"Scientists discover plant proteins key to life in drought conditions - Seattle Times" 25 August 2010
The Article
Scientists at the University of Wisconsin-Madison have discovered 50 proteins that help plants survive in the absence of water, a crucial step toward one day engineering crops that can resist droughts.Nature provides a few examples of plants with an innate ability to survive drought conditions, including the resurrection plant that grows in desert climates in Texas and Arizona. Companies such as Monsanto have been working to design agricultural crops that can thrive in dry weather.
"If we can figure out how to do that in crops, that will be so important," said Michael R. Sussman, a University of Wisconsin professor of biochemistry and senior author of a report describing the proteins published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.Moreover, the discovery of these proteins — only five to 10 of which were known previously to be important — promises to give scientists a new avenue through which to examine how plants deal with other environmental stresses.
Sussman said he plans future experiments investigating whether these 50 proteins help plants cope with other problems such as nutrient starvation, ultraviolet light and cold weather."This work is a big deal. It's a big deal because in the past we had tried to dissect this problem one wire at a time, and what Dr. Sussman did was take a more global approach," said Alan M. Jones, a professor of cell biology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
"When a plant is wilting, many, many things are happening."The scientists observed the effect of a key hormone called abscisic acid in a laboratory plant called Arabidopsis. Arabidopsis, a weed related to cabbage and cauliflower, is a favorite model for the study of plants because it has a small genome and its life cycle from one generation of seeds to the next is only two months.Plants rely on a sophisticated system of signaling to move water from the roots to the leaves when needed. In dry weather, the roots signal leaves to conserve water by closing their pores."The roots are yelling up to the leaves and the way they're yelling is through this abscisic acid," Jones said. "They're saying, 'It's dry. We need to slow this down until we get some rain."'Abscisic acid, a hormone well-known to biologists for half a century, also controls when seed dormancy starts and ends. This is important because most plants are about 95 percent water and reach a permanent wilting point when their water level drops below about 90 percent.Sussman said that using abscisic acid to induce a "pseudo-dormancy" in the vegetative part of the plant "might be a way to help plants survive a short period of drought."The new research paper represents about two years of preparation and work for Sussman's lab, including the purchase of an $800,000 mass spectrometer. The University of Wisconsin scientists used mass spectrometry to measure which of the plant's 30,000 proteins were affected by abscisic acid; affected proteins have their weight altered.Of the 50 proteins they found, about a handful were aquaporins, special channels that move water into and out of cells. They found that these channels are the most immediate targets of abscisic acid.
Reflections:
From this article, I learn that science plays a major part in our lives. It is constantly helping us to improve our living conditions in every single way. This discovery could reduce the loss of profit for farmers during droughts as plants would not wither and die, instead they will be able to survive and can be sold. This would be a huge advantage and help for the farmers. This also helps improve the economy of the country. Although there are some terms in the article that I could not quite figure out, I could still understand the focus point of the discovery. This discovery is mainly based on the topic of plants which we learned in primary and secondary school as well as a bit of genetic engineering by using 50 proteins that help plants survive in the absence of water as mentioned in the article. All these topics have been taught to us when we were at a young age and these topics could be used in scientific research and with some additional knowledge of science with can bring the research to a whole new level. Science is just so amazing. It is the best subject ever taught in schools everywhere around the world.
Issue 2
"Freeze or Run? Not That Simple: Scientists Discover Neural Switch That Controls Fear"
August 25th 2010
The Article
In a study published in Neuron, they combined pharmaceutical and genetic approaches with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in mice. Their findings show that deciding whether or not to freeze to fear is a more complex task for our brains than we realised.
The scientists used an innovative technique to control the activity of specific cells in the brain of mice that were experiencing fear. The mice were genetically engineered so that only these cells contain a chemical receptor for a specific drug. When the scientists inject the mouse with that drug it acts on the receptor and blocks the electrical activity of those cells allowing the researchers to find out how these cells are involved in controlling fear. In this case, they used this pharmaco-genetic technique to turn off a set of neurons, called type I cells, in a region of the brain called the amygdala, which was known to be involved in responses to fear. To measure fear in mice, the EMBL scientists trained the mice to associate a sound with an unpleasant shock: when the mice heard the sound, they would freeze in fear.
