#Rice genome could answer the 9 billion-people question Researchers have sequenced the complete genome of African rice a hardy crop that could help feed the world s growing population. ice feeds
and chair of the school of plant sciences with a joint appointment in the department of ecology and evolutionary biology. ice will play a key role in helping to solve what we call the 9 billion-people question. he 9 billion people question refers to predictions that the world
Now with the completely sequenced African rice genome scientists and agriculturalists can search for ways to cross Asian
The African rice genome is especially important because many of the genes code for traits that make African rice resistant to environmental stress such as long periods of drought high salinity in the soils
and flooding. ow that we have a precise knowledge of the genome we can identify these traits more easily
or through genetic modification techniqueswing says. he idea is to create a super-rice that will be higher yielding
what geneticists call physical maps a tool that enables scientists to understand the structure of the genome.
and donated it to the Rice Genome Project making sequencing of that complete genome possible.
Much of the evolutionary analysis of the genome was performed by plant sciences doctoral candidate Muhua Wang and by Carlos Machado of the University of Maryland.
In analyzing the 33000 genes that make up the African rice genome the researchers discovered that during the process of domestication Africans
Additionally the sequenced genome helps resolve questions about whether African rice originally was domesticated in one region or in several locations across Africa.
By comparing the genome with what is known about the genetic structure of wild varieties Wing
From 1998 to 2005 Wing led the US effort to help sequence the genome of Asian rice which is the only other domesticated rice species. Those results were published in the journal Nature in 2005
and analyzing the genomes of the wild relatives of African and Asian rice. y understanding the entire genus at a genome level we have a whole new pool of genetic variation that can be used to combat pests
and plant pathogenswing says. One example would be adding disease resistance genes from all of the wild rice varieties to a species of cultivated rice creating a new super-crop that is resistant to diseases and pests.
which is used now in the medical field to detect biomarkers in the early stages of disease.
which makes it easier to detect even smaller changes for tiny traces of explosives in the air. he sensor could have applications beyond chemical and explosive detection such as use in biomolecular research.
It perhaps the most important biochemical process On earth and scientists don yet fully understand how it works.
The study findings identify specific molecular vibrations that help enable charge separationhe process of kicking electrons free from atoms in the initial steps of photosynthesis. oth biological and artificial photosynthetic systems take absorbed light
In the case of natural photosynthesis, that charge separation leads to biochemical energy, explains Jennifer Ogilvie,
an associate professor of physics and biophysics at the University of Michigan and lead author of a paper published in Nature Chemistry. n artificial systems,
The Division of Chemical sciences Geosciences and Biosciences of the Office of Basic energy Sciences of the US Department of energy supported the work.
and the water into the fuel-making process, says Gemma Reguera, Michigan State university microbiologist and one of the study coauthors. ith a saturated glycerol market,
says Kwabena Boahen, associate professor of bioengineering at Stanford university. Boahen and his team have developed a circuit board consisting of 16 custom-designed eurocorechips.
professor of electrical and computer engineering and a professor of bioengineering. ethane is emitted by natural sources, such as wetlands,
The design was inspired by natural biological motors that have evolved to perform specific tasks critical to the function of cells says Jong Hyun Choi a Purdue University assistant professor of mechanical engineering.
Whereas biological motors are made of protein researchers are trying to create synthetic motors based on DNA the genetic materials in cells that consist of a sequence of four chemical bases:
Cellulose biomaterials might be used to create biodegradable plastic bags textiles and wound dressings; flexible batteries made from electrically conductive paper;
Cellulose could come from a variety of biological sources including trees plants algae ocean-dwelling organisms called tunicates
Volman suggests the material would make a compelling competitor to recently touted nanotube-based aerogels for deicing airplanes in the winter. e have the technology;
and biomolecular engineering to come up with a viscous blend of strontium ferrite. It s not the first time a consumer electronic device was printed in Lipson s lab. Back in 2009 Malone
and bioengineering to characterize the product It turns out different types of coal produce different types of dots.
researcher's microscope slides or microarrays where the liquids are placed. Also as can be seen from oil spills in the Gulf of mexico oil can stick
There s no reason we can t grow extraordinarily large single crystals in the future using modifications of our techniquesays Mirkin who also is a professor of medicine chemical and biological engineering biomedical engineering and materials science and engineering and director of the university s International Institute for Nanotechnology.
