(Press-News.org) Frontiers in Plant Science
Automated conserved noncoding sequence (CNS) discovery reveals differences in gene content and promoter evolution among grasses
Within the genome of each species, there are thousands of stretches of DNA that undergo little change in position and sequence over millions of years, but do not code for any proteins. Some of these evolutionarily stable sequences, so-called conserved noncoding sequences (CNSs), are known to regulate the expression of other genes or the condensation of chromosomes, but the function of many CNSs remains unknown. Michael Freeling and colleagues from Berkeley here present their new open-source program "CNS Discovery Pipeline 3.0" which has taken three programmers six years to develop and can automatically find CNSs in newly sequenced genomes. The authors show that the program gives highly accurate results in a short time, requiring only 30 minutes to find the same number of CNSs as two trained biologists could do in two years. By helping us to understand how key genes are regulated, the program's output can boost medicine and the breeding of new crops.
URL: http://www.frontiersin.org/Plant_Genetics_and_Genomics/10.3389/fpls.2013.00170/abstract
Source code for CNS Discovery Pipeline 3.0 at: https://github.com/gturco/find_cns
Instructions for installation at: https://github.com/gturco/find_cns/blob/master/INSTALL.rst
Researcher contact
Prof Michael Freeling
Department of Plant & Microbial Biology
University of California at Berkeley
Email: freeling@berkeley.edu
Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience
Spatial learning of female mice: a role of the mineralocorticoid receptor during stress and the estrous cycle
In a stressful situation, rodents produce the stress hormone corticosterone. This helps the animal, because spatial learning is promoted when corticosterone binds to one of the stress hormone receptors (mineralocorticoid receptors) in the hippocampus, a region of the brain. Judith ter Horst and colleagues from Leiden University here show that female mice that lack the gene for the mineralocorticoid receptor in the forebrain have difficulty finding their way home through a maze, especially shortly before ovulation. The interaction between female sex hormones and stress hormones could result in worsening of spatial learning. There was also an interaction with stress: it was easier for mutant females to find their way home after they had been briefly and gently restrained, probably due to an increase in corticosterone levels in the blood. Ter Horst and colleagues conclude that mineralocorticoid receptors are necessary for efficient spatial learning by female mice.
URL: http://www.frontiersin.org/Behavioral_Neuroscience/10.3389/fnbeh.2013.00056/abstract
Researcher contact:
Dr Judith ter Horst
Division of Medical Pharmacology
Leiden Academic Center for Drug Research and Leiden University Medical Center
Leiden University
Tel: +31 205257719
Email: j.p.f.terhorst@uva.nl
Frontiers in Neuroscience
Abrupt changes in the patterns and complexity of anterior cingulate cortex activity
It simply feels good to regain your bearings after getting lost, especially when you are hungry and had been looking for a particular restaurant. Jeremy Seamans and colleagues from the University of British Columbia, Canada, here show that hungry rats experience a similar abrupt neural change when they stumble upon food in an unfamiliar environment. They recorded patterns of activity in the medial prefrontal cortex of the brain, an area implicated in the regulation of behavior and emotion. When the rats first realized that food had to begun to literally drop from above, their patterns of brain activity changed abruptly and dramatically from preceding patterns, characteristic of hungry rats that are busy exploring a new enclosure. Not only were the patterns completely different after finding the food, but they were also simpler. Seamans et al. conclude that whenever a critical goal is realized, the medial prefrontal cortex can change abruptly from a "search state", where many outcomes are possible, to a simpler "consumption state" that needs to consider fewer outcomes: principally, the outcome of digging into tasty food.
URL: http://www.frontiersin.org/Decision_Neuroscience/10.3389/fnins.2013.00074/abstract
Researcher contact
Prof Jeremy K. Seamans
Department of Psychiatry
Brain Research Centre
University of British Columbia
Tel. : +1 6048227759
E-mail: Jeremy.seamans@ubc.ca
###
For copies of embargoed papers, please contact: Gozde Zorlu, Communications Officer: tel: +41 (0) 21 693 9203. Interview requests should be directed to the corresponding author and appropriate contact details are provided above.
For online articles, please cite "Frontiers in xxx" followed by the name of the field as the publisher and include a link to the paper; URLs are listed.
About Frontiers
Frontiers, a partner of Nature Publishing Group, is a scholarly open-access publisher and research networking platform. Based in Switzerland, and formed by scientists in 2007, it is one of the largest and fastest growing publishers and its mission is to empower all academic communities to drive research publishing and communication into the 21st century with open science tools.
The "Frontiers in" series of journals publish around 500 peer-reviewed articles every month, which receive 5 million monthly views and are supported by over 25,000 editors and reviewers. Frontiers has formed partnerships with international organizations, such as, the Max Planck Society and the International Union of Immunological Societies (IUIS). For more information, please visit: http://www.frontiersin.org.
Frontiers news briefs: May 23
2013-05-24
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
Gold nanocrystal vibration captured on billion-frames-per-second film
2013-05-24
A billon-frames-per-second film has captured the vibrations of gold nanocrystals in stunning detail for the first time.
