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Biology News - November 2006

Cell Migration in Lymph Nodes

November 28th 2006 21:14
Coming up in the December 2006 issue of Immunity, Bajenoff, et al, discuss lymphocyte cell migration in the lymph nodes. Each lymphocyte type moves about in different parts of the lymph node and seemingly random patterns. Bajenoff, et al, show the how and the why behind their movements.

The paper is online and free.

Bajenoff, et al, Stromal Cell Networks Regulate Lymphocyte Entry, Migration, and Territoriality in Lymph Nodes, Immunity (2006), doi:10.1016/j.immuni.2006.10.011



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People Are Different From Mice

November 28th 2006 17:56
In the online article, "Human Tyrosine Kinase 2 Deficiency Reveals Its Requisite Roles in Multiple Cytokine Signals Involved in Innate and Acquired Immunity", Minegishi, et al, discuss their findings relating to Tyk2 in a patient diagnosed with hyper-IgE syndrome (HIES). The findings differ from those expected from a mouse model. Mice immune systems without the Tyk2 can be stimulated using a certain procedure, where the human immune systems must have the Tyk2 already present.

Published in Immunity.
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Odds of a Dinosaur Becoming a Fossil

November 28th 2006 08:02
Scientific American has a nifty "ask the scientists" section. A recent querier asked, "What are the odds of a dead dinosaur becoming a fossil? If you have kids of a certain age, you've been asked this question, along with the how and why of it.

The short answer: there isn't one. But it's an interesting discussion nonetheless and suited to parents who have no scientific background, so you can answer your kids with authority.
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Making Wheat More Nutritious -- No GM Needed

November 27th 2006 01:25
Scientists have found a way to make wheat more nutritious using traditional breeding methods -- no GM needed. By breeding wheat varieties used agriculturally with wild strains, Uauy, et al, have increased the micronutrient, protein, zinc, and iron content of wheat.

They caution that the variety developed is best suited for the U. S. The procedure would need to be repeated using local grain varieties for other areas of the world.

The new variety of wheat is in the public domain, meaning they do not hold a patent on it.

The abstract in Science is online and free to read, but the full paper requires a subscription.

The article in Nature.
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Acrylamide in Food

November 26th 2006 08:00
Acrylamide forms naturally in the process of baking breads and other foods. In 2002, the FDA noticed this and began to research how much was too much and how to prevent it from happening. Acrylamide interested the FDA because it can cause cancer in certain quantities.

As reported in Nature, some scientists have now figured out that a lack of sulphur in the soil the grain was grown in determines the amount of acrylamide formed.

The Fanatic Cook did a fantastic series of articles on this substance back in September, pointing out that, among other things, our bodies can detoxify a certain amount of acrylamide.
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Human Genome More Variable Than Thought

November 25th 2006 23:11
Long stretches of human DNA known as copy-number variants (CNVs) vary significantly from human to human. These CNVs were largely ignored during the human genome project because they are hard to sequence. DNA is only 99.5% similar between people, instead of the 99.9% announced at the completion of the human genome project.

CNVs are linked to susceptibility to various diseases and syndromes and so are attracting interest among geneticists.

Article

Paper
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GM Rice Wins USDA Approval

November 25th 2006 22:18
Five years after a genetically modified variety of rice was abandoned by its creator, Bayer CropScience AG of Research Triangle Park, North Carolina (US), the GM rice showed up in the U. S. food supply. It had escaped the test fields and interbred with other strains without the farmers' knowledge. When this fact became public knowledge in August 2006, many nations closed their doors to U. S. rice imports, for a predicted loss to U. S. markets of $150 million (USD).

The USDA approved the rice as safe for human and animal consumption after putting the rice through a "fast track" approval system, skipping several of the usual safety protocols.

The GM rice was developed to be resistant to one of Bayer's herbicides sold under the name of Liberty. A rather significant outcome of this incident is that the resistant gene will be able to make the jump into a weed that is a major pest in the southern United States.

Washington Post
Yahoo News on Biotech Rice
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Stem Cell Research Finds Master Cell for Heart (in mice)

November 25th 2006 14:53
Two teams of researchers have found that the development of the heart in an embryonic mouse is controlled by only two stem cells. One of those stem cells is responsible for all the muscle tissue types in the heart.

