Decoy molecule that fights food poisoning might help defeat other toxins
...staph toxin, according to Gupta. He feels that the similarities between staph toxin, anthrax toxin and an HIV protein called gp120 indicate that the same decoy technique could be used to block the spread of them all. A decoy modified to fight HIV, for example, would battle the gp120 protein that allows the virus'...Scientists find link between Indian caste rank and genetic similarity to Europeans
...es. The detailed comparison revealed that genetic similarities between Indians and Europeans tend to increase with caste rank. Intriguingly, the scientists found different trends when comparing maternally inherited (mitochondrial) variations and paternally inherited (Y chromosome) variations. Maternally inheri...Visualizing protein synthesis in living neurons
...stneighboring neurons dont seem to have functional similarities if yourerecording signals from their cell bodies. Neighboring neurons appear to likedifferent kinds of stimuli. But using this protein synthesis reporter, we mightuncover similar functional domains in the dendrites of these different cellsthat we wou...Scientists record extraordinary sounds made by minke whales
...orth Pacific since the 1950s. It has many striking similarities to the star-wars vocalization, in both structure and acoustic behavior, Gedamke said. These similarities and the closer evolutionary relationship between dwarf minke whales and Northern Hemisphere minke wh...UCSD biologists identify 548 genes in the fruit fly likely to play a role in human genetic diseases
...aded the research. "The surprise is how deep these similarities really are. Basically, every category of human genetic disease is well represented with a counterpart in the fly." The UCSD scientists screened the genes involved in 929 human genetic diseases in their database against the fruit-fly genes in th......, it's important to understand the differences and similarities between the two species." Through their study, the Joint Genome Institute team found apparent additional sections of more than 300 human genes, confirmed the existence of other computer-predicted genes and provided evidence to discard other gene ...Invasive gobies prevent sculpin spawning, impacting perch food chain
... University of Chicago, found that while there are similarities in the two species' spawning areas, there are also differences. These differences might be used to minimize goby spawning habitat and encourage sculpin spawning. "Both fish are bottom-dwellers that nest in rock cavities, but round gobies prefer site......ould shed light on antibiotics, but because of the similarities to human pumps, it could be relevant for human chemotherapy as well," he says. The structure of MsbA is a dimer with two identical subunits. These subunits stretch across the cell membrane, coming together at the top (outside of the cell) and openi...Both genetics and diet influence cholesterol levels
...ers also found that identical twins displayed more similarities in cholesterol levels than were seen in fraternal twins, who do not have all of the same genes. This shows that there are important genetic factors that account for variation in cholesterol levels. In fact, genetic factors accounted for the majority ...New fossils suggest whales and hippos are close kin
... artiodactyl explanation hard to accept. Based on similarities in teeth, they maintained that whales probably evolved from mesonychid condylarths, meat-eating animals that resembled hyenas with hooves. Gingerich has been searching since the late 1970s for evidence that would clear up the confusion. Working in E...Hopkins scientist evaluates latest findings on the ancestry of whales
...ics of specimens -- the morphology -- and look for similarities or differences, the presence and relative complexity of various systems, and other measures that help create connections in the evolutionary tree. In the last two decades, others have focused on molecular examinations of species, determining the ext...Fire and ice: An altered protein brings fever, chills
...ll unknown, Dr. Hoffman notes. Based on structural similarities between cryopyrin and proteins used by plants for defense against attackers, the scientists believe cryopyrin is part of the innate immune system-an evolutionarily ancient defense system-that is present in plants and other lower organisms. When an ...Astrobiologist and national security expert Christopher Chyba named 2001 MacArthur
...tions that spawned terrestrial life, and exploring similarities and differences among other objects in the solar system. "Chyba has developed models to understand how Earth could have sustained life 3.5 billion years ago, when the Sun was 25 percent dimmer than it is today," noted the foundation. "He has propose...Study helps identify key step in simple motor learning
...reports in what he calls his "Jacob paper" for its similarities to his young son. "The answers are no, no, and no," says Linden. "We suspected that the time of the ion channels' opening didn't change, but the rate of ion flow or the efficiency of glutamate binding were reasonable possibilities. The experiments, ......hat all the families shared certain unique genetic similarities in a region of DNA that flanked the gene, indicating that these families had all shared a common ancestor at some point in history. Not every Caribbean Hispanic family with early-onset Alzheimer's disease in the study had the mutation, however. The C......the journal Neuron. Rest in flies shares numerous similarities with human sleep, including prolonged immobility, decreased sensory responsiveness and a need to compensate after sleep deprivation. Fruit flies spend about six to 10 hours a day resting, mostly at night. "The sleeping flies lie prone in a quiet cor......tions of some microbe genes are suspected based on similarities to known genes, but a large number of genes are unique to one organism and have unknown functions. The Pathogen Functional Genomics Resource Center will be a centralized training and resource facility that supports research on three to 10 important p...... arthritis in dogs in 1983, says the physiological similarities between dogs and humans make it very likely that joint laxity could similarly signal the likelihood of arthritis in people, whose laxity could be remedied in humans with medications. There is currently no such risk factor used to predict the onset o...UNC botanist spearheads ongoing effort to curtail movement of pest plant species
...derated Garden Clubs of America. This issue has similarities to air pollution and second-hand smoke in the sense that the activity occurs in one place and time, but the effects are felt later somewhere else, White said. The voluntary codes we developed cover actions by botanical gardens, plant nurseries, lands...... given time and place, mtDNA sequence data showing similarities among a domesticate and a specific wild population can unambiguously identify the geographic region where prehistoric gardeners first planted the wild ancestors in their gardens, a "promising breakthrough" according to Kenneth Olsen, plant population...