Synopsis: 4. biotech:


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these do not biodegrade quickly. The new discovery would not only cut down on the use of oil,


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The Sundaland clouded leopard was classified as a new species through genetic studies several years ago


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the University of Maryland and the Natural history Museum of Los angeles County have compared genetic sequences from 75 different species to draw a new family tree that includes every major arthropod lineage.

after analyzing 62 shared genetic sequences across all the arthropods, the researchers are putting the strange shrimp together with the six-legged insects, Hexapoda,

a professor of biology at Duke who led the study. Triops, a 2-inch crustacean that looks like a cross between a horseshoe crab

This latest study has created a fuller picture of the arthropod family tree by using more species and more genes,

Once assembled, the 75 species were stripped then down to their DNA for a painstaking search to find genetic sequences that would appear across all arthropods, enabling statistical comparisons.

The lab of Jerome Regier at Marylands Center for Biosystems Research combed through 2 500 different combinations of PCR primers to find 62 protein-coding gene sequences that could be compared across all 75 species. Regier was an early proponent of using protein coding genes to sort out the arthropod tree,

while most other researchers were using relatively less complex analyses from the DNA found in ribosomes and mitochondria.

Earlier studies had used not as many genes or as many species, making this study about four times larger than anything done previously. more via science news Share Thissubscribedel. icio. usfacebookredditstumbleupontechnorati u


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#Agricultural Scientists Sequence Genome of Grass That Can Be a Biofuel Model Crop John Vogel of the U s. Department of agriculture (USDA) Agricultural research service (ARS) with the first wild grass to be sequenced, Brachypodium distachyon.

U s. Department of agriculture (USDA) scientists and their colleagues at the Department of energy (DOE) Joint Genome Institute have announced that they have completed sequencing the genome of a kind of wild grass that will enable researchers to shed light on the genetics behind hardier varieties of wheat and improved varieties

of biofuel crops. The research is published in the journal Nature. oeenergy security looms as one of the most important scientific challenges of this century

Education and Economics. oethis important research will help scientists develop switchgrass varieties that are more suitable for bioenergy production by identifying the genetic basis for traits such as disease resistance, drought tolerance and the composition

The research also supports the USDA priority of developing new sources of bioenergy; the brachypodium genome is similar to that of the potential bioenergy crop switchgrass.

But the smaller genome of brachypodium makes it easier to find genes linked to specific traits, such as stem size and disease resistance.

Brachypodium (pronounced bracky-POE-dee-umm) also is easier to grow than many grasses, takes up less laboratory space,

which means scientists can insert foreign DNA into it to study gene function and targeted approaches for crop improvement in the transformed plants,

said John Vogel, a lead author and molecular biologist with the Agricultural research service (ARS), USDAS chief intramural scientific research agency.

Vogel works at the ARS Genomics and Gene Discovery Research Unit in Albany, Calif. ARS geneticist David Garvin at the agencys Plant science Research Unit in St paul, Minn.

or any perennial grass as a biofuel crop is the difficulty in breaking down its cell walls,

an essential step in producing ethanol from cellulosic biomass. Brachypodium may hold the key to finding ways to produce plant cell walls that are easy to break down,

Vogel developed a method with a very high success rate for inserting genes into brachypodium.

and gave scientists worldwide free access to a draft sequence of the brachypodium genome long before the work was published formally The sequencing project was carried out through the DOE-JGI Community Sequencing Program. more via science news Share Thissubscribedel


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printed in biology textbooks for decades, explained theoretically in Science in 1997 and described in a 2000 essay in Nature as oeextended to all life forms from bacteria to whales is just plain wrong. oeactually,


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The breakthrough came after scientists at Melbournes St vincents Hospital were able to remove a section of pig DNA called the Gal gene,


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climate change and biodiversity. Exactly how these systems will be affected remains to be studied. Parker and Mcmahons paper focuses on the drivers of the accelerated tree growth.

Mcmahon is able to calculate the biomass of a tree. He specializes in the data-analysis side of forest ecology. oewalking in the woods helps

Parker and Mcmahon suggest that a combination of these three factors has caused the forests accelerated biomass gain.


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#Study Shows Genetically modified crops Can Cause Liver and Kidney Damage An environmental campaigner protesting against the grim outcome of GM CROPS.

Fresh fears were raised over GM CROPS yesterday after a study showed they can cause liver and kidney damage.

