The DNA sequence of Laccaria bicolor, a fungus that forms a beneficial symbiosis with trees and inhabits one of the most ecologically and commercially important microbial niches in North American and Eurasian forests, has been determined by the U.S. Department of Energy DOE Joint Genome Institute (DOE JGI). The complete Laccaria genome sequence was announced July 23 at the Fifth International Conference on Mycorrhiza in Granada, Spain by an international consortium comprised of DOE JGI, Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), France's National Institute for Agricultural Research (INRA), the University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH), and Ghent University in Belgium, and additional groups in Germany, Sweden, and France.

Edinburgh scientists have identified the way a specific cell protein can trigger the spread of cancer. The study by researchers in the Cell Signalling Unit, University of Edinburgh Cancer Research Centre could pave the way for new drugs which limit the protein's ability to turn a normal cell cancerous.

Most women at high risk for breast cancer do not increase their life expectancy by taking the drug tamoxifen, according to a new analysis by researchers from UC Davis, UCSF, the University of Pittsburgh and McMaster University in Ontario, Canada. In addition, the researchers showed that tamoxifen is an extraordinarily expensive cancer-prevention strategy, costing as much as $1.3 million per year of life saved. The study will be published in the Sept. 1 issue of the American Cancer Society's journal Cancer, and appear online on Monday.

A gene that is associated with osteoarthritis and skeletal deformities in people has been shown to be responsible for preventing the onset of osteoarthritis in adult mice, according to a recent study led by Rhode Island Hospital. The matrilin-3 gene plays a role in early bone development, controls bone mineral density in adulthood and prevents osteoarthritis later in life.

A prospective population-based study has found that higher estrogen levels in older men are associated with an increased risk of dementia. By contrast, levels of testosterone were not associated with cognitive decline. The study is in the August issue of Annals of Neurology, a journal published by John Wiley & Sons. (http://www.interscience.wiley.com/journal/ana).

Researchers at the Virginia Bioinformatics Institute (VBI) at Virginia Tech have developed a computational model that allows scientists to better understand the metabolism and toxicity of the HIV/AIDS drug zidovudine (azidothymidine, AZT).

It's common knowledge that genes control traits such as eye and hair color. But a large group of scientists from two continents has found that the genes of one organism not only control the characteristics of that individual but also dictate the behavior of thousands of other organisms in a community.