Genetics & Molecular Biology
The production of high quality chocolate will benefit from the recent sequencing and assembly of the chocolate tree genome - Theobroma cacao - considered by chocolate experts to produce the world's finest chocolate. The Maya domesticated this variety of Theobroma cacao, 'Criollo', about 3,000 years ago in Central America and it is among the oldest domesticated tree crops, though today many growers prefer to grow hybrid cacao trees ('Trinitario') that produce chocolate of lower quality but are more resistant to disease.
A key benefit of biology is using science to give us the best of both…
Hank |
In the 1989 holiday classic "Scrooged", the chairman of the television network predicts that because there were so many pets in America they would become steady viewers in 20 years - which would be 2009. So he asks network executive Bill Murray to introduce Door Mice instead of Door Men in their live Christmas Eve version of Dickens' "A Christmas Carol", in order to get a head start on appealing to television-watching pets.
Far fetched? Perhaps, though singing mice are sure to get everyone's attention, not just your cat.
Researchers at the University of Osaka have created…
MOLECULAR MARKERS AND GENOME SEQUENCING IN CROP IMPROVEMENT.
Molecular techniques, in particular the applications of molecular markers, have been used to scrutinize DNA sequence variation(s) in and among the crop species and create new sources of genetic variation by introducing new and favorable traits from landraces and related crop species.
Molecular markers
What are they?
A marker is a gene or piece of DNA with easily identified phenotype such that cells or individuals with different alleles are distinguishable. For example a gene with a known function or a single nucleotide change in…
A million years is a blink of an eye in evolution but that doesn't mean newer genes matter less in life itself.
New genes that have evolved in species as recently as one million years ago can be just as essential for life as ancient genes, according to a new study, which can help biologists to determine whether or not older genes are conserved more and newer genes that arise as species split off from their ancestors serve less critical roles and help answer questions about the shared features of development across different species. In 1866, German zoologist Ernst Haeckel…
"My two dads" is no longer just a lousy TV show. Using induced pluripotent stem cell technology (controversy-free!) scientists have produced male and female mice from two fathers.
It isn't part of any cultural agenda, the intent was to preserve endangered species, but obviously it opens up the possibility of same-sex couples having their own genetic children. The authors caution that the "generation of human iPS cells still requires significant refinements prior to their use for therapeutic purposes."
In the work reported today, the researchers manipulated fibroblasts from a male…
Does science really need to give Tiger Woods/Brett Favre an excuse?
"Sorry, sweetheart, I didn't mean to bang anything with a hole and a heart beat that came my way/text that chick pictures of my junk. But you have to forgive me because it's in my DNA. Oh look, it's tee time/game time again."
Add another checkbox to the dopamine receptor gene DRD4 traits - now you can be a politically liberal cheating bastard without blame. A group from Binghamton University led by Justin Garcia took a look at "sexual behavior, matching choices with genes and has come up with a new theory on what makes…
A new study was released today in JAMA which looked at, in part, mitochondrial DNA overreplication in a sample of ten autistic children between the ages of 2 and 5 and ten matched controls. Giulivi et al. found that 5 of the 10 autistic children and 2 of the control children had mitchondrial DNA overreplication.
In the comments section of a previous post, the question was raised of how autism is diagnosed in the samples being studied. This new study allows an opportunity to look at how carefully the sample is selected and controls matched to the sample.For example, "The recruited…
Researchers conducting genome-wide association studies say they have discovered 30 new genes determine the age of sexual maturation in women - and many of those genes also act on body weight regulation or biological pathways related to fat metabolism.
Menarche, the onset of first menstruation in girls, indicates the attainment of reproductive capacity and is a widely used marker of pubertal timing. Age of menarche varies widely and is highly dependent on nutritional status and early menarche is associated with many adverse health outcomes later in life, including breast cancer, endometrial…
Not having had any serious biological training I have to go to Wikipedia and Google to learn the basics. And I’m often surprised to find that concepts everyone uses don’t have good consensus amongst scientists. When reading the Wikipedia entry for “gene”, it occurs to me that if the concept didn’t predate the discovery of DNA, it would not exist.
At the very least, it would look much different than “a locatable region of genomic sequence, corresponding to a unit of inheritance” (call this the “standard definition”).
Gerstein’s definition, “a union of genomic sequences encoding a coherent…
The ethical issues surrounding unchecked human embryonic stem cell research are not going away any time soon, regardless of which political party occupies Congress or the White House.
Given that, researchers have devised various alternatives and now scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Genetics in Berlin have added one more. They have managed to convert amniotic fluid cells into induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS cells). These amniotic fluid-derived iPS cells are hardly distinguishable from embryonic stem cells - however, they 'remember' where they came…