Jacobs presented her research two weeks ago at the North america Congress for Conservation Biology in Missoula Mont.
but this species belonging to such a unique endemic island lineage is more special than that said Dr. Art Medeiros biologist with the U s. Geological Survey on Maui.
The patent-pending process was developed by NYU School of engineering Associate professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering Jin Kim Montclare along with Richard Bonneau an associate professor in NYU's Department of biology and a member of the computer science faculty
Montclare and her colleagues devised a method of re-engineering phosphotriesterases by incorporating an artificial fluorinated amino acid and computational biology.
In a process that married computational biology and experimentation the collaborators used Rosetta computational modeling software to identify sequences in the fluorinated phosphotriesterase protein that could be modified to increase its stability
and the research team believes that its methodology--using computational biology to identify potentially beneficial modifications to proteins--could point the way to future breakthroughs in engineered proteins.
The findings published in the Journal of Experimental Biology indicate that pollen foraging behaviour involves learning and individual decision-making
and the ability to digest milk in adulthood still visible in the genetic distribution of modern Finland which remains one of the highest consumers of dairy products in the world.
The DNA of a cattle bone shows genetic traces of the European aurochs and thus adds a further facet to the history of cattle domestication.
Aurochs of the Near east carry a maternally inherited genetic signature (mtdna) called T haplogroup. Modern cattle still carry this signature
The analysis showed that the bovine bone carried the European aurochs'genetic signature of the P haplogroup.
#Generating a genome to feed the world: African rice sequencedan international team of researchers led by the University of Arizona has sequenced the complete genome of African rice.
The genetic information will enhance scientists 'and agriculturalists'understanding of the growing patterns of African rice as well as enable the development of new rice varieties that are better able to cope with increasing environmental stressors to help solve global hunger challenges.
The paper The genome sequence of African rice (Oryza glaberrima) and evidence for independent domestication was published online in Nature Genetics on Sunday.
The effort to sequence the African rice genome was led by Rod A. Wing director of the Arizona Genomics Institute at the UA and the Bud Antle Endowed Chair in the School of Plant sciences in the UA College of Agriculture
and Life sciences with a joint appointment in the UA Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology.
Rice feeds half the world making it the most important food crop Wing said. Rice will play a key role in helping to solve what we call the 9 billion-people question.
Now with the completely sequenced African rice genome scientists and agriculturalists can search for ways to cross Asian
Carney is also a co-author on the Nature Genetics paper and her book served as one of the inspirations behind sequencing the African rice genome.
We're merging disciplines to solve the 9 billion-people question Wing said. Although it is cultivated currently in only a handful of locations around the world African rice is hardier
The African rice genome is especially important because many of the genes code for traits that make African rice resistant to environmental stress such as long periods of drought high salinity in the soils and flooding.
Now that we have a precise knowledge of the genome we can identify these traits more easily
and move genes more rapidly through conventional breeding methods or through genetic modification techniques noted Wing who is also a member of the UA's BIO5 Institute and holds the Axa Endowed Chair of Genome Biology and Evolutionary Genomics at the International Rice Research
Institute. The idea is to create a super-rice that will be higher yielding but will have less of an environmental impact--such as varieties that require less water fertilizer and pesticides.
Hardy high-yield crops will become increasingly vital for human survival as the world faces the environmental effects of climate change and an ever-growing global population he added.
what geneticists call physical maps a tool that enables scientists to understand the structure of the genome.
and donated it to the Rice Genome Project making sequencing of that complete genome possible.
Much of the evolutionary analysis of the genome was performed by Muhua Wang a UA plant sciences doctoral candidate and by Carlos Machado of the University of Maryland.
Yeisoo Yu a research associate professor in Wing's research group at the Arizona Genomics Institute led the sequencing effort.
In analyzing the 33000 genes that make up the African rice genome the researchers discovered that during the process of domestication Africans
and Asians independently selected for many of the same genetic traits in the two species such as higher nutrition
Additionally the sequenced genome helps resolve questions about whether African rice originally was domesticated in one region or in several locations across Africa.
By comparing the genome with what is known about the genetic structure of wild varieties Wing
and his team found that it's most similar to a population of wild rice species found in one location along the Niger river in Mali.
From 1998 to 2005 Wing led the U s. effort to help sequence the genome of Asian rice which is the only other domesticated rice species. Those results were published in the journal Nature in 2005
and have enabled since the discovery of hundreds of agriculturally important genes including genes that code for faster breeding cycles
and analyzing the genomes of the wild relatives of African and Asian rice. By understanding the entire genus at a genome level we have a whole new pool of genetic variation that can be used to combat pests
and plant pathogens Wing explained. One example he said would be adding disease resistance genes from all of the wild rice varieties to a species of cultivated rice creating a new super-crop that is resistant to diseases and pests.
