For centuries, it was referred to as a sacred disease and the afflicted sought treatment in temples rather than the physician's shop. Little has changed in the way people look at epilepsy over the years, although treatment and diagnosis of the neurological disorder has made rapid strides. Dr Samuel F Berkovic is among those who have done extensive research on the causes of epilepsy, hoping, in the process, to break the stigma that still shrouds the often dehumanising ailment characterised by seizures. On Sunday, the director of the Epilepsy Research Centre at Austin Health, Australia, answered several questions linked to epilepsy, which affects nearly 50 million people worldwide and 10 million in India. "If you had asked me in the '70s about the cause of epilepsy, I wouldn't have had an answer backed by science," began Dr Berkovic, delivering the 37th T S Srinivasan Endowment Oration. "Today, we have multiple answers and ways to treat epilepsy," he said, adding that imaging of the brain was the first breakthrough in understanding the disease that was until then viewed as supernatural possession. According to him, the neuroimaging revolution, particularly magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), was the biggest step taken towards diagnosis of epilepsy. Advances in the field of genetics, including the identification of genes that cause epilepsy and those that influence the efficacy of antiepileptic drugs, have also revolutionised treatment. "We now know that genetic epilepsy can occur without a family history. Even perfectly normal parents can have a child with epilepsy. At the same time a person with epilepsy can have a normal child," said Berkovic. Describing epilepsy as a highly misunderstood and stigmatised condition, Professor Berkovic said, "Epilepsy can be treated and people suffering from epilepsy can lead a normal, healthy life," at the programme organised by the National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (Nimhans), Bengaluru, and NEUROKRISH Neurosciences India Group, Chennai.

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Advances in genetics have changed epilepsy treatment - Times of India

CHENNAI:The extinction of a species can be predicted by studying its genetic diversity, says Dr Uma Ramakrishnan who studies the decline in tiger population in India. Speaking on Sunday at Science at the Sabha, an annual event organised by the Institute of Mathematical Sciences (IMSc), she said though tigers in India had a reasonable genetic diversity, they faced a number of other problems.

We found out that a poor genetic diversity was not causing the depletion of the species but that several other problems were contributing to it, said Uma. The higher the internal genetic diversity within a species, the higher its survival chance, as having more genes would also translate to having more ecologically adapted versions of the same genes of that species.

We have over 2,500 tigers living in different parts of India. But what we found out is, the average number of tigers living in a national park is only 19, she said. Having small isolated groups of tigers that are geographically widespread would lead to a wide genetic diversity, but lowering of diversity within each of these patches.

Multiple problems led to the present situation in India. For a species to survive, it must live in a large area in large numbers and must stay connected with genetically variant members of the same species for breeding. The tiger habitat was spread all across Asia before colonial rule. Now, its population is confined to patches in South Asia and mostly in India, says Uma.

One thing we observed from the data is that the growth of urban areas is directly proportional to the depletion of forest land. This means that we further reduce the habitat of these mammals, causing intense fragmentation, said Uma, adding that this would worsen the problems of inbreeding.

Although I worked extensively with tigers, the same problems haunt all dying species. One important solution to prevent fragmentation while still promoting development is to ensure that wildlife corridors must not be encroached upon, she told Express on the sidelines of the main event. She added that historical data showed that the chances of extinction of big animals, such as mammoths, were more.

Other speakers included Yashwant Gupta, who spoke of star-gazing and touring the universe through an astronomical medium; S Krishnaswamy, who spoke about the basics of molecular particles; and Amritanshu Prasad who triggered the minds of young children by speaking about coding and encrypting.

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Predicting extinction via genetics - The New Indian Express

Students at Athens Academys evolutionary genetics class worked with scientists from the University of Georgias Center for Applied Genetic Technologies last week.

The students spent time phenotyping mutant soybean plants that have a transposable element inserted in their genome.

The work was part of the Soybean Mutagenesis Project, a project funded by the National Science Foundation.

