Key to Regulation of Puberty Discovered

sea-maid submitted, created time 3 weeks 6 days (www.sciencedaily.com)

A team of scientists from the University of Cambridge and the University of Cukurova in Turkey have taken a major step to understanding how the brain controls the onset of puberty.

1 comment | Blog It | Email It | Keywords: neoteny puberty hormones puberty GnRH adolescents teenagers human development children kisspeptin

Genetic Patterning in Fruit Fly Development Identified

piggy submitted, created time 4 weeks 10 hours (www.sciencedaily.com)

No matter the species, from flies to humans, we all start the same: a single-cell fertilized egg that embarks on an incredible journey. The specifics of this journey are being uncovered at Rutgers University-Camden, where a biologist is researching how from one cell a jumble of many are able to organize and communicate, allowing life to spring forth.

According to Nir Yakoby, a recently appointed assistant professor of biology at Rutgers–Camden, his work on cell communication is a lot like genetic play dough

Submit comment | Blog It | Email It | Keywords: developmental biology genes genetics cell signaling genetic patterning development cell communication

Snails and humans use same genes to tell right from left

piggy submitted, created time 2 weeks 3 days (www.eurekalert.org)

Biologists have tracked down genes that control the handedness of snail shells, and they turn out to be similar to the genes used by humans to set up the left and right sides of the body.

The finding, reported online in advance of publication in Nature by University of California, Berkeley, researchers, indicates that the same genes have been responsible for establishing the left-right asymmetry of animals for 500-650 million years, originating in the last common ancestor of all animals with bilateral body organization, creatures that include everything from worms to humans

1 comment | Blog It | Email It | Keywords: developmental biology molluscs human genetics genetics genes symmetry bilateral symmetry asymmetry left-right asymmetry handedness

Scrawny gene keeps stem cells healthy

piggy submitted, created time 1 day 19 hours (www.eurekalert.org)

Stem cells are the body's primal cells, retaining the youthful ability to develop into more specialized types of cells over many cycles of cell division. How do they do it? Scientists at the Carnegie Institution have identified a gene, named scrawny, that appears to be a key factor in keeping a variety of stem cells in their undifferentiated state. Understanding how stem cells maintain their potency has implications both for our knowledge of basic biology and also for medical applications. The results will be published in the January 9, 2009 print edition of Science

Submit comment | Blog It | Email It | Keywords: stem cells genes differentiation

How chromosomes meet in the dark -- Switch that turns on X chromosome matchmaking

sea-maid submitted, created time 1 week 4 days (esciencenews.com)

A research group lead by scientists at the University of Warwick has discovered the trigger that pulls X chromosomes in female cells together at a crucial stage of embryo development. Thisr discovery could also provide new insights into how other similar chromosomes spontaneously recognize each other and are bound together at key parts of analogous cell processes. This is an important milestone because the binding together of too many or too few of a particular chromosome can cause medical conditions such as Down's Syndrome and Turner's Syndrome

Submit comment | Blog It | Email It | Keywords: developmental biology embryology Chromosomes

Time to Grow Up

piggy submitted, created time 3 weeks 6 days (sciencenow.sciencemag.org)

Puberty is a puzzle for teenagers and researchers alike. Although scientists can explain part of the process that turns children into adults, no one knows exactly what triggers it. Now a team has identified a hormone that helps tell the brain when "it's time!" The find could have broader implications for fertility treatments, contraceptives, and even fighting cancer.

It's no secret that teenagers have raging hormones

Submit comment | Blog It | Email It | Keywords: teenagers adolescents GnRH puberty hormones puberty neoteny human development children kisspeptin