Promega News and Events

Epigenetics and Exercise

Posted on by Isobel Maciver
Turning on some genes
Turning on some genes

If, like me, you sometimes need more motivation to exercise consistently—even though you know that it is good for you—you may be interested in the findings of a paper published recently in PLOS Genetics. The paper showed that consistent exercise over a 6-month period caused potentially beneficial changes in gene expression. In short, regular exercise caused expression of some “good” genes, and repression of “bad” ones, and these changes appeared to be controlled by epigenetic mechanisms.

Epigenetic changes are modifications to DNA that affect gene expression but don’t alter the underlying sequence. Perhaps the best understood example of an epigenetic change is DNA methylation—where methyl groups bind to the DNA at specific sites and alter expression, often by preventing transcription. Epigenetic changes have been shown to occur throughout all stages of development and in response to environmental factors such as diet, toxin exposure, or stress. The study of epigenetics is revealing more and more about how the information stored in our DNA is expressed in different tissues at different times and under different environmental circumstances. Continue reading “Epigenetics and Exercise”

Dietary Analysis, DNA Style

Posted on by Isobel Maciver

dna testing of foodDNA testing methods are being used to solve problems in an ever-increasing number of fields. From crime scene analysis to tissue typing, from mammoths to Neanderthals, and from Thutmose I to Richard III, both modern mysteries and age-old secrets are being revealed. The availability of fast, accurate, and convenient DNA amplification and sequencing methods has made DNA analysis a viable option for many types of investigation. Now it is even being applied to solve such mundane mysteries as the precise ingredients used in a sausage recipe, and to answer that most difficult of questions “what exactly is in a doner kebab?” Continue reading “Dietary Analysis, DNA Style”

Cold-War Bunkers Enlisted in the Fight Against Cold-Loving Fungus: More on the White-Nose Syndrome Story

Posted on by Michele Arduengo, PhD
Bunkers at Aroostook National Wildlife Refuge. photo credit: USFWS/Steve Agius
Bunkers at Aroostook National Wildlife Refuge. photo credit: USFWS/Steve Agius

A lot has happened since I first wrote about White-Nose Syndrome, the fungal disease that has devastated bat populations in North America. The disease, caused by the cold-loving fungus Geomyces destructans (now renamed Psuedogymnoascus destructans), has been identified in many more places, including most recently confirmed cases in Georgia, South Carolina, Illinois and Missouri in the United States and Prince Edward Island, Canada.

Controlling the spread of this disease is a tremendous problem, because as I indicated in a previous blog post, keeping a hardy fungus from spreading among a population of densely packed small animals in tiny, cold damp areas is not a simple task.

This problem is going to require creative solutions, and scientists at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service may have come up with a great idea that answers two questions: How do you control the spread of White-Nose Syndrome and what do you do with 43 unused Air Force bunkers?

Continue reading “Cold-War Bunkers Enlisted in the Fight Against Cold-Loving Fungus: More on the White-Nose Syndrome Story”

Antibiotics and Honey–An Old Solution for a New Problem

Posted on by Isobel Maciver

Antibiotic DiskThis month saw the publication of a UK Department of Health report on the growing problem of antimicrobial resistance, which included the shocking recommendation that antimicrobial resistance be added to the UK government list of threats to national security alongside terrorism and pandemic flu. In this report, Professor Dame Sally Davies, Chief Medical Officer for the UK, focused on the increasing problem of multidrug resistant organisms–raising the profile of an important issue that many scientists and health-care professionals have warned us about before. A March 12 Nature editorial welcomed the recommendations as a sign that policy makers in the UK are taking the threat of antimicrobial resistance seriously and are prepared to take more steps to address the problem of multidrug-resistant organisms. Continue reading “Antibiotics and Honey–An Old Solution for a New Problem”

Sonnets in DNA

Posted on by Isobel Maciver

William ShakespeareFor sixty years now, scientists have studied the role of DNA as a vehicle for the storage and transmission of genetic information from generation to generation. We have marveled at the capacity of DNA to store all the information required to describe a human being using only a 4-letter code, and to pack that information into a space the size of the nucleus of a single cell. A letter published last week in Nature exploits this phenomenal storage capacity of DNA to archive a quite different kind of information. Forget CDs, hard drives and chips, the sum of human knowledge can now be stored in synthetic DNA strands. The Nature letter, authored by scientists from the European Bioinformatics Institute in Cambridge, UK, and Agilent Technologies in California, describes a proof-of-concept experiment where synthetic DNA was used to encode Shakespeare’s Sonnets, Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech, a picture of the Bioinformatics Institute, and the original Crick and Watson paper on the double-helical nature of DNA. Continue reading “Sonnets in DNA”

Are These the Bones of Richard III?