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Athens Academy evolutionary genetics class works with UGA scientists - Online Athens

The following is from an interview transcript

Last year, we had a series of mergers in the agribusiness GMO-corporations worldwide. This has created an alarming concentration of corporate power in the hands of basically three corporate groups.

The first one is Bayer AG of Germany, which made a friendly takeover of Monsanto. The reason for this was that Monsanto became identified in the public mind as pure evil and everything bad about GMOs, which was accurate. This became a burden on the whole GMO project. So, Bayer stepped in, which has a friendly image of an aspirin, harmless, nice company, but in fact is the company that invented heroin in the 1880s and made gas for the ovens of Auschwitz during WWII. Its one of the dirtiest agribusiness companies in the world with a series of homicides and pesticides that killed off bee colonies and many other things that are essential to life and to nature.

Flickr.com/Miran Rijavec (public domain)

ChemChina China State Chemical giant for some reason took over Swiss Syngenta, which makes weed-killers.

Then, Dow Chemicals and DuPont merged their GMO businesses together.

So, we have three gigantic corporate groups worldwide controlling the genetically-modified part of the human food chain. As dangerous as the GMO crops are and the more they sell, it is becoming more and more obvious that they are the chemicals that by contract must be applied to those GMO seeds by the corporations. They demand that if you buy roundup ready soybeans or corn, you must use Monsanto (now Bayer) roundup.

Therefore, this is giving more corporate power to the GMO industry than ever before and thats an alarming trend. They are putting pressure on the bureaucracy in Brussels. One example: there was a massive public campaign against the renewal of the license of the European Commission for Glyphosate. Glyphosate is the most widely used weed-killer in the world. Glyphosate is the main ingredient in Monsantos roundup. The other ingredients are Monsantos corporate secret, but the combination of them is one of the most deadly weed-killers.

The World Health Organizations body responsible for assessing genetic dangers made a ruling the last year that Glyphosate was a probable cancer-causing agent.

The license came up for automatic renewal last year a 15-year license. The EU commission for health was prepared to automatically renew it for 15 years. The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), which is responsible allegedly for the health and safety of European citizens, recommended approval based on a German study by the German Food Safety Agency that was simply lifted 100% from studies given by the private corporation Monsanto! So, the whole chain was corrupt from the beginning and all the information was rigged. In reality tests have shown that in minuscule concentrations, lower than in recommended levels in Europe and in the US, Glyphosate causes kidney disease, liver disease, and other illnesses that are potentially fatal.

Now, Glyphosate has shown up in urine tests, in urban drinking water, in gardens, in ground water and so forth. And that gets into the system of childbearing women, for example, with embryo. Its all in this!

The EU commission, despite a million petitions this is a record setting and despite recommendations from leading scientists around the world to not renew the license, made a compromise under huge industry pressure and renewed it for 18 months. Why did they renew it for that time? Because at the end of 18 months, they were told by Bayer and Monsanto that the takeover of those two giant corporations will be completed and Bayer is going to replace Glyphosate with another, likely more deadly toxin, but not so well-known as Glyphosate. So, they simply bought time. And that is just one example.

This agenda of GMO is not about the health and safety; its not about increasing crop yields thats a lie that has been proven in repeated tests in North America and all around the world. Crop yields for farmers, using GMO plants, may increase slightly for the first 1-2 harvest years, but ultimately decline after 3-4 years. And not only that! Weve been promised by Monsanto and other GMO giants that the use of chemicals will be less, because of these wonderful traits that GMO plants resist. In fact, the weeds become resistant and you have super weeds, which are 5-6 feet in a height and choke out everything. Its a catastrophe. So, farmers end up using added weed killers to kill the super weeds. This whole mad playing around with the genetic makeup of nature is a disaster from the beginning.

The real agenda of GMO, which I have documented in great detail in my book Seeds of Destruction, comes from the Rockefeller Foundation. It comes out of the 1920s-1930s Eugenics movement. The Rockefeller Foundation during the 1930s, right up to the outbreak of World War II when it became politically embracing too, financed the Nazi Eugenics experiments of Kaiser Wilhelm Institute in Berlin and in Munich. Why did they do this? Their goal was the elimination of what they called undesirable eaters. That is called population reduction.

