#Culling vampire bats to stem rabies in Latin america can backfireculling vampire bat colonies to stem the transmission of rabies in Latin america does little to slow the spread of the virus
and data from infection studies using captive vampire bats to show that culling has minimal effect on containing the virus
despite recognition of the virus and its health risks since the early 1900s To determine those persistence mechanisms Rohani
and colleagues created four mathematical models of rabies transmission each representing an alternative hypothesis for the biology of rabies infection.
and sustain the virus. The probability of a vampire bat developing a lethal infection upon exposure to rabies is around 10 percent much lower than the 50-to-90 percent mortality rate seen in previous experimental challenges studies that involved inoculating vampire bats with rabies virus
Longer-term strategies focus on introducing genes to the Chinese oilseed rape plants to build disease resistance.
Researchers identify genetic fingerprints of endangered conifersin the tropics and subtropics many evergreen conifers are endangered.
Biologists at the Ruhr-Universitã¤t Bochum (RUB) have collected the world's largest Podocarpaceae collection.
in order to generate a DNA barcode for each species. With the help of this genetic fingerprint unknown individuals can be assigned to the respective Podocarpaceae species
and often inhabited by only a few scattered individuals--unlike our native European conifer forests that cover large areas says Dr Patrick Knopf from the RUB Department of Evolution and Biodiversity of Plants.
or even impossible to identify them only by their appearance explains the RUB biologist Dr Christian Schulz.
#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.
For the first time we have used human stem cells derived from Parkinson's disease patients to show that a genetic mutation combined with exposure to pesticides creates a'double hit'scenario producing free radicals in neurons that disable specific molecular pathways that cause nerve-cell death
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.
Having access to genetically matched neurons with the exception of a single mutation simplified the interpretation of the genetic contribution to pesticide-induced neuronal death.
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.
which now appears in the December edition of Biodiversity and Conservation. This assessment is a major step towards addressing the substantial information gap regarding the conservation status of bonobos across their entire range said lead author Dr. Jena R. Hickey of Cornell University
If the stand has experienced high mortality caused by bark beetles it can be thinned more heavily without sacrificing timber biomass or volume increment and plant diversity.
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
Academy of Sciences (PNAS). The fungus is a member of the Glomeromycota family and frequently colonizes many plants important to agriculture and forestry.
This is the first sequenced genome of arbuscular mycorrhizae the type that is dominant on the planet said Igor Grigoriev one of the senior authors on the paper and lead for the Fungal Genomics Program at the DOE JGI.
In 2006 shortly after the DOE JGI sequenced the first tree genome Populus trichocarpa it became apparent that it took a village (of other organisms) to raise a poplar tree.
Rhizophagus irregularis is the next in this linage to be released by the DOE JGI it follows the ectomycorrhizal fungal symbiont Laccaria the poplar rust pathogen Melampsora and dozens of bacterial genomes.
Analysis of the R. irregularis genome also revealed several surprising details. The research team found that the genome is among the largest fungal genomes sequenced weighing in at 153 million base pairs (Mb.
For comparison the button mushroom (Agaricus bisporus) also sequenced and published by the DOE JGI has a genome of about 30 Mb.
Through several generations portions of R. irregularis's genome were duplicated invaded by repeated transposable elements famously known as'jumping genes'.
'Unlike many other fungi R. irregularis seems to lack mechanisms that can keep these transposable elements from running amok.
Among the expanded portions of its genome R. irregularis had several genes for phosphorus metabolism
which are probably responsible for its large appetite for phosphorus said Francis Martin one of the senior authors on the paper and lead for the Cluster of Excellence Advanced Research on the Biology of Tree and Forest Ecosystems (ARBRE
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.
Teasing apart the complex relationship between soil fungi and plants is likely to have an impact on improving biofuel production from plant biomass.
Through analysis of this and other mycorrhizal genomes we can help to better understand interactions
and conditions critical for a sustainable growth of bioenergy plants but also staple crops a prerequisite to help feeding the world said Martin. Story Source:
The above story is provided based on materials by DOE/Joint Genome Institute. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.
and other institutes have succeeded in unraveling the whole genome sequence of desert poplar Populus euphratica and the genetic bases underlying poplar to against salt stress.
This work provides new insights for understanding the genetic basis of tree adaptation to salt stress
and facilitating the genetic breeding of cultivated poplars for saline fields. The research results have been published online in Nature Communications.
Considering the limitation of next-generation sequencing for assembling complex genome and the high heterozygosity of desert poplar researchers used a newly developed fosmid-pooling strategy to sequence
and assemble the genome of this tree species. All the efforts yielded a high-quality genome sequence of desert poplar with high contiguity coverage
and accuracy further demonstrating the feasibility of this fosmid-pooling approach for de novo sequencing and assembly of a complex heterozygous genome.
