He found that there is little risk of genetically modified genes cross-pollinating with plants of other species
They likely arise from extensive herbicide use with Monsanto's Roundup Ready crops not directly from the Roundup Ready genes themselves.
The same genes that make cows produce more milk also kill off cow embryos they found.
The European researchers found that up to a third of Nordic Red Cattle are missing one copy of each of the same four genes.
Like humans cows are supposed to have two copies of all of their genes one from their moms and one from their dads.
Having no copies of those four genes is deadly but at the same time having one copy of each makes a cow produce more milk than normal cows that have two copies.
Those missing genes are a gift with a dangerous catch. Of course before this study farmers didn't know how all of this worked.
thus passing on their shortened genes. That's why the genetic flaw is so common in Nordic cows.
whether the bulls they use in breeding are missing copies of these four genes Goutam Sahana a Danish geneticist who worked on the study said in a statement.
which may be missing those genes too. By preventing animals that are both missing genes from mating with each other a quantum jump in fertility could be achieved in Nordic Red breeds Sahana said.
What about cattle in the U s.?This study looked only at Nordic herds so it can't say
The authors studied 14 natural sequence variants of the complementary sex determining switch (csd gene) for 76 genotypes of honey bees.
because they have one gene locus responsible for sex determination. Also Page and former graduate student Greg Hunt identified genetic markers--well-characterized regions of DNA--close to the complementary sex determining locus to allow gene mapping.
In addition Hunt and Page found that the honey bees'high recombination rate--the process by which genetic material is mixed physically during sexual reproduction--is the highest of any known animal studied
There has to be some segment of that gene that is responsible in this allelic series where
if you have two different coding sequences in that part of the gene you end up producing a female said Page.
and find out what regions of these genes are responsible among these variants. In this process we also had to determine
What the authors found was that at least five amino acid differences can control allelic differences to create femaleness through the complementary sex determiner (csd) gene--the control switch.
and proline affect protein binding sites on the csd gene which in turn lead to different conformational states
Teasing out the hidden subtleties of a type of hybrid vigor involving just one gene has provided the scientists with means to tweak the length of time that bushy tomato varieties can produce flowers.
In his previous work CSHL Associate professor Zach Lippman and Israeli colleagues identified a rare example of hybrid vigor involving a genetic defect in the gene that makes florigen a hormone that controls the process of flowering
They found that bushy plants with a mutation in one of the two copies of the florigen gene producing half as much florigen as plants without the mutation do postpone the moment
This reveals which genes--both parasite and host--are most active during infection. Most strikingly some South american and some atypical North american strains induced a type of immune reaction usually only seen during viral infection known as the type 1 interferon response.
Some duplicated genes were lost over time but others took on new functions including contributions to the development of floral organs.
As another example of the value of the Amborella genome Joshua Der at Penn State noted We estimate that at least 14000 protein-coding genes existed in the last common ancestor of all flowering plants.
Many of these genes are unique to flowering plants and many are known to be important for producing the flower as well as other structures and other processes specific to flowering plants.
Jim Leebens-Mack from UGA noted that The Amborella genome sequence facilitated reconstruction of the ancestral gene order in the'core eudicots'a huge group that comprises about 75 percent of all angiosperms.
As an evolutionary outsider to this diverse group the Amborella genome allowed the researchers to estimate the linear order of genes in an ancestral eudicot genome
and function of protein-coding genes so the cessation of mobile DNA activity may have slowed the rate of evolution of both genome structure and gene function.
In other words it was thought that female birds may have evolved similar patterning to males due to common genes but that female patterns would be lost subsequently as it is not beneficial.
and analyse for the first time the sweet genes of beetroot. The results of the study that will be published today in Nature shed also light on how the genome has been shaped by artificial selection.
Information held in the genome sequence will be useful for further characterization of genes involved in sugar production and identification of targets for breeding efforts.
or quinoa as well as plants with an interesting biology for instance carnivorous plants or desert plants. 27421 protein-coding genes were discovered within the genome of the beet more than are encoded within the human genome.
Sugar beet has a lower number of genes encoding transcription factors than any flowering plant with already known genome adds Bernd Weisshaar a principle investigator from Bielefeld University who was involved in the study.