After the war, the head of the American Eugenic Society, who was a good friend of John D. Rockefeller, at the annual conference of the American Eugenic Society said: From today, the new name of eugenics is genetics. Moreover, if you keep that in mind genetic engineering, the Human Genome Project and so forth they all are scientific frauds. Russian scientists have proven that the entire Genome Project utterly disregarded 98% of the scientifically valuable data in favor of 2% that was completely nonsense and a waste of billions of dollars.

Therefore, they have been obsessed with the idea of how to reduce human population in a way that would not be so obvious as simply going out and carrying out mass-sterilization.

Actually, they have done that in Central America together with the World Health Organization by giving certain vaccines that they cooked-up to have abortive effects. Therefore, the women of child-bearing age in Central America were given these vaccines against tetanus. The organization of the Catholic Church became suspicious because the shots were given only to women, not to men. And they found that there was buried in the vaccine an abortive effect that made it impossible for women to conceive and bear children. This is all covert population reduction.

These are the Western patriarchs who believe they are the gods, sitting on the throne with great dignity, controlling mankind. I think they are a bunch of fools, but they have this agenda of genetic manipulation. Its against nature, its chemically unstable. And I have to congratulate the Russian Federation that they had the courage and the moral concern for their own population to ban GMO cultivation across Russia. That was a step forward for mankind. I would hope that Russia will use its influence to get China to do the similar thing, because their agriculture is in dire need of some healthy Russian input. But this step by Russia to make a GMO-free agriculture is a great step for mankind.

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Genetics Are the New Eugenics: How GMO's Reduce the Human Population - Center for Research on Globalization

ATHENS In March 2006, angler Edward Reid pulled a staggering 14.48-pound largemouth bass from the depths of Lake Conroe near Houston.

On Feb. 10, nearly 11 years later and more than 234 miles away, angler Ryder Wicker caught the 13.07-pound offspring of that fish from Marine Creek Lake near Fort Worth.

The Lake Conroe fish, later called ShareLunker 410, was able to leave a legacy of her big-bass genetics to the state thanks to the Texas Parks and Wildlife Departments Toyota ShareLunker Program, which has been selectively breeding and stocking angler-caught largemouth bass over 13 pounds since 1986 with the goal of increasing the production of trophy-sized fish in Texas reservoirs.

After Reid donated ShareLunker 410 to the program in 2006, TPWD Inland Fisheries biologists took her to the lunkerbunker at the Texas Freshwater Fisheries Center (TFFC) in Athens to pair up with a male ShareLunker offspring.

That pairing of pure Florida largemouth bass produced thousands of fingerlings that were stocked in Marine Creek Lake and other public Texas reservoirs a few months later, one of which grew into the 13.07 pounder Ryder caught last week: ShareLunker 566.

The genetic link was confirmed Feb. 17, just days after TFFC staff transported a fin clip to the A.E. Wood Hatchery in San Marcos.

The tests confirmed what biologists already suspected based on the results of scanning a tag near the fishs head this was a daughter produced by ShareLunker 410 and a male fish with a more esoteric name, 0LB-0504.

The catch of ShareLunker 566 from Marine Creek Lake not only validates the goal of TPWDs selective breeding program of producing ShareLunker-size bass, but also demonstrates how anglers can help others by donating their ShareLunkers to TPWD for breeding purposes, said ShareLunker Program Coordinator Kyle Brookshear. Mr. Wicker can tip his hat to Mr. Reid for making this moment possible.

ShareLunker 566 was among the tagged fingerlings stocked in Marine Creek Lake 11 years ago for a ShareLunker evaluation research project. Researchers wanted to compare growth of ShareLunker fingerlings to growth of the resident bass population in several Texas lakes.

