Two Hopkins faculty members receive 'genius' awards
...ult animal. Her work on the molecular genetics of worms called nematodes has identified the mechanisms that generate germ cells, which are precursors to adult reproductive organs. She has also identified how initial asymmetry of the embryo, necessary for the development of specialized tissues, derives fr...Why does a worm need nearly as many genes as a man?
...as occurs in the human), the fact that much of the worms development and morphology are hard-wired in its g...ound in C. elegans require an understanding of the worms natural environment. C. elegans lives in soil, feeding on bacteria associated with rotting vegetable...Parasite offers natural way to control leaf-eating slugs
...es are studying tiny parasitic worms native to Europe and parts of South America. The worms feed on snails and slugs, and laboratory-grown worms are sold commercially for s...Cancer-preventing gene protects against stress and extends life span in worms
...iety of stress conditions." Though the studies on worms led the researchers to learn about p53 function in...fellow on Rothman's research team, discovered that worms carry the gene. "Although it was initially hard to recognize, we found that the worm gene has all t......nt to the gene in plants. Unlike wild-type worms, worms whose PC synthase gene was knocked out showed markedly greater sensitivity to heavy metals: they underwent extensive tissue damage, loss of fertility and eventually died. Rea said that while biologists hold out great hope for plants to be used in cle...Blocking 'engulfment' gives dying cells new lease on life
... virtually always share the same fate. Because the worms are transparent, the fate of all cellsliving, dead, or dyingcan be followed relatively easily and filmed by using a video camera attached to a microscope. Under normal circumstances, dead cells are engulfed by neighboring cells to eliminate them from...... answered when the researchers discovered that the worms harbor sulfate-reducing bacteria as secondary symbiotic partners. The sulfate-reducing symbionts produce sulfide as a metabolic endproduct that can serve as an energy source for the sulfide-oxidizing symbionts. In this endosymbiotic sulfur cycle, the......t time in high-resolution format -- the giant tube worms and other exotic life forms found near the ocean floor's boiling hot hydrothermal vents....Scientists determine how chemistry keeps weird worms "out of hot water" at steaming deep-sea vents
... location and distribution of two species of weird worms that inhabit deep-sea hydrothermal vent sites. The...microbes. "A fleece of bacteria also occupies this worms back," says UD marine biologist Craig Cary. In 1998, Cary and his team confirmed that the Pompeii wo......es used standard techniques to search among mutant worms for those that were unable to detect the differenc... induce this odor discrimination deficit in normal worms by killing one of the paired AWC cells with a laser beam. Either the mutant worms or the operated w...A worm is more like a human than previously thought
... key regulator of early development is the same in worms and vertebrates -- animals like ourselves that pos...auses of many human birth defects by examining how worms develop and how that development can go awry." Post-doctoral researcher Morris Maduro and Rothman ...Translating the human genome into protein function: structural genomics research at Columbia
...in of interest has homologs in bacteria, flies and worms may allow us to gain appreciable insight into that human molecule from the structure of any one of the family members." "Three-dimensional structure is a starting point, but not enough-there are other properties that are important, says Dr. Honig. "F...Tiny RNA may be universal regulator of developmental timing in animals
...essed only at later stages in mollusks and annelid worms and is absent in more primitive animals - such as ... RNA is conserved across the animal kingdom - from worms to flies to mice to humans - will trigger further study of how timing is regulated.......tides responsible for axis specification in flies, worms and mammals are known. However, scientists have long been unsure as to the extent to which signaling peptides play a role in the body axis formation of lower eukaryotic animals. Using grafting experiments, Lohmann and Bosch show that a secondary hea...Economic realities depleting arsenal of antiparasitic drugs
...ple, one drug that is commonly used to treat heart worms in dogs is also effective against a number of parasitic diseases including river blindness. The manufacturer of that drug for veterinary purposes has found it to be so profitable that they have been able to give the drug away free in developing coun...Reefs and atolls of the Australian outback
...g rare insights into a range of ancient jellyfish, worms and other Precambrian animals, many with no counterparts today. The Enorama reefs were built by organisms older and even more primitive than the Ediacaran fauna, but the lime that they precipitated preserved a record of them. The reefs are surprising...Researchers decipher fundamental signal for maleness
...e range of multicellular animals, from insects and worms to fish and mice. In the male fruit fly, mutations in this new signal lead to a female pattern of some parts of the nervous system and bisexual orientation. The human protein was found to bind to a genetic control element in a fruit fly gene, indicat...Northwestern scientists shed new light on neurodegenerative diseases
...n. The researchers injected one group of healthy worms with cells with 19 glutamine residues and another ... in the body wall muscle cells of the worms. The worms with the soluble protein containing 19 glutamine residues exhibited healthy behavior, moving with no...Researchers find unusual protein in bacterium
...rganisms and not others. The tidal flats where the worms live are a mostly anaerobic environment. However, unlike the anaerobic bacterium studied, the worms do not actively avoid oxygen and are not killed by it. Researchers now believe that the protein has...Nearly identical controls of immune genes in mice and humans hint at new asthma treatment
..., infecting nearly a billion people. The half-inch worms commonly bore into the body through bare feet and ...sion of the worms, Locksley explains. Intestinal worms infect essentially all infants and children in developing countries, Locksley says, and some scienti...