#New tree of life traces evolution of a mysterious cotinga birdsthey are some of the brightest loudest oddest-looking least-understood birds on the planet.
No previous attempts to understand the evolutionary history of this group have included genetic samples from nearly all the existing species. Berv began sequencing DNA samples
what is applied typically to genetic data Berv says. We ran our data through more traditional types of analyses as well
Salinity plays role in insect grazingtwenty years ago biologists Kathy Boyer and Joy Zedler then researchers at San diego State university speculated that too many insects feeding on cordgrass in the marshes of San diego bay could endanger the grass
and Zedler left off SDSU biologist Jeremy Long is currently further exploring the dimensions of this relationship.
Compensating for consumptionthere's an idea in plant biology called the'compensatory continuum hypothesis 'whereby plants can compensate for grazing by growing more
and quality of cereal and bioenergy cropsa team of scientists led by Thomas Brutnell Ph d. director of the Enterprise Rent-a-car Institute for Renewable Fuels at the Donald Danforth Plant science Center have developed a new
way of identifying genes that are important for photosynthesis in maize and in rice. Their research helps to prioritize candidate genes that can be used for crop improvement
and revealed new pathways and information about how plants fix carbon. The findings published in Comparative analyses of C4
and C3 photosynthesis in developing leaves of maize and rice on October 12 2014 in Nature Biotechnology also made public a mathematical model enabling access to datasets comparing C4 photosynthesis traits
the sugars that are important to producing next-generation biofuels. Our research focuses on understanding complex network interactions in grasses with a goal of engineering C4 traits into C3 grasses
The technologies that our team developed to identify regulatory genes that enhance photosynthesis in C4 crops can be extended to identify control points for other processes including nitrogen and phosphate efficiency as well as a plant's response to environmental stresses like heat
and biomass of emerging bioenergy feedstocks such as miscanthus and switchgrass and that can be applied to improve food security and major cereal crops.
and technology to better understand important genes and genomes for a variety of significant crops using model plants.
The regulatory genes that impact photosynthesis are critically important for enhancing growth and yield and improving carbon capture in both food and bioenergy crops said Mockler.
Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by Donald Danforth Plant science Center. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.
Journal Reference e
#Want whiter teeth? Fruit mixture is not the answercan you ditch the strips and dump the dentist for whiter teeth?
Retrieving small genomes from a mix of organismsscientists from the IZW led by Alex Greenwood publish in PLOS ONE a simple way to retrieve small genomes from a mix of various organisms.
Which viruses infect the elephant? Which type of bacteria causes severe lung disease in European brown hare?
Molecular biological analyses of tissue samples always confront scientists with the same problem: how to retrieve the genome of a specific pathogen from a mixture of DNAS in a patient and its microbial cohabitants?
Very easily says Alex Greenwood from the German Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research.
Analysis of the sequences and comparison with reference data demonstrated that the complete mitochondrial genome of the rodents had been retrieved from the DNA pool.
It is therefore possible to yield plenty of genetic information with just a tiny fragment.
In fact entire mitochondrial genomes and almost the entire genome sequence of a bacterium were obtained when specifically tested for the efficiency of the by-catch principle.
Capflank opens doors to completely new possibilities e g. in the genetic analysis of pathogens. We can use short preserved gene sequences to yield the genome
(or at least large sections of it) from pathogenic variants of influenza viruses for example or from completely new pathogens explains Greenwood.
As their next task his team wants to retrieve simple and well characterised DNA VIRUSES such as the elephant herpes virus.
The Capflank-method is suited even for heavily fragmented ancient DNA extracted from animal bones from museum collections.
From the intestinal bacterium Escherichia coli contained in a human urine sample the scientists retrieved 90 per cent of the genome in one go.
Blood count and serum biochemical parameters remained similar and were within normal ranges. The change in oxidative status was the same regardless of yogurt or fermented milk consumption.
#How deadly MERS virus enters human cellscornell University researchers have uncovered details of how the deadly Middle east respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-Cov) enters host cells and offer possible new avenues
The researchers Gary Whittaker Cornell professor of virology and Jean Millet a postdoctoral associate in Whittaker's lab suggest that blocking furin at a specific point in the host cell entry process could lead to a treatment
by preventing the virus from getting into cells where it uses the cell's reproduction mechanism to make new viruses.
after a new virus is assembled inside a host cell when the virus makes its way out of the host cell to the cell surface
and again when the released virus finds a new cell and is taken up into the membrane.
