http://www.physorg.com/ en-us Physorg.com internet news portal provides the latest news on science including: Physics, Nanotechnology, Life Sciences, Space Science, Earth Science, Environment, Health and Medicine. Scientists from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Joint Genome Institute (JGI), Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, and the University of California, San Diego have developed a set of molecular tools that provide important insight into the complex genomes of multicellular organisms. The strategy promises to clarify the longstanding mystery of the role played by vast stretches of DNA sequence that do not code for the functional units -genes -that nevertheless may have a powerful regulatory influence. The research is described in the 12 February edition of the journal Nature. http://www.physorg.com/news153684408.html Biology Thu, 12 Feb 2009 18:07:13 EST news153684408 Scientists at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University have found that a class of chromatin proteins is crucial for maintaining the structure and function of chromosomes and the normal development of eukaryotic organisms. The research, reported in today's print issue of Genes and Development, also found that this protein class, known as linker histones, works to regulate gene expression in vivo. http://www.physorg.com/news153671206.html Biology Thu, 12 Feb 2009 14:27:18 EST news153671206 Researchers at Fox Chase Cancer Center have demonstrated that it might be possible to treat genetic diseases, including some forms of cancer, by "rescuing" the misshapen, useless proteins produced by some mutant genes. http://www.physorg.com/news153589365.html Chemistry Wed, 11 Feb 2009 15:44:26 EST news153589365 Scientists at Stanford University School of Medicine have devised a much-needed way to monitor and find treatments for a mysterious and devastating group of metabolic diseases that arise from mutations in cells' fuel-burning mechanism. http://www.physorg.com/news153582021.html Medicine & Health Wed, 11 Feb 2009 13:41:28 EST news153582021 Scientists have sequenced over seventy strains of yeast, the greatest number of genomes for any species. http://www.physorg.com/news153581599.html Biology Wed, 11 Feb 2009 13:34:45 EST news153581599 Scientists at the University of Liverpool have been awarded £1.7 million to decode the genome of wheat, in order to help farmers increase the yield of British wheat varieties. http://www.physorg.com/news153574404.html Biology Wed, 11 Feb 2009 11:34:23 EST news153574404 A new University of Florida study based on DNA analysis from living flowering plants shows that the ancestors of most modern trees diversified extremely rapidly 90 million years ago, ultimately leading to the formation of forests that supported similar evolutionary bursts in animals and other plants. http://www.physorg.com/news153422711.html Other Sciences Mon, 09 Feb 2009 17:26:42 EST news153422711 In the late 1990s the Finnish Yorkshire pig population was threatened by a genetic defect which spread at an alarming rate and led to infertility. The defective KPL2 gene in porcine chromosome 16 caused pig spermatozoa to be short-tailed and immotile. The recessive genetic defect did not cause any other symptoms in the pigs. http://www.physorg.com/news153392571.html Biology Mon, 09 Feb 2009 09:14:23 EST news153392571 The structure, described February 8 in an advance online publication of the journal Nature, provides fresh insights into the elegant dance that viral proteins perform to create the infectious structure that causes all manner of misery and disease, say researchers. While the virus they studied, HK97, only infects bacteria, well-known viruses such as herpes and HIV are also known to assemble an "intermediary" structure before morphing into its final assault-proof, infectious form. http://www.physorg.com/news153323957.html Biology Sun, 08 Feb 2009 14:00:14 EST news153323957 The largest study ever completed of genetic factors associated with heart attacks has identified nine genetic regions - three not previously described - that appear to increase the risk for early-onset myocardial infarction. The report from the Myocardial Infarction Genetics Consortium, based on information from a total of 26,000 inviduals in 10 countries, will appear in Nature Genetics and is receiving early online release. http://www.physorg.com/news153323513.html Medicine & Health Sun, 08 Feb 2009 13:52:28 EST news153323513 We may be a long way off from using genetics to reliably gauge our risks for specific diseases, say researchers at the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health in a study published on Feb. 5 in the online