Friday 5 February 2009
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In this issue...
Editor's choice: Can Kangaroos save the world?
As Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions continue to increase globally, it is important to look at measures that could be taken to reduce this.
The authors of this study, evaluated by David Lindenmayer of the Ecology Faculty, suggest that switching the kinds of animals that countries rear for meat could be one way of reducing GHG. As ruminant livestock herds such as cattle produce a lot of methane, switching to non-ruminant forestomach fermenting animals such as kangaroos could dramatically lower the amount of this greenhouse gas released into the atmosphere.
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This study provides an interesting look at alternative ways for countries to reduce their GHG.
Take advantage of limited FREE access to the full text for some of F1000 Biology's most popular recent evaluations
| Virion proteins bind to receptors to facilitate entry, but how many contacts are required: just one or more than one?...MORE | |||||
| Selected by | Lynn Enquist (Princeton University, USA) |
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Estimating the stoichiometry of human immunodeficiency virus entry. Magnus C et al. J Virol 2009 Feb 83(3):1523-31 |
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| This article merits particular attention as it treats the important issue of leptin resistance, which hampers the therapeutic use of the potent body weight regulator leptin in the majority of obese people...MORE | |||||
| Selected by | Ralf Jockers (Université René Descartes, France) |
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Endoplasmic reticulum stress plays a central role in development of leptin resistance. Ozcan L et al. Cell Metab 2009 Jan 7 9(1):35-51 |
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| This paper is interesting because it provides a novel approach for tackling the question of why species are constrained by evolution to occupy limited distributions...MORE | |||||
| Selected by | Ary Hoffmann (University of Melbourne, Australia) |
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Using experimental evolution to investigate geographic range limits in monkeyflowers. |
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| In this interesting paper, the authors use a series of transfer tests to assess the extent to which New Caledonian crows use causal reasoning to solve physical tasks...MORE | |||||
| Selected by | Nicola Clayton with Uri Grodzinski (University of Cambridge, UK)
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Do New Caledonian crows solve physical problems through causal reasoning? Taylor AH et al. Proc Biol Sci 2009 Jan 22 276(1655):247-54 |
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| This is the first demonstration of a graded relationship between degree of cooperation and genetic relatedness in a social microbe...MORE | |||||
| Selected by | Gregory Velicer (Indiana University, USA) |
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Kin discrimination increases with genetic distance in a social amoeba. |
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Broad Impact: Are tumorigenic cells more common than previously thought?
With the number of cancer cases increasing rapidly, it is becoming more important than ever to understand the process of tumor initiation. In a recent paper, Quintana et al. report on their investigation into the number of tumorigenic cells in human melanoma and make a surprising and potentially alarming discovery.
Ruth Roberts of the Pharmacology and Drug Discovery Faculty explains that she "found this article interesting since it suggests that human tumours contain more cells that can propagate further tumours than previous models have suggested."
John Lazo, also of the Pharmacology and Drug Discovery Faculty, describes how "The authors transplanted small numbers of cells isolated from human melanomas into highly immunocompromised non-obese diabetic/severe combined immunodeficiency interleukin-2 receptor gamma chain null mice and found by limited dilution that approximately one quarter of the cells from 12 different patients formed tumors."
Structural Biology Faculty Member Dafna Bar-Sagi expands on this worrying observation, noting that "contrary to expectations, the tumor-causing cells showed no distinguishable markers from non-tumorigenic cells."
Ze'ev Ronai, Cell Biology Faculty, explains the potential impact of the findings, observing that "there needs to be a careful re-evaluation of stem cell models for melanoma, and possibly other solid tumors."
The structure of Faculty of 1000 Biology makes it possible to identify papers of broad interest, irrespective of the journal in which they are published. You can see the full comments of all the evaluating Faculty Members on this Exceptional Broad Impact paper by visiting the Faculty of 1000 Biology website.
Hidden Jewel: The role of cell death in oocyte production
"The authors of this paper, evaluated by Helen Chamberlin of the Developmental Biology Faculty investigate how oocyte production and quality in Caenorhabditis elegans females changes with age and uncover an important role for cell death in maintaining oocyte quality, particularly in later life."
She describes how "Through careful manipulation and measurement of maternal age and embryonic survival, the authors show that, in C. elegans, embryonic viability decreases with maternal age, and that this effect is exacerbated in mothers defective in germline apoptosis. and expands on this explaining "The results argue that the role of cell death during oocyte production is to maintain the quality of the surviving oocytes, through the freeing-up of cellular resources, or other mechanisms."
The Hidden Jewels lists are one of the most popular features on the Faculty of 1000 Biology site as they bring to scientists' attention papers they otherwise might have missed (especially in fields adjacent to their own). These lists are compiled daily and include highly viewed papers evaluated within the previous month.
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