germ in Biological News

Study of planarians offers insight into germ cell development

The planarian is not as well known as other, more widely used subjects of scientific study ?model creatures such as the fruit fly, nematode or mouse. But University of Illinois cell and developmental biology professor Phillip Newmark thinks it should be. As it turns out, the tiny, seemingly cross-e...

New research: Soy germ isoflavones reduce bone loss

A new study published in this month's European Journal of Nutrition demonstrates a strong correlation between reducing bone loss in non-obese postmenopausal women and the dose-dependent effect of soy germ isoflavones, particularly SoyLife®. These findings support previous scientific findings regard...

Flu not the only germ threat this time of year

The flu hasn't even hit hard yet this year, but it seems like everyone's getting sick. What's the deal? Simply put, there are a lot more infectious invaders besides the flu to worry about. They don't get the big headlines, but they still knock people down for days or weeks and cause thousands of ...

Protecting cells from their neighbors

...ation of cells that will become sperm and ovules - germ cells-, from the remaining cells, which will be re...at protects somatic cells against the behaviour of germ cells. When this mechanism fails, the embryo dies....ity to initiate development, with the exception of germ cells which are totally inert and repressed. The D...

Parasites ready to jump

...h highly efficient mechanisms of defence have evolved. For instance, in the germ cells, which are required for reproduction, the system of so-called piRNAs ...em usually leads to a drastic reduction in the fertility of the progeny. germ cells are an ideal target for transposons, since these cells pass their gen...

The tiny difference in the genes of bacteria

...us Vibrio, is Vibrio parahaemolyticus. It is a highly contagious pathogenic germ with only a dozen ingested bacteria causing severe diarrhoea. This strain i...sea water. With this method, we are able to say from which clam species the germ originates." The new technique can also be used to characterize other bacte...

The tiny difference in the genes of bacteria

...us Vibrio, is Vibrio parahaemolyticus. It is a highly contagious pathogenic germ with only a dozen ingested bacteria causing severe diarrhoea. This strain i...sea water. With this method, we are able to say from which clam species the germ originates." The new technique can also be used to characterize other bacte...

Stem cell protein offers a new cancer target

... cancerous state, and that it is abundant in a variety of advanced human cancers, particularly liver cancer, ovarian cancer, chronic myeloid leukemia, germ cell tumors and Wilm's tumor (a childhood kidney cancer). They believe that overall, LIN28 and a related protein, LIN28B, may be involved in some 15 p...

Penn researchers discover genetic risk factor for testicular cancer

... problems. "Researchers have postulated testicular cancer was a disorder of germ cell development or maturation, and they were right," she says. "The KITLG gene is critical for germ cell development and maturation." ...

Can happiness be inherited?

...nd sperm), the cells that ultimately produce the next generation. Such natural chemicals could affect the way that specific genes are expressed in the germ cells, and hence how a child develops. In his article in the latest issue of Bioscience Hypotheses , Dr Alberto Halabe Bucay of Research Center Ha...

Study finds blood cells can be reprogrammed to act as embryonic stem cells

...develop. These differentiated cells expressed genes for all three embryonic germ layers (the tissues from which all other tissue types in the body develop) ...well-differentiated teratomas, benign masses containing all three embryonic germ layers, including respiratory, bone, and neural tissue. "Not only has th...

Small RNAs can play critical roles in male infertility/contraception

...se small RNAs have critical roles in chromosome inactivation and also in sperm formation. "The sex chromosome silencing in meiotic male germ cells is a well-known phenomenon, which has been termed meiotic sex chromosome inactivation. I was surprised when we first observed that numerous micr...

Gutsy germs succumb to baby broccoli

... H. pylori -induced inflammation and gastritis. Classified a carcinogen by the World Health Organization, H. pylori is a gastrointestinal tract germ that manages to thrive in the lining of the stomach despite the strength of natural acids there that rival that of car batteries. Afflicting several...

Therapeutic cloning gets a boost with new research findings

... San Antonio germ cells, the cells which give rise to a mammal's spe...g. It is known in the scientific community that germ cells contain an epigenome, a programmed state of .... They suggest this type of epigenome is found in germ cells because those cells are responsible for cont...

