Biology posts
- January 13, 2017
- 05:00 AM
- 214 views
Friday Fellow: Branching Vase Sponge
by Piter Boll in Earthling Nature
by Piter Kehoma Boll A fascinating group of animals that has not yet joined the Friday Fellows are the sponges. Different from all other animals, sponges have a unique body structure that behaves more like a plant or fungus. They … Continue reading →... Read more »
Hendler, G. (1984) The Association of Ophiothrix lineata and Callyspongia vaginalis: A Brittlestar-Sponge Cleaning Symbiosis?. Marine Ecology, 5(1), 9-27. DOI: 10.1111/j.1439-0485.1984.tb00304.x
Hoppe, W. (1988) Growth, regeneration and predation in three species of large coral reef sponges. Marine Ecology Progress Series, 117-125. DOI: 10.3354/meps050117
- January 13, 2017
- 03:13 AM
- 265 views
Exercise as an intervention for anxiety?
by Paul Whiteley in Questioning Answers
"Our data suggest that exercise is more effective than control at reducing anxiety symptoms."So said the meta-analysis published by Brendan Stubbs and colleagues [1] who surveyed the peer-reviewed literature "investigating the benefits of exercise compared to usual treatment or control conditions in people with an anxiety and/or stress-related disorders." From the 6 randomised, controlled trials found "from inception until December 2015" exercise (various types of exercise regime) did seem to ha........ Read more »
Stubbs, B., Vancampfort, D., Rosenbaum, S., Firth, J., Cosco, T., Veronese, N., Salum, G., & Schuch, F. (2017) An examination of the anxiolytic effects of exercise for people with anxiety and stress-related disorders: A meta-analysis. Psychiatry Research. DOI: 10.1016/j.psychres.2016.12.020
- January 12, 2017
- 04:28 AM
- 233 views
On autism risk and immigrant status
by Paul Whiteley in Questioning Answers
"Fifteen studies suggest a higher prevalence rate of ASDs [autism spectrum disorder] among children of immigrants in comparison to native children."Those fifteen studies formed a large part of the seventeen studies included in the review by Rafal Kawa and colleagues [1] who set out to look at the collected peer-reviewed literature on the topic of the "prevalence and risk for ASD in Europe among immigrants and ethnic minorities." Carried out as part of a European Union (EU) initiative t........ Read more »
Kawa R, Saemundsen E, Lóa Jónsdóttir S, Hellendoorn A, Lemcke S, Canal-Bedia R, García-Primo P, & Moilanen I. (2016) European studies on prevalence and risk of autism spectrum disorders according to immigrant status-a review. European journal of public health. PMID: 28013245
- January 11, 2017
- 08:00 AM
- 288 views
DNA Methylation in the Placenta: accelerated aging in pregnancy complications
by Tina Bianco-Miotto in EpiBeat
The placenta is a unique organ as it is an extra-embryonic tissue primarily regulated by the fetal genome and shared between mother and fetus. However, it is a transient organ that is only needed throughout pregnancy and gestation and then is discarded after delivery. The essential role of the placenta in pregnancy is unquestionable but, surprisingly, as highlighted by the NIH NICHD Human Placenta Project (https://www.nichd.nih.gov/research/HPP/Pages/default.aspx), it is the human organ we know ........ Read more »
Mayne BT, Leemaqz SY, Smith AK, Breen J, Roberts CT, & Bianco-Miotto T. (2016) Accelerated placental aging in early onset preeclampsia pregnancies identified by DNA methylation. Epigenomics. PMID: 27894195
Bianco-Miotto T, Mayne BT, Buckberry S, Breen J, Rodriguez Lopez CM, & Roberts CT. (2016) Recent progress towards understanding the role of DNA methylation in human placental development. Reproduction (Cambridge, England), 152(1). PMID: 27026712
Ehrlich M, Gama-Sosa MA, Huang LH, Midgett RM, Kuo KC, McCune RA, & Gehrke C. (1982) Amount and distribution of 5-methylcytosine in human DNA from different types of tissues of cells. Nucleic acids research, 10(8), 2709-21. PMID: 7079182
Fuke C, Shimabukuro M, Petronis A, Sugimoto J, Oda T, Miura K, Miyazaki T, Ogura C, Okazaki Y, & Jinno Y. (2004) Age related changes in 5-methylcytosine content in human peripheral leukocytes and placentas: an HPLC-based study. Annals of human genetics, 68(Pt 3), 196-204. PMID: 15180700
