horizontal

Genome of deadly amoeba shows surprising complexity, evidence of lateral gene transfer

...ng the first systematic study of relatively recent horizontal gene transfer into a protist, scientists report evidence in the DNA sequence that E. histolytica likely picked up a significant number of its metabolic genes from bacterial co-inhabitants of the human gut. Identification of these genes sheds new ligh...

Nanoparticles offer new hope for detection and treatment

... a target for nanoparticle therapy. Melanoma has a horizontal phase, when it spreads across the skin surface, and a vertical phase, when it goes deep into the body and grows quickly. "Once melanoma has moved into its vertical phase, it is almost untreatable because by the time the tumors are large enough to de...

Researchers reveal secrets of flying snakes

... 19 performance variables, such as glide angle and horizontal speed, of the snake's flight with 16 size and behavior variables, such as mass and snout-vent length, of the animal's body. He found that body length and wave amplitude are important predictors of flight behavior, but wave frequency was not. "These ...

Researchers use 3-D imaging system to unveil swimming behavior of microscopic plankton

...ranslates to "drifting" in Greek), but only in the horizontal direction, not in the vertical. The recent develo...lowing water in the ocean is always accompanied by horizontal flows, forming a convergence, or "downwelling" zone. When zooplankton swim upward against such a dow...

Gap-climbing fruit flies reveal components of goal-driven behaviors

...ctions of the middle legs keep the body close to a horizontal position and help in reaching the other side. In the last step, the front legs stretch as much as possible to grasp the other side. In some ways, the motor programs employed by the flies show high similarity to vertebrate motor programs--for example...

3D Atlas Will Help Navigate The Spinal Cord

... first time, comprehensively depict transverse and horizontal sections, reproduce these in 3D and make some parallel observations in the human spinal cord (when tissue becomes available), thus supporting both experimental and clinical approaches. ...

Brain size may depend upon how neural cells are cleaved

...rons that are incapable of further division, while horizontal cleavage yields one neuron and one progenitor cell that can continue to support brain growth. The researchers speculate that this type of regulatory decision point may play a powerful role in determining the ultimate size of the mammalian brain. Inh...

Retina adapts to seek the unexpected, ignore the commonplace

...of grass with many vertical elements but only rare horizontal features, the retina adjusts to suppress the routi... vertical features while highlighting the singular horizontal elements. Meister and his co-authors examined neural signals in retinal ganglion cells, which conve...

Out of sight, out of mind? Not necessarily

...en, and during their momentary blindness, either a horizontal or a vertical line or a red or a green dot flashed...ked the study participants whether they had seen a horizontal or a vertical line; because their primary visual pathway had been shut down, the participants report...

Brain activity related to processing faces is similar in people with, without autism

... a left or right button. Participants were shown horizontal rows of five arrows or five faces. Sometimes all the arrows and faces were oriented in the same direction. At other times, the central arrow or face was in the opposite direction. The test with arrows alone had been used previously in studies elsew...

Novel protein complex enables survival in hostile environment

...ethanogens acquired the sulfite reduction gene via horizontal transfer from that entity," Mukhopadhyay said. Rolf Thauer, professor and head of the Department of Biochemistry at the Max Planck Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology in Marburg, Germany, and a noted authority on anaerobic microorganisms, commen...

GROWing the next generation of water recycling plants

...onsists of an inclined framework of interconnected horizontal troughs. Planted in these troughs are rows of specially chosen plants that gently cleanse the grey water. Trickling through the GROW framework, the plants' roots naturally take up the dissolved pollutants, leaving 'green water'. Green water is not dr...

Infants can organise visual information at just four months

... the stimuli were arranged by similarity in either horizontal lines or vertical columns. For example, for grouping by shape, an array of horizontal lines (or vertical columns) made up of squares and circles was used, constructed so that shape discr...

Neurons find their place in the developing nervous system with the help of a sticky molecule

...e neocortex, is recognized anatomically by its six horizontal layers. The neocortex develops outward from an underlying zone of cells. From that zone, crawling neurons migrate radially out toward the surface or "superficial" part of the developing cortex, giving rise to a laminar structure. Neurons forming lay...

How low can you go? Ants learn to limbo

... able to learn how to visually judge the height of horizontal barriers so that they can successfully crawl under...hannel. They observed the ants' reaction towards a horizontal barrier placed between the food and the ants' nest using high speed video recordings from the side. ...

Even fish don't swim well when they're young!

...speeds: the larvae cannot maintain their body in a horizontal position while coasting. The research team think this is because larvae don't have the help of an adult swimbladder and have only small, ineffective side-fins. This lack of control in early days means that the larvae suffer a lot of drag during the c...

Tetracycline plus teeth equal gray smile

... entire tooth. Other stains appear in a pattern of horizontal stripes of varying intensity. Also, during the same time period (before1980) many children may have been given the drug and had the same stains. Often dentists can tell if a child had a high fever, just by looking at the stain pattern on their patien...

Genomic comparison of lactic acid bacteria published

...l genomes evolve by mechanisms of genomic loss and horizontal gene acquisitions." ...

Taking 'chips' to the next level of gene hunting

...ssword analogy. So if their experiment lights up a horizontal row of dots, the researchers learn that the data maps to the region of the genome contained in the bottom layer; likewise, if the experiment highlights a vertical row, the data correspond to the top layer. Says Boeke, "It's so easy to differentiat...

End of deforestation in view? Experts advance new way to size up global forest resources

...l line; tree density expanded in nations above the horizontal line. Nations above the diagonal line gained growing stock. The authors say Japan's forest cover area is virtually unchanged since World War II (22.2 million hectares in 1947 vs. 23.7 million hectares today). However the density of its forests ...

Does evolution select for faster evolvers?

...s populations. Deem described the importance of horizontal gene transfer in the work in a January 2007 cover story in the Physics Today, showing how HGT compliments the modular nature of genetic information, making it feasible to swap whole sets of genetic code ?like the genes that allow bacteria to defeat a...

Applied scientists create wrinkled 'skin' on polymers

...te include "S" shapes, circular patterns, and long horizontal channels akin to the repeating tines of a closed zipper. "Irradiation by the ion beam alters the chemical composition of the polymer close to its surface and forms a thin stiff skin which wants to expand," explains Vaziri. "The consequent mismatch...

Is there a pilot in the insect?

...n, this angular speed is equal to the ratio of the horizontal speed and the altitude. What these authors call an "optic flow regulator" is a reflex that keeps the optic flow, and thus the speed/altitude ratio, at a constant value. If the insect changes speed, this reflex will make it change altitude so that ra...

Study finds antibiotic resistance in poultry even when antibiotics were not used

...mong bacteria. Lee said these events ?known as the horizontal transfer of genes ?do occur, but they may not be as common as initially thought. What may be driving the antibiotic resistance that Lee has observed in her studies is what's known as vertical transfer ?from parent to child ?of bacteria carrying r...

How to look at dinosaur tracks

...her the step was taken on a sloped surface or on a horizontal surface, and whether it was taken during dry season or wet season. For example, estimating foot length from tracks can be inaccurate without these considerations ?the more erosion that has occurred, the larger the apparent dimensions of the track...