A paper by the research team led by Penn State s Sarah M. Assmann professor of biology
but now we have data on almost all the RNA molecules in a cell more than 10000 different RNASASSMANN says. e are the first to determine on a genome-wide basis the structures of the RNA molecules in a plant
and thereby influence gene expression the more we may be breed able to or develop with biotechnological methods crops that are more resistant to those stresses.
because it is the first plant species to have its full genome sequenced and has the greatest number of genetic tools available.
It is a critical component in the pathway of gene expression which controls an organism s function.
And we can try to understand how these RNA structural changes relate to certain biological functions.?
or a few RNAS you can t get a pattern. ow that we have genome-wide information for a particular organism we can start to abstract patterns of how RNA structure influences gene expression and ultimately plant function.
Are there universal rules that will be true for all organisms for how RNA structure influences gene expression?
evilacqua adds ecause RNA is so central in its role in gene regulation the tools we ve developed can be transferred to scientists who are working with essentially any biological system. he Human Frontiers Science Program (HFSP) Penn State Eberly
Jude Keyse a postgraduate student at the University of Queensland School of Biological sciences says the find was surprising.
and quickly link up again mimicking the process that allows biological molecules such as DNA to assemble rearrange and break down.
Doug Rowland project scientist in the Center for Molecular and Genomic Imaging in the department of biomedical engineering contributed X-ray computed tomography scanning of the rock.
and analyzed their chemical compositions using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. Finally the researchers presented the gland extracts to worker bees
Santa barbara as well as in the department of chemistry and biochemistry of the findings. The results of this research performed jointly with materials professor Steven Denbaars
The finding while it could lead to more agile robots serves primarily to shed light on a question that has baffled biologists:
while the other region pushes the water backwardsays Eric Fortune a professor of biological sciences at the New jersey Institute of technology who was a co-author of the paper. his arrangement is rather counter-intuitive like two propellers fighting against each other. f the fish wants to move forward
This biomimetic robot was developed in the lab of Malcolm Maciver associate professor of mechanical and biomedical engineering at Northwestern University and a co-author. e are far from duplicating the agility of animals with our most advanced robotsmaciver says. ne exciting implication of this work is that we might be held back in making more agile machines by our assumption that it s wasteful
or useless to have forces in directions other than the one we are trying to move in.
and bees says senior author Cowan who directs the Locomotion in Mechanical and Biological Systems Lab at Johns Hopkins Whiting School of engineering. s an engineer
and bioengineering at Stanford university contribute to the work which was supported by grants from the US Department of energy.
and professor of chemistry and chemical biology. s an additive it greatly improves the cycling stability of the battery. n another approach to improving lithium-sulfur battery durability the researchers also report a new way
The sensors make use of microfluidic technologyâ##developed by Abraham Stroock associate professor of chemical and biomolecular engineeringâ##that places a tiny cavity inside the chip.
The challenge for Angel Mart assistant professor of chemistry and bioengineering at Rice university and his team of student researchers was to get their large metallic particles through the much smaller pores of a zeolite cage.
and on the interaction between genotypes and the environment as they have tried to breed wheat that is resistant to PHS but with little success so far.
But now findings published in the journal PLOS ONE suggest that the solution may lie not with genetics alone but rather with a combination of genetic and epigenetic factors.
he complex Rddm machinery is composed of several proteins that guide the genome in response to growth developmental and stress signals.
when a biologist or chemist makes a certain type of molecular network the engineering process is complex cumbersome and hard to repurpose for building other systems.
Scientists now are finding ways to design synthetic systems that behave like biological ones with the hope that synthetic molecules could support the body s natural functions.
The National Science Foundation the Burroughs Wellcome Fund and the National Centers for Systems Biology supported the research.
scanning medical therapy and imaging and research in biology and materials science. ecause it employs commercial lasers
is genetic engineering the best option? Cornell University rightoriginal Studyposted by Blaine Friedlander-Cornell on September 30 2013with estimates that 15 to 40 percent of the world s species will be lost over the next 40 years due to warming
or species with adaptive alleles or gene variants using genetic engineeringwrite Josh Donlan Cornell visiting fellow in ecology and evolutionary biology and his colleagues.
