Genetics & Molecular Biology

Researchers have identified the genes in wheat that control tolerance to a significant yield-limiting soil condition found around the globe; boron toxicity. Wheat has been difficult to work with in genomics because the wheat genome is very large, with about six times the number of genes as humans. This complexity has meant that genes controlling yield and adaptation to environmental stresses have remained extremely challenging to identify. In this study, the researchers tracked these specific boron tolerance genes from wild wheats grown by the world's earliest farmers in the…

A new study has discovered that microRNAs (miRNAs), small RNA molecules that play important roles in regulation in many types of tissue, play a major role in the distribution and determination of fat cells and whole body metabolism. The study also finds that microRNAs influence the development of lipodystrophy (abnormal fat accumulation) which affects many people with HIV receiving anti-retroviral therapy.  Previous studies have demonstrated that fat cells (adipocytes) have functions far beyond fat storage: they secrete substances that actively influence metabolism and are also a site of…

Sorry Malcolm Gladwell, and you positive thinking book buyers at Whole Foods, you are not going to be a world-class sprinter no matter how much you practice unless you were born with exceptional speed. A new paper by Michael Lombardo, professor of biology at Grand Valley State University, and Robert Deaner, associate professor of psychology, shows that the developmental histories of elite sprinters contradict the popular deliberate practice model of expertise. According to this deliberate model, there is no such thing as innate talent. Instead, 10 years of deliberate practice (roughly 10,000…

A new study has affirmed what most of us knew - practice makes perfect, but only if you have some ability. In the nature versus nurture debate, Usain Bolt is still going to run faster than most people no matter how much they practice. And that goes for musicians too. An analysis of 850 sets of twins leads Zach Hambrick, a Michigan State University professor of psychology, to say both genes and environment matter, "Not only in the sense that both nature and nurture contribute, but that they interact with each other. Writers such as Malcolm Gladwell argue that experts are almost entirely "made…

Though cultural advocates invoke cancer for their causes, genetics is the dominant risk factor in common breast, prostate and colorectal cancers.  Researchers at the Centre for Primary Health Care Research at Lund University and Region Skåne in Sweden  studied adoptees born in Sweden in relation to both their biological parents and their adoptive parents. The Swedish multi-generation register and the cancer register were used to monitor 70,965 adopted men and women. They were all born between 1932 and 1969 and developed breast cancer, prostate cancer or colorectal cancer…

Writing in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, scientists have shown regulatory proteins in the nucleus to adopt a kind of “Tom Sawyer” behavior when it comes to the work of initiating gene activation.  Transcription factors are proteins that orchestrate the flow of genetic information from DNA to messenger RNA (mRNA) and the results show how transcription factors (TFs) activate mRNA synthesis of a gene, and leave the scene – in a model termed “hit-and-run” transcription. “Much like Mark Twain’s Tom Sawyer who begins to paint Aunt Polly’s fence, and then convinces others…

In rodent models, a drug that blocks the action of the enzyme Cdk5 could substantially reduce brain damage if administered shortly after a stroke, according to a new paper in the Journal of Neuroscience, because aberrant Cdk5 activity causes nerve cell death during stroke. While several pharmaceutical companies worked to develop Cdk5 inhibitors years ago, these efforts were largely abandoned since research indicated blocking Cdk5 long-term could have detrimental effects. At the time, many scientists thought aberrant Cdk5 activity played a major role in the development of Alzheimer's disease…

A promising molecule that blocks bone destruction could provide a potential therapeutic target for osteoporosis and bone metastases of cancer, according to a new study. The molecule, miR-34a, belongs to a family of small molecules called microRNAs (miRNAs) that serve as brakes to help regulate how much of a protein is made, which in turn, determines how cells respond. Mice with higher than normal levels of miR-34a had increased bone mass and reduced bone breakdown. This outcome is achieved because miR-34a blocks the development of bone-destroying cells called osteoclasts, which make the bone…

Significant progress has been made over the last 25 years to identify genetic abnormalities associated with congenital myasthenic syndromes (CMS) but many patients remain genetically undiagnosed. A new report identifies a gene defect in mitochondria, specifically the citrate carrier SLC25A1, that may underlie deficits in neuromuscular transmission seen in two siblings. "While mitochondrial gene defects can cause a myriad of neurological disorders including myopathies and neuropathies, these have not been specifically implicated in defects of the neuromuscular junction," says Hanns…

If you could live longer, would you be weaned on an extreme, emaciating diet? The search for the foundation of youth has been happening forever and a popular idea in recent years has been caloric restriction - mice weaned on starvation diets live long and a new study of the tiny nematode worm C. elegans finds results even more alarming - it triggered a state of arrested development. Though while the organism continues to wriggle about, foraging for food, its cells and organs are suspended in an ageless, quiescent state. When food becomes plentiful again, the worm develops as planned,…