The researchers speculate that beets may harbor so far unknown genes involved in transcriptional control
and gene interaction networks may have evolved differently in sugar beet compared to other species. The researchers also studied disease resistance genes (the equivalent to the immune system in animals)
These genes turned out as particularly plastic with beet-specific gene family expansions and gene losses.
Additionally gene numbers varied between different sugar beet cultivars which contained up to 271 genes not shared with any of the other lines as Juliane Dohm
and Andr Minoche two scientists involved in the study commented. The researchers also performed an evolutionary analysis of each sugar beet gene in order to put them into context with already known genes of other plants.
This analysis allowed them to identify gene families that are expanded in sugar beet compared to other plants
but also families that are absent. Notably such gene families were associated most commonly with stress response
or with disease resistance added Toni Gabaldon group leader in the CRG Bioinformatics and Genomics programme and ICREA research professor.
and artificial selection gene regulation and gene-environment interaction as well as biotechnological approaches to customize the crop to different uses in the production of sugar
and are able to retain expression of the inserted genes for at least 14 years a report in the Canadian Journal of Forest Research just announced.
A large-scale study of 402 trees from nine insertion events tracked the result of placing the cry3aa gene into hybrid poplar trees.
and reproduce in order to prevent any gene flow into wild tree populations researchers said. With this genetic modification the trees were able to produce an insecticidal protein that helped protect against insect attack.
Annual crops such as cotton and corn already are grown routinely as GMO products with insect resistance genes.
and why extended tests were necessary to demonstrate that the resistance genes would still be expressed more than a decade after planting.
Agencies are likely to require extensive studies of gene flow and their effects on forest ecosystems
Strauss said he advocates an approach of engineering sterility genes into the trees as a mechanism to control gene flow
. In addition the mapping should help guide them to improvements in control methods and toward more usable genes and treatments.
which fall into an order to encode genes specific to an organism. Gabriel likened it to examining beads on a necklace:
and the color sequence determines each gene--in this case the DNA greening necklace held 1195201 beads or 1044 genes.
Officially published Dec 1 in the journal G3 (Genes Genomics Genetics) the open-access research has been available online for several weeks and drawing global attention.
Chiu teamed with scientists at UC Davis Oregon State university the China National Gene Bank and the American Museum of Natural history as part of a $5. 8 million project on the biology and management of spotted wing drosophila funded by a U s. Department of agriculture Specialty Crops Research Initiative grant
& Food Research and the University of Otago has identified the gene controlling bulb development the first step in discovering genetic markers that can be used as tools to screen conventional breeding programmes for new onion varieties with the right genetic
Longer-term strategies focus on introducing genes to the Chinese oilseed rape plants to build disease resistance.
#Genetic mutation increases risk of Parkinsons disease from pesticidesa team of researchers has brought new clarity to the picture of how gene-environmental interactions can kill nerve cells that make dopamine.
Research and professor of biology at the Massachusetts institute of technology (MIT) used skin cells from Parkinson's patients that had a mutation in the gene encoding a protein called alpha-synuclein.
The team plans to explore additional molecular mechanisms that demonstrate how genes and the environment interact to contribute to Parkinson's and other neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's and ALS.
The analysis of the Rhizophagus irregularis genome has revealed that this asexual fungus doesn't shuffle its genes the way researchers expected.
Moreover rather than having lost much of its metabolic genes as observed in many mutualistic organisms it has expanded its range of cell-to-cell communication genes
and phosphorus-capturing genes. A team led by The french National Institute for Agricultural Research (INRA and including researchers from the Department of energy Joint Genome Institute (DOE JGI) reported the complete genome of R. irregularis (formerly Glomus intraradices) in a paper published online November 25 in the journal Proceedings of the National
Among the expanded portions of its genome R. irregularis had several genes for phosphorus metabolism
They also have an abundance of genes for communication between cells via signaling proteins including small secreted effectors highly expressed during symbiosis. Plant roots send out a plethora of chemical signals
and these genes probably help AMF interact with plants picking up the signals plants pump out.
Another surprise for the research team was in the genes that govern metabolism. Obligate parasites often have broken metabolism missing some genes in critical metabolic pathway
which make them dependent on their host Grigoriev said. We did not find such genes here.