Wing is also working with Quifa Zhang from Huazhong Agricultural University in Wuhan China to create a set of super-crop science
In November Wing and his collaborators will celebrate the 10th anniversary of the completion of the Asian rice genome
and the new completion of the African rice genome at the 12th International Symposium on Rice Functional genomics a conference that will be held in Tucson Arizona.
Sequencing of the African rice genome was made possible by National Science Foundation grants#0321678#0638541#0822284 and#1026200 to the Oryza Map Alignment and Oryza Genome Evolution Projects.
#Stress-tolerant tomato relative sequencedthe genome of Solanum pennellii a wild relative of the domestic tomato has been published by an international group of researchers including the labs headed by Professors Neelima Sinha and Julin
Maloof at the UC Davis Department of Plant Biology. The new genome information may help breeders produce tastier more stress-tolerant tomatoes.
The work published July 27 in the journal Nature Genetics was lead by Bjã rn Usadel and colleagues at Aachen University in Germany.
The UC Davis labs carried out work on the transcriptome of S. pennellii--the RNA molecules that are transcribed from DNA
Analyzing the RNA transcriptome shows which genes are active under different circumstances. The UC Davis team published a paper last year comparing the RNA transcripts of domestic tomato
Using the new genome data the researchers found genes related to dehydration resistance fruit development and fruit ripening.
They also found genes that contribute to volatile compounds related to fruit scent and flavor. The UC Davis portion of the work was supported by a grant from the National Science Foundation.
but the target of his work consists of viruses that can only be found and identified with special methods and instruments.
Benjamin Hause an assistant research professor at the Kansas State Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory at Kansas State university recently published an article about one of his discoveries porcine enterovirus G
which is an important find in the United states. We had isolated a virus in cells but didn't know what it was said Hause.
and it turned out to be porcine enterovirus G which had been described before but had never previously been found in North america.
The virus is thought to be benign and is known not to cause disease but it had only been reported before in Europe and Asia.
Fortunately porcine enterovirus G doesn't do much in pigs but it raises concerns about other viruses getting through the border Hause said.
We're not sure if this has been undetected here for some time or is a recent introduction. Coincidentally the virus was most similar to 2012 Chinese isolates
and was detected around the same time as a couple of other viruses: porcine epidemic diarrhea virus and porcine deltacoronavirus both of which were detected in China in the same time frame prior to the U s. Both porcine epidemic diarrhea virus
and porcine deltacoronavirus have caused major economic losses to hog producers in North america and are impacting several other aspects of the swine industry.
Hause has mapped these viruses at the Kansas State Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory as a way to ensure the reliability of the next-generation sequencing methods he uses to identify
As we isolate viruses we can completely sequence their genomes Hause said. We can get a good understanding of
what makes those viruses tick. Next-generation sequencing goes farther and allows us to perform metagenomic sequencing where we don't isolate the virus
. Instead we can sequence all DNA contained in a sample which includes the host DNA plus it reads all of the viruses in the sample too.
It's a universal method to detect viruses that we have adapted and applied to veterinary diagnostics.
Hause's most recent work has led to the discovery of an influenza virus in cattle.
A swine sample came in that we thought was influenza but all other tests were said negative Hause.
He worked on his porcine enterovirus G paper with Richard Hesse a diagnostic virologist at the Kansas State Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory who helped recruit Hause to the university to further develop his next-generation sequencing methodology
As a virus mutates and changes next-generation sequencing can be used to help update vaccines
Through this technology we can build a database with a collection of viruses based on where they came from and
and understand these viruses as much as possible. Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by Kansas State university.
However global demand for crops is expected also to rise rapidly during the next two decades because of population growth greater per-capita food consumption and increasing use of biofuels.
In an ongoing research project behavioral biologists at Vetmeduni Vienna are investigating how blue tits in the Viennese Forests react to light pollution.
The research by the ARC Centre of Excellence in Plant Cell walls in the University's School of Agriculture Food and Wine in collaboration with the Leibniz Institute of Plant Genetics and Crop Plant Research in Germany will be presented at the upcoming
5th International Conference on Plant Cell wall Biology and published in the journal New Phytologist. Powdery mildew is a significant problem wherever barley is grown around the world says Dr Little.
