Pigment in Biological News

Purple sweet potato means increased amount of anti-cancer components

... of human nutrition at K-State, to understand the pigment effects of a Kansas-bred purple sweet potato on ... have high contents of anthocyanin, which is a pigment that presents the purple color in the vegetable. The pigment can produce red, blue and purple colors depending ...

MIT: Jeremy Nathans to deliver Scolnick Prize lecture

... the genes for the three color-sensitive pigment proteins in the human retina. He showed that ... of color blindness, and that the red and green pigment genes are on the X-chromosome, which is why ... basis of color vision, the discovery of these pigment proteins and the related protein rhodopsin was ...

Mollusks taste memories to build shells

... shape of the spiral, while different amounts of pigment secretion create a pattern unique to each ... network that determines how much calcium and pigment is secreted. Based solely on these nine ... created by asymmetric "traveling waves" of pigment or calcium deposition. The basic concept ...

American Chemical Society's weekly PressPac -- March 11, 2009

... RELEASE First discovery of "animals-only" pigment bilirubin in plants Journal of the American ... bilirubin. Until now, scientists thought that pigment existed only in animals. The finding may change ... from the liver's breakdown of hemoglobin, the red pigment that carries oxygen in the blood. Parents know ...

Advance offers revolution in food safety testing

... characteristics of certain "chromatophore" or pigment bearing cells, called erythrophores, from Siamese ... the erythrophores change appearance, and the pigment moves in a characteristic pattern to an internal part of the cell. The change in pigment location in response to a toxic chemical is ...

Vitiligo skin disorder could yield clues in fight against melanoma

... the immune system goes into overdrive and kills pigment cells, which give skin its color. Loyola ... the immune system so that it stops attacking pigment cells. Conversely, melanoma would be treated by revving up the immune system to attack malignant pigment cells. "Things we learn from vitiligo could ...

Study shows how the zebrafish gets his stripe

... which contains high quantities of the pigment melanin. Using time-lapse photography, the ... these signs have been knocked down, and the pigment cells run all over the grass between the ... into how these other three stripes might form. pigment pattern formation is a classic problem in ...

Home tooth bleaching slightly reduces enamel strength

... effect. They bleach teeth by producing unstable free radicals that attack pigment molecules in the organic parts of enamel. The reduction in pigment means the molecules no longer reflect light, so the teeth appear whiter. ...

No longer a gray area: Our hair bleaches itself as we grow older

... but as we get older, this little bit becomes a lot. We bleach our hair pigment from within, and our hair turns gray and then white. This research, ... that leads to the production of melanin in hair follicles. Melanin is the pigment responsible for hair color, skin color, and eye color. The researchers ...

Uncovering secrets of life in the ocean

... exist. They consist of no more than two cells: a photoreceptor cell and a pigment cell. These minimal eyes, called eyespots, resemble the 'proto-eyes' ... simulations of larval swimming show. The second eyespot cell, the pigment cell, confers the directional sensitivity to light. It absorbs light and ...

Forsyth scientists trigger cancer-like response from embryonic stem cells

... alteration of the behavior of one type of embryonic stem cell: the pigment cell lineage of the neural crest. When mutated, these pigment cells over-proliferate, spread out, and become highly invasive of blood ...

More than skin deep: There's no such thing as a 'safe' suntan, researchers warn

... according to a series of papers published in the October issue of pigment Cell & Melanoma Research , the official journal of The International Federation of pigment Cell Societies (IFPCS) and the Society for Melanoma Research. The ...

Protein transports nutrients believed to protect against eye disease

... Harrison said. The scientists worked with a line of human retinal pigment epithelial cells from the lining of the retina, which served as a model ... and zeaxanthin, as well as beta carotene. As expected, the retinal pigment epithelial cells absorbed much more of the xanthophylls than the beta ...

Worm-like marine animal providing

... various structures that are absent in amphioxus, including cells for pigment and collagen type II-based cartilage, for example. In the new research, ... neural tube throughout the body, giving rise to such structures as pigment cells, cartilage of the head and a number of other cell types. Although ...

Origin of cells for connective tissues of skull and face challenged

... where they spawn the cells that create the peripheral nervous system, and pigment cells in skin and hair (or scales and feathers). The new study is part ... connective tissue of the head and face did not alter neural crest-derived pigment or peripheral nervous system cells. This paradox, he said, led him to ...

Researchers visualize complex pigment mixtures in living cells

... report, In vivo hyperspectral confocal fluorescence imaging to determine pigment localization and distribution in cyanobacterial cells. The report was ... hyperspectral fluorescence imaging can provide new information regarding pigment organization and localization even in small cells, and provides a new ...

QUT researcher discovers Maya mask splendor

... and tourist site in Honduras, Central America. "I discovered a green pigment and a mica pigment that would have had a lustrous effect," she said. "I'm sure that when ...

Gene in male fish lures females into sex

... University in Germany and identified a gene involved in producing yellow pigment cells in oval spots on the fishes' fins. These markings, known as ... characteristic egg dummies. The gene that is involved in producing the pigment spot that imitate eggs is called the colony-stimulating factor 1 receptor ...

Scientists unveil structure of molecular target of many drugs

... in 2000, when a research group determined the structure of a visual pigment in cow eyes. Part of the job was easier then, because the pigment protein is abundant. One of the major challenges in the new study was ...

North America's northernmost lake affected by global warming

... lakes algae population: during that period, chlorophyll a concentration, a pigment found in every species in the lake, increased by a factor of 500. A type ... appearance during the same period. The absence of diatoms and the low pigment concentration below the top 2.5 centimeters of the core suggest that the ...

