Gene-test regulation Personal-genetics company 23andme announced on 30 Â July that it was seeking approval from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for its genetic tests related to health
making this the first long-term study of maize containing these specific genes. About a dozen long-term studies of different GM CROPS have failed to find such stark health effects2.
The team tweaked the protein-producing genes, not to alter the sequence of the human protein,
This in turn alters the way a gene is expressed2. Once a bee is a queen or worker,
"What is exciting is that the genes that change back are the same genes that changed in the other direction initially
Gene Robinson, a bee researcher at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, who was involved not in the research,
Like that responsible for the 2009 pandemic, the new strain, known as Sw/1204, is a'triple-reassortant'virus that is, one with genes from avian, swine and human flu.
the researchers used specific constraints such as membership in the same genus to identify where species would most likely be placed in the tree.
Numerous fossils of the genus have been found but, as is typical with mammals, they have all been survived teeth that owing to the presence of protective enamel.
Van Eenennaam says that she might do better by disrupting the genes that lead to horns,
which is caused by mutations in a gene on the X chromosome and eventually leads to paralysis and death.
And in pigs, scientists have used an enzyme called a TALEN2 to scramble a gene that would normally help remove cholesterol.
RNA interference (RNAI) and TALENS are more accurate at targeting the gene in question than are earlier genetic engineering techniques.
They tried replacing the gene encoding beta-lactoglobulin with a defective form, but this proved nearly impossible
because the techniques available to introduce foreign genes into animal genomes were not precise, and misplaced genes failed to express themselves correctly.
In 2006, scientists at Agresearch in Hamilton, New zealand began to experiment with molecules that interfere with the MESSENGER RNA go-between that enables translation of a gene into protein.
In mice, they discovered a short chunk of RNA, called a microrna, that targeted beta-lactoglobulin MESSENGER RNA directly to prevent its translation.
mutations are introduced often that render the targeted gene nonfunctional.""The TALEN technology is staggeringly easy, quick,
His team used TALENS to disrupt genes encoding low-density lipoprotein (LDL) receptors. Without these receptor proteins to remove cholesterol-containing LDLS from the blood,
along with genetically engineered pigs with genes added or deleted to mimic human diseases.""Making such pigs has got increasingly easier as knowledge of the genome increases,
of 112 gene variants that might be involved in human diseases. Knowledge of the genome is also allowing scientists to try to engineer pigs that could be the source of organs,
and researchers hope to create transgenic pigs carrying genes that deceive the immune system of recipients into not rejecting the transplants.
early knowledge about the pig genome led to the discovery in 1991 of a gene involved in porcine stress syndrome, in
It then became possible to test for the gene and select pig stocks free of it.
has identified a region on one chromosome that affects levels of virus in the blood during infection5.
Archibald, who works on PRRS, says that the high-quality genome sequence should help investigators zero in on the genes responsible.
which genes were involved in the selection of desired traits such as a longer spine to give more bacon on different continents."
He named one new genus he had created Exserohilum for the prominent protuberances called hila (the belly buttons of the fungal and botanical world) on its spores.
The modus operandi of one species in this genus-E. rostratum--was to infect a plant and in some cases precipitate tissue death.
South Pacific coconut gene bank under threatthe international collection of the South Pacific's coconut palm species,
held at a field gene bank in Papua new guinea (PNG), is under threat from a disease outbreak close to the gene bank.
The deadly disease, Bogia Coconut Syndrome, is threatening the survival of a gene bank of region's most important tree
PNG was selected as the site for the gene bank in the 1990s because the country was relatively free of coconut pests and diseases.
In an attempt to contain the disease, movement of coconuts and coconut palms, both from the gene bank and for commercial reasons,
But these restrictions are preventing the gene bank from fulfilling one of its key roles:
The gene bank holds 3, 200 coconut palms, representing 57 different varieties of Cocos nucifera, and is one of five international coconut collections around the world.
We are also planning to duplicate the gene bank in another country. The crisis is at least providing an opportunity to rethink the strategy for regional coconut conservation
For example, we are exploring a concept called'polymotu'using small islands as gene banks by planting them with one or two varieties.
some of the varieties are kept not in any other gene banks and will need to be collected again from the field.
