The common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) is the most important food legume in the tropics. It is an inexpensive source of proteins and minerals for almost 400 million people, mainly from Africa and Latin America. It is generally cultivated by small farmers and subject to conditions limiting their productivity. Drought affects 60% of bean crops around the world and can cause from 10% in productivity losses to a total of 100% in some cases.
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(Boston)--Researchers have developed a new strategy using lung-targeted gene therapy that may lead to improved treatments for inherited diseases including emphysema.
Alpha-1-antitrypsin deficiency (AATD) is the most common genetic cause of emphysema, a chronic lung disease that leads to significant morbidity and mortality. AATD, which affects up to 100,000 Americans, is caused by inheritance of a single gene mutation.
July 5, 2016--(BRONX, NY)--Research has shown that the human lifespan has the potential to be extended. But would this merely mean people living longer in poor health? The upbeat findings from a new study in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society indicate that those extra years could well be healthy ones. In a study of nearly 3,000 people, the onset of illness came decades later in life for centenarians than for their younger counterparts.
A new research report appearing online in The FASEB Journal shows why, for some people, having a genetic predisposition to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) may not be enough to actually guarantee having the disease. In short, researchers examined identical twins--one afflicted with familial ALS and one not--and found that environmental factors were likely necessary to alter the expression of some immune genes (epigenetic changes) before the disease could take hold.
The current obesity epidemic is so grave that 2.7 billion people -- nearly a third of the world's population -- are estimated to be obese by 2025, making the branding and marketing of foods that are high in salt, sugar, and fat an especially dangerous proposition for consumers.
Exceedingly well-preserved bird fossil specimens dating 50 million years represent a new species that is a previously unknown relative of the modern-day ostrich, according to a new paper co-authored by Sterling Nesbitt of Virginia Tech's College of Science and part of the university's Global Change Center.
Cold Spring Harbor, NY -- A collaborative effort by cancer researchers at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) and chemists at Boehringer Ingelheim (BI), a pharmaceutical firm, has resulted in the identification of a new drug target in leukemia and creation of a candidate drug that hits the target. Perhaps even more important, the research demonstrates a new, highly accurate way of proving how this and certain other classes of drugs work -- extremely valuable information in the risky business of drug development. The research appears today in Nature Chemical Biology.
The beautiful flowers and impressive diversity of a large genus of roughly 250 species North American and East Asian flowering plants have inspired scientists and gardeners alike. The North American genus of perennial herbs and sub-shrubs (Penstemon) have diversified in their vegetative and habitat specialization, but perhaps most impressive is the floral diversity.
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - For more than five years, urine and cerebral-spinal fluid samples from patients with Parkinson's disease have been locked in freezers in the NINDS National Repository, stored with the expectation they might someday help unravel the still-hidden course of this slow-acting neurodegenerative disease.
Baltimore, MD-- As we age, the function and regenerative abilities of skeletal muscles deteriorate, which means it is difficult for the elderly to recover from injury or surgery. New work from Carnegie's Michelle Rozo, Liangji Li, and Chen-Ming Fan demonstrates that a protein called b1-integrin is crucial for muscle regeneration. Their findings, published by Nature Medicine, provide a promising target for therapeutic intervention to combat muscle aging or disease.
The Emerald Ash Borer is eating its way across America. Next stop? Utah, probably.
This iridescent jewel beetle, responsible for the death of more than 50 million ash trees in the United States, has blazed an absolute path of destruction west since its discovery in Michigan in 2002.
Recently the pest has been detected in Colorado, and just this spring it was confirmed in Nebraska and Texas. Researchers at BYU have been doing more than just watching the migration patterns--they've been studying the creature in hopes of helping to slow it.
LAWRENCE -- Upon hearing the word "venom," most people probably think of a snake's fang.
But the ability to produce and inject toxins into another animal is so useful, it has evolved multiple times in creatures ranging from jellyfishes to spiders, shrews to the male platypus.
Now, a paper appearing this week in the journal Integrative and Comparative Biology catalogs instances of venomous aquatic life, for the first time showing that venom has evolved 18 separate times in fresh and saltwater fishes.
OAK RIDGE, Tenn., July 5, 2016 - A microbial partnership thriving in an acidic hot spring in Yellowstone National Park has surrendered some of its lifestyle secrets to researchers at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
In the most comprehensive study of its kind, researchers in the Institute for Molecular Virology and School of Dentistry at the University of Minnesota report that most types of retroviruses have distinct, non-identical virus structures.
Octopuses, squid and other cephalopods are colorblind - their eyes see only black and white - but their weirdly shaped pupils may allow them to detect color and mimic the colors of their background, according to a father/son team of researchers from the University of California, Berkeley, and Harvard University.