Research Highlights from the Nature Light show lures prey Biol. Open http://doi.org/6qd (2015) Jellyfish and other marine animals could be using their fluorescent proteins to attract prey Proteins such as green fluorescent protein (GFP) are invaluable tools for biologists in the lab, but their role in nature has not been clear. Steven Haddock at Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute in Moss Landing, California, and Casey Dunn at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, placed the flower hat jellyfish (Olindias formosus, pictured in blue light) in a tank along with its rockfish prey and separated the two with a transparent wall. When they exposed O. formosus to blue light (the light of its underwater habitat), the tips of its tentacles fluoresced green and the rockfish attacked the barrier more often than under yellow or white light or when the jellyfish was replaced with a non-fluorescent decoy...
More Mouse brain cells made primate-like PLoS Biol. 13, e1002217 (2015) By turning on a single gene in specific neural cells in the embryonic mouse brain, researchers have made more neurons grow in the neocortex ? a region that evolved to be much larger in primates than in other mammals Wieland Huttner at the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics in Dresden, Germany, and his team developed a mouse model in which they could switch on the Pax6 gene in specific neural progenitor cells ? where it is expressed in humans but not in mice. They turned on the gene in cells that give rise to neurons of the neocortex, which controls advanced cognitive abilities. The team found that with sustained Pax6 expression, the progenitor cells proliferated more, resulting in more neurons in parts of the neocortex...
More How the Ebola vaccine protects Science http://doi.org/6p9 (2015) The Ebola vaccine that proved effective in a trial of more than 4,000 people in Guinea seems to work by rapidly triggering one arm of the immune system to hold back the virus while the body ramps up antibody production, according to a study in monkeys Heinz Feldmann of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases in Hamilton, Montana, and his colleagues tested the VSV-EBOV vaccine, which was designed to fight the 2014 West African outbreak strain of Ebola virus. The team immunized 15 rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta) and then infected them with the virus. All but one of the vaccinated animals survived, whereas all unimmunized animals died about a week after infection. Analysis of the surviving animals' blood showed that the vaccine triggered the innate immune system to keep viral replication in check during the first days of infection, giving the rest of the immune system time to churn out Ebola-specific antibodies...
More Chemicals switch cells' identity Cell Stem Cell http://doi.org/6p4;
Cell Stem Cell http://doi.org/6p5 (2015) Adult skin cells have been transformed directly into neurons by two independent groups in China using just small-molecule chemicals Reprogramming adult cells back into stem cells or directly into other types of specialized cells requires transcription factors, which modify cells genetically. To avoid tinkering with the cells' genes, Gang Pei and Jian Zhao from the Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences and their colleagues worked with fibroblasts, or skin cells, from both healthy adults and people with Alzheimer's disease, culturing them with a cocktail of small molecules to produce neurons. Hongkui Deng at Peking University, Beijing, and his colleagues used a different set of chemicals to convert mouse fibroblasts into neurons. Both groups made neurons that looked, fired and made functional connections just like neurons created from fibroblasts using transcription factors...
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