The scientists fear that implementing genetic solutions could potentially deter other climate change action. serious concern is that even the possibility of using genetic-engineering tools to rescue biodiversity will encourage inaction with regard to climate change.
Before genetic engineering can be entertained seriously as a tool for preserving biodiversity conservationists need to agree on the types of scenario for which facilitated adaptation managed relocation
Finding that binding target has been a major challenge for structural biologists. That s because there are only tiny amounts of the protein involved in cell growth
Hong has used long solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy to study structural biology including the mechanism used by the flu virus to infect host cells.
and we are quite happy that the DNP NMR technology is so useful for understanding this plant biochemistry questionsays Hong also a faculty scientist with the US Department of energy s Ames Laboratory.
Knowing where expansin binds to cell walls ight help biochemists design more potent expansins to loosen the cell wall
and thus better harvest bioenergy. ong and Daniel Cosgrove professor and chair in biology at Penn State are the lead authors.
and developed the ability to react with oxide minerals rather than breathe oxygen as we do to convert organic nutrients into biological fuel.
and convert it into biological fuel their excess electrons flow into the carbon filaments and across to the positive electrode
Douglas Capone a professor and chair of biological sciences at the University of Southern California says that the research is notable both for understanding the nitrogen cycle
and spread diseases such as the ongoing outbreak of Cryptococcus in Canada and the Pacific Northwest of the United states. Though some might disagree most biologists think the purpose of sex is to create diversity among offspring.
Studies of a fungus called Cryptococcus show the process of sexual reproduction can result in extra bundles of genetic material
or chromosomes that can be beneficial to the organism s survival. The results are published in the journal PLOS Biology. hese studies turn our view of the functions of sex by 180 degrees
and reveal that sex doesn t just mix up already existing genetic diversity but can actually create it from scratchsays Joseph Heitman the study s senior author and professor and chair of molecular genetics and microbiology at the Duke university School of medicine.
The fungi Cryptococcus neoformans is a global pathogen that primarily infects individuals with compromised immune systems such as HIV/AIDS patients.
because if there are two identical genomes coming together the end product should be the same as if the fungi had cloned just itself through asexual reproductionsays Heitman. e were trying to get a sense of is it just spinning its wheels
or having more than the normal number of DNA-packaging chromosomes. Aneuploidy is well known to be deleterious in humans causing genetic disorders like Down s syndrome or trisomy 21.
But having an extra chromosome can actually be beneficial in microbes like Cryptococcus where it has been shown to confer drug resistance to the antifungal fluconazole.
For example offspring with an extra copy of chromosome 9 or 10 became drug resistant and were able to outcompete their parent
or adaptive the fungi can lose the chromosome just as easily as they gained it. In fact we showed that
and let them lose their extra chromosomes they also lose their new properties and go back to behaving just like their parent did. he key finding he says llustrates how unisexual reproduction introduces limited genetic diversity in clonal populations already well adapted to an environment
##and manmade products constructed from similar materials has to do with the hierarchical architecture of the biological materialsâ##the way the silica-based skeletons are built up from different structural elements some
and the Army Research Office through the Institute for Collaborative Biotechnologies at Caltech supported the research.
A 21-member team organized by the American Academy of Microbiology established a set of recommendations on how advances in microbiology can be harnessed to improve agriculture.
When crops are optimized with the right genetics and colonized by the right microbes both organisms can flourish.
despite having A y chromosome rodents lacking the mjd1aenzyme developed as females. The findings are detailed in a study published in the journal Science.
or female says Peter Koopman a professor from the University of Queensland s Institute for Molecular Bioscience. ost mammals including humans
Plant senescence is estimated to involve 10 percent of genes in the genome. Plants use an expedited hypersensitive process to thwart pathogens by sacrificing infected cells to protect the surrounding healthy tissues.
NOTTINGHAM (UK)# Scientists have identified the genetic mutation responsible for the first blue chicken eggs in South american Mapuche fowl and their European descendants Araucana 200 to 500 years ago.
or#fancy#poultry breeders to identify at fine resolution the exact location of the mutation in the genome in blue egg laying chickens.
