Sexually in Biological News

Scientists demonstrate feasibility of preventing malaria parasite from becoming sexually mature

Researchers have demonstrated the possibility of preventing the human malaria parasite, Plasmodium falciparum, which is responsible for more than a million malaria deaths a year, from becoming sexually mature. The discovery could have implications for controlling the spread of drug resistance...

Scientists sequence genome of parasite responsible for common sexually transmitted infection

Researchers have decoded the genetic makeup of the parasite that causes trichomoniasis, one of the most common sexually transmitted infections (STIs), revealing potential clues as to why the parasite has become increasingly drug resistant and suggesting possible pathways for new treatments, diagnos...

1/3 of sexually active older adults with HIV/AIDs has unprotected sex

One out of three sexually active older adults infected with HIV has unprotected sex, according to a study by Ohio University researchers. A survey of 260 HIV-positive older adults found that of those having sex, most were male, took Viagra and were in a relationship. AIDs cases among the over-50 ...

Teens unaware of sexually transmitted diseases until they catch one, Carnegie Mellon study finds

Most sexually active teenage girls know relatively little about sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) until it is too late, according to a paper by Carnegie Mellon University researchers that will be published in the January edition of the Journal of Adolescent Health. "For the most part kids lear...

High rates of sexually transmitted infections found in young drug users

Researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and other institutions found high rates of herpes simplex virus 2 and syphilis among young drug users in Baltimore, Md. The study found that women had significantly higher rates compared to their male counterparts, but did not find ...

New study: Sexually transmitted disease treatment can be effectively administered by sex partners

Effective control of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) requires treatment of the sexual partners of infected patients. A new study shows that providing infected men with antibiotics to give their partners is more effective than traditional means of contacting and treating the partners, according...

Female sex hormones play a vital role in defense against sexually transmitted diseases

Two McMaster University studies, to be published in the Journal of Virology, show that sex hormones have a profound effect on susceptibility of female mice to the herpes simplex virus, type 2 (HSV-2 ), one of the most common sexually transmitted diseases. Charu Kaushic, assistant professor and s...

Parasitic worms make sex worthwhile

...ing a host for the next generation of worm larvae. The scientists observed that the snails at Alexandrina and Kaniere were more likely to reproduce sexually in the lakes' shallows, where ducks can feed, rather than at depth, where ducks rarely go and where parasites are less common. "The parasite can in...

New theory on why male, female lemurs same size

...as they finish mating. The plug is deposited as a liquid protein but quickly hardens and stays in place for a day or two. Since many female lemurs are sexually responsive to males for only one day out of the entire year, the plug serves the purpose of preventing other males from mating with the female, while ...

Sex involved in plant defense

...ate University and Duke University discovered that sexually produced evening primrose plants withstand attacks...9 different species 85 percent of which reproduce sexually with the remainder reproducing asexually to gauge...er just one kind of food were more apt to munch on sexually reproduced species of plant. This most likely occu...

Male seahorses like big mates

...t-bellied seahorse (Hippocampus abdominalis), concentrating on the importance of partner body size in mate selection. A total of 10 female and 16 male sexually mature seahorses, obtained from a captive breeding facility in Tasmania, took part in the experiment. Individuals of both sexes were presented with po...

NIH expands Human Microbiome Project; funds sequencing centers and disease projects

...versity, Richmond Vagina: Bacterial Vaginosis and sexually Transmitted Diseases $1 million This study will...polis Male urethra: Puberty, Sexual Activity and sexually Transmitted Diseases $820,000 Samples will be...e and its relation to puberty, sexual activity and sexually transmitted disease. Claire M. Fraser-Liggett,...

UTSA wins San Antonio Area Foundation grant to further chlamydia research

...role of CD8-positive T-cells in chlamydia infections. Chlamydia, caused by the bacterium Chlamydia trachomatis, is the nation's most common bacterial sexually transmitted disease. Nearly 2.8 million new chlamydia cases are reported each year in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Contr...

Bullies have harassed 14 percent of workers over past 6 months

...Q-R vary from the subtle, such as "someone has withheld information from you, which has affected your performance" to the most serious, "you have felt sexually harassed" or "you have been threatened with violence or physical abuse". From the data obtained, the researchers tell SINC that 14% of the responde...