The zombies'bites are synchronized near noon (possibly cued by clock genes in the fungus) and usually occur in a north-northwestern orientation.
Gene-patent justice The US Supreme court said on 30 Â November that it would reexamine the question of
whether human genes are patentable. The move is the latest in a three-year legal battle between Myriad Genetics, a diagnostics company in Salt lake city
and BRCA2 gene variants linked to inherited breast and ovarian cancer. See go. nature. com/jbqdxl for more.
At the Federal Rural University of Rio de janeiro in Brazil, Valdir Diola is working to isolate resistance genes in coffee
Gene families, cell-signalling networks and patterns of gene expression in comb jellies support ancient origins as well.
For example, Moroz and his team found that comb jellies grow their nerves with unique sets of genes."
and a leader on the Mnemiopsis genome project, says that comb jellies are the only animals that lack certain genes crucial to producing microrna short RNA chains that help to regulate gene expression.
sponges and comb jellies lack other gene families that all other animals possess2, 3. If comb jellies evolved before sponges,
which genes you use and which animals you include, says Gert WÃ rheide, a molecular palaeobiologist at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich in Germany.
Early patents on gene-use restriction technologies later rebranded as terminator technology by activists opposed to them described a genetic modification that switched on production of a toxin that would kill off developing plant embryos.
what Kelly calls a gene-guard technology: a genetic tweak that makes production of the desired chemical dependent on a proprietary additive,
Patents owned by Monsanto required the insertion of three different genes into the plant genome.
they will need also to find A y chromosome to make a male bucardo and then stitch that into the cloned DNA.
and swap genes with each other. Flu viruses have eight genes: two that encode the haemagglutinin (H) and neuraminidase (N) proteins that stud the surface of the virus,
and six that code for internal proteins. In the three human cases, the genes coding for the internal proteins seem to come from H9n2 viruses a class that is endemic in birds,
including poultry, in Asia and elsewhere. More specifically, the sequences appear similar to recent H9n2 viruses found in China and South korea.
The gene for the N protein, says Tashiro, seems to be similar to avian H11n9 viruses that were found in South korea in 2011;
The gene for the H protein especially critical, because this protein allows the virus to bind to host cells seems to belong to a Eurasian group of H7 avian flu viruses.
Vosshall s team genetically engineered A. aegypti mosquitoes to lack the gene orco, which makes a protein that helps build the receptor molecules that sense many smells.
because mosquitoes without the gene are attracted still to humans. A more probable scenario is that DEET jams a mosquito s sensory system
so a chemical that targets the gene could help to keep pests away from economically important crops."
The insect genus with the longest known life cycles, Magicicada has confounded scientists for centuries. In 1665, the first volume of Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society included a report from New england concerning"swarms of strange insects,
Gene Kritsky, an entomologist at the College of Mount St joseph in Cincinnati, Ohio, says that nymphs seem to count the number of times that trees set their leaves in the spring;
plans to follow up those results with several genetic studies, including sequencing the RNA transcripts of genes that are active at different stages in the cicada life cycle.
In fact, the strains lack a gene found in modern strains of P. infestans that overcomes the plant s resistance genes.
evolutionary geneticists at the University of Copenhagen, looked more closely at such genes after sequencing the nuclear genomes of five herbarium strains of P. infestans.
In unpublished work, the team identified numerous genes that differ between the historical samples and modern strains, including many disease genes that were missing from the famine strains.
Their work also suggests that P. infestans may have been exported to Europe more than once during the famine."
In 1989, the salmon were engineered to overexpress a growth-hormone gene. The result: Aquadvantage fish that grew to full size in around 18 Â months rather than the usual 3 Â years.
but the team discovered that many of the same genes that drive penis growth in ducks continued to be expressed strongly in chickens.
and on sequencing viral genes. In August, a team led by Douglas  Marthaler, a scientist at the University of Minnesota s Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory, will publish the sequence of a virus genome taken from a Colorado farm.