According to the research, animals fed on three strains of genetically modified maize created by the U s. biotech firm Monsanto suffered signs of organ damage after just three months.

The findings only came to light after Monsanto was forced to publish its raw data on safety tests by anti-GM campaigners.

They add to the evidence that GM CROPS may damage health as well as be harmful to the environment.

Two of the varieties contained genes for the Bt protein which protects the plant against the corn borer pest,

Dr Seralini reported in the International Journal of Microbiology. The analysis concluded: These substances have never before been an integral part of the human


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#Scientists Identify Ecuadors Yasuni National park as One of Most Biodiverse Places On earth Crowned like a king, the spike-headed katydid,

and its biodiversity. oethis study demonstrates that Yasunã is the most diverse area in South america,

600-acre Tiputini Biodiversity Station on the northern edge of the park. oethe Tiputini Biodiversity Station is home to 247 amphibian and reptile species,

Ecuador. oewhat makes Yasunã especially important is its potential to sustain this extraordinary biodiversity in the long term,


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Figs and the wasps that pollinate them present one of biologists favorite examples of a beneficial relationship between two different species. In exchange for the pollination service provided by the wasp,

and their wasp pollinators. said lead author, Charlotte Jandr, graduate student in Cornell Universitys Department of Neurobiology and Behavior,


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#Soybean Genome Sequenced: Analysis Reveals Pathways for Improving Biodiesel, Disease Resistance, and Reducing Waste Runoff Soybean, one of the most important global sources of protein and oil, is now the first legume species with a published complete draft genome sequence.

Soybean, one of the most important global sources of protein and oil, is now the first legume species with a published complete draft genome sequence.

The sequence and its analysis appear in the January 14 edition of the journal Nature. The research team comprised 18 institutions,

including the U s. Department of energy Joint Genome Institute (DOE JGI), the U s. Department of agriculture-Agricultural research service (USDA-ARS),

Purdue University and the University of North carolina at Charlotte. The DOE, National Science Foundation, USDA and United Soybean Board supported the research. oethe soybean genomes billion-plus nucleotides afford us a better understanding of the plants capacity to turn

sunlight, carbon dioxide, nitrogen and water, into concentrated energy, protein, and nutrients for human and animal use, said Anna Palmisano,

DOE Associate Director of Science for Biological and Environmental Research. oethis opens the door to crop improvements that are needed sorely for energy production, sustainable human and animal food production,

With the soybean genetic code now determined the research community has access to a key reference for more than 20,000 legume species

Jeremy Schmutz, the studys first author and a DOE JGI scientist at the Hudsonalpha Institute for Biotechnology in Alabama, said that the soybean sequencing was the largest plant project done to date at the DOE Joint Genome Institute. oeit

also happens to be the largest plant thats ever been sequenced by the whole genome shotgun strategy where we break it apart

Of the more than 20 other plant genomes taken on by the DOE JGI, those already sequenced include the black cottonwood (poplar tree and the grain sorghum,

both targeted because of their promise as biomass feedstocks for biofuels production. oethis is a milestone for soybean research

said co-author Gary Stacey, Director, Center for Sustainable Energy and Associate Director and National Center for Soybean Biotechnology,

University of Missouri. oethe genome provides a parts list of what it takes to make a soybean plant and,

more importantly, helps to identify those genes that are essential for such important agronomic traits as protein and oil content.

and his colleagues have identified more than 46,000 genes of which 1, 110 are involved in lipid metabolism. oethese genes

and their associated pathways are the building blocks for soybean oil content and represent targets that can be modified to bolster output

and lead to the increase of the use of soybean oil for biodiesel production. While biodiesel from soybean oil represents a cleaner

renewable alternative to fossil fuels with desirable properties as a liquid transportation fuel, there simply is not enough oil produced by the plant to be a competitive gasoline on a gallons-of-fuel yield per acre.

The availability of the soybean genome may provide some key solutions. oewe can now zero in on the control points governing carbon flow towards protein

and oil, said Tom Clemente, Professor, Center for Biotechnology, Center for Plant science Innovation at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln. oewith the combination of informatics,

biochemistry and genetics we can target the development of a soybean with greater than 40 percent oil content.

The availability of the soybean genome sequence has accelerated other soybean trait discovery efforts as well. For example researchers have used the sequence to zero in on a mutation that can be used to select for a line that has lower levels of the sugar stachyose,

In another effort, by comparing the genomes of soybean and corn, a single-base pair mutation was found that causes a reduction in phytate production in soybean.

