Nodules in Biological News

When threatened, a few African frogs can morph toes into claws

... bones at their tips. Eventually he determined that these small nodules at the tips of the frogs' feet were connected to the rest of the toe by a collagen-rich sheath. "These nodules are also closely connected to the surrounding skin by dense networks of ...

A common genetic mechanism discovered in nitrogen-fixing plants

... Subsequent comparison of these plants ability to form symbiotic root nodules with that of control plants showed that the plants with lowered SymRK gene expression produced only half as many root nodules as the controls. The same modified individuals also showed strongly ...

Fossil bone bed helps reconstruct life along California's ancient coastline

... look a bit rotten," Lipps said, "as if they lay on the seafloor for a long time and were abraded by water with sand in it." Many bones had manganese nodules and growths, which form on bones that sit for long periods in sea water before being covered by sediment. Toward the top of the bone bed, some ...

American Chemical Society's Weekly PressPac -- June 3, 2009

... Other possibilities include mining new sources of metals, such as those found in metal sulfide deposits near deep-sea hydrothermal vents or manganese nodules found in deep-sea sediments. While such innovative mining approaches are expensive and not practical today, new technology may enable their use in ...

Rensselaer receives more than $2 million from New York State to fund stem cell research

... important in controlling the formation of both brain and bone stem cells. Mutation of these genes results in abnormal stem cell growth leading to nodules in the neurons of the brain, a condition known as periventricular heterotopia and a progressive shortening of bones known as skeletal ...

Computation and genomics data drive bacterial research into new golden age

... Kondorosi from the Institut des Sciences du Vgtal in Gif sur Yvette in France, showed that the process by which the Rhizobium bacteria in legume root nodules adapt to their nitrogen fixing role is induced, at least in part, by small peptides (proteins) made by the plant which target the bacteria in the ...

Soybean varieties viable in southern Indiana, resistant to root-knot nematode

... bigger than the signs caused by the soybean cyst nematode. The nematode galls have irregular tumorlike shapes, in contrast to the spherical shape of nodules caused by rhizobium association. Next the researchers will try to determine varieties of cover crops that are nematode-resistant. Cover crops are ...

Prostate cancer: Watchful wait or vaccinate?

... died of the disease. Researchers found that mice in the experimental group had all developed very small tumors that did not progress. There were tiny nodules of prostate cancer in the mice that were surrounded by an army of immune system cells, Kast said. The vaccination turned the cancer into a chronic, ...

Cleveland Clinic leading clinical program to improve early-stage lung cancer detection

... findings. In previous clinical trials, Riverains chest X-ray CAD technology helped radiologists identify16 percent more 9-15 mm solitary pulmonary nodules that were early stage (1A) lung cancer than the radiologist would have otherwise detected without CAD. OnGuard™ is the only FDA-PMA approved ...

Plants, too, have ways to manage freeloaders

... nitrogen than they do to the slackers. Root nodules - in which bacteria share nitrogen with the plant ... This could involve shutting down resources to nodules inhabited by poorly performing bacteria, or preventing the aging of nodules more effective at fixing nitrogen. In studies ...

Plant hemoglobins: Oxygen handlers critical for nitrogen fixation

... to assist in the fixation of nitrogen in the root nodules of legumes through a process that is conceptually ... of legumes; these hemoglobins accumulate in root nodules and give these specialized organs their distinctive red color. Legume root nodules accommodate bacteria, called rhizobia, that ...

A new plant-bacterial symbiotic mechanism promising for crop applications

... This special character confers on it the exceptional, rare ability to form nodules on the stems of its host-plant. The plant thus acquires the possibility of ... of nitrogen than those usually measured in leguminous plants which have nodules only on their roots. The researchers sequenced (3) the genes of two ...

Pesticides choke pathway for nature to produce nitrogen for crops

... the five-member team reports that agrichemicals bind to and block connections to specific receptors (NodD) inside rhizobia bacteria living in root nodules in the soil. Rotation legume crops such as alfalfa and soybeans require such interaction to naturally replace nitrogen levels that, in turn, benefit ...

Study warns deep-sea mining may pose serious threat to fragile marine ecosystems

... and biotechnological applications. Mining companies first turned their attention to the oceans in the 1970s, and interest grew in manganese nodules that exist on the surface of the ocean floor. However, high projected costs and the regulatory restrictions on deep sea mining in international ...

Possible birthplace of malignant brain tumors identified

... brain cells in adults. The researchers also found that infusing PDGF into mouse brain caused abnormal growth--called hyperplasia--of tumor-like nodules that invaded surrounding brain tissue. Their analysis indicated that the PDGF infusion caused the stem cells to halt their normal production of ...

Legume compounds may help cancer treatment

... with soil bacteria known as rhizobia. Rhizobia induce legumes to form tiny new root organs called "root nodules." The bacteria live in the nodules and provide the plant with useable nitrogen it can convert into proteins. CILR Chief Investigator Professor Chris Parish's group, based at ANU's ...

New evidence questions the simple link between prion proteins and madcow disease

... Peyer's nodules, that are believed to be the places where animals amplify the infective agent. "The fact the PrP isn't taken up by the Peyer's nodules questions whether PrP is really infectious, or whether PrP is really just a secondary marker of the presence of the scrapie agent," says Jeffrey. ...

A bug's life: Exceptional genomic stability yet rapid protein evolution in a carpenter ant mutualist

... throughout the 4 billion years of life on earth and have largely shaped the evolution of complex organisms." Symbiotic bacteria live in root nodules of leguminous plants, in gutless marine worms, in echinoderms such as starfishes and sea urchins, and in specialized cells of insects such as aphids ...

New research indicates a 'troubled' greenhouse is brewing

... they also can be used to determine the seasonality of rainfall as well as the amount of rainfall because the spread within the profile of carbonate nodules is related to the difference in precipitation between the driest and wettest month. Retallack uses this feature in ancient soils to reinterpret past ...

Plants respond similarly to signals from friends, enemies

... in distribution of the plant's cytoskeleton, which is part of a pathway that leads to a series of growth changes that include the formation of either nodules housing bacteria or giant cells from which the nematodes feed. The scientists also discovered that, like rhizobia and contrary to popular belief, ...