Now UCLA researchers have now found that the strength of that risk depends on an individual's genetic makeup
and director of movement disorders at UCLA. Bronstein said the team also found that people with a common genetic variant of the ALDH2 gene are particularly sensitive to the effects of ALDH-inhibiting pesticides
Then the researchers found that those participants in the epidemiologic study with a genetic variant in the ALDH gene were increased at risk of Parkinson's when exposed to these pesticides.
biodiversity co-benefits into climate change mitigation strategies. Drs. Patrick Jantz Scott Goetz and Nadine Laporte describe their findings in an article entitled Carbon stock corridors to mitigate climate change
and promote biodiversity in the tropics available online in the journal Nature Climate Change on January 26.
and genetic diversity but few conservation or climate mitigation strategies take the connections between conserved lands into account.
These habitat corridors are essential for longer-term biodiversity conservation while also providing opportunities for climate change mitigation in the form of carbon sequestration
The team used a high-resolution data set of vegetation carbon stock (VCS) to map 16257 corridors through areas of the highest biomass between 5600 protected areas in the tropics.
and are important for tropical biodiversity. Part of the study focused on the Legal Amazon where the team used economic and biological information combining species richness
and endemism with economic opportunity costs and deforestation threats to prioritize optimal corridors. For Dr. Goetz Conserving tropical forests ultimately requires prioritizing the services they provide to people in a local setting.
Identifying lands locally valuable for agriculture or other high-value uses considering biodiversity and the threat of deforestation our analysis provides both maps and a framework for realistic conservation planning.
With the support of a grant from the Undergraduate Research and Creative Activities (URECA) Center Lee teamed up with Craig Hamilton an associate professor of biomedical engineering at Wake Forest Baptist Medical center
As they formulate a new modern evolutionary synthesis in part with concepts that Darwin could not have known of evolutionary biologists continue to debate the importance of the environment and plasticity on evolutionary change and the origins of the diverse forms of life On earth today.
and maintain biodiversity in agricultural systems Shelton added. Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by Entomological Society of America.
#First African study on biodiversity in genetically modified maize finds insects abundantprevious studies from China Spain
and the United states on genetically modified (GM) rice cotton and maize have concluded that the biodiversity of insects
In order to preserve ancient cities'local character and biodiversity researchers are looking to native plant species that can withstand the low water environments that are necessary in lightweight green roof design.
or direct regeneration enabled C. micronesica to sustain its status as the most abundant tree in Guam through 2002.
Researchers examined the biochemical differences between Phytophthora infestans and sister species Phytophthora mirabilis a pathogen that split from P. infestans around 1300 years ago to target the Mirabilis jalapa plant commonly known as the four o'clock flower.
and the Institute of Molecular biology of CSIC both in Barcelona and Dolf Weijers at the University of Wageningen in The netherlands unravels the mystery behind how the plant hormones called auxins activate multiple vital plant functions through various gene
or represses a specific group of genes. Some plants have more than 20 distinct auxin-regulated transcription factors.
and control the expression of numerous plant genes in function of the task to be undertaken that is to say cell growth flowering root initiation leaf growth etc.
and the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility in Grenoble Dr. Miquel Coll a structural biologist and his team analyzed the DNA binding mode used by various ARFS.
The resolution of five 3d structures has revealed why a given transcription factor is capable of activating a single set of genes
because we have revealed the ultimate effect of a hormone that controls plant development on DNA that is to say on genes. says Miquel Coll. Story Source:
and microbial biology at North carolina State university and co-author of the study. We wanted to find out what controls savanna vegetation--essentially the density of trees within the savanna
U s.-led militarized interdiction for example has succeeded mainly in moving traffickers around driving them to operate in evermore remote biodiverse ecosystems.
Helps babies struggling to breathethe first clinical study of a low-cost neonatal breathing system created by Rice university bioengineering students demonstrated that the device increased the survival rate of newborns with severe respiratory illness from 44
In 2010 a team of Rice bioengineering students invented a low-cost bubble CPAP device. The technology which costs about 15 times less than conventional CPAP machines was created as part the Rice 360â°:
when CPAP was introduced first here said Rice's Rebecca Richards-Kortum the Stanley C. Moore Professor and chair of the Department of Bioengineering and director of both BTB and Rice 360â°.
The new results span 27 years of data collected in Argentina under the direction of Dee Boersma UW biology professor with the support of the Wildlife Conservation Society the UW the Office of Turismo in Argentina
The research led by The Sheep Trust a national charity based at the University of York is the first of its kind to compare the genetics of three commercially farmed breeds all concentrated in the same geographical region of the UK.
