Copyright 2008 Medical News Today Latest Biology / Biochemistry News From Medical News Today. http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/sections/biology-biochemistry/ admin@medicalnewstoday.com (MNT Admin) editors@medicalnewstoday.com (MNT Editors) en-us Sat, 05 Jul 2008 01:00:00 PDT http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/113917.php Researchers at the University of Southern California (USC) have identified a specific tumor suppressor that manages membrane traffic routes for cellular cleaning and recycling. The study will be published in the July issue of the journal Nature Cell Biology, and is now available online. Fri, 04 Jul 2008 08:00:00 PDT http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/113986.php Until now, it was commonly thought that colliding molecules get the shakes as the result of energy transfer solely from the smashing of the molecules, but some new research adds a second means by which colliding molecules become vibrationally excited--it is being called the "Tug o' War Mechanism." The new experiment, transforming the textbook story, was performed in the lab of Richard Zare, chair of the Department of Chemistry at Stanford University. Fri, 04 Jul 2008 05:00:00 PDT http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/113585.php Some bees and wasps that host mites have peculiar pocket-like structures called acarinaria. These have long been considered as morphological adaptations to securely transfer beneficial mites into nests, and thus are thought to be the product of a mutualistic relationship. However, there has been little compelling evidence to support this hypothesis. Fri, 04 Jul 2008 00:00:00 PDT http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/113860.php Want to slow the signs of aging and live longer? New Saint Louis University research suggests cutting back on calories could be a promising strategy. Calorie restriction has long been shown to slow the aging process in rats and mice. While scientists do not know how calorie restriction affects the aging process in rodents, one popular hypothesis is that it slows aging by decreasing a thyroid hormone, triiodothyronine (T3), which then slows metabolism and tissue aging. Thu, 03 Jul 2008 05:00:00 PDT http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/113853.php A group of undergraduate students from the University of California San Diego have forged a new area of bioinformatics that may improve genomic and proteomic annotations and unlock a collection of stubborn biological mysteries. Their work will be published in the July issue of the journal Genome Research. Thu, 03 Jul 2008 05:00:00 PDT http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/113850.php Thanks to salt and hot chili peppers, researchers have found a calculus-computing center that tells a roundworm to go forward toward dinner or turn to broaden the search. It's a computational mechanism, they say, that is similar to what drives hungry college students to a pizza. Thu, 03 Jul 2008 04:00:00 PDT http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/113829.php Two Texas A&M University researchers have developed a computational tool that will help scientists more accurately study complex units of clustered genes, called operons, in bacteria. The tool, which allows scientists to analyze many bacterial genomes at once, is more accurate than previous methods because it starts from experimentally validated data instead of from statistical predictions, they say. Thu, 03 Jul 2008 04:00:00 PDT http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/113827.php When chemists want to produce a lot of a substance -- such as a newly designed drug -- they often turn to catalysts, molecules that speed chemical reactions. Many jobs require highly specialized catalysts, and finding one in just the right shape to connect with certain molecules can be difficult. Natural catalysts, such as enzymes in the human body that help us digest food, get around this problem by shape-shifting to suit the task at hand. Thu, 03 Jul 2008 04:00:00 PDT http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/113826.php Researchers at North Carolina State University have found that quantum dot nanoparticles can penetrate the skin if there is an abrasion, providing insight into potential workplace concerns for healthcare workers or individuals involved in the manufacturing of quantum dots or doing research on potential biomedical applications of the tiny nanoparticles. Thu, 03 Jul 2008 04:00:00 PDT http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/113819.php Metabolomics aims to determine the totality of all small molecules of a cell or a tissue. The exponents of bioinformatics analyzed data collected in the framework of a pre-clinical metabolomics study in healthy and diabetic mice. In each case, a subgroup of the animals was treated with the diabetes drug RoziglitazoneTM. Wed, 02 Jul 2008 07:00:00 PDT http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/113684.php The Parkinson's Disease Foundation (PDF) is pleased to announce awards of $950,000 toward its 2008-2009 International Research Grants and Fellowship Program (IRGFP). The funding will support the research of 19 Parkinson's scientists, chosen on April 11 from a group of almost 100 candidates by a scientific review committee led by Stanley Fahn, M.D., PDF's Scientific Director. Wed, 02 Jul 2008 07:00:00 PDT http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/113673.php For the first time, researchers have demonstrated that the administration of minute amounts of inhaled or intravenous hydrogen sulfide, or H2S - the molecule that gives rotten eggs their sulfurous stench - significantly improves survival from extreme blood loss in rats. Cell biologist Mark B. Roth, Ph.D., and colleagues in the Basic Sciences Division of Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, in collaboration with surgeon Robert K. Winn, Ph.D. Wed, 02 Jul 2008 07:00:00 PDT http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/113670.php Each