Genetics News And Research - October 2011 Archives

Technology targets genetic disorders linked to X chromosome (10/31/2011)

Geneticists at Emory University School of Medicine have demonstrated a method that enables the routine amplification of all the genes on the X chromosome. The technology allows the rapid and highly accurate sequencing and identification of novel genetic variants affecting X chromosome genes. ...> Full Article

Chromosome chaos in serial killer (10/31/2011)

Scientists found a deadly parasite with some of its chromosomes in duplicate, others in triplicate, while still others are present four or even five times. Moreover, the copy number varies between individuals. Such a bizarre occurrence has never before been found in nature, in any organism. As a rule, chromosomes should come in couples. The scientists, from the Institute of Tropical Medicine and the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, made the striking discovery while deciphering the genetic code of a series of Leishmania-parasites. ...> Full Article

How hemp got high: Canadian scientists map the cannabis genome (10/30/2011)

A team of Canadian researchers has sequenced the genome of Cannabis sativa, the plant that produces both industrial hemp and marijuana, and in the process revealed the genetic changes that led to the plant's drug-producing properties. ...> Full Article

Penn study explains paradox of insulin resistance genetics (10/29/2011)

A paradox in understanding insulin resistance is figuring out why insulin-resistant livers make more fat. Insulin resistance occurs when the body does a poor job of lowering blood sugars. The signals to make lipid after a meal come from hormones - most notably insulin - and the direct effect of nutrients on the liver. Researchers describe the pathway that insulin uses to change the levels of gene expression that control lipid metabolism. ...> Full Article

Faulty molecular switch can cause infertility or miscarriage (10/29/2011)

Scientists have discovered an enzyme that acts as a 'fertility switch', in a study published in Nature Medicine today. High levels of the protein are associated with infertility, while low levels make a woman more likely to have a miscarriage, the research has shown. ...> Full Article

Genomic sequence and comparison of 2 macaques reveal new insights into biomedical research (10/28/2011)

The South China Center for Innovative Pharmaceuticals, Sun Yat-Sen University, and BGI, the world's largest genomic organization, announced that they were among the research organizations from China, the US and the UK comprising an international research group that completed the genome sequence and comparison of two non-human primate animal models -- the Chinese rhesus macaque and the cynomolgus. ...> Full Article

Researchers do precise gene therapy without a needle (10/27/2011)

For the first time, researchers have found a way to inject a precise dose of a gene therapy agent directly into a single living cell without a needle. The technique uses electricity to "shoot" bits of therapeutic biomolecules through a tiny channel and into a cell in a fraction of a second. ...> Full Article

Largest ever genetic study of liver function could point the way to new treatments (10/26/2011)

Researchers have identified a large number of areas in the human genetic code that are involved in regulating the way in which the liver functions, in a new study of over 61,000 people, published today in the journal Nature Genetics. The work is an international collaboration led by Imperial College London and it identifies 42 genetic regions associated with liver function, 32 of which had not been linked to liver function before. ...> Full Article

Study reveals new role for RNA interference during chromosomal replication (10/25/2011)

In a new study that appears online in Nature on Oct. 16, CSHL scientists describe a new role for RNAi during chromosomal replication. They show that RNAi allows the DNA replication fork to progress smoothly without resulting in DNA damage. ...> Full Article

Simple genetic circuit forms stripes (10/24/2011)

Developmental processes that create stripes and other patterns are complex and difficult to untangle. To sort it out, a team of scientists has designed a simple genetic circuit that creates a striped pattern that they can control by tweaking a single gene. This genetic loop is made two linked modules that sense how crowded a group of cells has become and responds by controlling their movements. ...> Full Article

Scientists create computing building blocks from bacteria and DNA (10/24/2011)

Scientists have successfully demonstrated that they can build some of the basic components for digital devices out of bacteria and DNA, which could pave the way for a new generation of biological computing devices, in research published today in the journal Nature Communications. ...> Full Article

Scientists team up to define first-ever sequence of biologically important carbohydrate (10/23/2011)

Scientists have been unable to determine the structure of a biologically important so-called GAG proteoglycan -- or even to agree whether these remarkably complex molecules have well-defined structures.In a paper published in the early online edition of the journal Nature Chemical Biology, however, a team of scientists from the University of Georgia and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute announced that it has, for the first time, determined the sequence and structure of a glycosaminoglycan, or GAG, proteoglycan. ...> Full Article

