Coding in Biological News

Krumlauf Lab demonstrates modulation of gene expression by protein coding regions

... expression utilize methods that exclude protein coding domains. Our group has now discovered that protein coding regions can also play a role in modulating gene ... we now understand that regulatory input from coding regions needs to be considered, our findings have ...

Medicare coding for maggots and maggot therapy

... Services (CMS) have just issued reimbursement coding guidelines for medicinal maggots and maggot ... CPT Assistant (Vol 18, Issue 9, page 11), the coding advisors wrote: ". . . . [CPT code] 97602 may ... were quite sympathetic to the requests for better coding and processing of insurance claims for maggot ...

Researchers develop new self-training gene prediction program for fungi

... Markov Model to pinpoint the boundaries between coding sequences (exons) and non-coding sequences ... defined parameters breaks the sequence into coding and non-coding regions. With this information, ... each time detecting a larger set of true coding and non-coding sequences that are used to further ...

MED-EL's new MAESTRO

... The OPUS Speech Processors offer two new sound coding strategies that make hearing the fine details of ... used to make this conversion is called a sound coding strategy. During the past two decades, cochlear implant sound coding strategies have only been able to represent one ...

Gene regulation, not just genes, is what sets humans apart

... have looked for significant differences in the coding regions of genes relating to neural system ... differences between these species in the coding regions that govern the immune system, the sense of smell and the manufacture of sperm, but the coding regions of neural-related genes had shown very ...

CSHL scientists find a new class of small RNAs and define its function

... fact that they do not "code" for proteins, and are physically smaller than coding RNAs. In the small RNA group selected by the CSHL scientists for further ... human disease. "Unless we obtain much more information about non-protein coding sequences of the genome and learn how various functional elements in the ...

Evolution of fruit size in tomato

... expression. It also revealed that there were no changes in the protein coding region of the gene but rather the mutation consisted of an insertion in the first intron, which is a non-coding sequence embedded within the protein coding sequence. Although introns are not part of a gene's protein code and are ...

How what and how much we eat (and drink) affects our risk of cancer

... drinkers risk for breast cancer. We found that variations in two genes coding for the alcohol dehydrogenase enzyme increase the risk of breast cancer ... that the gene sequence variations we observed are not located directly in coding regions, but they may be associated and inherited together with other ...

Scientists find a fingerprint of evolution across the human genome

... genetic fingerprints, even on regions of the DNA that are not involved in coding for the final protein. They estimate that such fingerprints affect at ... for some letters across intron regions, and the opposite preference in coding regions. Together, these regions make up at least a third of the genome, ...

Is DNA repair a substitute for sex?

... of changes into the gene pool that sex usually does. (For example, a gene coding for brown eyes may repair a gene coding for blue eyes on its paired chromosome, and end up turning the blue-eye ...

Tiny genetic differences have huge consequences: McGill researchers

... mystery of how a relatively small number of differences within DNA protein coding sequences could be responsible for the enormous variety of phenotypic ... in the way we look, grow, and behave just by the handful of these protein coding differences. Majewski and his colleagues have demonstrated that the ...

Singapore National Science and Technology Awards

... for Infocomm Research invented the Advanced Audio Zip, a flexible audio coding tool that is capable of compressing any music file (such as a CD track) to ... "For their outstanding contributions to advancement in digital audio coding technologies, adopted as an international standard for audio compression ...

DNA template could explain evolutionary shifts

... pair during normal cell division, resulting in the duplication or even triplications of individual genes or the rearrangements of single exons (the coding region of genes). "This phenomenon occurs throughout the genome," said Dr. Feng Zhang, a postdoctoral associate in Lupski's laboratory and the ...

Scientists uncover mode of action of enzyme linked with several types of cancer

... Inhibiting this mechanism could be key to developing effective therapies to treat cancer. Each human cell contains, in its nucleus, all the coding instructions necessary to direct the cell's activities. A complete set of those instructions is referred to as a genome. Cancer cells are capable of ...

