technology:gene expression

L’#ADN révèle les secrets du #tardigrade, résistant suprême
▻http://www.lemonde.fr/sciences/article/2017/07/31/l-adn-revele-les-secrets-du-tardigrade-resistant-supreme_5167103_1650684.htm

« Shinjirarenai ! », « Amazing ! », « Incroyable ! ». Dans toutes les langues, l’adjectif résonne souvent à l’unisson à l’évocation du nom d’une petite bête : le tardigrade. D’origine obscure et doté de facultés de survie inouïes, l’animal microscopique, surnommé « ourson d’eau » à cause de ses griffes, intrigue les scientifiques. Un groupe de biologistes britanniques et japonais a donc entrepris d’explorer son génome. Cette plongée dans les arcanes de son ADN leur a permis d’en percer certains mystères. Publiée le 27 juillet dans la revue PLOS Biology, leur étude apporte des révélations sur deux fronts distincts : la position exacte de l’animal au sein du vivant et les mécanismes génétiques à l’origine de ses capacités de #résistance.

#nématodes #immortalité

Childhood stress tied to change in gene expression related to emotion regulation, physical health - Medical News Today
▻http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/280094.php

#E-cigarettes affect cells : Nature News & Comment
▻http://www.nature.com/news/e-cigarettes-affect-cells-1.15015

Electronic cigarettes can change gene expression in a similar way to tobacco, according to one of the first studies to investigate the biological effects of the devices.
(...)
The changes are not identical, says study researcher Avrum Spira, who works on genomics and lung cancer at Boston University in Massachusetts. But “there are some striking similarities”, he says. The team is now evaluating whether the alterations mean that cells behave more like #cancer cells in culture.

http://www.nature.com/polopoly_fs/7.16640.1396973356!/image/1.15015_rexfeatures_3205446e.jpg_gen/derivatives/landscape_630/1.15015_rexfeatures_3205446e.jpg

#santé #tabac

FANTOM5 releases atlas of human gene expression | RIKEN
▻http://www.riken.jp/en/pr/press/2014/20140327_1

FANTOM, a large international consortium led by RIKEN releases today the first comprehensive map of gene activity across the human body, and provides the first holistic view of the complex networks that regulate gene expression across the wide variety of cell types that make up a human being. These findings will help in the identification of genes involved in disease and the development of personalized and regenerative medicine.

After many years of concerted effort to systematically analyze the expression of genes in all human cells and tissues, RIKEN and the FANTOM consortium publish the findings today in two landmark Nature reports, and 16 related articles in ten other scholarly journals (ref.1,2,3).

The papers published in Nature describe maps of promoters and enhancers – short regions of DNA that influence the activity of genes - encoded in the human genome, and their activity across the vast wealth of human cell types and tissues of the human body. Together with the other studies published by FANTOM5, this data provides the first complete view of the networks regulating transcription across all cell types.

La liste des papiers sur le site du projet FANTOM avec les liens (derrière #paywall)

#génome #cancer

How we live affects our descendants’ genes, epigenetics shows | South China Morning Post
▻http://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/technology/article/1089976/how-we-live-affects-our-descendants-genes-epigenetics-shows

Both fathers and mothers are responsible for the health of the following generations. How is this possible?

Epigenetics refers to the additional regulation of gene expression by the chemical modification of DNA or of the histones (proteins in which DNA is usually packed).

Research has found that this modification can mean the addition of different chemical groups to either the DNA or to the histones.

These chemical groups have different effects. Some can switch off genes, while others can switch them on.

Why is this? A liver cell, for example, needs very different proteins to a skin cell. But both have the same complete DNA information available.

This means the cells have to switch genes on and off for normal functioning.

The exciting scientific news is this: such switches might be transmitted down through the generations.

The idea that acquired characteristics can be inherited at all is still a novel one.

#medecine #genetique

Historical Dynamics & contingent conditions of #religion | Gene Expression | Discover Magazine
►http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/gnxp/2012/08/historical-dynamics-and-contingent-conditions-of-religion

Many cognitive psychologists have observed that universal religions often result in fictive kinship. Note here that the important point is not the propensity toward supernatural belief; that’s modal human cognition. Rather, it is the specific theological and institutional character of a religious organization which allows them to successfully compete with other “firms,” and if theautocatalytic dynamics are dominant these will result in the extinction of “weaker” religious organizations in the face of “stronger” ones over time via the choice of individual actors along the filaments of a social network.

Too smart to be a good cop | Gene Expression | Discover Magazine
►http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/gnxp/2012/01/too-smart-to-be-a-good-cop

A man whose bid to become a police officer was rejected after he scored too high on an intelligence test has lost an appeal in his federal lawsuit against the city.

Don’t overgeneralize about 2.5 billion people | Gene Expression | Discover Magazine
►http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/gnxp/2011/10/dont-overgeneralize-about-2-5-billion-people

There is often a tacit acknowledge that China and India are large diverse nations, but nevertheless in a few paragraphs they often get reduced to some very coarse generalizations. What’s worse is when you compare China and India to nations which simply aren’t on their scale.