March 27, 2008, 9:11 PM CT

'Wildcat Power Cord' repairs cruciate ligament

An 8-year-old Jersey dairy cow is back at her Kansas farm thanks to a decade of research and an experimental surgery performed at Kansas State University's Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital.

The cow, named Wilhelmina Jolene by the veterinary students assigned to her case, sustained a breeding injury in December 2007 when the cruciate ligament in her right knee ruptured. Dr. David Anderson, professor and head of agricultural practices at K-State's College of Veterinary Medicine, replaced the ligament using synthetic material called monofilament nylon. The procedure's success could have enormous implications for breeding quality cows and bulls with the same injury.

Fortunately, Wilhelmina's owner recognized the value of saving her. Mike Frey is the son of Dr. Russ Frey, a prominent professor at K-State's College of Veterinary Medicine. "She's owned by the son of an important faculty member in our college's history," Anderson said. "It's wonderful that there is a connection to Dr. Frey with this case and that Mike understands the teaching value."

Mike Frey said he was happy to be part of an effort that could help animals, producers and students.

"I was always under the assumption that an animal with this problem was going to be heading down the road," he said. "If they could perfect this so that a cow could be kept in production, that would be worth quite a bit"......... Posted by: Kelly      Read more         Source

March 25, 2008, 7:56 PM CT

Pepper Spray For Deterring Bears

Hikers and campers venturing into bear country this spring may be safer armed with 8-ounce cans of bear pepper spray than with guns, as per a new study led by a Brigham Young University bear biologist.

Thomas S. Smith, associate professor of wildlife science, has conducted field work among bears for 16 years and has never used bear spray, eventhough he carries it faithfully. "I wish I had more scary stories to share, but I've behaved myself," said Smith, emphasizing that caution and wisdom are the best way to prevent bear attacks.

Concerned about hikers' and campers' persistent doubts that a small can of liquid pepper spray could stop half a ton of claws, muscle and teeth, Smith and his colleagues analyzed 20 years of bear spray incidents in Alaska, home to 150,000 bears. He observed that the spray effectively halted aggressive bear behavior in 92 percent of the cases, whether that behavior was an attack or merely rummaging for food. Of all 175 people involved in the incidents studied, only three were injured by bears, and none mandatory hospitalization. Smith and his research team report their findings in the recent issue of the Journal of Wildlife Management.

"People working or recreating in bear habitat should feel confident they are safe if carrying bear spray," Smith said......... Posted by: Kelly      Read more         Source

March 24, 2008, 8:38 PM CT

A fly's tiny brain may hold huge human benefits

COLUMBIA, Mo. Before swatting at one of those pesky flies that come out as the days lengthen and the temperature rises, one should probably think twice. A University of Missouri researcher has found, through the study of Drosophila (a type of fruit fly), that by manipulating levels of certain compounds linked to the circuitry of the brain, key genes correlation to memory can be isolated and tested. The results of the study may benefit human patients suffering from Parkinsons disease and could eventually lead to discoveries in the therapy of depression.

The implication for human health is that it could influence our understanding of the cognitive decline linked to Parkinsons disease and depression in humans, said Troy Zars, MU assistant professor of biological science in the College of Arts and Science.

The idea that animals have a system that can match the quality of a memory with the significance of the memory is well established. If the event is significant, the memory and detail surrounding it is much stronger, lasts longer and is more easily recalled in comparison to more insignificant or common events. The problem the study addresses is the understanding of the mechanism by which that occurs.

We have developed a strategy to address how this matching occurs, so we can turn that crank over and over again. It allows us to answer the questions, What gene is it" How does it function" How does it interact with other proteins" We can find brand-new, completely unexpected things, Zars said......... Posted by: Kelly      Read more         Source

March 24, 2008, 7:36 PM CT

Ants as fungus farmers

It turns out ants, like humans, are true farmers. The difference is that ants are farming fungus.

Entomologists Ted Schultz and Sen Brady at the Smithsonians National Museum of Natural History have published a paper in the March 24 issue of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, providing new insight into the agricultural abilities of ants and how these abilities have evolved throughout time. Using DNA sequencing, the researchers were able to construct an evolutionary tree of fungus-growing ants, which revealed a single pioneering ancestor that discovered agriculture approximately 50 million years ago.