Novakovic B, Yuen RK, Gordon L, Penaherrera MS, Sharkey A, Moffett A, Craig JM, Robinson WP, & Saffery R. (2011) Evidence for widespread changes in promoter methylation profile in human placenta in response to increasing gestational age and environmental/stochastic factors. BMC genomics, 529. PMID: 22032438
Price EM, Cotton AM, Peñaherrera MS, McFadden DE, Kobor MS, & Robinson W. (2012) Different measures of "genome-wide" DNA methylation exhibit unique properties in placental and somatic tissues. Epigenetics, 7(6), 652-63. PMID: 22531475
Schroeder DI, Blair JD, Lott P, Yu HO, Hong D, Crary F, Ashwood P, Walker C, Korf I, Robinson WP.... (2013) The human placenta methylome. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 110(15), 6037-42. PMID: 23530188
Robinson WP, & Price EM. (2015) The human placental methylome. Cold Spring Harbor perspectives in medicine, 5(5). PMID: 25722473
Fogarty NM, Burton GJ, & Ferguson-Smith AC. (2015) Different epigenetic states define syncytiotrophoblast and cytotrophoblast nuclei in the trophoblast of the human placenta. Placenta, 36(8), 796-802. PMID: 26008948
Marioni RE, Shah S, McRae AF, Chen BH, Colicino E, Harris SE, Gibson J, Henders AK, Redmond P, Cox SR.... (2015) DNA methylation age of blood predicts all-cause mortality in later life. Genome biology, 25. PMID: 25633388
- January 11, 2017
- 03:24 AM
- 270 views
"the patient improved significantly when a gluten-free diet was started"
by Paul Whiteley in Questioning Answers
The quote making up the title of this post comes from the case report described by Albino J Oliveira-Maia and colleagues [1] talking yet again about how coeliac disease - the archetypal autoimmune condition where dietary gluten is the baddie - may have effects well beyond just the physical.Describing the experiences of a woman who was admitted to a psychiatry inpatient unit on the basis of "suicidal behaviours" who also "developed an agitated catatonic state", a mix of "antidepressants, anx........ Read more »
Oliveira-Maia AJ, Andrade I, & Barahona-Corrêa JB. (2016) Case of coeliac disease presenting in the psychiatry ward. BMJ case reports. PMID: 28003229
- January 10, 2017
- 07:30 PM
- 0 views
Neuroplasticity, not Nueroplastic Brains
by Bukunmi Adewumi in Neuroscientia
Basic explanations of neuroplasticity for lay man.... Read more »
Brown RE. (2006) The life and work of Donald Olding Hebb. Acta neurologica Taiwanica, 15(2), 127-42. PMID: 16871901
- January 10, 2017
- 09:00 AM
- 243 views
The Rise Of Superbugs: How Bacteria Defeat Antibiotics
by Bill Sullivan in The 'Scope
Mechanisms of antibiotic resistance... Read more »
Blair, J., Webber, M., Baylay, A., Ogbolu, D., & Piddock, L. (2014) Molecular mechanisms of antibiotic resistance. Nature Reviews Microbiology, 13(1), 42-51. DOI: 10.1038/nrmicro3380
- January 10, 2017
- 01:49 AM
- 227 views
Blocking obesity with a protein-sugar combination
by adam phillips in It Ain't Magic
Discovery of an enzyme that prevents obesity in mice through glycosylation of a protein involved fat-cell differentiation.... Read more »
Kaburagi T, Kizuka Y, Kitazume S, & Taniguchi N. (2016) Inhibitory role of α2,6-sialylation in adipogenesis. The Journal of biological chemistry. PMID: 28031460
- January 9, 2017
- 04:48 AM
- 214 views
H255Y and K508R missense mutations in FLCN promote kidney neoplasia
by Joana Guedes in BHD Research Blog
The germline FLCN missense mutations H255Y (Hasumi et al., 2009) and K508R (Toro et al., 2008) have been identified in patients with bilateral multifocal (BMF) kidney tumours and other clinical symptoms of Birt-Hogg-Dube (BHD) syndrome, or with BMF kidney tumours as the only manifestation. Building on their previous work identifying the H255Y mutation in human BHD kidney tumour, Hasumi et al. (2016) investigated whether these mutations have an impact on FLCN function. The authors evaluated the F........ Read more »
Hasumi H, Hasumi Y, Baba M, Nishi H, Furuya M, Vocke CD, Lang M, Irie N, Esumi C, Merino MJ.... (2016) H255Y and K508R missense mutations in tumour suppressor folliculin (FLCN) promote kidney cell proliferation. Human molecular genetics. PMID: 28007907
