Botulinum toxin (BoNT) to facilitate 'muscle relaxation', in combination with a 'light' filler for 'dermal treatment' and a 'heavy' filler for 'lifting capacity'.

Reprogramming of cellular metabolism is a key event during tumorigenesis. Despite being known for decades (Warburg effect), the molecular mechanisms regulating this switch remained unexplored. Here, we identify SIRT6 as a tumor suppressor that regulates aerobic glycolysis in cancer cells. Importantly, loss of SIRT6 leads to tumor formation without activation of known ...

Objective To assess the risk of variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (vCJD) associated with dental treatment.Design Case-control study, investigation of links between cases.Setting National CJD surveillance, general dental practice and practice boards in Great Britain, 2008-2009.Methods Variant CJD cases were recruited from all those referred between May 1995 and August 2009 (n ...

Cowchock syndrome (CMTX4) is a slowly progressive X-linked recessive disorder with axonal neuropathy, deafness, and cognitive impairment. The disease locus was previously mapped to an 11 cM region at chromosome X: q24-q26. Exome sequencing of an affected individual from the originally described family identified a missense change c.1478A>T (p.Glu493Val) in ...

For those on bisphosphonates, the response to orthodontic forces should be ascertained before embarking on complex treatment.

Ten-Eleven Translocation (Tet) family of dioxygenases dynamically regulates DNA methylation and has been implicated in cell lineage differentiation and oncogenesis. Yet their functions and mechanisms of action in gene regulation and embryonic development are largely unknown. Here, we report that Xenopus Tet3 plays an essential role in early eye and ...

Bacteria lack many of the features that eukaryotic cells use to compartmentalize cytoplasm and membranes. In this issue, Schlimpert et al. describe a new mechanism of spatial confinment in the bacterium Caulobacter crescentus that prevents the exchange of soluble and membrane proteins between the stalk and cell body.

In this issue of Cell Stem Cell, Buckley et al. (2012) show that the ubiquitin-proteasome system (UPS) regulates pluripotency in embryonic stem cells and induced pluripotent stem cells, opening the door to a better understanding at the system level of protein dynamics responsible for the maintenance and induction of pluripotency.

Estimation of narrow-sense heritability, h(2), from genome-wide SNPs genotyped in unrelated individuals has recently attracted interest and offers several advantages over traditional pedigree-based methods. With the use of this approach, it has been estimated that over half the heritability of human height can be attributed to the ~300,000 SNPs on ...

The detection of carious lesions is focused on the identification of early mineral changes to allow the demineralisation process to be managed by non-invasive interventions. The methods recommended for clinical diagnosis of initial carious lesions are discussed and illustrated. These include the early detection of lesions, evaluation of the extent ...

There are at least five families of microbe-detection receptors that function to detect and eradicate potentially infectious microorganisms that enter multicellular eukaryotes. While a multitude of proteins regulating innate immune signal transduction have already been defined, continuous genetic screening for regulators of innate immunity may not yield as significant insight ...

The two winners of the 2012 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine share more than just this honor; they are both also fearless adventurers, in science and beyond.

Determining the drivers of gene expression patterns is more straightforward in laboratory conditions than in the complex fluctuating environments where organisms typically live. We gathered transcriptome data from the leaves of rice plants in a paddy field along with the corresponding meteorological data and used them to develop statistical models ...

The rewiring of metabolism in cancer is thought to result from hyperactivation of signaling pathways that instruct cells to grow. Sebastian et al. show that loss of the tumor suppressor SIRT6 transforms cells by activating tumor metabolism. This occurs independently of mutations in canonical growth signaling pathways and reveals a tumorigenic ...

PGC-1α is a transcriptional coactivator induced by exercise that gives muscle many of the best known adaptations to endurance-type exercise but has no effects on muscle strength or hypertrophy. We have identified a form of PGC-1α (PGC-1α4) that results from alternative promoter usage and splicing of the primary transcript. PGC-1α4 ...

Mitochondrial energy production is a tightly regulated process involving the coordinated transcription of several genes, catalysis of a plethora of posttranslational modifications, and the formation of very large molecular supercomplexes. The regulation of mitochondrial activity is particularly important for the brain, which is a high-energy-consuming organ that depends on oxidative ...

A meeting on Biodiversity Technologies was held by the Biodiversity Institute, Oxford on the 27-28 of September 2012 at the Department of Zoology, University of Oxford. The symposium brought together 36 speakers from North America, Australia and across Europe, presenting the latest research on emerging technologies in biodiversity science and ...