In the past 25 million years, four different specialized agricultural systems have evolved, leading to the most recently evolved and best-known fungus-growing ant speciesleaf-cutter ants. The ants do not eat the leaves; they grow their fungus gardens on them and then eat the fungus. By studying the agricultural evolution of leaf-cutter ants, as well as various other species, researchers may be able to develop improved human agricultural and medical methods.

Agriculture is very rare in the animal world, said Schultz. We only know of four animal groups that have discovered agriculture: ants, termites, bark beetles and humans. By studying certain fungus-growing ants, which our study indicates are almost like living fossils, we might be able to better understand steps involved in the evolution of ant agriculture......... Posted by: Kelly      Read more         Source

March 20, 2008, 7:15 PM CT

Deadly genetic disease prevented before birth

By injecting a customized "genetic patch" into early stage fish embryos, scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis were able to correct a genetic mutation so the embryos developed normally.

The research could lead to the prevention of up to one-fifth of birth defects in humans caused by genetic mutations, as per the authors.

Erik C. Madsen, first author and an M.D./Ph.D. student in the Medical Scientist Training Program at Washington University School of Medicine, made the groundbreaking discovery using a zebrafish model of Menkes disease, a rare, inherited disorder of copper metabolism caused by a mutation in the human version of the ATP7A gene. Zebrafish are vertebrates that develop similarly to humans, and their transparency allows scientists to observe embryonic development.

Children who have Menkes disease have seizures, extensive neurodegeneration in the gray matter of the brain, abnormal bone development and kinky, colorless hair. Most children with Menkes die before age 10, and therapy with copper is largely ineffective.

The research is published this month in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences' advance online edition.

The development of organs in the fetus is nearly complete at a very early stage. By that time, the mutation causing Menkes disease has already affected brain and nerve development......... Posted by: Kelly      Read more         Source

March 18, 2008, 9:08 PM CT

Conditions for Spanish brown bears

Brown bears from the Iberian Peninsula are not as genetically different from other brown bears in Europe as was previously thought. An international study being published this week in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, PNAS, shows that, on the contrary, the Spanish bear was only recently isolated from other European strains. These findings shed new light on the discussion of how to save the population of Spanish bears.

The scientists extracted DNA and determined the gene sequence of bears from prehistoric material, primarily from the Iberian Peninsula. Some of the material was as much as 80,000 years old. When the data material was analyzed, what emerged was a totally unexpected pattern.

We expected to be able to follow the Spanish brown bear far back in time, but we found to our amazement that it had genetic material from bears in other parts of Europe. In fact, it seems that the Spanish bear was isolated for the first time in our own time, says doctoral student Cristina Valdiosera, who performed most of the laboratory and analytical work.

These bears have possibly been isolated in Spain for a few thousand years, which is a very short period in an evolutionary perspective. In other words, there has been a flow of genes to and from the Iberian Peninsula throughout most of the time brown bears have been there. This is extremely interesting data when we discuss transporting bears from other areas to Spain for the purpose of preservation, says Anders Gtherstam, who directed the study......... Posted by: Kelly      Read more         Source

March 17, 2008, 10:22 PM CT

Hissing Cockroaches Are Popular

Their gentle nature, large size, odd sounds and low-maintenance care have made Madagascar hissing cockroaches popular educational tools and pets for years. But the giant insects also have one unfortunate characteristic: Their hard bodies and feces are home to a number of mold species that could be triggering allergies in the kids and adults who handle the bugs, as per a new study.

Scientists have identified 14 different types of mold on and around this species of cockroach, including several molds linked to allergies and others that can cause secondary infections if they enter the lungs or an open wound.

"This is mainly a point of public awareness," said Joshua Benoit, lead author of the study and a doctoral candidate in entomology at Ohio State University. "We are not criticizing their use. We are just saying that if you handle these cockroaches, you should wash your hands when you're done.

"It's also best to maintain the cage. It's not a pet you can ignore," he said. "Without regular cleaning, feces will build up, and the old exoskeletons they shed will build up. And that's where a lot of the problems happen".