Texas Medical Center researchers win collaborative grants

...times. "We are only sorry there isn't enough money there to fund more projects." Unraveling mysteries of tuberculosis Why does the tuberculosis germ make some people gravely ill and leave others untouched? That's what intrigues Margaret Goodell, Katherine King and Catherine Bollard of Texas Childre...

Uncultured bacteria found in amniotic fluids of women who experience preterm births

...ng is not finding all bacteria present in the amniotic fluid, this calls for new detection methods," Han said. "It is also important to identify which germ is causing the infection and inflammation leading to preterm birth so that antibiotics are initiated early in this pathophysicological chain of events...

Recipe for capturing authentic embryonic stem cells may apply to any mammal, study suggests

... stem cells go on to contribute to a normal embryo with cells of two origins, Ying explained. Because those embryonic stem cells can contribute to the germ line, any genetic alterations they carry such as the loss or gain of a gene--can be passed on to the next generation. The versatility of embryonic ...

Caltech researchers get first look at how groups of cells coordinate their movements

... layer of cells in the early embryo--relative to the cells in the ectoderm, or outer layer of cells. (The endoderm, the innermost of the three primary germ cell layers, has not yet formed at this stage of development.) The researchers used a technique called two-photon excited fluorescence imaging to g...

December 2008 highlights from Biology of Reproduction

...ulogenic processes. Youngsok Choi, Daniel Yuan, and Aleksandar Rajkovic. germ Cell-Specific Transcriptional Regulator Sohlh2 Is Essential for Early Mo...s to determine the C57BL/6J alleles modifying gonadal sex determination and germ cell fate. Nonetheless, the collective studies to date highlight the import...

Research identifies type of vaccine that holds promise in protecting against TB

...of immunobiology at Saint Louis University School of Medicine and lead author of the study. The investigational vaccine is made from a weakened TB germ from one of the strains of the current tuberculosis vaccine, which was created more than 75 years ago. The new "recombinant" vaccine uses an antigen ...

Yamanaka eliminates viral vector in stem cell reprogramming

...scientists transplanted the cells under the skin of immunocompromised mice. The resulting tumors contained a wide variety of cell types from all three germ layers. iPS cells injected into embryos resulted in chimeric mice with the injected cells contributing to almost all cell types. Still, other prob...

October 2008 Biology of Reproduction highlights

...l sperm. These data, together with other recent publications, suggest complex roles for microRNAs and their processing enzymes in both male and female germ cells and promise much interesting work to come. Danielle M. Maatouk, Kate L. Loveland, Michael T. McManus, Karen Moore, and Brian D. Harfe. Dic...

NIH EUREKA award funds research at WPI aimed at turning adult skin cells into stem-like cells

...reated cells will also be tested for their ability to form all three of the germ layers that develop early in the formation of an embryo. The germ layers go on to form all of the many tissue types in the body. This is a co...

New and revised limits ensure safety in the workplace

... is known to be a carcinogen and is able to modify germ cells. Following a comparison with the so-called e...ther a workplace substance causes cancer, modifies germ cells and therefore jeopardises reproduction, whet...ct. For example the fungicide thiabendazol changes germ cells, but the MAK value of 20 mg/m protects again...

W.M. Keck Foundation grant funds reproductive science research

...rchase a custom-built scanning transmission electron microscope with multiple detectors for quantitative images of the inorganic elements in the mouse germ cells. No existing microscope can do this. Furthermore, the movement and flux of these ions will be tracked in live cells using confocal microscopy. N...

Compound that helps rice grow reduces nerve, vascular damage from diabetes

...wn rice. Unlike white rice, less-processed brown rice still has some of the germ or growth structure that, after about 24 hours in water, resumes activity. ... have shown the lipid has a more powerful impact on HTase activity. The germ layer activated by soaking brown rice contains many vitamins and minerals i...

Zooming in on genetic shuffling

...exually reproducing organisms shuffle their genetic material when producing germ cells, leads to offspring with a new genetic make-up and influences the cou...he tracking of disease genes and their inheritance. In order to generate germ cells, sexually reproducing organisms undergo a complex series of cell divi...

