Evolution is driven by gene regulation
...ing gene regulation, we have now shown that we can functionally map these interactions and identify the specific targeted promoters, said Snyder. We were startled to find that even the closely related species of yeast had extensively differing patterns of regulation. In this study, the authors found the DNA bin...Disabling a sensory organ prompts female mice to act like male mice
...phic mouse behavior by engineering females to have functionally deficient vomeronasal organs. Also known as Jacobson's organ, the vomeronasal organ is a pocket in the nasal cavity of many animals that is packed with receptor cells. It is the key detector of pheromones, chemical signals that elicit specific behavi...MIT study: Maturity brings richer memories
... PFC develops later than other brain regions, both functionally and structurally.... But this is the first study that asks how this area matures and contributes to learning. For the study, Noa Ofen, a postdoctoral associate in Gabrieli's lab, forewarned 49 healthy volunteers ranging in age from eight to 24 tha...Forsyth scientists gain new understanding of adult stem cell regulation
...However, no specific gap junction protein had been functionally linked to adult/somatic stem cell behavior in vivo or to organ regeneration. This work demonstrates that gap junction channels providing direct cell-to-cell communication are a critical component for development and normal physiology....U-M team identifies gene that regulates blood-forming fetal stem cells
...atopoietic stem cells. To test whether Sox17 was functionally important for fetal and neonatal blood-forming stem cells, the researchers deleted the Sox17 gene in laboratory mice. This led to the loss of fetal and neonatal, but not adult, hematopoietic stem cells. In follow-up experiments, mice were irradiate...New proteomics research promises to revolutionize biomedical discovery
...firm that physically interacting proteins are also functionally related, the researchers have selected a number of...says. The specificity of our procedure to identify functionally relevant interaction partners is amazing, said Dr. Coulombe. For example, we present in the Molecula...Scientists gain important insights into acute promyelocytic leukemia
...d the transformation mechanisms involved in APL by functionally separating homodimerization and the intrinsic DNA-binding properties of RARA fusions from transformation of primary blood cells. The researchers found that homodimerization was not sufficient for RARA fusion-mediated transformation, but higher-order ...Pairing nanoparticles with proteins
...scientists' ability to decipher the structures and functionally important regions of protein molecules - the workhorses that carry out every function of living cells and whose dysfunction often leads to disease. With added nanoparticles, the "signal-to-noise ratio" and resolution of an imaging technique known as ...Turn-ons and turn-offs for neurons
...e in neurons during early mouse development become functionally silenced in the adult brain. Intriguingly, Hasan and colleagues found that gene silencing in the adult brain can be avoided by making neurons produce high levels of gene-specific activators which facilitate un-silencing of previously silenced genes. ...UCLA researchers reprogram normal tissue cells into embryonic stem cells
...lath said. The reprogrammed cells were not just functionally identical to embryonic stem cells. They also had identical biological structure. In a cell nucleus, DNA - an organisms unique map or instructions - wraps around histones, which serve as a kind of scaffolding for compaction of the long DNA molecule. H...Endogenous cannabinoids linked to fetal brain damage imposed by maternal cannabis use
...ds, molecules naturally produced by our brains and functionally similar to THC from cannabis, play unexpectedly significant roles in establishing how certain nerve cells connect to each other. These new and exciting results not only bolster out knowledge on the brains normal development but may also take us close...Berkeley Lab Life Sciences division awarded NIH grants for fruit fly, nematode studies
...to human -- it is very likely that the sequence is functionally relevant." ...Fly and worm models to teach researchers about human biology and medicine
... to human -- it isvery likely that the sequence is functionally relevant." The modENCODE research consortium is made up of teams of experts whobring a great deal of knowledge about the biology of the fruit fly androundworm. Due to the complexity of the data, the teams will worktogether to maximize the intellectua...Researchers create model of cancer-preventing enzyme, study how it works
...nd biochemical studies to show that this enzyme is functionally similar to the human version, so their results can be generalized to the human version, as well as the bacterial version. Using X-ray crystallography and biochemical analysis, the team created a model of proline dehydrogenase that can tell scientis......f signaling molecules that make up the compass are functionally integrated to steer the cell under normal and pathological conditions. "A surprising finding was that many of the proteins identified in the neuronal network, the wiring diagram that controls early development of neural networks in the embryo, are ...Overfishing large sharks impacts entire marine ecosystem, shrinks shellfish supply
...y more than 99 percent. "Large sharks have been functionally eliminated from the east coast of the U.S., meaning that they can no longer perform their ecosystem role as top predators," says Baum. "The extent of the declines shouldn't be a surprise considering how heavily large sharks have been fished in recent...Stem cell therapy shows promise for rescuing deteriorating vision
...early development - show "some of the best rescue, functionally and anatomically" of any such work to date. In animals whose vision would typically be lost to degenerative retinal disease, the cells were shown to protect vision and the cells in the eye that underpin sight. The new findings are important becaus...Researchers use poliovirus to destroy neuroblastoma tumors in mice
... by substituting a single nucleotide, located in a functionally important portion of the viral RNA genome called a "spacer region", with an essential regulatory gene removed from elsewhere in the viral genome. According to Jeronimo Cello, Ph.D., senior author of the Cancer Research paper and research assistant ...Stem cells act through multiple mechanisms to benefit mice with neurodegenerative disease
...-derived nerve cellsmay integrate electrically and functionally into a diseased brain. Thetransplanted cells also boosted the brain's supply of the enzyme Hex,which reduced the lipid accumulations in the treated animals. Theexperimental treatment also dampened the inflammation that typicallyoccurs in the brains o...Study advances evidence for receptor's role in alcohol pleasure and problems
...s monkeys. "A mu-opioid receptor variant that is functionally similar to the human 118G variant occurs in these animals," explained Dr. Barr. "That is, it also has a greatly enhanced ability to bind opioid peptides. We hypothesized that monkeys that had the gene for this receptor variant would experience enha...