Researchers gain ground in efforts to fight parasite infection

...y infectious nematode larva live in the soil, often in areas where proper sanitation is lacking. According to the World Health Organization, parasitic nematodes infect about 2 billion people worldwide and severely sicken some 300 million, at least 50 percent of whom are school-age children. The results poin...

Turn the Corner Foundation Rings in Lyme Disease Awareness Month Early at NYSE on April 23, 2009

... and other tick-borne diseases. In 2008, Turn the Corner granted over $450,000 for several exciting research projects, including studies on biofilms, nematodes and antibiotic therapy for chronic Lyme patients. These studies continue into the 2009 year, with promising initial results. To address the challenges...

New devices to boost nematode research on neurons and drugs

...h soft lithography, should boost research in which nematodes are studied to explore brain-behavior connections ...s) that measure barely a millimeter in length. The nematodes move normally, but slightly compressed so that hig..., researchers had to show that the behavior of the nematodes is essentially normal in the new devices, meaning ...

The onchocerciasis parasite showing signs of resistance

...ectin, a medicine capable of killing the parasite embryos (the microfilariae) circulating in the organism of patients and temporarily interrupting the nematodes reproduction, is the only treatment used for onchocerciasis control. Since 1995, the African Programme for Onchocerciasis Control (APOC) has been cove...

Proton-powered pooping

... all animals do, says Davis. Nematodes, or Caenorhabditis elegans, have about 1,000 cells and are simple animals studied by researchers worldwide. nematodes have many of the same tissues nerves, muscle and intestine that are found in humans, and most of the same genes, making the worm a model for studyin...

Could Hydrogen Sulfide Hold the Key to A Long Life?

...pects to that of humans. For example, like humans, nematodes have a central nervous system and the ability to r.... The researchers found, to their surprise, that nematodes that were raised in a carefully controlled atmosph...c mechanisms that influence H2S-induced changes in nematodes may reveal similar mechanisms in higher organisms,...

Worm Study Points to Sexuality's Origins

...t bacteria, have the same genes as many other animals and are often used as models for human research. It's difficult to say what these findings in nematodes mean in terms of human sexual orientation, but "it raises the possibility that sexual preference is wired in the brain," Jorgensen said. "Humans are s...

Parasites a key to the decline of red colobus monkeys in forest fragments

...arasites and nutrition playing key roles. The researchers focused on two nematodes known to cause significant pathology in monkeys: a whipworm, (Trichuris sp....ture in the intestines, where they can cause blockages or other damage. The nematodes migrate through blood vessels, causing inflammation, organ damage and, some...

Bacterial Protein Shows Promise in Treating Intestinal Parasites

...ential emergence of resistance in human intestinal nematodes to currently available medicines. “There are... years ago that the roundworm C. elegans and other nematodes are susceptible to the effects of Cry5B, then know... forms tiny holes in the membranes of the cells of nematodes and insects. However, since the toxin can’t bind t...

Nematodes in Medical Dictionary

Toxocariasis

...only reported zoonotic helminth ... Epilepsy and seizure diagnosis, treatment, and information for Professionals ... Toxocariasis is caused by nematodes of the genus Toxocara. ... Causal Agent, Life Cycle, and Geographic Distribution ... Toxocariasis is caused by larvae of Toxocara canis (dog rou...

Nematode

... nematode species. A mass of information on nematodes , their study, surveys, agricultural issues, identification and systematics. ... except the nematodes were swept away, ... nematodes are structurally simple organisms. Adult ...

Hookworm Infection

... ... Ivermectin, used for other worm infections , does not work for hookworm infections . ... Hookworm infections are caused by intestinal nematodes (roundworms), with most ... Elimination of hookworm infection in a population would reduce levels of anemia ... Hookworms are parasites wh...

Hookworm

...and subtropics, ... A hookworm is any of a number of small, parasitic nematodes (roundworms) of the ... aspects of hookworm infections. 9 References ... ...mpair physical and ... Hookworm infections are caused by intestinal nematodes (roundworms), with most ... As human hookworm larvae migrate through the ...

Nematodes in Biological News

Caltech researchers find dual-use sexual attraction and population-control chemicals in nematodes

PASADENA, Calif.--Organisms ranging from humans to plants to the lowliest bacterium use molecules to communicate. Some chemicals trigger the various stages of an organism's development, and still others are used to attract members of the opposite sex. Researchers at the California Institute of Tec...