This is the first characterization of a natural coronavirus with a spike protein containing two furin cleavage sites said Millet the paper's first author.
One way viruses mutate is by changing the protease they use for activation. This study shows how flexible coronaviruses are in terms of cleavage activation strategies said Millet.
The researchers suspect that a MERS-Cov in camels may have mutated two and half years ago allowing the virus to infect humans.
At present the virus does not spread easily between people except during hospital-acquired outbreaks. Societies in North africa and the Middle east have strong cultural connections to camels where there are a lot of activities that expose people to raw camel products--milk urine
The first kidney transplant in Utah using an organ from a donor with hepatitis C. The first en bloc kidney where two pediatric kidneys were transplanted into one adult.
Unfortunately its root causes remain elusive though progress has been made Talalay says in describing some of the biochemical and molecular abnormalities that tend to accompany ASD.
because bacteria-based biofertilizers constitute an alternative to conventional chemical fertilizers that are expensive and less sustainable from the environmental point of view.
and pesticidesthe aim of biofertilizers is to complement and where appropriate replace conventional chemical fertilizers
and biofertilizers produced in an artisanal way by local farmers compared with commercial biofertilizers and conventional chemical fertilizers to increase productivity in poor soils
The final step will be to test the effectiveness of the biofertilizers under actual field conditions.
Having beaver on the landscape creates a lot of biodiversity. Since 1991 the number of beavers has begun to decrease Johnston pointed out.
#Balancing birds and biofuels: Grasslands support more species than cornfieldsin Wisconsin bioenergy is for the birds.
Really. In a study published today in the journal PLOS ONE University of Wisconsin-Madison
whether corn and perennial grassland fields in southern Wisconsin could provide both biomass for bioenergy production and bountiful bird habitat.
These grassland fields can also produce ample biomass for renewable fuels. Monica Turner UW-Madison professor of zoology and study lead author Peter Blank a postdoctoral researcher in her lab hope the findings help drive decisions that benefit both birds
and biofuels too by providing information for land managers farmers conservationists and policy makers as the bioenergy industry ramps up particularly in Wisconsin and the central U s as bioenergy production demand increases we should pay attention to the ecological consequences
when UW-Madison's Carol Williams coordinator of the Wisconsin Grasslands Bioenergy Network and the DNR's David Sample approached Turner
of which are used already for small-scale bioenergy production--and 11 cornfields in southern Wisconsin. Over the course of two years the researchers characterized the vegetation growing in each field calculated
and estimated the biomass yields possible and counted the total numbers of birds and bird species observed in them.
According to Blank and Turner the study is one of the first to examine grassland fields already producing biomass for biofuels
and is one of only a few analyses to examine the impact of bioenergy production on birds.
While previous studies suggest corn is a more profitable biofuel crop than grasses and other types of vegetation the new findings indicate grassland fields may represent an acceptable tradeoff between creating biomass for bioenergy and providing habitat for grassland birds.
The landscape could benefit other species too. Because they are perennial the grassland fields can also be used year after year following best management practices that preserve the health of the soil
Our study suggests diverse bioenergy crop fields could benefit birds more so than less diverse fields.
new findings indicate grassland fields may represent an acceptable tradeoff between creating biomass for bioenergy and providing habitat for grassland birds.
By locating biomass-producing fields near existing grasslands both birds and the biofuels industry can win.
Incentives for a conservation-minded approach could be used to help offset potential differences in profit the researchers suggest.
They also add that the biomass yields calculated in the study may represent the low end of
We really can produce bioenergy and provide habitat for rare birds in the state. Story Source:
Scientists from the Department of Molecular biology and Genetics at Izmir Institute of technology in Turkey published a unique study in Hortscience that compared antioxidant traits for wild tomatoes with those of cultivated varieties.
Our work shows that wild tomato species harbor alleles that could be useful for improvement of antioxidant traits in cultivated tomato Doä anlar noted.
Data support new branch of herpesvirus familyelephants are among the most intelligent nonhumans arguably on par with chimps
In 1999 Gary Hayward of Johns hopkins university and collaborators published their results identifying a novel herpesvirus EEHV1 as the cause of Kumari's sudden death.
