turn in Biological News

Discovery of a water snake that startles fish in a way that makes them flee into its jaws

... found a way to startle its prey so that the fish turn toward the snake's head to flee instead of ... peculiar. When the fish that the snake targets turn to flee, most of them turn toward the snake's head and many literally swim ...

Stanford scientists find heat-tolerant coral reefs that may resist climate change

... including massive schools of fish, which in turn feed millions of people across the globe. ... Without their algae symbionts, the reefs die and turn stark white, an event referred to as "coral ... adaptation." Heat-resistant corals also turn out to be more tolerant of increases in ocean ...

Gladstone scientists identify key factors in heart cell creation

... unable to identify a single factor that could turn nonmuscle cells into beating heart cells. Using a ... key factor that could work with GATA4 and TBX5 to turn cells into beating heart cells, it was somewhat ... access to the DNA regions they were supposed to turn on or off. "Our previous studies had shown that ...

New method developed by UC San Diego bioengineers gives regenerative medicine a boost

... so they push the cell fate too far. Once we turn the clock back we want to turn it forward again to a certain tissue type to fixed damage tissues in patients. You want to turn it back just enough. If ...

AGU journal highlights -- March 25, 2009

... meteorological clues Airborne acid may help soot turn into cloud seeds Understanding sea ... 4. Airborne acid may help soot turn into cloud seeds Carbon soot aerosols from ... controls the production of ozone, which in turn is a greenhouse gas and a pollutant at ground ...

Mechanisms of cardiovascular disease and cancer give clues to new therapies

... cancers of the prostate, breast or lung, but now turn out to involve some of the same critical mechanisms at the molecular level. This in turn provides clues to more effective therapies for ... inflammatory processes can be triggered that in turn increase the risk of both cardiovascular diseases ...

New source of heart stem cells discovered

... previously thought that epicardial cells might turn into cardiomyocytes. "I couldn't believe it at ... progenitor is truly multipotent (able to turn into all other cell types), how multipotency is ... heart after injury, Pu added. "But if we can turn the progenitors away from making scars, and ...

Molecular 'clock' could predict risk for developing breast cancer

... methyl groups attach themselves to a gene and turn off, or silence, the gene. Previous studies ... always marching forward, and there are ways to turn it back. Methylation can be stopped or slowed ... are known to reduce breast-cancer risk may also turn the clock backward. A test for methylation of ...

First study hints at insights to come from genes unique to humans

... can keep cellular growth factors active and helps turn on RAS, a protein that is active in a third of ... on the surfaces of cells, growth factor receptors turn on when they bind to a growth factor protein. To turn them off, cells take in the combined ...

Cancer's distinctive pattern of gene expression could aid early screening and prevention

... committed to become a certain cell type, like a skin cell, you need to turn the gene off," he says. "A lot of people think of cancer cells turning ... Dr. Robertson says. "There are also many genes that they also want to turn off, like ones that tell a cell to differenitate. For a cell to become ...

Clinical trial shows quadriplegics can operate powered wheelchair with tongue drive system

... mode, if the user issued the command to move forward and then wanted to turn right, the user would have to stop the wheelchair before issuing the command to turn right. The stop command was selected automatically when the tongue ...

Trio of signals converge to induce liver and pancreas cell development in the embryo

... final state. They looked at how BMP, TGF-beta, and FGF signaling pathways turn on genes that guide cells to ultimately become pancreas or liver tissue. ... I've been intrigued by how cells early in development make 'decisions' to turn on one genetic program and exclude others," says Kenneth S. Zaret, PhD, ...

Environmental cues control reproductive timing and longevity, University of Minnesota study shows

... will make a bigger contribution to the gene pool. Conversely, if bad times turn to good times and the population is on the verge of a boom, reproducing ... insects," says Denison. " When their usual foods are scarce, organisms turn to plants containing chemicals that can suppress reproduction and ...

