early developmental stages....