- January 9, 2017
- 04:26 AM
- 271 views
T. gondii and OCD?
by Paul Whiteley in Questioning Answers
It's been a while since I've talked about Toxoplasma gondii on this blog; the parasite that more than most, has been linked with all-manner of different psychiatric labels (see here for example). Although still the topic of some discussion, I'm swayed towards the possibility that there may be some important *associations* to be seen when it comes to this survivor and human behaviour(s) outside of just making rats attracted to cat urine (see here) to improve reproduction chances.Indeed, in t........ Read more »
Flegr J, & Horáček J. (2016) Toxoplasma-infected subjects report an Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder diagnosis more often and score higher in Obsessive-Compulsive Inventory. European psychiatry : the journal of the Association of European Psychiatrists, 82-87. PMID: 27992837
- January 7, 2017
- 04:15 AM
- 268 views
ADHD and vitamin levels
by Paul Whiteley in Questioning Answers
"ADHD [attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder] patients were overrepresented in the group with low levels of some vitamins, possibly indicative of inadequate dietary intake of these micronutrients in a subgroup of patients. It is important to identify these patients in dietary intervention trials of ADHD."So said the study findings reported by Elisabeth Toverud Landaas and colleagues [1] (open-access) providing some potentially important data on how nutritional factors might int........ Read more »
Landaas ET, Aarsland TI, Ulvik A, Halmøy A, Ueland PM, & Haavik J. (2016) Vitamin levels in adults with ADHD. BJPsych open, 2(6), 377-384. PMID: 27990293
- January 6, 2017
- 06:09 AM
- 301 views
Particulate matter exposure and autism risk systematically reviewed?
by Paul Whiteley in Questioning Answers
"To conclude, the evidence from the studies allows us to conclude that there is an association between PM [particulate matter] exposure and ASD [autism spectrum disorder] whose strength varies according to the particle size studied with the association with PM2.5 and diesel PM being stronger."Although probably not great sentence structure to begin a post with a conclusion, the 'bottom line' reported by María Morales-Suárez-Varela and colleagues [1] summarises the curre........ Read more »
Morales-Suárez-Varela M, Peraita-Costa I, & Llopis-González A. (2016) Systematic review of the association between particulate matter exposure and autism spectrum disorders. Environmental research, 150-160. PMID: 27984759
- January 6, 2017
- 05:00 AM
- 252 views
Friday Fellow: Conan the Bacterium
by Piter Boll in Earthling Nature
by Piter Kehoma Boll Most people would agree that 2016 was a hard year. So let’s try to make 2017 better by starting this year with a tough Friday Fellow, actually the toughest of them all: Conan the bacterium, or Deinococcus … Continue reading →... Read more »
Mattimore, V., & Battista, J. (1996) Radioresistance of Deinococcus radiodurans: functions necessary to survive ionizing radiation are also necessary to survive prolonged desiccation. Journal of Bacteriology, 178(3), 633-637. DOI: 10.1128/jb.178.3.633-637.1996
Zahradka, K., Slade, D., Bailone, A., Sommer, S., Averbeck, D., Petranovic, M., Lindner, A., & Radman, M. (2006) Reassembly of shattered chromosomes in Deinococcus radiodurans. Nature. DOI: 10.1038/nature05160
- January 5, 2017
- 06:07 AM
- 334 views
A subtype of autism linked to psychosis?
by Paul Whiteley in Questioning Answers
"Our data show there may be a specific subtype of ASD [autism spectrum disorder] linked to comorbid psychosis. The results support findings that psychosis in people with ASD is often atypical, particularly regarding affective disturbance."So said the findings reported by Felicity Larson and colleagues [1] (open-access available here) who bring an important topic into view that has recently been raised in the media too (see here). I appreciate that to talk about yet more comorbidity pot........ Read more »
Larson, F., Wagner, A., Jones, P., Tantam, D., Lai, M., Baron-Cohen, S., & Holland, A. (2016) Psychosis in autism: comparison of the features of both conditions in a dually affected cohort. The British Journal of Psychiatry. DOI: 10.1192/bjp.bp.116.187682
- January 4, 2017
- 05:43 AM
- 307 views
A distinctive microbial signature in kids with autism and GI issues?
