Genetics News And Research - February 2008 Archives

New gene discovery could help schizophrenics (2/29/2008)

International team has discovered a gene that increases the risk of developing schizophrenia ...> Full Article

Gene That Controls Ozone Resistance of Plants Could Lead to Drought-Resistant Crops (2/29/2008)

Biologists at the University of California, San Diego, working with collaborators at the University of Helsinki in Finland and two other European institutions, have elucidated the mechanism of a plant gene that controls the amount of atmospheric ozone entering a plant's leaves. ...> Full Article

Researchers help piece together the corn genome's first draft (2/28/2008)

Researchers helped write the first draft of the corn genome sequence that will be announced Thursday, Feb. 28, at the 50th Annual Maize Genetics Conference in Washington, D.C. ...> Full Article

Bee Stock Collection Moves to UC Davis (2/28/2008)

A noted collection of about 750,000 live honeybees, developed 18 years ago by internationally known honeybee geneticist Robert E. Page Jr. will soon return to the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility at UC Davis. ...> Full Article

Toolkit energizes study of cell's powerhouse (2/27/2008)

Screening both genes and physiology yields rich compendium on mitochondrial biology ...> Full Article

Getting to the roots of hair loss (2/27/2008)

New gene improves our understanding of hair growth and offers a path to effective therapies ...> Full Article

Genome-wide profiling of epigenetic therapy in cervical cancer (2/26/2008)

In a single-arm interventional study, demethylating hydralazine and the histone deacetylase (HADC) inhibitor magnesium valproate were added to cisplatin chemoradiation in International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics (FIGO) stage IIIB cervical cancer treatment to assess their safety and biological effects. ...> Full Article

Radiation From Mobile Phones Changes Protein Expression In Living People, Study Suggests (2/26/2008)

A new study completed by the Finnish Radiation and Nuclear Safety Authority (STUK) on effects of mobile phone radiation on human skin strengthens the results of the human cell line analyses: living tissue responds to mobile phone radiation. ...> Full Article

Gene at intersection of stem cells, immunity (2/25/2008)

A gene that "wakes up" the blood system's stem cells in times of stress also plays an important role in protecting against infection, said researchers from Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease and Duke University Medical School in a report that appears in the journal Cell Stem Cell. ...> Full Article

Structural Genomic Variation and Personalized Medicine (2/24/2008)

The ultimate goal of personalized medicine is to comprehensively identify genetic differences among persons and to correlate specific genetic features (or combinations of genetic features) with the differential risk of human diseases or the efficacy of certain therapeutic interventions. "This goal is likely to be achieved when we are able to identify all relevant forms of genetic variation in each person and are able to interpret this information in a clinically meaningful manner," said researchers from Harvard Medical School in their article recently published in The New England Journal of Medicine. ...> Full Article

Scientists Discover New Details of a Gene-Regulatory Network Governing Metabolism (2/23/2008)

A molecule called NADP regulates a cascade enabling yeast cells to adjust metabolic state ...> Full Article

Masters of disguise: secrets of nature's 'great pretenders' revealed (2/22/2008)

A gene which helps a harmless African butterfly ward off predators by giving it wing patterns like those of toxic species, has been identified by scientists who publish their findings today (20 February 2008). ...> Full Article

Scans Reveal Faulty Brain Wiring Caused by Missing Genes (2/22/2008)

An NIMH study using an emerging imaging technology has discovered faulty wiring in the brains of people with Williams Syndrome, a rare genetic disorder that affects some aspects of thinking. Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) scans revealed abnormal tracts of neuronal fibers that conduct long-distance communications between brain regions. The abnormalities likely resulted from neurons migrating to the wrong destinations during development, due to the absence of certain key genes, researchers say. ...> Full Article

Researchers release most detailed global study of genetic variation (2/21/2008)

Scientists have produced the largest and most detailed worldwide study of human genetic variation, a treasure trove offering new insights into early migrations out of Africa and across the globe. ...> Full Article

New Genetic Syndrome Linked to Missing DNA (2/20/2008)

People who lack a certain large segment of DNA have a previously unrecognized syndrome characterized by mental retardation, seizures, and slight physical abnormalities, according to a genetic analysis conducted by HHMI investigator Evan E. Eichler at the University of Washington School of Medicine and a team of international collaborators. The deleted DNA segment is responsible for just a small percentage of cases of mental retardation, but "when you think about how common mental retardation is," Eichler says, "this deletion has a significant impact on human health." ...> Full Article

Imitating monkey's 'jumping genes' could lead to new treatments for HIV (2/20/2008)

Scientists have taken a significant step in understanding how retroviruses such as HIV can move between species and the biological mechanisms behind the 'jumping genes' which make some monkeys immune. They will now use this knowledge to develop a gene therapy treatment for HIV/AIDS in humans. ...> Full Article

Researchers probe a DNA repair enzyme (2/19/2008)

Researchers have taken the first steps toward understanding how an enzyme repairs DNA. ...> Full Article

New Cataract Gene Discovered (2/19/2008)