The film, which was made using 3D imaging pioneered at the London Centre for Nanotechnology (LCN) at UCL, reveals important information about the composition of gold. The findings are published in the journal Science.
Jesse Clark, from the LCN and lead author of the paper said: "Just as the sound quality of a musical instrument can provide great detail about its construction, so too can the vibrations seen in materials provide important information ...
King Richard III found in 'untidy lozenge-shaped grave'
2013-05-24
An academic paper on the archaeology of the Search for Richard III reveals for the first time specific details of the grave dug for King Richard III and discovered under a car park in Leicester.
University of Leicester archaeologists have published the first peer-reviewed paper on the University-led archaeological Search for Richard III in the prestigious journal Antiquity.
The paper reveals:
Richard III was casually placed in a badly prepared grave – suggesting gravediggers were in a hurry to bury him
He was placed in an 'odd position' and the torso crammed in
The ...
Statin use is linked to increased risk of developing diabetes, warn researchers
2013-05-24
Treatment with high potency statins (especially atorvastatin and simvastatin) may increase the risk of developing diabetes, suggests a paper published today on bmj.com.
Statins are among the most widely prescribed medications for the prevention of cardiovascular events. Although tolerated well, an association with new-onset diabetes has recently been suggested. One trial suggested a 27% increased risk of diabetes with rosuvastatin whereas another suggested patients taking pravastatin benefitted from a 30% lower risk.
As there is limited data on this subject, researchers ...
Consumers largely underestimating calorie content of fast food
2013-05-24
People eating at fast food restaurants largely underestimate the calorie content of meals, especially large ones, according to a paper published today on bmj.com.
From 2006 to 2010 many American states and cities passed laws requiring chain restaurants to print calorie content on menus. The US Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 included a provision that will require all restaurant chains with more than 20 US sites to print calorie content on menus.
Previous research has shown that adults and children underestimate calorie content often by large amounts. ...
Diabetes' genetic underpinnings can vary based on ethnic background, Stanford studies say
2013-05-24
STANFORD, Calif. - Ethnic background plays a surprisingly large role in how diabetes develops on a cellular level, according to two new studies led by researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine.
The researchers reanalyzed disease data to demonstrate that the physiological pathways to diabetes vary between Africa and East Asia and that those differences are reflected in part by genetic differences. The studies will be published online simultaneously May 23 in the journals PLoS Genetics and Diabetes Care.
"We have new insights into the differences in diabetes ...
Future doctors unaware of their obesity bias
2013-05-24
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C., – May 23, 2013 – Two out of five medical students have an unconscious bias against obese people, according to a new study by researchers at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center. The study is published online ahead of print in the Journal of Academic Medicine.
"Bias can affect clinical care and the doctor-patient relationship, and even a patient's willingness or desire to go see their physician, so it is crucial that we try to deal with any bias during medical school," said David Miller, M.D., associate professor of internal medicine at Wake Forest Baptist ...
U Alberta teams with citizen researchers 370 light years from Earth
2013-05-24
(Edmonton) A University of Alberta physicist brought together back-yard astronomers and professionals to confirm the mysterious behaviour of two stars more than 300 light years from Earth.
U of A astrophysics researcher Gregory Sivakoff was part of an international team that re-examined an established theory about periodic bursts of light coming from a binary star.
The two stars are called a binary star because they rotate around each other. The accepted theory on why the binary star, named SS Cygni, emits periodic bursts of light involves an interaction between the ...
A quantum simulator for magnetic materials
2013-05-24
Physicists understand perfectly well why a fridge magnet sticks to certain metallic surfaces. But there are more exotic forms of magnetism whose properties remain unclear, despite decades of intense research. An important step towards filling these gaps comes now from Tilman Esslinger and his group at the Department of Physics. The team has developed a new kind of device that uses laser beams and atoms to emulate magnetic materials. Their approach promises fundamental insights beyond what can be obtained with current theoretical and computational methods. Moreover, the ...
MRI-based measurement helps predict vascular disease in the brain
2013-05-24
OAK BROOK, Ill. (May 23, 2013) – Aortic arch pulse wave velocity, a measure of arterial stiffness, is a strong independent predictor of disease of the vessels that supply blood to the brain, according to a new study published in the June issue the journal Radiology.
"Pulse wave velocity from the aortic arch provides functional information about vessel compliance that may help determine a patient's risk for cerebrovascular disease down the road," said Kevin S. King, M.D., assistant professor of radiology at UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas.
Recent studies have ...
UCI study reveals new mechanism for estrogen suppression of liver lipid synthesis
2013-05-24
By discovering the new mechanism by which estrogen suppresses lipid synthesis in the liver, UC Irvine endocrinologists have revealed a potential new approach toward treating certain liver diseases.
With this finding, Dr. Ellis Levin and colleagues believe they are changing long-held views in the field. Study results appear in the May 21 issue of the journal Science Signaling.
"The dogma in the steroid receptor field for 50 years has been that only receptors located in the nucleus respond to steroid hormones by regulating genes that produce the developmental, functional ...