CHECKUP : IF IT TOES THE MARK LIKE A DUCK ... NEWS, TIPS AND TRENDS.Next time you're pondering whether the chicken or the egg came first, think about this: When the chicken's in the egg, it really looks like a duck. Developing chicks and ducks both have webbing between their feet. In chicks, though, the cells that form the webbing die off, leaving the toes separated. A report in the latest issue of the journal Science suggests that a class of proteins called BMPs is part of the reason that chickens are better equipped for scratching than paddling. Researchers knew that BMPs, short for bone morphogenetic proteins, were present in the cells between the developing chicks' toes. To find out exactly what the proteins were doing there, scientists from the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center The Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC) in New York City is a cancer treatment and research institution founded in 1884 as the New York Cancer Hospital. The main campus is located at 1275 York Avenue, between 67th and 68th Streets, with other locations in New and Cornell University Cornell University, mainly at Ithaca, N.Y.; with land-grant, state, and private support; coeducational; chartered 1865, opened 1868. It was named for Ezra Cornell, who donated $500,000 and a tract of land. With the help of state senator Andrew D. in New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of injected a substance into developing chicks' hind limbs that interfered with the proteins. The cells didn't die and the feet stayed webbed, the scientists reported. Along with other studies of BMPs in the brain, the new work suggests that the proteins are important in several parts of the body for killing off cells that are no longer needed. The researchers also noticed that the proteins aren't present between the toes of developing ducks, which fits with the fact that ducks keep their webbing. Origins: Yet another genetic analysis concludes that all humans descend from a small population that lived in Africa less than 100,000 years ago. The new type of study is the third of its kind to find that the human race has surprisingly shallow roots, and the first to use genes inherited from both parents. Biologists studied a group of genes that are found in various places throughout the 23 human chromosomes. Among 60 people from around the world, they found almost no differences. Even in the most variable of the genes studied, widely dispersed human populations - Australian aborigines Australian aborigines, native people of Australia who probably came from somewhere in Asia more than 40,000 years ago. In 2001 the population of aborigines and Torres Straits Islanders was 366,429, 1. , Greeks and Turks from the Mediterranean island of Cyprus, Indonesians, Greenland Eskimos and New Guineans - all had the same form. One African pygmy had a second form, and a few Chimila Indians from South America had a third. That small amount of variability suggests mutations haven't had much time to alter the genes in question. The genes suggest the human race is 37,000 to 55,000 years old, the biologists write in the current issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, usually referred to as PNAS, is the official journal of the United States National Academy of Sciences. . Researchers from Louisiana State University Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, generally known as Louisiana State University or LSU, is a public, coeducational university located in Baton Rouge, Louisiana and the main campus of the Louisiana State University System. Medical Center and the Alton Ochsner Medical Foundation in New Orleans, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory: see Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. (body) Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory - (LLNL) A research organaisatin operated by the University of California under a contract with the US Department of Energy. in California, Pennsylvania State University and Florida International University Florida International University, primarily at University Park, Miami; coeducational; chartered 1965, opened 1972. A research university, it has 18 colleges and schools and many specialized centers and institutes, including those in biomedical engineering, database in Miami participated in the study. Blame bleeding: A Dallas researcher is reporting that at least half of all people with celiac sprue celiac sprue (sē´lēak sprōō), n a genetic disorder in which the body cannot digest certain gluten proteins found in wheat, barley, rye, and oats. - a disease in which people cannot eat wheat, rye or barley - suffer from a previously undetected intestinal bleeding. The finding helps explain why the condition commonly, and sometimes severely, leads to iron-deficient anemia. Patients also develop anemia because they don't absorb iron efficiently. |
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