ans please

Protein synthesis and regulation of gene expression is performed by ...? a. Steroids. b. DNAs. c. RNAs. d. Polysaccharides

Apoptosis-good or bad in lung disease

A technique called parametric response mapping (PRM) scans the lungs of patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, known as COPD, Already we know that COPD limits a patient's breathing ability, causing shortness of breath, coughing, wheezing and become disabled as their disease worsens occur due to smoking, long-term exposure to dust, and certain gases and chemicals. The following PRM images show four different patients’ lungs-healthy lung areas (green), early-stage damage (yellow) and emphysema (red).

In the last week seminar,there was a question raised "if apoptosis is good or bad" in related to this lung disease.Hence i quoted the text from Demedts et al "apoptosis of structural cells in the lung might possibly be an important upstream event in the pathogenesis of COPD. There is an increase in apoptotic alveolar epithelial and endothelial cells in the lungs of COPD patients. Since this is not counterbalanced by an increase in proliferation of these structural cells, the net result is destruction of lung tissue and the development of emphysema".http://respiratory-research.com/content/7/1/53

LED Lights for Plant Growth Experiments in Space

Radish plants were harvested from a plant growth chamber. The plants were grown under red and blue LED lights.This plant experiment studies the effects of different types of lighting on plants such as radishes and leaf lettuce. 

A group of plant biologists works on NASA's Advanced Exploration Systems (AES) Projects at Kennedy Space Center's Space Life Sciences Laboratory.

Dr.Massa,a Postdoctoral Fellow conducted an experiment and looked at the responses of a red leaf lettuce called "Outredgeous" and radish plants to different light sources -- broad spectrum fluorescent lighting and solid state red and blue LED lighting. He said "LED lights are efficient and versatile” because of their durability and long life.

The same experiment was conducted earlier by Dr.Wheeler and he found wheat plants were very leggy and almost bleached out and finally he used blue fluorescent lights. Now he emphasized “Blue LEDs weren't very good but Today's LEDs have vastly improved in their efficiency."

As a result, Dr.Mickens followed the same experiment for plants growth and he discovered considerable physiological differences between the two light treatments and changes in light quality can potentially increase antioxidant properties of crops.

http://www.nasa.gov/centers/kennedy/home/plant_growth.html

PhD------------------- life

Gravity, down-to-earth on life - Unexplored!

'Gravity and life' has been my greatest interest in science. Lot of questions come to my mind when I try to relate gravity to our existence. Earlier blog on biological relation and microgravity tempted me to blog on some of the gravity related life aspects...

Most of the time gravity on earth and its influence on existence of life is less appreciated, possibly because of  its ostensibly insignificant nature. It's amazing that such an attractive force that pervades this universe or many such universes in space does not find appreciable interest among biologists, except for microgravity experiments in space shuttles or inside microgravity simulators on earth. One reason could be that it is very difficult to simulate gravity variations circumventing the existing gravity on earth. But then questions related to the possible effect of continued gravitational exposure on earth on life, have not been raised.

One question that immediately comes to my mind and that we discussed during tea club (erstwhile!) 6 months back at our lab is the 'position effect' caused by earth when it comes to the positioning of different organs or parts in life forms. Even a child knows that roots grow down due to gravity. For plants, position on earth is fixed (immobile) and so may have greater influence by the gravity. One hypothesis, however crazy it might appear, is that plants are tall because of gravity or moving creatures are shorter because of lesser influence (don't know how less, maybe too less, but definitely lesser than plants or Seqouia!) due to movement.

What is the effect of gravity on the evolution of humans (Homo sapiens) and their present levels of intelligence? This was the question we discussed at the tea club meeting. If the question is put the other way around - Are humans more intelligent than their ancestor because of their erect stature? While the question might appear very general and abstract, if we compare humans to other less intelligent life forms with similar neuronal networks if not identical, then it may find some appreciation.

There are many interesting aspects of Nature that are unexplored. But these would still be too basic and useless in the eyes of people who matter - the funding agencies. Gravity can never influence them, something other force may be necessary!

Biological Relation on Microgravity

Symbiotic Nodulation in a Reduced Gravity Environment (SyNRGE) used a biological model system consisting of one species of plant and one species of bacteria that form a symbiotic relationship. They looks at how plants and bacteria that form a beneficial relationship on Earth interact in microgravity and worked with two different sets of experiments.

In one set of experiments, after reaching orbit the crew inoculated some of the five-day-old plants with beneficial bacteria while others were not. Before returning to Earth, a chemical fixative was added to Mpreserve both the plants and the bacteria.