Researchers on the ShareLunker evaluation project found that over a four year period of time, compared to wild fish of the same age (four years old) and gender (female), ShareLunker offspring weighed more by a half pound on average.

Now those same TPWD biologists are in the process of comparing ShareLunker offspring with regular Florida largemouth bass and the initial results are showing even more significant size differences between the fish.

Mukhtar Farooqi, a TPWD Inland Fisheries biologist, said results from the study could be used as a basis to incorporate ShareLunker offspring into the Florida largemouth bass broodfish in hatcheries across the state.

That would increase the total ShareLunker offspring stocked annually into participating lakes from tens of thousands to more than eight million.

Farooqi also said if ShareLunker 566 is able to spawn, the second generation offspring may have a better chance of obtaining a higher weight due to the concentration of those genes.

We know this fish is a big fish produced by a big fish coming from the selective breeding program, so there is a bit of a lineage, Farooqi said. Thats what you would want to maintain; its the best scenario when youre dealing with known genetics.

ShareLunker 566 is the first 13 pound or larger Florida largemouth bass submitted to the Toyota ShareLunker program so far this season, but anglers have until March 31 to submit their catch for TPWD to collect as brood stock for spawning.

Anglers can enter 13 pound or heavier bass into the program for certified weight, DNA sample and immediate release through April 30.

Lake Conroe, the fishery that produced ShareLunker 410 and 16 other ShareLunkers, is hosting the Bassmaster Classic tournament March 24-26, which could yield another addition to the program.

The Toyota ShareLunker Program is made possible by a grant to the Texas Parks & Wildlife Foundation from Gulf States Toyota.

Toyota is a longtime supporter of the Foundation and Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, providing major funding for a wide variety of education, fish, parks and wildlife projects.

For updates on the ShareLunker program and to view photos of ShareLunker 566, visit http://www.facebook.com/ShareLunkerprogram/.

Originally posted here:
Biologists confirm genetics of first ShareLunker Offspring Entered into Program - Weatherford Democrat

The genetic material of an organism encodes the instructions that guide its development. These codes are not written in stone; they can change or mutate any time during the life of the organism. Single changes in the code can occur spontaneously, as a mutation, causing developmental problems. Others, as an international team of researchers has discovered, are too numerous to be explained by random mutation processes present in the general population. When such multiple genetic changes occur before or early after conception, they may inform scientists about fundamental knowledge underlying many diseases. The study appears in Cell.

As a part of the clinical evaluation of young patients with a variety of developmental issues, we performed clinical genomic studies and analyzed the genetic material of more than 60,000 individuals. Most of the samples were analyzed at Baylor Genetics laboratories, said lead author Dr. Pengfei Liu, assistant professor of molecular and human genetics Baylor College of Medicine and assistant laboratory director of Baylor Genetics. Of these samples, five had extreme numbers of genetic changes that could not be explained by random events alone.

The researchers looked at a type of genetic change called copy number variants, which refers to the number of copies of genes in human DNA. Normally we each have two copies of each gene located on a pair of homologous chromosomes.

Copy number variants in human DNA can be compared to repeated or missing paragraphs or pages of text in a book, said senior author Dr. James R. Lupski, Cullen Professor of Molecular and Human Genetics at Baylor. For instance, if one or two pages are duplicated in a book it could be explained by random mistakes. On the other hand, if 10 different pages are duplicated, you have to suspect that it did not happen by chance. We want to understand the basic mechanism underlying these multiple new copy number variant mutations in the human genome.

A rare, early and transitory phenomenon that can affect human development

The researchers call this phenomenon multiple de novo copy number variants. As the name indicates, the copy number variants are many and new (de novo). The latter means that the patients carrying the genetic changes did not inherit them from their parents because neither the mother nor the father carries the changes.

In this rare phenomenon, the copy number variants are predominantly gains duplications and triplications rather than losses of genetic material, and are present in all the cells of the child. The last piece of evidence together with the fact that the parents do not carry the alterations suggest that the extra copies of genes may have occurred either in the sperm or the egg, the parents germ cells, and before or very early after fertilization.

