Fossils may provide tantalizing clues to human history but they also lack some vital information, such as revealing which pieces of human DNA have been favored by evolution because they confer beneficial traits — resistance to infection or the ability to digest milk, for example. These signs can only be revealed through genetic studies of modern humans and other related species, though the task has proven difficult.
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ANN ARBOR, Mich.---University of Michigan researchers have discovered the rules that dictate the three-dimensional shapes of RNA molecules, rules that are based not on complex chemical interactions but simply on geometry.
The work, done by a team led by Hashim M. Al-Hashimi, is described in the Jan. 8, 2010, issue of the journal Science.
ANCHORAGE, ALASKA, January 2010 -- A long-term study showing the changes in habitat associations of polar bears in response to sea ice conditions in the southern Beaufort Sea has implications for polar bear management in Alaska.
WORCESTER, Mass. – A collaboration between the University of Massachusetts Medical School, the Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine at Tufts University and the Broad Institute at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has identified a genetic locus on canine chromosome 7 which coincides with an increased risk of obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) susceptibility. The findings, published in the January 2010 edition of Molecular Psychiatry, suggest that particular genetic proteins may possibly influence central nervous system development and increase the risk of OCD.
WORCESTER, Mass. – A collaboration between the University of Massachusetts Medical School, the Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine at Tufts University and the Broad Institute at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has identified a genetic locus on canine chromosome 7 which coincides with an increased risk of obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) susceptibility. The findings, published in the January 2010 edition of Molecular Psychiatry, suggest that particular genetic proteins may possibly influence central nervous system development and increase the risk of OCD.
Researchers at the Lady Davis Institute for Medical Research of the Jewish General Hospital and McGill University in Montreal have discovered a previously unsuspected link between two different genetic pathways which suppress the growth of cancer tumours. This breakthrough, they say, could lead to new treatments for some of the deadliest and most intractable forms of cancer; including prostate cancer, brain cancer and melanoma.
NEW YORK (Jan. 7, 2010) -- A tumor's genetic profile is often useful when diagnosing and deciding on treatment for certain cancers, but inexplicably, genetically similar leukemias in different patients do not always respond well to the same therapy. Weill Cornell Medical College researchers believe they may have discovered what distinguishes these patients by evaluating the "epigenetic" differences between patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML).
A new study has shown that metformin, a drug often used in the treatment of diabetes mellitus, is safe for use in treating patients who have both diabetes and advanced heart failure. The study was published in the Journal of Cardiac Failure by researchers at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and is now online (http://www.onlinejcf.com/article/S1071-9164(09)01132-4/abstract).
UC researcher finds that when it comes to hooking up with the opposite sex, genital complexities do matter.
Charles Darwin spent eight years studying barnacles and their genitalia. In much less time than that, University of Cincinnati evolutionary biologist Michal Polak (and co-author Arash Rashed now at the University of California, Berkeley) have confirmed one of Darwin's theories: that genitalia complexities in some male species have developed because they assist the male in "holding her securely."
Biologists have developed an efficient way to genetically modify human embryonic stem cells. Their approach, which uses bacterial artificial chromosomes to swap in defective copies of genes, will make possible the rapid development of stem cell lines that can both serve as models for human genetic diseases and as testbeds on which to screen potential treatments, they say.
Plants are incredibly temperature sensitive and can perceive changes of as little as one degree Celsius. Now, a report in the January 8th issue of the journal Cell, a Cell Press publication, shows how they not only 'feel' the temperature rise, but also coordinate an appropriate response -- activating hundreds of genes and deactivating others; it turns out it's all about the way that their DNA is packaged.
Scientists have identified a gene underlying a disease that causes temporary paralysis of skeletal muscle. The finding, they say, illustrates how investigations of rare genetic diseases can drive insights into more common ones.
The finding is reported in the January 8, 2010 issue of the journal Cell.
BLOOMINGTON, Ind -- A bacterial species that depends on cooperation to survive is discriminating when it comes to the company it keeps. Scientists from Indiana University Bloomington and Netherlands' Centre for Terrestrial Ecology have learned Myxococcus xanthus cells are able to recognize genetic differences in one another that are so subtle, even the scientists studying them must go to great lengths to tell them apart.
University of Alberta medical researchers have made a major breakthrough in understanding a group of deadly disorders that includes the disease made famous in the movie Lorenzo's Oil.
Because this group of diseases is inherited, the discovery could help in screening carriers and lead to prevention or an effective treatment.
The earliest known domestic horses are around 4,600 years old. They were originated in the steppes between modern Ukraine and Kazakhstan. Using this evidence, two different hypotheses have been suggested: 1) domestic horses spread from this area over the rest of Eurasia; 2) horse domestication was a multiregional process, having occurred several times in different local places.