Biology posts
- March 16, 2010
- 10:09 AM
- 1 view
Remote control of peptide screw sense
by The Curious Wavefunction in The Curious Wavefunction
As is well-known, peptides helices can be right or left handed. Many details of structure, amino acid identity and orientation can control this screw sense, and sometimes the controlling factors can be quite subtle. In a JACS communication, Jonathan Clayden (yes, the co-author of the amazing organic chemistry textbook) and his group uncover a surprising factor that controls the helical screw sense and also incorporate a neat "reporter group" to monitor the screw sense.But this reporter group is ........ Read more »
Solà, J., Helliwell, M., & Clayden, J. (2010) N- versus C-Terminal Control over the Screw-Sense Preference of the Configurationally Achiral, Conformationally Helical Peptide Motif Aib GlyAib . Journal of the American Chemical Society, 2147483647. DOI: 10.1021/ja100662d
- March 16, 2010
- 10:08 AM
- 1 view
Zebrafish used to visualize blood stem cell generation
by Mason Posner in A Fish Eye View
Understanding how blood cells are formed is not only important for developing treatments against numerous diseases, but also teaches us more about the fascinating process of turning stem cells into their specialized descendants. Recent work suggests that the initial stem cell that produces all of our blood’s formed elements (cells) comes in two flavors. But [...]... Read more »
Bertrand, J., Chi, N., Santoso, B., Teng, S., Stainier, D., & Traver, D. (2010) Haematopoietic stem cells derive directly from aortic endothelium during development. Nature, 464(7285), 108-111. DOI: 10.1038/nature08738
Kissa, K., & Herbomel, P. (2010) Blood stem cells emerge from aortic endothelium by a novel type of cell transition. Nature, 464(7285), 112-115. DOI: 10.1038/nature08761
- March 16, 2010
- 07:00 AM
- 8 views
Reducing the negative ecological impacts from biofuel production
by Rob Goldstein in Conservation Maven
... Read more »
Davis, A., Cousens, R., Hill, J., Mack, R., Simberloff, D., & Raghu, S. (2010) Screening bioenergy feedstock crops to mitigate invasion risk. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, 2147483647. DOI: 10.1890/090030
- March 16, 2010
- 06:53 AM
- 9 views
Measles week, part II: Emerging disease
by iayork in Mystery Rays from Outer Space
Symptoms of small pox, scarlet fever, measles, miliary fever, petechiae, rank itch and watery itch.
from Domestic medicine. Or, a treatise on the prevention and cure of diseases, by regimen and simple medicines.
by William Buchan (T. Nelson,London. 1846)
This is part II of “Measles Week”; see Part I for an explanation of what this is about, [...]... Read more »
Grenfell, B., Bjørnstad, O., & Kappey, J. (2001) Travelling waves and spatial hierarchies in measles epidemics. Nature, 414(6865), 716-723. DOI: 10.1038/414716a
Furuse, Y., Suzuki, A., & Oshitani, H. (2010) Origin of measles virus: divergence from rinderpest virus between the 11th and 12th centuries. Virology Journal, 7(1), 52. DOI: 10.1186/1743-422X-7-52
- March 16, 2010
- 05:00 AM
- 10 views
When land managers unintentionally create ecological traps
by Rob Goldstein in Conservation Maven
Sometimes the well-intentioned efforts of land managers can have unintended negative consequences for threatened species. In a new case study, researchers from Israel show how efforts by the national forestry agency to improve scrubland habitat in the Negev desert actually created an ecological trap for a highly endangered, endemic lizard...... Read more »
HAWLENA, D., SALTZ, D., ABRAMSKY, Z., & BOUSKILA, A. (2010) Ecological Trap for Desert Lizards Caused by Anthropogenic Changes in Habitat Structure that Favor Predator Activity. Conservation Biology. DOI: 10.1111/j.1523-1739.2010.01477.x
- March 15, 2010
- 09:03 PM
- 16 views
The Red Queen hypothesis in a glass
by Pablo Astudillo in astu's science blog
What factors predominate in evolution? In daily life, the constant evolution of our lives is influenced by our conditions and by external factors. If I want to build a house with my own hands, I have to consider my abilities, some of which are genetic (I am small, thin and I am not strong, so [...]... Read more »
Benton MJ. (2009) The Red Queen and the Court Jester: species diversity and the role of biotic and abiotic factors through time. Science (New York, N.Y.), 323(5915), 728-32. PMID: 19197051
Paterson S, Vogwill T, Buckling A, Benmayor R, Spiers AJ, Thomson NR, Quail M, Smith F, Walker D, Libberton B.... (2010) Antagonistic coevolution accelerates molecular evolution. Nature, 464(7286), 275-8. PMID: 20182425
Falush D. (2009) Toward the use of genomics to study microevolutionary change in bacteria. PLoS genetics, 5(10). PMID: 19855823
- March 15, 2010
- 08:37 PM
- 13 views
Antennectomizing Ants For Science!