Human embryonic stem cells developed from 4-cell embryo; world first may lessen ethical concerns

... other which makes them more difficult to manipulate. At this early stage important decisions are taken: inner cells will become the foetus (including germ cells) and outer cells will become trophoblast (the outermost layer of the embryo that attaches to the wall of the uterus and serves as a nutritive pa...

American Chemical Society's Weekly PressPac -- July 2, 2008

...Super strong antimicrobial coatings for medicine, defense Nano Letters One of the world' strongest materials meets one of Nature's most powerful germ killers in a new research project that produced incredibly tough anti-bacterial surfaces with multiple applications in home appliances, medicine, aero...

Spradling receives Gruber Foundation Genetics Prize for new genetic techniques

...d the knowledge of egg production in the ovary. He discovered how groups of germ cells work together to enable some of them to develop into functional eggs....ages of reproduction. He extended these insights from the fly to the mouse. germ cells are the ultimate stem cells, and Spradling's discoveries of their int...

No sex, but plenty of gene transfer

...nome is a good question. Typically in animals, the germ linethe heritable egg and sperm cellsare protected...ich are not heritable and serve to "sequester" the germ line. Ideas on why the bdelloids' germ line is so exposed to environmental exchange, Arkh...

2 University of Illinois researchers named HHMI investigators

...igued biologists what are the signals or cues that tell a cell to become a germ cell? He hopes to answer that question by studying the ways planarians develop and regenerate their germ cells. The department is delighted and proud of Dr. Newmarks selection a...

Oocyte-specific gene mutations cause premature ovarian failure

...st likely to function in the ovary. A gene mutation does not totally halt gene activity, but Rajkovic believes it can accelerate the loss of eggs (or germ cells). When all the eggs are lost, the ovaries stop producing estrogen, leading to menopause symptoms. In this study, Rajkovic and his collaborat...

American Chemical Society's Weekly PressPac -- April 16, 2008

...ydrogel has been modified by the addition of wheat germ agglutinin tethers, or anchors, that allow it to i...hrinks and releases insulin. The addition of wheat germ agglutinin, a type of sticky plant sugar, allows t... MTS ARTICLE #1 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Wheat germ Agglutinin Functionalized Complexation Hydrogels f...

Excellence in open access research celebrated at BioMed Central awards dinner

...ith growth-hormone secreting pituitary adenoma, colonic polyposis, lipomatosis, lentigines and renal carcinoma in association with familial testicular germ cell malignancy: A case report' Journal of Medical Case Reports BioMed Central Publisher Matthew Cockerill said We are delighted with the diversit...

Pharmaceutical breakthrough may make a range of drugs cheaper and more available

... proteins, the researchers used radiation to kill a portion of a male goats germ cells (the cells that produce sperm). Then they used a modified adeno-assoc...to insert a gene in the remaining cells. Once the new gene took hold in the germ cells, a predictable number of female offspring produced the desired protei...

Molecular Biology of the Cell celebrates 25 years of publication

... V. Cells in Their Social Context 19. Cell Junctions, Cell Adhesion, and the Extracellular Matrix 20. Cancer 21. Sexual Reproduction: Meiosis, germ Cells, and Fertilization 22. Development of Multicellular Organisms 23. Specialized Tissues, Stem Cells, and Tissue Renewal 24. Pathogens, Infecti...

USC researchers explore genetic causes for male infertility

...gest that the underlying mechanism for these epigenetic changes may be improper erasure of DNA methylation during epigenetic reprogramming of the male germ line. If we can identify what causes these changes to the sperm DNA, then we might be able to prevent certain types of male infertility, concludes...

Simple recipe turns human skin cells into embryonic stem cell-like cells

...hey showed that the converted human cells could differentiate to form three germ layers in cell culture. Those primary germ layers in embryos eventually give rise to all the bodys tissues and organs....

Handbook helps parents deal with childhood infections

...y from Infections, released this week by ASM Press, is the inside source on germ defense from antibiotics and vaccines to health foods and home remedies. ...icroscopic danger, where can concerned parents turn to protect their kids" germ Proof Your Kids guides them in protecting, without overprotecting, the ones...