Chemical switch triggers critical cell activities
...n like a baton to another enzyme, has solved a key mystery to how cells control some vital functions, according to investigators at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. A report on this work appears in the January 14 advanced online publication issue of Nature. The St. Jude discovery explains how a simp...National Science Foundation supports UCR study of polar lake life forms
...m a vast Antarctic lake in an effort to unlock the mystery of how life adapts to extremely harsh environments. Assistant Professor of Environmental Sciences Brian Lanoil is spearheading a project that will probe the life found in Lake Vostok, the world's seventh largest lake, a Great Lakes-size body of fre...Cartilage discovery offers arthritis hope
...ucture of these fibres or 'fibrils' has remained a mystery for more than 40 years, so hindering any progress towards the development of potential therapies. Now, a team from The University of Manchester has used sophisticated electron microscope techniques to uncover the molecular structure of the thinner o......ssive micrographs of these nets. But it remained a mystery how the granulocytes could mobilise the contents of their nuclei and catapult it out of the cells. Only after lengthy live cell imaging and biochemical studies it became clear how neutrophils make NETs. The cells get activated by bacteria and modif...Paying attention sets off symphony of cell synchronization
... study sheds light on how attention operates. The mystery of how attention improves the perception of incoming sensory stimulation has been a long-time concern of scientists. One hypothesis is that when you pay attention neurons produce stronger brain activity, as if the stimulus itself was stronger. That w...Study reveals molecular basis of botulism toxin's deadly activity
..."The structure finally helps to answer part of the mystery of how a very large protein can search through the body and locate the neuromuscular junction with such high affinity and specificity," says Scripps Research Professor Raymond Stevens, an author of the paper who has studied botulinum toxins for many ...One gene 90 percent responsible for making common parasite dangerous
...T. gondii difficult to tell apart, heightening the mystery of occasional serious infections in healthy people. "Clinically it may be helpful to be able to test the form of the parasite causing the infection to determine if a case requires aggressive management and treatment or is unlikely to be a cause of ......cell from another, and thus is at the heart of the mystery of stem cells. Genomic imprinting is a type of epigenetic change that causes one copy of a particular gene to be turned off, depending on its parental origin. It works largely by altering the methylation patterns"the addition or subtraction of met...Embryonic patterning makes the feathers fly
...r fibroblast growth factor (FGF) is activated. The mystery has been how a pattern of activation was laid down by FGF. Speculation pointed to a downstream cellular signaling pathway but which one (and if it was just one pathway) was unknown. To discern which pathway mediates FGF activity during skin patter...Two studies on bee evolution reveal surprises
...g plants and "creating" new species, it has been a mystery why the bee fossil record only dated back about 65 million years. Until now, many researchers believed the most primitive bees stemmed from the family Colletidae, which implies that bees originated in the Southern Hemisphere (either South America ...Einstein researchers discover how a key dietary vitamin is absorbed
... 1 issue of the journal Cell, solve a longstanding mystery as to how folates in the diet are absorbed and pave the way for a genetic test that can save the lives of infants who lack the ability to absorb folate. We cant live without folate, says Dr. I. David Goldman, the studys senior author and director ...Nobel Laureate finds 'elegant' explanation for DNA transcribing enzyme's high fidelity
...selecting the correct base and sugarbut its been a mystery how that is accomplished. These findings offer an unexpected and elegant explanation thats both beautiful and simple, as nature invariably proves to be. The fundamental mechanism of transcription is conserved among cellular RNA polymerases, the res......f water in these environments is still, somewhat a mystery to us, despite the fact that our world is surrounded by water", declared Reichert....Neanderthal genome sequencing yields surprising results and opens a new door to future studies
The veil of mystery surrounding our extinct hominid cousins, the Neand...ntages, this might help answer the most persistent mystery of all: Why did Neanderthals become extinct? In addition, said Rubin, "Reaching into the Neanderth...Varied diet of early hominid casts doubt on extinction theory, says Colorado U study
...Sponheimer. "This 'who done it' or 'what done it' mystery is not likely to be resolved any time soon."...Common ancestry of bacterium and plants could be key to an effective new treatment for chlamydia
...The discovery is an unexpected turn in solving the mystery of how plants produce lysine, one of the 20 amino acids normally found in proteins. Scientists have known the specific pathways of lysine production in bacteria for more than a half-century. They also have known some of the steps by which lysine is p...Penn researcher shows that DNA gets kinky easily at the nanoscale
... to Nelson, such processes were considered a minor mystery of nature, in part because researchers didn't have the tools of nanotechnology to examine molecules in such fine detail. "Common sense and physics seemed to tell us that DNA just shouldn't spontaneously bend into such tight structures, yet it does,...ASU researchers test antibacterial effects of healing clays
... and structure also seem to play a role. It is a mystery that engages both research partners: "It's fascinating," Haydel says. "Here we are bridging geology, microbiology, cell biology transdisciplinary sciences, exactly what (ASU President) Michael Crow has been promoting. A year ago, I'd look at the cla...Governments should act now to save threatened turtles
...urvivors live when they are not nesting has been a mystery until now. Experts from the University of Exeter, the Cayman Islands Department of Environment and Duke University, USA, followed the journeys of ten endangered adult females over three years. Using satellite transmitters, the team tracked the tur...Naturally occurring enzyme can break down key part of Alzheimer's plaques
...rovocative but as yet unproven theory about an old mystery of Alzheimer's disease: why plaques continue to increase in number over time but only grow to a certain size. "Even though everything we know about the fibrils suggests they should constantly grow, plaques reach a mature size and stop growing," Lee ...