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Tag: "shell" at biology news

Studies to find better ways to preserve human eggs, ovarian tissue under way

...ikely since freezing often hardens the egg’s outer shell that sperm must penetrate. “That is why we have tried to develop technology without freezing,” says Dr. Song, who has pioneered use of vitrification in blood vessels, cartilage and heart valves. Vitrification, which takes tissue from room tempe...

Protein enables discovery of quantum effect in photosynthesis

...nia at Berkeley. The protein's moniker? The taco shell protein. Taco shell protein It's called bacteriochlorophyl (BChl) a protein, but Blankenship fondly calls it the tac...

Rare soft-shell turtle, nesting ground found in Cambodia

...this particular species.? Instead of an exterior shell commonly associated with turtles, the Cantor’s giant softshell turtle has a rubbery skin with ribs fused together to form a protective layer over the internal organs. To protect itself from predators, the turtle spends 95 percent of its life hidden i...

The connector rotation hypothesis? Phage do not pack their DNA by rotation

...ust pack the DNA genome into the virus's preformed shell (the capsid). How it manages this intricate feat h...e, but we know that the DNA passes into the capsid shell through a channel formed by a structure called the connector. Scientists have speculated that rotati...

Weighty viruses

...r how many building blocks are used to make up the shell of the virus or how many copies of the genetic material it contains. These highly precise measurements were made possible by the special structure of the ion trap; instead of a classic quadrupole ion trap, Chang and co-workers chose to use a cylin...

HIV gets a makeover

...alled TRIM5 that, in monkeys, recognizes the outer shell or "capsid" of HIV-1 but not that of SIV. By swapping out the capsid region of the HIV-1 genome for that of the monkey virus, and then selectively growing the viruses that replicated most robustly, over several generations Hatziioannou created an HIV...

Sandia researchers discover way to see how a drug attaches to a cell

...res remain intact. The thickness of the platinum shell around the sphere can be controlled by reducing or increasing the amount of the platinum salt placed into the solution. Shelnutt sees many potential applications for this process, including "nanotagging" biological structures such as drug molecules...

Engineer ramps up protein production, develops versatile viral spheres

... viral capsids. The capsids are based on the outer shell of a naturally occurring virus that infects E. coli bacteria. They are formed when 180 copies of the same protein assemble into a nanoscale soccer ball. "We think these little spheres, 27 nanometers in diameter, will form the basis for a new class ...

Extraordinary life found around deep-sea gas seeps

...ite bacterial mats. Most sites also had extensive shell beds consisting of live and dead shells of various types of clams and mussels. These were fringed with stands of another type of deep-sea tube worm that is also gutless and relies on symbiotic bacteria for its nutrition. Corals and, at two of the sit...

Bacteria that use radiated water as food

...ansion of Earth's biosphere, the three-dimensional shell that encompasses all planetary life. The research has less Earthly implications, however. It will likely fuel optimism that life exists in other deep subsurface environments, such as in groundwater beneath the permafrost on Mars. "We know surpris...

Steep oxygen decline halted first land colonization by Earth's sea creatures

...by respiratory efficiency. For instance, a mollusk shell is typically thought of as protection for the marine creature, he said, but it turns out the shell actually channels water across the gill to deliver oxygen. "An unshelled mollusk has a far greate...

Microcapsules like it hot and salty

...ich exactly describes the processes in the polymer shell of the capsules. This means that is possible to p... substance through to the inside. Then the capsule shell must be sealed to enclose the contents so that they can be released at the location where they are t...

Tweedle coat fashions stocky flies

...ompressed. "It's not a trivial matter to put a shell on from the inside," explained Steven Wasserman, a professor of biology who headed the research team. "An insect needs to build up the flexibility, strength and shape of each part before sealing the outside. If you've ever peeled a golf ball, you r...

Mussels evolve quickly to defend against invasive crabs

...cribes them as "more worldly" ?expressed inducible shell thickening in the presence of Hemigrapsus. "The mussel's inducible response to H. sanguineus reflects natural selection favoring the recognition of this novel predator through rapid evolution of cue specifity or thresholds," Freeman and Byers writ...

Bubbles go high-tech to fight tumors

...acts like a pin popping a water balloon. After the shell pops, the perfluorocarbon expands into a gas bubble that is approximately 125 times larger in volume than the droplet. "If a bubble remained spherical its diameter would be much larger than that of the vessel," Bull said. "So it deforms into a long...

UF scientists restore sight to chickens with blinding disease

...en embryo through a tiny hole in the eggshell. The shell was resealed and the egg was incubated to hatching to produce a live chick. "The process sounds straightforward but it really isn't," Semple-Rowland said. "It took quite a long time to build the vector, develop the injection procedure and figure out...

How satellite tracking revealed the migratory mysteries of endangered Atlantic loggerhead turtles

...ns. Satellite transmitter tags are attached to the shell of the turtle so that every time the turtle surfaces to breathe, the tag transmits the turtle's position, as well as other information (e.g. depth and duration of dives), to satellites orbiting above, which then relay the data by e-mail to the comput...

Carnegie Mellon researchers discover new cell properties

...Progeria Syndrome (HGPS) have an excessively stiff shell of proteins. The nucleus in all three trillion ce... DNA genome, which is wrapped with a stiff protein shell called the nuclear lamina. Children with HGPS have a mutation in one of the proteins of the lamina s...

UF scientists test improved gene therapy method for hereditary heart conditions

... in people, Byrne said. It also has a unique outer shell that helps it break through blood vessel walls so it can be readily taken up by cells requiring repair. The scientists also modified AAV-9 to contain copies of a therapeutic gene that pumps out an enzyme missing in a mouse model for Pompe disease. ...

Rice scientists make first nanoscale pH meter

... of non-conducting silica that's covered by a thin shell of metal, usually gold. Many times smaller than living cells, nanoshells can be produced with great precision and the metal shells can be tuned to absorb or scatter specific wavelengths of light. To form the pH sensor, Halas' team coated the nanoshe...

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