Scientists Map Maize Genome

26Nov09

The team identified some 32,000 genes spread across the crop’s 10 chromosomes. They also found that more than 85 percent of the genome is composed of transposable genetic elements and that the crop shares 8,494 gene families with Arabidopsis, sorghum and rice. “Just as cytogenetic and genetic maps revolutionized research and crop improvement over the last century, the B73 maize reference sequence promises to advance basic research and to facilitate efforts to meet the world’s growing needs for food, feed, energy, and industrial feed stocks in an era of global climate change,” the team wrote in the paper.

Maize’s 3.2 billion base pair genome has many things to reveal, as evidenced by numerous companion papers published by Science, PLoS Genetics, PNAS and Plant Physiology analyzing everything from transposable genetic elements, maize centromere evolution, characterization of microRNA genes to hybrid vigor and the crop’s evolutionary history. Crop Biotech

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A tale of two integrations, transgene and T-DNA: gene targeting by homologous recombination in rice.

26Nov09

The first successful and reproducible gene targeting by homologous recombination, without the concomitant occurrence of ectopic events, has been reported. This will be a powerful approach for the characterization of gene function in rice, an important crop and a model for other cereal species. Models have been proposed to explain gene replacement by homologous recombination, including a possible model for Agrobacterium-mediated gene targeting using a strong positive-negative selection. Pubmed

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Richard Dawkins on Why Science is Art

29Oct09

While many, including Darwin himself, have misunderstood the work of a scientist as the dull grinding of facts and theories, Richard Dawkins sees the career as a colorful and incredibly creative enterprise—akin, in many ways, to the highest poetry and most imaginative art. (Richard Dawkins on Why Science is Art)

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Sağlıklı olmak için genomun hepsi gerekmiyor

23Oct09

Yaşamımız  genomumuza bağlı,  ancak tümüne değil. Hollanda Radbound Universitesi’nde yapılan  bir çalışmada insan genomunun “junk” dediğimiz kısımlarıyla çalışılarak hayati önem taşıyan minimal genom miktarı tahmin edilmeye çalışılmış. 600 sağlıklı öğrencinin genomu incelenmiş ve ortalama  10.000 baz çiftlik kısmın bazı öğrencilerde bulunmadığı ortaya çıkmış. Bu genomlar arasında  yaklaşık %0.2’lik bir kısma tekabül ediyor.

Delesyonların (DNA kaybı)  üçde ikisinden fazlası birden fazla kişide var, üstelik bunlar 40’a yakın genin içinde gerçekleşmiş. Bu genler genelde bağışıklık sistemi, koku ve diğer duyularla ilgili genler.

Peki, DNA’nın “gerekli” olmayan kısımları varsa neden bunlara sahibiz?  Joris Veltman, bu bölgelerin önceden gerekli olup sonradan önemli olmaktan çıkmış olabileceğini söylüyor, yaşamda kalabilmek için farklı yeteneklerin gelişmesi bir neden olabilir, yada genomun başka bir bölgesindeki evrimleşen diğer genler aynı işi üstlenmeye başlamış olabilirler.

Konuyu destekleyen diğer  bir sonuç ise Cambridge’deki Sanger Enstitüsü’nden geliyor, bozulmuş genleri tarayan araştırıcılar 200 genden birinin artık “işlevsel” olmadığını buldular. Hangi genin etnik gruplar arasında işlevsiz olup olmadığı sıradaki araştırma konusu.

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We Are All Connected… “Symphony of Science” (ft. Sagan, Feynman, deGrasse Tyson & Bill Nye)

21Oct09

“We Are All Connected” was made from sampling Carl Sagan’s Cosmos, The History Channel’s Universe series, Richard Feynman’s 1983 interviews, Neil deGrasse Tyson’s cosmic sermon, and Bill Nye’s Eyes of Nye Series, plus added visuals from The Elegant Universe (NOVA), Stephen Hawking’s Universe, Cosmos, the Powers of 10, and more. It is a tribute to great minds of science, intended to spread scientific knowledge and philosophy through the medium of music. Please connect…

“The beauty of a living thing is not the atoms that go into it
But the way those atoms are put together” (C. Sagan)

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3 Americans Share Nobel for Medicine

06Oct09

The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded Monday to three American scientists who solved a problem of cell biology with deep relevance to cancer and aging. The three will receive equal shares of a prize worth around $1.4 million.

The recipients solved a longstanding puzzle involving the ends of chromosomes, the giant molecules of DNA that embody the genetic information. These ends, called telomeres, get shorter each time a cell divides and so serve as a kind of clock that counts off the cell’s allotted span of life.

The three winners are Elizabeth H. Blackburn of the University of California, San Francisco; Carol W. Greider of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine; and Jack W. Szostak of Massachusetts General Hospital… (Source: New York Times)

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Gen terapide yeni sayfa; hedeflenmiş DNA transferi…

25Sep09

Genetic seamstress uses molecular fingers to tweak DNA…Link

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Kişiye özel genom dizilemede yeni dönem

25Sep09

Last year, when more than 100 of the world’s top geneticists, technologists, and clinicians converged on Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in New York for the first annual Personal-Genomes conference, the main focus was James Watson’s genome. The codiscoverer of the structure of DNA was the first to have his genome sequenced and published (aside from Craig Venter, who used his own DNA for the private arm of the human genome project.) Watson sat in the front row of the lecture hall as scientists presented their analysis of his genome. They paid special attention to the number of single-letter variations or small insertions and deletions in his DNA–clues as to whether he had a genetic variation that slightly boosted his risk for heart disease or cancer. But there was very little usable information in the genome…A Turning Point for Personal Genomes

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PNAS yayınında Türk araştırmacı / Deniz bakterileri zor yaşam koşullarında nasıl hayatta kaldı?

03Sep09

Aralarında İstanbul Üniversitesi  Moleküler Biyoloji ve Genetik Bölümü’nün de yer aldığı 7 araştırma kurumunun katılımıyla gerçekleştirilen  ve  PNAS‘da yayınlanan araştırmada  kopiyotrofik ve oligotrofik yaşam şartlarına uyan 2 model bakterinin genomları incelenerek  zor koşullardaki adaptasyonun  moleküler temeli açığa çıkarılmaya çalışıldı. Bunun için tamamlanmış 126 genom incelenerek  400.000 den fazla protein özel biyoinformatik araçlarla  analiz edilmiş.  Çalışmanın ortaya koyduğu  modeller, belirli okyanus şartlarında ne tipte bakterilerin yaşayabileceğine dair önemli  ipuçları vermektedir. Bu çok-kurumlu araştırmada Türkiye’den Prof. Dr. Haluk Ertan’ın katkısı  gurur verici… 

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‘Craig Venter – The Genius of Charles Darwin: The Uncut Interviews’ by Richard Dawkins

23Aug09

Richard Dawkins interviews Craig Venter for “The Genius of Charles Darwin”, the Channel 4 UK TV program which won British Broadcasting Awards’ “Best Documentary Series” of 2008.

Link icin tıklayın 

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