If this research carries over to humans, the implications for heart attack victims could be significant. More research needs to be carried out before determining how to use it in humans.

Nature
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Journal of Visualized Experiments

November 25th 2006 01:06
Ever tried to reproduce some published lab results and, no matter what you tried, you just couldn't? Well, enter the Journal of Visualized Experiments. Scientists film themselves performing basic lab procedures and post them to the journal. Each video is tagged with keywords, making it easy to find that video on actin disassembly. Submission is free and it counts as a publication credit.

Here's an example video of the sort they are looking for. This video is "Monitoring Actin Disassembly with Timelapse Microscopy" by Hao Yuan Kueh of Harvard Medical School

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Jobs for Scientists

November 24th 2006 23:42
Nature magazine hosts a database for job seekers in the science fields. It's free for job seekers and recruiters.
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Parasitic Wasps Imported to Fight Mealybug Infestation

November 24th 2006 08:09
Pink Hibiscus Mealybug
Pink Hibiscus Mealybug image courtesy of invasivespeciesinfo.gov
Tiny parasitic wasps have been released over the past few weeks on the Cayman Islands in an effort to combat an infestation by the pink hibiscus mealybug. The wasps are too small to be dangerous to humans.

The pink hibiscus mealybug is an invasive species that uses its piercing jaws to suck the sap out of a plant. The damage to local economies through the destruction of crops and native vegetation can be significant.
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Spotted Hyenas

November 23rd 2006 18:50
Spotted Hyena
Hyena courtesy of stock.xchng
An article in the November issue of Current Biology goes into detail about the spotted hyena. Parallels between human social behavior and hyena social behavior are rather striking. On the strange information side, the article explains why people used to think hyenas were hermaphroditic. I had no idea...
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Paleogenetics: Neanderthal DNA

November 23rd 2006 06:22
Analyses on Neanderthal DNA indicate that Homo sapiens (modern humans, you and me) diverged from Homo neanderthalensis about 370,000 years ago. The first modern humans show up in the fossil record around 200,000 years ago.

It's free to read the abstract in Science magazine, but viewing the research paper requires a subscription.
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Fish Have Personalities

November 22nd 2006 11:41
Lynne Sneddon of the University of Liverpool (UK) says that fish have personalities and those personalities can change in response to their experiences. She and her team observed rainbow trout in various situations in their lab, such as facing down significantly larger or smaller opponents and testing new foods.
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GM Cotton Could Feed Poor

November 22nd 2006 05:20
Researchers at Texas A&M University have genetically engineered cotton to produce toxin-free seeds using an RNA interference technique to keep the plant from producing its defensive toxins in the seeds.

Cotton is grown extensively in many countries and produces 1.65 kg of seed for every 1 kg of fiber (numbers from article). With the toxin removed, farmers have access to the high-protein seed as food. Roasted cottonseed kernels have 32 grams of protein per 100 grams of seed. Compare that to beef, which has 25 grams of protein per 100 grams of beef, or pinto beans, with 9 grams of protein per 100 grams of beans.

On the other hand, I'm not sold on eating cottonseed and I heartily dislike patented plants like GM plants are. Wouldn't the money have been better spent developing food crops that are native to those regions suffering famine?
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New Strategy for Elimination of Polio in India

November 22nd 2006 02:15
A paper in Science magazine indicates that a shift in strategy will eliminate polio in India. Nicholas Grassly, et al, state that switching from trivalent vaccines to monovalent vaccines will more effectively fight polio.

Trivalent vaccines contain three strains of polio in order to provide broader coverage, but the vaccine needs time in the recipient's digestive tract to work. Children with diarrhea, for instance, will not receive immunity from the vaccine. Monovalent vaccines contain only one strain of polio, which in this case is not bad, since one strain is much more prevalent in India. Monovalent vaccines work faster, so diarrhea should not interfere with their effectiveness.

Nature magazine has a summary of the paper. In it, several scientists express hope that polio will be eliminated in the world by the end of the decade.

Wikipedia on Polio.
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