Word: functionalities
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...bred and selected according to their activity levels, Lightfoot identified 20 different genomic locations that work in tandem to influence their activity levels - specifically, how far the animals will run. Lightfoot's team is the first to identify these genetic areas and the first to figure out that they function in concert. The researchers say the areas they found on the mouse genome may have analogs in humans, and the UNC team is now gearing up to conduct a similar study in men and women. "We have put forward a fairly complete genomic map of the areas that are associated...
...fatigue - or some higher-order biochemical circuit in the brain, such as levels of the neurotransmitters dopamine or serotonin. Researchers have examined the muscle tissue of the mice in the study, however, and early data, which has not yet been published, suggests that there's no difference in their function. So the researchers' best guess is that the drive to exercise is at least partly influenced by brain chemicals - a reasonable hypothesis, given that dopamine or serotonin plays a significant role in several human drives and behaviors, including hunger, addiction, mood and movement disorders like Parkinson's disease...
...involves some very specialized cells. These are hair cells, and specifically we're looking at the outer hair cells. When they're overexposed or stimulated at too high a level for too long a duration, they end up being metabolically exhausted. They are overworked. They temporarily lose their function, so sound has to be made louder in order for you to hear it. These cells can recover after a single exposure, but if you overexpose them often enough, they end up dying, and you lose that functional ability inside your inner ear. The cells that die are not replaceable...
...looked at autism-related genes found in large families in the Middle East and Turkey. Big families in which cousins sometimes marry cousins are ideal for studying recessive genes. Though the newly identified genes are located in far-flung regions on the 23 human chromosomes, they are related in function: most play a role in learning. These genes are active in creating, reinforcing or modifying synaptic pathways in the brain - physical and biochemical changes that occur when we learn something new. The implication of this work is that autism may fundamentally amount to molecular defects in learning...
...underdogs have no shortage of human protectors, but don't count William Stolzenburg among them. In Where the Wild Things Were, the seasoned wildlife writer reminds us that predation, not parity, is nature's organizing principle. Beyond his affection for fierce carnivores, he argues persuasively that keystone predators function as biological linchpins--without them, ecosystems plunge into chaos. To underline this point, he whisks readers from kelp forests to arctic tundra, revealing the "evolutionary dance between predator and prey"--how a dearth of wolves and cougars helped spur an infestation of white-tailed deer that munched Wisconsin's forests...