The international team of researchers was able to identify the location and defect in the coding region of the gene through analysis of genetic material (DNA) from members of a large Swiss family, the majority of whom suffered from autosomal dominant juvenile cataract. The corresponding protein belongs to a family of monocarboxylate transporters which move small molecules across cell mem-branes. Surprisingly, this genetic defect may also lead to the condition of renal glucosuria, a non-pathological kidney defect with elevated levels of glucose in the urine, but not in blood. ...> Full Article

BMP protein maintains cross talk between cells that control hair growth (2/18/2008)

Genes, it turns out, are only as active as the signals that turn them on and off. Now scientists from Rockefeller University have identified the signaling molecule that ratchets up and clamps down the activity of key genes in dermal papilla, a type of skin cell whose unique collection of proteins ultimately instruct epithelial stem cells to make hair. ...> Full Article

New Control Mechanism For Genetic Code Translation Discovered In Bacteria (2/17/2008)

Almost all organisms, from bacteria to human beings, share the same genetic code, a group of universal instructions used to convert DNA or RNA sequences into proteins, the "building blocks" of life. Identification of the evolutionary differences between the system for the translation of the genetic code in humans and other organisms, such as bacteria in this case, are useful, for example, for the design of new antibiotics. ...> Full Article

Programming Biomolecular Self-Assembly Pathways (2/17/2008)

Nature knows how to make proteins and nucleic acids (DNA and RNA) dance to assemble and sustain life. Inspired by this proof of principle, researchers at the California Institute of Technology have demonstrated that it is possible to program the pathways by which DNA strands self-assemble and disassemble, and hence to control the dynamic function of the molecules as they traverse these pathways. ...> Full Article

Identical twins not as identical as believed (2/16/2008)

Contrary to our previous beliefs, identical twins are not genetically identical. This surprising finding is presented by American, Swedish, and Dutch scientists in a study being published today in the prestigious journal American Journal of Human Genetics. The finding may be of great significance for research on hereditary diseases and for the development of new diagnostic methods. ...> Full Article

Killers in the kitchen: DNA helps track down foodborne disease (2/15/2008)

A rash of recent headlines hits close to home: Salmonella in peanut butter. E. coli in spinach and ground beef. In the United States alone, foodborne illnesses cause hundreds of thousands of hospitalizations and 5,000 deaths a year. ...> Full Article

Researchers discover a mechanism leading to cleft palate (2/15/2008)

Work in zebrafish points to tiny gene products that regulate specific cell traffic of a key protein ...> Full Article

Microbial 'cheaters' help scientists ID 'social' genes (2/14/2008)

Genome-wide search for social genes turns up more than 100 cheaters ...> Full Article

Australian technology licensed by billion-dollar US company (2/14/2008)

Scientists have developed a proprietary technology that will help other researchers in understanding fundamental aspects of growth, development, and disease, which has been licensed to one of the world's largest life science technology companies. ...> Full Article

Coastal populations of natterjack toad more threatened than previously thought (2/13/2008)

The genetic study carried out on the threatened populations of the natterjack toad (Bufo calamita) in the Basque Country (Txingudi Bay in Gipuzkoa and Azkorri strand in Bizkaia) concluded that it is essential to effect a management plan involving measures regarding both the species and its habitat. For the population in the Basque province of Gipuzkoa the primordial objective would be to keep the breeding sites connected (the various nuclei) and in neighbouring Bizkaia the task would be to increase the size of the population and make the habitat suitable by means of enhancing the breeding sites. The genetic study carried out on the coastal populations indicate that they should be conserved with the resident toads from each of their respective sites. ...> Full Article

Changing Our Clocks: New Research Explores How Our Bodies Keep Time (2/12/2008)

Our alarm clocks may spring forward on March 9, but our biological clocks may take longer to adjust. That's because our internal clocks are so tightly wound to many physiological and behavioral processes. ...> Full Article

Some 'Junk' DNA Is Important Guide For Nerve-cell Channel Production (2/12/2008)

Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine have discovered that introns, or junk DNA to some, associated with RNA are an important molecular guide to making nerve-cell electrical channels. In nerve cells, some ion channels are located in the dendrite, which branch from the cell body of the neuron. Dendrites detect the electrical and chemical signals transmitted to the neuron by the axons of other neurons. Abnormalities in the dendrite electrical channel are involved in epilepsy, neurodegenerative diseases, and cognitive disorders, among others. ...> Full Article

Scientists find how a protein binds to genes and regulates them across the human genome (2/11/2008)

Out of chaos, control: Cornell molecular biologists have discovered how a protein called PARP-1 binds to genes and regulates their expression across the human genome. Knowing where PARP-1 is located and how it works may allow scientists to target this protein to battle common diseases, such as stroke and cancer. ...> Full Article

New DNA sequencing methods put to work (2/10/2008)

Latest efforts to boost value of high-throughput DNA sequencing detailed at genome technology conference ...> Full Article

Researchers discover protein sequence that governs whether a plant grows a root or shoot (2/9/2008)

