The caterpillars of the fall armyworm (Spodoptera frugiperda), an invasive moth, can potentially feed on over 350 different species of plants. In the Americas it’s known as a serious pest. It destroys crops of maize, rice, sorghum, sugar cane, peanuts, soybean and non-food crops such as cotton. In maize, fall armyworm feeds on the developing leaves and then the grains, damaging the plant and reducing yield.
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UCLA researchers led by Dr. Donald Kohn have created a method for modifying blood stem cells to reverse the genetic mutation that causes a life-threatening autoimmune syndrome called IPEX. The gene therapy, which was tested in mice, is similar to the technique Kohn has used to cure patients with another immune disease, severe combined immune deficiency, or SCID, also known as bubble baby disease.
The work is described in a study published in the journal Cell Stem Cell.
(CAMBRIDGE, MA) - On Nov. 22, 2014, astronomers spotted a rare event in the night sky: A supermassive black hole at the center of a galaxy, nearly 300 million light years from Earth, ripping apart a passing star. The event, known as a tidal disruption flare, for the black hole's massive tidal pull that tears a star apart, created a burst of X-ray activity near the center of the galaxy. Since then, a host of observatories have trained their sights on the event, in hopes of learning more about how black holes feed.
Certain social media factors were linked with major depressive disorder (MDD) in a Journal of Applied Biobehavioural Research study of Millennials.
Known to be feeding on many economically important crops cultured across the world, including maize, rice, sugarcane, sorghum, beet, tomato, potato, cotton and pasture grasses, the larvae of the native to the Americas fall armyworm moth seem to have already found a successful survival strategy in a diverse and changing world.
Furthermore, having taken no longer than 2 years to invade and spread throughout most of sub-Saharan Africa, the pest has already demonstrated its huge potential in severely affecting livelihoods around the globe.
Genes contain all the information needed for the functioning of cells, tissues, and organs in our body. Gene expression, meaning when and how are the genes being read and executed, is thoroughly regulated like an assembly line with several things happening one after another.
Microscopic marine plants flourish beneath the ice that covers the Greenland Sea, according to a new study in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans.
Many cat owners worry about their pets wandering the streets, but perceive cats hunting mice and birds to be unavoidable instinct, researchers at the University of Exeter have found.
Owners often dislike their feline companions' compulsion to catch wildlife but feel unable, or unwilling, to control it.
The researchers interviewed cat owners about their pets' roaming and hunting behaviour, what worried them, and what they felt responsible for.
In experiments in rats and human cells, Johns Hopkins Medicine researchers say they have added to evidence that a cellular protein signal that drives both bone and fat formation in selected stem cells can be manipulated to favor bone building. If harnessed in humans, they say, the protein -- known as WISP-1 -- could help fractures heal faster, speed surgical recovery and possibly prevent bone loss due to aging, injury and disorders.
About one in every 5,000 babies is born without enteric neurons in distal colon resulting in Hirschsprung's disease. Because of the lacking neurons, contents of the gut cannot pass normally resulting in constipation and enlargement of colon.
The condition is treated with a surgical removal of the affected gut part, but the patients remain at high risk of enterocolitis, or inflammation of the gut. This is the major life threatening complication of Hirschsprung's disease.
SAN ANTONIO, Texas, USA -- UT Health San Antonio researchers, collaborating with the Mayo Clinic and the Wake Forest School of Medicine, are the first to publish results on the treatment of a deadly age-related disease in human patients with drugs called senolytics. The findings were posted Jan. 4 by the journal EBioMedicine, which is published by The Lancet.
WASHINGTON (Jan. 7, 2019)-A stop sign at an intersection appears to be larger than a parked car across the street. Is our brain playing tricks on us?
Cancerous tumors trick myeloid cells, an important part of the immune system, into perceiving them as a damaged part of the body; the tumors actually put myeloid cells to work helping them grow and metastasize (spread). A research team co-led by scientists at Rush University Medical Center have discovered a potential therapy that can disrupt this recruitment and abnormal function of myeloid cells in laboratory mice. The findings of their latest study were published on Dec. 19 in Nature Communications.
Comprehensive AIDS prevention programs in prisons: A review study
BUFFALO, N.Y. -- With more than 1.8 million children in the U.S. being treated annually with drugs for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), the possibility that such drugs could damage their hearts has been a significant cause of concern for parents and physicians alike.
Now, the results of a long-term National Institutes of Health (NIH)-funded study published last month in Pediatric Research could allay many of those concerns.