"When we inhibited these neurons, I was not surprised to see that the mice stopped freezing because that is what the amygdala was thought to do. But we were very surprised when they did a lot of other things instead, like rearing and other risk-assessment behaviours," says Cornelius Gross, who led the research at EMBL, "it seemed that we were not blocking the fear, but just changing their responses from a passive to an active coping strategy. That is not at all what this part of the amygdala was thought to do."
To find out what other parts of the brain were involved in these responses, the scientists used a magnetic resonance brain scanning technique developed for use in mice by Angelo Bifone's team at GlaxoSmithKline. Much to their surprise, they found that the switch from passive to active fear was accompanied by the activation of large parts of the outer layer of the brain -- the cortex -- and blocking this activation with the drug atropine could reinstate freezing behaviour and flip back the fear switch. This will give scientists interested in fear circuitry some thinking to do, as the amygdala was thought to control fear via the brain stem, not the cortex.
"This is a powerful demonstration of the ability of functional MRI to resolve brain circuits involved in complex tasks, like processing of emotions and control of behavioural responses," says Bifone, now at the Italian Institute of Technology.
We humans, too, show freezing and risk-assessment behaviours in response to fear. Understanding how to switch from passive to more active fear coping strategies might be helpful for us in adapting to the stress and unpredictability of modern life, the scientists say.
Reflection:
I have learned that a person's cells can be manipulated or controlled to achieve the desired results. In this situation, the scientists were trying to make the mice more calm under fear. If such a thing would be able to work on humans, we might just be able to switch from passive to more active fear coping methods and help us in conform to the stress one faces with all the problems he or she faces and the unpredictability of modern life. Everything in the world just revolves all around science. Our problems could be solved by simply applying the usage of science to find solutions. Science might be just the most superb tool we humans have to provide us with aid in our daily lives. Everything in this world is related to science one way or another.
Issue 3
"New mechanism of memory formation discovered"
25 August 2010
The Article
Scientists from the Florida campus of The Scripps Research Institute have discovered a mechanism that plays a critical role in the formation of long-term memory. The findings shed substantial new light on aspects of how memory is formed, and could lead to novel treatments for memory disorders. The study was published as the cover story of the journal Neuron on August 26, 2010. In the study, the scientists found that a main driver of memory formation is myosin II, a motor protein critical to cell movement and growth. "By showing for the first time that myosin II acts as the principal organizer of memory formation, we are that much closer to identifying the signaling pathways that activate this motor protein in the brain," said Gavin Rumbaugh, an assistant professor in the Department of Neuroscience at Scripps Florida who led the study. "Once we're able to do that, we can begin to develop potential treatments that could restore memory in people who suffer from cognitive disorders like Alzheimer's disease." In the study, Rumbaugh and his colleagues showed that myosin II mediates a mechanical process that is part of the complex process of memory formation. Specifically, myosin II links together the initiation of long-term potentiation, a process that enhances signal transmission between two neurons in the creation of memory; the stabilization of synaptic plasticity (the ability of synapses to maintain this enhanced transmission); and the reorganization of neurons' F-actin, a cellular polymer that enables growth of synapses. "Stimulation in the brain turns on these myosin motors and this triggers the growth of F-actin that ultimately solidifies the enhancement of neuronal communication," Rumbaugh said. "Growth and strengthening of synapses is a process that the brain uses to record our experiences." We are just now beginning to understand the physical substrates within synapses that enable the storage of our life experiences." He added that the role of F-actin described in the study is consistent with the long-standing idea that long-term potentiation is dependent on changes to the synaptic architecture, suggesting the dynamic reorganization triggered by myosin II represents an early step in information encoding. "Many parallel brain processes have to be activated to store information," he said. "If any one of them is disrupted, the information doesn't get stabilized and the memory is lost. Myosin II is a central regulator of this process and if you could pharmacologically control myosin II, you could potentially regulate memories at will." The work was supported by the University of Alabama, Birmingham; the McKnight Brain Institute; Alabama Health Sciences Foundation; the National Institutes of Health; and the Kauffman Foundation.
Reflections:
From this article, I have learned that by using science, many diseases can be cured. In ths case, scientist have found out that the main driver of memory formation is myosin II. Once they have found the signaling pathways that activate the motor protein in the brain, a cure will be invented to help people who are suffering from Alzheimer's disease completely restore their memory back to the way it was before suffering from memory loss diseases. Science is the most magnificent thing in the world. Many have used science to produce cures for long term diseases. Without science, it would be impossible for anyone to recover from an illness. Therefore science's value is priceless.
