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Rose McDermott: The Political Genome

By Guest PostAugust 31, 2012Politics, Sciencealcoholic, american sense, austrailia, biological measure, biology, capital punishment, courtney coelho, data, democrats, denmark, election result, evolutionary perspective, explosion, fraternal twins, gene, genetic contribution, genetic factor, genetic foundation, genetics, hereditary component, obesity, political genome, political preference, political problem, political science, prediction, public policy, reproductive issue, republicans, rose mcdermott, sex, spectrum, statistical test, trends, united states

A recent review of research co-authored by Rose McDermott highlights the role that genes play in political preferences, an area of study that began to draw significant attention in the last decade. McDermott speaks with Courtney Coelho about this growing field of research, its evolutionary roots, and whether it means anything for the prediction of future election results.

The connection between biology and political science is relatively new, but it’s one that has grown rapidly, with a boom in research linking genetics and political preferences in the last decade. Rose McDermott, professor of political science, has done research on this topic and recently co-authored a review, published in Trends in Genetics, of studies in recent years. (more…)

Plants Unpack Winter Coats When Days Get Shorter

By Guest PostAugust 29, 2012Sciencecbf, cold response pathway, crepeat binding, crop productivity, factor, freezing, freezing temperature, frost protection, gene, mechanism, michael thomashow, plant, potential tool, sunlight

EAST LANSING, Mich. — Mechanisms that protect plants from freezing are placed in storage during the summer and wisely unpacked when days get shorter.

In the current issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Michael Thomashow, University Distinguished Professor of molecular genetics, demonstrates how the CBF (C-repeat binding factor) cold response pathway is inactive during warmer months when days are long, and how it’s triggered by waning sunlight to prepare plants for freezing temperatures. (more…)

Yale Team Discovers How Stress and Depression Can Shrink the Brain

By Guest PostAugust 20, 2012Health, Scienceanimal model, antidepressant therapy, ashley lepack, bhavya voleti, brain, brain cell, brain mass, brain volume, chronic stress, cognitive impairment, depression, emotional, gata1, gene, gene activation, genetic switch, h j kang, mounira banasr, pattern, pawel licznerski, prefrontal cortex, ronald duman, shrink, stress, symptoms of depression, synaptic connection, transcription factor, yale

Major depression or chronic stress can cause the loss of brain volume, a condition that contributes to both emotional and cognitive impairment. Now a team of researchers led by Yale scientists has discovered one reason why this occurs — a single genetic switch that triggers loss of brain connections in humans and depression in animal models.

The findings, reported in the Aug. 12 issue of the journal Nature Medicine, show that the genetic switch known as a transcription factor represses the expression of several genes that are necessary for the formation of synaptic connections between brain cells, which in turn could contribute to loss of brain mass in the prefrontal cortex. (more…)

Crocodilian Evolution

By Guest PostJune 15, 2012Nature, Scienceadam thomas, alligators, birds, canr, carl schmidt, colin kern, crocodile, crocodilian evolution, crocodilian family, crocodilian native, danielle quigley, david ray, dna sequence, evolution research, extinction, gene, genetic evolution, genome, genomic change, gharials, indian subcontinent, university of delaware, wetlands

UD’s Schmidt studies genome of crocodile family in evolution research

University of Delaware scientist Carl Schmidt is working to identify genes in crocodiles, alligators and gharials as he searches for links between the creatures that could give clues as to how they evolved over the years in relation to one another.

Schmidt’s effort is part of a National Science Foundation-funded project being conducted by a team of researchers assembled by David Ray, an evolutionary biologist at Mississippi State University. (more…)

Study: Heart Damage after Chemo Linked to Stress in Cardiac Cells

By Guest PostMay 22, 2012Healthblocking, breast cancer, cancer cell, cardiac damage, cardiomyocytes, cellular level, chemotherapy, doxorubicin, drug, gene, govindasamy ilangovan, heart, heart muscle cells, heat shock factor 1, hsf 1, karthikeyan krishnamurthy, kaushik vedam, mdr1, multidrug resistance 1, nf kb, ohio state university, protein, ragu kanagasabai

COLUMBUS, Ohio – Blocking a protein in the heart that is produced under stressful conditions could be a strategy to prevent cardiac damage that results from chemotherapy, a new study suggests.

Previous research has suggested that up to a quarter of patients who receive the common chemotherapy drug doxorubicin are at risk of developing heart failure later in life. Exactly how that heart damage is done remains unclear.

In this study, scientists identified a protein called heat shock factor-1 (HSF-1) as a likely source of chemotherapy-related heart damage in mice and cell cultures. Heat shock factor-1 is known to be induced by stress – in this case, the chemotherapy treatment itself. (more…)

Insect Glands May Illuminate Human Fertilization Process

By Guest PostMay 12, 2012Health, Scienceallan spradling, bee, cellular physiology, egg, fertilization, fruit fly, gene, hr39, human, insect glands, jianjun sun, lrh 1, mammals, receptor protein, reproductive glands, secretion, secretion glands, sperm

Baltimore, MD — Insect glands are responsible for producing a host of secretions that allow bees to sting and ants to lay down trails to and from their nests. New research from Carnegie scientists focuses on secretions from glands in the reproductive tract that help sperm survive and guide the sperm on the trip to fertilize an egg. The gene that controls the development of these glands in fruit flies provides important information about gland development in all insects, as well as potential clues to similar human reproductive glands. Their work is published this month in Current Biology.

When a female fruit fly receives sperm from a male fruit fly, lubricating secretions in her reproductive tract activate the sperm, store it, and guide it to fertilization. Without the aid of these secretions, sperm would not make it to the eggs. Carnegie’s Allan Spradling and Jianjun Sun demonstrated that the gene in charge of regulating the development of fruit fly secretion glands is called Hr39. It encodes a steroid receptor protein. (more…)

Researchers Find Potential ‘Dark Side’ To Diets High In Beta-Carotene

By Guest PostMay 7, 2012Healthabdulkerim eroglu, africa, antioxidant, asia, beta-carotene, carlo dela sena, carotenoids, carrots, dark side, diet, earl harrison, gene, golden maize, health hazard, immune function, metabolism, molecule, ohio state university, robert curley, shockwave, south america, steven schwartz, sureshbabu narayanasamy, sweet potatoes, synthetic molecule, vitamin A

COLUMBUS, Ohio – New research suggests that there could be health hazards associated with consuming excessive amounts of beta-carotene.

This antioxidant is a naturally occurring pigment that gives color to foods such as carrots, sweet potatoes and certain greens. It also converts to vitamin A, and foods and supplements are the only sources for this essential nutrient.

But scientists at Ohio State University have found that certain molecules that derive from beta-carotene have an opposite effect in the body: They actually block some actions of vitamin A, which is critical to human vision, bone and skin health, metabolism and immune function. (more…)

Promiscuous Queen Bees Maintain Genetic Diversity

By Guest PostApril 18, 2012NatureChina, coast, csds, diploid male, entomologist, female workforce, fertile male, flavor, gene, genetic diversity, hainan island, infertile male, island queen, isolated island, malaysia, Philippines, plos one, promiscuous, queen bees, sex, voila moment, zachary huang

EAST LANSING, Mich. — By mating with nearly 100 males, queen bees on isolated islands avoid inbreeding and keep colonies healthy.

The results, published in the current issue of PLoS ONE, focused on giant honey bee colonies on Hainan Island, off the coast of China. Since these bees have long been separated from their continental cousins, it was thought that the island bees would be prime candidates for inbreeding as well as having very different genes, said Zachary Huang, Michigan State University entomologist. (more…)

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