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Sniffing out stem cell fates in the nose

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The nostril is lined with sensory tissue, the olfactory epithelium, that incorporates numerous kinds of cells, all of which come up from olfactory stem cells (inexperienced). Amongst these are smell-sensing neurons (orange), progenitor cells (cyan) and help cells (magenta sustentacular cells and blue microvillous cells). Credit score: Russell Fletcher & John Ngai, UC Berkeley Grownup stem cells have the power to remodel into many kinds of cells, however tracing the trail particular person stem cells observe as they mature and figuring out the molecules that set off these fateful choices are tough in a dwelling animal. College of California, Berkeley, neuroscientists have now mixed new strategies for sequencing the RNA in single cells with detailed statistical evaluation to extra simply monitor particular person stem cells within the nostril, uncovering clues that sometime might assist restore odor to those that have mispl...

Stem cells in plants and animals behave surprisingly similarly

Carsten Peterson is one of the researchers behind the recent study on differences and similarities between animal and plant stem cells. With a background in theoretical physics , he and his colleagues have tackled the stem cells from a different perspective, which proved successful. By formulating mathematical equations, the researchers have performed a detailed study of the proteins that are central to the stem cells in mammals and plants. The proteins are linked to the genes that control the stem cells. In particular, the researchers have studied how these proteins mutually affect one another through interaction as the cells evolve. "Although the proteins in mammalian and plant stem cells are very different when studied separately, there are major similarities in the ways in which they interact, that is, how they strengthen or weaken each other," says Carsten Peterson. Stem cells are a hot topic in medical contexts, especially when it comes to cancer and autoimmune ...

Hormone key to brain development in fruit flies identified

Their discovery -- a fundamental advance for biology and neuroscience, and detailed in a paper published April 10 in the journal  eLife  -- also may shed new light on maternal hypothyroidism, a human condition in which too little thyroid is produced and is dangerous for pregnant women and their developing babies. In their paper, the UO team, which also included Brandon Mark, a graduate student in biology , tied the hormone ecdysone to a previously unknown sequence of gene expression in  Drosophila stem cells. The hormone in the fruit fly is essentially the equivalent of the human thyroid hormone, said the study's lead author Mubarak Hussain Syed, a postdoctoral researcher in the lab of co-author Chris Doe. "Our finding is the first example of hormones regulating time-sensitive gene transitions during neurogenesis, and it offers exciting insights into how problems with hormone signaling could be implicated in neurological diseases," Syed said. "During gestation,...