Highlights of the BMC-series: April 2013

一个宏伟的计划,了解地球上的生命•(再保险)moving the mark of modification • Never say nematode again • Profiling the immune responses of deer mice • Looking forward, looking back • Heavy metal affects brain function • Lending a helping ligand

生物多样性：a grand plan for understanding life on Earth

了解什么推动地球上生命的巨大多样性可能是生态研究的巨大挑战。亚历克斯·哈迪斯蒂（Alex Hardisty）和戴夫·罗伯茨（Dave Roberts）通过概述了对生物多样性研究的生物多样性研究未来的宏伟愿景，这使我们更接近实现这一梦想，在与生物多样性信息学社区进行了巨大的社区咨询工作之后，将技术创新和数据共享置于核心。我们的博客解释了您的智能手机might just save the natural world.

Biotechnology:(re)moving the mark of modification

Selectable marker genes are used to identify successful transfection of cells with genetic material, such as herbicide resistance in genetically modified plants. However, removing this material in plants destined for the foodchain can be problematic. Yuan-Yeu Yau and C Neal Stewart review existing strategies to remove these genes from transgenic plants, and explore emerging technologies for increased precision genome modification.

Plant Biology:never say nematode again

Soybeans are a crop of huge economic importance, but which also come under attack by a number of species of parasitic nematode worms. To help combat this pest, researchers have deployed the help of genes from a different plant species that usually confers resistance to bacteria. They found that expression of the Arabidopsis PAD4 gene in soybeans roots confers resistance to two different genera of nematodes, identifying a potential future strategy for combating these pests.

Immunology:profiling the immune responses of deer mice

Deer mice (Peromyscus maniculatus) are susceptible to Andes virus (ANDV) which causes the majority of hantavirus cardiopulmonary syndrome cases in South America, but the mice clear the infection by 56 days post infection without signs of disease. In an article published this month in BMC Immunology, Tony Schountz and colleagues developed a rapid method for designing real-time PCR arrays that can be used to study the host immune response to viral infections. They concluded that lymph node T cells from deer mice infected with ANDV express mostly genes of the Th2 phenotype but fewer genes of Th1 and Treg phenotypes.

Image of the month:

Overview of the musculature of an advancedPhoronopsis harmerilarva. From“Development, organization, and remodeling of phoronid muscles from embryo to metamorphosis (Lophotrochozoa: Phoronida)“.Elena N Temereva and Eugeni B Tsitrin,BMC发育生物学2013，13：14

Ophthalmology:looking forward, looking back

在18世纪，用氧化物和猪猪油的混合物治疗了炎症性眼部疾病，并在称为“金眼药软膏”的制剂中治疗。除其他外，Alastair Denniston和Andrew Dick还回顾了过去的疗法，当前的治疗方法是炎症性眼病研究领域的未来，尤其是鉴于当前的发病机理，发病机理的进展，疾病分类，方法论和协作试验设计。

Toxicology:heavy metal affects brain function

星形胶质细胞是人脑中最丰富的细胞，是大脑功能的关键调节剂。星形胶质细胞支持基本神经元代谢需求的失败在脑损伤的发病机理和随后的神经元死亡中起着基本作用。在发表的评论中BMC Pharmacology and Toxicology本月，Marta Sidoryk-Wegrzynowicz和Michael Aschner讨论了在正常和神经病理学条件下支持星形胶质细胞重要作用的最新进展，主要是由锰等重金属暴露于锰等人。

Structural Biology:lending a helping ligand

Predicting the function of a protein from its sequence is challenging, particularly when sequences fall into the “twilight zone” of low sequence identity. A new systematic approach for functional inference that groups protein structures based upon the type and conformation of the molecule –or ligand—they bind to reveals some unexpected findings and extends the existing structural classification of proteins that bind to the methyl group donor molecule S-adenosyl-L-13 methionine (SAM)

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