Published in this month's Biology Letters Ungulate saliva inhibits a grass-endophyte mutualism shows that moose
or even fatal for grazing animals says York U Biology Professor Dawn Bazely who worked with University of Cambridge researcher Andrew Tanentzap and York U researcher Mark Vicari
and you will pass this on to your grandchildren in the absence of any continued exposures says Michael Skinner WSU professor and founder of its Center for Reproductive Biology.
The researchers say the pesticide may be affecting how genes are turned on and off in the progeny of an exposed animal even though its DNA and gene sequences remain unchanged.
This is called transgenerational epigenetic inheritance. In recent years the Skinner lab has documented epigenetic effects from a host of environmental toxicants including DDT plastics pesticides fungicides dioxins hydrocarbons and the plasticizer bisphenol-A or BPA.
The epigenome functions like a set of switches for regulating gene expression and can be altered by environmental conditions.
and may prove to be valuable biomarkers for future research on transgenerational disease. For people exposed to the pesticide Skinner says his findings have reduced implications such as fertility increased adult onset disease
because that is what most adults use said Erika Trapl Phd lead research investigator assistant professor of epidemiology & biostatistics and associate director of the PRCHN at Case Western Reserve.
#Genome analysis helps in breeding more robust cowsgenome analysis of 234 bulls has put researchers including several from Wageningen Livestock Research on the trail of DNA variants
These are the first results of the large 1000 Bull Genomes project on which some 30 international researchers are collaborating.
They report on their research in the most recent edition of the science journal Nature Genetics.
and Genomics Centre of Wageningen UR investigated whether the genomes of all the common bulls in The netherlands can be filled with the help of these 234 bulls.
Currently these bulls have been genotyped with markers of 50000 or 700000 DNA variants. The positive results indicate the direction for further research into the practical use of genome information in breeding.
Dairy and beef cattle The project demonstrates how useful large-scale DNA analyses can be says Professor Roel Veerkamp Professor of Numerical Genetics at Wageningen University and board member of the 1000 Bull Genomes project.
He emphasises that the requirements for dairy and beef cattle are becoming ever more exacting: Until the mid nineties a cow primarily had to produce a lot of milk.
which are governed by all kinds of genes. In order to bring them together in a cow in the best
and by means of genome analysis we want to improve this further says Veerkamp. Bull genome The genome of a bull consists of 3 billion'letters'.
'In the 234 bulls studied the researchers found a total of over 28 million positions on the DNA
whether the new genome information can help to predict even better which characteristics the offspring will have.
The bull analysis presented at this time is the first phase of the 1000 Bull Genomes project a database which is planned to incorporate the genomes of a thousand bulls from all over the world.
Recently published research led by Philip T. Starks a biologist at Tufts University's School of arts and Sciences is the first to show that worker bees dissipate excess heat within a hive in process similar to how humans
and the biochemical and biophysical processes involved in the growth of forage plants such as Stylosanthes capitata Vogel a legume utilized for livestock grazing in tropical countries such as Brazil.
and biomass of the plant said Carlos Alberto Martinez project coordinator and first author of the study.
After cultivating the plants with these temperature differences for 30 days the researchers measured photosynthetic energy dissipation and conducted aboveground biochemical and biomass analyses.
and a 16%increase in aboveground biomass production compared with plants grown at normal temperature according to Martinez The increase in temperature during the period of the experiment was favorable for the development of the biochemical and biophysical processes involved in plant growth he stated.
According to Martinez some possible explanations for the increase in photosynthetic activity in addition to the leaf area index and biomass production from samples of Stylosanthes capitata that experienced temperature increases were the plant's thermal and photosynthetic acclimatization.
The researchers found that there was less partitioning of biomass to the leaves relative to the stem of plants cultivated under these conditions.
in the production of stems and a decrease in biomass in the leaves of the plant.
and Maine's only native rabbit after new research based on genetic monitoring has found that in the last decade cottontail populations in northern New england have become more isolated
Maintaining biodiversity gives resilience to our landscape and ecosystems said NHAES researcher Adrienne Kovach research associate professor of natural resources at UNH.
Kovach's research expands on this knowledge by using DNA analysis to provide new information on the cottontail's status distribution genetic diversity and dispersal ecology.
and New hampshire cottontails to travel the large distances between fragmented habitats necessary to maintain gene flow among populations of cottontails Kovach said.
Researchers used genetics to study the changes in New england cottontail populations and their dispersal patterns.
Researchers identified the genetic pattern of individual rabbits and used information about genetic relatedness to make estimates of gene flow.