They now show that severe cases like this one are caused by viruses that normally infect the species rather than by viruses that have jumped from African elephants
which was their original hypothesis. Hayward's latest research appears ahead of print in two concurrently published papers in the Journal of Virology.
At the time of Kumari's death anti-zoo activists seized on the situation to call for abandoning all efforts to breed Asian elephants in zoos as they claimed that zoos were spreading the deadly herpesvirus says Hayward.
whereas some identical herpesvirus strains infected both healthy and diseased animals concurrently at particular facilities the majority were different strains
Therefore the viruses have not spread between zoos and the sources of the viruses were most likely wild-born elephant herdmates.
and wild calves and showed that the EEHV1 strains in India displayed the same genetic diversity as those in Western zoos.
The papers also provide substantial data to support the hypothesis that the EEHV collectively represent a new fourth major branch of the herpesvirus family the proposed deltaherpesvirus subfamily (Deltaherpesvirinae) says Philip Pellett of Wayne State university Detroit who wrote an invited
Pellett adds that Further scientific significance arises from the discovery of 12 new herpesviruses and identification of some new wrinkles in our understanding of herpesvirus diversity and evolution.
In these studies the investigators performed extensive DNA fingerprinting of the genetic signatures of all the known EEHV cases as well as samples of EEHV virus that were obtained from wild Asian
Because these viruses cannot be grown in cell culture we had to develop sensitive and specific PCR techniques to be able to identify
and compare the sequences of multiple segments of many different types of EEHV genomes directly from pathological blood
and EEHV7 are natural endogenous viruses of African elephants whereas EEHV1A EEHV1B EEHV4 and EEHV5 are apparently natural
and that the viruses causing disease normally do so only in their natural hosts. Close monitoring of Asian elephant calves in zoos has enabled so far lifesaving treatment for at least nine infected Asian calves says Hayward suggesting that such monitoring may ultimately enable determining why some animals become susceptible to severe disease after their primary EEHV1 infections
In another paper in the same issue of Journal of Virology Hayward et al. demonstrate that the many highly diverged species
and subtypes of EEHVS are ancient viruses that evolved separately from all other known subfamilies of mammalian herpesviruses within the ancestor of modern elephants beginning about 100 million years ago.
Philip Pellett of Wayne State university School of medicine Detroit praises both of Hayward's studies in this issue of the Journal of Virology:
The information gained in the new EEHV papers will be important for developing diagnostic tools for these viruses
The above story is provided based on materials by American Society for Microbiology. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length h
The future of freshwater biodiversity is linked inextricably to land and water infrastructure management writes N Leroy Poff of Colorado State university in his guest editorial for ESA Frontiers in
We've produced an imaging system to evaluate the root systems of plants in field conditions said Alexander Bucksch a postdoctoral fellow in the Georgia Tech School of Biology and School of Interactive Computing.
We can measure entire root systems for thousands of plants to give geneticists the information they need to search for genes with the best characteristics.
The research is supported by the National Science Foundation's Plant Genome Research Program (PGRP) and Basic Research to Enable Agriculture Development (BREAD) the Howard Buffett Foundation the Burroughs Wellcome Fund and the Center for Data analytics at Georgia Tech.
In the lab you are just seeing part of the process of root growth said Bucksch who works in the group of Associate professor Joshua Weitz in the School of Biology and School of Physics at Georgia Tech.
and collaborated with leading plant root biologists from the Lynch group to study complex root structure under field conditions said Weitz.
Data generated by the new technique will be used in subsequent analyses to help understand how changes in genetics affect plant growth.
For instance certain genes may help plants survive in nitrogen-poor soils or in areas where drought is a problem.
in order to be converted to biogas. The coast is rich with the seaweed. The city of Trelleborg estimates that its beaches host an excess of algae that is equivalent to the energy from 2. 8 million litres of diesel fuel.
or had higher levels of biomarkers of tobacco exposure had a higher prevalence of the sexually transmitted infection oral human papillomavirus type 16 (HPV-16) according to a study in the October 8 JAMA a theme issue
Carole Fakhry M d. M p h. of the Johns hopkins university School of medicine Baltimore and colleagues investigated associations between objective biomarkers reflective of all current tobacco exposures (environmental smoking and use of smokeâ less tobacco
Biomarkers of recent tobacco use included serum cotinine a major nicotine metabolite and urinary 4-(methylnitrosamino)- 1-(3-pyridyl)- 1-butanol (NNAL) a tobaccoâ specific carcinogenic metabolite.