Scientists worked with hill farmers to explore the genetic structures of Herdwicks Rough Fells and Dalesbred breeds locally adapted to the harsh conditions of mountains and moorlands.
The study published in PLOS ONE discovered that Herdwicks contained features of a'primitive genome'found previously in very few breeds worldwide
Herdwicks and Rough Fell sheep both showed rare genetic evidence of a historical link to the ancestral population of sheep on Texel one of the islands in the Wadden Sea Region of Northern europe
The coming together of the genetic evidence with historical evidence of Viking raiders and traders in the Wadden islands and adjacent coastal regions suggests the folklore is right
and Dalesbred each showed a lower than average risk of infection to Maidi Visna a virus causing a slow-acting disease affecting millions of sheep worldwide with massive welfare and economic impacts.
These new data provide evidence to support suggestions that the native hill breeds are less susceptible to the virus. Mainstream agriculture is looking to locally adapted breeds of livestock to increase resilience to new pressures from climate change
The study demonstrates the potential these breeds offer in providing novel genetic traits that may help sheep farming in the future.
She said This is an important start to show policy makers just how important the genetics of these breeds may be.
If the breeds are lost we lose forever the opportunities offered by this crucial biodiversity. Amanda Carson a vet and Secretary of the Herdwick Sheep Breeders Association added:
We all hope the results will help to convince Government of the importance of the genetic distinctiveness of these breeds.
The interdisciplinary effort involved evolutionary biology biomechanics and mechanical engineering. The research was funded in part by National Science Foundation grants.
which allows us to assess the biomechanical characteristics of very different bats. Adaptation shaped by natural selection is the key mechanism that explains diversity
if these limits may arise through natural selection that is not solely focused on the biomechanics. Distribution of hypothetical species based on snout length and width.
My goal as a scientist is to uncover the evolutionary forces that have shaped biodiversity says Dr. Dá
whether the studies pertained to plant pathology fertility management pest control or sweet corn breeding and genetics.
#Single gene separates queen from workersscientists have identified how a single gene in honey bees separates the queens from the workers.
A team of scientists from Michigan State university and Wayne State university unraveled the gene's inner workings
and published the results in the current issue of Biology Letters. The gene which is responsible for leg
and wing development plays a crucial role in the evolution of bees'ability to carry pollen.
This gene is critical in making the hind legs of workers distinct so they have the physical features necessary to carry pollen said Zachary Huang MSU entomologist.
Other studies have shed some light on this gene's role in this realm but our team examined in great detail how the modifications take place.
The gene in question is Ultrabithorax or Ubx. Specifically the gene allows workers to develop a smooth spot on their hind legs that hosts their pollen baskets.
On another part of their legs the gene promotes the formation of 11 neatly spaced bristles a section known as the pollen comb.
The gene also promotes the development of a pollen press a protrusion also found on hind legs that helps pack
and transport pollen back to the hive. While workers have these distinct features queens do not.
and silencing Ubx the target gene. This made the pollen baskets specialized leg features used to collect
because the gene is expressed more highly in hind legs compared to front and mid legs. Besides honey bees which aren't native to North america there are more than 300 species of other bees in Michigan alone.
The presented their research at the 2014 ASM Biodefense and Emerging Diseases Research Meeting. Multiple sclerosis (MS) is an inflammatory disease of the central nervous system characterized by blood brain (BBB) permeability and demyelination a process in
They also tested samples of local foods for the presence of C. perfringens and the toxin gene.
and 2. 7%were positive for the epsilon toxin gene. Linden says these findings are important
The above story is provided based on materials by American Society for Microbiology. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length h
if current trends continue according to a study published today in the journal Global Change Biology.
and their interaction with genetic susceptibility says Jason R. Richardson associate professor in the Department of Environmental and Occupational Medicine at Robert Wood Johnson Medical school and a member of the Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences
Patients with a version of Apoe gene (Apoe4) which greatly increases the risk of developing Alzheimer's
and high blood levels of DDE exhibited even more severe cognitive impairment than the patients without the risk gene.
and how the chemical compound interacts with the Apoe4 gene Richardson says. Although the exact cause of Alzheimer's disease--with five million Americans suffering now and millions more expected to fall prey with the graying of the Baby boom Generation--is known not scientists believe that late-onset Alzheimer's may be linked to a combination of genetic environmental and lifestyle factors.
Much of the research into Alzheimer's and other neurodegenerative diseases has mostly been centered on finding genetic connections Richardson says.
This study demonstrates that there are additional contributors to Alzheimer's disease that must be examined and that may help identify those at risk of developing Alzheimer's says Richardson.
