http://phys.org/biology-news/biotechnology/ en-us PhysOrg Team Phys.Org provides the latest news on biotechnology Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory have identified key elements in the biochemical mechanism plants use to limit the production of fatty acids. The results suggest ways scientists might target those biochemical pathways to increase the production of plant oils as a renewable resource for biofuels and industrial processes. http://phys.org/news258035799.html Biology - Biotechnology 2012-06-04T15:00:13-07:00 An international research team involving 17 institutions including Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory has published the most comprehensive analysis to date of the maize genome. It is an achievement that substantially increases scientists' understanding of differences across related but different species of the plant, which most North Americans call corn, as well as the nature of differences found within individual maize species. http://phys.org/news258025600.html Biology - Biotechnology 2012-06-04T10:46:57-07:00 (Phys.org) -- A team of researchers examining DNA extracted from the skeletons of historic horses in order to throw light on the origin of diseases found in modern horses have, in the course of their work, solved some of the mysteries that have long puzzled the horse-racing world. http://phys.org/news258015586.html Biology - Biotechnology 2012-06-04T08:01:10-07:00 An interdisciplinary team, led by researchers at Cornell University and the U.S. Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Research Service (USDA-ARS), today published the most comprehensive analysis to date of the corn genome. http://phys.org/news257924677.html Biology - Biotechnology 2012-06-03T13:00:09-07:00 Researchers at the University of California, Davis, report that ancient farmers had a stronger impact on the evolution of maize, or corn, than modern plant breeders have had on the grain — now one of the world's top production crops. http://phys.org/news257924803.html Biology - Biotechnology 2012-06-03T13:00:08-07:00 Computer-designed proteins are under construction to fight the flu. Researchers are demonstrating that proteins found in nature, but that do not normally bind the flu, can be engineered to act as broad-spectrum antiviral agents against a variety of flu virus strains, including H1N1 pandemic influenza. http://phys.org/news257798075.html Biology - Biotechnology 2012-06-01T19:34:42-07:00 A newly published genetic sequence and map of foxtail millet, a close relative of switchgrass and an important food crop in Asia, is giving scientists working to increase biofuel and crop yields a powerful new tool. http://phys.org/news257797764.html Biology - Biotechnology 2012-06-01T19:29:30-07:00 Scientists at the University of York and GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) Australia have discovered a complex gene cluster responsible for the synthesis of the medicinal compound noscapine. http://phys.org/news257689953.html Biology - Biotechnology 2012-05-31T14:00:21-07:00 Our ability to "read" DNA has made tremendous progress in the past few decades, but the ability to understand and alter the genetic code, that is, to "rewrite" the DNA-encoded instructions, has lagged behind. A new Weizmann Institute study advances our understanding of the genetic code: It proposes a way of effectively introducing numerous carefully planned DNA segments into genomes of living cells and of testing the effects of these changes. The study is being reported in the June issues of Nature Biotechnology and Nature Genetics. http://phys.org/news257679637.html Biology - Biotechnology 2012-05-31T10:40:52-07:00 (Phys.org) -- Scientists have pinpointed the ‘stay green' DNA in barley in new research that may help farmers to grow better crops in areas of drought, heat and salinity. http://phys.org/news257674248.html Biology - Biotechnology 2012-05-31T09:40:25-07:00 For the first time, the genome of the tomato, Solanum lycopersicum, has been decoded, and it becomes an important step toward improving yield, nutrition, disease resistance, taste and color of the tomato and other crops. The full genome sequence, as well as the sequence of a wild relative, is jointly published in the latest issue of the journal Nature (May 31, 2012). http://phys.org/news257590459.html Biology - Biotechnology 2012-05-30T13:00:06-07:00 Israeli scientists have cultivated a cannabis plant that doesn't get people stoned in a development that may help those smoking marijuana for medical purposes, a newspaper said on Wednesday. http://phys.org/news257589723.html Biology - Biotechnology 2012-05-30T09:42:13-07:00 Leonardo da Vinci, the Italian Renaissance scientist and artist extraordinaire, in the 15th century was the first to record his observation that some plants appeared to follow the Sun, and he was not the last. How this was scientifically achieved and why this occurred, however, remained a mystery to him and everyone that followed. But a European team of researchers may have come one step closer to solving this mystery. The answer, they say, lies with auxin - a class of plant hormone. The findings of their study were published in the journal Nature. http://phys.org/news257585468.html Biology - Biotechnology 2012-05-30T08:31:21-07:00 Identifying antimicrobial proteins in chickens that kill pathogens is one method being used by U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) scientists to find alternatives to the use of antibiotics to control infectious poultry diseases. http://phys.org/news257585405.html Biology - Biotechnology 2012-05-30T08:30:43-07:00 Hitachi and Data Storage Institute (DSI), a research institute of the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR) are devising a data compression technique to tackle the increasing volume of genome sequencing data generated by the healthcare and