RIS IB Biology

"This is the first synthetic cell that's been made," said Venter. "We call it synthetic because the cell is totally derived from a synthetic chromosome, made with four bottles of chemicals on a chemical synthesizer, starting with information in a computer."

Venter and his colleagues created a special code, similar to Morse code, to "write" within the DNA itself. Instead of dots and dashes, they used the sequence of four DNA nucleotides, thymine (T), guanine (G), cytosine (C), and adenine (A), as a code for any letter, number or punctuation mark. Using the code, the team included the names of the study co-authors, a website, and even several philosophical quotes, complete with punctuation.

isolation of the gene that controls drought tolerance in plants

enable a plant's leaves to stay green long after the last watering

plant hormone abscisic acid triggers the closure of the plant's stomata

epigenetics, the study of how people’s experience and environment affect the function of their genes.

Studies suggest that such add-on, or epigenetic, markers develop as an animal adapts to its environment, whether in the womb or out in the world — and the markers can profoundly affect behavior.

In studies of rats, researchers have shown that affectionate mothering alters the expression of genes, allowing them to dampen their physiological response to stress. These biological buffers are then passed on to the next generation: rodents and nonhuman primates biologically primed to handle stress tend to be more nurturing to their own offspring, and the system is thought to work similarly in humans.

Genes represent only a tiny fraction -- 1 percent -- of our overall genetic material. Then there's the other 99 percent of our DNA -- the stuff that doesn't make protein

Researchers have found that some of this noncoding DNA is in fact essential to how our genes function and plays a role in how we look, how we act and the diseases that afflict us.

Embedded in this 99 percent is DNA responsible for the mechanics of gene behavior: regulatory DNA. Greg Wray of Duke University's Institute for Genome Sciences and Policy describes the regulatory DNA as the software for our genes, a set of instructions that tells the genome how to use the traditional coding genes.

Research into epigenetics has shown that environmental factors affect characteristics of organisms. These changes are sometimes passed on to the offspring.

A certain laboratory strain of the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster has white eyes. If the surrounding temperature of the embryos, which are normally nurtured at 25 degrees Celsius, is briefly raised to 37 degrees Celsius, the flies later hatch with red eyes.

crossed the flies for six generations. In this experiment, they were able to prove that the temperature treatment changes the eye colour of this specific strain of fly, and that the treated individual flies pass on the change to their offspring over several generations. However, the DNA sequence for the gene responsible for eye colour was proven to remain the same for white-eyed parents and red-eyed offspring.

human stem cells can be genetically engineered into HIV-fighting cells

surrogate model

CD8 cytotoxic T lymphocytes -- the "killer" T cells that help fight infection -- from an HIV-infected individual and identified the molecule known as the T cell receptor, which guides the T cell in recognizing and killing HIV-infected cells.

The discovery could lead to genetically engineered plants that store commercially useful substances in an enlarged root

The pickle mutation mimics what happens in seeds, which typically are the major structures accumulating and storing proteins and oil

In this mutation the cells destined to become primary root cells retain the character of embryonic cells

A small molecule dubbed kartogenin encourages stem cells to take on the characteristics of cells that make cartilage, a new study shows

And treatment with kartogenin allowed many mice with arthritis-like cartilage damage in a knee to regain the ability to use the joint without pain.

Kartogenin steers the stem cells to wake up and take on cartilage-making duties. This is an essential step in the cartilage repair that falls behind in people with osteoarthritis, the most common kind of arthritis, which develops from injury or long-term joint use.

preserved remains of a shaggy monster that lived in Siberia at -40°C 10,000 years ago have been uncovered;

The frozen and p

Only microscopic amounts of DNA are left on the skeletons, including all the bacteria that lived on the animals. No usable DNA is therefore often found in bone, but mammoth hair is plentiful. Shampooed and bleached and digested, the hair, even at 18,000 years old, can have 90% of the DNA left. The genome shows 4 different "races" of this species. Research has also shown the recreated blood of mammoth. It doesn't decrease its oxygen capacity at the low temperatures the mammoth had to endure. That increased oxygen-offloading ability was one of the essential physiological changes evolved especially for this species, just like the Yuka kidney.

Why having sex really IS the best thing to do

is better for evolution than self-reproduction

Having sex allows us to evolve more effectively than species which reproduce without a partner, according to tests that claim to finally prove the long-held theory.