Self-reported and biological measures of tobacco exposure as well as oral sexual behavior were associated significantly with prevalent oral HPV-16 infection.
The work is published this week in mbio the online open-access journal of the American Society for Microbiology.
The above story is provided based on materials by American Society for Microbiology. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.
since it was hitherto not possible to calculate the loss of the biomass at the forest edges and the higher emission of carbon dioxide.
According to this the percentage loss of stored biomass rises in inverse proportion to the size of the remaining rest of the forest.
or agriculture in future since the loss of biomass in these areas does not have as much of an effect.
#Natural gene selection can produce orange corn rich in Provitamin a for Africa, U s. Purdue researchers have identified a set of genes that can be used to naturally boost the Provitamin a content of corn kernels a finding that could help combat Vitamin a deficiency in developing countries and macular degeneration in the elderly.
Professor of agronomy Torbert Rocheford and fellow researchers found gene variations that can be selected to change nutritionally poor white corn into biofortified orange corn with high levels of Provitamin a carotenoids--substances
that the human body can convert into Vitamin a. Vitamin a plays key roles in eye health and the immune system as well as in the synthesis of certain hormones.
This study gives us the genetic blueprint to quickly and cost-effectively convert white or yellow corn to orange corn that is rich in carotenoids--and we can do
so using natural plant breeding methods not transgenics said Rocheford the Patterson Endowed Chair of Translational Genomics for Crop Improvement.
and the U s. Identifying the genes that determine carotenoid levels in corn kernels will help plant breeders develop novel biofortifed corn varieties for Africa
Previous research by Rocheford and his colleagues identified two genes that contribute to Provitamin a carotenoid levels in corn kernels
and assess the potential usefulness of genes associated with carotenoid levels in corn. They evaluated data sets from about 200 genetically diverse lines of corn at varying scopes of investigation--from the entire corn genome to stretches of DNA surrounding small sets of genes.
They uncovered four genes that had not previously been linked to carotenoid levels in corn kernels.
Though many genes likely contribute to carotenoid levels in corn we're pretty confident that our previous and current research has identified now several genes that are the major players Rocheford said.
Their study found that a combination of visually selecting corn with darker orange kernels and using a number of these favorable genes could be an effective way to rapidly convert white and yellow corn varieties to orange corn with higher levels of Provitamin a and total carotenoids.
We now have the genetic information needed to begin developing a major public-private sector collaboration with the goal of providing orange corn with high levels of Provitamin a to farmers throughout Sub-saharan africa he said.
The study also showed that using a more targeted approach to predicting the usefulness of a small set of genes was as effective as evaluating the whole corn genome said Brenda Owens doctoral candidate and first author of the study.
Having this smaller list of genes to select for means that we can make the improvement of carotenoid levels in corn a simpler faster process for plant breeders she said.
Their research--in collaboration with Harvestplus and the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center also known as CIMMYT--has yielded varieties of orange corn with markedly higher amounts of Provitamin a carotenoids.
The paper was published online in Genetics. Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by Purdue University.
They travel rapidly along long tubelike cells between the plant-invading fungal cell tip and the fungal cell nucleus.
This rapid communication between the point of invasion and the fungal cell nucleus enables the fungus to produce the effector proteins that help evade the plant's immune response from the moment the fungus enters the host tissue.
We have built a very strong team of researchers studying fungal biology and plant pathology. This exciting discovery by Prof Steinberg's group provides a new potential route to disease control.
'A new method developed at the Centre for Plant Biotechnology and Genomics (CBGP UPM-INIA) has shown that by the contact of a plant with a strain of the Colletotrichum tofieldiae microorganism previously isolated this plant can increase the number size
or weight of its seeds fruits and flower. Â This discovery has been protected by patent and its implementation could lead to cost savings
pageac=patente. jsp&idpatente=812) and there is an exclusive commercial patent license agreement with Plant Response Biotech S l. a spin-off company from the Universidad Politã cnica de Madrid created in 2008 that focuses
Cattle genome cracked in detailby creating a global database an international consortium of scientists has increased the detailed knowledge of the variation in the cattle genome by several orders of magnitude.
