silent

It's not all genetic: Common epigenetic problem doubles cancer risk in mice

...Unlike most genes, the copy of IGF2 that should be silent depends only on which parent it came from, a situation called genomic imprinting. For IGF2, the copy inherited from the mother is always supposed to be turned off. In the mice and in some people, however, cells lack the epigenetic "marks" that sit o...

Researchers trace evolution to relatively simple genetic changes

...n fish remain well-armored. "But they do have this silent gene that allows this alternative form to emerge if the fish colonize a new freshwater location." Also, comparing what happens to the ectodysplasin signaling molecule when its gene is mutated in humans, and in fish, shows a major difference. The hum...

Octopuses occasionally stroll around on two arms, UC Berkeley biologists report

...n fish remain well-armored. "But they do have this silent gene that allows this alternative form to emerge if the fish colonize a new freshwater location." Also, comparing what happens to the ectodysplasin signaling molecule when its gene is mutated in humans, and in fish, shows a major difference. The hum...

New RNA polymerase discovered in plants

...the Arabidopsis genome, principally in keeping the silent DNA silent," Pikaard said. "Plants can get by without Pol IV, whereas they can't do without the other three. We don't see anything obviously like Pol IV in any other genome, but it's possible it might have been overlooked." While Pikaard and his col...

50-year-old Mystery Solved: Protein Tags Regulate Key Ion Channel

...ave yet to reveal their function because they were silent like K2P1." Other membrane proteins key to biology, like transporters and hormone receptors, may also be controlled by SUMO since the binding site is present in those proteins although not yet proven to operate. "Cells are fastidious in the way the...

Brain May Be Less Plastic Than Hoped

...the motor and visual cortex after these areas fell silent from lack of sensory input due to injury. This led...blind spot would have shrunk.?Instead, though, the silent region remained the same size each time. The neurons surrounding it did not reach out to fill it in....

Most common lung cancers may begin in newly discovered cells

...l and experimental therapies. The mouse carries a silent genetic mutation of an oncogene known as K-ras, which is found in about one-third of all tested non-small cell lung cancers in people. A specially designed virus can activate the mutation in only a few cells. The mouse is known as a conditional mutan...

Research casts doubt on circulating stem cells

... the defective muscle, we suspect that they remain silent and cannot set off the hoped-for 'muscle programme'." In other words, the bone marrow-derived cells are not converted into functioning muscle fibre. The myth of a circulating jack of all trades The reason is probably that in nearly all cells releas...

Studies on human genome variation provide insight into disease

.... The real disease-causing culprits can have many silent partners. We need to know the relationships of all these partners to focus on real disease mutations and to minimize attention on the innocent gene variants that colour the humanity of life." Contact: Lon R. Cardon, Ph.D. Professor of Bio...

Housecat-sized Siberian tiger cubs get collared

.... The real disease-causing culprits can have many silent partners. We need to know the relationships of all these partners to focus on real disease mutations and to minimize attention on the innocent gene variants that colour the humanity of life." Contact: Lon R. Cardon, Ph.D. Professor of Bio...

There's something fishy about human brain evolution

...The genetic possibility was there, but it remained silent until it was catalyzed by this shore-based diet." Dr. Cunnane acknowledges that for the past 20 years he's been swimming upstream when it comes to convincing anthropologists of his position, especially that initial hominid brain expansion happened b...

Cloned stem cells prove identical to fertilized stem cells

...nk measured which genes were active and which were silent in both kinds of cells. To ensure the accuracy of his results, he compared five lines of cloned stem cells with five fertilization-derived stem cell lines. "The results are very clear," says Brambrink. "If a gene is active in fertilized stem cells,...

UC Riverside psychologist explores human perception, finds 'wow factor'

... understanding of how human hearing is affected by silent objects. His projects are all motivated by theoretical questions rather than a quest for a particular application, Rosenblum said, but real-world considerations are important. "We discuss practical applications in papers so engineers can use them in...

What's shaped like a pear and has 2 genomes? Check the pond

...ed for sex and reproduction, remaining genetically silent during growth. Inside the second, working nucleus is the "macronuclear" genome, which expresses genes that govern behavior. The current study sequenced the macronuclear genome, an impressively packaged bunch of coding genes, free of so-called junk...

Bird flu study highlights need to vaccinate flocks effectively

... than 95 per cent would be needed to guard against silent spread. The study, funded by the Department of E..., suggests that the most effective way of tackling silent spread of the disease would be to place unvaccinated 'sentinel' birds in poultry flocks. By monitor...

