The analysis shows the Greenland ice could last longer than we thought, reports Roger Highfield

Today, Greenland is mostly covered with ice, with rugged mountainous terrain that is barren.

	Artist's impression of southern central Greenland based on findings from the Dye 3 basal ice

But this was not the case millennia ago, when it was a verdant paradise, according to a remarkable study of ancient DNA that also suggests Greenland's ice will tolerate more global warming than thought.

Investigations of an ice core from deep in the ice in southern Greenland has revealed a trove of ancient genetic traces of plants and animals -probably the oldest DNA ever analysed - which provide the first evidence of a surprisingly lush forest that existed in the region within the past million years.

The findings from an international study published in the journal Science also suggest that the southern Greenland ice sheet may be much more stable against rising temperatures caused by climate change than previously believed.

For the study, researchers analysed ice cores from a number of locations in Greenland, including one called Dye 3 in the south. From the base of one 2000 metre deep core, they were able to extract what they believe is the oldest authenticated DNA obtained to date.

By analysing DNA the researchers identified a surprising variety of plant and insect life, including beetles, flies, spiders, butterflies and moths.

The researchers believe that the samples most likely date back to between 450,000 and 800,000 years ago, when it was covered in conifer forest and had a relatively mild climate, overturning all previous assumptions about Greenland.

"We have shown for the first time that southern Greenland, which is currently hidden under more than 2000m of ice, was once very different to the Greenland we see today," says Prof Eske Willerslev, from the University of Copenhagen, who led the study and is the world's leading expert in extracting DNA from organisms buried in permafrost.

"Back then, it was inhabited by a diverse array of conifer trees and insects," he says. "We have found grain, pine, yew and alder. These correspond to the landscapes we find in Eastern Canada today.

The trees provide a backdrop from which we can also ascertain the climate since each species has its own temperature requirements. The yew trees reveal that the temperature during the winter could not have been lower than -17°C, and the presence of other trees shows that summer temperatures were at least 10 degrees".

The ancient forests covered southern Greenland during a period of increased global temperatures, known as an interglacial period. When temperatures fell again, the area became covered in ice. This ice persisted during the last interglacial period (116,000-130,000 years ago) when the temperature was 5°C warmer than today, contrary to the view currently held by many scientists.

Prof Dorthe Dahl-Jensen, also at the University of Copenhagen, has data showing that in fact, even during this interglacial period, the ice thickness at Dye 3 would only have been reduced to 1000 metres in the face of temperatures that will not be reached for many decades as a result of today's global warming.

This work suggests that the whole ice sheet will resist melting to cause tremendous sea-level rises which have been the subject of so much discussion. "If our data is correct, then this means that the southern Greenland ice cap is more stable than previously thought," says Prof Willerslev.

"This may have implications for how the Greenland ice sheet respond to global warming."

However, he added that warming would still raise sea levels. During the last interglacial, sea levels rose by 5-6m even though Greenland was still covered in ice, and the water responsible for this rise must have come from others sources other than Greenland, such as Antarctic ice.

"I would anticipate that as the Earth warms from man-made climate change, these sources would still contribute to a rise in sea levels."

Today's study shows conclusively that ancient DNA from the base of ice cores can be used to reconstruct the environments hidden underneath ice-covered areas and can yield insights into the climate and the ecology of ancient environments.

Ten per cent of the Earth's surface has been covered with ice for thousands of years. No one knows what lies beneath. Using the same methods elsewhere "could open up a world of new discoveries," says Dr Enrico Cappellini of the University of York, coauthor.

If claims made by scientists come out true then days are not far away when they will come out with a portent weapon to cure patients with HIV infection, as a new study shows them way to remove the virus from infected cells, bringing a glimmer of hope for the more than 40 million people infected worldwide.

Actually, researchers have engineered an enzyme that attacks the DNA of the HIV virus, cutting it out of the infected cells.

Throwing more light on the hope, which this study has sprouted Alan Engelman of Harvard University’s Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, writes:

A customized enzyme that effectively excises integrated HIV-1 from infected cells in vitro might one day help to eradicate (the) virus from AIDS patients.

Well, it would be too premature to become very enthusiastic about this new finding as the enzyme is still far from being ready to use and hasn’t even been tested in animals yet. However, one thing could certainly be said that this new way would revolutionize the way HIV-infected patients are treated.

