How do pollen particles provoke allergic reactions? A new study in the February 21 issue of The Journal of Experimental Medicine puts some of the blame on bioactive molecules that are released from pollen. These molecules bind to immune cells and cause them to launch a typical allergy-promoting immune response. Pollen from plants exposed to air pollutants produce more of these allergy-provoking compounds than do pollen from unpolluted areas, possibly explaining why allergies are more prevalent in places with high levels of car exhaust emissions.

After the completion of a draft sequence of the Chinese hybrid rice genome, which was published in the Journal Science in 2002, CAS researchers have recently finished the fine map of the rice genome. In an article published by the recent issue of PLoS Biology (Vol.3 Issue 2, 2005), scientists led by the Beijing Institute of Genomics (BIG) reported a "much improved, near-complete genome analysis of the indica and japonica subspecies of O. sativa."

The fine maps of the rice genome sequences will lay a solid foundation for studying the differences among strains of rice and shed insight into mechanisms of hybrid advantages at a new level, according to BIG researchers.

Scientists have a pretty good handle on how to teach human cells to do tricks in a laboratory---things like getting soft cells from the mouth's lining to form bone.

But in the real world, accomplishing such feats is more complex. Regenerating the jaw bone of a person undergoing radiation therapy for cancer means managing the constant bacteria bath of a human mouth as well as compensating for the damage of radiation.

"It's not just a question of whether we can make new tissue in a perfect condition. Now we're mimicking what can really happen in a person, and we don't know if the rules of regeneration might be totally different," said Paul Krebsbach, associate professor at the U-M School of Dentistry.

Thanks to a handful of very special mice, scientists have discovered a new tumor suppressor gene and a unique chemical signature implicated in the development of human leukemia, findings that open up a "treasure box" of opportunity and possibility, study authors say.

Researchers in The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center bred a type of mouse that develops acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). The mouse first goes through a pre-leukemic stage marked by rapidly expanding T cells and natural killer cells, both major components of the immune system.

In comparing the mice in the pre-leukemic stage and those with ALL with normal mice, researchers found that methylation, a chemical process that adds methyl molecules to DNA, silenced a number of genes – but only in the mice with full-blown ALL.

The March 2005 issue of Biology of Reproduction contains a report of some intriguing findings in cloned offspring created when nuclei from one genus of fish were transplanted to enucleated eggs of another genus of fish.

The seven offspring, cloned from nuclei of common carp and egg cytoplasm of goldfish, were virtually identical to the nuclear donor species, Cyprinus carpio, in appearance and in most physical traits. The number of vertebrae in the clones, however, was in the range of the recipient species, Carassius auratus.

New biomolecular technologies have largely failed to deliver the hoped-for knockout punch breakthrough against the defences of disease-causing bacteria, says a leading Canadian specialist in antibiotic resistance.

Techniques such as genomic sequencing and high throughput screening were expected to make the development of new antibiotic compounds easier and more productive. But in most cases the microbes continue to hold the upper hand – and if three billion years of bacterial history is any kind of track record, we're in for an endless running battle, says Dr. Julian Davies, a microbiologist at the University of British Columbia.