Word: mitochondria
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 2000-2009
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Bruce M. Spiegelman, professor of cell biology at HMS, joined researchers at University of Texas-Southwestern in publishing a study in the Aug. 15 issue of Nature demonstrating that the protein PGC-1 can supply certain muscles with the mitochondria that power their contractions...
...mitochondria - cell organelles whose genetic makeup is determined by the mother alone - of all native Europeans except the Sami people of Northern Scandinavia reveal descent from one of what Sykes grandly calls "The Seven Daughters of Eve" (the title, incidentally, of his upcoming book to be published in June). He contends that these ancient matriarchs migrated to Europe from Africa via the Middle East or Asia as long as 50,000 years ago, and he has even assigned evocatively mythical names to each one: Ursula, Helena, Velda, Tara, Katrine, Xenia and Jasmine. He has also delineated rough population histories...
Muscles process oxygen through cellular components known as the mitochondria. Human mitochondria take up only about 3% of the space in a cell. But in animals that run the fastest, mitochondria are far bigger; the mitochondria of an antelope--an animal that easily runs a 2-min. mile and does so in wispy mountain air 7,000 ft. up--are three times larger than ours. "If you could genetically engineer humans to have more mitochondria, bigger hearts and more blood vessels," says Weyand, "we might run about 40 m.p.h...