News tagged with genetic parasites

Head and body lice appear to be the same species, genetic study finds

A new study offers compelling genetic evidence that head and body lice are the same species. The finding is of special interest because body lice can transmit deadly bacterial diseases, while head lice do ...

Biology / Plants & Animals

created Apr 09, 2012 | popularity not rated yet | comments 2 | with audio podcast

Subtle differences can lead to major changes in parasites

Researchers have found the subtle genetic differences that make one parasite far more virulent than its close relative.

Biology / Cell & Microbiology

created Mar 22, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Increasing genetic diversity of honey bees needed

(PhysOrg.com) -- Increasing the overall genetic diversity of honey bees will lead to healthier and hardier bees that can better fight off parasites, pathogens and pests, says bee breeder-geneticist Susan Cobey ...

Biology / Plants & Animals

created Mar 12, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0

Parasites or not? Transposable elements in fruit flies

The problem of parasitism occurs at all levels right down to the DNA scale. Genomes may contain up to 80 percent "foreign" DNA but details of the mechanisms by which this enters the host genome and how hosts attempt to combat ...

Biology / Biotechnology

created Feb 03, 2012 | popularity 4.5 / 5 (2) | comments 0

Roundworm research reviewed in Science publication

There are 16,000 types of parasitic roundworms causing illnesses in humans and animals. Controlling their effects on health becomes more difficult as the medicines used to treat them become less effective. A University of ...

Biology / Cell & Microbiology

created Feb 03, 2012 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

Researchers discover method to unravel malaria's genetic secrets

The parasite that causes malaria is a genetic outlier, which has prevented scientists from discovering the functions of most of its genes. Researchers at National Jewish Health and Yale University School of Medicine have ...

Chemistry / Biochemistry

created Jan 25, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Unveiling malaria's 'invisibility cloak'

The discovery by researchers from the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of a molecule that is key to malaria's 'invisibility cloak' will help to better understand how the parasite causes disease and escapes from the defenses ...

Biology / Cell & Microbiology

created Jan 18, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Genetic code cracked for a devastating blood parasite

(PhysOrg.com) -- Scientists have cracked the genetic code and predicted some high priority drug targets for the blood parasite Schistosoma haematobium, which is linked to bladder cancer and HIV/ AIDS and causes the insidious ...

Biology / Biotechnology

created Jan 18, 2012 | popularity 3.7 / 5 (3) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

New research illustrates how genome adapts to transposon invasion

Small, mobile sequences of DNA left over from viruses, called transposons or "jumping genes" because of their ability to move around the genome, pose a significant threat to the genetic integrity and stability of an organism. ...

Biology / Biotechnology

created Dec 22, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (5) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Analyzing the sheep genome for parasite resistance

Genetic resistance to a parasitic nematode that infects sheep has been discovered by a team of scientists with the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI).

Biology / Plants & Animals

created Oct 18, 2011 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

Invasion of genomic parasites triggered modern mammalian pregnancy

Genetic parasites invaded the mammalian genome more than 100 million years ago and dramatically changed the way mammals reproduce -- transforming the uterus in the ancestors of humans and other mammals from the production ...

Biology / Biotechnology

created Sep 25, 2011 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (8) | comments 9 | with audio podcast

Trichinosis parasite gets DNA decoded (w/ Video)

Scientists have decoded the DNA of the parasitic worm that causes trichinosis, a disease linked to eating raw or undercooked pork or carnivorous wild game animals, such as bear and walrus.

Biology / Biotechnology

created Feb 20, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Could the ingestion of 'modified' starch be a new malaria vaccine strategy?

There is no efficient vaccine against malaria, although nasal and oral vaccination seems to be the most promising and suitable solution in countries where the parasite Plasmodium, which causes the disease, ...

Medicine & Health / Medical research

created Dec 23, 2010 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

New study examines immunity in emerging species of a major mosquito carrer of malaria

A new study led by University of Notre Dame biologist Nora Besansky suggests that the mosquitoes' immune response to malaria parasites, mediated by a gene called "TEP1," is one of the traits that differ between ...

Biology / Biotechnology

created Dec 20, 2010 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Seizing control of South American parasite

Scientists battling Leishmania, a parasite second only to malaria in the number of deaths it causes, have identified an important vulnerability in the genetic code of one major parasite strain.

Medicine & Health / Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes

created Nov 19, 2010 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 0 | with audio podcast