Scientists discover important beauty secret for balanced skin color and tone

... most commonly occurring skin cells, called keratinocytes, which produce no pigment of their own. Working with bioengineered skin, which is used for some ... says this study also could help the quality of life for people with pigment diseases such as vitiligo, melasma and age spotting by making their skin ...

NASA satellite detects red glow to map global ocean plant health

... on May 28. Over the past two decades, scientists have employed various satellite sensors to measure the amount and distribution of the green pigment chlorophyll, an indicator of the amount of plant life in the ocean. But with the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA's Aqua ...

Skin color clue to nicotine dependence

... Higher concentrations of melanin -- the color pigment in skin and hair -- may be placing darker pigmented smokers at increased susceptibility to nicotine dependence and tobacco-related carcinogens than ...

Feather color is more than skin deep

... the throat, breast and rump. They were particularly interested in the anatomical origin of the birds' red plumage. They found the primary red feather pigment of male crossbills in the birds' liver and blood, implying that the carotenoids are synthesized in the liver and then travel to the peripheral ...

Orientation of antenna protein in photosynthetic bacteria described

... the researchers to determine which side of the protein was up, which down. "It turns out that the side that is down is the one that has the pigment with the lowest energy, which is exactly what you want to facilitate the energy transfer,' Blankenship said. "That's what you would imagine if you ...

DNA evidence is in, newly discovered species of fish dubbed H. psychedelica

... of the UW's fish collection. The Dallas Aquarium had sent him two frogfish, found in a shipment of live fishes from Bali that they said had unusual pigment patterns. The staff had nicknamed them "paisley frogfish." But the photograph Pietsch was sent was of poor quality and the preserved specimens ...

Men are red, women are green, Brown researcher finds

... using a 3-D scanner under the same lighting conditions and with no makeup. He then used a MatLab program to analyze the amount of red and green pigment in the faces. Additionally, Tarr and his lab relied on a large number of other faces photographed under similar controlled conditions. (Tarr has ...

Progression of retinal disease linked to cell starvation

... plate gets covered in "plastic," with the flexible plastic reaching down to touch each stack. In the eye, this plastic consists of a giant retinal pigment (RPE) cell, which supplies nutrients to the rods and cones on its plate. With this structure in mind, researchers have proposed a variety of ...

Blue bananas

... with the use of ethylene gas. Green, unripe bananas do not fluoresce. The intensity of the luminescence correlates with the breakdown of the green pigment chlorophyll. As the ripening continues to progress, the blue glow decreases. "Surprisingly, this blue luminescence apparently has been entirely ...

Fish cancer gene linked to pigment pattern that attracts mates

... cancer gene is switched on only in the tissue with the dark pigment. The study marks the first time scientists have found a cancer gene linked to a pigment pattern that functions to increase mating success in animals. In the current study, the researchers placed a female swordtail in the middle of a ...

American Chemical Society's Weekly PressPac -- Aug. 6, 2008

... system (CNS) tissue contamination on carcasses during slaughter," the report states. They describe a test based on detection of the fluorescent pigment lipofuscin, a substance that appears in high concentrations in the nervous tissue of cattle. The researchers found that it was a dependable indicator ...

Genome communication

... diabetes. Chandler and her co-workers have been investigating paramutations in maize at the b1 gene, which regulates the distribution of the purple pigment anthocyanin in plant tissues. At the b1 locus, the paramutagenic allele, which causes light or stippled pigmentation arises spontaneously from ...

Berkeley researchers identify photosynthetic dimmer switch

... respond to the passing of clouds overhead. In 2005, Fleming and his research group identified zeaxanthin, a member of the carotenoid family of pigment molecules, as the safety outlet in the photo-protection of green plants. A plants light harvesting system consists of two protein complexes, ...

A model photochemical compass for bird navigation

... photochemical molecule composed of linked carotenoid, porphyrin and fullerene units can act as a magnetic compass. Carotenoid is an organic pigment that occurs naturally in plants and other photosynthetic organisms. Porphyrin is similar to a chlorophyll molecule and exists in green leaves and red ...

Cell-based therapy shows promise in patients with Parkinson's disease

... CHICAGO - A novel cell therapy using retinal pigment epithelial (RPE) cells attached to tiny gelatin bead microcarriers implanted in the brain can improve the symptoms of patients with moderate to ...

Researchers decode genetics of rare photosynthetic bacterium

... increase in available light for organisms to use. We now have the complete genetic information of a novel organism that makes this type of pigment that no other organism does, he said. We dont yet know what every gene does, but this presents a fertile area for future studies. When we find the ...

Researchers decode genetics of rare photosynthetic bacteria

... increase in available light for organisms to use. We now have the complete genetic information of a novel organism that makes this type of pigment that no other organism does, he said. We dont yet know what every gene does, but this presents a fertile area for future studies. When we find the ...

Bacterium sequenced makes rare form of chlorophyll

... percent increase in available light for organisms to use. We now have genetic information on a unique organism that makes this type of pigment that no other organism does, Blankenship said. We dont know what all the genes do by any means. But weve just begun the analysis. When we find the ...

Blue-eyed humans have a single, common ancestor

... turned off the ability to produce brown eyes. The OCA2 gene codes for the so-called P protein, which is involved in the production of melanin, the pigment that gives colour to our hair, eyes and skin. The switch, which is located in the gene adjacent to OCA2 does not, however, turn off the gene ...

Whirligig beetle gets rock 'n' roll legendary name

... an honor like that, Barbara Orbison said in expressing her appreciation for the species naming. To mark the occasion, an original work of art a pigment inkjet print titled Whirligig was presented to Orbison during the concert. Its a token of admiration for Roys body of work and all you do to ...