The Discovery and Characterization of Mimivirus, the Largest Known Virus and Putative Pneumonia Agent

athena submitted, created time 1 year 7 months (www.journals.uchicago.edu)

"During recent years, the usefulness of amoebal co-cultures as an alternative means of isolating and cultivating fastidious microorganisms has been increasingly recognized. While characterizing a collection of bacteria that had been isolated using this approach, we encountered an organism that, on preliminary analysis, appeared to be a gram-positive coccus. However, additional examination revealed that it was not a bacterium but rather, surprisingly, a virus. The dimensions of the virus particle (diameter, 0.8 μm) and its genome size (1

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Dosage compensation goes global

athena submitted, created time 1 year 8 months (www.sciencedirect.com)

"In many organisms, females have two X chromosomes whereas males have just one. This natural X chromosome monosomy is not lethal, because of dosage compensation. Although numerous elegant genetic, biochemical and cytological experiments have been used to build up the mechanistic framework describing this specialized transcriptional control, dosage compensation is a chromosome-wide regulatory mechanism and is best studied at that level. Microarray techniques give us the chance to look simultaneously at the expression of all the genes in response to dose

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Dysregulation of Cardiogenesis, Cardiac Conduction, and Cell Cycle in Mice Lacking miRNA-1-2

medal submitted, created time 1 year 8 months (www.cell.com)

"MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are genomically encoded small RNAs used by organisms to regulate the expression of proteins generated from messenger RNA transcripts. The in vivo requirement of specific miRNAs in mammals through targeted deletion remains unknown, and reliable prediction of mRNA targets is still problematic. Here, we show that miRNA biogenesis in the mouse heart is essential for cardiogenesis

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The transition metal gallium disrupts Pseudomonas aeruginosa iron metabolism and has antimicrobial and antibiofilm activity

medal submitted, created time 1 year 8 months (www.jci.org)

"A novel antiinfective approach is to exploit stresses already imposed on invading organisms by the in vivo environment. Fe metabolism is a key vulnerability of infecting bacteria because organisms require Fe for growth, and it is critical in the pathogenesis of infections."

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Structures of CSL, Notch and Mastermind proteins: piecing together an active transcription complex

athena submitted, created time 1 year 8 months (www.sciencedirect.com)

"Notch signaling mediates communication between cells, and is essential for proper cell fate decisions in the developing embryo and the adult organism. Signaling initiates proteolytic release of the receptor Notch from the membrane, whereupon the intracellular portion of Notch (NotchIC) localizes to the nucleus and engages the DNA-binding transcription factor CSL. CSL is required for both repression and activation of Notch target genes, and is the focal point of a transcriptional switch, mediating interactions with transcriptional coregulators

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Nanoparticles can track cells deep within living organisms

amanda submitted, created time 1 year 9 months (www.biologynews.net)

"To the delight of researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, living cells gobbled up fluorine-laced nanoparticles without needing any coaxing. Then, because of the unusual meal, the cells were easily located with MRI scanning after being injected into mice. "

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‘Open minded’ cells: how cells can change fate

fiona submitted, created time 1 year 9 months (www.sciencedirect.com)

"Although animals and plants have evolved different strategies and mechanisms to control developmental processes, they have maintained many similarities in the way they regulate chromatin organization. Given that plants can rapidly switch fate, we propose that an understanding of the mechanisms regulating this process in plant cells could provide a new perspective on cellular dedifferentiation in animals. "

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Tiny organisms remember the way to food

athena submitted, created time 1 year 9 months (www.newscientist.com)

SOME of the most basic organisms are smarter than we thought. Rather than moving about randomly, amoebas and plankton employ sophisticated strategies to look for food and might travel in a way that optimises their foraging.

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How to distribution, diversity and ecology of aerobic CO-oxidizing bacteria?

humane-wolf submitted, created time 1 year 11 months (www.nature.com)

Numerous studies indicate that carbon monoxide (CO) participates in a broader range of processes than any other single molecule, ranging from subcellular to planetary scales. Despite its toxicity to many organisms, a diverse group of bacteria that span multiple phylogenetic lineages metabolize CO. These bacteria are globally distributed and include pathogens, plant symbionts and biogeochemically important lineages in soils and the oceans. New molecular and isolation techniques, as well as genome sequencing, have greatly expandedour knowledge of the diversity of CO oxidizers

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