Tag: "mammals" at biology news

Molecular biology fills gaps in knowledge of bat evolution

One in five mammals living on Earth is a bat, yet their evolutionary h...ionary history of one of the most diverse group of mammals on earth and the only mammals capable of powered flight. The fossil record alone left bat evolutiona...

Enzyme, lost in most mammals, is shown to protect against UV-induced skin cancer

...r DNA, but under normal conditions humans andother mammals are capable of removing UV-induced DNA damage by a...elesions ?have apparently been lost from placental mammals over thecourse of evolution.Thus, most mammals, including humans, can only repair these lesionsthrou...

Current human embryonic stem cell lines contaminated UCSD/Salk team finds

... 1998 that humans are uniquelydifferent from other mammals studied in that people do not expressNeu5Gc*. In a 2003 study**, the UCSD researchers found that humans havenaturally occurring antibodies that are directed against Neu5Gc. In thecurrent Nature Medicine paper, the scientists found that the humanembry...

Study finds more than one-third of human genome regulated by RNA

...asbeen preserved since the last common ancestor of mammals and chicken,which lived 310 million years ago. "This study is an excellent exampleof the power of comparative genomics to illuminate how human genes areregulated," says Burge."As more genome data becomes available and the technology becomes moresophi...

NYU researchers simulate molecular biological clock

...asbeen preserved since the last common ancestor of mammals and chicken,which lived 310 million years ago. "This study is an excellent exampleof the power of comparative genomics to illuminate how human genes areregulated," says Burge."As more genome data becomes available and the technology becomes moresophi...

Gene therapy converts dead bone graft to new, living tissue

...ng bone." Such a transformation can occur because mammals use their skeletons for both support and as a kind of "calcium bank." If calcium, which is necessary for such important functions as maintaining the brain and heart, runs low, cells called osteoclasts dig out the calcium from our bones. This is why d...

Experiments provide proof of how traveling in groups protects insects

...the many thousands of wildebeests and other hoofed mammals that form herds and migrate across the African plains. Countless millions of Mormon crickets and young locusts also sometimes unite with their own kind and form teeming, hungry islands of life that devour everything in their path that's edible. So...

Experiments provide proof of how traveling in groups protects insects

...the many thousands of wildebeests and other hoofed mammals that form herds and migrate across the African plains. Countless millions of Mormon crickets and young locusts also sometimes unite with their own kind and form teeming, hungry islands of life that devour everything in their path that's edible. So...

Critical role in programmed cell death identified

...r 131 extra cells. Such studies are impractical in mammals because cell death is essential and animals with a cell death defect die. The researchers demonstrated that when they cause worm mitochondria to fragment without instructing cells to die, the cells still die and when they block fragmentation, the ce...

Vampire bats keep out of trouble by running

Although most people think of bats as stealthy mammals that flit about in the night sky, at least one species has evolved a terrestrial trot never before seen in bats, according to a recent Cornell University study. It's known that the common vampire bats of Central and South America behave much more li...

Yale researchers identify molecule for detecting parasitic infection in humans

... unclear which of the 13 different TLRs present in mammals was responsible and which molecule of T. gondii was being recognized by the TLRs. "In this study we found that the recognition of T. gondii by the innate immune system is mediated by a new member of the TLR family, TLR 11, that we discovered last ye...

Wisconsin researchers identify sleep gene

...nifying that the flies were asleep and awake." In mammals the changes produce hallmark waves, or oscillations of groups of neurons, easily detected by EEG. The waves are slower during deep sleep and faster during waking times. One way of getting from the faster to the slower state is by opening ion channels...

Researchers identify protein crucial for survival of Lyme-disease bacterium

...cterium that causes Lyme disease lives in infected mammals and in the midgut of ticks. When an infected tick bites an animal or a human, the bacteria are transmitted to the new host. Infection causes fever, malaise, fatigue, headache, muscle and joint aches, and a characteristic "bull's-eye" rash that surrou...

Buying Time Through Hibernation on Demand

...exactly the same thing that happens naturally when mammals hibernate," said lead investigator Mark Roth, Ph.D.... "We think this may be a latent ability that all mammals have -- potentially even humans -- and we're just harnessing it and turning it on and off, inducing ...

U-M team recovers ancient whale in Egyptian desert

...exactly the same thing that happens naturally when mammals hibernate," said lead investigator Mark Roth, Ph.D.... "We think this may be a latent ability that all mammals have -- potentially even humans -- and we're just harnessing it and turning it on and off, inducing ...

Love's all in the brain: fMRI study shows strong, lateralized reward, not sex, drive

...d activity. These and other data indicate that all mammals may feel attraction to specific partners, and that some of the same brain systems are involved." Study explains second half of Darwin's puzzle, sexual selection & 'eyes of the beholder' "Darwin and many of his intellectual descendants have stud...

Solutions that reduce death of marine life reeled in by International Smart Gear Competition

...ts joined forces and developed gear to help marine mammals detect and avoid gillnets before coming into contact with them, as well as allow them to escape unharmed if they still become entangled. To create avoidable, detectable, safer gear, the team tinkered with the chemical properties of the ropes. A grou...

Small species back-up giant marsupial climate change extinction claim

...ranging from land snails, frogs, lizards and small mammals to giant wombats and kangaroos including many species previously unknown to have occurred in the Darling Downs fossil record. The results suggest that the extinction of Darling Downs megafauna was caused by a massive shift in climate rather than by ...

Scientists journey to southern Africa to unravel the secret world of elephant communication

...o has been observed in elephant seals--huge marine mammals not related to elephants. But O'Connell-Rodwell w...een a few studies focusing on the ability of large mammals to communicate through the ground." Her insights generated international media attention after the ...

Master gene controls healing of skin in fruit flies and mammals

...t and repair of the surface barrier in insects and mammals have been conserved, given the differences in the ...says McGinnis. "So it is remarkable that flies and mammals share an ancient conserved pathway to construct and repair the body envelope that protects them from...

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