This burst of genetic changes happens only during the early stages of embryonic development and then it stops, Liu said. Interestingly, despite having a large number of mutations, the young patients present with relatively mild neurological problems.

The researchers are analyzing more patient samples looking for additional cases of multiple copy number variants to continue their investigation of what may trigger this rare phenomenon.

We hope that as more researchers around the world learn about this and confirm it, the number of cases will increase, Liu said. This will improve our understanding of the underlying mechanism and of why and how pathogenic copy number variants arise not only in developmental disorders but in cancers.

A new era of clinical genomics-supported medicine and research

This discovery has been possible in great measure thanks to the breadth of genetic testing performed and genomic data available at Baylor Genetics laboratory.

The diagnostics lab Baylor Genetics is one of the pioneers in this new era of clinical genomics-supported medical practice and disease gene discovery research, Lupski said. They are developing the clinical genomics necessary to foster and support the Precision Medicine Initiative of the National Institutes of Health, and generating the genomics data that further drives human genome research.

Using state-of-the art technologies and highly-trained personnel, Baylor Genetics analyzes hundreds of samples daily for genetic evaluation of patients with conditions suspected to have underlying genetic factors potentially contributing to their disease. Having this wealth of information and insight into the genetic mechanisms of disease offers now the possibility of advancing medicine and basic research in ways that were not available before.

There is so much that both clinicians and researchers can learn from the data generated in diagnostic labs, Liu said. Clinicians receive genomic information that can aid in diagnosis and treatment of their patients, and researchers gather data that can help them unveil the mechanisms underlying the biological perturbations resulting in the patients conditions.

Other contributors to this work include Bo Yuan, Claudia M.B. Carvalho, Arthur Wuster, Klaudia Walter, Ling Zhang, Tomasz Gambin, Zechen Chong, Ian M. Campbell, Zeynep Coban Akdemir, Violet Gelowani, Karin Writzl, Carlos A. Bacino, Sarah J. Lindsay, Marjorie Withers, Claudia Gonzaga-Jauregui, Joanna Wiszniewska, Jennifer Scull, Pawel Stankiewicz, Shalini N. Jhangiani, Donna M. Muzny, Feng Zhang, Ken Chen, Richard A. Gibbs, Bernd Rautenstrauss, Sau Wai Cheung, Janice Smith, Amy Breman, Chad A. Shaw, Ankita Patel and Matthew E. Hurles. The researchers are affiliated with one of more of the following institutions Baylor, Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute in the U.K., Fudan University in China, the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center Houston, the Clinical Institute of Medical Genetics in Slovenia and the Medical Genetics Center in Germany.

This work was supported in part by grants from the US National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (R01NS058529), the National Human Genome Research Institute (U54HG003273), a joint NHGRI/National Heart Blood and Lung Institute grant (U54HG006542) to the Baylor Hopkins Center for Mendelian Genomics, and the BCM Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Research Center, IDDRC Grant Number 5P30HD024064-23, from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. The work was also partially supported by the Wellcome Trust (WT098051).

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Many genetic changes can occur early in human development - Baylor College of Medicine News (press release)

about 10 hours ago Updated: about 8 hours ago

Dublin-based pig breeder Hermitage has entered into a strategic partnership with UK animal genetics group Genus. Under the deal, which is still subject to several closing conditions, Genuss PIC porcine unit will acquire the genetic rights and intellectual property of Hermitage.

The partnership will also see the Irish company become a strategic supply chain and distribution partner for PIC. PIC will acquire certain Hermitage customer relationships in Russia, the US and several European countries. The deal is expected to be finalised by the end of next month.

Established in 1958, Hermitage is one of the longest running porcine breeding and genetics companies in Europe, serving big producers in Europe and elsewhere. Its infrastructure includes nucleus farms and boar studs in Ireland and across Europe.

Commenting on the deal, Hermitage owner Ned Nolan said: This is an exciting step for Hermitage, as we join forces with a global pioneer in our field.