But a global analysis of 455 crop wild relatives has found that 54%are underrepresented in gene bank collections
 but they are threatened because of habitat loss as well as gene flow from domesticated plants through cross-pollination, says Paul Gepts, a plant breeder at the University of California,
The team then spent two years scouring gene banks, herbaria and museums to document what is housed currently in collections
Ehsan Dulloo, head of conservation at Bioversity International, an agricultural-research organization in Rome, says that securing samples for placement in gene banks is important to protect species from destruction by natural calamities or war, for example.
Myriad back in court One month after the US Supreme court invalidated gene patents held by Myriad Genetics of Salt lake city, Utah,
the company has sued two competitors for infringing different patents on tests for the cancer-related genes BRCA1 and BRCA2.
then filed another the following day against Gene by Gene in Houston, Texas. Both firms had announced that they would provide BRCA testing in the wake of the Supreme court ruling (see Nature 498,281-282;
"Once we release these genes into the field, we should just assume that they are going to stay in the environment
which swap genes to form versions that can spread to chickens and to humans. Better surveillance of Chinese bird populations is needed to monitor the emergence of dangerous viruses such as H7n9,
The scientists think that those viruses swapped genes in domestic ducks before spreading to chickens, where they traded genes with a common chicken virus, H9n2.
A gene with a role in horn growth explains his fertility and his longevity, finds a study of sheep on a remote Scottish isle.
the genes underlying the trait should have become ubiquitous, says Susan Johnston, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Edinburgh, UK,
Two years ago, Johnston s group reported that a single gene, RXFP2, explains horn variability in the sheep (S. Â E. Â Johnston et al.
) One version of the gene, Ho+,is linked to large horns; another allele, Hop, is associated with small ones.
In the latest study, published in Nature, Johnston s team related the RXFP2 genes of 1, 750 sheep to three factors:
horn size, reproductive success and lifespan (S.  E. Johnston et  al. Nature http://dx. doi. org/10.1038/nature12489;
) Males with one or two copies of the Ho+allele had the biggest horns. They fathered twice as many lambs as those with two copies of the short-horned allele,
averaging 3 (versus 1. 6) each year, says Johnston. But where lifespan was concerned, rams with two copies of Hop had an edge,
compared with a 61%chance for those with two long-horned alleles. The scientists found that rams with one version of each allele (heterozygotes) had the best of everything:
they were horned big, fecund and long-lived. And this explains why short-horned rams persist.""I m just impressed by the simple elegance of this story,
scientists will need to study the gene: in humans and mice, it is involved in sexual development and bone density.
In 1999, they finally produced a tasty variety that contained the Vf defence gene, bred in from an unappetizing relative.
Even armed with modern breeding techniques and 15 Â known defence genes in the apple family
instead used a gene gun to fire DNA-coated gold particles into plant cells. Some of that DNA is incorporated then into the genome.
is trying to use genes from grape varieties to engineer a wine grape that is resistant to Pierce s disease a condition caused by a bacterium that has made it difficult to grow wine grapes in the state.
even though these offspring no longer contain the engineered gene. Mackenzie thinks that the transgene triggered an epigenetic change:
"The flip side is that they are so powerful you can engineer multiple genes at one time.
He notes that Agrobacterium inserts genes more efficiently than the gene-gun method. Although zinc-fingers are appealing for their specificity
in spite of the fact that the genes he introduced came from other apples. This was used because he Agrobacterium to insert the genes it did not matter to regulators that no trace of Agrobacterium DNA remained in his plants.
Schouten is perplexed. If he had used a gene gun, he would have inserted DNA haphazardly and in a manner more likely to damage other sites in the genome yet this remains the unregulated method."
"To me, this is a very strange system, he says
Genetically modified crops pass benefits to weedsa genetic-modification technique used widely to make crops herbicide resistant has been shown to confer advantages on a weedy form of rice, even in the absence of the herbicide.
Missouri typically involves inserting genes into a crop s genome to boost EPSP-synthase production.
The genes are derived usually from bacteria that infect plants. The extra EPSP synthase lets the plant withstand the effects of glyphosate.
Biotechnology labs have attempted also to use genes from plants rather than bacteria to boost EPSP-synthase production
creating second-generation hybrids that were genetically identical to one another except in the number of copies of the gene encoding EPSP synthase.
"If the EPSP-synthase gene gets into the wild rice species, their genetic diversity, which is really important to conserve,
 The study also challenges the public perception that genetically modified crops carrying extra copies of their own genes are safer than those containing genes from microorganisms."
