A Laboratory Exercise to Explore Sustained Gravitational-Force Tolerance by Insects

2015 ◽  
Vol 77 (9) ◽  
pp. 707-709
Author(s):  
W. Wyatt Hoback ◽  
Adrianne Pursley ◽  
Kerri Farnsworth-Hoback ◽  
Leon G. Higley
Keyword(s):  
Gravitational Force ◽  
Structure And Function ◽  
Background Information ◽  
Biological Processes ◽  
Scientific Process ◽  
Laboratory Exercise ◽  
Physical Forces ◽  
And Function

This exercise examines the correlation between gravitational-force (g-force) tolerance and the sizes of organisms, emphasizing differences between vertebrates and invertebrates, particularly the effects of size and scale on biological processes. Students form a hypothesis based on background information and then test it by spinning subjects in a centrifuge. Class results can be graphed, analyzed, and compared to human tolerance. The activity engages students in scientific process while investigating the effects of physical forces on structure and function.

scholarly journals Glycans for the greater good

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jessica Lloyd
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Infectious Disease ◽  
Point Of Care ◽  
Structure And Function ◽  
Biological Processes ◽  
Biological Impact ◽  
Heterogeneous Nature ◽  
Health And Disease ◽  
Greater Good ◽  
And Function

Carbohydrates are ubiquitous in nature and present across all kingdoms of life – bacteria, fungi, viruses, yeast, plants, animals and humans. They are essential to many biological processes. However, due to their complexity and heterogeneous nature they are often neglected, sometimes referred to as the ‘dark matter’ of biology. Nevertheless, due to their extensive biological impact on health and disease, glycans and the field of glycobiology have become increasingly popular in recent years, giving rise to glycan-based drug development and therapeutics. Forecasting of communicable diseases predicts that we will see an increase in pandemics of humans and livestock due to global loss of biodiversity from changes to land use, intensification of agriculture, climate change and disruption of ecosystems. As such, the development of point-of-care devices to detect pathogens is vital to prevent the transmission of infectious disease, as we have seen with the COVID-19 pandemic. So, can glycans be exploited to detect COVID-19 and other infectious diseases? And is this technology sensitive and accurate? Here, I discuss the structure and function of glycans, the current glycan-based therapeutics and how glycan binding can be exploited for detection of infectious disease, like COVID-19.

Aquamoleculomics: A Thermodynamic Cornerstone of Systems Biology

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zilin Nie ◽  
Yanming Nie
Keyword(s):  
Systems Biology ◽  
Thermodynamic Characteristics ◽  
Living System ◽  
Structure And Function ◽  
Biological Processes ◽  
Modern Biology ◽  
Cell Tissue ◽  
Novel Concept ◽  
And Function ◽  
Current Systems

Systems biology has been established for more than a decade in the post-genomic era. With the help of the computational and mathematical tools, systems biology reconstitutes the entire scenario of the cell, tissue and even organism from the pieces data generated in the past decades. However, the modern biology is mainly focusing on the structure and function of the biomolecule, cell, tissue or organ, which are far from the essence of the life because of missing thermodynamic information. It is doubtable that the current systems biology-based omics is no-how to fully understand the dynamic courses of the structure, function and information in life. For this reason, we promote a novel concept of aquamoleculomics, in which the biological structure and function as well as thermodynamic characteristics and bioinformation of the aquamolecule complexes are included in this theoretical model of systems biology. Water is mother of life, matter and matrix of organism. Indeed, the fundamental roles of H2O molecules in biological processes might be dramatically underestimated. Extremely speaking, H2O networks in the living system might be engaged in all the biological processes including building all the biological structures, the residential places of the motherhood molecules as the honeycombs of honeybees.

scholarly journals Polyamines Mediate Folding of Primordial Hyper-Acidic Helical Proteins

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dragana Despotović ◽  
Liam M. Longo ◽  
Einav Aharon ◽  
Amit Kahana ◽  
Tali Scherf ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Nucleic Acids ◽  
Structure And Function ◽  
Biological Processes ◽  
Phosphodiester Backbone ◽  
Chemical Chaperones ◽  
Disordered Protein ◽  
Early Proteins ◽  
Amine Groups ◽  
Helical Proteins ◽  
And Function