Our partnership with PIC will allow the continued use of the Hermitage gene pool to provide enhanced genetics to our global customer base, he added.

Genus chief executive Karim Bitar said: The partnership with Hermitage is an ideal fit with our porcine strategy.

It will provide Genus with the opportunity to accelerate genetic improvement by combining the PIC and Hermitage gene pools, he said.

In addition, Hermitages strong supply chain and customer-service oriented team will strengthen our ability to serve pig producers efficiently and reliably, he added.

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Dublin-based pig breeder joins genetics group Genus - Irish Times

Home General Health Losing your hair? Genetics may be to blame

Men who suffer from hair loss may have genetics to blame, according to new research from the University of Edinburgh. Previous research has found only a small group of genetic regions associated with baldness, but this newest study has identified almost 300, meaning scientists are another step closer to potentially preventing male pattern baldness.

The study reviewed genetic data taken from over 52,000 men and identified 287 regions that were associated with severe hair loss. The majority of these genes were linked to hair structure, growth, and development, and researchers were interested to find many of the genetic indicators of male pattern baldness were from the X chromosome. Men receive the X chromosome from their mothers, meaning that baldness could come from the maternal side rather than the paternal.

Identifying the specific genetic regions associated with hair loss may allow researchers to develop treatments that directly target these genes to slow and, ultimately, prevent balding. While these results are promising and could eventually lead to effective treatments for hair loss, researchers stress that these findings do not guarantee a cure for baldness is coming right away. Rather, this research enhances the understanding of the role genetics plays in hair loss and opens the door for further, more in-depth studies.

Co-leader of the study, David Hill, explained: In this study, data were collected on hair loss pattern but not the age of onset; we would expect to see an even stronger genetic signal if we were able to identify those with early onset hair loss. Further research into the age of onset could not only help to identify those predisposed to early onset male pattern baldness, but may eventually aid in the prevention of this condition.

Related: Is glaucoma hereditary or a genetic disease?

Related Reading:

Best natural remedies to tackle hair loss

There May Be A Gene To Blame When It Comes To Your Hair Loss

http://www.webmd.com/skin-problems-and-treatments/hair-loss/news/20170214/geneticists-hair-loss-men

Excerpt from:
Losing your hair? Genetics may be to blame - Bel Marra Health

February 24, 2017 Generation of recombinant rotavirus from cloned cDNA. Credit: Osaka University

Rotaviruses are the most common cause of severe diarrhea and kill hundreds of thousands of infants a year. Although current vaccines are effective in preventing aggravation of rotaviruses, the development of more effective vaccines at lower cost is expected. Technology cannot study well how rotaviruses invade and replicate in a cell. To identify which genes are crucial for the infection of rotaviruses, scientists at the Research Institute for Microbial Diseases at Osaka University report a new plasmid-based reverse genetics system. The study can be read in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.

"Reverse genetics allows us to generate artificially engineered viruses", says Associate Professor Takeshi Kobayashi, who led the study. "Using reverse genetics, we can mutate a gene and see its effects on the virus," he added.

Reverse genetics systems have been developed for a wide number of viruses to study the conditions in which a virus thrives, but systems for multiple-segmented RNA-based viruses like rotaviruses have proven more difficult. Kobayashi's group solved this problem by including two viral proteins, FAST and VV capping enzyme, into their plasmid-based system. Taking advantage, the researchers tested their system by mutating a single protein of rotaviruses, NSP1, finding that they could decrease viral replication.

Through comprehensive testing of all proteins in future studies, Kobayashi expects to find the key determinants that make rotaviruses a severe pubic threat. "We could modify the propagation and pathogenicity of the rotavirus", he said.

Kobayashi is optimistic about how plasmid-based reverse genetics system will bring new innovations to combat rotaviruses. "Because no one could synthesize rotaviruses artificially, less is known about the replication and pathogenesis." He expects the system will increase the number of labs working on rotaviruses and lead to more effective vaccines.