Wonsuk Daniel Lee's study published in the January issue of the journal Biosystems Engineering could eventually help Florida's $9 billion-a-year citrus industry.
Lee a UF agricultural and biological engineering professor used an algorithm to find immature citrus in photos taken under different light conditions
or inactive chemical commonly used as a pesticide additive--is highly toxic to honeybee larvae.
and most recently at Columbia University where he's now an associate professor of biological sciences and physics.
Sahin collaborated with Wyss Institute Core Faculty member L. Mahadevan Ph d. who is also the Lola England de Valpine professor of applied mathematics organismic and evolutionary biology and physics at the School of engineering and Applied sciences
D. a professor of microbiology and immunology at Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of medicine. The researchers reported their work yesterday in Nature Nanotechnology.
Specifically he had characterized how moisture deforms materials including biological materials such as pinecones leaves and flowers as well as human-made materials such as a sheet of tissue paper lying in a dish of water.
And the broad team of researchers--Pauli tapped entomologists limnologists and bacteriologists--found the algae in samples taken from the stomachs of three-toed sloths.
The committee is likely to approve these tablets which will mark great improvement in the fight against allergy said allergist Michael Foggs MD president of the American College of Allergy Asthma and Immunology (ACAAI.
The above story is provided based on materials by American College of Allergy Asthma and Immunology (ACAAI.
and BGI the world's largest genomics organization jointly announced today that they have completed the genome sequencing of water buffalo
Considering the importance of buffalo and realizing the need of genomic research for its improvement Lal Teer Livestock took a great effort for The Whole Genome Sequencing of Water buffalo in collaboration with BGI since March 2012.
The joint efforts yielded a high-quality water buffalo genome with the size of about 2. 77gb slightly smaller than human genome.
There are 21550 protein coding genes found in total. Researchers compared buffalo genome with other mammals'such as cattle horse panda pig
and dog for discovering more genetic characteristics of water buffalo and providing guidance for its breeding and industrial transformation.
We are pleased to form partnership with Lal Teer Livestock to decode this important animal said Professor Jian Wang President of BGI BGI is dedicated to using genomics technology to benefit human beings
and we have contributed to the sequencing of many critical crops and livestock including rice maize soybean potato pigeonpea pig and sheep.
Seedlings were assessed for number and biomass of cluster roots plant size and growth and foliar phosphorus levels.
Based on biomass and chemical analyses four dominant factors were identified: soil P soil N foliar P and seedling age.
The number of cluster roots was significantly higher in large seedlings yet biomass investment in cluster roots was greater for small seedlings.
The biotechnology potential of these traits is being studied now Piper says. Piper's research clarifying the mechanism of seedling establishment success for E. coccineum in conditions with limited availability of N
Researchers at the University of Zurich's Centre for Evolutionary Medicine have discovered that the population of the medieval town of Dalheim had a similar genetic predisposition for milk digestion to present-day Germans and Austrians.
As children get older the lactase gene is disabled gradually which means that no lactase is formed
However at least five populations in Europe Saudi arabia and East Africa have developed genetic mutations independently that allow them to produce lactase throughout their entire lives a condition known as lactase persistence.
and that genetic lactase persistence may have been common in Central europe earlier than in Eastern europe. Undoubtedly a number of factors played a role in the prevalence in different regions such as different food
Subsequent research has revealed that lactase persistence is actually the abnormal condition resulting from the recent evolution of specific genetic mutations in certain populations.
He along with Katie Hinde in Harvardâ##s Department of Human Evolutionary Biology Abigail Carpenter K-State graduate student and John Clay with Dairy Records Management Systems collaborated on the study
and engineering analyses to identify the targets of natural selection researchers report in the current issue of Evolution that the new tool opens a way of discovering evidence for selection for biomechanical function in very diverse organisms
and of reconstructing skull shapes in long-extinct ancestral species. Evolutionary biologist Elizabeth Dumont and mechanical engineer Ian Grosse at the University of Massachusetts Amherst with evolutionary biologist Liliana Dá
As the authors point out adaptive radiations that is the explosive evolution of species into new ecological niches have generated much of the biological diversity seen in the world today.
The engineering model allowed us to identify the biomechanical functions that natural selection worked on. Some form or function helps an animal to perform better in its environment
Biophotonics expert Priscilla Simonis a researcher at the University of Namur and lead author of the Optics Express paper was intrigued by the ability of polar bears to insulate their bodies to temperatures of 37 degrees Celsius (98.6 F
#Ancient forests stabilized Earthâ##s CO2 and climateuk researchers have identified a biological mechanism that could explain how the Earthâ##s atmospheric carbon dioxide
The results are published now in Biogeosciences an open access journal of the European Geosciences Union (EGU.
and assess how they were broken down and weathered by the fungi associated with the roots of the trees. â#As reported in Biogeosciences the researchers found that low atmospheric CO2Â acts as a â#carbon starvationâ##brake.
