News by Subject Biology

Jumping genes, transposons, are part of the genome of most organisms, aggregated into families and can damage the genome by jumping. How hosts suppress the jumping is well investigated. Why they still can jump has hardly been understood so far. Researchers from Vetmeduni Vienna investigated for the first time in all transposons of the host organism, which properties and host environments facilitate jumping. They showed that family affiliation is more important than position.

In a major step forward, scientists at CSHLtoday publish a discovery about the molecular-genetic basis of neuronal cell types. Neurons are the basic building blocks that wire up brain circuits supporting mental activities and behavior. The study, which involves sophisticated computational analysis of the messages transcribed from genes that are active in a neuron, points to patterns of cell-to-cell communication as the core feature that makes possible rigorous distinctions among neuron types across the mouse brain.

IBS scientists visualize unstained chains of atoms, called polymers, moving inside tiny graphene pockets under electron microscopes.

Scientists say that a large, now extinct, frog called Beelzebufo that lived about 68 million years ago in Madagascar would have been capable of eating small dinosaurs. The conclusion comes from a study of the bite force of South American horned frogs from the living genus Ceratophrys, known as Pacman frogs for their characteristic round shape and large mouth, similar to the video game character Pac-Man.

Associate Professor Kensuke Kawade at Okazaki Institute for Integrative Bioscience and National Institute for Basic Biology, in collaboration with Professor Hirokazu Tsukaya at the Graduate School of Science, the University of Tokyo, discovered that endoreduplication, which promotes cellular enlargement in the epidermal tissue of Arabidopsis thaliana, occurs randomly as a Poisson process throughout cellular maturation.

Some of nature's most vibrant colors occur in frogs, who peek out from rainforests and marshes in startling shades of blue, yellow and red. But for hundreds of species, only males flaunt flashy colors -- and sometimes only for a few hours, days or weeks each year. Scientists report that the males of at least 178 species of frogs undergo a temporary color change during their breeding season. Their research will help them understand why.

Fluorescence microscopy gives researchers power to illuminate the tiniest structures and capture the real-time activities of cells by tagging biological molecules with a rainbow of fluorescent dyes. Researchers have developed a system that enables scientists to rapidly image fluorescent cells grown inside the chip using a CMOS image sensor, the same technology found in the camera of a smartphone. The new system, described this week in AIP Advances, has numerous potential uses in biomedical research.