Science Today

Researchers at the University of Calgary have discovered the unique genes that allow the opium poppy to make codeine and morphine, thus opening doors to alternate methods of producing these effective painkillers either by manufacturing them in a lab or controlling the production of these compounds in the plant. "The enzymes encoded by these two genes have eluded plant biochemists for a half-century," says Peter Facchini, professor in the Department of Biological Sciences, who has dedicated his career to studying the unique properties of the opium poppy. "In finding not only the enzymes but also the genes, we've made a major step forward. It's equivalent in finding a gene involved in cancer or other genetic disorders." The researchers' findings are published in Nature Chemical Biology. Codeine is by far the most widely used opiate in the world and one of the most commonly used painkillers. Codeine can be extracted directly from the plant, most codeine is ...

Unlike animals and humans, plants can't run and hide when exposed to stressful environmental conditions. So how do plants survive? A new Université de Montréal study, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, has found a key mechanism that enables plants to keep dangerous gene alterations in check to ensure their continued existence."We've discovered a new pathway that plants use to protect their genes against dangerous alterations that could also allow some useful mutations to occur," says Normand Brisson, a Université de Montréal biochemistry professor who made his discovery with graduate students Alexandre Maréchal and Jean-Sébastien Parent. "Such mutations played an important role in the evolution of plants with high nutritional value, resistance to disease and harsh climate that are so important to modern agriculture," adds Dr. Brisson. "Our results open new research avenues for the study of similar mechanisms of gen...

Extracting DNA has never been so easy as it is with the new SNAP (System for Nucleic Acid Preparation), designed by Boston University professor Catherine Klapperich. This small device, built on simple technique, using cheap inputs can help in purifying DNA from all kinds of body fluids, including blood. One just needs to run the blood through polymer-lined straw where in the DNA is trapped which then can be mailed to the lab for further anlysis. This new device has lot of potential in poor countries and other rural communities that would not only save money, but time too. Usually, the samples sent to the labs for DNA are very sensitive if not stored at freezing temperatures. In mnay cases, the DNA gets degraded by the time they reach labs for extraction. In this case, this device helps that degradation problems as they will be more stable once extracted and then sent to the labs. The DNA is more stable once extracted than in the sample. This is due to many chemicals in the sample that...

The Rosetta Stone of bacterial communication may have been found. Although they have no sensory organs, bacteria can get a good idea about what's going on in their neighborhood and communicate with each other, mainly by secreting and taking in chemicals from their surrounding environment. Even though there are millions of different kinds of bacteria with their own ways of sensing the world around them, Duke University bioengineers believe they have found a principle common to all of them. The researchers said that a more complete understanding of communication between cells and bacteria is essential to the advancement of the new field of synthetic biology, where populations of genetically altered bacteria are "programmed" to do certain things. Such re-programmed bacterial gene circuits could see a wide variety of applications in medicine, environmental cleanup and biocomputing. It is already known that a process known as "quorum sensing" underlies communication ...

Research led by the German Institute of Human Nutrition (DIfE) has identified a new gene associated with diabetes, together with a mechanism that makes obese mice less susceptible to diabetes. A genomic fragment that occurs naturally in some mouse strains diminishes the activity of the risk gene Zfp69. The researchers also found that the corresponding human gene (ZNF642) is especially active in overweight individuals with diabetes. The results of the study also involved scientists from the University of Leipzig and the German Cancer Research Center in Heidelberg. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), around 1.6 billion people are overweight worldwide. The number of people with type 2 diabetes has increased accordingly to 230 million. The risk of developing type 2 diabetes is approximately 50% hereditary, but is also dependent on nutrition and lifestyle factors. In the present study, the researchers compared the genomes of different mouse strains. Some mouse strains were obe...

Mice carrying a "humanized version" of a gene believed to influence speech and language may not actually talk, but they nonetheless do have a lot to say about our evolutionary past, according to a report in the May 29th issue of the journal Cell, a Cell Press publication. "In the last decade or so, we've come to realize that the mouse is really similar to humans," said Wolfgang Enard of the Max-Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology. "The genes are essentially the same and they also work similarly." Because of that, scientists have learned a tremendous amount about the biology of human diseases by studying mice. "With this study, we get the first glimpse that mice can be used to study not only disease, but also our own history." Mice still can't make phone calls. But new research shows that mice carrying a "humanized version" of a gene believed to influence speech and language reveals important new insights into our evol...

Space may be the final frontier, but scientists who recently discovered a hidden forest in Mozambique show the uncharted can still be under our noses. BirdLife were part of a team of scientists who used Google Earth to identify a remote patch of pristine forest. An expedition to the site discovered new species of butterfly and snake, along with seven Globally Threatened birds. The team were browsing Google Earth – freely available software providing global satellite photography – to search for potential wildlife hotspots. A nearby road provided the first glimpses of a wooded mountain topped by bare rock. However, only by using Google Earth could the scientists observe the extent of woodland on the other side of the peak. This was later discovered to be the locally known, but unmapped, Mount Mabu. Scientific collections and literature also failed to shed light on the area. “This is potentially the biggest area of medium-altitude forest I’m aware of in southern Africa, yet it was not on ...

