Discovery of sexual mating in Candida albicans could provide insights into infections

Jan. 30, 2013 ? Like many fungi and one-celled organisms, Candida albicans, a normally harmless microbe that can turn deadly, has long been thought to reproduce without sexual mating. But a new study by Professor Judith Berman and colleagues at the University of Minnesota and Tel Aviv University shows that C. albicans is capable of sexual reproduction.

The finding, published online by Nature January 30, represents an important breakthrough in understanding how this pathogen has been shaped by evolution, which could suggest strategies for preventing and treating the often serious infections that it causes.

The most common fungus that infects humans, C. albicans is part of the large community of microorganisms that live for the most part harmlessly within the human gut. But unlike many of its neighbors, this one-celled yeast can also cause disease, ranging from thrush (an oral infection) and vaginal yeast infections to systemic blood infections that cause organ failure and death and usually occur in people with immune defects related to HIV/AIDS, organ transplantation or chemotherapy. C. albicans is responsible for400,000 deaths annually.

Most single-celled organisms reproduce by dividing, but others reproduce asexually, parasexually or via sexual mating. Scientists have long believed that C. Albicans reproduce without mating.

Organisms that produce asexually or parasexually are diploid, which means they have two sets of chromosomes and thus can reproduce without a mate. Organisms that reproduce sexually are haploid, which means they have one set of chromosomes and need a mate to provide a second set. C. Albicans was believed to be diploid, but this study shows that the yeast is sometimes haploid, and that these haploids are capable of sexual reproduction.

Sexual reproduction fuels the evolution of higher organisms because it combines DNA from two parents to create one organism. The haploid isolates discovered in Professor Berman's lab arise only rarely within a population, and have been detected following propagation in the lab or in a mammalian host. These haploids can mate with other haploids to generate diploid strains with new combinations of DNA, which may provide the diversity required for fungus to evolve.

The haploid C. albicans isolates also pave the way for genetic studies of the pathogen, such as the construction of "libraries" of recessive mutant strains. In addition, the ability to perform genetic crosses between haploids will help produce modified diploid strains that should help scientists better understand interactions between the fungus and its host and how it transforms from a harmless microbe into a deadly pathogen.

Berman holds appointments and has laboratories at the University of Minnesota's College of Biological Sciences and Tel Aviv University.

The work was done in collaboration with researchers at Bowdoin College (Maine), Brown University (Rhode Island), A*STAR (Singapore) and at the Taipei Medical University (Taiwan) and was funded, in part, by the National Institutes of Health.

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Journal Reference:

1. Meleah A. Hickman, Guisheng Zeng, Anja Forche, Matthew P. Hirakawa, Darren Abbey, Benjamin D. Harrison, Yan-Ming Wang, Ching-hua Su, Richard J. Bennett, Yue Wang, Judith Berman. The ?obligate diploid? Candida albicans forms mating-competent haploids. Nature, 2013; DOI: 10.1038/nature11865

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Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_health/~3/1FYaYSrBel8/130130143632.htm

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Ipad 2 New Features

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Source: http://ipad-2-mobile.com/ipad-2-new-features.html?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=ipad-2-new-features

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Anti-Lynas group enters politics to bring down BN in Pahang

(TMI) -?Environmental group Himpunan Hijau today said it will campaign against the Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition in Pahang in its bid to stop Lynas from operating its controversial rare-earth plant in the state.

?

?Himpunan Hijau from today onwards is entering politics,? the group?s chairman Wong Tack(picture)?told a press conference today, saying that Himpunan Hijau wants to change the state government.

At the launch of the group?s ?Pahang Green Corridor? campaign today, Himpunan Hijau said it will campaign for federal opposition Pakatan Rakyat (PR) and will focus more on six out of eight parliamentary constituencies and 14 out of 23 state constituencies in that zone.

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?Our job now...is to make sure our team will be down to the?kampung?(village) and visit every single family and reach every quarter of society,? Wong Tack said, adding that the group will set up committees called Angkatan Mat Kilau to giveceramah?(talks) and spread information among those in the rural areas.

When asked what is the assurance that PR will stop the Lynas project if it wrests control of Pahang, Wong said the group has given up hope on the ruling BN coalition.

?We have verbal assurance from the Pakatan Rakyat that if they are in power, they will close down Lynas...so we take this promise seriously,? Wong said.