In the second experiment, bacteria cultures and plant seeds were allowed to germinate on orbit in microgravity, while an identical set of bacteria cultures and plant seeds were simultaneously germinated on Earth in normal gravity. At the end of the mission, plants and bacteria from space and from the ground control were stored in the cold.

After returning to Earth, plants and bacteria grown on orbit and on the ground were placed in plant growth chambers to see if microgravity affected the ability of either bacteria or plants to form a symbiotic relationship.

The experiment verified techniques for seed germination and inoculation on orbit, and initial results suggest that the first steps in forming the symbiotic interaction leading to nitrogen fixation do occur in microgravity. The experiment also revealed significant differences in gene activation and expression between ground and space cultivated plants and bacteria. They are currently analyzing the gene expression data to identify the genes that may be involved in these differences."We were very pleasantly surprised that the seed germination rate in the flight experiment was 100 percent",as Roberts said.

                             Preflight                                                                      Postflight

Climate, Science, Conference and Alcohol

At a time when conferences prefer to utilize 'transmitted presence' (I mean conferencing through video or Skype), we still find scientists jetting around the globe to share scientific ideas and results, in spite of the awareness about the substantial contribution of jet travel to carbon and global warming. Ironically, 'Climate' conferences are the major contributors to climate change in recent times due the increased fascination for climate research. Well, many of the scientists are often hypocrites and perhaps hypocrisy is a way of doing science in the modern scientific society! Science tells, 'Alcohol is bad for health in many ways'. I have read about scientists (like Newton) who forgot even food when they were immersed in thought process. Today I see self-proclaimed scientists who forget science to indulge themselves in food and alcohol and there is no conference without alcohol.

Alcohol has become an important ingredient to cook 'science diplomacy' at present. Some people may even prefer to call it 'bottle diplomacy', but that is too general. This kind of diplomacy prompted me to think (not under the influence of alcohol - I'm a bad scientist!) about alcohol in science itself! I could recollect many examples from conferences referred to in some of the books written about great scientists. Perhaps alcohol is an integral part of Western culture that it spilled over to science conferences too. Whether it is a conference in Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory or in Keystone Symposia, alcohol follows a seriously scientific discussion and alcohol influenced discussions also have (or at least had from what I read) some scientific flavour. Such discussions are considered to facilitate networking in certain cases. Unfortunately, in a majority of cases (except for a few) science is a conspicuous absence both during and at the end of a conference conducted in India. Again, I refer to the present-day scenario in India. I've also read about great conferences conducted in India that produced quality scientific discussions in the past.

Alcohol can have only one effect in the brain: getting rid of inhibition or remove bias (?) or thoughtlessness or numb neurons. Such an effect would result in two possibilities in scientific field: 1] Evoking a new line of thought leading to a solution for a complex scientific problem ( in a real scientist) 2] Stimulating a suave and manipulative thought that results in favours. While the first possibility is a rarity in Indian science society, the second possibility generates funds for research that is unscientifically pursued, papers or patents that are useless (both for science or society), and undeserving fame and wealth. Positive effect of alcohol on scientists or creationists like poets and artists could well be a new research idea to explore if the subject (the person) indeed is worthy. Alcohol's negative effect on scientific field could also be a research study for sociologists if it can result in good recommendations. But then, for both a 'bottle diplomacy' might be needed to get the funding. 'Ethanol'gate in science funding is much bigger than 'Coal'gate in India with the only difference being the absence of CAG.

"Osmometry" a new technique to quickly access Plants' Drought Tolerance

Hallo All,

When I was running through the ScienceDaily website to know about the recent happenings in Plants and Animals, I came across this new technique which I thought will be useful for our team as most of us are working on the filed of abiotic stress tolerance of Plants.

In this article, the scientists from UCLA in collaboration with XTBG, China, have found out a new technique called "Osmometry" to quickly access the Plants' Drought Tolerance ability and it takes only 10 mins for a leaf.  It is based on an important trait known as "turgor loss point." During drought, the leaf cells' water becomes harder to replace. The turgor loss point is reached when leaf cells become so dehydrated their walls become flaccid. This cell-level loss of turgor -- or swollenness -- causes the leaf to become limp and wilted, and the plant cannot grow.

For more information regarding this can be downloaded from
http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.2041-210X.2012.00230.x

Science funding for ideas, not persons!

Whether we are in search of the 'God (damn) particle' or seeking to understand something about mortal existence that descended from such a particle through the so-called scientific methodologies, we need to be funded.


I was just wondering who would fund me with my present capacity if i want to investigate some new idea that occurred to me. I could only laugh at myself. I was not born rich, nor have I accumulated wealth to fund myself and I live in a world, especially in a country that refuses to change for good! When I talk about change, one recent experiment done by NSF in the USA is worth mentioning. The experiment sought to find out if anonymous, short project proposals reduce the possibility of bias in selection processes for science funding.

