Microbiology

A small protein may have a big role in helping you make more bone and less fat, says Dr. Xingming Shi, bone biologist at the Medical College of Georgia Institute of Molecular Medicine and Genetics. "The pathways are parallel, and the idea is if you can somehow disrupt the fat production pathway, you will get more bone" He's found the short-acting protein GILZ appears to make this desirable shift and wants to better understand how it does it with the long-term goal of targeted therapies for osteoporosis, obesity and maybe more. Weight gain and bone loss are established side effects of…

Adult cells of mice created from genetically reprogrammed cells can be triggered via drug to enter an embryonic-stem-cell-like state, without the need for further genetic alteration, a discovery which promises to bring new efficiencies to embryonic stem cell research, according to a report in Nature Biotechnology. In the current work, Marius Wernig and Christopher Lengner, post-doctoral researchers in Whitehead Member Rudolf Jaenisch's lab, made mice created in part from the embryonic-stem-cell-like cells known as IPS cells. The IPS cells were created by reprogramming adult skin cells using…

When tomatoes ripen in our gardens, we watch them turn gradually from hard, green globules to brightly colored, aromatic, and tasty fruits. This familiar and seemingly commonplace transformation masks a seething mass of components interacting in a well-regulated albeit highly complex manner. For generations, agriculturalists and scientists have bred tomatoes for size, shape, texture, flavor, shelf-life, and nutrient composition, more or less, one trait at a time. With the advent of molecular biology, mutagenesis and genetic transformation could produce tomatoes that were more easily…

Researchers at Children's Hospital Boston say they have pinpointed a new, previously unrecognized group of stem cells that give rise to cardiomyocytes; heart muscle cells. These stem cells, located in the surface of the heart, or epicardium, advance the hope of being able to regenerate injured heart tissue. Previously, the Children's team found that a specific stem cell or progenitor, marked by expression of a gene called Nkx2-5, forms many components of the heart: heart muscle cells, vascular smooth muscle cells, and the endothelial cells lining blood vessels in the heart's left-sided…

It has been long been known that bacteria swim by rotating their tail-like structure called the flagellum. The rotating motion of the flagellum is powered by a molecular engine located at the base of the flagellum. Just as engaging the clutch of a car connects its gear to its engine and delivers power to its wheels, engaging the molecular clutch of a bacterium connects its gear to its engine and delivers power to its flagellum. Now, a paper appearing in Science describes, for the first time, how the flagellum's rotations are stopped so that bacteria stop moving. Here's how the stopping…

There are microbialites, strange coral-like growths, at the bottom of Pavilion Lake in British Columbia. They have been out of the reach of scientists but with the addition of new submersible technology they can now be studied. The growths might, says Greg Slater, an environmental geochemist at McMaster University, hold the key to life beyond Earth. These unique carbonate rock structures are known as microbialites because they are covered with microbes. Some of these microbialites grow at depths up to 180 feet below the water's surface, too deep to reach by non-decompression SCUBA diving. "…

Well, you know microbes must really be cool because Olivia Judson is blogging about them. You see, Olivia is also known as Dr. Tatiana. Judson's book "Dr. Tatiana's Sex Advice to All Creation" created and still creates a stir and helped make Olivia one of the go to people for discussions of the biology of sex and weird sex practices in the natural world. Now she has a blog (with what appear to be entries once a week) on the New York Times web site called "The Wild Side." In the blogs of hers that I have read (note to New York Times --- your system of allowing access to the blog archive…

Well, I just gave my talk on phylogenomic and functional predictions and am going to try and catch up with blogging. In my talk I discussed how an understanding of function and prediction of function requires an understanding of how functions have evolved. I am trying to get my talk slides posted here but, alas, I need to deal with some Copyright issues first (OK - here is a little slideshow of my talk ... no audio sorry) Patricia Babbitt gave a talk after mine on another aspect of phylogenomics and functional predictions. She has done some really interesting studies (see her lab site…

By manipulating a specific gene in a mouse blastocyst — the structure that develops from a fertilized egg but is not yet an actual embryo — scientists with the University of Florida's McKnight Brain Institute and the Harvard Stem Cell Institute caused cells destined to build an embryo to instead change direction and build the cell mass that leads to the placenta. In revealing a cellular signaling mechanism in place at the earliest developmental stage, the researchers have explored the first fork in the developmental road, getting a new look at what happens when fertilized eggs differentiate…

Researchers from Iowa State University have identified a factor that promotes the development of antibiotic resistance in a bacterial pathogen. The study explains that Mfd, a protein involved in DNA transcription and repair, plays an important role in the development of fluoroquinolone resistance in Campylobacter, a bacterial pathogen commonly associated with food poisoning in humans. Development of antibiotic resistance in Campylobacter, especially to fluoroquinolone (a broad-spectrum antimicrobial), compromises clinical therapy and poses a public health threat. Previous studies have…