Controlled by a tightly regulated choreography that determines what should go up and what should go down, plants develop along a polar axis with a root on one end and a shoot on the other. ...> Full Article

Bacterium sequenced makes rare form of chlorophyll (2/9/2008)

Researchers have sequenced the genome of a rare bacterium that harvests light energy by making an even rarer form of chlorophyll, chlorophyll d. Chlorophyll d absorbs "red edge," near infrared, long wave length light that is invisible to the naked eye. ...> Full Article

Scientists Develop Novel Fluorescent Proteins for Live Cell Imaging, Biosensor Design (2/8/2008)

Scientists at Carnegie Mellon University's Molecular Biosensor and Imaging Center (MBIC) have developed new "fluorogen activating proteins" (FAPs) that will become a key component of novel molecular biosensor technology being created at Carnegie Mellon. The FAPs, which can be used to monitor biological activities of individual proteins and other biomolecules within living cells in real time, are described in the February issue of Nature Biotechnology. ...> Full Article

On the front lines of the genomic revolution (2/8/2008)

Manolis Kellis, a young and fast-rising MIT researcher, uses sophisticated computational tools to investigate the genomes of a variety of organisms, including humans, mice, fruit flies and yeast, and the insights emerging from that work could lead to important findings about human development and disease. ...> Full Article

Gene Variants Protect Against Adult Depression Triggered by Childhood Stress (2/7/2008)

Certain variations in a gene that helps regulate response to stress tend to protect adults who were abused in childhood from developing depression, according to new research funded by the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), part of the National Institutes of Health. Adults who had been abused but didn't have the variations in the gene had twice the symptoms of moderate to severe depression, compared to those with the protective variations. ...> Full Article

Researchers Reveal Surprises in Sea Anemone Genome (2/7/2008)

A team of international researchers, one of them a University of Maine professor, has discovered in a primitive starlet sea anemone the genes for a biochemical pathway that scientists had thought did not exist in animals. ...> Full Article

Disrupted genetic regulation causes common disturbance in metabolism of fat (2/6/2008)

The disease familial combined hyperlipidemia (FCH) is a common cause of disturbed metabolism of fat and early heart attacks. Uppsala University scientists have now developed a pioneering method and can show for the first time what genes are regulated by the gene USF1, which is known to cause the disease. These findings are being presented today in the leading journal Genome Research. ...> Full Article

DNA 'barcode' identified for plants (2/6/2008)

A 'barcode' gene that can be used to distinguish between the majority of plant species on Earth has been identified by scientists who publish their findings in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences journal today (4 February 2008). ...> Full Article

Lab Prevents Rare Birth Defect by Inactivating p53 Gene (2/5/2008)

Using a mouse model of Treacher Collins Syndrome (TCS), the Stowers Institute's Trainor Lab has demonstrated that it can prevent this rare disorder of craniofacial development either by inactivating a gene implicated in the abnormality or by inhibiting its protein product. ...> Full Article

How we tell front from back (2/5/2008)

Scientists have accidentally discovered the genetics behind how we develop a front and back. ...> Full Article

Gene guards grain-producing grasses so people and animals can eat (2/4/2008)

Purdue University and USDA-Agricultural Research Service scientists have discovered that a type of gene in grain-producing plants halts infection by a disease-causing fungus that can destroy crops vital for human food supplies. ...> Full Article

Lab characterizes gene essential for prenatal development of nervous system (2/3/2008)

The Stowers Institute's Trainor Lab has demonstrated the role of a gene important to the embryonic development of the nervous system, a process that requires coordination of differentiation of immature neural cells with the cycle of cell division that increases their numbers. Until now, the mechanisms regulating these distinct cellular activities have been poorly understood. The findings will be published in the Feb. 15 issue of Development. ...> Full Article

New project explores genetic 'landscape' of Madagascar's wetland birds (2/3/2008)

Researchers from the universities of Bath and Cardiff have been awarded more than £300,000 for a new project investigating the genetic landscape of birds living in the wetlands of Madagascar. ...> Full Article

Environmental Epigenetics Has Potential for Preventing and Treating Disease (2/2/2008)

New research on environmental influences on health and disease has begun to shed light on why genetically identical individuals demonstrate different characteristics, such as susceptibility to disease. Scientists have found that environmental exposure to nutritional, chemical and physical factors can alter the epigenome. Literally meaning "above the genome," the epigenome refers to differences in gene expression that are inherited without changing the sequence of DNA. ...> Full Article

Inherited individual variations influence patterns of gene shuffling (2/2/2008)

The first large-scale, high-resolution study of human genetic recombination has found remarkably high levels of individual variation in genetic exchange, the process by which parents pass on a mosaic-like mixture of their genes. ...> Full Article

Scientists achieve major genetics breakthrough in intellectual disability (2/1/2008)

University of Adelaide geneticist Dr Jozef Gecz and a team of Belgium and UK scientists have achieved a major breakthrough in discovering the causes of intellectual disability. ...> Full Article