Preventing dangerous nonsense in human gene expression (10/23/2011)

Human genes are preferentially encoded by codons that are less likely to be mistranscribed (or "misread") into a STOP codon. This finding by Brian Cusack and colleagues from the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Genetics in Berlin and the CNRS in Lyon and Paris is published in the open-access journal PLoS Genetics on Oct. 13, 2011. ...> Full Article

Researchers discover hidden genetic influence on cancer (10/22/2011)

In findings with major implications for the genetics of cancer and human health, researchers at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and two other science teams in New York City and Rome have uncovered evidence of powerful new genetic networks and showed how it may work to drive cancer and normal development. ...> Full Article

Global team sequences DNA of naked mole rat (10/21/2011)

Sequencing the genome of the long-lived naked mole rat opens a "treasure trove" of information to scientists. An international team including the Barshop Institute at the UT Health Science Center San Antonio reported the completed naked mole rat genome sequence Oct. 12 in the journal Nature. ...> Full Article

New 'genome mining' technique streamlines discovery from nature (10/20/2011)

A newly developed method for microscopically extracting, or "mining," information from genomes could represent a significant boost in the search for new therapeutic drugs and improve science's understanding of basic functions such as how cells communicate with one another. ...> Full Article

Improved method for detecting mutant DNAs (10/20/2011)

Molecular DNA testing methods offer clinicians powerful tools that serve to confirm or identify disease diagnoses. High sensitivity and high specificity, however, are frequently a challenge to achieve with these methods. In a study scheduled for publication in the November issue of the Journal of Molecular Diagnostics, researchers describe a new, robust technique that holds promise for identifying trace mutant DNA sequences (signals) in an overwhelming population of unmutated DNA (noise). ...> Full Article

Uncharted territory: Scientists sequence the first carbohydrate biopolymer (10/19/2011)

Today, for the first time ever, a team of researchers led by Robert Linhardt of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute has announced in the Oct. 9 advanced online publication edition of the journal Nature Chemical Biology the sequence of a complete complex carbohydrate biopolymer. The surprising discovery provides the scientific and medical communities with an important and fundamental new view of these vital biomolecules, which play a role in everything from cell structure and development to disease pathology and blood clotting. ...> Full Article

Millions of new regulatory elements found in human genome (10/18/2011)

An international research team led by Kerstin Lindblad-Toh at the Broad Institute, US and Uppsala University, Sweden has mapped and compared the genomes of 29 mammals. The findings, published in Nature, reveal millions of new regulatory elements in the human genome that in various ways govern how proteins are formed. The new knowledge is important for our understanding of how mutations in human genes give rise to diseases. ...> Full Article

Novel technique uses RNA interference to block inflammation (10/18/2011)

Massachusetts General Hospital researchers -- along with collaborators from Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Alnylam Pharmaceuticals -- have found a way to block, in an animal model, the damaging inflammation that contributes to many disease conditions. ...> Full Article

Study shows how bookmarking genes pre-cell division hastens their subsequent reactivation (10/17/2011)

By observing and measuring the kinetics of activation of a single gene locus in a cell before it divides and comparing it with the same gene's reactivation in newly formed daughter cells, CSHL professor David L. Spector and his team have discovered how how bookmarking a gene pre-division causes it to get reactivated post-division. ...> Full Article

First monkey exome sequencing platform for biomedical research (10/16/2011)

BGI develops first monkey exome sequencing platform for biomedical research. ...> Full Article

Chromosome inheritance? Not the same for all the chromosomes (10/15/2011)

New findings of researchers from the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia show that in aphids the two X chromosomes have a different inheritance. The study was published in Comparative Cytogenetics. ...> Full Article

Genetic makeup affects testosterone concentrations in men (10/14/2011)

Genetics play an important role in the variation in, and risk of, low testosterone concentrations in men. A study by the CHARGE Sex Hormone Consortium, published in the open-access journal PLoS Genetics on Thursday, Oct. 6, is the first genome-wide association study to examine the effects of common genetic variants on serum testosterone concentrations in men. ...> Full Article

Study could help improve gene therapy for heart disease, cancer (10/14/2011)

A Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine study could lead to improved gene therapies for conditions such as heart disease and cancer as well as more effective vaccines for tuberculosis, malaria and other diseases. ...> Full Article

Length of flanking repeat region and timing affect genetic material (10/13/2011)

