Genetics news | Genetics news

He was looking for a doctoral program in wildlife ecology - hopefully one with an emphasis in Mary Poss.

Poss is a UM researcher and at the time was wondering whether a species-specific virus might not act as a "genetic tag," allowing scientists to track the history and distribution of animal populations.Animal Perhaps by picking apart virus DNA, researchers could untangle the recent history of host animal populations.Throughout North America, Biek said, most of the landscape-level changes that might affect animals have occurred in the past few decades.

That's nowhere near enough time for impacts to show up in the DNA of big critters.But if a single virus was specific to a single host species, then perhaps changes to the virus could point to those emerging impacts."Cougars were a good choice," Biek said, because they are relatively common, are available locally and are hunted.

They also tend to carry feline immunodeficiency virus, or FIV, and FIV evolves fast.For funders such as the Yellowstone to Yukon Conservation Initiat...

Scientists at the Carasso Center in France will use the ERGO system as part of its tools to analyze genomic and microarray data from lactic acid bacteria.

The Daniel Carasso Center has a unique collection of 3,000 lactic ferments built up since 1919.

Its research teams specialize in microbiology, molecular biology, biochemistry, fermentation biotechnology, immunology, human nutrition, consumer sciences and food design.

DANONE is the leading modern brand for yogurts produced on an industrial scale.

Optimized for analysis of microorganisms, ERGO integrates biological data from genomics, biochemistry, gene expression studies, Reaching beyond conventional systems for functional analysis of DNA sequences, Integrated Genomics' platform combines pattern-based analysis with comparative genomics and enables visualization of genes in the contexts of regulation, gene expression data, phylogeny, chromosomal neighborhoods and identification of natural gene fusions.

ERGO contains more than 900 genomes at various stages of completion, as well as the largest available collection of networked cellular pathways.

"As DANONE is working on probiotics products, ERGO is a great database to help us to find some probiotic functions in our strains", said Dr.

Sophie Legrain- Rasp...

Striga is a parasitic weed that attaches to the roots of the host plant and does damage before the plant has emerged.

Striga causes yield losses ranging from 20 to 80 percent.

In contrast to crop spraying, StrigAway seed coating is highly effective against Striga because it protects the plant throughout the entire growth process.

StrigAway is also ideal for smallholder farmers in agriculture because it is easy to use and does not require sophisticated equipment or training.

Due to ineffective control measures, Striga has infested over 40 million hectares of maize in Africa, resulting in damages of over €1.2 billion a year.

Maize is the most important food crop in sub-Saharan Africa and thus plays a major role in providing food security.

“This partnership with CIMMYT, AATF, local researchers and local seed companies enables BASF to offer African farmers a new, effective Striga control solution.

The unique nature of Striga has rendered many other interventions ineffective.

StrigAway offers farmers in affected areas the opportunity to realize consistent yield improvements and contribute to poverty reduction and increased food security,” said Emmanuel Butstraen, Group Vice President, Global Strategic Marketing, BASF Agricultural Products Division.

“Striga affects primarily smallholder and poor farmers, s...