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Impact of antibiotic treatment on infant gut microbiome revealed
Impact of antibiotic treatment on infant gut microbiome revealed
A comprehensive analysis of changes in the intestinal microbial population during the first three years of life hasrevealed some of the impacts of factors such as mode of birth -- vaginal versus cesarean section -- and antibiotic exposure, including the effects of multiple antibiotic treatments. In the June 15 issue of Science Translational Medicine,the team led by investigators from Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH)and the Broad Institute describes findings that may help understand howthe gut microbiome is established and how the combination of microbes in individual children may contribute to the risk of developing conditions like type 1 diabetes and inflammatory bowel disease."One of the key motivations of microbiome research is that the microbial population of early childhood appears to be critical to human health, in that decreased diversity of the gut microbiome has been implicated in a number of allergic and autoimmune diseases," says RamnikXavier, MD, PhD, chief of...
[ 2016 - 07 - 04 ]
Controlling light: New protection for photosynthetic organisms
Controlling light: New protection for photosynthetic organisms
Scientists at Washington University in St. Louis have discovered a previously unknown strategy photosynthetic organisms use to protect themselves from the dangers of excessive light,providing further insight into photosynthesis and opening up new avenues for engineering this process, which underlies the global food chain.The photosynthetic bacterium Chlorobaculum tepidum thrives in the oxygen-free depths or sediments of lakes. In fact, oxygen can poison it by damaging its sensitive reaction center, which converts the energy of light into chemical energy. To survive, the bacterium must have a finely tuned response to light and oxygen that can be turned up or down as needed.This "photosynthetic volume control" allows the bacterium to survive exposure to oxygen, when light could otherwise harm it.Robert Blankenship, the Lucille P. Markey Distinguished Professor of Arts and Sciences in Biology and Chemistry, whose research team discovered this novel mechanism, thinks that the new...
[ 2016 - 07 - 04 ]
Scientists glimpse why life can
Scientists glimpse why life can't happen without water
A new study is a "major step forward" in the understanding of water-protein interactions. It answers aquestion that's been dogging research into protein dynamics for decades.Credit: Jo McCultyScientists are getting closer to directly observing how and why water is essential to life as we know it.A study in this week's Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences provides the strongest evidenceyet that proteins--the large and complex molecules that fold into particular shapes to enable biological reactions--can't fold themselves.Rather, the work of folding is done by much smaller water molecules, which surround proteins and push and pull at them to make them fold a certain way in fractions of a second, like scores of tiny origami artists folding a giant sheet of paper at blazingly fast speeds.Dongping Zhong, leader of the research group at The Ohio State University that made the discovery, called the study a "major step forward" in the understanding of...
[ 2016 - 06 - 07 ]
Core proteins exert control over DNA function
Core proteins exert control over DNA function
Rice University scientists simulated a nucleosome coiled in DNA to discover the interactions that control its unwinding. The DNA double helix binds tightly to proteins (in red, blue, orange and green) that make up the histone core, which exerts control over the exposure (center and right) of genes for binding.Credit: Wolynes Lab/Rice UniversityThe protein complex that holds strands of DNA in compact spools partially disassembles itself to help genes reveal themselves to specialized proteins and enzymes for activation, according to Rice University researchers and their colleagues.The team's detailed computer models support the idea that DNA unwrapping and core protein unfolding are coupled, and that DNA unwrapping can happen asymmetrically to expose specific genes.The study of nucleosome disassembly by Rice theoretical biological physicist Peter Wolynes, former Rice postdoctoral researcher Bin Zhang, postdoctoral researcher Weihua Zheng and University of Maryland theoretical chemist...
[ 2016 - 06 - 07 ]
Tiny alpaca-derived antibodies point to targets preventing viral infection
Tiny alpaca-derived antibodies point to targets preventing viral infection
Human lung cells were infected with influenza A virus. In unmodified cells (left) and cells expressing an irrelevant VHH control (middle), influenza A virus genome segments decorated with nucleoprotein NP (green) accumulate in the nucleus (blue), where virus replciation takes place. If expressed in cells, the antiviral VHH 508 (right) prevents nuclear import of viral genomes. Cells expressing VHH are stained in red.Credit: Courtesy of Florian Schmidt/Whitehead InstituteWhitehead Institute scientists have determined how to use alpaca-derived, single-domain antibody fragments (also called VHHs or nanobodies) to perturb cellular processes in mammalian cells, including the infection of human cells by influenza A virus (IAV) and vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV). With improved knowledge of protein activity, scientists can tease apart the roles individual proteins play in cellular pathways, understand how disease corrupts cellular function, and begin to design interventions to rectifysuch abe...
[ 2016 - 06 - 07 ]
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