Explore further: Researchers find chink in the armor of viral 'tummy bug'

More information: Yuta Kanai et al. Entirely plasmid-based reverse genetics system for rotaviruses, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2017). DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1618424114

Researchers at Griffith University's Institute for Glycomics in collaboration with colleagues at the University of Melbourne have moved a step closer to identifying a broad spectrum treatment for the dreaded 'viral tummy ...

Researchers from Griffith University's Institute for Glycomics and the University of Melbourne have significantly advanced understanding of a virus that kills up to half a million children each year.

A five-year research partnership between the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine and the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) has revealed the atomic-level structure of the bluetongue virus (BTV), a disease ...

Vaccine developers have successfully protected mice against Zika by injecting synthetic messenger RNA that encodes for virus proteins into the animals. The cells of the mice then build parts of the virus, training the immune ...

Our immunosensory system detects virus such as influenza via specific characteristics of viral ribonucleic acid. Previously, it was unclear how the immune system prevents viruses from simply donning molecular camouflage in ...

Using nanotechnology and a patented signal enhancing technique developed at the University of Georgia, UGA researchers have discovered a rapid, sensitive and cost-effective method to detect and identify a number of rotavirus ...

Bioengineers at the University of California San Diego have developed a new tool to identify interactions between RNA and DNA molecules. The tool, called MARGI (Mapping RNA Genome Interactions), is the first technology that's ...

Small "bubbles" frequently form on membranes of cells and are taken up into their interior. The process involves EHD proteins - a focus of research by Prof. Oliver Daumke of the MDC. He and his team have now shed light on ...

Scientists from The University of Western Australia have identified a tiny mutation in plants that can influence how well a plant recovers from stressful conditions, and ultimately impact a plant's survival.

The first skirmish was fought last week in what could be a long war over a revolutionary patent on gene-editing technology, with colossal amounts of money at stake.

Waterhemp has been locked in an arms race with farmers for decades. Nearly every time farmers attack the weed with a new herbicide, waterhemp becomes resistant to it, reducing or eliminating the efficacy of the chemical. ...

The last Neanderthal died 40,000 years ago, but much of their genome lives on, in bits and pieces, through modern humans. The impact of Neanderthals' genetic contribution has been uncertain: Do these snippets affect our genome's ...

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Scientists generate a new plasmid-based reverse genetics system for rotaviruses - Phys.Org

Frank Phillips College on Thursday celebrated the opening of its new Livestock Genetics Center in Borger.

The center will focus on cattle embryo transfer: Embryos harvested from high-priced, sought-after cows are placed into less expensive cows that essentially serve as surrogates.

Were multiplying superior genetics quicker, said Byron Housewright, chairman of the ag department at the college.

Faculty and students will use a hormone to make genetically superior cows produce 15 to 20 embryos instead of one, Housewright explained. The extra embryos are then harvested, examined under a microscope and transplanted into surrogates.

Instead of getting one calf a year out of a single cow, we can get 20, Housewright said.

The center will open housing two top end cows donated to the college from a ranch in Stephenville, he said.

The 4,500-square-foot facility will include a classroom and a covered area to house the cattle. Housewright said the center could quadruple the size of the genetics programs enrollment. The program began last year with five students.

The centers $164,000 cost was offset by a $100,000 grant from the Borger Economic Development Corp.

We felt like that would be a good thing for the college and also do something for the cattle industry, said Dan Redd, chief executive of the Borger EDC.

The center was also funded by the the City of Borger, Borger Chamber of Commerce and grants from Agrium Inc. and Monsanto Co., Housewright said.

Housewright said a commercial service to ranchers in the region would come alongside educational opportunities for students, who can earn certification in artificial insemination.

Our first commercial customer will be in June, and its a Texas Future Farmers of America chapter that has had show heifers and they want babies out of those heifers, he said.

This is a procedure that has become very, very popular in the beef industry, Housewright added.

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Livestock Genetics Center opens in Borger - Amarillo.com