R. irregularis has retained much of its metabolic machinery unlike many other obligate parasitic organisms. It leads a double-life extracting minerals from the soil
Though it has nearly 30000 protein-encoding genes R. irregularis has lost also hundreds of genes as a result of its close association with plants.
It has also cast off most of its genes for breaking down plant cell walls a critical ability for free-living fungi that feed off dead organic matter in soils.
and exhibited extensive collinearity across the gene space species-specific genes involved in stress tolerance such as ion transport ATPASE activity transcript factor activity
When studying the adaptation mechanisms to against salt stress researchers found that several gene families likely to be involved in tolerance to salt stress contain significantly more gene copies in the P. euphratica lineage.
and found some genes involved in ion transport and homeostasis such as Nhad1 KUP3 and NCL were distinctly upregulated under salt stress.
The results which also revealed potential treatment target genes are published in the November 2013 issue of The Journal of Cancer.
Further analysis also identified several key genes which could serve as markers to follow the progress of therapy.
Previous studies had identified potential genes in L. johnsonii for producing EPS giving the researchers tools to probe how the bacteria synthesise these molecules.
Knocking out the whole cluster of EPS genes meant the bacteria produced no capsule. Further analysis of the genes by IFR Phd student Enes Dertli uncovered their potential roles in the capsule biosynthesis process
but more research is needed to fully understand the system and also how it is regulated. The structures of these two EPS molecules appear to be unique to this strain.
We found a clear reduction of E coli strains possessing typical genes for extra-intestinal pathogenic E coli (Expec) says Bednorz.
because Expec typically harbor a lot of adhesion genes that promote colonization of the mucosa. Antimicrobials are thought to promote growth in industrially grown livestock
Future research will focus on identifying the genes in the small intestine that are altered by the LPAS in order to find signaling pathways that may be targets for treatment.
Researchers discovered that simple modifications to the drug furamidine have a major impact on its ability to affect specific human proteins involved in the on-off switches of certain genes.
The proteins--known as transcription factors--regulate the expression of genes in a highly coordinated and intricate manner making them attractive targets for therapeutic drugs
When expressing the same phenotype various plant species apparently fall back on the same genes in their genotype.
The mutated gene carries the cryptic name GA20OX1. Maarten Koornneef and his colleagues from the Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research in Cologne have examined now
Using genetic crossbreeding experiments they have shown that this characteristic can be traced back to a change in the GA20OX1 gene in most of the plant specimens gathered.
This gene is especially interesting in Arabidopsis as mutations only cause the semi-dwarfism and have no further negative effects on the performance of the plants
The reason for this according to Koornneef is that Arabidopsis possesses other additional genes for gibberellin biosynthesis. These genes jump in
What changes cause Arabidopsis to switch the GA20OX1 gene off in the wild? Koornneef and his colleagues have identified six different genetic causes for the semi-dwarfism.
In addition the scientists have also found mutations that alter the reading frame of the GA20OX1 gene by removing part of the gene then lengthening the gene sequence through insertion of foreign DNA a so-called transposon.
The GA20OX1 gene is therefore one of these hot spots in the plants'genome becoming repeatedly mutated
(or COS) and other antifungals and ARL1 gene inhibitor in inhibiting the growth of mold and yeast.
The chitosan or COS and a joint inhibition of some of its gene targets block the cell cycle
and won't be around to pass on their genes the next summer.''Because small birds can't reproduce without surviving the winter they have evolved a complex set of behaviours that enables them to maximise their chance of both surviving predators
#Gene responsible for hereditary cancer found to disrupt growth-regulating cellular pathwaywhitehead Institute scientists report that the gene mutated in the rare hereditary disorder known as Birt-Hogg-Dub cancer syndrome
In the case of Birt-Hogg-Dub syndrome the mutated gene prevents mtorc1 pathway activation early in the formation of tumors.
In the early 2000s scientists determined that mutations in the gene coding for FLCN caused the rare cancer Birt-Hogg-Dub syndrome
which means that a child inheriting one mutated copy of the FLCN gene will eventually develop the syndrome.