The genome of desert poplar is very similar to that of the closely related mesophytic congener P. trichocarpa.
Researchers investigated the differences between the two genomes and suggested that P. euphratica diverged from P. trichocarpa within the last 8 to 14 million years.
Although both species shared at least two whole-genome duplication (WGDS) and exhibited extensive collinearity across the gene space species-specific genes involved in stress tolerance such as ion transport ATPASE activity transcript factor activity
and oxidoreductase activity were expanded selectively and/or positively selected in the P. euphratica genome. 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.
They also compared the P. euphratica in response to salt stress with salt-sensitive poplar (P. tomentosa)
and found some genes involved in ion transport and homeostasis such as Nhad1 KUP3 and NCL were distinctly upregulated under salt stress.
The complete genome sequencing of desert poplar revealed the underlying genetic mechanisms of poplar to against salt stress laying a solid foundation for accelerating the genetic breeding of cultivated poplars for saline and desert fields. said Junyi
Wang Project Manager at BGI Our work also demonstrate that trans-omic approach to study salt-tolerant plants is applicable on both herbaceous plant
The researcher specialized in bee genetics points out that the developed technology was published recently on INIFAP we are in process of validation using field tests with beekeepers
However hormonal effects on the immune system and interactions with carcinogenesis may offer an alternative biological explanation that will require further mechanical studies in particular
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.
and a nonnatural oxide chemistry this work provides a unique demonstration of tunable bio-enabled multimodal adhesion.
The adhesion properties of the magnetic pollen-shaped particles were analyzed then by graduate student Ismael Gomez and professor Carson Meredith both from Georgia Tech's School of Chemical and Biomolecular engineering.
Now that we know how to generate such particle replicas there is certainly more chemical tailoring that we can explore for adhesion said Sandhage who also holds an adjunct position in Georgia Tech's School of Chemistry and Biochemistry.
The research published in the journal Current Biology was supported by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) Champalimaud Foundation The Royal Society the Biotechnology and Biological sciences Research Council (BBSRC) and the Leverhulme Trust.
forest one of the world's most biodiverse ecosystems and a key indicator of global climate change.
A research team led by conservation biologist Miles Silman will launch two different drones to conduct climate research in the region giving a never-before-seen bird's eye view of one of the most difficult locations in the world to study.
and release oxygen and water said Max Messinger a biology graduate student who worked with chemistry lab manager Marcus Wright to assemble
and gain insight into how plant invasions changed over time without management said D'Antonio who also is a professor in the Department of Ecology Evolution and Marine Biology.
or ph and pollination syndromes said lead author Yelenik who earned her doctorate from UCSB's Department of Ecology Evolution and Marine Biology and now works for the U s. Geological Survey's Pacific Island Ecosystems
The study also confirms that toenail clippings are a good biomarker of long-term exposure to arsenic from consuming alcohol Brussels sprouts and dark meat fish.
Are there genetic mutations that lead to changes in this one population of neurons? Do the cell abnormalities originate in the amygdala
The autism study was made possible by patients being treated for epilepsy who underwent surgery to have implanted depth electrodes in their brains to monitor seizure-related electrical activity.
and the company has appointed Bio-Angle Vacs Sdn Bhd to manage the production and marketing of the vaccine said the Vice chancellor of UPM Prof Datuk Dr Mohd Fauzi Hj Ramlan when speaking at the ceremony.
GMP@Biotech (or FTU) a service centre under the Faculty of Biotechnology and Biomolecular Science of UPM.
Dr Fauzi said FTU which was established in 1999 is equipped now with the facilities for upstream and downstream production of biotechnological products including packaging
The FTU services centre which cost RM14 million to develop is now serving a horde of local companies like Malaysia Agriculture Hightech Stella Gen Johor Biomicrobe Pascal Biotech MVP One
Biotech for the development and production of their biotechnology products. He said Bio-Angle Vacs Sdn Bhd
and FTU were currently developing the standard operating procedure (SOP) for the mass production of the STVAC 7 vaccine using the GMP facilities of the service centre as well as product registration before marketing.
One-year-old wheat straw and new hay had the lowest levels of weed biomass compared with new wheat straw and the no-mulch control.
The experiments also proved that the thickness of the mulch affected weed control with mulches applied in two layers resulting in significantly less weed biomass than those applied in one layer.
Recently researchers at the Institute of Food Research which is supported strategically by the Biotechnology and Biological sciences Research Council found that the bacteria make coats for themselves that play important roles in colonization in this strain.
