Genetics & Molecular Biology

Hox Swingers: The Role Of Architect Genes In Embryonic Development

A few brief days in embryonic life lays out our body's construction plan. The appearance of limbs and vertebrae is orchestrated by a family of 'architect' genes called Hox, each providing precise instructions at a given time. New research h ...

Article - News Staff - Jun 7 2013 - 4:00pm

The Giant that Got Away

What with all the current talk of GMOs, I would remind folks here that some 20 th century methods also raised fears.  A more “traditional” method has been to double the chromosome content of plants — one well known example is Triticale is the hybrid of wh ...

Blog Post - Robert H Olley - Jun 7 2013 - 2:26pm

Cortical Layer, Can We Get Some Support?

Though the mechanism responsible for generating part of the skeletal support for the membrane in animal cells is not yet understood, researchers have found a well-defined layer beneath the cell outer membrane forms beyond a certain critical level of stres ...

Article - News Staff - Jun 10 2013 - 5:00pm

A Modest Proposal About How To Do GMO Food Labeling Right

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Article - Steve Savage - Jun 13 2013 - 3:17pm

Gene Patents: Justice Scalia Dissents On High School Science

The U.S. Supreme Court just released a groundbreaking decision about the ability to patent genes – the assembly instruction for life.   Amid much discussion about potential implications for the biotech industry, a separate, extremely troubling aspect of th ...

Article - Robert Cooper - Jun 17 2013 - 4:35pm

Gene Patents II: The Contradictions And Loopholes

The US Supreme Court recently sided with patient advocacy groups that a company cannot patent your genes.  Sounds like a pretty clear case, but the decision also creates some exceedingly odd loopholes, and even loopholes within loopholes, to say nothing of ...

Article - Robert Cooper - Jun 17 2013 - 11:26pm

Sugar Molecule, You Have A Long-Distance Call

Glycoproteins are sugar-protein hybrid molecules that the protective mucus that lines our lungs and stomach and are also part of the fluid that lubricates our joints, the synovial fluid, and cover all our cells, with the sugar parts, the glycans, sticking ...

Article - News Staff - Jun 19 2013 - 12:01pm

The Elusive H7N9 Virus: Chinese Researchers Predict Future Pandemic

Since February 2013, China experienced an outbreak of the novel H7N9 avian flu, causing 131 cases of infection, and a death toll of 39. This particular H7N9 strain is considered to be one of the most worrisome pathogens since the H5N1 pandemic in 1997; a r ...

Article - Jennifer Wong - Jun 20 2013 - 12:39pm

The Genetic Secrets Of Symbiosis

Mealybugs only eat plant sap but sap doesn't contain all the essential amino acids the insects need to survive- so mealybugs have developed a symbiotic relationship with two species of bacteria, one living inside the other in a situation unique to kn ...

Article - News Staff - Jun 20 2013 - 6:00pm

Genetic Modification Could Stop Wheat Rust Epidemic

Sr35 has been identified as a gene that enables resistance to a new race, or strain, of stem rust, a disease that is producing large wheat yield losses throughout Africa and Asia and threatening global food security. ...

Article - News Staff - Jun 27 2013 - 3:29pm