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What Color is Your Night Light? It May Affect Your Mood

By Guest PostAugust 9, 2013Healthanabel galan, body, brain, celynn vaughn, circadian clock, color, dendritic spines, density, depressive like symptoms, ghassan daye, health hazards, hippocampus regions, iprgcs, light at night, mood disorders, night light, photosensitive cell, randy nelson, retina, salk institute, tracy bedrosian, your mood, zachary weil

Study Finds Red Light Least Harmful, While Blue Light is Worst

COLUMBUS, Ohio –– When it comes to some of the health hazards of light at night, a new study suggests that the color of the light can make a big difference.

In a study involving hamsters, researchers found that blue light had the worst effects on mood-related measures, followed closely by white light.

But hamsters exposed to red light at night had significantly less evidence of depressive-like symptoms and changes in the brain linked to depression, compared to those that experienced blue or white light. (more…)

Largest-Ever Map of Interactions of Plant Proteins Produced

By Guest PostJuly 31, 2011Scienceagriculture, arabidopsis, arabidopsis interactome mapping consortium, arabidopsis network map, arabidopsis thaliana, crop plants, interactome, joseph ecker, map of protein interactions, model organism for biological studies of plants, model plant, mustard plant, national science foundation, pharmaceuticals, plant growth and disease resistance, protein to protein, salk institute

*New map of protein interactions in model plant may help scientists improve plant species used in agriculture and pharmaceuticals*

An international consortium of scientists has produced the first systematic network map of interactions that occur between proteins in the plant Arabidopsis thaliana. (Arabidopsis is a mustard plant that has 27,000 proteins and serves as a popular model organism for biological studies of plants, analogous to lab rats that serve as popular model organisms for biological studies of animals.)

Known as an “interactome,” the new Arabidopsis network map defines 6,205 protein-to-protein Arabidopsis interactions involving 2,774 individual proteins. By itself, this map doubles the volume of data on protein interactions in plants that is currently available. (more…)

Study Reveals Important Aspects of Signalling Across Cell Membranes in Plants

By Guest PostJune 17, 2011Scienceanimal cell, cellular membranes, communication process, joanne chory laboratory, membrane, membrane bound receptor, michael hothorn, national science foundation, plant cell, receptor molecules, salk institute, signal, transmembrane signalling, yellow steroid

*Plant receptors use different signalling method than do animal receptors*

Every living plant cell and animal cell is surrounded by a membrane. These cellular membranes contain receptor molecules that serve as the cell’s eyes and ears, and help it communicate with other cells and with the outside world.

The receptor molecules accomplish three basic things in the communication process: 1) recognize an outside signal, 2) transport that signal across the cell’s membrane and 3) initiate the reading of the signal inside the cell and then initiate the cell’s response to that signal. These steps are collectively known as transmembrane signaling. (more…)

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What Color is Your Night Light? It May Affect Your Mood

Largest-Ever Map of Interactions of Plant Proteins Produced

Study Reveals Important Aspects of Signalling Across Cell Membranes in Plants