Hoxful Monsters

Drosophila ,which played a significant role in understanding many complex biological process is well on the way of solving another major puzzle. Species of Drosophila lay eggs outside in the environment , which develops and transforms into first instar larvae in about 24 hours time. UC San Diego biologists have discovered a species from the islands of Seychelles, often lay larvae instead of eggs. Understanding the development of this species might provide us with some clues how animals switch from laying eggs to live birth ?

Achim Paululat’s lab in Department of Zoology & Developmental Biology, Osnabrück-Germany worked out the first developmental study on Wing Hearts in Drosophila melanogaster.One of key area of research in Achim paululat’s lab is to understand Heart development in fruit fly and Search for genes specifically expressed in Heart led to the transcription factor Hand, which played a vital role in deciphering the developmental pattern of Wing hearts.
Circulatory system ensures that metabolites from fat bodies are supplied to all cells, carries wastes material to excretory organs and also ensures immunity against …

Heard about the exhibition of paintings by Apes? I thought it could be some brush strokes here and there on canvas but i was shocked to see the skill of these great Apes,which are on display in Iowa.In fact Apes are pretty good at this art and might compete well with humans.If you don’t believe me ,then check out the exhibition at Des Moines, Iowa for yourself.Some magnificent work created by Great Ape Trust of Iowa’s resident orangutans and bonobos was a complete sell out

Animals or metazoans are found in various forms and considered to be one of finest creation of nature.Many animals played a significant role in understanding life by serving as model organisms.Difficult to find someone who hates these magnificent creatures of our planet and watching them in wild is something cannot be expressed in words.But believe me watching the videos on TV or computer is equally exciting.Here i picked some of favorite animal videos: Starting with my all time favorite the Battle of Kruger

The genome sequence of woolly mammoth,an extinct species of Elephant is almost complete.This species of Elephant was adapted to live in cold and was found in Tundra region.Scientists from Penn state university have sequenced four billion DNA bases using next-generation DNA-sequencing instruments and a novel approach that reads ancient DNA highly efficiently.Stephan C. Schuster, Penn State professor of biochemistry and molecular biology believes that the genome size of this extinct mammoth might be similar to that of modern day’s African Elephant genome.
The sequencing of nuclear genome of extinct animal …

Yesterday I stumbled upon a beautiful website ,displaying some breathtaking Drosophila images. Drosophila Image Award Website is supported by Genetics society of America, has initiated an annual award to recognize the importance of images in the field of Drosophila research. By doing this they encourage the continued generation of compelling images that communicate important biological results relevant to Drosophila.

One of the most fascinating thing about life is to understand how we grow from a single celled embryo to a functional human being or for that matter to know about development of all the beautiful forms of life around us. All living organisms arise from a single cell and it was always an interesting puzzle to understand How different tissue forms an organ and how these different organs gets perfectly placed in the animal body?Are these things preplanned ? Is it possible to have eyes coming out from …