They identified four major genetic clusters of New england cottontails in the region. A major power line connected some of these populations in the recent past--a finding
which underscores the importance of restoring suitable habitat to reconnect these populations. If we can restore more of this habitat in our landscape
This research which was funded in part by the NH Agricultural Experiment Station is presented in the article A multistate analysis of gene flow for the New england cottontail an imperiled habitat specialist in a fragmented landscape in the journal Ecology and Evolution.
The study published in the journal Global Change Biology found that: In some areas of the Indian wheat belt growers have been bringing forward their growing season
Nowak associate research professor of Biological sciences at NAU and herpetologist at the Colorado Plateau Research Station has been studying the narrow-headed gartersnake
which was listed recently as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act. She said Oak Creek is one of the few places where the snake numbers are still somewhat healthy
The second was to salvage some of the snakes to ensure we had genetic material from them in captivity
We found that some bees are working very very hard--as we would have expected said University of Illinois Institute for Genomic Biology director Gene E. Robinson who led the research.
While it is well known that genetic differences underlie differences in many types of behavior the new findings show that sometimes it is important to give individuals a chance in a different situation to truly find out how different they are from each other Robinson said.
which are produced through common biological reactions within the body and outside factors such as the sun pesticides and other pollutants Dalaly explained.
#Asian genes in European pigs result in more pigletspigs which are bred commercially in Europe are found to have varied a highly mosaic of different European and Asian gene variants.
The Asian genes in particular result in a large number of piglets in European pig breeds. In the latest issue of the science journal Nature Communications researchers from Wageningen University explain that a number of important characteristics of European pigs have Asian origins.
They previously demonstrated that the genetic diversity among commercial pigs is greater than within the existing populations of wild boar.
The pig we know today has a long history since the original independent domestication of the wild boar in Europe and Asia some 10000 years ago.
According to the researchers the genetic diversity in commercial pigs is greater than in existing wild boar populations as a result.
Chinese pigsthe Wageningen research has demonstrated that different parts of the genome of commercial pigs are much closer to Chinese pigs than to European wild boar.'
The greater genetic diversity within the current commercial pig breeds is therefore the result of crosses between European and Chinese pigs around two hundred years ago.
An example is the AHR gene of which many European pigs have the Asian version. Sows with the European gene have significantly fewer piglets than carriers of the Asian version.
Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by Wageningen University and Research Centre. Note:
For example land use in addition to tying up this valuable resource in agriculture is the main cause of biodiversity loss.
Woodrats that never ate the plants were able to do so after receiving fecal transplants with microbes from creosote-eaters University of Utah biologists found.
what biologists long have suspected: bacteria in the gut--and not just liver enzymes--are crucial in allowing herbivores to feed on toxic plants says biologist Kevin Kohl a postdoctoral researcher
and first author of the paper published online today in the journal Ecology Letters. The study of woodrats also known as packrats raises two concerns according to Kohl and the study's senior author Denise Dearing a professor and chair of biology:
The study of woodrats someday might impact farming practices in arid regions where toxic plants like creosote
human geneticist Robert Weiss biochemist James Cox and biologist Colin Dale. Evolving a Taste for Toxinsmany plants produce toxic chemicals
Though slow evolutionary genetic changes in herbivores play an important role in adapting to new diets.
In the first experiment the scientists studied the relative abundances of gut-microbe genes in two groups of the creosote-eating Mojave woodrats.
DNA was isolated from the microbes to identify genes involved in detoxification. The scientists found that a woodrat's diet determines the composition of its gut microbes.
In the third experiment the biologists essentially sped up evolution by using fecal transplants to quickly change populations of microbes living in the woodrats'guts.
and grammar--were significantly heritable with genes accounting for about 43 percent of the overall twins'deficit.
While previous behavioral genetics studies of toddlers have focused largely on vocabulary the researchers introduced an innovative measure of early grammatical ability on the correct use of the past tense
In addition to formal language tests researchers have collected genetic and environmental data as well as assessments with the twins'siblings.
Using the extensive data set researchers are able to separate the response of ozone concentrations to the changes in human activity such as biomass burning from its response to natural forcing such as El Niã o. Studies like these that investigate how the composition
and distribution of plants and animals around the globe big data has yet to make a mark on conservation efforts to preserve the planet's biodiversity.
A new model developed by University of California Berkeley biologist Brent Mishler and his colleagues in Australia leverages this growing mass of data--much of it from newly digitized museum collections--to help pinpoint the best areas to set aside as preserves
and to help biologists understand the evolutionary history of life On earth. The model takes into account not only the number of species throughout an area--the standard measure of biodiversity--but also the variation among species and their geographic rarity or endemism.
