Life Sciences and Chemistry

PURAC and Greenomics™ (Plant Research International B.V.) announced the completion of the whole-genome sequencing of a production strain of PURAC that produces high amounts of lactic acid. Greenomics™ conducted the shotgun cloning and high quality sequencing of the genome up to a zero-gap situation. The closed genome is accompanied by an automated annotation and a functional classification of all the genes by bioinformatics tools.

The positive results obtained so far has encouraged PURAC to

Physicians have long marveled at the body’s ability to heal itself. Over time, breaks, tears, burns and bruises can often disappear sans medical intervention. Less well-understood are the similarly extraordinary repairs that take place on the molecular level, in DNA. To that end, findings announced today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, may prove insightful. According to the report, researchers have found that a protein known as ATR appears to sense damage to DNA and touch off

Of the estimated 10,000 to 100,000 microbial species that inhabit our planet, scientists can only coax a few thousand to grow in the laboratory. As a result, efforts to categorize the vast diversity of microbes are lagging far behind attempts to classify plants, animals and insects. Now a report published in the current issue of the journal Science suggests that some of these so-called uncultivable microorganisms might not be so out of reach after all.

Tammi Kaeberlein, Kim Lewis and Klava

A research team jointly involving the IRD, the CEA and the CNRS has very recently found phytochromes in a strain of nitrogen-fixing bacterium, Bradyrhizobium (1), symbiont on certain tropical leguminous plants (the Aeschynomene). Techniques of molecular biology, biophysics and biochemistry revealed that the newly-discovered phytochrome has an essential role as regulator of the bacterium’s photosystem synthesis. An identical function was shown in the photosynthetic bacterium Rhodopseudomonas palustris

A model of a system for growing plants to plan biological experiments in space has just left the company of ROVSING, in Ballerup near Copenhagen, on its way to ESA’s European Space Research and Technology Centre (ESTEC) in the Netherlands.

The full name of this experiment reference model is European Modular Cultivation System Experiment Reference Model (EMCS ERM). This will be used at ESTEC to plan and carry out experiments for growing plants in space. Then in 2003 the EMCS Flight Model will

Authors of a research letter in this week’s issue of THE LANCET conclude that there is no evidence to support the belief that sexual intercourse too soon or two long after ovulation is associated with an increased risk of birth defects and Down’s syndrome.

For many years, the ageing of gametes as a result of prolonged retention in the female reproductive tract before fertilisation has been circumstantially associated with major birth defects. Joe Leigh Simpson and colleagues from Baylor Coll