Issue 1
"Scientists discover plant proteins key to life in drought conditions - Seattle Times"25 August 2010
The Article
Scientists at the University of Wisconsin-Madison have discovered 50 proteins that help plants survive in the absence of water, a crucial step toward one day engineering crops that can resist droughts.Nature provides a few examples of plants with an innate ability to survive drought conditions, including the resurrection plant that grows in desert climates in Texas and Arizona. Companies such as Monsanto have been working to design agricultural crops that can thrive in dry weather."If we can figure out how to do that in crops, that will be so important," said Michael R. Sussman, a University of Wisconsin professor of biochemistry and senior author of a report describing the proteins published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.Moreover, the discovery of these proteins — only five to 10 of which were known previously to be important — promises to give scientists a new avenue through which to examine how plants deal with other environmental stresses.
Sussman said he plans future experiments investigating whether these 50 proteins help plants cope with other problems such as nutrient starvation, ultraviolet light and cold weather."This work is a big deal. It's a big deal because in the past we had tried to dissect this problem one wire at a time, and what Dr. Sussman did was take a more global approach," said Alan M. Jones, a professor of cell biology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
"When a plant is wilting, many, many things are happening."The scientists observed the effect of a key hormone called abscisic acid in a laboratory plant called Arabidopsis. Arabidopsis, a weed related to cabbage and cauliflower, is a favorite model for the study of plants because it has a small genome and its life cycle from one generation of seeds to the next is only two months.Plants rely on a sophisticated system of signaling to move water from the roots to the leaves when needed. In dry weather, the roots signal leaves to conserve water by closing their pores."The roots are yelling up to the leaves and the way they're yelling is through this abscisic acid," Jones said. "They're saying, 'It's dry. We need to slow this down until we get some rain."'Abscisic acid, a hormone well-known to biologists for half a century, also controls when seed dormancy starts and ends. This is important because most plants are about 95 percent water and reach a permanent wilting point when their water level drops below about 90 percent.Sussman said that using abscisic acid to induce a "pseudo-dormancy" in the vegetative part of the plant "might be a way to help plants survive a short period of drought."The new research paper represents about two years of preparation and work for Sussman's lab, including the purchase of an $800,000 mass spectrometer. The University of Wisconsin scientists used mass spectrometry to measure which of the plant's 30,000 proteins were affected by abscisic acid; affected proteins have their weight altered.Of the 50 proteins they found, about a handful were aquaporins, special channels that move water into and out of cells. They found that these channels are the most immediate targets of abscisic acid.
Reflections:
From this article, I learn that science plays a major part in our lives. It is constantly helping us to improve our living conditions in every single way. This discovery could reduce the loss of profit for farmers during droughts as plants would not wither and die, instead they will be able to survive and can be sold. This would be a huge advantage and help for the farmers. This also helps improve the economy of the country. Although there are some terms in the article that I could not quite figure out, I could still understand the focus point of the discovery. This discovery is mainly based on the topic of plants which we learned in primary and secondary school as well as a bit of genetic engineering by using 50 proteins that help plants survive in the absence of water as mentioned in the article. All these topics have been taught to us when we were at a young age and these topics could be used in scientific research and with some additional knowledge of science with can bring the research to a whole new level. Science is just so amazing. It is the best subject ever taught in schools everywhere around the world.Issue 2
"Freeze or Run? Not That Simple: Scientists Discover Neural Switch That Controls Fear"August 25th 2010
The Article
In a study published in Neuron, they combined pharmaceutical and genetic approaches with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in mice. Their findings show that deciding whether or not to freeze to fear is a more complex task for our brains than we realised.The scientists used an innovative technique to control the activity of specific cells in the brain of mice that were experiencing fear. The mice were genetically engineered so that only these cells contain a chemical receptor for a specific drug. When the scientists inject the mouse with that drug it acts on the receptor and blocks the electrical activity of those cells allowing the researchers to find out how these cells are involved in controlling fear. In this case, they used this pharmaco-genetic technique to turn off a set of neurons, called type I cells, in a region of the brain called the amygdala, which was known to be involved in responses to fear. To measure fear in mice, the EMBL scientists trained the mice to associate a sound with an unpleasant shock: when the mice heard the sound, they would freeze in fear.