In a ground breaking research organized by United States National Human Genome Research Institute the scientists are on the verge of start rethinking everything about the genes and their behavior. The research conducted with 35 groups from 80 organizations around the World concluded with the speculation that the human genome might not be a tidy collection of independent genes at all, with each sequence of DNA linked with a single function, such as heart disease or as a predilection to diabetes etc. Instead genes appear to operate in a complex network and interact and overlap with one another and with other components in a not completely understood way.

The human genome project was one of the most exciting and challenging part of modern science. But according to the institute, after this research, scientists from all over the World may need to start rethinking everything afresh. These findings will certainly challenge scientists’ long held views about the genes and how they behave.

The network effect of genes is not a new one in the world of biology. Biologists have been noticing this interesting fact from quite a log time in other organisms. They were linked with some other creatures; so our human world carefully avoided them.

The genes operate individually, this is the most fundamental belief in the field of genetics. This presumption has been established since 1976 with the establishment of the first biotech company. Now this experiment may have an effect of nullifying the previous factor and it is a possibility that everything may need to be started afresh.

The fundamental principle of molecular biology says that each gene in living organisms, from human to bacteria, carries the information needed to construct one single protein. Proteins are the driver of the cells, and finally the organism. In 1960s, scientists discovered that a gene producing one type of protein in one organism will produce a similar protein in some other organism. This similarity has made insulin acquired from pigs as a life saving treatment for diabetes.

In the year 2005 a study showed that more than 4000 human genes have been patented in US alone, and this is a very less fractional amount of the entire amount of patents issued to genes found in other organisms. In light of the recent research, the defensibility of those patents is under fire.

Scholars all over the world have come out with their comments about this matter. According to some, the biotech industry has adopted a pre-matured commercial agenda in the very beginning of a particular field. It is possible that what we have known long might be incomplete or erroneous.

With the recent research and its result, the biotech industry may have to start experimenting with the more vivid reaction of their products.

Whatever be the solution, the World needs to choose the right alternative among many of them available. According to Prof. Heinemann, a professor of molecular biology in the School of Biological Sciences at the University of Canterbury in New Zealand and director of its Center for Integrated Research in Biosafety, many companies have already carried a kind of gene profile research. But they are not required to submit them to regulatory bodies, so they do not submit. For this action research on this particular field is still in a stagnant position.

He further said:

Something that is front and center in the biosafety community in New Zealand now is whether companies should be required to submit their gene-profiling data for hazard identification. With no such reporting requirements, companies and regulators alike will continue to blind themselves to network effects.

Source: NYTimes

A study on DNA “bar coding” put forth by the Canadian researchers is being anticipated to the unearthing of myriad number of new species. The study researchers foresee a kind of handheld device that would allow anyone to identify any species of plants or animals along with their biological characteristics within no time.

Paul Hebert, study co-author and director of the Biodiversity Institute of Ontario at the University of Guelph said:

Any person equipped with a bar-coder can walk through the forest and identify the life around them. Bar-coding is revealing legions of unrecognized species, and it’s going to change the species count for the planet.

Bar coding endeavors to segregate a tiny piece of DNA and have it characterized as a discrete numerical sequence that is about 650 digits long. The study also discovered sets of DNA “twins”. The handheld device that is likely to be the size of a global positioning system is expected to meet realism in around 10 years.

Doctors have given a new ray of hope to the children suffering from cancer, as a new research will allow young girls undergoing cancer treatment in preserving their fertility.

Nearly all cancers are treated initially with chemotherapy that involves aggressive intake of anticancer drugs. The cancer cured by chemotherapy at such a young stage cures around 70 and 90 percent of patients but the aggressive chemotherapy often leaves the children sterile.

But now scientists have been successful in extracting, maturing and then preserving the eggs from girls as young as five in an attempt to allow the children with cancer to become parents when they grow up.

However some experts believed that the eggs in the follicles of young girls before they attain puberty were too immature to be extracted.

But later an Israeli team led by Ariel Revel have discovered that eggs from girls with cancer, those aged between five and 10 years could be extracted which could be cultured in a dish to make them viable.