by Paul Whiteley in Questioning Answers
"Our findings identify distinctive mucosal microbial signatures in ASD [autism spectrum disorder] children with FGID [functional gastrointestinal disorders] that correlate with cytokine and tryptophan homeostasis."So said the study results published by Ruth Ann Luna and colleagues [1] who "compared mucosa-associated microbial communities in children with ASD to previous reports characterizing stool in this population" among other things. If you are eating breakfast/lunch/dinner at........ Read more »
Luna, R., Oezguen, N., Balderas, M., Venkatachalam, A., Runge, J., Versalovic, J., Veenstra-VanderWeele, J., Anderson, G., Savidge, T., & Williams, K. (2016) Distinct microbiome-neuroimmune signatures correlate with functional abdominal pain in children with autism spectrum disorder. CMGH Cellular and Molecular Gastroenterology and Hepatology. DOI: 10.1016/j.jcmgh.2016.11.008
- January 3, 2017
- 06:28 AM
- 291 views
Suicidality in children and young adults with 'high-functioning' autism
by Paul Whiteley in Questioning Answers
"Consistent with the previous findings, [the] rate of suicidality is higher in individuals with ASD [autism spectrum disorder]."That was one of the conclusions reported in the paper by Sevcan Karakoç Demirkaya and colleagues [1] (open-access) yet again touching on a most important topic when it comes to autism, particularly the part of the autism spectrum labelled as 'high-functioning'. Personally, I'm not a great fan of the 'functioning' description typically added to autism to ........ Read more »
Karakoç Demirkaya, S., Tutkunkardaş, M., & Mukaddes, N. (2016) Assessment of suicidality in children and adolescents with diagnosis of high functioning autism spectrum disorder in a Turkish clinical sample. Neuropsychiatric Disease and Treatment, 2921-2926. DOI: 10.2147/NDT.S118304
- January 2, 2017
- 04:06 AM
- 282 views
This Month in Blastocystis Research (DEC 2016)
by Christen Rune Stensvold in Blastocystis Parasite Blog
2016 is coming to an end, and in the last post of the year, I highlight three of the most important articles on Blastocystis published in 2016.... Read more »
Scanlan PD, Knight R, Song SJ, Ackermann G, & Cotter PD. (2016) Prevalence and genetic diversity of Blastocystis in family units living in the United States. Infection, genetics and evolution : journal of molecular epidemiology and evolutionary genetics in infectious diseases, 95-97. PMID: 27545648
Kurt Ö, Doğruman Al F, & Tanyüksel M. (2016) Eradication of Blastocystis in humans: Really necessary for all?. Parasitology international, 65(6 Pt B), 797-801. PMID: 26780545
- January 1, 2017
- 01:20 AM
- 239 views
Antibiotic cream is NOT 100% effective in preventing Lyme disease
by Microbe Fan in Spirochetes Unwound
A topical antibiotic cream applied to tick bites did not perform any better than placebo in preventing Lyme disease, according to results of a randomized clinical trial conducted in Europe. The study was published in Lancet Infectious Diseases.I wasn't planning to blog about the study, but I changed my mind after a reader emailed me a link to a news article reporting that the antibiotic cream was 100% effective. The lead investigator even claimed, "None of the test subjects went on t........ Read more »
Schwameis M, Kündig T, Huber G, von Bidder L, Meinel L, Weisser R, Aberer E, Härter G, Weinke T, Jelinek T.... (2016) Topical azithromycin for the prevention of Lyme borreliosis: a randomised, placebo-controlled, phase 3 efficacy trial. The Lancet. Infectious Diseases. PMID: 28007428
- December 31, 2016
- 10:52 AM
- 464 views
No Need To Worry About False Positives in fMRI?
by Neuroskeptic in Neuroskeptic_Discover
Earlier this year, neuroscience was shaken by the publication in PNAS of Cluster failure: Why fMRI inferences for spatial extent have inflated false-positive rates. In this paper, Anders Eklund, Thomas E. Nichols and Hans Knutsson reported that commonly used software for analysing fMRI data produces many false-positives.
But now, Boston College neuroscientist Scott D. Slotnick has criticized Eklund et al.'s alarming conclusions in a new piece in Cognitive Neuroscience.
In my view, ... Read more »
Slotnick SD. (2016) Resting-state fMRI data reflects default network activity rather than null data: A defense of commonly employed methods to correct for multiple comparisons. Cognitive neuroscience. PMID: 28002981
- December 30, 2016
- 06:30 PM
- 248 views
This Month in Blastocystis Research (DEC 2016)
by Christen Rune Stensvold in Blastocystis Parasite Blog
2016 is coming to an end, and in the last post of the year, I highlight three of the most important articles on Blastocystis published in 2016.... Read more »
Scanlan PD, Knight R, Song SJ, Ackermann G, & Cotter PD. (2016) Prevalence and genetic diversity of Blastocystis in family units living in the United States. Infection, genetics and evolution : journal of molecular epidemiology and evolutionary genetics in infectious diseases, 95-97. PMID: 27545648
Kurt Ö, Doğruman Al F, & Tanyüksel M. (2016) Eradication of Blastocystis in humans: Really necessary for all?. Parasitology international, 65(6 Pt B), 797-801. PMID: 26780545
topics
join us!
Do you write about peer-reviewed research in your blog? Use ResearchBlogging.org to make it easy for your readers — and others from around the world — to find your serious posts about academic research.
If you don't have a blog, you can still use our site to learn about fascinating developments in cutting-edge research from around the world.
Research Blogging is powered by SMG Technology.
To learn more, visit seedmediagroup.com.