News by Subject Medicine & Health

A previously unreported anatomical structure named the 'cantil' has been described in the popular plant model, Arabidopsis thaliana. Scientists from The Pennsylvania State University, USA, reveal that the cantil forms between the stem and flower-bearing stalk when flowering is delayed. Published in the journal Development, this study highlights that there are still discoveries to be made, even in some of the most meticulously studied species, and provides new clues for understanding conditional growth in plants.

Fewer Atlantic mangrove fiddler crab embryos survived in a warmer, more acid environment mimicking conditions forecast for the end of this century. Given the important ecological role of this invertebrate in mangroves, the researchers warn of a potential cascade effect.

In polymicrogyria, the cortex of the brain has irregular, small folds and disorganization in its cell layers, leading to intellectual/developmental disability and epilepsy. This study of four patients with polymicrogyria caused by a mutation in the gene ATP1A3 revealed surprises about the role of a common ion channel pump in early brain development.

Medical University of South Carolina researchers have discovered a gatekeeper protein that destines developing cells in an embryo to become liver cells. It exposes the genetic material of the cells and marks them as 'ready' for differentiation, i.e., transformation into liver cells, when developmental conditions are right. The findings, published in Cell Reports, could help scientists to better understand why liver cells do not develop correctly in children with inherited liver diseases.

As deadly as it is, cancer metastasis is a poorly understood process. A new study led by Penn's Kamen Simeonov and Christopher Lengner describes a cutting-edge tool for tracing the lineage and gene expression of thousands of individual metastatic cancer cells. Their findings open new angles for investigating the processes that drive metastasis.

An inter-university research group has succeeded in constructing the gene expression network behind the vascular development process in plants. They achieved this by performing bioinformatics analysis using the 'VISUAL' tissue culture platform, which generates vascular stem cells from leaf cells. In this network, they also discovered a new BES/BZR transcription factor, BEH3, and illuminated its role in vascular cell maintenance.

How do cells measure themselves? Now we have an answer to this long-standing biological question.