Read more at:?http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/malaysia/article/anti-lynas-group-enters-politics-to-bring-down-bn-in-pahang/?

Source: http://malaysia-today.net/mtcolumns/newscommentaries/54186-anti-lynas-group-enters-politics-to-bring-down-bn-in-pahang

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Sony Music Unlimited now offers 320 kbps AAC high-quality streaming

Sony's Music Unlimited streaming service is being updated today to offer high-quality 320 kbps AAC?music on all platforms, including Android. The service, which offers unlimited (go figure) music streaming for the monthly price of $9.99, is hoping to persuade users to try it over competing services like Spotify and Rdio. 320 kbps AAC is generally regarded as a high enough quality streaming that general users won't notice the difference between it and locally stored files, but also keeps data usage from streaming reasonably low.

You can download the Music Unlimited app from the Play Store link above, and there is currently a 14 day free trial available when you sign up. The higher quality audio may be enough to have more users trying this service going forward.

320kbps AAC Streaming Playback Now Available for PlayStation 3, Android Smartphones and Tablets, and PCs

FOSTER CITY, California, Jan. 29, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Sony Network Entertainment International today announced that the company's Music Unlimited service now offers users the ability to listen to high quality audio through the service's PC (Windows? and Mac OS?), Sony Xperia? and other Android? smartphones and tablets, Sony Android Walkman?, and PlayStation?3 (PS3?) computer entertainment system applications.? By turning on the high quality streaming option in Music Unlimited's settings menu, songs will playback in pristine 320 kbps AAC high fidelity audio.
Sony Entertainment Network's Music Unlimited service is a cloud-based digital music service that hosts a global catalog of over 18 million licensed songs(1) and is available on a wide range of Sony and non-Sony connected devices including any personal computer (including Windows and Mac OS), iOS devices including iPhone? and iPod touch?, Android devices including Sony Xperia smartphones and tablets, as well as the PS3, PlayStation?Vita, and connected Sony BRAVIA HDTVs as well as various Sony home audio and video devices.

The new feature, which is now live on the PS3, Android smartphone and tablet, Android Walkman, and web apps, will be added to other devices compatible with the Music Unlimited service later this year.

Additional information about Sony Entertainment Network can be found by visiting: blog.sonyentertainmentnetwork.com, www.facebook.com/sonyentertainment, and www.twitter.com/sonyentnet.?

(1) Number of tracks available from this catalog varies by country and may be less.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/androidcentral/~3/J0gqJ54sXxY/story01.htm

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NBA: LaMarcus Aldridge's buzzer-beater caps Portland Trail Blazers' wild comeback

LaMarcus Aldridge's buzzer-beating shot had barely left his hands when teammate Nicolas Batum raised his arms in victory.

Aldridge's turnaround jumper fell as time ran out and the Portland Trail Blazers came back from a 21-point third-quarter deficit to beat the visiting Dallas Mavericks 106-104 on Tuesday night.

"I knew," Batum said. "I knew he was going to make it."

Aldridge finished with 29 points and 13 rebounds for Portland, which trailed 101-94 with 2:18 left. Aldridge also had a 3 -- the first one he's made this season -- to tie it at 104 with 4.9 seconds left. O.J. Mayo was called for charging with 1.5 seconds to go, and Aldridge hit his jumper after the inbound from Wesley Matthews with 0.2 seconds left for the victory.

"(Batum) has his hand up. He said he had a lot of faith in me," said Aldridge, recently named an All-Star reserve for the second straight year. "I had to watch it go in."

Dirk Nowitzki, who scored 26 points in the loss, said, "We cannot let Aldridge get set on the block 10 feet from the basket and let him turn around and shoot a wide-open shot. We make those mistakes, especially on the road, and you are going to get bit.

"This type of loss is about as tough as it gets in the league."

The Blazers' J.J. Hickson had a season-high 26 points and 15 rebounds for his 25th double-double.

The Mavericks were without center Chris Kaman, who sustained a concussion in a collision during practice

Monday, according to coach Rick Carlisle. There was no timetable for Kaman's return.

Lakers 111, Hornets 106: Dwight Howard scored 24 points, Kobe Bryant had 14 points and 11 assists in another pass-first performance, and Los Angeles hung on at home for its first three-game winning streak in five weeks.