This makes it possible for genetic material from a retrovirus to become permanently incorporated into the DNA of an infected cell.
and diversity of species. It s quite remarkable#retroviruses are considered generally to integrate at random locations in the genome
Imprinted genes use molecules that bind to DNA (epigenetic tags) to quiet one half and let the other lead.
of molecular biology and genetics at Cornell University. Using mouse studies only about 100 genes with imprinted expression had been identified.
Because the genomes of horses and donkeys differ by approximately one in every 200 base pairs (differences called single nucleotide polymorphisms
what breeders call the maternal grandsire effect says co-senior author Doug Antczak equine geneticist at Cornell s College of Veterinary medicine.
Their findings appear in Theoretical and Applied Genetics. It was a surprise that we could trace the gene back so far
It seems to be a key gene in the barley genome, he says. Hickey has declined to patent the DNA marker preferring the information to be freely available to other researchers.
since 1999 threatening important wheat production areas of the world#says co-author Jorge Dubcovsky a wheat geneticist at University of California Davis and a Howard hughes medical institute investigator.#
says Changhuei Yang, professor of electrical engineering, bioengineering and medical engineering at the California Institute of technology (Caltech).
#Yeast reveals secret of hitchhiker mutations It takes a group effort of genetic mutations to give organisms the best shot at evolutionary survival a new study suggests.
Evolution occurs when an individual experiences a spontaneous beneficial mutation in its genome that improves its ability to adapt to its environment.
The common view was that a single mutation could boost the survival of an individual
and pass on the mutation to its offspring. Instead researchers studying 1000 generations of adaptation in 40 yeast populations have found that rather than just one mutation causing enhanced survival about five to seven mutations are required.
These extra mutations are termed hitchhikers because they don t appear to contribute to the enhanced fitness of the organism Our study indicates that evolution is more of a group effort says Gregory Lang an associate research scholar in the laboratory of David Botstein at Princeton university s Lewis-Sigler Institute
for Integrative Genomics. Lang is first author on the paper which appears in the journal Nature.
Drivers and hitchhikers The finding goes against the traditional view of evolution being determined by individual mutations that provide a large fitness advantage by themselves says Michael Desai a former Princeton fellow who is currently at Harvard university.
We found that small groups which we call cohorts of mutations were associated with increased survival.
No single mutation is driving adaptation. The whole group which includes hitchhikers drives adaptation together.
The relatively small subset of gene mutations that were found to enhance survival Botstein says suggests that there are only a limited number of ways in
The knowledge of how mutations drive evolution can inform our understanding of how tumors resist chemotherapeutics
Although the researchers refer to the groups of mutations as containing drivers and hitchhikers Desai says that additional research is being done to explore which mutations are necessary for adaptation and
which ones are along for the ride. He noted that the mutations are located not near each other nor do they appear to have similar functions.
The study helps expand our understanding of how evolution arises from a combination of genetic mutations
which are thought of as occurring spontaneously and environmental pressures says Botstein. We ve shown that this first component the genetics involves not just one gene mutation
but several that need to coexist before evolution can happen. By following genomic changes across cell populations over time this study allows a rare glimpse of evolution in progress says Stefan Maas of the National institute of health s National Institute of General Medical sciences which partially funded the research.
This systems biology approach yields insights that could help us understand how mutations spread through other evolving systems such as cancer cells
Previous evidence suggests that yeast may experience beneficial mutations that inactivate genes they no longer need.
if grown in conditions where the yeast can only reproduce asexually mutations that inactivate genes for proteins involved in sexual reproduction boost survival
whether the mutations identified in the new study confer specific survival advantages. The National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship the National Institute of General Medical sciences Centers of Excellence the National institutes of health the James S. Mcdonnell Foundation the Alfred P. Sloan
So we want to understand how they interact with cells once inside the body These latest findings come from an ongoing collaboration between biologist engineers
Oddly shaped flakes Preliminary research by Kane s biology group had shown that graphene sheets can indeed enter cells
That allows us to better interpret the biological impacts of these materials. It s really a wonderful collaboration.
A related paper published July 3 by the same research team in Biology Letters has shown clear and even stronger responses of Cuvier s beaked whales to simulated mid-frequency sonar exposures.
High school biology leaves off with this: In normal pollination sperm-carrying pollen grains land on the pistil s tip
In his lab at Brown University Mark Johnson associate professor of biology studies the true complexity of intercellular communications that conduct this process with exquisite precision.