biomedical industry. As the volume of such data has been forecasted to double annually, the collaborators aim to develop a more efficient data storage technology that will compress genome sequencing data more effectively than existing methods. This is an extension of an earlier partnership, where Hitachi and DSI researchers discovered the pattern of typical genome data transactions that would enable current storage systems to function optimally. http://phys.org/news257583282.html Biology - Biotechnology 2012-05-30T08:10:01-07:00 An international team of researchers has now sequenced nearly the entire genetic material of the sea louse. On 1 March the Institute of Marine Research gave the world open access to this research source, which could enable the aquaculture industry to develop new and more effective medicines to combat this plague. http://phys.org/news257482209.html Biology - Biotechnology 2012-05-29T03:56:45-07:00 An international research team has manufactured a new protein that can combat deadly flu epidemics. http://phys.org/news257317409.html Biology - Biotechnology 2012-05-27T13:00:30-07:00 Scientists believe they've pinpointed the last crucial piece of the 80-year-old puzzle of how plants "know" when to flower. http://phys.org/news257185170.html Biology - Biotechnology 2012-05-25T17:19:37-07:00 There is nothing better than a ripe, red, homegrown tomato, and now researchers reporting online on May 24 in Current Biology have figured out just what it is that makes some of them so awfully good (and your average supermarket tomato so bland). http://phys.org/news257078495.html Biology - Biotechnology 2012-05-24T12:00:19-07:00 (Phys.org) -- New research at the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) confirms that rising levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide facilitate the flow of genes from wild or weedy rice plants to domesticated rice varieties. As a result, domesticated plants could take on undesirable weedy characteristics that may interfere with future rice production. http://phys.org/news257066461.html Biology - Biotechnology 2012-05-24T08:21:10-07:00 Following herbivory, plants produce jasmonic acid, a hormone which activates several plant defense reactions. Scientists found that leafhoppers can evaluate whether tobacco plants are ready for defense when attacked. If jasmonate-signaling is activated, leafhoppers desist from feeding and test other plants. If the hormonal signaling system is dysfunctional, the herbivores start their attack. In field experiments, the leafhoppers proved as "bloodhounds" to locate plants hidden in natural populations which are naturally defective in jasmonate signaling. http://phys.org/news256992650.html Biology - Biotechnology 2012-05-23T11:50:59-07:00 Powerful and versatile new genetic tools that will assist in safeguarding both European fish stocks and European consumers is reported in Nature Communications. The paper reports on the first system proven to identify populations of fish species to a forensic level of validation. http://phys.org/news256910817.html Biology - Biotechnology 2012-05-22T13:07:03-07:00 Scientists on Tuesday said they had devised a DNA test to pinpoint the geographical origins of commercial seafish, in a breakthrough against illegal trawling that threatens fish stocks worldwide. http://phys.org/news256904177.html Biology - Biotechnology 2012-05-22T11:30:02-07:00 A European team of researchers has discovered a gene with the potential to increase sugar beet yields. Presented in the journal Current Biology, the findings of the study show how the long-sought bolting gene B in the sugar beet crop could help seed producers boost cultivation efficiency by mitigating yield-reducing contaminations, and could also support breeders in their efforts to create new cultivars with larger beets. http://phys.org/news256901286.html Biology - Biotechnology 2012-05-22T11:10:10-07:00 (Phys.org) -- David Ray never turns his back on his research, and with good reason! "If it can't bite you, it's not interesting," he jokes. http://phys.org/news256900925.html Biology - Biotechnology 2012-05-22T10:50:01-07:00 Besides the obvious differences between plants and animals, subtle ones lie concealed within the cell, even within the nucleus. In both plant and animal cells, the nucleus contains DNA, which condenses into chromosomes during cell division. Chromosomes can be counted at that stage, revealing the chromosome number for each species. Here comes a difference: while the chromosome number spans a relatively short range across animal species (2-296: 46 in man), some plant species have over 1000 chromosomes. The adder's-tongue Ophioglossum reticulatum, a fern ally from the tropics, has 1440 chromosomes in its vegetative cells. http://phys.org/news256899303.html Biology - Biotechnology 2012-05-22T09:55:15-07:00 (Phys.org) -- For the first time, scientists have identified how a plant's skin is assembled. http://phys.org/news256886364.html Biology - Biotechnology 2012-05-22T06:19:55-07:00 Europe's food safety agency EFSA on Monday rejected the grounds for a temporary French ban on a genetically modified strain of maize made by US company Monsanto. http://phys.org/news256843641.html Biology - Biotechnology 2012-05-21T20:30:01-07:00 The brown tissue that signals blossom end rot in tomatoes is a major problem for large producers and home gardeners, but a Purdue University researcher has unknowingly had the answer to significantly lowering occurrences of the disease sitting on a shelf for 20 years. http://phys.org/news256841286.html Biology - Biotechnology 2012-05-21T17:48:12-07:00 (Phys.org) -- Scientists from Stanford's Department of Bioengineering have devised a method for repeatedly encoding, storing and erasing digital data within the DNA of living cells. http://phys.org/news256814862.html Biology - Biotechnology 2012-05-21T15:00:01-07:00