Restoring a natural root signal helps to fight a major corn pest

...ophyllene from their roots. The substance attracts nematodes that attack and kill larvae of the Western corn ro...ound that maize roots attacked by rootworm attract nematodes by releasing (E)-beta-caryophyllene (EβC). On...946;C signal greatly enhanced the effectiveness of nematodes in controlling Western corn rootworm", Hiltpold re...

Nematode courting caught on camera

...tatory neurotransmitter acetylcholine in regulating tail muscles to achieve an exploratory embrace. The video shows an intimate moment between two nematodes of the species Caenorhabditis elegans . As the hermaphrodite does not actively co-operate in mating, it is up to the male to make and maintain the ne...

Snails and humans use same genes to tell right from left

...ave assumed that fruit flies and all other non-deuterostomes - snails included - use some other mechanism to establish right and left. Fruit flies and nematodes are in the clade Ecdysozoa, while snails and worms are members of the clade Lophotrochozoa. Grande approached Patel four years ago to collaborate i...

DOE Joint Genome Institute completes soybean genome

...ospective genome pathways of interest are those that directly influence yield, oil and protein content, as well as drought tolerance and resistance to nematodes and diseases such as the water mold Phytophthora sojae, previously sequenced by DOE JGI, which causes stem and root rot of soybean. In 2007, soybe...

Parasite-resistant peppers green alternatives to chemical pesticides

... CHARLESTON, SCRoot-knot nematodes are extreme parasites. These microscopic, omnipres...g was the primary method for controlling root-knot nematodes in valuable vegetable crops. Methyl bromide (MeBr)... in the U.S. To combat parasites like root-knot nematodes without the use of chemical pesticides, scientists...

Worm genome offers clues to evolution of parasitism

...one millimeter long and can be found in every ecosystem on Earth. Parasitic nematodes can infect humans as well as animals and plants. One nematode in partic... parasitic nematodes. According to the World Health Organization, parasitic nematodes infect about 2 billion people worldwide and severely sicken some 300 millio...

NC State researchers get to root of parasite genome

...ey facet to making M. hapla the premier model species for plant-parasitic nematodes is the development of a genetic map by our colleague, Dr. Valerie Williamso...uenced allows you to not only know what's there, but to compare it to other nematodes to see what's missing from this genome," Bird says. "Finding potential Achi...

Insight into the evolution of parasitism

...08) With well over a million different species, nematodes are the largest group in the animal kingdom. The w...the carcasses of these beetles after they die. The nematodes therefore use the beetles as a mobile habitat that..., the nematodes' habitat changes dramatically. The nematodes have to protect themselves against toxic substance...

ISU researchers help map first plant-parasitic nematode genome sequence

... AMES, Iowa -- There are numerous plant-parasitic nematodes in the world, but only a handful are responsible f...illion in agricultural damage globally every year. nematodes are small worms that burrow into plant roots and f...ution to the genome sequence project. Root-knot nematodes are so important because they can be found almost ...

Nematodes in Biological Technology

Combating infection of crops by nematodes is soon to improve

Nematodes Nematodes are small worms. Some species are plant-parasitic and infect plants including important agricultural crops. The typical symptoms of a nematode-infection are withering, seriously retarded growth, and impaired development of flower and fruit. Severely infected plants often do ...

Transformation of Nematodes With the Helios Gene Gun

Peter Jackstadt 1 , Horst Zahner 2 and Gerd Hobom 1 , 1 Institut fr Mikrobiologie und Molekularbiologie der Justus-Liebig Universitt Gieen, Frankfurter Str. 107, D-35392, Gieen, 2 Institut fr Parasitologie der Justus-Liebig-Universitt Gieen, Rudolf-Buchheim-Str. 2, D-35392 Gie...

Pasteuria Bioscience Receives EPA Registration for Nematode Control

...ty of Nematology and other organizations estimate global crop losses due to nematodes at $100 billion annually making it agriculture's largest unmet pest control... the future of this technology as an important tool to help growers control nematodes in a variety of crops and regions of world," said Duncan. About Pa...

Divergence Receives $1.2 Million in Grants, Including NSF Grant to Fund Continuing Nematode Research in Corn

...corn. The Phase II grant, "Control of Lesion nematodes by RNA Interference," is part of NSF's Small ...llions of dollars in crop damage annually. Lesion nematodes are prevalent in the Corn Belt and appear to be in...DA $80,000 Phase I Grants for control of root knot nematodes and fungal infections in plants. Additionally, ...