Small molecules mimic natural gene regulators

... in ailments such as cancer and diabetes, which result when genes fail to turn on and off as they should. Scientists at the University of Michigan and ... work, Mapp and coworkers showed that an ATF they developed was able to turn on genes in living cells, but they weren't sure it was using the same ...

Simple drug treatment may prevent nicotine-induced SIDS: Study

... catecholaminesfrom the adrenal glands. During birth, these hormones in turn signal the baby's lungs to become ready for air breathing." For ... blood oxygen levels will stimulate the release of catecholamines, which in turn signals the baby to take a deep breath, when an infant rolls on its face ...

Striata and CIC Launch Integrated eSignature, eDelivery, and eBilling for the Financial Services Industry

... to maximize both high volume consumer and business to business paper turn off initiatives. Striata has an impressive legacy of dramatically reducing ... dramatically increases customer adoption of electronic documents, paper turn off and ePayments. This enables Striata's clients to achieve rapid ROI; ...

Plastic that grows on trees, part two

... RICHLAND, Wash. -- Some researchers hope to turn plants into a renewable, nonpolluting replacement for crude oil. To ... raw biomass into a new platform chemical -- a chemical you can readily turn into a transportation fuel or for synthesis of plastics and other useful ...

Striata and CIC Launch Integrated eSignature, eDelivery, and eBilling for the Financial Services Industry

... to maximize both high volume consumer and business to business paper turn off initiatives. Striata has an impressive legacy of dramatically reducing ... dramatically increases customer adoption of electronic documents, paper turn off and ePayments. This enables Striata's clients to achieve rapid ROI; ...

Songbird study from CSHL, CCNY provides concrete measure of biology's impact on culture

... these isolated singers passed on their song to their progeny, which in turn tutored the next generation, and so on. The tutors were either paired ... of their subjects. Mitra and CSHL postdoctoral fellow Haibin Wang in turn analyzed these recordings, comprising a large dataset of several ...

When cells reach out and touch

... states has been the lack of a simple system by which scientists could turn on and off a molecular pathway that controls microRNA production. Now, it ... "This might allow the development of small molecules or other methods to turn microRNA production back on for therapeutic benefit." ...

SUMO protein guides chromatin remodeler to suppress genes

... chemically modify other proteins, called transcription factors, which in turn enables the meticulous regulation of genes. Gene regulation is a ... have not been studied together; we've found out how they work together to turn off certain genes," says Gill. The Gill Lab is continuing to ...

Research could lead to new non-antibiotic drugs to counter hospital infections

... Lack of an adequate amount of the mineral phosphate can turn a common bacterium into a killer, according to research to be published in ... inflammation, sepsis and death. Why P. aeruginosa can suddenly turn on its host has eluded researchersuntil now. Scientists have long known ...

Tiny super-plant can clean up animal waste and be used for ethanol production

... existing corn-based ethanol production processes for faster scale-up; and turn pollutants into a fuel production system. The duckweed system consists of ... who turned peanuts into a major crop, Jay and I are on a mission to turn duckweed into a new industrial crop, providing an innovative approach to ...

To fight drug addiction, UB researchers target the brain with nanoparticles

... that delivers short RNA molecules in the brain to "silence" or turn off a gene that plays a critical role in many kinds of drug addiction. ... of delivering to a variety of tissues highly sophisticated new drugs that turn off abnormal genes," said Stanley A. Schwartz, M.D., Ph.D., professor in ...

UK researcher identifies just 8 patterns as the cause of all humor

... action or property. Then there's opposition, in which we take the unit and turn it against itself, such as can be seen in a mirror image or if we turn an arrow back to point in the other direction, producing a pattern of ...

Cutting-edge amfAR grants fight HIV/AIDS in the lab and on the phone

... will recruit a small number of men who have sex with men (MSM), who in turn will recruit other MSM, to receive and send regular text messages ... to recruit a small number of men who have sex with men (MSM), who will in turn recruit more MSM to take part in this project in which they will receive ...

