Tag: "dozens" at biology news

Ancient retrovirus sheds light on modern pandemic

...reassembled about one-fifth of the virus by taking dozens of PtERV1 sequences and aligning them to create an "ancestral" sequence, teasing out areas of commonality between them. They then used this information to make a partial viral genome. During reconstruction the viral segment was debilitated, enabling ...

Scientists: As rainfall changes, tropical plants may acclimate

...cted to be wetter, some drier. So, at least one of dozens of variables that will change with precipitation changes ?nutrient uptake ?might not affect tropical plants. That said, plenty of others could, Schuur said. ...

Deconstructing brain wiring, one neuron at a time

...ut these circuits are difficult to unravel because dozens of different neuronal types are entangled within a precisely connected network, and even neighboring neurons of the same type differ in connectivity and function. So, researchers have been trying to figure out the pattern of connections typical o...

New details on how the immune system recognizes influenza

...r several decades, providing extensive dossiers on dozens of pathogens. "The purpose of the database is to provide a catalog of molecules and structures that scientists around the world can quickly access and use to understand the immune response to a variety of epitopes, or methodically predict responses...

Remote sheep population resists genetic drift

...rising discovery. A mouflon population, bred over dozens of generations from a single male and female pair transplanted to Haute Island from a Parisian zoo, has maintained the genetic diversity of its founding parents. This finding challenges the widely accepted theory of genetic drift, which states the ge...

UBC researchers reveal dwarf aquatic plants' hidden ancestry

...be as small as 1-2 centimetres in height, and have dozens of minute flowers clustered into each compact flower head. Native to Australia, New Zealand and India, they thrive in seasonal freshwater pools and swamps, and may blossom underwater at depths of up to one metre, or as the pools dry out. "For ...

Genes and biomarkers that allow doctors to choose the right therapy for the right patient

...analysis technique can reveal gene markers ?by the dozens ?that determine how a patient might respond to certain cancer drugs, according to scientists at the Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen). The TGen researchers have found 164 genes that are involved in regulating the sensitivity of squamo...

RNA enzyme structure offers a glimpse into the origins of life

...ecules is extremely difficult, and Robertson tried dozens of different versions of the ribozyme under different conditions before he succeeded. Using x-ray crystallography--which involves shining a beam of x-rays through the crystals and analyzing the resulting diffraction patterns--Robertson and Scott were...

Cancer researchers add spice to research against rare neuromuscular disease

...e androgen receptor ?are opening up, thanks to the dozens of molecular players that Chang and others have identified in the past decade. "Traditionally, when scientists have wanted to affect the androgen receptor, they have taken away substances like testosterone that bind to and activate the receptor," ...

Biologists call for better choice of model organisms in 'evo-devo'

...devo researchers have, over recent years, selected dozens of new model organisms, ranging from sea anemones to dung beetles, to study. One of the selection criteria deemed most crucial is the phylogenetic position of prospective model organisms, which reflects their evolutionary relationships. Phylo...

One-of-a-kind imaging probe reveals secrets useful for drug discovery

...insect was being studied in Florida. "We used not dozens but thousands of walking sticks to get enough secretions to do analyses and, no, it's not easy to do," Meinwald said. "When we started you could hardly work with natural materials in terms of milligrams. Now you can do chemistry on the microgram scal...

Anticipation plays a powerful role in human memory, brain study finds

...ies.Thirty minutes after the researchers had shown dozens of violent images, they quizzed study participants on how well they remembered the pictures they had just seen. "We found that the more activated the amygdala and hippocampus had been during the anticipation [of the pictures], the more likely it w...

New evidence of early horse domestication

...ble to identify the locations of 54 pit houses and dozens of post moulds where vertical posts once stood. Some of the post moulds were arranged circularly, as would be most practical for a corral. Next, geologist Michael Rosenmeier from the University of Pittsburgh collected soil samples from inside the f...

Tests for 'face-blindness' reveal disorder may not be so rare

...Tests developed by Nakayama and colleagues display dozens of images of cars, tools, guns, houses, and landscapes, along with close-cropped black-and-white pictures of faces. Some of the images recur during the cycle; subjects are asked to indicate, as quickly as possible, whether each image they see is new ...

NHGRI announces latest sequencing targets

...xt few years to identify the genes responsible for dozens of relatively rare, single-gene (autosomal Mendelian) diseases; sequence all of the genes on the X chromosome from affected individuals to identify those involved in sex-linked diseases; and to survey the range of variants in genes known to contribut...

MIT 'seeing machine' offers hope to blind

...T affiliate James Cain. She has also worked with dozens of MIT graduate students and undergraduates, including Sylvia Gonzalez (S.B. 2003) and Shima Rayej (S.B. 2004), who helped design and construct the seeing machine. "We essentially made the new machine from scratch," Goldring said. While still allowi...

Cigarette smoke blocks cell repair mechanism, University of Florida study shows

...rch has been controversial. Tobacco smoke contains dozens of cancer-causing chemicals, but until more recently many studies found only weak correlations between smoking and breast cancer risk, or none at all. Those findings are increasingly being challenged by newer studies that are focusing on more than ju...

Radiation-armed robot rapidly destroys human lung tumors

...In conventional radiotherapy, patients must endure dozens of radiation treatments, each lasting about 15 minutes but requiring 20-30 hospital visits. In a single treatment, Cyberknife blasts a lung tumor from all sides by delivering typically 100-150 intense, focused x-ray beams, causing the tumor to abs...

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

...lt, Tetrahymena researchers have already published dozens of studies making use of the genomic data. In addition to releasing the sequence data early on TIGR's website ( www.tigr.org/tdb/e2k1/ttg/index.shtml ) and via Genbank, the project also underwrote the creation of a major free community resource: Th...

Flick of a protein switches immune response

...oimmune diseases ?such as arthritis, allergies and dozens of other illnesses ?begin when the body's defenses respond at the wrong time or place, the on-off mechanism for the immune system has been the subject of intense study for decades. The USC-Harvard team studied proteins critical to immune tolerance,...

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