Scientists have developed a way to manipulate bacteria so they will grow mutant sugar molecules on their cell surfaces that could be used against them as the key component in potent vaccines. Any resulting vaccines, if proven safe, could be developed more quickly, easily and cheaply than many currently available vaccines used to prevent bacterial illnesses. Most vaccines against bacteria are created with polysaccharides, or long strings of sugars found on the surface of bacterial cells. The most common way to develop these vaccines is to remove sugars from the cell surface and link them to proteins to give them more power to kill bacteria. Polysaccharides alone typically do not generate a strong enough antibody response needed to kill bacteria. But this new technique would provide an easy approach to make a small alteration to the sugar structure and produce the polysaccharide by simple fermentation. “We are showing for the first time that you don’t have to use complicated chemical rea...

Michigan State University researchers are dramatically speeding up identification of genes that affect the structure and function of chloroplasts, which could lead to plants tailored specifically for biofuel production or delivering high levels of specific nutrients. Chloroplasts, which are specialized compartments in plant cells, convert sunlight, carbon dioxide and water into sugars and oxygen ("fuel" for the plant) during photosynthesis. Chloroplasts also synthesize nutrients such as starch, amino acids, antioxidant vitamins and lipids, which are important to humans and other animals. "We're using this advanced technology to capture information on almost 100 traits, with an emphasis on metabolism," said Rob Last, MSU professor of biochemistry and molecular biology. "We can then analyze that data and look for correlations that we wouldn't see using traditional genetic screening methods. Finding these correlations gives us a more complete understanding...

A gene that helped one species split into two species shows evidence of adapting much faster than other genes in the genome, raising questions about what is driving its rapid evolution.The paper in the Feb 5 issue of Science shows that the gene has connections to another previously identified "speciation gene." Both genes code for key proteins that control molecular traffic into and out of a cell's nucleus. The researchers believe an arms race of sorts inside the cell drives these genes to evolve rapidly—and as a consequence makes closely related species genetically incompatible with one another. Drosophila (fruit flies). Certain genes in the fruitfly's own genome serve little purpose other than to replicate themselves. (Credit: iStockphoto/Tomasz Zachariasz). "When we cross two species of fruit fly, which had split from one another 3 million years ago, some of the hybrid offspring die," says Daven Presgraves, professor of biology at the University of Roches...

As bacteria resistant to commonly used antibiotics continue to increase in number, scientists keep searching for new sources of drugs. One potential new bactericide has now been found in the tiny freshwater animal Hydra. The protein identified by Joachim Grötzinger, Thomas Bosch and colleagues at the University of Kiel, hydramacin-1, is unusual (and also clinically valuable) as it shares virtually no similarity with any other known antibacterial proteins except for two antimicrobials found in another ancient animal, the leech. Hydramacin proved to be extremely effective though; in a series of laboratory experiments, this protein could kill a wide range of both Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria, including clinically-isolated drug-resistant strains like Klebsiella oxytoca (a common cause of nosocomial infections). Hydramacin works by sticking to the bacterial surface, promoting the clumping of nearby bacteria, then disrupting the bacterial membrane. Grötzinger and his team also de...

By examining the DNA of cacao trees, Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientists and colleagues from confectionery giant Mars, Inc., have traced the genetic roots of the key ingredient in chocolate. Cocoa comes from the Theobroma cacao tree, which forms the basis of a multibillion-dollar U.S. chocolate industry. The seeds are processed into cocoa beans that are the source of cocoa, cocoa butter and chocolate. But diseases cost growers an estimated $700 million each year, and scientists have been looking for ways to produce cacao trees that can resist them. David Kuhn, a molecular biologist at the ARS Subtropical Horticulture Research Station in Miami, Fla., and the research team published findings this fall that are a step toward that goal, shedding light on Theobroma’s genetic diversity. The researchers extracted DNA from the leaves of 952 cacao trees maintained in germplasm collections in Miami, Puerto Rico, Ecuador, Costa Rica, Trinidad and Brazil. The trees were collected by pla...

Imagine having GeneVision: the uncanny ability to view the activity of any chosen gene in real time through a specially modified camera. With GeneVision, military commanders could compare gene expression in victorious and defeated troops. Retailers could track genes related to craving as shoppers moved about a store. "The Bachelor" would enjoy yet one more secret advantage over his love-struck dates. Frightening? Perhaps. Ethically suspect? Certainly. Preposterous? Not quite. The fly above is 65 days old (roughly equivalent to 65 years old for a human). Its green fluorescence indicates that the hsp22 gene has turned on. (Credit: Photo/Courtesy of John Tower laboratory). A new study in BMC Biotechnology correlates real-time gene expression with movement and behavior for the first time. The proof-of-concept experiment in fruit flies opens a new door for the study of genes' influence on behavior. The authors, from the University of Southern California and Cambridge Universi...