The law of the weakest

... with one another for scarce resources. This competition between species in turn affects the probability with which the individual can reproduce and ... This is where the rock blunts the scissors, which cut the paper, which in turn wraps around the rock. Together, these non-hierarchical relationships form ...

The continents as a heat blanket

... blanket, which leads to an accumulation of heat underneath, and which in turn can cause the break-up of the super-continents. These results of ... This super-continent breaks apart due to heat accumulation which in turn leads to a reorganoization of mantle convection with the pieces ultimately ...

Voracious sponges save reef

... they scarcely grow. However, they do discard a lot of cells that in turn provide food for the organisms on the reef. Caves in coral reefs are ... and convert dissolved material into particles. These particles are in turn consumed by the algae and corals on the reef. In this manner, the various ...

Modified plants may yield more biofuel

... according to researchers who add that the approach could also help turn agricultural waste into food for livestock. Lignin, a major component ... could potentially be transferred to other biomass crops and even help turn agricultural waste products found on farms into animal feed. But the ...

Hebrew University scientists reveal mechanism that triggers differentiation of embryo cells

... 21, 2008 The mechanism whereby embryonic cells stop being flexible and turn into more mature cells that can develop into specific tissues has been ... deciphered the mechanism whereby embryonic cells stop being flexible and turn into more mature cells that can differentiate into specific tissues. ...

Call Stephen Michnick a gene grammarian

... read DNA sequence from beginning to end and translate this information in turn into new protein, which are essentially molecules that build the cells ... Christian Landry helped identify genes that code for proteins that in turn control the reading of genes. "Our team found that when these proteins ...

Rare disease provides clues about enzyme role in arrhythmias

... said. "The defect causes the channel to close too slowly, and this in turn amplifies CaM kinase II, which in turn can cause disease," he said. "You can't completely block calcium channels ...

Princeton-led team finds secret ingredient for the health of tropical rainforests

... the rapid, lush growth of rainforests comes from tiny bacteria that can turn nitrogen in the air into fertilizer in the soil. Until now, scientists ... nitrogen in the atmosphere into natural soil nitrogen fertilizer, which in turn spurs plant growth. "Just like trace amounts of vitamins are essential for ...

Scientists shed light on evolution of gene regulation

... regulatory regions that, when bound to the protein GATA1, are thought to turn on genes that play an important role in the development of red blood ... goal was to determine if GATA1 would bind to the regulatory regions and turn on the activity of the firefly gene. "We wanted to know if the level of ...

Mammals can be stimulated to regrow damaged inner retina nerve cells

... type of cell called a progenitor cell. These progenitor cells can then turn into any of several types of specialized nerve cells. Compared to ... the first week after their production. However, those that managed to turn into amacrine cells survived for at least 30 days. "It's not clear why ...

Mayo researchers identify dangerous 'two-faced' protein crucial to breast cancer spread and growth

... protein known as p120 catenin is that powerful, it may be possible to turn the tables on cancer by designing an agent that would suppress it. "We ... prognosis. "We think that when E-cadherin is lost, p120 is now free to turn on growth promotion pathways that can overtake the benefits of targeted ...

Researchers use chemical from medicinal plants to fight HIV

... times without a problem. Moreover, when fighting infections, T-cells can turn on an enzyme called telomerase, which can prevent the telomeres from ... virus can't keep their telomerase turned on forever," Effros said. "They turn off, and telomeres get shorter and they enter this stage of replicative ...

Green tea may delay onset of type 1 diabetes

... disease affecting the skin and joints, says Dr. Hsu. "Normal skin cells turn over every 30 days or so, but skin cells with psoriasis turn over every two or three days." Dr. Hsu's group previously found that green ...

Snakes, salamanders and other creatures thrive in areas with higher deer populations

... which thrive on insect lava such as salamanders, and the salamanders in turn attract even larger predators such as snakes. The results, which were ... This rich soil may be benefiting some plants in the area, which in turn is attracting a larger diversity of insects and invertebrates. ...