by Jason Goldman in The Thoughtful Animal
Where last we left our heroes of the Tunisian salt pans, we found that desert ants (Cataglyphis fortis) represent direction by using the sun as a compass in combination with a mental clock to correct for the changing position of the sun. Ants represent distance by counting its steps in 3D space, in [...]... Read more »
Steck, K., Hansson, B., & Knaden, M. (2009) Smells like home: Desert ants, Cataglyphis fortis, use olfactory landmarks to pinpoint the nest. Frontiers in Zoology, 6(1), 5. DOI: 10.1186/1742-9994-6-5
Steck, K., Knaden, M., & Hansson, B. (2010) Do desert ants smell the scenery in stereo?. Animal Behaviour. DOI: 10.1016/j.anbehav.2010.01.011
- March 15, 2010
- 08:11 PM
- 18 views
Picky Octopuses Don't Settle For Less Than The Best HDTV
by Christie Wilcox in Observations of a Nerd
Octopuses* and their cephalopod relatives are some of the smartest animals on the planet. Accordingly, many scientists want to understand how their mind works. To gain insights into the complex minds of cephalopods, researchers have been studying behavior in individual animals for years by presenting different animals with various visual stimuli. But many of the methods have downsides - for example, if you want to see how an octopus reacts to another octopus, you can add an octopus to the tank, ........ Read more »
Pronk, R., Wilson, D., & Harcourt, R. (2010) Video playback demonstrates episodic personality in the gloomy octopus. Journal of Experimental Biology, 213(7), 1035-1041. DOI: 10.1242/jeb.040675
- March 15, 2010
- 07:59 PM
- 15 views
Regeneration in Mice Through a Single Gene Deletion
by Reason in Fight Aging!
You might recall the accidental discovery of unusually potent regeneration in MRL mice by Ellen Heber-Katz's team some years ago: Our laboratory has determined that the MRL mouse strain is unique in its capacity for regenerative wound healing, as shown by the closure of ear punches with normal tissue architecture and cartilage replacement reminiscent of amphibian regeneration as opposed to scarring. One line of research into regenerative medicine is based on understanding and then recreating in ........ Read more »
Khamilia Bedelbaeva, Andrew Snyder, Dmitri Gourevitch, Lise Clark, Xiang-Ming Zhang, John Leferovich, James M. Cheverud, Paul Lieberman, & Ellen Heber-Katz. (2010) Lack of p21 expression links cell cycle control and appendage regeneration in mice. PNAS. info:/10.1073/pnas.1000830107
- March 15, 2010
- 07:40 PM
- 14 views
Krill v. Salps in the Southern Ocean
by Sam in Oceanographer's Choice
Last week, writing about copepods, I mentioned that they make up what is probably the most massive group of animals on earth. I also mentioned the likely runner up: krill. In particular, the Antarctic krill, Euphausia superba.
The Euphausiids are a major group of small, shrimp-like crustaceans found worldwide in the marine plankton. [...]... Read more »
V Loeb, V Siegel, O Holm-Hansen, R Hewitt, W Fraser, W Trivelpiece, S Trivelpiece. (1997) Effects of sea-ice extent and krill or salp dominance on the Antarctic food web. Nature, 897-900. info:/
- March 15, 2010
- 07:03 PM
- 13 views
Vaccinate the kids to protect the “herd”
by geekheartsscience in geek!