Plants, genetically modified to ease the breaking down of their woody material, could be the key to a cheaper and greener way of making ethanol, according to researchers who add that the approach could also help turn agricultural waste into food for livestock. Lignin, a major component of woody plant material,, is woven in with cellulose and provides plants with the strength to withstand strong gusts of wind and microbial attack. However, this protective barrier or "plastic wall" also makes it harder to gain access to the cellulose. "There is lots of energy-rich cellulose locked away in wood," said John Carlson, professor of molecular genetics, Penn State. "But separating this energy from the wood to make ethanol is a costly process requiring high amounts of heat and caustic chemicals. Moreover, fungal enzymes that attack lignin are not yet widely available, still in the development stage, and not very efficient in breaking up lignin." Researchers have pr...

A Newcastle University study involving thousands of families is helping prospective parents work out whether they are likely to have sons or daughters. The work by Corry Gellatly, a research scientist at the university, has shown that men inherit a tendency to have more sons or more daughters from their parents. This means that a man with many brothers is more likely to have sons, while a man with many sisters is more likely to have daughters. The research involved a study of 927 family trees containing information on 556,387 people from North America and Europe going back to 1600. A simplified diagram in which men either have only sons, only daughters, or equal numbers of each, though in reality it is less clear cut. (Credit: Image courtesy of Newcastle University) . "The family tree study showed that whether you’re likely to have a boy or a girl is inherited. We now know that men are more likely to have sons if they have more brothers but are more likely to have daughters if the...

Scientists have successfully created the first induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cell lines from adult monkey skin cells. The research, published by Cell Press in the December issue of the journal Cell Stem Cell, demonstrates that the method of direct reprogramming is conserved among species and may be useful for creation of clinically valuable primate models for human diseases. Although previous work has shown that induction of four key transcription factors can reprogram adult mouse and human skin cells into iPS cells, creation of iPS cells in other species has not been demonstrated. "We sought to generate monkey iPS cells from skin cells isolated an adult male rhesus macaque using the predicted monkey transcription factors OCT4, SOX2, KLF4 and c-MYC," explains Dr. Hongkui Deng from the Key Laboratory of Cell Proliferation and Differentiation at Peking University in Beijing, China. Dr. Deng and colleagues used retroviruses expressing these four factors to infect adult monkey s...

Non-target insects are probably affected more by conventional insecticides than by crops that contain genes from the soil bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt), according to the findings of a study by Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientists and cooperators. Bt crops such as maize and cotton are genetically engineered to produce insect-specific toxins. They target specific insect pests, but the researchers wanted to determine how these crops influence non-target insects in the environment. To find out, scientists from ARS collaborated with researchers at the University of Nebraska at Omaha, Iowa State University and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Steven Naranjo, a research leader at the ARS Arid Land Agricultural Research Center in Maricopa, Ariz., and Jonathan Lundgren, an entomologist at the ARS North Central Agricultural Research Laboratory in Brookings, S.D., contributed to the work. The scientists compared the abundance of groups of non-target insects. They firs...

Female flies can turn back the biological clock and extend their lifespan at the same time, University of Southern California biologists report. Their study, published online this month in Molecular Genetics and Genomics, casts doubt on the old notion of a tradeoff between reproduction and longevity. Popular wisdom and scientific opinion have held that "the more you reproduce, the shorter you're going to live," said senior author John Tower, associate professor of biological sciences at USC College. While that may be true in some cases, Tower added, recent research has hinted at exceptions to the rule. The latest study is a striking example. Tower and graduate student Yishi Li screened 8,000 genes in search of ones that could make older flies lay more eggs. They found two. When older female flies were altered to over-express either of these two genes, they lived 5 to 30 percent longer and produced more offspring. Tower speculated that the genes are boosting activity of st...

On a hushed autumn morning, when leaves have ripened to the fall, who hasn’t stood under a flaming maple and wondered why it goes red? Though Robert Frost might have imagined something more poetic, tree physiologists will tell you the answer is anthocyanin. This is the pigment that leaves produce in autumn, creating the bright displays of red and purple foliage that draw thousands of wistful tourists (and their wallets) to New England. But chemistry is not cause. “We know the basic biochemical reasons (leaves go red),” says US Forest Service researcher Paul Schaberg — under stress, leaf sugars are converted to anthocyanin — “but the ecology and exact mechanisms are still unknown.” Why does a maple go yellow one year and red the next? Are cold nights the trigger? Does the red color serve to deter insect pests? “There are dozens of competing theories,” he says. University of Vermont forestry student William Young looks into a maple tree at the US Forest Service Research Station in Burlin...

"Waterproof" versions of popular varieties of rice, which can withstand 2 weeks of complete submergence, have passed tests in farmers' fields with flying colors. Several of these varieties are now close to official release by national and state seed certification agencies in Bangladesh and India, where farmers suffer major crop losses because of flooding of up to 4 million tons of rice per year. This is enough rice to feed 30 million people. The flood-tolerant versions of the "mega-varieties"—high-yielding varieties popular with both farmers and consumers that are grown over huge areas across Asia—are effectively identical to their susceptible counterparts, but recover after severe flooding to yield well. A 1-9 November tour of research stations and farms in Bangladesh and India led by David Mackill, senior rice breeder at the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), marked the successful completion of a project, From genes to farmers' fields: enhancing...