Now in research published in The Journal of Biological Chemistry the researchers present the first characterization of
what makes up this coat. This will give us a better idea of the role of the coat
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.
The above story is provided based on materials by Norwich Bioscience Institutes. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.
Erbilgin and his team which includes associate professor Maya Evenden of the Department of Biological sciences and several U of A graduate students spent the summers of 2011 and 2012 testing the efficiency of a pheromone bait that is showing promise he said.
It is unique in the genus in being the only species essentially restricted to alpine vegetation.
Species of the genus Lepidosperma commonly known as sword-sedges mostly have flattened elongate leaves that are shaped like a double-edged sword.
The genus with more than 100 species is widespread across Australia. It is of particular ecological interest
In the EU project Micromilk coordinated by the Fraunhofer Institute for Interfacial Engineering and Biotechnology IGB different partners have developed a system that enables the preservation of milk and milk products with microwaves.
However the regeneration stage for heat recovery remains unaltered. This makes the pasteurization system profitable for small dairies
The above story is provided based on materials by Fraunhofer Institute for Interfacial Engineering and Biotechnology IGB.
and provide opportunities for genetic reassortment which can enhance pathogenicity (the ability of an organism to cause disease).
and ongoing management this includes the breeding of resistant trees and development of effective bio-control systems.
One of the review authors Peter Freer-Smith who is a Visiting professor in the Centre for Biological sciences at the University of Southampton said:
Many of the benefits from woodlands and forests for example carbon storage maintenance of biodiversity and recreational use are enjoyed uncosted
which causes Chalara dieback of ash trees has the potential to defend itself against virus attacks research by British scientists has shown.
uses to defend its territory could make it more resistant to virus-based control methods. Their research findings have been published in the journal Fungal Ecology.
Professor Brasier and Dr Webber studied C. fraxinea's genetic recognition system called a vegetative compatibility (vc) system in samples of the fungus from three different UK sites Their results
This has implications for studying the biology of the fungus and for controlling its spread.
The fact that most isolates of Chalara fraxinea are incompatible with each other could mean that it might be difficult to deploy damaging fungal viruses against the pathogen as a disease control method
since viruses usually spread more readily in a fungal population when the colonies are able to fuse.
#Combating key viral livestock diseases in Ethiopiagelagay Ayelet Melesse's doctoral research reveals that there are several serotypes of the virus causing foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) and the African horse sickness virus (AHSV
) and several different hosts for these viruses in Ethiopia. His study also highlights the economic repercussions of these viruses and other viral diseases in domestic livestock.
His findings may contribute to improved strategies for controlling and combating the spread of such diseases and to increased self-sufficiency in food.
Up until now we have had limited only knowledge about the real economic consequences of these diseases their distribution types of virus
Melesse's doctoral project identified five different serotypes of the FMD virus taken from several different host animals in Ethiopia.
Prevalence of the FMD virus is related to the way the animals are kept and to the extent livestock is in contact with wild animals.
Melesse isolated several types of AHS virus and also studied the occurrence of camel pox
Melesse's doctoral research has provided us with valuable information about virus types disease distribution in relation to season and geographical region and the economic significance and risk factors for FMD LSD AHS and camel
The combination of these foods equals the bio-health compounds of each one separately. With regard to oil scientists recommend using virgin olive oil instead of sunflower oil.
biologists reportwolves likely were domesticated by European hunter-gatherers more than 18000 years ago and gradually evolved into dogs that became household pets UCLA life scientists report.
We found that instead of recent wolves being closest to domestic dogs ancient European wolves were directly related to them said Robert Wayne a professor of ecology and evolutionary biology in UCLA's College of Letters and Science and senior author of the research.
This brings the genetic record into agreement with the archaeological record. Europe is where the oldest dogs are found.
The UCLA researchers'genetic analysis is published Nov 15 in the journal Science and featured on the journal's cover.
In related research last May Wayne and his colleagues reported at the Biology of Genomes meeting in New york the results of their comparison of the complete nuclear genomes of three recent wolf breeds (from the Middle east East asia
and Europe) two ancient dog breeds and the boxer dog breed. We analyzed those six genomes with cutting-edge approaches
and found that none of those wolf populations seemed to be closest to domestic dogs Wayne said.
The UCLA biologists also hypothesized at that conference that a now-extinct population of wolves was more directly related to dogs.
The biologists studied the MITOCHONDRIAL DNA of the animals which is abundant in ancient remains. Mitochondria are tiny sub-cellular structures with their own small genome.
By comparing this ancient MITOCHONDRIAL DNA with the modern mitochondrial genomes of 77 domestic dogs 49 wolves
and four coyotes the researchers determined that the domestic dogs were grouped genetically with ancient wolves or dogs from Europe--not with wolves found anywhere else in the world or even with modern European wolves.