Myriad, a medical diagnostics company in Salt lake city, Utah, sued Ambry in July for infringing patents that Myriad holds on tests for cancer-associated mutations in the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes.
Ambry replied that Myriad s patent claims were invalid in light of a June ruling by the US Supreme court that human genes cannot be patented (see Nature 498,281-282;
CIAT geneticists are trying to isolate the brachialactone genes, to introduce them into crops such as wheat or rice.
Help might also come from genes that encourage faster uptake of nitrogen. Arcadia Biosciences, based in Davis,
California, has taken a gene for an enzyme called alanine amino  transferase from barley and incorporated it into other crops to encourage them to absorb nitrogen before microbes do.
African rice with this gene produced the same yield as controls, using only half the fertilizer.
the researchers found that bacteria from humans had more diverse collections of resistance genes than those in local livestock.
This indicates that local livestock cannot be the sole source of the resistance genes found in the strains found in humans.
he explains that it does not eliminate the possibility that resistance genes from local farms
Mark Woolhouse, an epidemiologist at the University of Edinburgh, UK, says that the study clarifies how pathogens and drug-resistance genes spread."
We ve mobilized the genes from algae that make some of these oils and put them into oilseed crops.
In Asia, pine-wood nematodes spread with the help of Japanese pine sawyer beetles (in the Monochamus genus). The worms enter the respiratory system of hatching beetle pupae in the trunks of diseased trees
Amborella is the only species in its genus, family and order.""Phylogenetically, it s really the equivalent of the duck-billed platypus and monotremes, says Claude depamphilis, a plant evolutionary biologist at Pennsylvania State university in University Park, who co-led researchers on the Amborella Genome Project.
for instance, have between two and six copies of each chromosome. But the duplication in Amborella predates all the other polyploids,
and expansion of flowering plants by providing an extra copy of each gene for evolution to play around with to yield new functions,
The origin of flowers the defining features of angiosperms might be explained by a collection of genes that appeared
About one-quarter of the genes involved in flowering lack obvious counterparts in the genomes of gymnosperms,
and study families of genes in other plants, including crops, he says. Depamphilis team also surveyed the genetic diversity of Amborella,
and researchers are experimenting with putting its resistance genes into the Cavendish. The resulting transgenic specimens have been in field trials for 18 Â months on contaminated ground in Australia,
and introduce into a crop a single gene for a coveted trait such as salt tolerance,
researchers can use a slew of interacting genes that comes pre-integrated in a living organism,
but progress in introducing new genes through genetic manipulation has been slow. Despite decades of research, only one drought-tolerant genetically modified crop has been approved in the United states:
which expresses a stress-response gene from bacteria. Although symbiotic plant-microbe relationships such as those of the nitrogen-fixing bacteria that live in the roots of legumes have been known for many decades,
and which are crucial to figuring out the origins of gene sequences and the timing of those events, are flawed all,
Worobey and his colleagues analysed more than 80,000 gene sequences from flu viruses isolated from humans, birds, horses,
pigs and bats using a model they developed to map evolutionary relationships between viruses from different host species. The branched tree that resulted showed that the genes of the deadly 1918 pandemic virus are of avian origin.
instead that the viral genes circulated in humans and swine for at least 2 to 15 years before the pandemic and combined to make the lethal virus. Gavin Smith, an evolutionary biologist at Duke-NUS Graduate Medical school at the National University of Singapore,
notes that it identified an avian relationship for two genes in the 1918 virus, but not for six genes,
as the latest study has done. Worobey's study is highly persuasive, says Oliver Pybus, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Oxford, UK."
bringing an influx of genes (see Wolf island). But project scientists say that the opposite is more likely:
and provided a rare boost of genes that doubled the population by the mid-2000s.
John Vucetich/Rolf Petersonjohn Vucetich, co-leader of the project and an ecologist at Michigan Technological University in Houghton, says that the need for an influx of genes is becoming urgent.
while any male offspring will carry the deadly gene just as their fathers did. Over time this should bring down local olive fruit fly population dramatically.