The study Changes in the regional abundance of hemlock associated with the invasion of hemlock woolly adelgid was published recently in the journal Biological Invasions.
Losing trees in the South results in less genetic variation for hemlock he said. Nonnative forest insects like the hemlock woolly adelgid are devastating on many levels
Co-author Dr Darren Evans a conservation biologist at the University of Hull said This work could have been done by paying research assistants to travel the country and collect records
Unlike some other citizen science projects that use biological records submitted by members of the public for long-term monitoring the Conker Tree Science project set out to test two specific hypotheses over the course of a year.
Scientists from Brown University and the Marine Biological Laboratory have shown that the peak in forest greenness as captured by digital pictures does not necessarily correspond to direct measures of peak chlorophyll content in leaves
Biogeosciences. The use of digital photography to study how forests change has increased in recent years.
I was surprised to see all the different birds that are using these agricultural fields--especially during spring migration said Kelly Vanbeek a wildlife biologist at the Wisconsin Department of Natural resources who conducted the study while a graduate student at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Tittel is the J. S. Abercrombie Professor in Electrical and Computer Engineering and a professor of bioengineering.
#Meet the rainforest diversity policea new study has revealed that fungi often seen as pests play a crucial role policing biodiversity in rainforests.
'To see if they play a role in promoting rainforest biodiversity we sprayed plots with Ridomil Goldâ
'The findings show that fungi play a vital role in maintaining the biodiversity of rainforests preventing a few highly competitive species from dominating.
and bats--are much more likely to succeed in the long run according to the U-M researchers who provide an overview of the recent Latin american coffee rust epidemic in a paper published online Jan 22 in the journal Bioscience.
what has been effectively autonomous biological control of coffee rust. A movement back toward more shaded systems with minimal application of agrochemicals might be an appropriate recommendation for coffee farmers in the region.
Vandermeer is a professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and at the School of Natural resources and Environment.
and the habitats that they utilize said Ray Semlitsch Curators'Professor of biological sciences in the College of Arts and Science at MU.
Semlitsch and fellow researcher Grant Connette a graduate student in the Division of Biological sciences chose to study a forest area in the southern Appalachian mountains that has the highest diversity of salamanders in the world.
Most conservation biologists study the pattern of change within a species--for example how they decline
so they can make informed decisions about conservation and biodiversity. Their research Life history as a predictor of salamander recovery rate from timber harvest in southern Appalachian forests U s a. was published in Conservation Biology.
Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by University of Missouri-Columbia. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.
Kellenberg worked with UM Associate professor Mark Hebblewhite from the Wildlife Biology Program and graduate students Joseph Ramler and Carolyn Sime.
The study featured in Conservation Biology provides a readily transferable method for conservation planners trying to anticipate how agriculture will be affected by such adaptations.
Functional proteins in human milk are essential for key biological functions such as immune system development explains Ruige Wu from the A*STAR Singapore Institute of Manufacturing Technology.
In fact genetic data has shown that the ability of adults to produce the enzyme lactase has evolved only within the last ten thousand years under strong natural selection.
This week in the journal Molecular biology and Evolution Oddnã Sverrisdã ttir of the Evolutionary Biology Centre at Uppsala University and colleagues have taken us a little closer to answering this question.
and Beijing China report their findings in mbio the online open-access journal of the American Society for Microbiology.
The routine screening of bees for frequent and rare viruses resulted in the serendipitous detection of Tobacco Ringspot Virus
whether this plant-infecting virus could also cause systemic infection in the bees says Yan Ping Chen from the U s. Department of agriculture's Agricultural research service (ARS) laboratory in Beltsville Maryland an author on the study.
The results of our study provide the first evidence that honeybees exposed to virus-contaminated pollen can also be infected
when they move from flower to flower likely spreading the virus from one plant to another Chen adds.
Notably about 5%of known plant viruses are transmitted pollen and thus potential sources of host-jumping viruses.
which edits out errors in replicated genomes. As a result viruses such as TRSV generate a flood of variant copies with differing infective properties.
One consequence of such high replication rates are populations of RNA VIRUSES thought to exist as quasispecies clouds of genetically related variants that appear to work together to determine the pathology of their hosts.
These sources of genetic diversity coupled with large population sizes further facilitate the adaption of RNA VIRUSES to new selective conditions such as those imposed by novel hosts.
