switched in Biological News

Female human embryos adjust the balance of X chromosomes before implantation

... continue to have the paternal X chromosome switched off, but it is switched back on in the cells that are going to form the ... the maternal or paternal X chromosome that is switched off," explained Ms van den Berg, who is a PhD ...

Study offers clues to beating hearing loss

... the first time we've found how this myosin can be switched on and switched off. When switched off, the tip of its tail curls round and contacts ...

Prostate cancer vaccines more effective with hormone therapy

... patients who were originally assigned to vaccine switched to nilutamide plus vaccine and eight patients who were originally assigned to nilutamide switched to vaccine plus hormone, due to rising levels of ... overall survival of 6.2 years. For patients who switched to the vaccine after hormone, the three-year ...

Gene may hold key to future cancer hope

... take place; if the gene that generates Bub 1 is switched off then the cells are unable to divide ... cell types also failed to divide when the gene is switched off, while male mice lacking Bub 1 became ... is Bub 1. The team found that when the gene is switched off the surveillance mechanism fails and accuracy ...

Smoking turns on genes -- permanently

... Only about a fifth of the genes in a cell are switched on at any given time, but environmental changes ... irreversibly damaged by smoking, and smoking also switched off genes that help combat lung cancer ... not previously associated with smoking that are switched on in active smokers. One example is CABYR, a ...

Common allergy drug reduces obesity and diabetes in mice

... four groups. The first was the control group; the second group was simply switched to a healthy diet; the third was given cromolyn or ketotifen fumarate; and the fourth was both given the drug and switched to a healthy diet. While symptoms of the second group improved ...

High CO2 boosts plant respiration, potentially affecting climate and crops

... genes at a time, to learn which genes in the high CO 2 plants were being switched on at higher or lower levels than those of the soybeans grown at current ... enzymes in the cascade of chemical reactions that govern respiration were switched on (expressed) at higher levels in the soybeans grown at high CO 2 ....

Mayo Clinic research on tamoxifen leads to recommendation for CYP2D6 gene test

... The initial results of ABCSG-8, reported in 2005, concluded that women who switched to anastrozole had a 40 percent reduced risk of breast cancer recurrence ... However, the researchers also demonstrated that among patients who switched to anastrozole, there was no increased risk of breast cancer recurrence ...

Gene against bacterial attack unravelled

... He did this by rearing mice DNA in which the gene for Toll2 production was switched on and off. 'The group where the gene for Toll2 was switched off, survived the bacterial infection', says Wiersinga. 'The other ...

Broad Institute awarded major grant to bolster epigenomics research

... as "histones") that act as gatekeepers to the genome enabling genes to be switched on or ensuring they remain switched off. In the past few years, two techniques have transformed researchers' ...

Cocaine: How addiction develops

... this is not true for animals whose receptor subunit GluR1 has been switched off: These mice invariably frequent the places where they expect to find ... their addictive behavior persists. Mice whose NR1 protein has been switched off have surprised scientists with a different conspicuous behavior. If ...

Fish cancer gene linked to pigment pattern that attracts mates

... fish with real melanomas, which confirmed that the cancer gene is switched on only in the tissue with the dark pigment. The study marks the first ... the female might have for a particular side of the tank, Fernandez then switched the males. Two days later, he conducted the trials again, this time ...

Gene-environment interaction in yeast gene expression

... so that genes that are on in one condition may be downregulated or switched off in other environments. What the new research, by Leonid Kruglyak and ... often has a bigger effect on these regulated genes than on ones that are switched on and off by other, more direct mechanisms. Intriguingly, sometimes a ...

HATS off to combat asthma

... are activated and HDACs suppressed with the result that inflammation is switched on. The investigators at the University think that if the balance could be restored by inactivating HATs then the mediators and cytokines will be switched off and inflammation dampened down. By exploring plant extracts that ...