Of additional importance for soybean farmers is that the genome sequence has provided access to the first resistance gene for the devastating disease Asian Soybean Rust (ASR.


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and Management journal shows that due to their genetic characteristics trees are unable to properly benefit from the lengthening growing season.

Anna Kuparinen, Docent at the University of Helsinkis Faculty of Biological and Environmental sciences, simulated forest growth from southern to northern Finland.

and this cessation of growth has been programmed in their genotype. Therefore, trees are unable to effectively follow the increasing environmental growing season.

Instead, they cease growth as dictated by their genotype. It is estimated that after hundred years from now northern forests will substantially lag behind the speed of growth that would be enabled by their environment.


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and biologists had no chance to study the rare mutation. LINK Share Thissubscribedel. icio. usfacebookredditstumbleupontechnorati p


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The team, writing in the Annals of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology, also reported another study


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Today s turkey researchers are investigating the big bird s genetic heritage and biology as part of an effort to improve several aspects of its cultivation.

In 2010 a team of researchers from numerous labs in the United states announced the sequencing of more than 90 percent of the turkey genome.

This represented a big step in turkey research, but efforts continue. Once you identify genes, the next step is to figure out what they do said

Rami Dalloul, a poultry and immunology researcher at Virginia Polytechnic institute and State university in Blacksburg. What we ve been doing for the past almost year is building upon that sequence

and trying to figure out, are there traits in the original wild bird that might be useful for today s bird?#

The researchers have been working with the genetic material from the most popular domesticated commercial breed, the broad breasted white turkey.

The genetic sequence of the domestic turkey differs from its wild turkey relatives, and can be used to illustrate differences between the animals.

then you have a good reference genome to come back to and then make a valid comparison,

Wild turkeys have a gene that makes them resistant to a type of toxic fungus sometimes found in corn and soybeans.

The domestic breed no longer carries that resistant genetic trait. If you can bring back that gene into the domestic population,

then you can have these birds again more resistant to the toxin, #said Dalloul. No natural matingeven the intended consequences of commercial turkey breeds have introduced complications.


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New zealand biologists believe that honeybees can sense the faint floral odor on the breath of people infected with tuberculosis,


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but there can be subtle morphological and genetic differences that set them apart. If the bees are so dissimilar that they can t breed with each other,

which experts suspect is caused by a combination of mites, parasites, viruses and pesticides. Bumblebees are having problems, too.


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Executioners for Virus-Builders In the future, virus-builders who get caught will have a choice. They can either go to the electric chair,


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The protein, extracted from rice plants containing human genes, could be used in hospitals to treat burns victims

and get around the need to screen for diseases such as HIV and hepatitis. Currently in the UK around 1. 6 million pints of blood are needed every year

There is also an increasing public health concern with plasma derived HSA with its potential risk for transmission of blood-derived infectious pathogens such as hepatitis and HIV.

The use of a rice seed bioreactor could provide an economical and safe approach for the production of non-animal derived compounds.#

#Dr Yang and his colleagues have developed a technique for inserting human genes into Asian rice using bacteria,

turning the plants into biological factories#that can produce proteins that are identical to those found in humans.

The latest work to introduce human genes into rice is likely to inflame opposition to GM technology further amid fears over the safety of genetically modified crops

and alarm at combining human genes with those from other species. Dr Yang said, however, that the protein produced by the genetically modified rice was identical to Human Serum albumin found naturally in Blood tests on rats also showed it did not produce any adverse reactions.


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No genetic modification was used. It s been on sale in select stores in California and Texas for the last year,


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and this has led experts to investigate methods of using pigs created with human genes, so that body parts grown in them can be harvested for use in patients without their immune systems rejecting them.


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but now a team from Germany s Fraunhofer Institute for Interfacial Engineering and Biotechnology IGB has developed a way to print capillaries with a 3-D printer.

and consumer demand will be driven by biological relevancy. We will be transitioning from a distinct set of crop options in the past to an unlimited number of food options in the future.


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My wife says it s The irish gene. A certain land hunger comes from being denied property ownership for so many generations.#


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And, while some of the corn used to produce these biofuels will be returned to the food supply (as animal feed and corn oil),


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because they are so abundant they provide at least 200kg of biomass for every human. The European commission is offering the money to the research institute with the best proposal for investigating Insects as novel sources of proteins#.


