utenzi

I've got a story below that's off of the Reuters' science wire. It sparked a few thoughts in me about science and genetics and nature. According to this news item, there's a big push starting to determine the genetics of the Eucalyptus tree. The stated benefits include developing trees that respond better to stressors like salt and aridity as well as improved hardness and density of the wood itself. However they also stress that they aren't going to make any genetic changes to the tree, just catalog the genes. My question is how are you going to reap those benefits without changing the tree? LOL Of course you can't. My point here is that many people are concerned when they hear that an organism is having it's genotype changed yet that's what we've been doing for thousands of years. Dogs used to be wolves. Not anymore. The list of genetically modified critters and plants is long and very advantageous to mankind. We've just been doing it by incest...

You might wonder what plants have to do with peripheral nervous system receptors. It does seem a little odd to associate the two. However there's an article in yesterday's issue of Nature (May 30, 2007) regarding the menthol receptor TRPM8 and how it senses cold. In so doing, the receptor illuminates a mechanism that mediates how the body experiences strong stimuli like temperature that can cause pain. As such, the receptor -- known as menthol receptor TRPM8 -- provides a target for studying acute and chronic pain, as can result from inflammatory or nerve injury, the researchers say, and a potential new target for treating pain. The senior author on this paper is David Julius, chairman and professor of physiology at UCSF. In 2002, his lab discovered that the TRPM8 receptor was activated by chemical cooling agents such as menthol, a natural product of mint, and cool air. According to Dr Julius, "It's been known for years that menthol and related cooling agents evoke th...

We decided not to go to the zoo today. Between the light dusting of snow and the lasting chill, it just seemed likely that the critters would be holed up and not into the whole posing for pictures act. Tomorrow, while still chilly, won't be nearly as cold and a lot more sunny. Easter at the zoo? Maybe the bunnies will be missing since they'll all be out delivering eggs. (have you ever wondered why it isn't ducks doing that? Why would rabbits have eggs in the first place?) Since I mentioned Evolution yesterday, I thought I'd mention cavemen today. It's a slight stretch as transitions go, but not real extreme. But I'm not going towards the "cavemen as progenitors of us" theme, but rather the Geico version of cavemen. Not exactly cute and cuddly, but still appealing in a very sarcastic way. The reason I bring the Geico cavemen up is that there's an article in this weeks Newsweek Magazine that states that ABC is thinking of creating a half hour sitcom ...

I was reading the February 2007 issue of BioTechniques --doesn't everyone?--and came across something interesting in a profile of a professor at Princeton University. It seems that Dr Bonnie Bassler is very interested in communications issues. From my varied relationships with the fairer sex this seems to be a constant interest with women. However Dr Bassler has worked a twist into this issue. Her work is purely with bacteria. Yes, bacteria. Bacteria and communication issues. Germs can talk?! Who knew! It all started when Dr Bassler went to a lecture which had as its core how certain deep sea bacteria use bioluminescence to signal, a topic now called quorum sensing. I still can't get over bacteria talking. Anyway, Dr Bassler quickly signed up to work in this area of research and has since found that bacteria do communicate in a large and diverse number of ways--the method of communication depending on the environment that the bacteria has adapted to . (or for any IDers out the...

I read an article in Seed , a science publication positioned between the serious research journal and the wide circulation science magazines, the other day that sparked my interest. The article focused on the role of hedgehog, a gene I mentioned in a post the other week , in how the Mexican blind cavefish--pictured over there to the left--lost its eyes over time. The article, written by Pz Myers , explores various biological explanations for why a species would lose functionality, such as flightless birds or eyeless fish. The species he focuses on is the Mexican blind cavefish which dwells in underground rivers where they are never exposed to light. The first explanation, economical adaptation , is the one I learned in college, long before DNA analysis was available. This type of adaptation says that it requires a finite amount of time, energy, and effort to build an eye so that over time, if the eye doesn't contribute to the welfare of the species, the eye will cease to be made. T...

There's an interesting article on Sonic Hedgehog in the January 18 issue of Nature . I'm used to seeing this gene mentioned when discussing mammalian function or development but not fish--although the article refers to cartilaginous fish only. While both humans and cartilaginous fish are vertebrates we diverged so long ago from the chondricthylans that it's easy to forget that we still share quite a few genes. One of those genes is Shh, commonly referred to as Sonic Hedgehog , pictured over there to the left. Shh, in mammals, encodes a signaling molecule that plays a central role in developmental patterning, especially of the nervous system and the skeletal system. It's highly conserved and mutations in the gene result in serious maladies such as holoprosencephaly type 3. I'm familiar with Sonic Hedgehog due to its being implicated in causing tumors and thus of interest to cancer investigators. Getting back to the article in Nature, it demonstrates how Shh is conse...