DNA methylation shown to promote development of colon tumors

... decade, however, scientists have discovered that even healthy genes can be switched on or off and can cause cancer without any changes in the underlying DNA ... to be active to perform a particular function, and which ones need to be switched off." As cells renew and divide, their characteristic methylation and ...

American Chemical Society's Weekly PressPac -- Aug. 15, 2007

... Annette Dexter. The unique aspect of the Pepfactant is that it can be switched on or switched off depending on its intended application. For example, in laundry ...

UC San Diego engineer provides insights to decades-old DNA squabble

... to cancer." The next step for Arya and his team is to study the mechanisms by which chromatin is regulated, and how those lead to genes being switched "on" and "off," genes being repaired in response to mutations, and genes being replicated during cell division. Arya believes that a ...

Scientists track impact of DNA damage in the developing brain

... the DNA damage response plays in preventing neurological disease," the investigators wrote. The study also marks the first time researchers have switched off a pathway for repairing damaged single DNA strands in an organ system, in this case the mouse brain and nervous system. While the results suggest ...

Lack of happiness hormone serotonin in the brain causes impaired maternal behavior in mice

... in the brain. Tph2 produces the enzyme tryptophan hydroxylase (TPH), which is responsible for the formation of serotonin. After the researchers switched off Tph2, the animals produced almost no serotonin in the brain. Nevertheless, the animals were viable and half of them survived until adulthood. ...

The battle for CRTC2: How obesity increases the risk for diabetes

... Yiguo Wang, Ph.D., mimicked the conditions of ER stress in mice, CRTC2 moved to the nucleus but failed to activate gluconeogenesis. Instead, it switched on genes important for combating stress and returning cells to health. On closer inspection, Wang found that in this scenario CRTC2 did not bind to ...

Researchers observe single protein dimers wavering between two symmetrically opposed structures

... chemical, which helps destabilize the protein structure. They found that as more of this chemical was added, the A2L2 proteins increasingly switched structure from mostly syn to significantly anti by twisting one of the protein copies in the dimer by 180 degrees. Additionally, by using a more ...

CU-Boulder study shows 53 million-year-old high Arctic mammals wintered in darkness

... Island near Greenland on a summer diet of flowering plants, deciduous leaves and aquatic vegetation. But in winter's twilight they apparently switched over to foods like twigs, leaf litter, evergreen needles and fungi, said Eberle, curator of fossil vertebrates at the University of Colorado Museum ...

Healing wounds with lasers, vehicles that drive themselves, other cutting-edge optics

... by nearby electrodes; modulating the ring's capacitance, in turn, modulates the radiation; that is, the THz light (sometimes called T rays) can be switched so as to pass through or not. The modulator consists of 16 pixels in a 4 x 4 array. Mittleman reports that this is the first time the wavefront of a ...

Purdue study finds dairy better for bones than calcium carbonate

... a second 10-week period, the remaining rats were fed as adults. Half of those were given adequate calcium as carbonate or milk. The other half were switched to half as much calcium as recommended, but were given calcium carbonate. "This is comparable to humans who, during their early growth, drink a lot ...

A biological basis for the 8-hour workday?

... cycle. Now, researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and the Salk Institute for Biological Studies found that some genes are switched on once every 12 or 8 hours, indicating that shorter cycles of the circadian rhythm are also biologically encoded. Using a novel time-sampling ...

Researchers discover that gene switches on during development of epilepsy

... there is no genetic indication that they are capable of making extra copies of the channel. "What we've shown is that this gene can be switched on in individuals who don't appear to have inherited the susceptibility," Godwin said. The good news is that certain drugs can inhibit calcium ...

GOCE's electric ion propulsion engine switched on

... GOCE's sophisticated electric ion propulsion system has been switched on and confirmed to be operating normally, marking another crucial milestone in the satellite's post-launch commissioning phase. The success of ...