Posted on by Terri Sundquist

In central England, an archaeological dig is happening in an unlikely spot—a parking lot in the city of Leicester. The goal: To find the final resting spot of Richard III, the last of England’s Plantagenet kings and perhaps one of its most maligned rulers. Richard III reigned over England for only two years before being killed by Henry Tudor’s army during the Battle of Bosworth Field in August 1485 at the end of the War of the Roses, which pitted Richard’s House of York against the House of Lancaster. Many historical records suggest that Richard’s body was brought to Leicester and buried between the nave and altar at Grey Friars church. You would think that a king’s tomb would be well marked and well remembered, even for an unpopular king like Richard III, but that is not the case here. Henry was said to have erected a memorial for his former rival, but that and any other monuments, along with the church itself, are long gone, destroyed during the Dissolution of the Monasteries, when Henry VIII was named Supreme Head of the Church in England and systematically razed monasteries, convents and friaries throughout England, Wales and Ireland between 1536 and 1541. Since then, the exact location of Richard III’s remains was lost to history. However, thanks to a team of University of Leicester archaeologists and geneticists that might be changing.

Continue reading “Are These the Bones of Richard III?”

Molecular Connections Between Sleep Deprivation and Inflammation

Posted on by Isobel Maciver

Anyone who has travelled across time zones knows how unpleasant it is when the regular rhythm of your biological clock is disrupted. Jetlag results when the body’s internal clock, or circadian rhythm is out of sync with external cues for “day and “night”, resulting in insomnia, extreme tiredness, difficulty concentrating and various other unpleasant symptoms.

On the bright side, jetlag is at least a temporary misery that is usually over after a few days of acclimation to the new time zone. Long-term disruption of the natural sleep/wake cycle, such as encountered by frequent long-distance travellers, shift workers, or people with physiological conditions that affect circadian rhythms, can be much more debilitating. Longer term health effects that have been associated with constant disruption of circadian rhythms include, insomnia, concentration problems, and increased susceptibility to diseases associated with chronic inflammation such as cancer, diabetes and cardiovascular disease.

Despite the fact that many of the genes and proteins involved in central control of circadian rhythms are known, the reason for the implied association between circadian clock components and immune function is not understood. Recently, a paper was published in the July issue of PNAS that identified a potential link between a circadian clock component and chronic inflammation. Continue reading “Molecular Connections Between Sleep Deprivation and Inflammation”

Nanotechnology Goes Green

Posted on by admin

Wouldn’t it be nice to have a renewable, inexpensive replacement for metals, non-organic plastics, and electrical components?  Less mining, less petrochemicals, less environmental stress— it’s not a far fetched, pie-in-the-sky idea anymore.  And the source for a super-substitute material is right in your back yard.

Nanocrystalline cellulose (NCC), a product of wood pulp, have been touted as a “wonder material” whose tensile strength—214 megapascals—is eight times that of stainless steel, almost twice as strong as cast iron, and nearly equal the strength of structural steel.  NCC is produced by gently removing hemicellulose and lignin from the wood which, incidentally, can be scrap wood such as twigs and sawdust.  The purified wood is milled and hydrolyzed to remove impurities.  What’s left is cellulose fibers suspended in water.  When the water is removed, the resulting paste of fibers that can be molded or spread into sheets and freeze dried.  As they dry, the approximately 200 nanometer long fibers join together by hydrogen bonds and create a super strong material that has also is very conductive.  These properties make NCC very attractive to the electronics and computing industries as well as defense.  The United States army is using NCC to make lightweight body armor and has tested it in applications such as ballistics.

Given the abundance of starting material and the incredibly physical properties of NCC, the interest in further developing the manufacturing base is huge.  On July 26th, the U.S. Forest Service Forest Products Laboratory opened a $1.7 million dollar nanocrystalline cellulose production facility right here in Madison, Wisconsin.  The intent of the facility is ramp up production quickly and, hopefully in a few years, be able to sell NCC for a few dollars a kilogram.

Curiosity Rover on Track for August 5 Landing

Posted on by Promega

[wpvideo kN9KABwW]With the amazing, beyond belief success of the Mars Rovers Spirit and Opportunity, the expectations are high for Curiosity. However, the task is far more difficult. With a much larger rover to land, the landing is more difficult. If you haven’t seen NASA’s “Seven Minutes of Terror” video, it’s worth a look.

Where will you be on August 5? Will you be awake and holding your breath and watching your twitter feed—looking for the first news of a successful landing from NASA?

And Then There Were None, Or Were There? Lonesome George and the Giant Tortoises of the Galapagos Islands

Posted on by Kelly Grooms

This week science lost a celebrity of the most unusual sort. Known to people around the world as Lonesome George, he was recognized as the last living member of his subspecies, the Pinta giant tortoise (Geochelone abingdoni) one of the giant tortoises of the Galapagos Islands. These slow and steady creatures hold a special place in science history. Observing differences between the giant tortoise populations of different Galapagos Islands helped a young Charles Darwin develop his theory of evolution. Continue reading “And Then There Were None, Or Were There? Lonesome George and the Giant Tortoises of the Galapagos Islands”