Vaccinating young children and adolescents against influenza protects unvaccinated individuals in the wider community (the herd immunity), show results from a clinical trial conducted in rural communities in Canada and published free in the journal JAMA. “Our findings … support selective influenza immunisation of school aged children with inactivated influenza vaccine to interrupt influenza transmission,” [...]... Read more »
Loeb, M., Russell, M., Moss, L., Fonseca, K., Fox, J., Earn, D., Aoki, F., Horsman, G., Van Caeseele, P., Chokani, K.... (2010) Effect of Influenza Vaccination of Children on Infection Rates in Hutterite Communities: A Randomized Trial. JAMA: The Journal of the American Medical Association, 303(10), 943-950. DOI: 10.1001/jama.2010.250
- March 15, 2010
- 01:04 PM
- 32 views
Dry Spell
by Roberta Kwok in Journal Watch Online
Study contradicts idea that drought caused Amazon 'greening'
... Read more »
Samanta, A. et al. (2010) Amazon forests did not green-up during the 2005 drought. Geophysical Research Letters, 37(5). DOI: 10.1029/2009GL042154
- March 15, 2010
- 12:00 PM
- 21 views
The bizarre history of rangeland management research
by JL in Analyze Everything
As with the paper from last Friday, today's paper comes from "Ecological Restoration", one of the few journals that is delivered, in print, to our office. So yeah, I've been reading through it. This paper is by Sayre (2010; full cite below) and is basically about how the cultural and scientific beliefs of those living in the desert southwest have shaped the way that restoration has occurred ... Read more »
Sayre, N. (2010) Climax and "Original Capacity": The Science and Aesthetics of Ecological Restoration in the Southwestern USA. Ecological Restoration, 28(1), 23-31. DOI: 10.3368/er.28.1.23
- March 15, 2010
- 09:50 AM
- 31 views
Tumour associated macrophages and survival in Hodgkins Lymphoma
by Sally Church in Pharma Strategy Blog
While reading my pile of mail on Friday, I realised that an interesting paper on Hodgkins Lymphoma (HL) appeared in the current edition of the New England Journal of Medicine (full reference below). The basics of the paper are that...... Read more »
Steidl C, Lee T, Shah SP, Farinha P, Han G, Nayar T, Delaney A, Jones SJ, Iqbal J, Weisenburger DD.... (2010) Tumor-associated macrophages and survival in classic Hodgkin's lymphoma. The New England journal of medicine, 362(10), 875-85. PMID: 20220182
DeVita, V., & Costa, J. (2010) Toward a Personalized Treatment of Hodgkin's Disease. New England Journal of Medicine, 362(10), 942-943. DOI: 10.1056/NEJMe0912481
Kunisch, E. (2004) Macrophage specificity of three anti-CD68 monoclonal antibodies (KP1, EBM11, and PGM1) widely used for immunohistochemistry and flow cytometry. Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases, 63(7), 774-784. DOI: 10.1136/ard.2003.013029
- March 15, 2010
- 09:30 AM
- 37 views
Pocket Science - a psychopath's reward, and the mystery of the shark-bitten fossil poo
by Ed Yong in Not Exactly Rocket Science
The rewarding side of being a psychopath
What goes on in the brains of psychopaths? They can seem outwardly normal and even charming, but tthese people typically show a lack of empathy, immoral behaviour and an impulsive streak. Joshua Buckholtz found that the last of these traits - impulsivity - may stem from a hyperactive reward system in the brain and unusually high levels of the signalling chemical dopamine.