In a report published online in the American Journal of Human Genetics, Dr. James R. Lupski, vice chair of molecular and human genetics at BCM, graduate student Pengfei Liu and colleagues studied the deletions of genetic material in 131 patients with a genomic disorder called Smith-Magenis syndrome and the duplication of genetic material in 79 patients with Potocki-Lupski syndrome. ...> Full Article

Team finds evidence for the genetic basis of autism (10/12/2011)

Scientists at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory have discovered that one of the most common genetic alterations in autism -- deletion of a 27-gene cluster on chromosome 16 -- causes autism-like features. By generating mouse models of autism using a technique known as chromosome engineering, CSHL Professor Alea Mills and colleagues provide the first functional evidence that inheriting fewer copies of these genes leads to features resembling those used to diagnose children with autism. ...> Full Article

Genomic architecture presages genomic instability (10/11/2011)

When cells divide, DNA is copied perfectly and distributed among daughter cells evenly. Occasionally, DNA breaks during division and is rearranged, resulting in duplications or deletions. Now researchers at Baylor College of Medicine who study families with such genomic disorders have found a shared architecture resulting from this jumble that is associated with very severe forms of disease. ...> Full Article

New technique gives precise picture of how regulatory RNA controls gene activity (10/10/2011)

A new technique developed by researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine allows researchers to identify the exact DNA sequences and locations bound by regulatory RNAs. This information is necessary to understand how the recently identified RNA molecules control the expression of neighboring and distant genes. ...> Full Article

Not quite 'roid rage (10/9/2011)

Put up your dukes. A study of aggression in fruit flies aims to provide a framework for how complex gene interactions affect behavior. And these clues in flies could translate to a better understanding of human genes and behavior. ...> Full Article

A treatment for one form of albinism? (10/8/2011)

Individuals with oculocutaneous albinism, type 1 (OCA1) have white hair, very pale skin, and light-colored irises. Affected individuals have impaired eyesight and a substantially increased risk of skin cancer. Current treatment options are limited to attempts to correct eyesight and counseling to promote the use of sun protective measures. However, researchers have now generated data in mice that provide hope for a new treatment for a subset of patients with OCA1. ...> Full Article

New genetic region responsible for testicle development found (10/7/2011)

New research presented today at the European Society for Pediatric Endocrinology meeting has found a genetic region, which may control testicle development in the fetus. ...> Full Article

Structure of a molecular copy machine (10/6/2011)

Mitochondria are compartments within cells and have their own DNA. The key protein required for the expression of the genetic information in this DNA is the mitochondrial RNA polymerase enzyme. Its three-dimensional structure has now been determined in atomic detail. ...> Full Article

Biochemists identify new genetic code repair tool (10/5/2011)

Clemson University researchers recently reported finding a new class of DNA repair-makers. ...> Full Article

Research reveals how dynamic changes in methylation can determine cell fate (10/4/2011)

Scientists at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory and the University of Southern California have uncovered intriguing new evidence helping to explain how methylation -- an epigenetic process -- can help determine the ultimate fate of stem cells. ...> Full Article

Control gene for developmental timing discovered (10/4/2011)

University of Alberta researchers have identified a key regulator that controls the speed of development in the fruit fly. When the researchers blocked the function of this regulator, animals sped up their rate of development and reached maturity much faster than normal ...> Full Article

New thinking on regulation of sex chromosomes in fruit flies (10/3/2011)

Biologists at the University of Rochester discover that dosage compensation does not occur in the reproductive cells of male fruit flies. ...> Full Article

RNA-Seq (Quantification) from as low as 100 Ng total RNA (10/2/2011)

BGI, the world's largest genomics organization, reported that they have achieved optimization RNA-Seq (Quantification) library construction with total RNA inputs as low as 100 ng. This breakthrough enables the application of RNA-Seq (Quantification) technology to experimental designs utilizing samples derived from small numbers of cells, such as those widely used in pharmaceutical research, cancer research and immunology. ...> Full Article

We are not only eating 'materials', we are also eating 'information' (10/1/2011)

In a new study, Chen-Yu Zhang's group at Nanjing university present a rather striking finding that plant miRNAs could make into the host blood and tissues via the route of food-intake. Moreover, once inside the host, they can elicit functions by regulating host 'target' genes and thus regulate host physiology. ...> Full Article

100 prioritized social insect genomes onboard (10/1/2011)

An online database of the genomes of social insects has been published by the Beijing Genomics Institute. ...> Full Article