The research is reported in the recent issue of the journal Mycoses.

The natural life of the Madagascar hissing cockroach, or Gromphadorhina portentosa, is not well understood. But in captivity, the insects thrive on dog food and fruit, reproduce plentifully and do not bite. They grow to between 2 and 3 inches long and 1 inch wide, and will make their characteristic hissing sound if they are squeezed or otherwise feel threatened......... Posted by: Kelly      Read more         Source

March 17, 2008, 10:19 PM CT

Asia's odd-ball antelope faces migration crisis

Take a deers body, attach a camels head and add a Jimmy Durante nose, and you have a saiga the odd-ball antelope with the enormous schnoz that lives on the isolated steppes of Central Asia. Unfortunately, they are as endangered as they are strange-looking due to over-hunting. Now, as per a recent Wildlife Conservation Society study, their migration routes are in jeopardy as well.

The study, which appears in the latest issue of The Open Conservation Biology Journal, tracked saiga with GPS collars in Mongolia and discovered a migration bottleneck a narrow corridor of habitat that connects two populations. The authors say that the corridor, which spans just three miles wide, is threatened by herders with livestock, along with increased traffic from trucks and motorcycles.

Like other species of the steppes and deserts, saiga have avoided extinction by being able to migrate long distances as their habitat changed over time, said Dr. Joel Berger, a Wildlife Conservation Society conservationist, and professor at the University of Montana. Given the uncertainty of how global climate change might affect specific regions, and how and where species might persist, prudent conservation strategies must take into account the movements of highly mobile species like saiga......... Posted by: Kelly      Read more         Source

March 17, 2008, 10:15 PM CT

Like sweets?

As per scientists at the Monell Center, fruit flies are more like humans in their responses to a number of sweet tastes than are almost any other species.

The diverse range of molecules that humans experience as sweet do not necessarily taste sweet to other species. For example, aspartame, a sweetener used by humans, does not taste sweet to rats and mice.

However, fruit flies respond positively to most sweeteners preferred by humans, including sweeteners not perceived as sweet by some species of monkeys.

The findings, reported in the current issue of the journal Chemical Senses, demonstrate the critical role of environment in shaping the genetic basis of taste preferences and feeding behavior.

Humans and flies have similar taste responses because they share similar environments and ecological niches, not because their sweet receptors are similar genetically, notes senior author Paul A.S. Breslin, PhD, a Monell sensory geneticist. Both are African species, both are omnivorous, and both historically are primarily fruit eaters.

To compare how molecular structure is correlation to sweet taste perception in humans and flies, the Monell scientists reviewed how fruit flies respond to 21 nutritive and nonnutritive compounds of varying molecular structure, all of which taste sweet to humans......... Posted by: Kelly      Read more         Source

March 17, 2008, 10:09 PM CT

Zebrafish enables cell regeneration studies

One aquarium fish's uncanny ability to regenerate essentially any cell type has given researchers a way to mimic cell loss that occurs in diseases such as Parkinson's and diabetes then watch how the fish make more of them.

"What we are pinning everything on is the idea that humans also have this capacity, but it's sort of locked up," says Dr. Jeff S. Mumm, biologist at the Medical College of Georgia.

Dr. Mumm, along with his partner in science and life, Dr. Meera Saxena, founded the company, Luminomics, Inc., to help fellow researchers unlock that capacity. "The forefront of medicine is not what humans are limited to, but what biology can do," says Dr. Mumm. "This little fish is telling us what biology is capable of. With the same general set of genetic tools, these animals can do something we can't: regenerate lost cells and tissues. Our job is to figure out which tools in which combination or sequence afford fish this capacity, then apply this knowledge toward the creation of regenerative therapies for humans".

While working as a postdoctoral fellow at Washington University in St. Louis, Dr. Mumm used the resilient zebrafish to study retinal development. As a student at the University of Iowa, he studied the regeneration of olfactory receptor neurons, which enable the sense of smell. They are one of the few neuronal populations that regenerate throughout life in mammals: the usual human response to lost neurons is scarring and disease......... Posted by: Kelly      Read more         Source