However, the Lakers' 18-point lead with 5? minutes to play dwindled to 102-101 with 2 minutes left before Earl Clark and Steve Nash hit big shots to clinch the victory.

Bucks 117, Pistons 90: Brandon Jennings scored 20 of his 30 points in the third quarter, leading visiting Milwaukee.

Rookie Andre Drummond had 18 points and 18 rebounds for Detroit, becoming just the second teenager to have an 18-18 game since 1985-86, joining Dwight Howard.

Timberwolves: Coach Rick Adelman revealed that he was away from the team for three weeks because his wife, Mary Kay, has been suffering seizures.

Adelman returned to the Timberwolves after his hiatus on Monday and declined to talk specifically about what was bothering his wife.

Adelman said Tuesday he was urged by his wife to be more open about the situation. He plans to coach on Wednesday night against the Clippers.

Greg Oden: A person with knowledge of Cleveland's interest said the Cavaliers are exploring the possibility of signing Greg Oden, the former No. 1 overall pick whose NBA career has been sabotaged by a series of knee injuries.

Oden said Tuesday he will not play this season but eyes a comeback for 2013-14.

Players union: Executive director Billy Hunter has fired his daughter and daughter-in-law from the NBA players' association, less than two weeks after a review criticized his hiring practices.

Source: http://www.mercurynews.com/other-sports/ci_22478465/nba-lamarcus-aldridges-buzzer-beater-caps-portland-trail?source=rss

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Staggering Stats: Cats Kill Billions of Animals a Year

Cats kill billions of birds every year and even more tiny rodents and other mammals in the United States, a new study finds.

According to the research, published today (Jan. 29) in the journal Nature Communications, cats kill between 1.4 billion and 3.7 billion birds and between 6.9 billion and 20.7 billion small mammals, such as meadow voles and chipmunks.

Though it's hard to know exactly how many birds live in the United States, the staggering number of bird deaths may account for as much as 15 percent of the total bird population, said study co-author Pete Marra, an animal ecologist with the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute.

Staggering toll

Marra and his colleagues are looking at human-related causes for bird and wildlife deaths in the country, from windmills and glass windows to pesticides.

But first, Marra and his team looked at the impact of the feline population, one of the biggest putative causes of bird demise in the country. ? ? ??

While past studies had used critter cams or owner reports to estimate the number of birds killed by cats, those studies were usually small and not applicable to the entire country, Marra told LiveScience.

For this broader analysis, the team first looked at all prior studies on bird deaths and estimated that around 84 million owned-cats live in the country, many of which are allowed outdoors. [In Photos: America's Favorite Pets]

"A lot of these cats may go outside and go to 10 different houses, but they go back to their house and cuddle up on Mr. Smith's lap at night," Marra said.

Based on an analysis of past studies, the researchers estimated that each of those felines killed between four and 18 birds a year, and between eight and 21 small mammals per year.

But the major scourges for wildlife were not those free-ranging, owned-cats, but instead feral and un-owned cats that survive on the streets. Each of those kitties ? and the team estimates between 30 million and 80 million of them live in the United States ? kills between 23 and 46 birds a year, and between 129 and 338 small mammals, Marra said.

And, it seems, the small rodents taken by felines aren't Norway rats or apartment vermin, but native rodent species such as meadow voles and chipmunks, he added.

No easy answers

One obvious step to reduce the mass wildlife death is to keep kitties indoors, Marra said.

Perhaps seeing their furry friends bring in a meadow vole or a cardinal will spur cat owners to say, "Listen, Tabby, we're going to have a heart-to-heart talk about how much time you spend outside," he said.

Wild cats pose tougher questions, because capture and sterilization approaches have varying levels of success depending on the community, said Bruce Kornreich, a veterinarian at Cornell University's Feline Health Center, who was not involved in the study.

While keeping owned-cats indoors is the best way to benefit both kitties and wildlife, a complete cat ban, like the one recently proposed in New Zealand, is probably not the answer, he said.

For one, it's not clear how completely removing cats from outdoors would affect the ecosystem.

"It may be in some cases that cats may also be keeping other species that may negatively impact bird and other small mammal populations in check," Kornreich told LiveScience.

Follow LiveScience on Twitter @livescience. We're also on Facebook?& Google+.?

