Genetics & Molecular Biology

New And Improved Crop Protection: Oxitec Self-Limiting, Genetically Engineered Diamondback Moth For Brassica

Plutella xylostella (diamondback moth) does tremendous damage to brassica crops such as cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower and canola. A new strain of diamondback moth developed by Oxitec Ltd, (OX4319L) is modified to control pest diamondback moth in a targete ...

Article - News Staff - Jan 29 2020 - 12:02pm

Nitrogen For Crops From Gene-Edited Microbes: How Close Is It?

Everyone has heard of the nutrient, nitrogen, but why is it important to plants? ...

Article - R. Ford Denison - Feb 11 2020 - 12:33am

Coronavirus Genome Has Been Sequenced

A recent study identified the coronavirus responsible for the pneumonia epidemic in the Hubei province of China and finds the bat-origin virus is related to other known pathogenic coronaviruses. The 2019 coronavirus (CoV) causes fatal pneumonia that has cl ...

Article - News Staff - Feb 19 2020 - 11:16am

How To Evolve A Pandemic Flu Virus

Most years, we generally don't worry about the flu (unless we're paid to worry about it, or we belong to an especially susceptible population). Yet some years, like this one, threats of a pandemic flu virus make it on everyone's radar screen ...

Article - Michael White - Mar 19 2020 - 12:58pm

Good Morning! Did You Sleep Poorly Because Of Your Genes?

A new paper suggests 47 links between our genetic code and the quality, quantity and timing of our sleep. The correlation was created using 85,670 participants of UK Biobank and 5,819 individuals from three other studies, who wore accelerometers (e.g. Fitb ...

Article - News Staff - Apr 4 2020 - 7:55am

Females And Alcoholism: Blame Estrogen?

A new paper posits that fluctuating estrogen levels may make alcohol more rewarding. The giant caveat is that the study was in mice, and despite what you may read in corporate media, mice are not little people, so this research is firmly in the "explo ...

Article - News Staff - Jun 1 2020 - 4:40pm

QIH: Mice Don't Hibernate, But Now They Can- And What That May Mean For Human Space Travel

Humans do not hibernate, but in science-fiction films long-distance travel often involves "suspended animation" where muscular atrophy, starvation, and oxygen deprivation don't occur.  Mice don't hibernate either but they just did in ex ...

Article - News Staff - Jun 12 2020 - 11:43am

A Bull Calf Has Been Genetically Optimized To Produce 75% Males

Using the genome-editing technology CRISPR, researchers can make targeted cuts to the genome or insert useful genes, called a gene knock-in, and they have done it with the cattle SRY gene, responsible for initiating male development, into a bovine embryo. ...

Article - News Staff - Jul 27 2020 - 3:17pm

Surrogate Sires: CRISPR Pigs And Cattle Could Produce Sperm Carrying Only The Genetic Traits Of Donor Animals

In the old days, if you wanted to spread desirable characteristics in livestock you had to try breeding and hope for the best. The 19th century breakthroughs in genetics promised a future where trial and error was no longer the norm. Now, with desire to op ...

Article - News Staff - Sep 18 2020 - 7:12pm

Not Just Sex: The Male Y Chromosome Does More Than Previously Thought

Humans each have 23 pairs of chromosomes, the 23rd of which determines sex. Females carry two X sex chromosomes, males carry one X and one Y chromosome. Yet this male chromosome carries genes that females lack and those male genes are expressed in all cell ...

Article - News Staff - Sep 25 2020 - 5:49pm