Yeast missing sex genes undergo unexpected sexual reproduction

...oyd, Heitman and Reedy explored the question further in a study appearing in the May 14 Current Biology . The major question was: how could the yeast sexually produce spores when they lack so many genes responsible for meiosis, the process of sexual cell division that reduces chromosomes to half their number...

Nanotechnology holds promise for STD drug delivery

...of potential antiviral drugs small interfering RNA (siRNA) molecules that silence genes the first step in development of a new kind of treatment for sexually transmitted diseases (STDs). The work is reported May 4 as an advance online publication of Nature Materials . "RNA interference is a promising ap...

UTSA, Health Science Center collaborate with Merck & Co. to develop chlamydia vaccine

...elop a vaccine for chlamydia, targeting the common sexually transmitted bacterium Chlamydia trachomatis . ...remains present and stable in a high percentage of sexually active individuals. The trio of UT researchers ...vel," Zhong said. "Chlamydia is the most common sexually transmitted disease caused by a bacterium, and the...

The story of X -- evolution of a sex chromosome

...is a tug of war between males jettisoning genes that they find detrimental only to have females put them back, and vice versa. "A good place to put sexually antagonistic genes that are beneficial to one sex but detrimental to the other is on the sex chromosomes," she said. The Y always ends up in the male,...

Genes from tiny marine algae suggest unsuspected avenues for new research

...to this form of reproduction." Simply knowing Micromonas can reproduce sexually could lead to additional discoveries. Worden explains, "Now that we have th...ns for Micromonas . In addition, if we could get Micromonas to reproduce sexually in the lab, we might be able to develop a system for permanently "knocking ...

Early administration of antiretroviral therapy can improve survival

...tional cohorts. One of these is the PISCIS Catalan and Balearic cohort, coordinated by Dr. Jordi Casabona of the Centre for Epidemiologic Studies of sexually Transmitted Diseases and AIDS in Catalonia (CEEISCAT) - Catalan Institute of Oncology (ICO), and by Dr. Josep Mara Mir of the Infectious Diseases De...

Female mammals follow their noses to the right mates

... Lab studies of olfactory signaling, they say, may provide the best evidence for female mate choice in mammals. Unlike birds, many mammal species are sexually active at night. So mammals may be less inclined than birds to base preferences on visual cues. Instead, females of many mammalian species may be more...

Brupbacher prize to Nubia Munoz and Sir Richard Peto

...ary, although not sufficient precondition for the emergence of cervical cancer. This kind of tumour can therefore be seen as the late consequence of a sexually transmitted infection. The work of Nubia Muoz has also made a significant contribution to the development of vaccines initially aimed at combating the...

Reverse evolution in real-time

...e evidence for natural selection on so-called standing genetic variation a process long thought to be operating in natural populations that reproduce sexually but which, until now, had never been demonstrated. The researchers used laboratory-grown populations of fruit fly ( Drosophila melanogaster ), der...

Rice University psychologist finds women's brains recognize, encode smell of male sexual sweat

... magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Nineteen healthy female subjects inhaled olfactory stimuli from four sources, one of which was sweat gathered from sexually aroused males. The research showed that several parts of the brain are involved in processing the emotional value of the olfactory information. The...

Men are red, women are green, Brown researcher finds

...with no signal. Subjects were then asked to decide on the gender of the image, using nothing more than the random shape and color patterns over the sexually ambiguous face as a guide. Tarr describes the effect as a "superstitious hallucination," similar to being in the shower and hearing the doorbell or te...

Innovations in Pediatric Medicine CME conference brings together national pediatrics experts

...Cancer: 50 Years of Progress Dr. Gregory H. Reaman, George Washington University School of Medicine 12:00 12:30 p.m. Prevention and Treatment of sexually Transmitted Diseases in Adolescents Dr. Lawrence Stanberry, Morgan Stanley Children's Hospital of NewYork-Presbyterian and Columbia University Medica...