journal PLoS Genetics. Yet, many companies currently offer personalized genetic testing for diseases like cancer, heart disease and diabetes, and tout the ability of DNA testing to predict future health risks. http://www.physorg.com/news153145607.html Medicine & Health Fri, 06 Feb 2009 12:27:26 EST news153145607 Before a cell can divide into two, first it must duplicate its genetic material--the DNA packed in its chromosomes. The two new sets of chromosomes then have to be separated from one another and correctly distributed to the resulting "daughter" cells, so that both daughter cells are genetically identical to the original, or "parent," cell. http://www.physorg.com/news153075893.html Medicine & Health Thu, 05 Feb 2009 17:05:31 EST news153075893 In plant pollen grains, sperm cells, which carry the genetic material to be passed on to progeny, are cocooned within larger "companion" cells that are called pollen vegetative cells. These companions provide sperm with energy and nourishment, and push them towards their targets during fertilization. http://www.physorg.com/news153064281.html Biology Thu, 05 Feb 2009 13:51:37 EST news153064281 Scientists at the Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciência (IGC), in Portugal, are to date the only research group in the world capable of isolating the sperm cells in the pollen grain of the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana. This technique was crucial in a study to be published in the latest issue of the journal Cell, which describes how mobile sequences of DNA (called transposable elements) are silenced in the sperm cells, thus ensuring suppression of the mutagenic effects of these DNA elements. http://www.physorg.com/news153060044.html Biology Thu, 05 Feb 2009 12:41:10 EST news153060044 1 in 200 of our human genes can be inactivated with no detectable effect on our health. A study by Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute scientists raises new questions about the effects of gene loss on our wellbeing and evolution. http://www.physorg.com/news153059061.html Medicine & Health Thu, 05 Feb 2009 12:25:13 EST news153059061 Much to the dismay of patients and physicians, cancer stem cells - tiny powerhouses that generate and maintain tumor growth in many types of cancers - are relatively resistant to the ionizing radiation often used as therapy for these conditions. Part of the reason, say researchers at Stanford University School of Medicine, is the presence of a protective pathway meant to shield normal stem cells from DNA damage. When the researchers blocked this pathway, the cells became more susceptible to radiation. http://www.physorg.com/news152977118.html Medicine & Health Wed, 04 Feb 2009 13:39:16 EST news152977118 A quartet of studies by researchers at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) highlight a special feature on gene regulatory networks recently published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). http://www.physorg.com/news152893662.html Biology Tue, 03 Feb 2009 14:29:53 EST news152893662 A variation in the gene FOXO3A has a positive effect on the life expectancy of humans, and is found much more often in people living to 100 and beyond - moreover, this appears to be true worldwide. A research group in the Faculty of Medicine at the Christian-Albrechts-University in Kiel (CAU) has now confirmed this assumption by comparing DNA samples taken from 388 German centenarians with those from 731 younger people. The results of the study appear this week in the prestigious American scientific journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences ("PNAS"). http://www.physorg.com/news152884067.html Medicine & Health Tue, 03 Feb 2009 11:48:16 EST news152884067 (PhysOrg.com) -- In a world first, CSIRO scientists will use an innovative DNA technique to deliver reliable data about north Queensland`s Cassowary population and by doing so develop a greater understanding of this endangered species. http://www.physorg.com/news152543255.html Biology Fri, 30 Jan 2009 13:08:09 EST news152543255 Last week, a presidential limousine shuttled Barack Obama to the most important job in his life. Scientists at the Stanford University School of Medicine have now identified a protein that does much the same for the telomerase enzyme - ferrying the critically important clump of proteins around to repair the ends of chromosomes that are lost during normal replication. Without such ongoing maintenance, stem cells would soon cease dividing and embryos would fail to develop. http://www.physorg.com/news152461731.html Medicine & Health Thu, 29 Jan 2009 14:29:33 EST news152461731 (PhysOrg.com) -- A key phase in the repair process