Tag: "forming" at biology news

Critical step traced in anthrax infection

...ssemble into a specific complex that is capable of forming a pore in a cellular membrane. The pore permits the other two proteins, lethal factor (LF) and edema factor (EF), to enter the cell interior, where the factors interfere with metabolic processes, leading to death of the infected individual. Details ...

The making and breaking of microtubules

...urve back sharply from the end of the microtubule, forming "peels," like a wood shaving curling up from a plane. Wang found conditions for which the curls of GDP-bound tubulin close into tubes, with the protofilaments tightly wrapped around the tube axis. These tubes are double-layered, a property that contr...

Speak up: Louder neurons form more connections

...e brain develops, neurons reach out helter-skelter forming new connections, only a small number of which take hold. How the brain chooses which connections to keep and which to prune back appears to be governed by which branches have the most electrical activity—a finding that could help to explain how early...

Confirmation of human protein interaction data by human expression data

...e brain develops, neurons reach out helter-skelter forming new connections, only a small number of which take hold. How the brain chooses which connections to keep and which to prune back appears to be governed by which branches have the most electrical activity—a finding that could help to explain how early...

Researchers discover mechanism for multiplying adult stem cells

...ls in those tissues continued to replicate without forming mature tissue. In a mammal's body, this type of cell behavior causes tumors. But under the right laboratory conditions, it could be a powerful tool. "This may allow you to expand adult stem cells for therapy," observes Hochedlinger. "For instance, y...

Achilles heel of the herpes virus possibly found

...tions that affect a functional region important to forming a coiled coil. "If B5 is a SNARE-like cell fusion receptor", Fuller says, "it may turn out to be useful for more than HSV drug treatment. It could act as a way to link vesicles containing drugs with cells, and deliver them inside". She is currently ...

Researchers use 3-D imaging system to unveil swimming behavior of microscopic plankton

...e ocean is always accompanied by horizontal flows, forming a convergence, or "downwelling" zone. When zooplankton swim upward against such a downward current, they form patches as more and more individuals are brought in with the horizontal currents and concentrated in the downwelling zone. The scientists s...

Evolution of taste receptor may have shaped human sensitivity to toxic compounds

...the potential role natural selection has played in forming our present sensitivities and protecting us from harmful natural chemicals. The research team analyzed the nucleotide sequence of a human gene encoding a bitter-taste receptor that mediates recognition of a class of naturally ubiquitous, but toxic, c...

Scripps research scientists solve structure of a critical innate immune system protein

... shape that contacts with a neighboring horseshoe, forming a "dimer" of two horseshoes. Much of the TLR3 protein surface is covered with sugar molecules, but on one face that includes the interface between these two horseshoes, there is a large surface that is sugar-free, suggesting that this is where the TL...

Self-assembled DNA buckyballs for drug delivery

...eters (nm) in diameter. The DNA/polystyrene "rods" forming the structure are each about 15 nm long. (While st...hed polystyrene molecules to the dendrimerlike DNA forming a hybrid molecule called an amphiphile -- a molecule that both likes and hates water. DNA is hydroph...

The genetic origins of corn on the cob

... alleles of ramosa1 to prevent the extra rows from forming branches instead of kernels," says Martienssen. "There may have been other reasons for selecting an unbranched ear, including the interaction with other genes that were subsequently lost during domestication, but we don't yet know if this is the case...

$6.5 Million Grant for Microarray Center at Yale School of Medicine

... alleles of ramosa1 to prevent the extra rows from forming branches instead of kernels," says Martienssen. "There may have been other reasons for selecting an unbranched ear, including the interaction with other genes that were subsequently lost during domestication, but we don't yet know if this is the case...

New complete muscle grown in the lab

...antly boost the growth of the blood vessel network forming within the muscle tissue. Thanks in part to the stabilizing influence of the fibroblasts, the surface area covered by vessel cells and the percentage of vessel-like structures in the tissue doubled within two weeks. The endothelial cells and the ves...

Vietnam war technology could aid elephant conservation

...ray of geophones which will allow them to use beam forming techniques. According to Wood: "Using a geophone array has additional advantages. Seismic equipment is designed for rugged field use and independent arrays can be buried and left in the ground to collect the data for as long as a month." ...

Scientists discover stem cell origin of neck and shoulders

... "Now that we have identified these key players in forming the neck and the shoulders we can start looking for the genes that are on in these stem cells and which are ultimately responsible for evolutionary changes over millions of years and are also behind a number of serious human illnesses. This is an act...

Most common lung cancers may begin in newly discovered cells

...or gene or oncogene, it could start the process of forming a tumor. There are certainly suggestions that various tumors might arise in locations where there has been a previous injury." The researchers acknowledge that the ultimate stem cell test remains. "One thing we have not done is taken BASCs and put t...

New lead reported in tumor angiogenesis

...notch plays a key role during human development in forming blood vessels. Oddly, Wang noted, the possible role of notch in tumor angiogenesis has not been well studied. After further laboratory and mouse experiments, Wang said the data supported their hypothesis. "Over the past several years, various compou...

Mechanism regulating tooth shape formulation found

.... Whereas the mice appear fairly normal, the areas forming cusps were much broader resulting in cheek teeth whose shape resembles more rhinoceros teeth than mouse teeth. Furthermore, these mice have extra teeth and sometimes adjacent teeth are fused. These results indicate that there is a delicate balance of...

Insight into our sight: A new view on the evolution of the eye lens

...simple eyes that detect light but are incapable of forming an image. This has lead to the view that the lens evolved within the vertebrates early in vertebrate evolution, and it raises a long-standing question in evolutionary biology: How could a complex organ with such special physical properties have evolv...

Neanderthal teeth grew no faster than comparable modern humans'

...arlier work that these markings are present in all forming teeth, signifying six to 12 days of growth. By multiplying that interval by the number of perikymata on a tooth's surface, researchers can gauge how long it took for the tooth to mature. And that gives them an indication of the length of an individua...

1 2 3 4 5 6 7