SOE stands for Splicing by overhang extensions ,is an immensely useful tools in molecular biology today for creating point mutations in gene of interest and also to make chimeric proteins (fusion proteins).The important point of SOE is designing of primer sequences used for amplifying two or more DNA fragments to be fused.The primers are designed in a way that resultant PCR products have complimentary ends so that they can act as primers for each other in subsequent reaction.Then when you mix the resultant pcr products and run a pcr reaction …

Introduction:
Looks might be really deceiving and this statement holds true in case of heart formation in organisms.Even though Drosophila heart which looks very different from its vertebrates counter parts,but The molecular pathways controlling heart formation and differentiation are evolutionarily conserved.The similar rules in forming heart in flies and higher vertebrates and availability for various tools in Drosophila ,helped it in emerging as an excellent model system to study cardiac development,function and aging.

Heart Development:
In Drosophila melanogaster, heart precursor cells originate from the dorsal-most region of the mesoderm in response to …

Scientists have confirmed for the first time that an important component of early genetic material which has been found in meteorite fragments is extraterrestrial in origin, in a paper published on 15 June 2008

McNaughts Comet Eyre Peninsula South Australia
Originally uploaded by john white photos

The finding suggests that parts of the raw materials to make the first molecules of DNA and RNA may have come from the stars.
The scientists, from Europe and the USA, say that their research, published in the journal Earth and Planetary Science Letters, provides evidence that life’s …

Nature journal has published an article under career view in 2006 from Georgia Chenevix-Trench,a principal research fellow at the Queensland,Institute of Medical Research, Royal Brisbane Hospital, Herston, Australia.She talks about what makes a good PhD student which i found it very interesting and might help many students who are pursuing or might take PhD in the furture.
Doing a PhD should be fun and rewarding, because you can spend all your working time discovering things and pursuing ideas — and getting paid for it, without any administrative responsibilities. Those who stick …

The phylum Porifera consists of Sponges meaning “Pore bearer”,are mostly marine animals.These animals are among simplest of animals lacking gastrulated embryos (Gastrulation is a phase early in the development of animal embryos,during which the morphology of the embryo is dramatically restructured by cell migration.Gastrulation is followed by organogenesis, when individual organs develop within the newly formed germ layers) and sponges are also devoid of proper digestive system.Diffusion is responsible for circulation and excretion in these organisms.They also lack nerves,muscles and tissue organization.

Blue …

Evolution is not always about inventing new proteins but using the same old proteins in a different ways to attain a new function and there by modifying the body plan ,leading to development of new species.Drosophila fushi tarazu serves as a great example for evolution in action and this was demonstrated by Ulrike Lohr et al in 2001 through their current biology article.This happens to be my one of all time favorite work on Hox genes as it displays gradual change in gene function during the course of …

Research in the laboratory mainly utilises the fruit fly Drosophila , a model organism that shares many genes with mammals and has contributed to our understanding of several different aspects of human health and disease. We have recently identified a group of genes expressed in the neural stem cells of Drosophila (called neuroblasts) that are essential for switching off growth of the nervous system and preventing neural tumors in adults. We have also identified /Drosophila/ hepatocyte cells (called oenocytes) that express many enzymes metabolising lipids and are …