A new primate model provides significant opportunities for future gene therapies Quelle: IDW Informationsdienst Wissenschaft Hier jetzt das aktuell Außergewöhnliche auswählen …

Traumatic brain injuries often lead to complications with long-lasting consequences on memory, concentration and movement control. Detrimental secondary inflammatory reactions at the injured tissue sites are often responsible for this. Researchers from Ulm have now shown in a Nature Communications study that the transcription factor NF-κB plays a key role in post-traumatic reactions to TBI. When this gene regulator is activated in astrocytes, i.e., in supporting cells of the brain, an elevated neuroimmune response promotes aberrant inflammation. Quelle: IDW Informationsdienst Wissenschaft Hier jetzt das aktuell Außergewöhnliche auswählen …

Forschende aus Magdeburg und Jena hinterfragen ein seit Jahrzehnten verbreitetes Modell der Genregulation Quelle: IDW Informationsdienst Wissenschaft

Die Photorespiration ist ein zellulärer Umbauprozess, bei dem Pflanzen unter Einwirkung von Licht Kohlenstoffdioxid freisetzen und Sauerstoff verbrauchen. Sie galt bislang als ein besonders verschwenderisches Nebenerzeugnis der Photosynthese. Dieser Vorgang spielt jedoch eine wichtige Rolle für den Erhalt des pflanzlichen Epigenoms, das in Reaktion auf Umwelteinflüsse steuert, welche Gene ein- oder ausgeschaltet werden. Das zeigen Untersuchungen, die Wissenschaftler des Helmholtz Zentrums München, der Technischen Universität München und der Universität Heidelberg durchgeführt haben. Quelle: IDW Informationsdienst Wissenschaft

Wie wird aus einem winzigen Zellhaufen ein Embryo mit Kopf, Rumpf und Schwanz? Und wie koordinieren tausende Gene diese Entwicklung? Eine neues Bildgebungsverfahren macht es nun möglich, die Aktivität tausender Gene gleichzeitig im gesamten Zebrafisch-Embryo sichtbar zu machen. Mithilfe dieser Technologie hat ein Forschungsteam der Universität Basel einen Atlas aller Gene und Zellen erstellt, die sich an der Entwicklung vom Zellhaufen zum Embryo beteiligen. Quelle: IDW Informationsdienst Wissenschaft

An international research team led by Konrad Meister from the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research, part of Mischa Bonn’s department, has identified a new class of ice crystal-forming proteins in lower fungi. The study shows that fungi of the family Mortierellaceae use a genetic blueprint that originates from bacteria. Unlike bacteria, however, the fungi use the gene to form water-soluble proteins. This structural adaptation explains the high stability and efficiency of ice formation by the fungi. According to the researchers, the fungal proteins are promising for applications in the field of freezing technology. Quelle: IDW Informationsdienst Wissenschaft

Unsere Umwelt sehen Metagenomiker als Quelle unentdeckter Viren und Keime: Wie Big-Data-Biologen die Welt genetisch neu vermessen. Quelle: FAZ.NET

Muhammad A Shah, Emily L Denton, Cheryl H Arrowsmith, Mathieu Lupien and Matthieu Schapira Abstract Background The notion that epigenetic mechanisms may be central to cancer initiation and progression is supported by recent next-generation sequencing efforts revealing that genes involved in chromatin-mediated signaling are recurrently mutated in cancer patients. Results Here, we analyze mutational and transcriptional profiles from TCGA and the ICGC across a collection 441 chromatin factors and histones. Chromatin factors essential for rapid replication are frequently overexpressed, and those that maintain genome stability frequently mutated. We identify novel mutation hotspots such as K36M in histone H3.1, and uncover…

Progressive increase in mtDNA 3243A>G heteroplasmy causes abrupt transcriptional reprogramming Wallace hypothesized mitochondrial dysfunction as a central role in a wide range of age-related disorders and various forms of cancer. Steadily rising increases in mitochondrial DNA mutations cause abrupt shifts in diseases. Discrete changes in nuclear gene expression in response to small increases in DNA mutant level are analogous to the phase shifts that is well known in physics: As heat is added, the ice abruptly turns to water or with more heat abruptly to steam. Therefore, a quantitative change that is an increasing proportion of mitochondrial DNA mutation results…

Daniel Smeets, Yolanda Markaki, Volker J Schmid, Felix Kraus, Anna Tattermusch, Andrea Cerase, Michael Sterr, Susanne Fiedler, Justin Demmerle, Jens Popken, Heinrich Leonhardt, Neil Brockdorff, Thomas Cremer1, Lothar Schermelleh and Marion Cremer Abstract Background A Xist RNA decorated Barr body is the structural hallmark of the compacted inactive X territory in female mammals. Using super-resolution three-dimensional structured illumination microscopy (3D-SIM) and quantitative image analysis, we compared its ultrastructure with active chromosome territories (CTs) in human and mouse somatic cells, and explored the spatio-temporal process of Barr body formation at onset of inactivation in early differentiating mouse embryonic stem cells (ESCs)….

Susanne Rittinghausen, Anja Hackbarth, Otto Creutzenberg, Heinrich Ernst, Uwe Heinrich, Albrecht Leonhardt and Dirk Schaudien Abstract Background Biological effects of tailor-made multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) without functionalization were investigated in vivo in a two-year carcinogenicity study. In the past, intraperitoneal carcinogenicity studies in rats using biopersistent granular dusts had always been negative, whereas a number of such studies with different asbestos fibers had shown tumor induction. The aim of this study was to identify possible carcinogenic effects of MWCNTs. We compared induced tumors with asbestos-induced mesotheliomas and evaluated their relevance for humans by immunohistochemical methods. Methods A total of 500…