On his work related to the research, Ariel said:

No eggs have yet been thawed, so we do not know whether pregnancies will result. But we are encouraged by our results so far, particularly the young ages of the patients from whom we have been able to collect eggs.

Ariel Revel from Hadassah University Hospital in Jerusalem who carried the research will present complete details of his research at the annual meeting of the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology in Lyon, France, this week.

Nanotechnology, after expanding its horizon in leaps and bounds, has eventually penetrated the world of plant biology, thanks to a team of U.S. scientists. They have used nanotechnology for penetrating the walls of plant cells.

With the use of nanotechnology, the experts have delivered a gene and a chemical into the cell walls to precisely trigger the expressions of the genes.

This innovation with introducing nanotechnology to plant biology and agricultural biotechnology has helped in creating a powerful tool to target plant cell-deliveries.

Though, scientists have already successfully introduced a gene into a plant cell, unlike this new application, in other cases, chemicals are used to just activate the functions of a gene. But, the process is not as precise as the new nanotechnology-based one, and the chemicals could also be toxic to the plant.

It is a real breakthrough by the team of Iowa State University researchers.

Study leader Professor Kan Wang said,

With the mesoporous nanoparticles, we can deliver two biogenic species at the same time. We can bring in a gene and induce it in a controlled manner at the same time and at the same location. That`s never been done before.

So, here comes ‘nanotechnology’ to help a more precise gene activation in plant cell as well as trigger their expressions at the same time.

Scientists have developed a new type of nanoparticles that can aim, image and destroy tumor cells. This technology can also be used to develop means by which cancer can be cured.

The system contains gold nanoparticles which branching polymers called dendrimers. These dendrimers sprout out from the surface of the nanoparticles. These particles can be used to launch a multiprong attack against the tumors.

The arms of these dendrimers can carry many different molecules, including those that can fight cancer cells and even drugs that can slow their growth or destroy them completely.

Scientists aim that this method should be able to destroy the cancer cells without harming anything else in the body. Currently researchers are pursuing tests on animals and once the technology pass some more tests then it should be made available for human use.

Incredibly 80% of all the insects live in jungles. There can be more than 8 million individuals in a single hectare. But jungle ants don't have it all their own way. Bullet ants are showing some worrying symptoms. Spores from parasitic fungus called Cordyceps has infiltrated their bodies and their minds.

Those affected discovered by workers are dumped far way from collony. It seems extreme but there is a serious reason why.

Like something out of science fiction the fruiting body of Cordycepts erupts from the ant's head. It can take three weeks to grow and when finished the deadly spores will burst from its tip. Then any ant in the vicinity will be in serious risk of death. The fungus is so virulent it can wipe out whole colonies of ants. It's not just ants that fall victim to this killer. There are literally thousands of different types of cordiceps fungi and remarkably each specializes on just one species.

But these attacks do have a positive effect on the jungle's diversity.

HIV replication is a complex multi-staged process that includes crucial steps taking place on the exterior as well as the interior of the target host cell.

The first three steps involved in cell entry are termed attachment, co-receptor binding and fusion. Each step is crucial to successful viral reproduction.

Once HIV virus penetrates the cell, it releases its RNA into the cell.

First the DNA Wrapping is animated.
The wrapping allows 6 feet of the long DNA molecule to be densely packed into the tiny nucleus of every cell. The process starts when DNA is wrapped around special protein molecules called histones. The combined loop of DNA and protein is called a nuclei zone. Next the nuclei zones are packed into a thread. The end result is fiber known as chromatin. This fiber is looped and coiled yet again leading to the familiar shapes known as chromosomes which can be seen in the nucleus of dividing cells. Chromosomes are not always present - they form around the time cells divide when the two copies of the cell's DNA need to be separated.

Using computer animation based on molecular research we are now able to see how DNA is actually copied in living cells.
An assembly line of amazing biochemical machines are pulling apart the DNA double helix and cranking out a copy of each strand.

This presentation was made by Drew Barry at The Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research.

We travel inside nucleus to see how the DNA replicates.

When DNA replicates its strands are separated by enzine helicase.
Single-stranded DNA binding proteines keep the strands from re-annealing.
One DNA strand encodes the leading strand using DNA Polymerase III.

Just watch to see what is going on.