protein-folding

Tweaking the story to fit the theory

May 24, 2015
James Kohl
Adaptations, Ecology, Model Organisms, RNA Directed, Variations
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Tweaking the beak: Retracing the bird’s beak to its dinosaur origins, in the laboratory Reported May 12, 2015 They linked a crucial part of the avian feeding apparatus to the nutrient-dependent pheromone-controlled physiology of reproduction that enables fixation of RNA-mediated amino acid substitutions in the organized genomes of species from microbes to man, and placed their findings into the context of evolutionary theory and the fossil record. See for comparison:  Human pheromones and food odors: epigenetic influences on the socioaffective…

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Gene expression, immortality, and cancer

May 19, 2015
James Kohl
Diseases & Disorders
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Collaborative research team solves cancer-cell mutation mystery Excerpt: TERT stabilizes chromosomes by elongating the protective element at the end of each chromosome in a cell. …cells harboring these mutations aberrantly increase TERT expression, effectively making them immortal. My comment: To an evolutionary theorist, this might suggest that protein folding instability is beneficial. For example, see: “Mutation-Driven Evolution” Excerpt:  …genomic conservation and constraint-breaking mutation is the ultimate source of all biological innovations and the enormous amount of biodiversity in this world.…

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Bee-birthed epigenetics and primate cell types

May 17, 2015
James Kohl
Adaptations, Diseases & Disorders, Ecology, Human Pheromones, Light Energy, Model Organisms, Neuronal Plasticity, Nutrigenomics, Pharmacogenomics, Physics, RNA Directed, Variations
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Summary: This is a fantastic video representation of how nutrient-dependent pheromone-controlled RNA-directed DNA methylation links ecological variation to RNA-mediated ecological adaptations via amino acid substitutions in all genera. The Birth of a Bee Excerpt: After the queen bee lays a single egg in a cell of the comb, the worker bees feed the egg for a few days until it hatches into a larva. The larva continues to eat and grow until Day 10. Then, the worker bees cap the…

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Bees and primates automagically evolve

May 15, 2015
James Kohl
Adaptations, Ecology, Nutrigenomics, Pharmacogenomics, RNA Directed
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The Evolution of Social Bees Excerpt: …one key feature of increased sociality is an elaboration of gene regulation capacity. See also: From Fertilization to Adult Sexual Behavior (1996) Excerpt: …odor perception is more akin to the immune system workings where multitudes of receptors are each uniquely responsive to chemical structures (Bartoshuk and Beauchamp, 1994; Buck and Axel, 1991). Moreover, these receptor proteins are chemically and structurally similar to those that bind neurotransmitters and hormones (Buck and Axel, 1991). See also:…

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Virus-driven cancer treatment and prevention

May 12, 2015
James Kohl
Adaptations, Diseases & Disorders, Ecology, Nutrigenomics, Pharmacogenomics, RNA Directed
No Comments

Blocking a metabolic pathway may shrink aggressive form of common kidney cancer Excerpt: ..the cancer cells appear to rely primarily on the metabolism of an amino acid called glutamine for their energy. My comment:  This links differences in hydrogen atom energies and the anti-entropic epigenetic effect of nutrient energy to virus-driven differences in the metabolism of glutamine and DNA repair. Those differences link viral microRNAs to entropic elasticity. The differences also link nutrient-dependent microRNAs to the stability of organized genomes…

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A special issue on nutritional epigenetics

May 10, 2015
James Kohl
Adaptations, Alternative Splicings, Diseases & Disorders, Ecology, Human Brain, Human Pheromones, Light Energy, Model Organisms, Neuronal Plasticity, Nutrigenomics, Pharmacogenomics, Physics, RNA Directed, Variations
One Comment

See also: Retinoic acid + one receptor regulate the genome Two decades of scientific progress link what we detailed about RNA-mediated cell type differentiation in our 1996 review: From Fertilization to Adult Sexual Behavior.  Others have begun to learn more about the biological basis of ecological adaptations that link nutrient uptake to the pheromone-controlled physiology of reproduction in all vertebrates by the conserved molecular mechanisms of biophysically constrained RNA-mediated amino acid substitutions and the chemistry of protein folding. For example,…

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Epigenetics: microRNAs effect an integrative pathway

May 9, 2015
James Kohl
Adaptations, Alternative Splicings, Diseases & Disorders, Ecology, Human Brain, Human Pheromones, Light Energy, Model Organisms, Neuronal Plasticity, Nutrigenomics, Pharmacogenomics, Physics, RNA Directed, Variations, What's in the News
One Comment

Global Developmental Gene Programing Involves a Nuclear Form of Fibroblast Growth Factor Receptor-1 (FGFR1) Excerpt 1) The accumulation of hypoglycosylated nuclear FGFR1 (nFGFR1) is stimulated by a variety of developmental signals, including various growth factors, hormones, and neurotransmitters as well as a reduction in cell contact. This is the reason that this pathway is referred to as integrative [1, 15]. Reported as: Master orchestrator of the genome is discovered, stem cell scientists report Summary: New research shows how a single…

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From gut bacteria to breast milk and back

May 8, 2015
James Kohl
Adaptations, Alternative Splicings, Ecology, Model Organisms, Nutrigenomics, Pharmacogenomics, Physics, RNA Directed, Variations
One Comment

Breast milk may alter behaviour of babies Milk contains sugars designed to feed gut bacteria that affect brain Excerpt:  Breast milk contains a lot of sugars that infants can’t digest, but that feed bacteria that live in human intestines. Those bacteria don’t just help digest food, said Hinde. “They can release chemical signals that travel to the infant’s brain and shape neurodevelopment.” Studies in mice and rats show that signals released by bacteria in the gut can affect how sociable and…

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Physics, chemistry, light, and life

May 5, 2015
James Kohl
Ecology, Light Energy
No Comments

Making Sense of the Chemistry That Led to Life on Earth By NICHOLAS WADE,  May 4, 2015 Excerpt: He and colleagues have spent the last six years doing experiments to see how the ribonucleotide chemistry pathway can be linked back to hydrogen cyanide as its starting point, and how other significant prebiotic chemicals might have emerged from the cyanide-to-nucleotide pathway. My comment: The starting point was UV light. See: Origin-of-life puzzle cracked Excerpt: Sutherland’s team now reports that it created nucleic acid…

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Thermodynamics and protein folding landscapes

April 29, 2015
James Kohl
Adaptations, Ecology, Model Organisms, Nutrigenomics, Pharmacogenomics, Variations
No Comments

The map of the body’s proteins Excerpt 1) Around half of our proteins are present in all of the body’s cells; these are known as ‘basic proteins’. Other proteins most commonly occur in one organ, but the researchers discovered that there are relatively few proteins which are unique to a certain tissue. Excerpt 2) ‘Our role in the project is above all linked to the medical and clinical aspects. Medical background knowledge is required to interpret what we see in…

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