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IMAGE: Artist s reconstruction showing the life stages of the fossil lamprey Priscomyzon riniensis. It lived around 360 million years ago in a coastal lagoon in what is now South Africa. Clockwise. view more
Credit: Kristen Tietjen
Ottawa, March 10, 2021 - A new study of fossilized lampreys dating from more than 300 million years ago is challenging a long-held theory about the evolutionary origin of vertebrates (all animals with a backbone). The findings are published March 10 in the science journal
Nature.
Lampreys are ancient, jawless, eel-like fishes that arose around half a billion years ago and they have long provided insights into vertebrate evolution. Now, scientists with the Canadian Museum of Nature, the University of Chicago and the Albany Museum in South Africa are reporting their analysis of dozens of tiny fossils that track the life stages and growth of ancient lampreys, from hatchlings to juveniles to adults.
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In the first study of the genomic architecture of the human placenta, scientists at the Wellcome Sanger Institute, the University of Cambridge and their collaborators have confirmed that the normal structure of the placenta is different to any other human organ and resembles that of a tumour, harbouring many of the same genetic mutations found in childhood cancers.
The study, published today (10 March 2021) in
Nature, found evidence to support the theory of the placenta as a dumping ground for genetic defects, whereas the fetus corrects or avoids these errors. The findings provide a clear rationale for studying the association between genetic aberrations and birth outcomes, in order to better understand problems such as premature birth and stillbirth.
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IMAGE: Brain-skull interaction will be digitally modeled and analyzed using a high-density shape analysis, similar to this digital model of a chicken skull. The colors represent different types of landmark points.. view more
Credit: Akinobu Watanabe
Old Westbury, NY Akinobu Aki Watanabe, Ph.D., assistant professor of anatomy at New York Institute of Technology College of Osteopathic Medicine (NYITCOM), has secured a prestigious Faculty Early Career Development Program (CAREER) award from the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF).
Watanabe, a vertebrate paleontologist, is the first New York Institute of Technology faculty member to receive a CAREER award, which is one of the NSF s most competitive grants. Principal investigators can receive this award once in their career and may only submit a proposal three times. Watanabe s first submission was selected and is expected to receive a five-year award of $710,855. His research project, Evo-Developmental Inte
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IMAGE: Researchers have precisely mapped the binding locations of over 400 proteins on the yeast genome using ChIP-exo. The method (top) uses an antibody to fish out a specific DNA-bound protein. view more
Credit: Pugh Lab, Cornell and Mahony Lab, Penn State
A massive effort to map the precise binding locations of over 400 different kinds of proteins on the yeast genome has produced the most thorough and high-resolution map of chromosome architecture and gene regulation to date. The study reveals two distinct gene regulatory architectures, expanding the traditional model of gene regulation. So-called constitutive genes, those that perform basic housekeeping functions and are nearly always active at low levels require only a basic set of regulatory controls; whereas those that that are activated by environmental signals, known as inducible genes, have a more specialized architecture. This finding in yeast could open the door to a better understanding of the
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In the United States, one in 10 babies are born too soon, resulting in complications that can affect their locomotor development and influence such simple tasks as balance, walking and standing later in life. A new peer-reviewed study by Children s National Hospital, published in the
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (
PNAS), explores exactly what neural circuitry of the cerebellum is affected due to complications that occur around the time of birth causing these learning deficits, and finds a specific type of neurons Purkinje cells to play a central role.
Up until now, there has been a sparsity of techniques available to measure neuronal activity during locomotor learning tasks that engage the cerebellum. To surmount this challenge, Children s National used a multidisciplinary approach, bringing together a team of neuroscientists with neonatologists who leveraged their joint expertise to devise a novel and unique way