Loosen up, DNA: Leukemia gene changes genetic packaging

...based on where the gene was inserted ?the gene was silent when expected, producing flies with white eyes, an...s that JAK/STAT was able to open up the previously silent part of the genome, somehow turning on the red-eye gene by changing the gene's packaging. Genes that...

Researcher studies, treats military with 'silent disease'

...eely through the liver. The disease has earned its silent reputation because 80 percent of the people who have it have no symptoms. While working at her clinic at the military hospital, Sjogren noted that at least half of her patients tested positive for the hepatitis C virus. She then started wondering ab...

Prion find points way to test for human 'mad cow' disease

...t time we have detected prions in what we call the silent phase of infection, which in humans can last up to 40 years," said Soto, senior author of the Science paper. "The concern is that if many people are incubating the disease silently, then secondary transmission from human to human by blood transfusio...

Orange, grapefruit juice for breakfast builds bones in rats

...ter at Texas A&M in College Station. "It's a silent disease of aging. But if we can maintain our bone strength, maybe we'll be able to prevent it," Patil noted. For the study, 36 males rats were included for two months in the lab of Dr. Farzad Deyhim, professor of human and animal nutrition at Texas ...

Researchers find protein that silences genes

...and colleagues found that they could switch on the silent genes using chemicals that inhibit either DNA meth...inated nucleolar dominance, such that the normally silent genes were now turned on. To find out where HDA6 is located in the cell, the group then geneticall...

Therapeutic role found for carbon monoxide

...CO), the colorless, odorless gas often dubbed "the silent killer," could be used to prevent the onset of certain inflammatory conditions was first proposed in 1998. Since then, numerous studies have shown that when administered at low, non-toxic concentrations prior to such procedures as organ transplant su...

Holiday gluttony can spell disaster for undiagnosed diabetics

...a metabolic disorder linked with obesity, can be a silent killer because its symptoms aren't sudden, but build up over time and lead to heart disease or other maladies. That's bad news for those with undiagnosed diabetes. "The obesity epidemic is surging and people don't realize they're setting themselv...

Stroke symptoms common among general population

...troke reveals that many have had an undiagnosed or silent stroke, according to background information in the article. One previous study found that 11 percent of individuals age 55 to 64, 22 percent of those ages 65 to 69 and 43 percent of those older than 85 years show evidence of stroke despite never hav...

A silent pandemic: Industrial chemicals are impairing the brain development of children worldwide

...ial chemicals are responsible for what they call a silent pandemic that has caused impaired brain development in millions of children worldwide. It is silent because the subclinical effects of individual toxic chemicals are not apparent in available health s...

Power emerges from consensus in monkey social networks

...duals ?in the case of pigtailed macaque monkeys, a silent bared-teeth display. On the other hand, there is little consensus if signals come from just a few individuals. "Consensus about power is an important organizing principle in societies in which conflicts are complicated, often involving many group me...

Colour sensor breath test can detect lung cancer

...o use and is very expensive. As cancer is often silent in its early stages and symptoms are often not specific, it is often difficult to pick up the disease at a stage when it could be treated effectively, say the authors. Diagnosis is often therefore only made when the disease is advanced. "Ultim...

Notorious cancer gene may work by destroying messenger

... PMR1 attaches to the mRNAs and remains there as a silent passenger. If it receives the proper signal, however, the protein chops up and destroys the mRNA, which instantly stops production of that protein. Cells use that mechanism to control the production of proteins such as growth factors, which activ...

Bats prey on nocturnally migrating songbirds

...journeys at night; the forces of a skilled, almost silent nocturnal hunter patrolling the infinite dark space await them... ...

Male reindeer inflate a large air sac in the neck region to emit their hoarse rutting calls

...e autumn rutting season whereas females are mostly silent during that period. Instead, vocal communication of females tends to mainly occur with their young, in the first months after the birth in summer. In mother-young communication the air sac individualizes the calls and contributes to individual recogn...

RNA splicing factor implicated in ovarian tumor cell growth

... Ovarian cancer is commonly referred to as "the silent killer," as it usually is not discovered until its advanced stages. If diagnosed and treated while the cancer is confined to the ovary, the 5-year survival rate is more than 90 percent, according to the American Cancer Society. Unfortunately, only 19...

U-M researchers discover gene switched off in cancer can be turned on

...rchers found that a gene called Brahma, or BRM, is silent – but not missing – in some cancer cells. By expos... mutations to the gene but rather that it was just silent – essentially like a switch that had been turned off. Knowing that a class of drugs called histone d...