UW-Madison study reveals new options for people with PKU

... University Hospital's Clinical and Translational Research Core. In the study, subjects adhered to the amino acid formula diet for four days, and then switched to the GMP diet for the following four. (Subjects spent the first two days of the study at home.) In the end, no adverse health problems were found, ...

UC Davis bench-to-bedside research: Promising treatment in clinical trials

... Hammock was initially interested in regulating the development of insect larvae. With the discovery of the enzyme inhibitor, however, he switched part of his research from "pest control to pain control." At the onset, Hammock faced two major obstacles: financing and moving the drug into ...

Diabetics on high-fiber diets might need extra calcium, report UT Southwestern researchers

... 2 diabetes ate either a high-fiber diet (50 grams per day) or the moderate-fiber diet (24 grams per day) recommended by the ADA for six weeks, then switched to the other diet for six weeks. All participants stayed at UT Southwestern's Clinical and Translational Research Center (CTRC) for the final week of ...

University researchers to develop coatings that kill superbugs

... simple terms, we want to know what is special about that one bacterium in a million that is resistant to an antimicrobial polymer. Which genes are switched on or off and which proteins are produced to help the bacterium survive? "From this knowledge we can stay one step ahead of evolution in the fight ...

Scientists at CSHL discover mobile small RNAs that set up leaf patterning in plants

... defines the identities of cells found in the bottom half of leaves. For the correct leaf pattern to develop, it is therefore crucial that ARF3 is switched "on" in the right cells those at the leaf's lower side and turned "off" everywhere else. "Without ta-siRNAs, leaves look like needles, because ...

Scripps research scientists 'watch' as individual alpha-synuclein proteins change shape

... complex protein folding-binding system that has been studied to date using single-molecule FRET," he says. This ability of alpha-synuclein to be switched into alternative shapes could play a significant role in regulating formation of disease-related aggregates, as well as enabling its function. Hence, ...

Ben-Gurion University engineers develop technique to help combat nuclear proliferation

... have to use it for peaceful purposes rather than warfare." Ronen originally worked on Neptonium 237 for the purpose denaturing plutonium, but switched to Americium, which is meant for pressurized water reactors (PWRs), such as the one being built in Iran. "Countries that purchase nuclear ...

Scientists at CSHL discover mobile small RNAs that set up leaf patterning in plants

... defines the identities of cells found in the bottom half of leaves. For the correct leaf pattern to develop, it is therefore crucial that ARF3 is switched "on" in the right cells those at the leaf's lower side and turned "off" everywhere else. "Without ta-siRNAs, leaves look like needles, because ...

Researchers piggyback to safer reprogrammed stem cells

... to cut the Klf4 out of Piggybac. In doing so, they discovered that the iPS cells could maintain themselves using their own Klf4 gene, which had been switched on during the reprogramming process. Once the Piggybac Klf4 is removed, they report, iPS cells can go on to create normal mice when introduced into ...

Suppressing cancer with a master control gene

... switching off the gene called Ato in flies and ATOH1 in mammals leads to cancer. The authors show there is a good chance that the gene can be switched on again with a drug. They report their findings in two papers in the leading online open access journal PLoS Biology . All of us begin our lives ...

How Volvox got its groove

... tree ferns, dinosaurs and early mammals. Previous estimates had suggested Volvox 's ancestors arose only 50 million years ago. The algae switched to a communal lifestyle in only 35 million years -- "a geological eyeblink," said lead researcher Matthew D. Herron of The University of Arizona in ...

CSHL scientists discover how 'companion' cells to sperm protect them from genetic damage

... patterns in sperm, providing the next generation with instructions that specify which regions of the genome should be turned on and which should be switched off. These findings will be published in the February 6th issue of the journal Cell . Transposons are "revealed" in a specific pollen cell type ...

Mixing genomics and geography yields insights into life and environment

... these two disparate worlds, you find a subtle richness of connections." Through a complex statistical analysis, the study showed that organisms switched energy conversion strategies depending on the environment, used components of membranes differently, and provided evidence that factors such as ...