Researchers at the Spanish National Center for Cardiovascular Research have discovered that the ends of heart muscle cell chromosomes rapidly erode after birth, limiting the cells' ability to proliferate and replace damaged heart tissue. The study, "Postnatal telomere dysfunction induces cardiomyocyte cell-cycle arrest through p21 activation," which will be published online May 30, 2016 in The Journal of Cell Biology, suggests potential new interventions to boost the heart's capacity to repair itself after a heart attack.
Body
Researchers have helped solve one of the enduring mysteries of the ancient world: why the inhabitants of Madagascar speak Malagasy, a language otherwise unique to Southeast Asia and the Pacific - a region located at least 6,000 km away. An international research team has identified that ancient crop remains excavated from sites in Madagascar consist of Asian species like rice and mung beans. This is thought to be the first archaeological evidence that settlers from South Asia are likely to have colonised the island over a thousand years ago.
While the latter half of the 20th century showed a widening gap between the more and less educated with respect to marriage and fertility, this trend has not significantly altered the genetic makeup of subsequent generations, a team of researchers has found.
The study, headed by NYU sociologist Dalton Conley, appears in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
The use of next-generation gene sequencing in newborns in neonatal intensive care units (NICUs) may improve the diagnosis of rare diseases and deliver results more quickly to anxious families, according to new research in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal).
Scientists at the University of Birmingham are a step closer to understanding the role of the gene BRCA1. Changes in this gene are associated with a high risk of developing breast and ovarian cancer.
The research, published in Nature Structural and Molecular Biology, explains how the gene encourages the attachment of the protein, ubiquitin, to other proteins and plays a vital role in DNA repair.
TAMPA, Fla. (May 30, 2016) - Researchers from the University of South Florida (USF) and a colleague at the Institute of Zoology in Beijing, China have found that outbreaks of three emerging diseases and parasites - West Nile virus, Lyme disease and amphibian chytridiomycosis - are driven by different ecological processes at different spatial scales. Their data also suggests that focusing on a single spatial scale can lead to inaccurate estimations of the impact humans are having on biodiversity, disease emergence, and the environment.
Tiny, vibrating hairs may explain how bumblebees sense and interpret the signals transmitted by flowers, according to a study by researchers at the University of Bristol.
Although it's known that flowers communicate with pollinators by sending out electric signals, just how bees detects these fields has been a mystery - until now.
Using a laser to measure vibrations, researchers found that both the bees' antenna and hairs deflect in response to an electric field, but the hairs move more rapidly and with overall greater displacements.
The colonization of Madagascar remains one of the enduring mysteries of the ancient world. Situated off the East African coast, and many thousands of kilometers from Southeast Asia, Madagascar is nonetheless home to people who speak a language that is closely related to those spoken in the Pacific Area. While genetic research has confirmed that the inhabitants of Madagascar do indeed share close ancestry with Malaysians and Polynesians, archaeologists have struggled for decades to find any evidence for their early presence on the island.
A pinch of poison is good for a body, at least if it's heme.
In minuscule amounts, it works in cells as an essential catalyst called a cofactor and as a signaling molecule to trigger other processes. Now, for the first known time, researchers have tracked those activities inside of cells.
An assessment of genomic diversity in the United States of America clarifies the role of pre-Civil War admixture and early 20th century transit routes in shaping the migration history and genomic diversity among African-Americans communities. The new study, by Simon Gravel of McGill University and colleagues, will publish on May 27, 2016 in PLOS Genetics.
Zika virus can infect and replicate in immune cells from the placenta, without killing them, scientists have discovered. The finding may explain how the virus can pass through the placenta of a pregnant woman, on its way to infect developing brain cells in her fetus.
The results are scheduled for publication on May 27 in Cell Host & Microbe.
One of Zika's mysteries is how the virus passes from an infected mother, through the placenta, to a developing fetus. The route may not be direct either -- transmission via multiple cell types may be necessary. A study appearing May 27, 2016 in Cell Host & Microbe supports the possibility that placental immune cells called Hofbauer cells, which have direct access to fetal blood vessels, are one cell type involved.
New research presented at this year's Euroanaesthesia congress (London, May 27-30) addresses the importance of discussing potential pregnancy and providing pregnancy testing for women of reproductive age before they undergo surgery, so that harm to mother and baby can be avoided.
A U of T Engineering team has designed a simpler way to keep therapeutic proteins where they are needed for long periods of time. The discovery is a potential game-changer for the treatment of chronic illnesses or injuries that often require multiple injections or daily pills.
National Science Foundation, Environmental Research and Education Foundation, American Coal Ash Association
DURHAM, N.C. -- A study of the content of rare earth elements in U.S. coal ashes shows that coal mined from the Appalachian Mountains could be the proverbial golden goose for hard-to-find materials critical to clean energy and other emerging technologies.