Usually diseases are described first then the responsible gene or genes are identified and then that gene's molecular function is figured out says Tsun.
And you need to know the gene's function before you can start working on drugs or therapy.
We've done that third step which is a very important discovery for these patients.
Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research. The original article was written by Nicole Giese Rura.
#Sex determiner gene of honey bee more complicated than thoughtbee colonies consist of a queen bee lots of female worker bees and some male drones.
The gene that determines the sex of the bees is much more complex than has been assumed up until now
In these fertilized eggs the condition of the complementary sex determiner (csd) gene is of crucial significance for the creation of female workers.
If the csd gene in contrast is present in the fertilized eggs in two identical versions diploid drones develop.
A region inside the csd gene in particular represents a hot-spot with a high evolutionary rate that together with certain amino acid mutations decisively contributes to the formation of new csd alleles in the flanking regions.
With the aid of DNA markers we now know which gene is responsible for which molecular feature.
#Surprises discovered in decoded kiwifruit genomea new study that decoded the DNA sequence of the kiwifruit has concluded that the fruit has many genetic similarities between its 39040 genes
when an extensive expansion of genes arose from an entire extra copy of the genome followed by extensive gene loss.
When genes are duplicated the extra genes can mutate to perform entirely new functions that were not previously present in the organism.
The duplication contributed to adding additional members of gene families that are involved in regulating important kiwifruit characteristics such as fruit vitamin C flavonoid
They uncovered about 8000 genes that were common among all five species. The comparison revealed important evolutionary relationships including the development genes related to fruit growth ripening nutrient metabolism and disease resistance.
The basic idea of natural selection is to pass on your genes but Hamilton pointed out in an article that revolutionized the study of social evolution that you can pass on genes by helping your relatives as well as your offspring.
Hamilton predicted that organisms ought to evolve the ability to discriminate degrees of kinship more and more finely.
Genes that made them choosy would survive to future generations because the organisms would direct help to those individuals with whom they shared the most genes.
True say evolutionary biologists David Queller Phd the Spencer T. Olin Professor of Biology in Arts
But in others such as honeybee colonies the queen mates with multiple males and so there are 17 or 20 sets of paternal genes
Lifting the veil Hamilton predicted that kin recognition might reach all the way down to genes. He said it was possible that one gene might be able to detect other organisms carrying a copy of itself.
He was right. The red fire ant for example has a gene that worker offspring can recognize
and workers with this gene kill all queens that don't have it. Genes like this one are called greenbeards
because they confer an externally visible label that allows them to spot copies of themselves
much as if every man with a certain gene dyed his beard green. But what about the mother's genes and the father's genes in an embryo?
These long have been thought to lack self-identity and to be shrouded under their own veil of ignorance the assumption being that both sets of genes work for the common good.
We now know that some genes are marked as maternal or paternal through the addition of methyl groups while they are in the egg or sperm.
As a result of marking called imprinting the veil of ignorance is lifted. Considerable evidence suggests that imprinting leads to conflict between the matrigenes
and the patrigenes in the embryo Queller said. A mouse for example can mate with more than one male
It's in the interest of the father's genes to produce large offspring that compete for maternal resources at the expense of other pups.
And it's in the interest of the mother's genes that all of her offspring survive to adulthood
Not surprisingly many of the genes that are imprinted are involved somehow in growth and metabolism. The father's trying to crank up something that causes the offspring to get more
Their further analysis also provide evidence on the ancestral status of the Indian group which holds great potential for introducing new alleles into the cultivated gene pool.
In this study researchers found that the Bt locus was delimited to a 442-kb region on chromosome 5 that harbors 67 predicted genes.
They further investigated the genomic basis of divergence among the cultivated populations for identifying genes controlling important traits.
This trait is caused by the accumulation of large amounts of Î-carotene that was reported to be controlled by a single recessive gene ore.
In this study researchers discovered a key natural variation in a Î-carotene hydroxylase gene that could be used to breed cucumber with enhanced nutritional value.
#Key genes for increasing oil content in plant leaves identifiedscientists at the U s. Department of energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory have identified the key genes required for oil production and accumulation in plant leaves and other vegetative plant tissues.