"When we inhibited these neurons, I was not surprised to see that the mice stopped freezing because that is what the amygdala was thought to do. But we were very surprised when they did a lot of other things instead, like rearing and other risk-assessment behaviours," says Cornelius Gross, who led the research at EMBL, "it seemed that we were not blocking the fear, but just changing their responses from a passive to an active coping strategy. That is not at all what this part of the amygdala was thought to do."
To find out what other parts of the brain were involved in these responses, the scientists used a magnetic resonance brain scanning technique developed for use in mice by Angelo Bifone's team at GlaxoSmithKline. Much to their surprise, they found that the switch from passive to active fear was accompanied by the activation of large parts of the outer layer of the brain -- the cortex -- and blocking this activation with the drug atropine could reinstate freezing behaviour and flip back the fear switch. This will give scientists interested in fear circuitry some thinking to do, as the amygdala was thought to control fear via the brain stem, not the cortex.
"This is a powerful demonstration of the ability of functional MRI to resolve brain circuits involved in complex tasks, like processing of emotions and control of behavioural responses," says Bifone, now at the Italian Institute of Technology.
We humans, too, show freezing and risk-assessment behaviours in response to fear. Understanding how to switch from passive to more active fear coping strategies might be helpful for us in adapting to the stress and unpredictability of modern life, the scientists say.
Reflection:
I have learned that a person's cells can be manipulated or controlled to achieve the desired results. In this situation, the scientists were trying to make the mice more calm under fear. If such a thing would be able to work on humans, we might just be able to switch from passive to more active fear coping methods and help us in conform to the stress one faces with all the problems he or she faces and the unpredictability of modern life. Everything in the world just revolves all around science. Our problems could be solved by simply applying the usage of science to find solutions. Science might be just the most superb tool we humans have to provide us with aid in our daily lives. Everything in this world is related to science one way or another.Issue 3
"New mechanism of memory formation discovered"25 August 2010
The Article
Scientists from the Florida campus of The Scripps Research Institute have discovered a mechanism that plays a critical role in the formation of long-term memory. The findings shed substantial new light on aspects of how memory is formed, and could lead to novel treatments for memory disorders. The study was published as the cover story of the journal Neuron on August 26, 2010. In the study, the scientists found that a main driver of memory formation is myosin II, a motor protein critical to cell movement and growth. "By showing for the first time that myosin II acts as the principal organizer of memory formation, we are that much closer to identifying the signaling pathways that activate this motor protein in the brain," said Gavin Rumbaugh, an assistant professor in the Department of Neuroscience at Scripps Florida who led the study. "Once we're able to do that, we can begin to develop potential treatments that could restore memory in people who suffer from cognitive disorders like Alzheimer's disease." In the study, Rumbaugh and his colleagues showed that myosin II mediates a mechanical process that is part of the complex process of memory formation. Specifically, myosin II links together the initiation of long-term potentiation, a process that enhances signal transmission between two neurons in the creation of memory; the stabilization of synaptic plasticity (the ability of synapses to maintain this enhanced transmission); and the reorganization of neurons' F-actin, a cellular polymer that enables growth of synapses. "Stimulation in the brain turns on these myosin motors and this triggers the growth of F-actin that ultimately solidifies the enhancement of neuronal communication," Rumbaugh said. "Growth and strengthening of synapses is a process that the brain uses to record our experiences." We are just now beginning to understand the physical substrates within synapses that enable the storage of our life experiences." He added that the role of F-actin described in the study is consistent with the long-standing idea that long-term potentiation is dependent on changes to the synaptic architecture, suggesting the dynamic reorganization triggered by myosin II represents an early step in information encoding. "Many parallel brain processes have to be activated to store information," he said. "If any one of them is disrupted, the information doesn't get stabilized and the memory is lost. Myosin II is a central regulator of this process and if you could pharmacologically control myosin II, you could potentially regulate memories at will." The work was supported by the University of Alabama, Birmingham; the McKnight Brain Institute; Alabama Health Sciences Foundation; the National Institutes of Health; and the Kauffman Foundation.Reflections:
From this article, I have learned that by using science, many diseases can be cured. In ths case, scientist have found out that the main driver of memory formation is myosin II. Once they have found the signaling pathways that activate the motor protein in the brain, a cure will be invented to help people who are suffering from Alzheimer's disease completely restore their memory back to the way it was before suffering from memory loss diseases. Science is the most magnificent thing in the world. Many have used science to produce cures for long term diseases. Without science, it would be impossible for anyone to recover from an illness. Therefore science's value is priceless.