Lost and Found Genes

sea-maid submitted, created time 3 weeks 2 days (sciencenow.sciencemag.org)

As close as humans are to chimpanzees, why do they dodge some diseases that afflict us? And why are we different on so many other levels? A new study that compares genomes from more humans and chimps than ever before suggests that these and other variations might stem from extra or missing copies of key genes.
Although small genetic mutations often receive top billing as the drivers of evolution, the new study focuses on entire genes that are deleted or duplicated, so-called copy number variants (CNVs)

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Pristionchus pacificus: an appropriate fondness for beetles

jerry submitted, created time 1 month 2 weeks (www.nature.com)

The nematode Pristionchus pacificus associates with one particular beetle and eats its rotting corpse. The report of the genome sequence of P. pacificus, the fifth nematode to be sequenced and a useful secondary nematode genetic model system, highlights genes that may have influenced the route to parasitism.

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Scientists: Global Warming May Spread "Deadly Dozen" Diseases

jerry submitted, created time 1 month 3 weeks (www.foxnews.com)

Bird flu is just one of eleven diseases that may worsen with global warming, scientists are warning. Scientists from the Wildlife Conservation Society have nicknamed twelve diseases the “deadly dozen” and say they are spreading across the globe and becoming dangerous to human an animal populations.

The other eleven diseases include babesiosis, cholera, ebola, lyme disease, plague, red tides, rift valley fever, sleeping sickness, tuberculosis, and yellow fever. Intestinal and external parasites are counted as one problem.

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Parasitic worms may boost African HIV rates.

sea-maid submitted, created time 4 months 3 days (www.newscientist.com)

ONE of the biggest mysteries of HIV is why the virus spreads so readily via heterosexual sex in Africa but not elsewhere. A study in monkeys suggests parasitic worms may be to blame.

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Many little parasites add up to one big biomass

sea-maid submitted, created time 4 months 4 days (environment.newscientist.com)

Parasites are small, but they punch above their weight in terms of their effects on other life forms. Now it turns out that the amount of parasites in an ecosystem physically weighs more than the top predators.

It was previously thought parasites did not contribute much biomass when put against that of other animals and plants. To check this, Armand Kuris of the University of California, Santa Barbara, and colleagues painstakingly estimated the biomass of animals, plants and parasites in three estuaries in California and Baja California

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Parasitic worms may help fuel AIDS epidemic: study

kavin submitted, created time 4 months 5 days (www.reuters.com)

People infected with parasitic worms may be much more susceptible to the AIDS virus, according to a study published on Tuesday that may help explain why HIV has hit sub-Saharan Africa particularly hard.

The study involving monkeys demonstrated how a type of parasitic worm that causes schistosomiasis, which affects 200 million people globally, may make HIV infection more likely.

Much lower amounts of the AIDS virus--seventeen times lower--were needed to cause infection in monkeys who had the parasitic worms than in the parasite-free monkeys, the researchers said

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HIV after DARC

sea-maid submitted, created time 4 months 2 weeks (www.sciencenews.org)

Battling malaria for millennia helped Africans build barriers against the parasite that causes it, but that defense has proven to be a double-edged sword for HIV infection. One protein, the Duffy antigen receptor for cytokines, protects against malaria by making the individual more susceptible to contracting HIV. However, those same individuals do live longer once infected.

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How sperm and egg fuse into one could have applications in antiparasitics

New drug holds promise for parasitic worm disease

Sue Wu submitted, created time 8 months 2 weeks (www.newsdaily.com)

Researchers have discovered a promising new drug for schistosomiasis -- a parasitic worm disease that affects more than 200 million people in 70 countries.

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How to Keep a Wasp from Cheating

Vincent submitted, created time 8 months 2 weeks (sciencenow.sciencemag.org)

It would be easy for fig wasps to cheat. These tiny insects pollinate figs in exchange for a share of the tree's seeds--and theoretically, the wasps could lay claim to more seeds than they deserve. But they don't, and now biologists know why. Parasitic wasps, usually thought of as the bad guys, keep the pollinators honest.

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Lending a Helping Arm to Malaria Vaccine

Malaria fact file

davidd submitted, created time 9 months 4 days (www.nature.com)

How many people contract malaria? Which places are hardest hit? Has incidence or mortality been cut much in the past decades? Which has been more successful: prevention or treatment? How do you prevent malaria infections? What about making genetically modified mosquitoes that can't carry the disease?

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Malaria: The big push

davidd submitted, created time 9 months 4 days (www.nature.com)

Zambia sees nearly four million cases of malaria diagnosed each year, and some 50,000 deaths, mostly among children. Two years ago, its Ministry of Health embarked on an ambitious plan to cut the incidence of malaria by 75%. They developed a efficient strategy which may spread in their neighbor countries successfully.

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Malaria map brings good news

Wild Salmon Not in the Pink