Search results for "Lineage"

Defining the Island Dwarfing Rate of an Extinct Sicilian Elephant Using Ancient DNA

2020

Evolution on islands, and the often extreme phenotypic changes associated with it, has attracted much interest from evolutionary biologists. However, measuring the rate of change of a particular phenotypic trait of extinct animals can be challenging, due to the incompleteness of the fossil record. Here, we use combined molecular and fossil evidence to define the minimum and maximum rate of dwarfing in an extinct Mediterranean dwarf elephant from Puntali Cave (Sicily). Despite the challenges associated with recovering ancient DNA from warm climates, we successfully retrieved a mitogenome from a sample with an estimated age between 147,000 and 50,000 years. Our results suggest that this speci…

Evolutionary Study of Disorder in Protein Sequences

2020

Intrinsically disordered proteins (IDPs) contain regions lacking intrinsic globular structure (intrinsically disordered regions, IDRs). IDPs are present across the tree of life, with great variability of IDR type and frequency even between closely related taxa. To investigate the function of IDRs, we evaluated and compared the distribution of disorder content in 10,695 reference proteomes, confirming its high variability and finding certain correlation along the Euteleostomi (bony vertebrates) lineage to number of cell types. We used the comparison of orthologs to study the function of disorder related to increase in cell types, observing that multiple interacting subunits of protein comple…

Crystallization and preliminary crystallographic analysis of the major capsid proteins VP16 and VP17 of bacteriophage P23-77.

2012

The major capsid proteins VP16 and VP17 of bacteriophage P23-77 have been crystallized using both recombinant and purified virus and preliminary diffraction analyses have been performed.

Stem cell populations in the heart and the role of Isl1 positive cells

2013

Cardiac progenitor cells are multipotent stem cells isolated from both embryonic and adult hearts in several species and are able to differentiate at least into smooth muscle cells, endothelial cells and cardiomyocytes. The embryonic origin of these cells has not yet been demonstrated, but it has been suggested that these cells may derive from the first and secondary heart fields and from the neural crest. In the last decade, two diffe-rent populations of cardiac progenitor or stem cells have been identified and isolated, i.e., the Islet1 positive (Isl1+) and c-Kit positive (c-Kit+)/Stem Cell Antigen-1 positive (Sca-1+) cells. Until 2012, these two populations have been considered two separ…

Viruses are ancient parasites that have influenced the evolution of contemporary and archaic forms of life

2010

Author response: PTEN negatively regulates the cell lineage progression from NG2+ glial progenitor to oligodendrocyte via mTOR-independent signaling

2018

Tetralogy of Fallot as a Model to Study Cardiac Progenitor Cell Migration and Differentiation During Heart Development

2009

Tetralogy of Fallot (ToF) has long been considered a congenital disorder that occurs due to environmental alterations during gestation. Recently, several mutated genes have been discovered that are thought to be responsible for the malformations observed in ToF. These genetic mutations, which are microdeletions, are sporadic and are frequently also present in trisomy 21 patients. The ToF malformations can be lethal, but for the last 50 years, surgical repairs that place an artificial patch to repair the four features of ToF have improved the survival of patients with ToF. However, 0.5% to 6% of patients who survive after surgical repair of ToF die of sudden cardiac death caused by ventricul…

Transcription factors controlling development and function of innate lymphoid cells.

2014

Abstract Innate lymphoid cells (ILCs) are a heterogeneous group of lymphocytes, which play an important role in tissue homeostasis at epithelial surfaces. They are scarce in spleen and lymph nodes, but substantial numbers can be found in the intestinal mucosa even at steady state. There, they represent the first line of defence against invading pathogens and contribute to lymphorganogenesis, tissue repair and, when inappropriately activated, immune pathology. Lineage-specific development, function and maintenance of these cells depend on a restricted set of transcription factors that partially emerged as a result of diversification and selection during vertebrate evolution. The differential…

Autobiografía y memoria en el diario de viajes del VI Conde de Fernán Núñez = Autobiography and Memory in the Travel Diary of the VI Count of Fernán …

2016

ResumenEl viaje fue una constante en la vida de don Carlos José Gutiérrez de los Ríos, VI conde de Fernán Núñez (1742-1795). A través de ellos pudo cumplir con su servicio al rey y con sus responsabilidades como cabeza del linaje. Asimismo pudo completar su formación y satisfacer anhelos más personales. De todos sus viajes, los realizados dentro y fuera de España, guardó memoria escrita en un diario de viajes, un documento que, en formato manuscrito, se conservó en su archivo familiar. En un periodo cronológico en el que el viaje y su relato adquirieron especial protagonismo, este trabajo analiza el papel que el viaje jugó en la vida y memoria del VI conde de Fernán Núñez y su impronta dent…

The hypothetical ancestral animal the Urmetazoa: Telomerase activity in sponges [Porifera]

2003

Sponges (Porifera) represent the lowest metazoan phylum, characterized by a pronounced plasticity in the determination of cell lineages, and they are the closest related taxon to the hypothetical ancestral animal, the Urmetazoa, from which the metazoan lineages diverged. In a first approach to elucidate the molecular mechanisms controlling the switch from the cell lineage with a putative indefinite growth capacity to senescent, somatic cells, the activity of the telomerase as an indicator for immortality has been determined. The studies were performed with the marine demosponges Suberites domuncula and Geodia cydonium, in vivo with tissue but also in vitro using the primmorph system. Primmo…