Israel Acute Paralysis Virus (IAPV) Acute Bee Paralysis Virus (ABPV) Chronic Paralysis Virus (CPV) Kashmir Bee Virus (KBV) Deformed Wing
Bee Virus (DWV) Black Queen Cell Virus (BQCV) and Sacbrood Virus (SBV) are known other causes of honeybee viral disease.
or weak TRSV and other viruses were more common in the weak colonies than they were in the strong ones.
TRSV was detected also inside the bodies of Varroa mites a vampire parasite that transmits viruses between bees while feeding on their blood.
The increasing prevalence of TRSV in conjunction with other bee viruses is associated with a gradual decline of host populations
The above story is provided based on materials by American Society for Microbiology. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.
There are many reasons including genetics why people prefer certain foods so we should be cautious until we test them properly in randomised trials and in people developing early diabetes.
The researchers Gemma Baron Dr Nigel Raine and Professor Mark Brown from the School of Biological sciences at Royal Holloway worked with colonies of bumblebees in their laboratory and exposed half of them to the pesticide.
#Modified proteins as vaccines against peach allergya research conducted by the Centre for Plant Biotechnology
and Genomics (UPM-INIA) and led by Araceli DÃ az Perales has studied the allergy to peach the most common food allergy and the Pru p 3 protein.
Each variant has a different modification that was designed by using genetic tools. Although the 1 variant (Pru p 3. 01) showed quite similar allergenic activity with the natural protein the variants Pru p 3. 02 and Pru p 3. 03
#How a versatile gut bacterium helps us get our daily dietary fiberuniversity of British columbia researchers have discovered the genetic machinery that turns a common gut bacterium into The swiss Army knife of the digestive tract--helping us metabolize a main
This newly discovered sequence of genes enables Bacteroides ovatus to chop up xyloglucan a major type of dietary fibre found in many vegetables--from lettuce leaves to tomato fruits.
About 92 per cent of the population harbours bacteria with a variant of the gene sequence according to the researchers'survey of public genome data from 250 adult humans.
They contain two copies of each chromosome. Male honey bees known as drones on the other hand are haploid
and contain only one chromosome set. The haploid susceptibility hypothesis predicts that haploid males are more prone to disease compared to their diploid female counterparts
because dominant genes on one chromosome copy have the op-portunity to mask mutated genes on the other copy in diploid organisms.
#Bigheaded fossil flies track major ecological revolutionsimon Fraser University's Bruce Archibald and Rolf Mathewes are part of a team of biologists including Christian Kehlmaier from Germany's Senkenberg
and increasing biodiversity during the formation of new ecosystems says Archibald. Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by Simon Fraser University.
stronger cotton fiberan international collaboration with strong Aggie ties has figured out how to make a longer cotton fiber â#information that a Texas A&m University biologist believes could potentially have a multi-billion
Pepper a plant biologist at Texas A&m since 1995 acknowledges that the cotton plants developed in the project technically are modified genetically organisms (GMOS) a controversial subject.
A major criticism of GMOS Pepper notes focuses on cases where genes from other species â#even bacterial ones â#have been added to an organism to achieve a desired trait.
For instance the agricultural giant Monsanto adds a gene to cotton that makes it resistant to Roundupâ
and the weed killer to farmers. â#oewhat weâ##re doing is a little differentâ#Pepper said. â#oeweâ##re not actually adding in a gene from another species. Rather weâ##re knocking down the effect of one
of the genes thatâ##s already in the plant. â#Like human and animal eyes plants also have photoreceptors that pick up information about the environment.
Using a genetic cross between a long-fiber plant and a short-fiber plant then zeroed in on a region of the genome that sat directly on top of one the phytochrome genes.
They then used a technique called RNA interference to â#oeknock downâ #or interfere with expression of that gene Pepper said. â#oethis was pure basic science seeking to understand the biological function of a geneâ#Pepper said. â#oeand sure enough the phytochrome â#knock-downâ##plants had all these phenotypic
changes associated with it and one of them was longer fiber. â#The discovery was especially important to Ibrokhim Abdurakhmonov the lead author of the study who received his masterâ##s degree in plant breeding from Texas A&m in 2001
and biosecurity of cotton production is pivotal for the Uzbekistan economy because agriculture accounts for 24-to-28 percent of the countryâ##s gross domestic productâ#said Abdurakhmonov who also serves as director of the Center of Genomics and Bioinformatics at the Academy of Sciences of Uzbekistan
which is located in the capital Tashkent and part of the Ministry of Agriculture and Water Resources. â#oethe increased value of longer and stronger lint at 10 cents per pound would be at least $100 per acre more income from the lint for each
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