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A new paper released in Nature today reported the virtually complete draft genome of Oropetium thomaeum, a grass species that can regrow after exposed to extreme drought when water becomes available. The plant's 245 Mb genome was analyzed with 72x coverage on the PacBio® RS II Sequencing System by Donald Danforth Plant Science Center researchers, senior author Todd Mockler, Ph.D., associate member, Geraldine and Robert Virgil Distinguished Investigator, lead authors post-doctoral associate Robert VanBuren, Ph.D., and Doug Bryant, Ph.D. and other collaborators.

SAN ANTONIO (Nov. 12, 2015) - How does a protein called connexin put the clamps on cancer? Researchers in the School of Medicine at The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio today reported an explanation.

Study senior author Jean X. Jiang, Ph.D., professor of biochemistry at the Health Science Center, said connexin tethers itself to a cell-proliferating molecule called Skp2. This prevents the Skp2 from traveling to the cell nucleus to promote more cell growth, she said.

Protein biomarkers are used to test for cancer before and after surgeries to remove tumors. To test thyroid malignancy, many biomarkers are tested separately to confirm cancer. However, new research from Michigan Technological University shows that the detection tests that measure two major biomarkers to diagnose thyroid cancer may be inaccurate. The study recently came out in the journal Thyroid, published by the American Thyroid Association.

Were ancient bees specialists, devoting their pollen-collecting attentions to very specific plant partners? Or were they generalists, buzzing around to collect pollen from a variety of flowers in their midst? Researchers who've studied an ancient lineage of bees now say in the Cell Press journal Current Biology on November 12 that the answer to both questions is yes. Bees living some 50 million years ago simultaneously relied on both strategies in foraging for pollen.

Researchers from the Morgridge Institute for Research and the Murdoch Children's Research Institute (MCRI) in Australia have devised a way to dramatically cut the time involved in reprogramming and genetically correcting stem cells, an important step to making future therapies possible.

Wild birds will sacrifice access to food in order to stay close to their partner over the winter, according to a study by Oxford University researchers.

Scientists from the Department of Zoology found that mated pairs of great tits chose to prioritise their relationships over sustenance in a novel experiment that prevented couples from foraging in the same location.

This also meant birds ended up spending a significant amount of time with their partners' flock-mates.

Researchers at the University of São Paulo's Bioscience Institute (IB-USP) in Brazil have shown that a gene called Jagged1, or JAG1 for short, could be a target for the development of new approaches to treat Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD), a genetic disorder characterized by progressive muscle degeneration.

The research was carried out at the Human Genome & Stem Cell Research Center (HUG-CELL), one of the Research, Innovation and Dissemination Centers (RIDCs) supported by São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP).

The extinction of one carnivore species can trigger the demise of fellow predators, conservation biologists at the University of Exeter have confirmed.

A ground-breaking study published in Current Biology has backed up theories and previous laboratory research demonstrating the phenomenon of horizontal extinction cascades, where extinctions of carnivore species can have a ripple effect across species triggering further unexpected extinctions of other carnivores.

Since the Nobel Prize-winning discovery of the enzyme telomerase in 1984, identifying other biological molecules that lengthen or shorten the protective caps on the ends of chromosomes has been slow going. Now, researchers at Johns Hopkins report uncovering the role of an enzyme crucial to telomere length and say the new method they used to find it should speed discovery of other proteins and processes that determine telomere length. Their results appear in the Nov. 24 issue of Cell Reports.

Unequal growth between genetically identical monozygotic (MZ) twins in the womb may be triggered in the earliest stages of human embryo development, according to a new study led by King's College London.

The ancestors of honeybees, living 50 million years ago, were fairly choosy when it came to feeding their offspring. This is shown in a study sponsored by the University of Bonn, which also included researchers from Austria and the United States. According to the study, the pollen that these insects collected for their larvae always originated from the same plants. When it came to their own meals, they were less picky - on their collection flights, they ate pretty much everything that turned up in front of their mouth parts.

Johns Hopkins researchers report that a new study of mouse cells has revealed reasons why attempts to grow stem cells to maturity in the laboratory often fail, and provided a possible way to overcome such "developmental arrest."

Their findings, described in the Nov. 24 issue of the journal Cell Reports, will likely advance the use of stem cells to study and treat adult-onset heart disease, the investigators say.

ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- Deep within your DNA, a tiny parasite lurks, waiting to pounce from its perch and land in the middle of an unsuspecting healthy gene. If it succeeds, it can make you sick.

Like a jungle cat, this parasite sports a long tail. But until now, little was known about what role that tail plays in this dangerous jumping.

Today, scientists report that without a tail, this parasitic gene can't jump efficiently. The findings could help lead to new strategies for inhibiting the movement of the parasite, called a LINE-1 retrotransposon.

A new RNA test of blood platelets can be used to detect, classify and pinpoint the location of cancer by analysing a sample equivalent to one drop of blood. Using this new method for blood-based RNA tests of blood platelets, researchers have been able to identify cancer with 96 per cent accuracy. This according to a study at Umeå University in Sweden recently published in the journal Cancer Cell.

The rainwater that fell in some of the villages of Zamora (Spain) last autumn brought along a strange traveller: a green microalgae that turns a reddish colour when in a state of stress. Once this microalgae was deposited into fountains and tanks it wasn't long before the water turned red. Researchers from the University of Salamanca have shone light on this 'blood rain' phenomenon, yet they have not yet been able to identify the mysterious origin of these little algae which are also present in the pharmaceutical, food and even automotive industries.