Tag: "spurs" at biology news

Hormone helps mice 'hibernate,' survive starvation

...r receptor that controls the use of fat as energy, spurs a metabolic shift to burning stored fats instead of carbohydrates and induces a hibernation-like state of decreased body temperature and physical activity, all geared to promote survival. “This hormone changes the metabolism and behavior of mice i...

Columbine flowers develop long nectar spurs in response to pollinators

...ight account for the evolution of very long nectar spurs in flowers, said Hodges. "In Darwin's race, plants with the longest spurs and pollinators with the longest tongues [to tap the flowers' nectar] would be favored by natural se...

'Guardian of the genome' protein found to underlie skin tanning

...taches to nearby skin cells called melanocytes and spurs them to produce skin-darkening pigment called melanin. The chain of events within keratinocytes that leads to alpha-MSH production, however, was a mystery. Investigators knew that alpha-MSH is created when another protein, known as pro-opiomelanoc...

Key to zebrafish heart regeneration uncovered

...nd the protective cell layer that covers the wound spurs the regeneration of functional new heart tissue, Duke University Medical Center scientists have found. The scientists further discovered that key growth factors facilitate the interaction between the cell mass and the protective covering, encouragin...

Scientists aim to thwart use of flu as bioweapon

... winner Peter Doherty, Ph.D., an expert on how flu spurs the immune system to defend itself against the infection. Doherty's technical talk on the roles of specific types of T-cells in influenza will be at 1:30 p.m. Friday, June 23, at the Rochester Marriott Airport Hotel on West Ridge Road. The lecture is...

Two designer drugs hit same lung cancer target, but only one is effective

...the overexpressed, or overactive, EGFR signal that spurs growth in several types of cancer. In some forms of the disease, including lung cancer of the non-small-cell type, and colorectal cancer, the abnormal signals are generated by a normal EGFR molecule. In a small percentage of patients with non-small-c...

Beyond genes: Lipid helps cell wall protein fold into proper shape

...holesterol cousins, include a phosphate group that spurs them to form a bilayer with water-friendly outer layers sandwiching an impermeable water-unfriendly inner layer that defines the outer surface of cells. Transport of nutrients and waste material across the cell membrane is then governed by the specif...

Rats infected as newborns grew up vulnerable to memory problems during an immune challenge

...d brain markers of the immune response. Because it spurs an immune response without live bacteria, LPS helps to reveal how the immune system works on its own, without the complication of side effects. The team found that E. coli-infected pups later injected with LPS had significantly lower concentrations ...

TEL2 gene cooperates with MYC gene to provoke B-cell lymphomas

...the level of MYC expression. Excess MYC expression spurs the cells to proliferate. This abnormal behavior then triggers p53 to instruct these overzealous cells to undergo apoptosis. However, such rogue cells can still become fully cancerous if they succeed in eliminating p53 activity, in effect silencing ...

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