Enhancing expression of these genes resulted in vastly increased oil content in leaves the most abundant sources of plant biomass-a finding that could have important implications for increasing the energy content of plant-based foods and renewable biofuel feedstocks.
The first step was to identify the genes responsible for oil production in vegetative plant tissues. Though oil isn't stored in these tissues almost all plant cells have the capacity to make oil.
but we tried to look also at different genes and enzymes said Xu. Unraveling the genesthe scientists used a series of genetic tricks to test the effects of overexpressing
or disabling genes that enable cells to make certain enzymes involved in oil production. Pumping up the factors that normally increase oil production in seeds had no effect on oil production in leaves
If you knock out (disable) the gene for an enzyme known as PDAT it doesn't affect oil synthesis in seeds
In contrast overexpressing the gene for PDAT-that is getting cells to make more of this enzyme-resulted in a 60-fold increase in leaf oil production.
if they activated the gene for oleosin along with PDAT? The result: Overexpression of the two genes together resulted in a 130-fold increase in production of leaf oil compared with control plants.
This time the oil accumulated in large clusters of tiny oleosin-coated oil droplets. Identifying the mechanismnext the scientists used radio-labeled carbon (C-14) to decipher the biochemical mechanism by which PDAT increases oil production.
Then the scientists decided to test the effects of overexpressing the newly identified oil-increasing genes (PDAT
Xu is now collaborating with Brookhaven biochemist John Shanklin to explore the potential effect of overexpressing these key genes on oil production in dedicated biomass crops such as sugarcane.
In a project which has just finished the scientists have focussed on a specific gene in pigs.
The gene SYN1 encodes the protein synapsin which is involved in communication between nerve cells. Synapsin almost exclusively occurs in nerve cells in the brain.
Parts of the gene can thus be used to control an expression of genes connected to hereditary versions of the aforementioned disorders.
The pig The SYN1 gene can with its specific expression in nerve cells be used for generation of pig models of neurodegenerative diseases like Parkinson's.
The reason scientists bring a pig into the equation is that the pig is suited well as a model for investigating human diseases.
Before the gene was transferred from humans to pigs the scientists had to ensure that the SYN1 gene was expressed only in nerve cells.
We thus attached the relevant gene SYN1 to a gene from a jellyfish (GFP) and put it into a zebrafish in order to test the specificity of the gene explains Knud Larsen.
This is because jellyfish contain a gene that enables them to light up. This gene was transferred to the zebrafish alongside SYN1
so that the scientists could follow where in the fish activity occurred as a result of the SYN1 gene.
We could clearly see that the transparent zebrafish shone green in its nervous system as a result of the SYN1 gene from humans initiating processes in the nervous system.
We could thus conclude that SYN1 works specifically in nerve cells says Knud Larsen. The results of this investigation pave the way for the SYN1 gene being used in pig models for research into human diseases.
The pig with the human gene SYN1 can presumably also be used for research into the development of the brain and nervous system in the fetus.
I think it is interesting that the nervous system is preserved so well from an evolutionary point of view that you can observe a nerve-cell-specific expression of a pig gene in a zebrafish.
It is impressive that something that works in a pig also works in a fish says Knud Larsen.
Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by Aarhus University. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.
In mammals these compounds can cause gene disruption and interfere with hormone function particularly in a developing fetus.
By fusing the genes encoding the Trxs f or m we increased the amount of recombinant protein (the albumin in this case).
Jaswinder Singh of Mcgill s Department of Plant science has identified a key gene that acts as a switch to determine how a particular plant will respond to high humidity
This switch is to be found in a key gene ARGONAUTE4 9 in the#oerna dependent DNA Methylation#pathway (Rddm.#
#oealthough in the past scientists have identified it as the pathway that regulates the way a variety of genes are expressed until now no one had made the link with PHS.#
#The Mcgill team made the discovery by using a variety of genomic and molecular tools to identify specific ARGONAUTE4 9 genes
and then compare the way that these genes are expressed in PHS resistant versus PHS susceptible varieties of wheat.#
The study#oepolymorphic homoeolog of key gene of Rddm pathway ARGONAUTE4 9 class is associated with Pre-harvest Sprouting in wheat (Triticum aestivum L.)#was published just in the journal#oeplos ONE#.
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