The new paper in Current Biology describes the genetically prescribed life cycle of the pollen tube and how their expression destines the tube for self-sacrifice allowing flowering plants to reproduce.
Among the fundamental biology questions at play in the sex lives of flowers for example are how cells recognize each other know what to do
What they knew from a prior study is that the gene expression in pollen tubes that had grown through a pistil was much different than that of pollen tubes grown in the lab. Leydon s first step
therefore was to see which regulators of gene expression or transcription factors were at work in pistil-grown pollen tubes but not in the lab-grown ones.
when they aren t. He grew some normal arabadopsis plants some in which a mutation disabled only one of the transcription factors and other ones in
and share the same number of chromosomes but fertilization often fails at the pollen tube burst
Their results are published in the journal Nature Biotechnology. One billion acres#When Bt crops were introduced first the main question was how quickly would pests adapt
if these inclusions were actually biological in origin the researchers looked at 15 different samples of Farrel Quartzite
Stable carbon isotope analysis can determine the biological origin of these microfossils because they used carbon dioxide to create energy
During this process the organisms selectively incorporate more carbon 12 than carbon 13 from the available carbon producing a signature of biological origin.
whereby a small number of skilled geneticists is able to remove the nucleus of a donor woman egg (the part that plays host to some 25,
the geneticist who pioneered the technique, told me from his office at Oregon Health and Sciences University just outside Portland. his procedure uses a very high-tech imaging system microscopes, lasers,
It actually looks like a Play station 4. The nuclear DNA from a patient egg carrying MITOCHONDRIAL DNA mutations is removed
The baby will be free of risk from maternal mitochondrial mutations, but yet the biological child of the parents.
OHSU The resulting egg can then be fertilized with the intended father sperm using traditional in vitro fertilization,
and a growing number of geneticists is now exploring the role of misbehaving mitochondria in basic aging.)
Less than a tenth of 1%of the genome is actually going to be affected. It is not part of
Dr. Marcy Darnovsky, executive director of the California-based Center for Genetics and Society, in an open letter. nder the proposed arrangement,
Other available features include a human/machine interface (HMI) touch-screen display with GPS and biometric data logging, ipod integrated sound systems,
Currently, produce warehouses use expensive technologies such as gas chromatography or mass spectroscopy to measure ethylene levels,
200 or so that gas chromatography or mass spectroscopy systems currently run at. Another system, developed at the UK's National Physical Laboratory, uses radio frequencies, microwaves, terahertz radiation and far-infrared light to determine the ripeness of strawberries
Some of the bioreactors being used to cultivate the bioengineered Trichoderma fungus The bioengineered Trichoderma can be cultivated in bioreactors
chitin is the second-most common biopolymer on earth, occurring not only in crab and lobster shells,
GEDI's 3d maps could be combined with maps from other satellites to examine the role forest architecture plays in biodiversity and land use,
With DNATRAX the bacteria is replaced by particles of non-biological DNA that can be collected with simple forensic swabs
Then simple polymerase chain reaction (PCR) technology can identify the code and reveal the origin of the product in about an hour right down to
and interaction of silica-based nanoparticles with biological systems write the researchers. Because our research demonstrates a clear cardiovascular health risk associated with this trend steps need to be taken to help ensure that potential health
which weren't as soft and flexible as the biological tissue surrounding them. Over time this could cause irritation which would in turn lead to inflammation the build up of scar tissue and ultimately rejection.
In biology, molecular motors are highly complex protein assemblies that can produce work by consuming energy:
they take part in fundamental biological functions such as copying DNA andprotein synthesis, and underlie all motion processes.
Gelatin is biocompatible biodegradable and classified as#Generally Recognized as Safe#by the Food and Drug Administration.
This allows the drug to bypass the blood-brain barrier a biological fence that prevents the vast majority of drugs from entering the brain through the bloodstream.#
I. Kim is affiliated also with the Neuroscience Program the Institute for Genomic Biology the Beckman Institute and the departments of bioengineering of materials science and engineering and of nuclear plasma and radiological engineering at the U. of I d
Dozens of popular courses in psychology, statistics, biology and other fields are offered also primarily online.
which Dr. Joos defined as determination made through the application of socially agreed upon biological criteria for classifying persons as females and males.
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