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New technique will accelerate genetic characterization of photosynthesis

By Guest PostMay 8, 2014Sciencebacteria, carbon, christian joyal, energy, green algae, journal of sex, life on earth, organism, photosynthesis, yeast

Stanford, CA — Photosynthesis provides fixed carbon and energy for nearly all life on Earth, yet many aspects of this fascinating process remain mysterious. For example, little is known about how it is regulated in response to changes in light intensity. More fundamentally, we do not know the full list of the parts of the molecular machines that perform photosynthesis in any organism.

A type of single-cell green algae called Chlamydomonas reinhardtii is a leading subject for photosynthesis research. Despite its importance in the research world, few tools are available for characterizing the functions of its genes. (more…)

Boosting Galactan Sugars Could Boost Biofuel Production

By Guest PostDecember 23, 2012Environmentai oikawa, april liwanag, arabidopsis thaliana, atmosphere, berit ebert, berkeley lab, bioenergy fuel crops, biofuels, carbon neutral, carsten rautengarten, cellulosic biomass, denmark, diesel, emilie rennie, enzyme, ethanol, ferment, fuels, galactan, galactan synthase, galactose, gals1, gals2, gals3, gasoline, gt92 enzyme, gt92 proteins, henrik scheller, jet fuels, mads clausen, mathias andersen, mechanical stress, miscanthus, overexpressors, pentoses, plant cell walls, polymer, six carbon sugar, snowfall, switchgrass, technical university, wind, yeast, yves verhertbruggen, β galactan synthase

Collaboration at JBEI Identifies the First Enzyme Linked to Galactan Synthesis

Galactan is a polymer of galactose, a six-carbon sugar that can be readily fermented by yeast into ethanol and is a target of interest for researchers in advanced biofuels produced from cellulosic biomass. Now an international collaboration led by scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)’s Joint BioEnergy Institute (JBEI) has identified the first enzyme capable of substantially boosting the amount of galactan in plant cell walls.

Unlike ethanol, advanced biofuels synthesized from the sugars in plant cells walls could replace gasoline, diesel and jet fuels on a gallon-for-gallon basis and be dropped into today’s engines and infrastructures with no modifications required. Also, adanced biofuels have the potential to be carbon-neutral, meaning they could be burned without adding excess carbon to the atmosphere. Among the key challenges to making advanced biofuels cost competitive is finding ways to maximize the amount of plant cell wall sugars that can be fermented into fuels. (more…)

Common Antifungal Drug Decreases Tumor Growth and Shows Promise as Cancer Therapy

By Guest PostAugust 21, 2012Health, Scienceangiogenesis, antifungal drug, austin, blood vessels, cancer therapy, cell, chemotherapy, edward marcotte, evolutionary relatedness, fibrosarcoma tumors, frogs, humans, hye ji cha, john wallingford, marcotte, mice, organism, petri dishes, thiabendazole, tumor growth, university of texas, vascular disrupting agent, vertebrate, yeast

AUSTIN, Texas — An inexpensive antifungal drug, thiabendazole, slows tumor growth and shows promise as a chemotherapy for cancer. Scientists in the College of Natural Sciences at The University of Texas at Austin made this discovery by exploiting the evolutionary relatedness of yeast, frogs, mice and humans.

Thiabendazole is an FDA-approved, generic drug taken orally that has been in clinical use for 40 years as an antifungal. It is not currently used for cancer therapy.

Hye Ji Cha, Edward Marcotte, John Wallingford and colleagues found that the drug destroys newly established blood vessels, making it a “vascular disrupting agent.” Their research was published in the journal PLoS Biology. (more…)

New Information on the Waste-Disposal Units of Living Cells

By Guest PostJanuary 15, 2012Scienceandreas martin, base, berkeley lab, biochemical processes, cellular proteins, charlene bashore, degradation, degrade, diseases, dna repair, eric estrin, eva nogales, gabriel lander, heterologous expression system, human cell, immune defense system, irreversible, kiss of death, lid, living cells, mary matyskiela, non atpase proteins, polypeptide, proteasome machinery, proteasome regulatory particle, proteasomes, protein functions, protein machines, regulatory particle, subnanometer scale, transcription, treatment of cancer, ubiquitin, university of california, waste disposal, yeast

*Berkeley Researchers Provide Detailed Look at Proteasome’s Regulatory Particle*

Important new information on one of the most critical protein machines in living cells has been reported by a team of researchers with the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and the University of California (UC) Berkeley. The researchers have provided the most detailed look ever at the “regulatory particle” used by the protein machines known as proteasomes to identify and degrade proteins that have been marked for destruction. The activities controlled by this regulatory particle are critical to the quality control of cellular proteins, as well as a broad range of vital biochemical processes, including transcription, DNA repair and the immune defense system. (more…)

New Mouthwash Targeting Harmful Bacteria May Render Tooth Decay A Thing of The Past

By Guest PostNovember 19, 2011Healthamericans, anti dental caries drug, antimicrobial technology, bacteria, broad spectrum antibiotics, c16g2, c3 jian inc, cavities, colgate palmolive, dental caries, experimental mouthwash, fluoride, human body, infectious diseases, microbiologist, mouthwash, no hee park, normal ecological balance, optimum health, parasitic infections, pathogenic organisms, s mutans bacteria, small scale study, smart bomb, streptococcus mutans, thomas mitchell, tooth decay, ucla, united states, wenyuan shi, yeast

A new mouthwash developed by a microbiologist at the UCLA School of Dentistry is highly successful in targeting the harmful Streptococcus mutans bacteria that is the principal cause tooth decay and cavities.

In a recent clinical study, 12 subjects who rinsed just one time with the experimental mouthwash experienced a nearly complete elimination of the S. mutans bacteria over the entire four-day testing period. The findings from the small-scale study are published in the current edition of the international dental journal Caries Research. (more…)

Tag Archives: yeast

New technique will accelerate genetic characterization of photosynthesis

Boosting Galactan Sugars Could Boost Biofuel Production

Common Antifungal Drug Decreases Tumor Growth and Shows Promise as Cancer Therapy

New Information on the Waste-Disposal Units of Living Cells

New Mouthwash Targeting Harmful Bacteria May Render Tooth Decay A Thing of The Past