ScienceDaily: Genetics

Unexpectedly small effects of mutations in bacteria bring new perspectives

November 6, 2010
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ScienceDaily (Nov. 5, 2010) — Most mutations in the genes of the Salmonella bacterium have a surprisingly small negative impact on bacterial fitness. And this is the case regardless whether they lead to changes in the bacterial proteins or not. This is shown by Uppsala University scientists in an article being published November 5...
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Human-specific evolution in battling bugs and building babies

November 6, 2010
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ScienceDaily (Nov. 5, 2010) — Although human and chimpanzee immune systems have many identical components, this is not the case for the family of killer cell immunoglobulin-like receptors (KIR) controlling white blood cells known as natural killer (NK) cells. Published in the open-access journal PloS Genetics on November 4, a paper by Stanford University...
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Decoding the genome of Chlorella microalgae, a promising genus for biofuel production

November 6, 2010
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ScienceDaily (Nov. 5, 2010) — The analysis of the complete genome of Chlorella microalgae, a promising genus for biofuel production, has been completed by the Laboratoire Information Génomique et Structurale of CNRS, which is currently heading an international collaboration involving American and Japanese laboratories (1). The detailed elucidation of the Chlorella genome, also widely...
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Fly stem cells on diet: Scientists discovered how stem cells respond to nutrient availability

November 6, 2010
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ScienceDaily (Nov. 5, 2010) — A study by researchers at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies revealed that stem cells can sense a decrease in available nutrients and respond by retaining only a small pool of active stem cells for tissue maintenance. When, or if, favorable conditions return, stem cell numbers multiply to accommodate...
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To prevent inbreeding, flowering plants have evolved multiple genes, research reveals

November 6, 2010
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ScienceDaily (Nov. 4, 2010) — A research team led by Teh-hui Kao, professor of biochemistry and molecular biology at Penn State University, in collaboration with a team lead by Professor Seiji Takayama at the Nara Institute of Science and Technology in Japan, has discovered a large suite of genes in the petunia plant that...
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Is the shape of a genome as important as its content?

October 29, 2010
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ScienceDaily (Oct. 29, 2010) — If there is one thing that recent advances in genomics have revealed, it is that our genes are interrelated, “chattering” to each other across separate chromosomes and vast stretches of DNA. According to researchers at The Wistar Institute, many of these complex associations may be explained in part by...
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Certain cancer therapies’ success depends on presence of immune cell, mouse study shows

October 29, 2010
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ScienceDaily (Oct. 29, 2010) — The immune system may play a critical role in ensuring the success of certain types of cancer therapies, according to a new study by researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine. The research showed treatments that disable cancer-promoting genes called oncogenes are much more successful in eradicating tumors...
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Size of protein aggregates, not abundance, drives spread of prion-based disease

October 29, 2010
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ScienceDaily (Oct. 28, 2010) — Mad Cow disease and its human variant Creutzfeldt — Jakob disease, which are incurable and fatal, have been on a welcome hiatus from the news for years, but because mammals remain as vulnerable as ever to infectious diseases caused by enigmatic proteins called prions, scientists have taken no respite...
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Structural genomics accelerates protein structure determination

October 29, 2010
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ScienceDaily (Oct. 28, 2010) — Membrane proteins are of immense biological and pharmaceutical importance. But so far there are only a handful of cases in which the exact structure could be successfully determined. Scientists at Columbia University, New York, and Technische Universitaet Muenchen (TUM) have now succeeded in working out the structure of an...
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Scientists ‘cage’ genetic off switches so they can be activated by UV light

October 29, 2010
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ScienceDaily (Oct. 28, 2010) — Researchers at North Carolina State University have found a way to “cage” genetic off switches in such a way that they can be activated when exposed to UV light. Their technology gives scientists a more precise way to control and study gene function in localized areas of developing organisms.
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