The added genes are similar to the ones that appear in Oxitec's mosquitos which the company has tested in Brazil bringing down one town's dengue-fever-carrying mosquito population by 96 percent.
The group is concerned also about GM maggots living for some time in olives before their genes kill them off.
The deadly genes should only work in flies unlike pesticides which affect many insect species including ones people may be interested in protecting such as pollinators o
A new study found that a single gene called callee oocyan is responsible for the odd coloration of these blue chicken eggs.
This EAV-HP retrovirus is responsible for inserting that weird gene the one that turns the chicken eggs blue.
-but the changed genes simply have been passed down from bird to bird-essentially creating a new breed.
Therefore their blue egg gene originated in South america not England d
#Pollinating Bees Are The Pesticide Deliverymen Of The Futurehere's another reason to pay attention to dwindling bee populations:
Mutation breeding is considered not genetic engineering which puts genes from one species into another species. Genetic engineering can be a quick
In addition the weird biology of bacteria means that they are able to easily share genes with one another further spreading antibiotic resistance.
<i>-and therefore imprinting the urge to eat grease in our genes -<i>.Here's a thought.
and common sense you'll quickly find yourself out of the gene pool: Science without religion is lame religion without science is blind.
Using animals as a method of seed dispersal is actually a useful form of mutualism âÂ#Âthe plants get to spread their genes
During meiosis combinations of the parents'genes are broken up and reconfigured into novel arrangements in the resulting sperm and egg cells creating new gene combinations that might be advantageous.
Shouldn't natural selection favor animals that forgo draining displays and genetic roulette and simply clone themselves?
Bdelloids have foreign DNA from bacteria and fungi in their chromosomes which is a great way to maintain genetic diversity.
My genes are awesome. Mating displays during periods which coencide with elevated testosterone do have the effect of removing the veil the immune system places over the genes
but that just improves the method of selection from the same group of flamboyent animals.
One key concept to keep in mind is that chromosomes are physical entities and how these are given to the offspring is in a large way
Chromosomes can be thought of as beads of genes on a string of DNA and in an organism capable of having sex the sister chromosomes (one from each parent) are separated off
and packaged into the sperm or egg cells. The key point being that by having redundancy (in the form of two slightly different copies of each bead on the sister chromosomes) the effects of both good and bad mutations can be moderated
and this encourages diversity by reducing the selective pressures on the current generation. In this way it follows that organisms that have sex have the freedom to'make evolutionary mistakes'in terms of mutations
-but also that a great gene arising on a chromosome with loads of rubbish genes won't be found guilty by association.
That is to say the great gene won't be erased immediately from record with the death of the organism-as it would be with an asexual organism with only a single copy of a chromosome
and no good genes on another chromosome able to compensate the bad ones. Obviously no one really knows exactly what'nature's thinking'is
According to a study in this week's PLOS Genetics it's not the genes that matter it's how they're expressed.
University college London's Judith Mank and her colleagues found dominant and subordinate males had profound differences in the way their genes were expressed.
Compared to their subordinate counterparts the attractive dominant males showed higher expression of masculine genes predominantly found in males
and lower expression for genes mostly found in females. So genetically they have more masculine traits and fewer female traits.
or squash gene for Vitamin a in rice is to them a sinister act. For countless generations civilization has used selective breeding
There are technologies like terminator-genes but those are equally dangerous.@@Wonder you have to be a farmer in the Philippines
and bacteria to deliver the genes into the corn so that it can produce Delta Endotoxin.
For this reason GMOS that have the Bt gene are compatible with biological control programs
if the modified gene can have complications 1000x generations down the line. Why would the government pass a bill to protect Monsanto
Just add a few beef genes here and there another bag full of bread genes. Coffee-sized machines 3d-print algae foodstuffs-precursor so we can handle the texture-hurdle. z=textstyle-frac {3}
For example fish genes have been placed in tomatoes human genes in tobacco bacteria in corn and viruses in squash and fruit.
If an inkjet could print genes Boland thought perhaps the same hardware could print other biomaterials.
and they can be used to deliver genes and growth factors to developing cells. But as in the case of polymers they can introduce foreign materials into the body and cause inflammation.
Overtext Web Module V3.0 Alpha
Copyright Semantic-Knowledge, 1994-2011