News tips from the Journal of Neuroscience
...relates with seizure sensitivity. And what is a BS phenotype you ask? Well, flies are vortexed for 10 s at high speed, and BS-sensitive flies display a period of paralysis followed by hyperactivity. For kcc mutants, BS sensitivity showed incomplete penetrance and was more prominent at lower temperatures and ...OHSU lab links gene to aged skin problems, cancer
...ists and medical doctors documented the aging skin phenotype a long time ago, and the Smad7 over-expression in aged skin was reported a few years ago, but nobody knew whether these two events had any link," said Wang, who also serves in the OHSU departments of Cell and Developmental Biology, and Dermatology. "...JCI table of contents: September 14, 2006
...ates myopathic contribution to the Kennedy disease phenotype in a mouse knock-in model AUTHOR CONTACT: Andrew P. LiebermanUniversity of Michigan Medical School, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA.Phone: (734) 936-1887 Fax: (734) 615-3441 E-mail: liebermn@umich.edu . View the PDF of this article at: https://www.t...News tips from the Journal of Neuroscience
...absence of either protein led to an unusual myelin phenotype with abnormal accumulation of cytoplasm in the inner tongue of compact myelin sheaths and a reduction in myelin thickness. 3. Waking up to Histamine Neurons Kazumi Takahashi, Jian-Sheng Lin, and Kazuya Sakai Like a shot of espresso, neurons...Animals resistant to drunken behavior offer clues to alcoholism's roots
...he "knockout" mice also drank more alcohol. "The phenotype is quite striking," said Di Fiore. " The mice can consume a considerable amount of ethanol without becoming intoxicated. The differences are remarkable and they hold across the sexes." Further investigation showed that ethanol exposure normally af...JCI table of contents: Oct. 12, 2006
.... Mice lacking NF-kappaB2 had a similar autoimmune phenotype to mice lacking Aire, and Aire expression was dramatically reduced in the thymus of NF-kappaB2deficient mice. This study identifies one pathway by which the expression of proteins that belong to the body's own tissues is controlled in the thymus, pro...Researchers writing story of the 'alcoholic lung'
... which, in turn, contributes to the alcoholic lung phenotype and renders the lung susceptible to edematous injury," the authors wrote. Treating lung epithelial cells with GM-CSF can reverse the deleterious effects of alcohol, the authors concluded. "GM-CSF treatment, in part by restoring tight junction protein...JCI table of contents: November 9, 2006
...y individuals. This inability to induce a Tr1 cell phenotype was associated with altered expression of CD46 cytoplasmic isoforms upon activation. This study shows that a second regulatory T cell population (the Tr1 cells) is impaired in individuals with MS and the authors speculate that, as for the CD4+CD25hig...New findings may lead to treatment for anxiety in Rett Syndrome
...hough the precise role any of them play in the RTT phenotype remains unclear. But the combination of anxious behavior and increased corticosterone release led McGill et al. to hypothesize that their mice might be suffering from abnormal expression of Crh, the gene that produces corticotropin-releasing hormone ...New insight about the source of anxiety in Rett syndrome
...l you about the molecular changes that lead to the phenotype (symptoms) we see in the children. Our goal has be...better understanding of the molecular basis of the phenotype we see in children." In their work, they found that CRH (corticotropin-releasing hormone) plays a c...Factors affecting kernel yield in maize
...ced levels of GS1 protein and activity. The gln1-4 phenotype displayed reduced kernel size whereas gln1-3 had reduced kernel number, and both phenotypes were evident in the gln1-3 gln1-4 double mutant. Shoot biomass production at maturity was not affected in either the single mutants or double mutants, sugges...MIT: Engineered yeast speeds ethanol production
...enced by many genes, it is difficult to change the phenotype by altering each of those genes, one at a time. Targeting the transcription factors instead can be a more efficient way to produce desirable traits. "It is the makeup of the transcripts that determines how a cell is going to behave and this is contr...A new target for the treatment of breast cancer
...protease results in the reversion of the malignant phenotype of these breast cancer cells and switches their behavior back to a phenotype very reminiscent of non-malignant breast epithelial cells." Kenny is the co-author along with Biss...JCI table of contents: Jan. 18, 2007
... first family, the individual with the most severe phenotype had mutations in two different genes (FGFR1 and NELF). By contrast, his parents and siblings with only one or other of the mutations exhibited less severe disease. Similarly, in the second family, the most severely affected individual had 2 mutations...Beyond nature vs. nurture: Williams syndrome across cultures
...e or cultural background, Williams syndrome social phenotype is shaped both by genes and interactions with the environment." The current research is just one piece in a puzzle that a large collaboration of scientists under the umbrella of a long-running Program Project from the National Institutes of Child ...Scripps research team discovers a chemical pathway that causes mice to overeat and gain weight
...he research will be to determine whether the obese phenotype observed in the EP3 receptor deficient mice is dependent on the lack of EP3 in the central nervous system and/or peripheral organs, as EP3 is expressed in both locations. The research has interesting implications for scientists' understanding of a...Lessons in wood formation from Arabidopsis
... stems were easily bent and broken. This defective phenotype could be almost completely reversed by introducing into the double mutant a genomic fragment containing either the fully functional NST1 or NST3 gene. This shows that these genes have an overlapping or redundant function in promoting secondary wall t...Protein overexpression at heart of heart failure
...el activity but the mechanism for this biophysical phenotype has remained unknown.3,4 In a paper in this weeks PLoS ONE, Roger Hullin of the Swiss Heart Center Bern, Jan Matthes of University of Cologne, Germany, and collaborators in both Germany and the USA demonstrate an up-regulation of expression of an a...Jefferson scientists uncover gene mutation that cuts colon polyps, may suppress cancer
... susceptibility to cancers. Modifier genes alter a phenotype dictated by other genes, explains Dr. Siracusa. If a person inherits a mutation in the APC gene, a modifier gene can make that number of polyps and tumors either higher or lower, and can mean a person is more prone or resistant to developing polyps......ating BMD, Mohan's team characterized the skeletal phenotype of mice with and without the DARC gene. The DARC -knockout mice exhibited increased BMD and lower bone resorption compared to mice with the DARC gene, supporting the predicted role of DARC in hastening bone resorption. They also showed that a...