A new wrinkle in evolution -- man-made proteins
...very protein. The mixing and matching of the amino acid chain like numbers in the lottery are what favor t...w proteins and generated a library of random amino acid sequences so vast 400 trillion that it dwarfs the number of items in the entire Library of Congres...Lipoic acid explored as anti-aging compound
...al functions. "The evidence suggests that lipoic acid is actually a low-level stressor that turns on the... degenerative disease process, and say that lipoic acid appears to be one of those with the most compelling promise. It's normally found at low levels in gr...Effect on breast tumors of DNA alternations in 3 genes described
...three genes, known as E-cadherin, p16 and retinoic acid B2 receptor (RAR-B2), using tissue samples from 887 breast cancers. The samples were taken from women 35-79 years old who participated in the Western New York Exposures and Breast Cancer Study (WEB study). Extensive in-person interviews were used to ...UCLA molecular biologists convert protein sequences into classical music
..., as opposed to looking at the letters of an amino acid or protein sequence. We can listen to a protein, a...ent amino acids. Assigning one note for each amino acid therefore results in a 20-note scale. "A 20-note scale is too large a range," Takahashi said. "You...Fatty acid catabolism higher due to polyphenol intake
...has discovered that polyphenols increase the fatty acid breakdown in rats and influence the glucose use in...oer discovered that lung cells had a greater fatty acid catabolism if the animals constantly received quercetin in their feed. Energy regulation The en...Thale cress goes on the defensive
...nt as a source of food. The plant hormone jasmonic acid plays a major role during the immune response agai...nt hormones jasmonic acid, ethylene, and salicylic acid that the plant produces as a response, was specific for each pest. Analysis of the activated genes m...UCLA AIDS Institute researchers find a peptide that encourages HIV infection
... HIV. RC-111 is also cyclic and has the same amino acid sequence as retrocyclin-1. In both peptides, the amino acids are strung like 18 beads along the molecule's backbone. The amino acids in RC-111, however, are in reverse order. The researchers had initially wanted to quantify previous research by Dr...Scientists identify prion's infectious secret
...btle alterations in the recognition elements amino acid sequence. While this prion is a laboratory cons... published in Nature in 2005, identified the amino acid regions where prions connect with one another to form amyloids. Those interaction regions turn out t...Plants tag insect herbivores with an alarm
...the scientists identified and isolated an 11 amino acid peptide, inceptin, that plays a pivotal warning role in cowpea plants being attacked by the fall armyworm. Inceptin is part of a larger, essential enzyme, chloroplastic ATP synthase, in plants. When the fall armyworm feeds on cowpea, the insect inges...ACS News Service Weekly PressPac -- April 25, 2007
...stic cats with substantially less lysine an amino acid essential for good health than previously believed, scientists from New Zealand are reporting in a study scheduled for the May 2 issue of ACS' Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry , a biweekly publication. Shane M. Rutherfurd and colleagues...Hearts of male and female rainbow trout are different
...y molecules found in the fish heart -- citrate (an acid which inhibits the glycolytic metabolic pathway) and pyruvate dehydrogenase (PDH), the enzyme allowing carbohydrates to be oxidized -- differ between the sexes. The researchers hypothesized that male hearts would have higher citrate levels and femal...Not so contoversial anymore -- panel says moderate coffee drinking reduces many risks
...enic effect include reduction in cholesterol, bile acid and neutral sterol secretion in the colon, increas...r DNA adduct formation, and the ability of caffeic acid and chlorogenic acid to decreased DNA methylation. In other cancers - breast, ovarian, and prostate...New nanocomposites may mean more durable tooth fillings
...th itself, but buffer it against the decay-causing acid produced by bacteria in the mouth. Yet the available ion-releasing compounds are structurally quite weak, to the point where they weaken the filling as a whole. To get around this conundrum, the Paffenbarger researchers have devised a spray-drying...Researchers find level of special protein is critical to proper formation of muscles
...bly malfunctioning) proteins down into their amino acid components. But the UTMB study, done using worms of the species Caenorhabiditis elegans (also known as C. elegans), showed that an over-supply of UNC-45 is also a problem. "What we saw was that too much UNC-45 interfered with myosin accumulation ...Can a taste for poison drive speciation?
...e rank odor, which arises from the toxins hexanoic acid and octanoic acid, as a warning sign to stay away....compared the knock-out strains' choice of hexanoic acid or octanoic acid as an egg-laying medium. When the D. melanogaster double knock-out received either ...First demonstration of muscle restoration in an animal model of Duchenne muscular dystrophy
...enetic code is translated into proteins, one amino acid at a time. The drug allows the ribosome to read through a mistake in the genetic code called a premature stop codon in order to properly make whole proteins. In DMD, patients are missing dystrophin, a protein that helps keep muscle cells intact. A...New findings in smell and taste
...(GAD), an enzyme that produces gamma-amino butyric acid (GABA), is found in taste buds. The enzyme functions to produce GABA which may interact with GABA-specific receptors, including those in the chloride channel. The enzyme is expressed specifically at type III cells within the taste buds. Since type II...Omega-3 fatty acid may help prevent Alzheimer's brain lesions
Irvine, Calif. A type of omega-3 fatty acid may slow the growth of two brain lesions that are ...inding suggests that diets rich in docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) can help prevent the development of Alzheimers disease later in life. This study with geneti...News tips from the Journal of Neuroscience
...thors supplemented mouse chow with docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), an omega n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acid found in fish, and which is a major component of neuronal cell membranes. 3xTg-AD mice that exhibit ...Health disparities -- Genetics, society and race play an important role in access to healthcare
... chain family member 1, which is involved in fatty acid oxidation had a higher expression in the African ... ACSM1 expression could increase the rate of fatty acid oxidation in the cell, resulting in a rise in cellular energy production. "Both conditions could ...