For most people species are something special but a plant like a dandelion with lots of close relatives shouldn't be counted equal to our endemic redwood
which has no close relatives said Mishler a UC Berkeley professor of integrative biology. We now have a more complex view of biodiversity that takes into account more than the number of species but also their rarity in the landscape and the rarity of close relatives.
The model which requires intense computer calculations is described inâ Nature Communications. If our goal is to preserve the tree of life
He Bruce Baldwin and David Ackerly UC Berkeley professors of integrative biology earlier this year received a $391000 three-year grant from the National Science Foundation to apply CANAPE to the state's plant databases
and identify complementary areas of biodiversity that have unique evolutionary histories in need of conservation Mishler said.
biodiversity worthy of preservation. Use the Entire Tree of Lifemishler's model basically takes a yardstick to the limbs branches
. But genetic comparisons and molecular dating have in the past several decades provided exact lengths in years for most of these branches indicating how long ago a species had a common ancestor.
That wealth of phylogenetic information has not yet been taken fully into account in assessments of biodiversity Misher said.
#Chromosome-based draft of the wheat genome completedseveral Kansas State university researchers were essential in helping scientists assemble a draft of a genetic blueprint of bread wheat also known as common wheat.
The International Wheat Genome Sequencing Consortium which also includes faculty at Kansas State university recently published a chromosome-based draft sequence of wheat's genetic code
which is called a genome. A chromosome-based draft sequence of the hexaploid bread wheat genome is one of four papers about the wheat genome that appear in the journal Science.
The genetic blueprint is an invaluable resource to plant science researchers and breeders said Eduard Akhunov associate professor of plant pathology
and a collaborator with the International Wheat Genome Sequencing Consortium. For the first time they have at their disposal a set of tools enabling them to rapidly locate specific genes on individual wheat chromosomes throughout the genome Akhunov said.
This resource is invaluable for identifying those genes that control complex traits such as yield grain quality disease pest resistance and abiotic stress tolerance.
They will be able to produce a new generation of wheat varieties with higher yields and improved sustainability to meet the demands of a growing world population in a changing environment.
Although a draft the sequence provides new insight into the plant's structure organization evolution and genetic complexity.
This is a very significant advancement for wheat genetics and breeding community Akhunov said. The wheat genome sequence provides a foundation for studying genetic variation
and understanding how changes in the genetic code can impact important agronomic traits. In our lab we use this sequence to create a catalog of single base changes in DNA sequence of a worldwide sample of wheat lines to get insights into the evolution and origin of wheat genetic diversity.
Akhunov Shichen Wang a programmer and bioinformatics scientist in plant pathology and Jesse Poland assistant professor of plant pathology collaborated with the International Wheat Genome Sequencing Consortium to order genes along the wheat chromosomes.
Other Kansas State university researchers in the department of plant pathology involved include Bikram Gill university distinguished professor
and director of the Wheat Genetics Resource Center and Bernd Friebe research professor who developed genetic material that was essential for obtaining the chromosome-based sequence of the wheat genome.
A second paper in Science details the first reference sequence of chromosome 3b the largest chromosome in common wheat.
The wheat genome only has 21 chromosomes but each chromosome is very big and therefore quite complicated Akhunov said.
The largest chromosome 3b has nearly 800 million letters in its genetic code. This is nearly three times more information than is in the entire rice genome.
So trying to sequence this chromosome --and this genome--end-to-end is complicated an extremely task. In order to analyze the vast amount of genetic information researchers used a technique called shotgun sequencing.
This divided the wheat genome into chromosomes and then split each chromosome into smaller segments.
Chromosomal segments were analyzed by short gene sequences and overlapping sequences were stitched together with computer software.
The chromosome-based daft sequence the critical step before the full wheat genome is sequenced Akhunov said.
The sequencing approach developed for the 3b chromosome can now be applied for sequencing the remaining chromosomes in wheat.
The consortium estimates the full genome sequence will be available in three years. The research is funded by the U s. Department of agriculture's National Institute of Food and Agriculture.
Wheat is a staple source of food for the majority of the world. As the global population continues to rapidly increase we will need all the tools available to continue producing enough food for all people in light of a changing climate diminishing land
and water resources and changing diets and health expectations said Sonny Ramaswamy director of USDA's National Institute of Food and Agriculture and a former Kansas State university faculty member.
This work will give a boost to researchers looking to identify ways to increase wheat yields.
Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by Kansas State university. The original article was written by Greg Tammen.
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