science newsletter: Science News SciGuru.com

Παρασκευή 13 Σεπτεμβρίου 2013

Science News SciGuru.com

Protein Essential for Maintaining Beta Cell Function Identified

Posted: 12 Sep 2013 11:40 AM PDT

Researchers at the Pediatric Diabetes Research Center (PDRC) at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine have shown that the pancreatic protein Nkx6.1 – a beta-cell enriched transcription factor – is essential to maintaining the functional state of beta cells.

Type 2 diabetes is characterized by impaired insulin secretion by pancreatic beta cells in response to a rise in blood glucose levels. The study, published in the September 26 edition of Cell Reports, shows that loss of NKx6.1 in mice caused rapid onset diabetes.

Researchers identify ancient ancestor of tulip tree line

Posted: 12 Sep 2013 09:38 AM PDT

The modern-day tulip tree, state tree of Indiana as well as Kentucky and Tennessee, can trace its lineage back to the time of the dinosaurs, according to newly published research by an Indiana University paleobotanist and a Russian botanist.

The tulip tree, Liriodendron tulipfera, has been considered part of the magnolia family. But David Dilcher of Indiana University Bloomington and Mikhail S. Romanov of the N.V. Tsitsin Main Botanical Garden in Moscow show that it is closely related to fossil plant specimens from the Lower Cretaceous period.