AbstractPolyamines are known to mediate diverse biological processes, and specifically to bind and stabilize compact conformations of nucleic acids, acting as chemical chaperones that promote folding by offsetting the repulsive negative charges of the phosphodiester backbone. However, whether and how polyamines modulate the structure and function of proteins remains unclear. Further, early proteins are thought to have been highly acidic, like nucleic acids, due to a scarcity of basic amino acids in the prebiotic context. Perhaps polyamines, the abiotic synthesis of which is simple, could have served as chemical chaperones for such primordial proteins? We replaced all lysines of an ancestral 60-residue helix-bundle protein to glutamate, resulting in a disordered protein with 21 glutamates in total. Polyamines efficiently induce folding of this hyper-acidic protein at sub-millimolar concentrations, and their potency scaled with the number of amine groups. Compared to cations, polyamines were several orders of magnitude more potent than Na+, while Mg2+ and Ca2+ had an effect similar to a di-amine, inducing folding at approximately seawater concentrations. We propose that (i) polyamines and dications may have had a role in promoting folding of early proteins devoid of basic residues, and that (ii) coil-helix transitions could be the basis of polyamine regulation in contemporary proteins.

scholarly journals Principles and procedures of orofacial examination

1980 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 3-20
Author(s):  
Robert Mason
Keyword(s):  
Clinical Guidelines ◽  
Structure And Function ◽  
Background Information ◽  
Form And Function ◽  
Systematic Examination ◽  
Oral Form ◽  
And Function ◽  
Provide Background Information

This article discusses various principles and clinical guidelines for a systematic examination of the structure and function of the orofacial areas. The article is intended to provide background information and an examination framework for the clinician who is concerned with describing oral form and function.

scholarly journals Structure and Function of Human Matrix Metalloproteinases

Cells ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (5) ◽  
pp. 1076 ◽  
Author(s):  
Helena Laronha ◽  
Jorge Caldeira
Keyword(s):  
Extracellular Matrix ◽  
Matrix Metalloproteinases ◽  
Structure And Function ◽  
Helical Conformation ◽  
Biological Processes ◽  
Endogenous Inhibitors ◽  
And Function

The extracellular matrix (ECM) is a macromolecules network, in which the most abundant molecule is collagen. This protein in triple helical conformation is highly resistant to proteinases degradation, the only enzymes capable of degrading the collagen are matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs). This resistance and maintenance of collagen, and consequently of ECM, is involved in several biological processes and it must be strictly regulated by endogenous inhibitors (TIMPs). The deregulation of MMPs activity leads to development of numerous diseases. This review shows MMPs complexity.

Structure and function of histone methylation-binding proteins in plants

2016 ◽  
Vol 473 (12) ◽  
pp. 1663-1680 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yanli Liu ◽  
Jinrong Min
Keyword(s):  
Histone Methylation ◽  
Recent Progress ◽  
Structure And Function ◽  
Effector Proteins ◽  
Biological Processes ◽  
Post Translational Modifications ◽  
Regulate Gene Expression ◽  
Histone Modifying Enzymes ◽  
Covalent Modifications ◽  
And Function

Post-translational modifications of histones play important roles in modulating many essential biological processes in both animals and plants. These covalent modifications, including methylation, acetylation, phosphorylation, ubiquitination, SUMOylation and so on, are laid out and erased by histone-modifying enzymes and read out by effector proteins. Recent studies have revealed that a number of developmental processes in plants are under the control of histone post-translational modifications, such as floral transition, seed germination, organogenesis and morphogenesis. Therefore, it is critical to identify those protein domains, which could specifically recognize these post-translational modifications to modulate chromatin structure and regulate gene expression. In the present review, we discuss the recent progress in understanding the structure and function of the histone methylation readers in plants, by focusing on Arabidopsis thaliana proteins.

scholarly journals Remembering John Steele and his models for understanding the structure and function of marine ecosystems

2019 ◽  
Vol 41 (5) ◽  
pp. 609-620
Author(s):  
Thomas R Anderson ◽  
Wendy C Gentleman
Keyword(s):  
North Atlantic ◽  
Marine Ecosystems ◽  
Structure And Function ◽  
Ecosystem Dynamics ◽  
Biological Processes ◽  
Biological Interactions ◽  
Modelling Studies ◽  
Functional Forms ◽  
And Function