Life sticks: UC San Diego bioengineer's sticky insights published in journal Science

... together and responding to forces that causes common form and function to emerge. For example, even though the cells within bacteria, fungi, sponges, nematodes and humans do not use exactly the same proteins to stick together, all of these organisms rely on fundamental components of cell-cell adhesions for su...

Growing old together: Yeast, worms and people may age by similar mechanisms

...norhabditis elegans , to identify genes that may regulate aging in humans. nematodes and humans are more similar to each other on an evolutionary scale than nematodes and yeast, explains Dr. Erica Smith, primary author of the study. We reaso...

Montana State University lab gives early warnings about biological invaders

...command," which allows confidentiality until a pest has been confirmed, Burrows says. Why confidentiality" Take the example of pale and golden cyst nematodes of potatoes, pests that have been identified in areas neighboring Montana (the pale cyst nematode in Idaho and the golden cyst nematode in Alberta) bu...

Pasteuria Bioscience Taps New CEO David N. Duncan

...from a research to a development and production company," said Jorg Riesmeier, Partner at LSP BioVentures and Pasteuria board member. Plant-parasitic nematodes are agriculture's largest unmet pest problem. These microscopic worms attack plant roots, causing an estimated $100 billion in worldwide crop damage a...

Biolistic Gene Transfer to Generate Transgenic Schistosomes, Rev A

...arasitol 119, 117119 (2002) Jackstadt P et al., Transformation of nematodes with the Helios gene gun, Bio-Rad bulletin 2433 Jackstadt P et al., Transformation of nematodes via ballistic DNA transfer, Mol Biochem Parasitol 1032, 261266 (...

RNA Interference and Gene Silencing: History and Overview

... href="#8">8 ). From work done in nematodes and flies, we now know that the trans-acting ... RNA Interference RNAi Is Discovered in nematodes The first evidence that dsRNA could lead to gen... inspired Fire and Timmons to try feeding nematodes bacteria that had been engineered to express dsRNA...

Nematodes in Biological Definition

Alternative splicing

...when using the protein biosynthesis apparatus. When the pre-mRNA has been transcribed from the DNA , it includes several introns and exons . In nematodes , the mean is 4-5 exons and introns; in the fruit fly Drosophila there are more than 100 introns and exons in one transcribed pre-mRNA. But what i...

Carnivore

..., Reduviidae and other insects There are also several species of carnivorous plants , though most are primarily insectivorous , some digest nematodes and other small invertebrates . Many dinosaurs and other extinct animals were carnivores, for example the well known Tyrannosaurus rex and ...

Centromere

...n the yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe (and likely in other eukaryotes) the formation of centromeric heterochromatin is connected to RNAi * . In nematodes such as Caenorhabditis elegans and in some plants, chromosomes are "holocentric" indicating that there is not a primary site of microtubule attachment...

Cilium

...sparse and long. The name cilium may also be used to emphasize their differences from bacterial flagella. Cilia are found in all animals, although nematodes and arthropods only have non-motile cilia on some sensory nerve cells. Cilia are rare in plants occurring most notably in cycads . Protozoans ( ...

Human Genome Project

...nt developments in biology and medicine are predicted as a result of the sequencing of model organisms including mice, fruitflies, zebrafish, yeast, nematodes and many microbial organisms and parasites. In October 2004 , researchers of the HGP announced a new estimate of 20,000 to 25,000 genes in the ...

Operon

...oter , and one or more structural genes that are controlled as a unit to produce messenger RNA (mRNA). Operons occur primarily in prokaryotes and nematodes . They were first described by Franois Jacob and Jacques Monod in 1961 . The operon as a unit of transcription An operon is a unit of ...

Nematodes in Biological Dictionary

Sequencing

... (Apis mellifera) ... The Sanger Institute undertakes a number of large scale sequencing projects that range from complex vertebrates through nematodes and invertebrates to bacteria. ... Danio rerio Sequencing Project: ... C57BL/6J Mouse Sequencing : 5 times coverage of the genome of mouse ...

RNAi

...cts, news, events, and other websites. RNA interference ( RNAi ) or post-transcriptional gene silencing (PTGS) is a ... RNAi Is Discovered in nematodes ... these models, RNAi includes both initiation ... Gene silencing by RNA interference ( RNAi ) literature and resources using selected links o...

Genome projects

... to probe its ... The Sanger Institute undertakes a number of large scale sequencing projects that range from complex vertebrates through nematodes and invertebrates to bacteria. ... An initiative dedicated to using the human genome sequence and high throughput mutation-detection techni...