The first generation of the new data resource which will be open access forms an essential tool for scientists working with cattle genetics and livestock history.
The results are published in an article in the scientific journal Nature Genetics. It's momentous says one of the scientists behind the international effort associate professor Bernt Guldbrandtsen from the Center for Quantitative Genetics and Genomics Department of Molecular biology and Genetics Aarhus University.
Scientists from Aarhus University--the only Danish university to participate--have been part of the consortium from the start
and have enormous influence on the genetic composition and characteristics of modern cattle breeds. For example Holstein bulls in the database have fathered at least 6. 3 million daughters worldwide.
The data consist of sequenced genomes for a number of bulls and are based on new sequencing techniques.
The article in Nature Genetics describes data from 232 bulls and two cows of the breeds Angus Holstein Jersey and Fleckvieh.
Since these animals are key ancestors they carry most of the genetic variations present in the three races.
Currently the database contains genomes of more than 1200 animals of different cattle breeds but as more scientists from other countries gradually join the project there is a continual inflow of data.
Where previously only the location of the genes on the genome and some of the gene variants were known a large part of the total variation has now been identified
and the genetic types carried by new offspring can be predicted. These data can be linked to data on key attributes such as health calving fertility milk yield
and growth allowing the identification of genetic variatiants that result in differences between animals. In the past we had mapped only approximately two percent of the variation.
He is supplemented by professor Mogens Sandã¸Lund director of the Center for Quantitative Genetics and Genomics at the Department of Molecular biology and Genetics Aarhus University:
We can predict the genotypes of all animals on the basis of the resource that we have created here.
New basis for genetic work The scientists explain that the database will become the standard reference within bovine genetics.
It is a global resource that will be the basis for all bovine genetic studies for many years to come.
It opens the doors for further studies of the genetic variation of different traits and for more information and studies on the history of cattle explains postdoc Rasmus Froberg Brã¸ndum also from the Center for Quantitative Genetics and Genomics.
When we have such detailed information to build on we can more easily and effectively focus the breeding work for the benefit of livestock health welfare and production.
We have used already data from the project to identify variations in genes that are associated with both embryo death
#U s. releases 13th Report on Carcinogensfour substances have been added in the U s. Department of health and human services 13th Report on Carcinogens a science-based document that identifies chemical biological and physical agents that are considered cancer hazards for people living
Scientists have combined genetic analyses with new modeling approaches for the first time to help identify how well balsam popular trees are adapted to handle climate change.
The scientists sampled the genetic code of 400 trees from 31 locations across northern North america
and combined the genetic variations with computer modeling techniques to map how important genes differ within balsam poplar
Some will respond differently given different genetic backgrounds. It turns out that all members of a species won't react the same way to climate change.
which genes control climate adaptation and how these vary between individuals. This type of modeling of variation in genetic makeup represents an important advance in understanding how climate change may impact biodiversity.
We've developed the techniques to associate genetic variation to climate and to map where individuals may
and may not be preadapted to climates expected in the future said Fitzpatrick. It's important to know where these places are.
This gives us a way to link climate responses more closely to the biology than we were able to do previously.
The study Ecological genomics meets community-level modeling of biodiversity: mapping the genomic landscape of current and future environmental adaptation was published by Matthew Fitzpatrick of the University of Maryland Center for Environmental science and Steven Keller of the University of Vermont.
and it was shocking how few had ever been described said Noah Fierer an associate professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at CU-Boulder and corresponding author of the study.
Ramirez did her research in the Soil Biodiversity and Ecosystem Functioning Lab at CSU headed by biology Professor Diana Wall director of the School of Global Environmental Sustainability and a corresponding author on the study.
Other co-authors from CSU are soil science Professor Eugene Kelly and biology doctoral student Ashley Shaw.
Other CU-Boulder co-authors are doctoral students Jonathan Leff and Christopher Steenbock and postdoctoral researcher Albert Barberan.
The scientists also compared the belowground biodiversity in Central park to 52 soil samples taken from locations spanning the globe from Alaska to Antarctica.
The team was surprised to find that the breadth of biodiversity beneath Central park is similar to the biodiversity found across the world from the frozen Artic tundra to hot deserts and nearly everything in between.
We found all these community types just within Central park. Belowground biodiversity doesn't follow the same rules as the plants
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