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#said Chris Todd Hittinger, an evolutionary geneticist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a coauthor of the report published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academies of Sciences.


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The biotechnology industry and its allies have pumped billions of dollars into lobbying efforts that have prevented effectively every proposal for GMO labeling from moving forward.

The detrimental impact that GMO cultivation has on our environment is widespread including creating dead zones where biodiversity is abolished all but and the contamination of heirloom and organic seeds with GMO varieties.


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In Washington, a biology professor who is studying whether pollen richer in protein makes bees healthier plans to compare urban bees protein intake with that of bees in the country.


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All things truly wicked start with an innocent lab experiment involving leftover genetic material...The hierarchy of the mustache...


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professor of microbiology at Cardiff University, sees tackling bugs such as MRSA with new plant-based products as an urgent matter.


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Meeuws and three other Dutch bioengineers have taken the concept of a greenhouse a step further, growing vegetables,


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from the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute in WASHINGTON DC, told The Sunday telegraph. The plants and vegetables were crushed probably with a mortar


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your lifestyle or genetic profile puts you at risk for at least one of them. But, as Jeff Hale learned, our fates are sealed not.


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your blood glucose levels, your blood insulin levels and the other biological responses in your body,#he said.


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Budding engineers or biologists will enjoy the Science Center of Iowa and nothing beats the clear night skies of the Iowa plains for stargazing.


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and has a growing biotechnology base, according to the city. Yokohama has nine main business districts and exports many cars and auto parts.


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and hope to be selling it in supermarkets within three years#The milk produced by the transgenic cows is identical to the human variety

The transgenic herd of 300 was bred by inserting human genes into cloned cow embryos which were implanted then into surrogate cows.


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a poultry geneticist. The company has stopped taking on new accounts. Ive tried to withhold some for the fly fishing world


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sugar and HFCS share the same biochemistry. Marion Nestle defines: Sucrose: a double sugar of 50%glucose and 50%fructose linked together HFCS:


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or genetically modified crops for rising food prices. Wall streets at fault for the spiraling cost of food. The result of Wall streets venture into grain and feed and livestock has been a shock to the global food production and delivery system.


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#USDA Outsources Biotech Crop Evaluation to the GMO Industry What kind of logic prevails when environmental impact statements on biotech crops are outsourced to the GMO industry itself?

The U s. is already cultivating 165 million acres of genetically modified crops, up 7 million acres from just two years ago.

Modified seeds and large monocultures in general, are monopolizing our nations agriculture system like never before

which will outsource environmental impact statements on biotech crops to the GMO industry. Obviously, biotech companies are thrilled with the idea#Once the industry conducts its own crop environmental impact statements

which will no doubt paint a glowing picture of each Round up Ready gem, it will present the assessment to the USDA in the hopes that they will approve the assessment.

According to Karen Batra of the Biotechnology industry Organization Oregon-based ag journal Capitol Press, Under the agencys new two-year pilot project, biotech developers would conduct their own environmental assessment of transgenic crops

Federal environmental law requires the agency to complete such reviews before deregulating biotech crops. The goal of the new pilot program is to make the process more timely and efficient

#for a biotech industry that has gained 7 million acres of crop cultivation in two years, but its scary for our food system.

because the risk of gene contamination in Oregons Willamette Valley was so great. According to Grist, Judge White warned that environmental impact statements on crops were being conducted too fast,


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Micro agronomy is based on the notion that a decentralized food growers network will lead to greater biodiversity,

and greater biodiversity will lead to a healthier supply chain to meet the hyper-individualized needs and desires of future generations.

There are many ways to infect#the world with an idea-virus, so this becomes a critical decision point.


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and evil#smelled of Smouldering opium tar, tobacco absolute, green tea, black plum, kush, ambergris accord, ambrette seed,


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#They also had lower levels of biomarkers linked to heart disease, such as C reactive-protein protein. They also shed on average 3. 3lbs (1. 5kg.

Dr Arjamandi, who presented the research at the Experimental Biology conference in WASHINGTON DC, on Tuesday,


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However, a tiny parasitic wasp from Asia known as a Trissolcus wasp#a bug smaller than a gnat#is showing promise as a possible biological control.


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by scientific studies suggesting that color additives might be linked to hyperactivity in children and other health effects.