of damaged human DNA has been observed and visually recorded by a team of researchers at the University of California, Davis. The recordings provide new information about the role played by a protein known as Rad51, which is linked to breast cancer, in this complex and critical process. http://www.physorg.com/news152453220.html Biology Thu, 29 Jan 2009 12:12:00 EST news152453220 What is it with false confession? It seems crazy on the face of it, to take the blame for a crime you didn't commit. Yet experts have found that while some innocent confessors are mentally disturbed attention seekers, or taking the fall for someone else, most innocents who confess do so under stress, as an act of surrender, during a high stakes, high-pressure police interrogation. According to one estimate, fully a quarter of convictions later overturned by DNA evidence involved a false confession. http://www.physorg.com/news152383104.html Medicine & Health Wed, 28 Jan 2009 16:38:52 EST news152383104 (PhysOrg.com) -- Anyone who has ever battled a stuck zipper knows it's a good idea to see what's stuck, where and how badly -- and then to pull hard. A Cornell research team's experiments involve the "unzipping" of single DNA molecules. By mapping the hiccups, stoppages and forces along the way, they have gained new insight into how genes are packed and expressed within cells. http://www.physorg.com/news152382840.html Biology Wed, 28 Jan 2009 16:34:20 EST news152382840 Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Joint Genome Institute (JGI) and several partner institutions have published the sequence and analysis of the complete genome of sorghum, a major food and fodder plant with high potential as a bioenergy crop. The genome data will aid scientists in optimizing sorghum and other crops not only for food and fodder use, but also for biofuels production. The comparative analysis of the sorghum genome appears in the January 29 edition of the journal Nature. http://www.physorg.com/news152370854.html Biology Wed, 28 Jan 2009 13:14:41 EST news152370854 Perhaps surprisingly, the number of copies of the carcinogenic human papillomavirus type 18 (HPV18) relative to cellular DNA is not associated with the likelihood of progression to advanced precancerous lesions of the cervix, according to a study in the January 27 online issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. http://www.physorg.com/news152297410.html Medicine & Health Tue, 27 Jan 2009 16:51:05 EST news152297410 Biodesign Institute at Arizona State University associate research scientist Melha Mellata, a member of professor Roy Curtiss' team, is leading a USDA funded project to develop a vaccine against a leading poultry disease called avian pathogenic E. coli (APEC). http://www.physorg.com/news152272719.html Biology Tue, 27 Jan 2009 10:02:16 EST news152272719 New molecular research shows that birds within the family Zosteropidae -named white eyes for the feathers that frame their eyes -form new species at a faster rate than any other known bird. Remarkably, unlike other rapid diversifications, which are generally confined in their geography, white eyes have managed to diversify across multiple continents and far-flung islands spanning much of the eastern hemisphere. The research was published this week in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. http://www.physorg.com/news152212973.html Biology Mon, 26 Jan 2009 17:23:26 EST news152212973 Researchers at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) announced today the discovery of a new class of small RNAs. At the same time, they reported that their discovery suggests the presence of a strikingly novel biochemical pathway for RNA processing in which these and possibly other small RNAs are produced. The research, which is part of a multinational project called ENCODE, also provided information concerning the biological function of the new short RNA class. http://www.physorg.com/news152211180.html Biology Mon, 26 Jan 2009 17:04:05 EST news152211180 Like DNA, centrioles need to duplicate only once per cell cycle. Rogers et al. uncover a long-sought mechanism that limits centriole copying, showing that it depends on the timely demolition of a protein that spurs the organelles' replication. http://www.physorg.com/news152194390.html Biology Mon, 26 Jan 2009 12:13:37 EST news152194390 A study led by Dr Marcus Cooke at the University of Leicester and funded by World Cancer Research Fund (WCRF) UK is looking at whether consuming caffeine during pregnancy might affect the unborn baby's risk of developing leukaemia in childhood. http://www.physorg.com/news152162670.html Medicine & Health Mon, 26 Jan 2009 03:24:54 EST news152162670