The idea of wolves following hunter-gatherers also helps to explain the eventual genetic divergence that led to the appearance of dogs he said.
In research published in the journal nature in 2010 Wayne and colleagues reported that dogs seem to share more genetic similarity with living Middle Eastern gray wolves than with any other wolf population
The new genetic data have convinced him otherwise. When we previously found some similarity between Middle Eastern wolves
Wayne considers the new genetic data persuasive but said they need to be confirmed with an analysis of genetic sequences from the nucleus of the cell (roughly 2 billion base pairs)--a significantly larger sample than that found in MITOCHONDRIAL DNA (approximately 20000 base pairs).
This is challenging because the nuclear DNA of ancient remains tends to become degraded. While Wayne plans to pursue this follow-up research he said he does not expect a nuclear genome analysis to change the central finding.
However he said it will fill in more of the details. This is not the end-story in the debate about dog domestication but
Losses or gains in forest cover shape many important aspects of an ecosystem including climate regulation carbon storage biodiversity
biodiversity threats from changes in forest cover; the carbon stored or emitted as a result of gains or losses in tree cover in both managed and unmanaged forests;
The study was published ahead of print in the journal Applied and Environmental Microbiology. We found a clear reduction of E coli strains possessing typical genes for extra-intestinal pathogenic E coli (Expec) says Bednorz.
The reduction was particularly noticeable in strains that adhere to the intestinal mucosa and less so in the feces)
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
In previous studies the working groups from the Institute of Microbiology and Epizootics at Freie Universitat Berlin found that feeding E. faecium probiotic did not change the general swine intestinal microbiota
The above story is provided based on materials by American Society for Microbiology. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.
or for renewable clean-burning biodiesel could result in extremely high emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2)
or indigenous areas the total amount of CO2 emissions from biodiesel made from palm oil produced in that region may exceed the carbon intensity of petroleum diesel
which biodiesel intends to replace. Focussing on the Brazilian region of Parã¡the researchers employed a bottom-up model to arrive at their conclusions
Brazil has increased drastically its production of biodiesel over the last decade. In 2006 the country produced 69 million litres of biodiesel;
today it produces close to 3 billion litres the majority of which is produced from soybean oil. Oil palm has become an increasingly attractive crop for the production of biodiesel as it has a much higher yield than other crops requires barely any new technology to produce
and harvest can grow in poor soil conditions and is very labour intensive--ideal for job creation and security.
In each of the scenarios 22.5 million hectares of land were converted creating 29 billion gallons of biodiesel each year.
if the extraction refinement transport and actual combustion of the biodiesel is taken into account and added to emissions from
either of these two scenarios the total carbon intensity of biodiesel will exceed greatly that of diesel.
Through funding from the Department of agriculture the researchers are beginning to examine the effects of viruses pesticides
Surprisingly with the addition of LPAS to the low-fat diet the UCLA team also found alterations in the patterns of gene expression in the small intestine changes in cholesterol levels (increases in LDL
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.
and lead to new treatments said Judith Gasson a professor of medicine and biological chemistry director of UCLA's Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center and senior associate dean for research at the Geffen
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
The secret of short stemsarabidopsis plants that only reach half their normal height have a mutation in the biosynthesis of the plant growth factor gibberellin.
In the wild Arabidopsis thaliana uses the same genetic changes in the biosynthesis of the growth factor gibberellin to cut its size in half as found in semi-dwarf varieties of rice
When expressing the same phenotype various plant species apparently fall back on the same genes in their genotype.
The genetic changes in the semi-dwarf rice and barley varieties of the green revolution prevent a final step in the biosynthesis of gibberellin.
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
whether Arabidopsis plants in the wild that grow to only half the height as other members of their same species also have mutated a GA20OX1 allele as the short rice
whether the same genetic causes are found for the same phenotype through natural selection in the wild as are found through the artificial selection of plant breeding explains Koornneef.
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.
These include mutations that the prevent the growth factor from being formed with the correct size mutations that replace especially important amino acids with useless ones as well as mutations that prevent the proper splicing of MESSENGER RNA prior to the protein biosynthesis
. 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.
Moreover Koornneef and his colleagues were able to show that Arabidopsis only rarely displays semi-dwarfism in the wild.
The semi-dwarf Arabidopsis plants always had different genetic backgrounds explains the geneticist and were actually related to their fellow Arabidopsis plants at the same sites.
The GA20OX1 gene is therefore one of these hot spots in the plants'genome becoming repeatedly mutated
if a certain phenotype is beneficial at least under some specific conditions. Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by Max-Planck-Gesellschaft.
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