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Fungi of the Cordyceps genus are the products of a tightly evolved arms race between hosts


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As part of their research they studied a new breed of genetically-modified sheep that carry a detective gene that causes Huntingdons in people.


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and biologists have found that when the skin is submerged for a long time the epidermis begins absorbing water.


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Later on in the discussion, they talk more about how groups of both the biotech and organic sectors should have smaller meetings,

to be the token organic representatives in a room full of biotech interests, lending credibility to this farce of a discussion


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smaller yields and crops diverted to biofuels. Volatile weather patterns often attributed to climate change are wreaking havoc with some harvests.


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as much as 10 percent of car parts that are made typically from petroleum plastics can now be made from soy-based polyurethane foams or bioplastic.#

#In fact, the 2011 Ford fiesta uses bioplastic not only in soft foam seats but also for hard plastic surfaces like the dashboard.

It will not biodegrade, but it takes less energy to make, and while the soy is growing it is taking in CO2


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plenty of real threats face many of the hundreds of bird species in Turkey#According to a biology professor at Hacettepe University in the capital city of Ankara,


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while the transgenic chickens still got sick and died when they were exposed to H5n1 bird flu,

they didnt transmit the virus to other chickens they came into contact with. Preventing virus transmission in chickens should reduce the economic impact of the disease

and reduce the risk posed to people,##said Laurence Tiley, of Cambridges department of veterinary medicine, one of the lead researchers on the study.

since 2003 and the virus has killed 306 of them. Experts say the danger is that the virus will evolve into a form that people can easily catch

and pass to one another, causing the transmission rate to soar and producing a pandemic in

Countries like China are interested in the possibility of genetic modification to protect their poultry stocks and people#

While large poultry producers could benefit from this early type of transgenic bird, smaller backyard#farmers would need to wait until scientists create birds that can be bred on small farms.

That would be a means of ensuring that the birds these small farmers bred themselves still carried the protective transgene,

the researchers introduced a new gene into them that manufactures a small decoy#molecule that mimics an important control element of the bird flu virus. The replication machinery of the virus is tricked into recognizing the decoy molecule instead of the viral genes

and this interferes with the virus replication cycle. After producing the modified chickens, they infected 10 of them and 10 normal chickens with H5n1 bird flu.

Like the normal chickens, the transgenic birds became sick with the virus, but they did not transmit the infection on to other chickens kept in the same pen with them

#even if those chickens were normal, non-transgenic birds. The study was published in Science. The researchers said they now plan to work on trying to make chickens that are fully resistant to bird flu rather than just blocking bird-to-bird transmission.


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#Genetically modified crops That Glow Green When Stressed Genetically altered Arabdopsis Thaliana plant, with green fluorescent protein (GFP) inserted near the on/off switches for anoxia and drought genes.

Cells expressing those genes glow green under a blue light (as shown. A group of University of Tennessee plant scientists has modified genetically tobacco plants

or glow in the presence of viruses, bacteria and other pathogens known to reduce crop yields,


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blamed on many factors including parasites, fungi, stress, pesticides and viruses. But most studies have focused on honeybees.

Genetic tests show that the four affected bumblebee species are inbred and other tests implicate a parasite called Nosema bombi,


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The miniature panda cow is the result of genetic manipulation. A white belt encircles the animals midsection


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Dr. Harry G. Preuss, a professor of physiology and biology at the Georgetown University Medical center


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The scientists have spent already the past two years collecting 420 genetic samples for the species#ostly from dead specimens found in the Cerrado savanna region#nd are now waiting for legal authorization to start the cloning.


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says Gene Giacomelli, a plant scientist at the University of Arizona, who directs their the Controlled Environment Agriculture Center.


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she felt a genetic craving#for Ikaria. I was not unhappy in America##she said.

health habits can be as contagious as a cold virus. By his calculation, a Framingham individual s chances of becoming obese shot up by 57 percent if a friend became obese.

People there with the same genetic background eat yogurt, drink wine, breathe the same air,


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It effectively eliminates the need for additives and many other toxic and ineffective products. Dragon Juice is one of the featured exhibitors at the Davinci Inventor Showcase,


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The production of organic food is governed by a raft of regulations that generally prohibit the use of synthetic pesticides, hormones and additives.

the environmental impact of large-scale conventional farming and the potential public health threat if antibiotic-resistant bacterial genes jumped to human pathogens.


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