day, a staggering number of cells perform a feat that still amazes researchers with its complexity: they divide to produce perfect replicas of each other. The process is called mitosis, and an inability to control it is one of the hallmarks of cancer. Wed, 02 Jul 2008 06:00:00 PDT http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/113666.php What do humans and single-celled choanoflagellates have in common? More than you'd think. New research into the choanoflagellate genome shows these ancient organisms have similar levels of proteins that cells in more complex organisms, including humans, use to communicate with each other. Wed, 02 Jul 2008 06:00:00 PDT http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/113665.php Two reports from TRAFFIC, the world's largest wildlife trade monitoring network, on traditional medicine systems in Cambodia and Vietnam suggest that illegal wildlife trade, including entire tiger skeletons, and unsustainable harvesting is depleting the region's rich and varied biodiversity and putting the primary healthcare resource of millions at risk. Wed, 02 Jul 2008 06:00:00 PDT http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/113624.php 1. Regenerative Axon Growth in Normal Mice Oswald Steward, Binhai Zheng, Marc Tessier-Lavigne, Maura Hofstadter, Kelli Sharp, and Kelly Matsudaira Yee The corticospinal tract of mice exhibits some regenerative growth without any therapeutic manipulation, according to Steward et al. After complete transection of the dorsal column, a few axons appeared to grow past the lesion via the ventral column. Wed, 02 Jul 2008 05:00:00 PDT http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/113595.php We captured 687 adult and 1259 larval tiger salamanders (Ambystoma tigrinum), assessed individuals for gross malformations, and surveyed genetic variation among malformed and normal individuals using both cytoplasmic and nuclear markers. The overall frequency of adults with malformations was 0.078 compared to 0.081 in larval samples. Wed, 02 Jul 2008 05:00:00 PDT http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/113594.php In birds, as in humans, mothers modulate offspring development by maternal hormones. We found in a wild bird species differences in testosterone within and between clutches of mothers selected for distinct personalities. Selection also affected timing of reproduction, allowing hormone mediated adjustments to seasonal variation in food availability. Wed, 02 Jul 2008 05:00:00 PDT http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/113583.php In palm trees, stiff fibres are embedded in soft surrounding tissue. The design of the interface of these tissues is crucial for the functioning of the stem. Mechanical, structural and biochemical investigations with high spatial resolution showed that independent sources acting together at different levels of hierarchy create a stiffness gradient. Hereby, we found an additional mechanism of how plants can control axial stiffness. Wed, 02 Jul 2008 04:00:00 PDT http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/113593.php How do birds tell the colours of their own and foreign eggs apart? We evaluate a model of avian physiological visual acuity to determine its accuracy as a predictor of song thrush Turdus philomelos discriminating artificial eggs and rejecting them from her clutch. We show that the large degree of variation of egg coloration between clutches (compared with variation within a clutch) should provide sufficient contrasts for rejecting experimental conspecific parasitism. Wed, 02 Jul 2008 04:00:00 PDT http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/113588.php Do cuckoos effectively mimic their hosts? Here it is assessed from a host perspective whether the colour design of cuckoo eggs of different races maximizes matching for two favourite avian hosts. Secondly, it is assessed the role of nest luminosity on host perception of matching. Wed, 02 Jul 2008 04:00:00 PDT http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/113586.php In a study on the functional role of biodiversity in tropical agroforestry systems, we found that pollinator diversity, but not abundance, was positively related to seed set of pumpkin. Furthermore, we classified species due to differences in spatiotemporal resource use and within-flower behaviour into functional guilds and showed that diversity of functional groups explained more variance in seed set than did species richness, highlighting the role of functional complementarity. Wed, 02 Jul 2008 03:00:00 PDT http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/113592.php Group living has evolved as an adaptation to predation in many animal species. In a multitude of vertebrates, the tendency to aggregate varies with the risk of predation, but experimental evidence for this is less well known in invertebrates. Here, we examine the tendency to aggregate in the freshwater amphipod Gammarus pulex in the absence and presence of predator fish odour. Without fish odours, the gammarids showed no significant tendency to aggregate. Wed, 02 Jul 2008 03:00:00 PDT http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/113591.php In some animals, such as bushcrickets, males donate a nutritious gift to a potential mate, and females ingest this so-called nuptial gift during copulation. Previously it was thought that most nuptial gift nutrients are routed to egg production. But, recent studies with isotopically labeled nuptial gifts reveal that female bushcrickets combust nuptial gift nutrients immediately after mating. Wed, 02 Jul 2008 03:00:00 PDT http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/113582.php Climate warming will affect animals in many ways, including the sex of some species' offspring. For tuatara, unique and ancient reptiles from New Zealand, warmer nest temperatures produce male-biased clutches. We predicted sex ratios and hatching times of tuatara clutches under future climate scenarios by linking egg development data with sophisticated models of soil microclimates.