The experiment resulted in surprising(??!!) results. One such proposal that was rejected when presented in full form with all the details was approved by the selection committee when presented without personal or affiliation details, only with the conceptual briefing! Funding was released for two proposals: both came anonymously, but only one was considered both in its short and long formats, and the other only considered in its short form, selected purely based on the concept it proposed. NSF however, was non-committal about the interpretation of these results and future funding based solely on this. It will do many such funding experiments to eliminate bias and put such a process into practice.

I only wish funding agencies in India too follow or carry out such an exercise here to see if new ideas are worth funding. If India's scientific future is to be bright, it can only happen through eliminating favoritism, nepotism and whole lot of other corrupt practices that exist in its science establishments. It is surprising that news channels that grab every opportunity to expose corruption in Govt departments, have failed to notice the cancer in science establishments!

Take a look at the news I mentioned regarding NSF funding in Science Magazine [www.sciencemag.org] Vol 336; page 969; 25 May 2012

Explore of Salt tolerance genes in Salt cress

Salt Cress (Thellungiella salsuginea) is a typical halophyte with high resistance to cold, drought, oxidative stresses and salinity. Due to, Researchers had sequenced genome about app.260 Mb and a total of 28,457 protein-coding regions. It consists of transposable elements (TEs) and long terminal repeat (LTR) retrotransposons in abundant. Importantly, they identified many genes in salt cress that contribute to its success in high-salt environments, such as the genes related with cation transport, abscisic acid signalling, and wax production.

10.1073/pnas.1209954109

Bacteria Sense Salt Stress

Salt-sensor proteins in bacteria operate like molecular springs. Under low salt conditions in the environment, the proteins oscillate between ‘stretched’ and ‘compressed’ forms. Salts in the environment dampen these spring-like movements and favour the ‘compressed’ form. This change in springiness is used by the bacteria to detect salts in their environments
                                    
10.1038/emboj.2012.99
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/07/120706105424.htm

The god particle and the meaning of existence (NDTV Big fight)

Here is an interesting discussion by scientists and spiritualists as CERN scientists discover the God(damn!) particle..

Big Fight Host - Vikram Chandra
Sadhguru - Yogi, Mystic, founder of Isha Foundation
Dr. Pushp M Bhargava - Molecular Biologist
Father Dominic Emmanuel - Spokesperson of the Delhi Catholic Archdiocese
Prof. R. Rajaraman - Emeritus Professor of Theoretical Physics at Jawaharlal Nehru University
Sw. Aatma Priyananda - Vice Chancellor of Ramakrishnan Mission, Vivekananda University (Ex Theoretical Physicist)
Shiv Visvanathan - Sociologist

Natural Plant Protein Convert to Drug-Delivery Vehicles

                    
10.1073/pnas.1205426109   

Plants Steal Genes from Their Hosts

The Parasitic Plant Rafflesia cantleyi, with its 50cm diameter flowers, has 'stolen' genes from its host Tetrastigma rafflesiae. Analysis of these genes shows that their functions range from respiration to metabolism, and that some of them have even replaced the parasites own gene activity
           
http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2164/13/227/abstract

EVER WONDERED WHY WE DONT GET CONSISTENT RESULTS (if we are not getting that is ;) ) Bioactive leachates from Laboratory consumables.....something that we all should read and know about!!

http://www.eppendorf.com/int/img/consumables/Plastics_hamper_DNA_assays_Nature_News.pdf

http://www.eppendorf.com/int/index.php?action=consumables&contentid=1&page=8

How Plants Know When to Flower

                               
Flowering works in Arabidopsis should lead to a better understanding of how the same genes work in crop plants such as rice


The plants produce a protein named FKF1 known as FLOWERING LOCUS T in their leaves that induces flowering. FKF1 protein is a photoreceptor and it is activated by sunlight.This protein is expressed in the late afternoon every day, and is very tightly regulated by the plant's circadian clock.When this protein is expressed during days that are short, this protein cannot be activated, as there is no daylight in the late afternoon. When this protein is expressed during a longer day, this photoreceptor makes use of the light and activates the flowering mechanisms involving FLOWERING LOCUS T.


Once this protein is made, it travels from the leaves to the shoot apex, a part of the plant where cells are undifferentiated, meaning they can either become leaves or flowers. At the shoot apex, this protein starts the molecular changes that send cells on the path to becoming flowers.


10.1126/science.1219644

New species in 2012

 

 http://species.asu.edu