When given small doses of amphetamines, people who come out as more impulsive on ........ Read more »
Godfrey, S., & Smith, J. (2010) Shark-bitten vertebrate coprolites from the Miocene of Maryland. Naturwissenschaften. DOI: 10.1007/s00114-010-0659-x
- March 15, 2010
- 09:28 AM
- 22 views
Sloppy Technicians and the Progress of Science
by Promega Corporation in Promega Connections
Entry 6 March 11, 2010 (from One Reader’s Journey through The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks)
Then, in 1953, a geneticist in Texas accidentally mixed the wrong liquid with HeLa and a few other cells, and it turned out to be a fortunate mistake. The chromosomes inside the cells swelled and spread out, and for the [...]... Read more »
Tjio JH, & Puck TT. (1958) THE SOMATIC CHOMOSOMES OF MAN. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 44(12), 1229-37. PMID: 16590337
BAIKIE AG, COURT-BROWN WM, BUCKTON KE, HARNDEN DG, JACOBS PA, & TOUGH IM. (1960) A possible specific chromosome abnormality in human chronic myeloid leukaemia. Nature, 1165-6. PMID: 13685929
FORD CE. (1960) Human cytogenetics: its present place and future possibilities. American journal of human genetics, 104-17. PMID: 13823894
PENROSE LS. (1962) Some clinical aspects of human cytogenetics. Postgraduate medical journal, 284-5. PMID: 14485139
Hsu, T.C.,. (1952) Mammalian Chromosomes In Vitro: I The Karyotype of Man. J. Heredity, 167-172. info:/
Kottler MJ. (1974) From 48 to 46: cytological technique, preconception, and the counting of human chromosomes. Bulletin of the history of medicine, 48(4), 465-502. PMID: 4618149
- March 15, 2010
- 09:23 AM
- 40 views
Surveying the gut microbiota, cross dressing chickens and more, in my Picks of the Week, from RB
by Alejandro Montenegro-Montero in MolBio Research Highlights
Another week has gone by and some very interesting molbio blog posts have been aggregated to Researchblogging.org. Every week [see my opening post on the matter], I'll select some blog posts I consider particularly interesting in the field of molecular biology [see here to get a sense of the criteria that will be used], briefly describe them and list them here for you to check out.Note that I'm ... Read more »
Qin, J., Li, R., Raes, J., Arumugam, M., Burgdorf, K., Manichanh, C., Nielsen, T., Pons, N., Levenez, F., Yamada, T.... (2010) A human gut microbial gene catalogue established by metagenomic sequencing. Nature, 464(7285), 59-65. DOI: 10.1038/nature08821
Vijay-Kumar, M., Aitken, J., Carvalho, F., Cullender, T., Mwangi, S., Srinivasan, S., Sitaraman, S., Knight, R., Ley, R., & Gewirtz, A. (2010) Metabolic Syndrome and Altered Gut Microbiota in Mice Lacking Toll-Like Receptor 5. Science. DOI: 10.1126/science.1179721
Zhao, D., McBride, D., Nandi, S., McQueen, H., McGrew, M., Hocking, P., Lewis, P., Sang, H., & Clinton, M. (2010) Somatic sex identity is cell autonomous in the chicken. Nature, 464(7286), 237-242. DOI: 10.1038/nature08852
- March 15, 2010
- 07:00 AM
- 21 views
Quantifying the impact of land cover change on regional climate
by Rob Goldstein in Conservation Maven
Ecosystems can influence regional climate through biophysical regulation. Researchers test a method to help resource mangers quantify this ecosystem service and predict how land cover changes will affect climate...... Read more »
West, P., Narisma, G., Barford, C., Kucharik, C., & Foley, J. (2010) An alternative approach for quantifying climate regulation by ecosystems. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, 2147483647. DOI: 10.1890/090015
- March 15, 2010
- 06:30 AM
- 28 views
Should scientists be in control?
by Björn Brembs in bjoern.brembs.blog
The cliché scientist is often portrayed as the laborious worker slogging away days and nights in the lab. In contrast, the cliché for musicians or artists often comprises a bohemian lifestyle, full of parties, drugs and the occasional spurts of genius and frantic artistic expression. Reality, as always, is somewhere in-between. Artists need to work hard and laboriously to get something finished before the concert, recording or exhibition and scientists need to be creative and invest a lot of ........ Read more »
Liston, C., McEwen, B., & Casey, B. (2009) Psychosocial stress reversibly disrupts prefrontal processing and attentional control. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 106(3), 912-917. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0807041106
Radley, J. (2005) Repeated Stress Induces Dendritic Spine Loss in the Rat Medial Prefrontal Cortex. Cerebral Cortex, 16(3), 313-320. DOI: 10.1093/cercor/bhi104
- March 15, 2010
- 06:10 AM
- 16 views
Measles week, part I: Introduction
by iayork in Mystery Rays from Outer Space
Zhong Kui, a Chinese god, punishing two gods of measles (1862)
I’ve talked before about measles incidence and the effect of vaccination. Now I’m going to spend this whole week talking about measles deaths, because I ended up with more than I could cover in one or two posts. So this is Part I of a [...]... Read more »
Armstrong, G. (1999) Trends in Infectious Disease Mortality in the United States During the 20th Century. JAMA: The Journal of the American Medical Association, 281(1), 61-66. DOI: 10.1001/jama.281.1.61
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