Body

Wheat yields could be significantly increased thanks to varieties with a superior form of a common enzyme, according to new research.

Plant scientists at Lancaster University, Rothamsted Research, and The International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) have been investigating a naturally occurring plant enzyme known as Rubisco to explore its ability to boost photosynthesis and increase crop yields.

TUCSON, Ariz. - Researchers at the University of Arizona College of Pharmacy have discovered that a compound found in the natural food additive annatto prevents the formation of cancer cells and skin damage from UV radiation in mice. In the future the compound, bixin, may be valuable in the prevention and treatment of human skin cancers.

Two years ago, the University of Hawaii (UH) team led by Monika A. Ward, Professor at the Institute for Biogenesis Research, John A. Burns School of Medicine, University of Hawai'i, demonstrated that only two genes of the Y chromosome, the testis determinant factor Sry and the spermatogonial proliferation factor Eif2s3y, were needed for male mice to sire offspring with assisted fertilization. Now, the same team, with a collaborating researcher from France, Michael Mitchell (INSERM, Marseille), took a step further and produced males completely devoid of the entire Y chromosome.

LA JOLLA, CA--An estimated 15 million Americans suffer from food allergies, many of them children. These are non-trivial concerns, as food allergy or intolerance can cause symptoms ranging from a harmless skin rash to a potentially lethal anaphylactic shock. The good news is that many affected children outgrow their allergy, presumably as the immune system learns to tolerate food initially mistaken as "foreign".

Humans have been successful at treating a host of diseases. Yet some continue to elude medicine's best attempts.

Tuberculosis killed 15 percent of the 9.6 million people who contracted it worldwide in 2014. Typhus has flared periodically throughout history, with deadly consequences. Rocky Mountain spotted fever is a tick-borne threat in North and South America. Pneumonia is common everywhere.

Researchers at Boston Children's Hospital have, for the first time, visualized the origins of cancer from the first affected cell and watched its spread in a live animal. Their work, published in the January 29th issue of Science, could change the way scientists understand melanoma and other cancers and could lead to new, early treatments before the cancer has taken hold.

Agricultural expansion is a leading cause of wild species loss and greenhouse gas emissions. However, as farming practices and technologies continue to be refined, more food can be produced per unit of land - meaning less area is needed for agriculture and more land can be 'spared' for natural habitats.

While this may sound like good news for nature, conservation scientists warn that, without the right policies, higher farm yields could be used to maximise short-term profits and stimulate greater demand, resulting in less wilderness and more unnecessary consumption and waste.

Researchers have successfully replaced the Y chromosome in mice while preserving the male's ability to produce offspring. They achieved this technical feat by increasing expression of just two genes. These developments provide new insights into the role of the Y chromosome in reproduction and determining sex. The sex chromosomes differ between males and females; women have two X chromosomes, while men have one X and one Y chromosome. Thus, the Y chromosome is known as a biologically defining feature of men.

A new study has identified a subset of immune signaling proteins that are associated with the development of autism. Blocking these proteins during pregnancy in mice eliminated autism-like behavior in offspring, hinting at a potential means to prevent development of the disorder. Increasingly, evidence suggests that alterations in a mother's immune system - particularly in T cells and the immune signaling protein interleukin-17a (IL-17a) - during key periods of fetal neurodevelopment can lead to autism in offspring. Therefore Gloria Choi et al. explored IL-17a in greater detail in mice.

A population of suppressive T cells in the small intestines of mice prevents immune responses to solid foods, a new study finds. Why our immune system, which so effectively attacks foreign microbes, doesn't attack the molecules in the food we eat is a longstanding mystery, but now, results by Kwang Soon Kim et al. provide new insights. The team created a group of mice that were raised on a chemical diet completely lacking macromolecules from solid foods, meaning these mice never had dietary antigens in their guts.

A new model shows that the standard practice of treating infections with the highest tolerable dose of anti-microbe medications may not be best for preventing the evolution of drug resistance in all cases. A paper describing the research will be published on Jan. 28, 2016 in the journal PLOS Computational Biology.

Immune responses similar to those triggered by viral infections in pregnant mice altered brain structure in their offspring to cause behaviors associated with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). This is the finding of a study published on January 28 in Science, and led by researchers from NYU Langone Medical Center, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, University of Massachusetts Medical School and University of Colorado, Boulder.

New research from the University of Iowa answers a question that has vexed cystic fibrosis (CF) researchers for almost 25 years: why don't mice with CF gene mutations develop the life-threatening lung disease that affects most people with CF?

Published Jan. 29 in the journal Science, the research led by Michael Welsh, M.D., provides an answer to this long-standing scientific puzzle, and in doing so, identifies a proton pump that may be a target for new CF therapies.

Our immune system evolved to attack foreign materials entering our body. Food is technically foreign, but it is somehow tolerated by the immune system so that our body can absorb the nutrients. The immune system has built-in tolerance mechanisms that harness itself from responding to benign foreign antigens beneficial to our system, like food. When such tolerance fails, we suffer from an overt immune reaction, such as food allergies, which can be severe enough to be fatal.

A new study by basic science researchers in the Department of Basic Science and Craniofacial Biology at New York University College of Dentistry (NYUCD) sought to understand how gene expression is initiated in the notochord, the evolutionary and developmental precursor of the backbone. The notochord is an axial structure that provides support and patterning signals essential for development in all chordate embryos, including humans.