Continuous glucose monitoring technology -- special issue of Diabetes Technology and Therapeutics

... documentation, coding, and appeal procedures for use of CGM to improve insurance coverage, in the article, "Maximizing Reimbursement through Correct coding Initiatives." In the commentary entitled, "Continuous Glucose Monitoring: Understanding Our Current Culture," Irl Hirsch, MD, from the University ...

Fujitsu PalmSecure LOGONDIRECTOR Integrates with Passlogix v-GO Access Accelerator Suite

... single sign-on solution -- shortens implementation and payback cycles by adapting to any existing infrastructure without the need for custom coding or replacing legacy hardware or software. Passlogix is headquartered in New York City with offices throughout the United States, United Kingdom and ...

Genetic switch potential key to new class of antibiotics

... small, meaning its economical and elegant design accomplishes more function than expected for an RNA of this size. The mRNA exhibits not only genetic coding ability but also contains its own switch to shut off the decoding process. The current structural study found that in contrast to other riboswitches, ...

MIT: How you feel the world impacts how you see it

... ] "Aftereffects were once thought to reflect fatigue in the brain circuits," said Konkle, "but we now know that pools of neurons are continuously coding motion information and recalibrating the brain to its sensory environment. Our neurons are not tired, they are constantly adapting to the world ...

Fujitsu PalmSecure LOGONDIRECTOR Integrates with Passlogix v-GO Access Accelerator Suite

... single sign-on solution -- shortens implementation and payback cycles by adapting to any existing infrastructure without the need for custom coding or replacing legacy hardware or software. Passlogix is headquartered in New York City with offices throughout the United States, United Kingdom and ...

The genetics of fear: Study suggests specific genetic variations contribute to anxiety disorders

... a very strong physiological fear response to picture A, participants with a longer version of the gene did not. In addition, a variation in the gene coding for the COMT enzyme was associated with fear extinction - volunteers with this particular variant were able to very quickly overcome their fear while ...

CSHL researchers pinpoint structure-building role for 2 non-coding RNAs

... Harbor, N.Y. Most of the DNA in the nucleus of each of our cells is converted into RNA, but only a small fraction of these RNA molecules serve as coding templates for the synthesis of proteins. Of the remaining RNAs, known as "non-coding" RNAs (ncRNA), the functions of a scant few are known: they ...

New potential therapeutic target discovered for genetic disorder -- Barth syndrome

... cardioskeletal muscle disease resulting in muscle weakness and fatigue in patients. The debilitating disorder is caused by a mutation in the genetic coding of tafazzin, an enzyme of the cardiolipin pathway. Cardiolipin is an essential lipid in the inner membrane of mitochondria responsible for normal ...

New data suggest 'jumping genes' play a significant role in gene regulatory networks

... negative selection during most of mammalian evolution," Haussler said. "We believe that this five percent is, therefore, likely to be functional." coding exons and structural RNA genes stand out because of their distinctive pattern of base substitutions and "indels"--the insertions and deletions of ...

High CO2 boosts plant respiration, potentially affecting climate and crops

... trends continue. These were compared to plants grown at ambient CO 2 levels (380 ppm). The results were striking. At least 90 different genes coding the majority of enzymes in the cascade of chemical reactions that govern respiration were switched on (expressed) at higher levels in the soybeans ...

Molecular mechanism of anaphylactic shock decoded

... cause the typical symptoms of an anaphylactic reaction. "In the genetic mouse model, we showed that surprisingly, selective suppression of the genes coding for the G proteins Gq and G11 in vessel walls protected the animals from the most severe anaphylactic reactions", stated Professor Offermanns. Now ...

Our unconscious brain makes the best decisions possible

... to the left or right. For instance, when the test consisted of a few dots moving to the right within the jumble of other random dots, the neuron coding for "rightward movement" would occasionally fire. As the test continued, the neuron would fire more and more frequently until it reached a certain ...

