Two developmental biologists Nicholas Gompel and Benjamin Prudhomme from the Institute of Developmental Biology of Marseilles-Luminy in France, and their colleagues have unraveled the origin and evolution of helmets in treehoppers, This means these hemipterans have achieved what no other insect was able to in more than 300 million years of evolution : a third pair of wing in first segment of thorax which is modified in helmet by tinkering the developmental cues required for dorsal appendage formation. (more…)
Similar to Birds , Bats also have evolved the ability to fly but differs in having fur when compared to members of other flying taxa.Some bats continue to fly in slight drizzle but prefer to take shelter when rain increases. Research led by Christian C. Voigt provides reason , why Bats dont like Rain in latest open access article published in Biology Letters. (more…)
In a paper published in Nature by Japanese researcher Masaki Kamakura demonstrates that one protein in royal jelly is the active ingredient that causes a larva becomes a queen bee, which makes the queen bee grow larger than the worker bees and also allows them to live longer.
Initially, experts suspect the age difference and the size of bee queens with worker bees are due to genetic factors. But kamakuri’s work done in Japan shows Royal jelly could be a major player in bringing the difference between Queen and worker bees. Major royal jelly proteins (named MRJP1-5) of honeybee (Apis mellifera), yellow proteins of Drosophila, together with putative proteins found in several bacteria, form a protein family termed the MRJP/yellow family. (more…)
On Wednesday, May 18, 2011, in a live, online educational seminar, “Identifying Novel Cancer Therapeutic Targets: Real-time, Label-free Cell Monitoring in RNAi Profiling.”
Date: Wednesday, May 18, 2011
Time: 12 noon Eastern, 9 a.m. Pacific, 4 p.m. GMT, 5 p.m. UK
Duration: 1 hour
Register now and submit your questions LIVE to the experts during the webinar! (more…)
Stem cells are cell with remarkable ability to develop into many different cell types in the body and also can self renew to produce more stem cells. In other words when a stem cell divide it can either form a specialized cell ( differentiation ) , such as a blood cell, a Heart cell a brain cell or can remain as a stem cell.
Two important features like indefinite ability to divide to form a specialized cell and self renewal, differentiates a stem cell from any other cell in the body. They serve as a repair system for the body.In some organs, such as the gut and bone marrow, stem cells regularly divide to replace dead and damaged tissues. (more…)
Recent work done in the lab of Eric olson in colloboration with Dr Hesham Sadek has shown significant similarities in the way young mice and fishes regenerate lost cardiac cells after an injury.
As time pass by cells die, we tend to lose cells and loss of cells could be bcoz of aging , physical or ischemic injury, Toxication or chemotherapy and due to any of the degenerative diseases. However organs tend to make up for lost cells to regain normal function and this regneration process can be again be achieved using different possible ways : (more…)
Developmental biology is the study of the process by which organisms grow and develop. Modern developmental biology studies the genetic control of cell growth, differentiation and “morphogenesis”, which is the process that gives rise to tissues, organs and anatomy.
One of the important goal for developmental biologists is to understand how humans develop from a single celled embryo to highly complex multi celled adult and also to find cures to different diseases we encounter during our life span.This is all possible when one can understand the mechanisms underlying various aspects of development and disease. (more…)
It was always thought ( based on previous research ) that modern humans originated in Eastern Africa, but according to new research published in latest issue of PNAS suggests south African origin for modern Humans.
The work led by Brenna M Henn presents data for more than 580,000 SNPs for several hunter-gatherer populations: the Hadza and Sandawe of Tanzania, and the ≠Khomani Bushmen of South Africa, including speakers of the nearly extinct N|u language. (more…)