Abstract John Steele (1926–2013) is remembered for his ecosystem modelling studies on the role of biological interactions and environment on the structure and function of marine ecosystems, including consequences for fish production and fisheries management. Here, we provide a scientific tribute to Steele focusing on, by means of example, his modelling of plankton predation [Steele and Henderson (1992) The role of predation in plankton models. J. Plankton Res., 14, 157–172] that showed that differences in ecosystem dynamics between the subarctic Pacific and North Atlantic oceans can be explained solely on the basis of zooplankton mortality. The study highlights Steele’s artistry in simplifying the system to a tractable minimal model while paying great attention to the precise functional forms used to parameterize mortality, grazing and other biological processes. The success of this and other works by Steele was in large part due to his effective communication with the rest of the scientific community (especially non-modellers) resulting from his enthusiasm, use of an experiment-like (hypothesis driven) approach to applying his models and by describing simplifications and assumptions in scrupulous detail. We also intend our contribution to remember Steele as the consummate gentleman, notably his humble, behind-the-scenes attitude, his humour and his dedication to enhancing the careers of others.

Using Storyboarding to Model Gene Expression

2015 ◽  
Vol 77 (6) ◽  
pp. 452-457
Author(s):  
Michele Korb ◽  
Shannon Colton ◽  
Gina Vogt
Keyword(s):  
Gene Expression ◽  
Performance Assessment ◽  
Content Knowledge ◽  
Structure And Function ◽  
Next Generation Science Standards ◽  
Biological Processes ◽  
Next Generation ◽  
Science Standards ◽  
And Function ◽  
Crosscutting Concepts

Students often find it challenging to create images of complex, abstract biological processes. Using modified storyboards, which contain predrawn images, students can visualize the process and anchor ideas from activities, labs, and lectures. Storyboards are useful in assessing students’ understanding of content in larger contexts. They enable students to use models to construct explanations, with evidence to support hypotheses – practices emphasized in the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS). Storyboards provide an opportunity for performance assessment of students’ content knowledge against a backdrop of observing patterns, determining scale, and establishing relationships between structure and function – crosscutting concepts within the NGSS framework.

scholarly journals Structure and function of dioxygenases in histone demethylation and DNA/RNA demethylation

IUCrJ ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 1 (6) ◽  
pp. 540-549 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cheng Dong ◽  
Heng Zhang ◽  
Chao Xu ◽  
Cheryl H. Arrowsmith ◽  
Jinrong Min
Keyword(s):  
Gene Expression ◽  
Carbon Dioxide ◽  
Transcriptional Regulation ◽  
Nucleic Acid ◽  
Structure And Function ◽  
Biological Processes ◽  
Chemical Probes ◽  
Histone Demethylation ◽  
Methyl Group ◽  
And Function

Iron(II) and 2-oxoglutarate (2OG)-dependent dioxygenases involved in histone and DNA/RNA demethylation convert the cosubstrate 2OG and oxygen to succinate and carbon dioxide, resulting in hydroxylation of the methyl group of the substrates and subsequent demethylation. Recent evidence has shown that these 2OG dioxygenases play vital roles in a variety of biological processes, including transcriptional regulation and gene expression. In this review, the structure and function of these dioxygenases in histone and nucleic acid demethylation will be discussed. Given the important roles of these 2OG dioxygenases, detailed analysis and comparison of the 2OG dioxygenases will guide the design of target-specific small-molecule chemical probes and inhibitors.

Positioning the interviewer: Strategic uses of embedded orientation in interview narratives

2011 ◽  
Vol 40 (1) ◽  
pp. 13-25 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gabriella Modan ◽  
Amy Shuman
Keyword(s):  
Structure And Function ◽  
Background Information ◽  
Speech Event ◽  
History Of ◽  
And Function ◽  
Ideological Work

AbstractThe structure and function of a sociolinguistic interview sets up a context that affords informants the opportunity to achieve their own goals. We examine how an informant manipulates the reception format of the speech event, using embedded orientation to characterize information as alternately given or new, and the interviewer consequently as an insider or outsider. Whereas previous analyses have examined how embedded orientation highlights or sheds light on information in complicating action clauses, we posit that the content of embedded orientation clauses is important in and of itself. Rather than serving as simply background information, embedded orientation can do important ideological work. In the case here, embedded orientation introduces into the narrative traces of a local story—the history of local Fascism, a topic that is rarely discussed in the teller's community. (Embedded orientation, narrative, sociolinguistic interview)

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