Individuals vary their immune response according to age, sex and the costs

... to adults, female immune responses matured slowly whereas males showed dramatic variation potentially due to the costs of molting into their colorful sexually dimorphic plumage. Adult males showed little variation in immune response despite changes in resource quality. Likewise, when females laid eggs under ...

Old before their time? Aging in flies under natural vs. laboratory conditions

... Chad Brassil of the University of Nebraska, set out to find out, using the giant Australian stilt-legged fly Telostylinus angusticollis, a beautiful, sexually dimorphic animal that breeds on rotten wood. To identify individual flies in the wild, they wrote codes (combinations of Arabic numerals and Latin and...

How 'secondary' sex characters can drive the origin of species

...s. Evolutionary biologists believe changes in copulatory organ size and shape can spur speciation by making individuals from different populations sexually incompatible. Native to Italy, O. taurus exists in other parts of the world only because of recent human activity. This means, Moczek and Parzer s...

Fish cancer gene linked to pigment pattern that attracts mates

...ing off. Swordtail fish usually live for 1.5 to 2 years in the wild and sexually mature at 4.5 months. The ones with the skin cancer gene can develop melano...t has a huge cost for males." But during the few months when the male is sexually mature and healthy, he also can produce a lot of offspring, he noted. T...

Recurrence of group B strep high in subsequent pregnancies, say UT Houston obstetricians

...ssing through the mother's birth canal. It is normally found in the vagina and/or lower intestine of 10 to 30 percent of all adult women. GBS is not a sexually transmitted disease. Those women who test positive for GBS are considered "colonized." Published in the Aug. 1, issue of Obstetrics and Gynecology...

American Society for Microbiology honors Walter Stamm

...otherapy. Through his professional life, Dr. Stamm has worked with antimicrobial resistance for urinary tract infections, chlamydia infections, and sexually transmitted infections. He is recognized as a leader in the antimicrobial therapy of urinary tract infections and has written guidelines for the ther...

Zooming in on genetic shuffling

... Genetic recombination, the process by which sexually reproducing organisms shuffle their genetic material when producing germ ce...of disease genes and their inheritance. In order to generate germ cells, sexually reproducing organisms undergo a complex series of cell divisions (meiosis) ...

The cormorant -- the 'black plague' or an example of successful species conservation?

...lations have failed. The structure of the cormorant population makes their regulation difficult: "Some of the birds are not breeding in spite of being sexually mature, because they are waiting for the chance to occupy a free nesting spot to be able to provide for their young", explains Sten Zeibig from the UF...

Over 50 percent of oceanic shark species threatened with extinction

...rks and rays are not even recorded. Sharks and rays are particularly vulnerable to overfishing due to their tendency to take many years to become sexually mature and have relatively few offspring. Fishery managers and regional, national and international officials have the opportunity and the obligati...

Key 'impact hunters' catalyze hunting among male chimpanzees

... be a collaborative process. Males were not more likely to hunt for reasons of social bonding, nor was there an association between the presence of a sexually receptive female and an increased likelihood of hunting. ...

New folic acid seal helps women choose enriched grain foods to help prevent birth defects

...M.D., a gynecologist and one of the nation's leading medical voices on women's health issues. Given the number of unplanned pregnancies, if women are sexually active, it is critical that they pay attention to their diet, take a daily multivitamin containing folic acid and consume folic acid-rich foods every ...

Multiple species of bacteria may cause trachoma: Implications for treatment

...s) causes trachoma. The bacteria, some strains of which are associated with sexually transmitted infections, can also pass between people on hands and clothing;...scribed in trachoma-infected eyes but also the type usually associated with sexually transmitted diseases. Also, participants with Chlamidiacae infections of th...

'Swish-and-spit' test accurate for cancer

...pread, and less than a year after diagnosis, many recur. Causes include heavy tobacco and alcohol use. Other head and neck cancers are caused by the sexually transmitted human papillomavirus. ...

The precise role of seminal proteins in sustaining post-mating responses in fruit flies

... Successful reproduction is critical to pass genes to the next generation. In sexually reproducing organisms, sperm enter the female with seminal proteins that are vital for fertility. In a new study published on Friday, December 14, 200...