Copyright 2013 LiveScience, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/staggering-stats-cats-kill-billions-animals-162839117.html

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New look at cell membrane reveals surprising organization

Jan. 28, 2013 ? Sight would dramatically alter a blind man's understanding of an elephant, according to the old story. Now, a look directly at a cell surface is changing our understanding of cell membrane organization.?

Using a completely new approach to imaging cell membranes, a study by researchers from the University of Illinois, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and the National Institutes of Health revealed some surprising relationships among molecules within cell membranes.

Led by Mary Kraft, a U. of I. professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering, the team published its findings in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Cells are enveloped in semi-permeable membranes that act as a barrier between the inside and outside of the cell. The membrane is mainly composed of a class of molecules called lipids, studded with proteins that help regulate how the cell responds to its environment.

"Lipids have multiple functions serving as both membrane structure and signaling molecules, so they regulate other functions inside the cell," Kraft said. "Therefore, understanding how they're organized is important. You need to know where they are to figure out how they're doing these regulatory functions."

One widely held belief among cell biologists is that lipids in the membrane assemble into patches, called domains, that differ in composition. However, research into how lipids are organized in the membrane, and how that organization affects cell function, has been hampered by the lack of direct observation. Although the cell membrane is heavily studied, the imaging techniques used infer the locations of certain molecules based on assumed associations with other molecules.

In the new study, Kraft's team used an advanced, molecule-specific imaging method that allowed the researchers to look at the membrane itself and map a particular type of lipid on mouse cell membranes. The researchers fed lipids labeled with rare stable isotopes to the cells and then imaged the distribution of the isotopes with high-resolution imaging mass spectrometry.

Called sphingolipids (SFING-go-lih-pids), these molecules are thought to associate with cholesterol to form small domains about 200 nanometers across. The direct imaging method revealed that sphingolipids do indeed form domains, but not in the way the researchers expected.

The domains were much bigger than suggested by prior experiments. The 200-nanometer domains clustered together to form much larger, micrometer-sized patches of sphingolipids in the membrane.

"We were amazed when we saw the first images of the patches of sphingolipids across the cell surface," said Peter Weber, who directed the team at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. "We weren't sure if our imaging mass spectrometry method would be sensitive enough to detect the labeled lipids, let alone what we would see."

Furthermore, when the researchers looked at cells that were low on cholesterol -- thought to play a key role in lipid aggregation -- they were surprised to find that the lipids still formed domains. On the other hand, disruption to the cell's structural scaffold seemed to dissolve the lipid clusters.

"We found that the presence of domains was somewhat affected by cholesterol but was more affected by the cytoskeleton -- the protein network underneath the membrane," Kraft said. "The central issue is that the data are suggesting that the mechanism that's responsible for these domains is much more complicated than initially expected."

In addition, the new study found that sphingolipids domains were incompletely associated with a marker protein that researchers have long assumed dwelled where sphingolipids congregated. This means that data collected with imaging techniques that target this protein are not as accurate in representing sphingolipid distribution as previously thought.

"Our data are showing that if you want to know where sphingolipids are, look at the lipid, don't infer where it is based on other molecules, and now there's a way to directly image them," said Kraft, who also is affiliated with the department of chemistry at the U. of I.

Next, the researchers plan to use the direct-imaging method in conjunction with other more conventional methods, such as fluorescence, to further determine the organization of different kinds of molecules in the membrane, their interactions and how they affect the cell's function. They plan to begin by targeting cholesterol.

"Cholesterol abundance is important," Kraft said. "You change that, you tremendously change cell function. How is it organized? Is it also in domains? That's related to the question, what's the mechanism responsible for these structures and what are they doing?"

The National Institutes of Health, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, the National Science Foundation and the Burroughs Wellcome Fund supported this work. Co-author Joshua Zimmerberg directed research at the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, part of the National Institutes of Health.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

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Journal Reference:

1. Jessica F. Frisz, Kaiyan Lou, Haley A. Klitzing, William P. Hanafin, Vladimir Lizunov, Robert L. Wilson, Kevin J. Carpenter, Raehyun Kim, Ian D. Hutcheon, Joshua Zimmerberg, Peter K. Weber, and Mary L. Kraft. Direct chemical evidence for sphingolipid domains in the plasma membranes of fibroblasts. PNAS, January 28, 2013 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1216585110

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/most_popular/~3/dlLKi0xDQOg/130128151924.htm

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