Leeds research points to new therapy for hepatitis C treatment

... C virus (HCV), say researchers from the University of Leeds. A study of a protein called p7, has revealed that differences in the genetic coding of the protein between virus strains - known as genotypes - alter the sensitivity of the virus to drugs that block its function. The p7 protein ...

The Burnham buzz

... Enzyme May Hold the Key to Muscular Dystrophy A mutation in the gene coding the protein dystrophin has long been known to be associated with muscular dystrophy, but the role the protein plays in the disease was unknown. ...

Researchers solve piece of large-scale gene silencing mystery

... of target genes. Using a hybrid of two species of Arabidopsis, the plant version of a lab rat, Pikaard's team knocked down expression of genes coding for products that prior research had suggested might be involved in silencing. By knocking these suspects down one by one and assessing whether ...

Powerful online tool for protein analysis provided pro bono by Stanford geneticist

... ProPhylER ( http://www.prophyler.org ), which Sidow has been working on since 2002, will enable a researcher studying a protein, or the gene coding for it, to more easily figure out how it works and whether something might go wrong if the gene has a mutation. "Whether you're a cell biologist, ...

Study identifies genetic variants giving rise to differences in metabolism

... of common diseases and gene-environment interactions. The team identified four single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) located in genes coding for well-characterized enzymes of the lipid metabolism. Individuals with different genotypes in these genes have significantly different metabolic ...

Research-based undergraduate course expands beyond Washington University

... their fosmids to high quality standards. The second component of the course is annotation, the construction of "gene models" that distinguish coding regions of the DNA from noncoding regions. In eukaryotes such as humans and fruit flies, only a small percentage of the genome contains instructions ...

A scientific breakthrough on the control of the bad cholesterol

... results in a major increase in LDL-cholesterol and familial hypercholesterolemia. Conversely, in people with a non-functional mutation in the gene coding for PCSK9, a decrease in its activity brings down the LDL-cholesterol concentration levels in the bloodstream and diminishes by up to 88% the risks ...

Research consortium to sequence turkey genome

... the first time, the comparison of the information contained in two bird genomes. This will allow us to look for similarities and differences in the coding and non-coding portions of the genomes." Bruno Sobral, executive and scientific director of VBI, noted: "This project showcases how VBI's ...

New gene-silencing pathway found in plants

... were able to confirm that both Pol IV and Pol V are necessary for silencing by examining mutations that knock out, or disable, the different genes coding for the polymerases. 'Junk' no more This research adds to a growing body of evidence suggesting that "junk DNA" is in fact a functional ...

How we see objects in depth: The brain's code for 3-D structure

... let the experimenters pinpoint the exact 3-D shape information that drove a given cell to respond. These findings and other research on object coding in the brain have implications for treating patients with perceptual disorders. In addition, they could inform new approaches to computer vision. ...

Major source of radon exposure overlooked at former Ohio uranium-processing plant

... records did not include work locations, so to accurately evaluate radon exposure levels the UC researchers developed a complex worker-location coding system to place employees at specific sites across the plant. They also used a specialized plastic film to measure radon exposure at the various ...

Fitness in a changing world

... freshwater lakes (especially in the far north) become iced over, limiting the prey items available to stickleback throughout most of the winter. coding for the lateral plates was initially determined to have a relatively simple genetic basis with one gene identified as a major contributor, ...

Early-stage gene transcription creates access to DNA

... the blueprint of a cell's DNA is first communicated and paves the way for RNA to deliver their specific pieces of protein-synthesizing genetic coding essentially flicking the switch that activates the gene. Hoffman and his colleagues examined how the yeast cell senses its cellular environment ...

Study finds genetic variant plays role in cleft lip

... nonhuman DNA to predict potential regulatory sections around the gene in question. Regulatory sections are separate from, but affect, the protein coding sections of genes. Regulatory sections are generally highly "conserved," meaning they have not changed much over evolution. However, one of the ...