The circulating FGFs are a new group of proteins believed to function as classic hormones. With emphasis on human metabolism, we critically review current data, and propose that-although a number of questions remain-circulating FGF23 is pivotal in the control of phosphate and vitamin D metabolism, and may have additional systemic ...

The rise of dinosaurs was a major event in vertebrate history, but the timing of the origin and early diversification of the group remain poorly constrained. Here, we describe Nyasasaurus parringtoni gen. et sp. nov., which is identified as either the earliest known member of, or the sister-taxon to, Dinosauria. ...

Metabolic sensing neurons are conserved across multiple animal species and allow the organism to monitor nutrient availability to maintain energy homeostasis. Miyamoto et al. (2012) describe fly neurons that are highly tuned to fructose availability and are critical determinants of ingestive behavior on a diet of simple sugars.

We routinely form impressions of people from their faces, and these impressions sometimes contain a kernel of truth. Impressions of trustworthiness are central to interpersonal relationships, but their accuracy remains contentious. Here, we investigated whether sexual trustworthiness (faithfulness) can be accurately judged from opposite-sex strangers' faces. Women's ratings of men's ...

In the mouse liver, circadian transcriptional rhythms are necessary for metabolic homeostasis. Whether dynamic epigenomic modifications are associated with transcript oscillations has not been systematically investigated. We found that several antisense RNA, lincRNA, and microRNA transcripts also showed circadian oscillations in adult mouse livers. Robust transcript oscillations often correlated with ...

Caloric restriction (CR) mitigates many detrimental effects of aging and prolongs life span. CR has been suggested to increase mitochondrial biogenesis, thereby attenuating age-related declines in mitochondrial function, a concept that is challenged by recent studies. Here we show that lifelong CR in mice prevents age-related loss of mitochondrial oxidative capacity ...

The Tasmanian devil (Sarcophilus harrisii) is at risk of extinction owing to the emergence of a contagious cancer known as devil facial tumour disease (DFTD). The emergence and spread of DFTD has been linked to low genetic diversity in the major histocompatibility complex (MHC). We examined MHC diversity in historical ...

Heme plays fundamental roles as cofactor and signaling molecule in multiple pathways devoted to oxygen sensing and utilization in aerobic organisms. For cellular respiration, heme serves as a prosthetic group in electron transfer proteins and redox enzymes. Here we report that in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, a heme-sensing mechanism translationally ...

Bacterial populations in clinical and laboratory settings contain a significant proportion of mutants with elevated mutation rates (mutators). Mutators have a particular advantage when multiple beneficial mutations are needed for fitness, as in antibiotic resistance. Nevertheless, high mutation rates potentially lead to increasing numbers of deleterious mutations and subsequently to ...

Type 2 diabetes is characterized by insulin resistance, and the hyperinsulinemia commonly observed in patients is thought to be a compensatory response. Yet it has been difficult to disentangle cause and effect. Mehran et al. (2012) provide genetic evidence that a reduction of insulin secretion prevents high-fat feeding-induced obesity.

Mice lacking the Jak tyrosine kinase member Tyk2 become progressively obese due to aberrant development of Myf5+ brown adipose tissue (BAT). Tyk2 RNA levels in BAT and skeletal muscle, which shares a common progenitor with BAT, are dramatically decreased in mice placed on a high-fat diet and in obese humans. ...

Birds are known to respond to nest-dwelling parasites by altering behaviours. Some bird species, for example, bring fresh plants to the nest, which contain volatile compounds that repel parasites. There is evidence that some birds living in cities incorporate cigarette butts into their nests, but the effect (if any) of ...

Glycogen metabolism operates as an alternative energy source, enabling cell growth under conditions of metabolic stress. Favaro et al. (2012) now demonstrate that in hypoxic cancer cells, depletion of liver glycogen phosphorylase causes glycogen accumulation, leading to oxidative stress, induction of senescence, and impaired tumor growth in vivo.

Abnormal splicing of LMNA gene or aberrant processing of prelamin A results in progeroid syndrome. Here we show that lamin A interacts with and activates SIRT1. SIRT1 exhibits reduced association with nuclear matrix (NM) and decreased deacetylase activity in the presence of progerin or prelamin A, leading to rapid depletion of ...

Considering the explosive increase in obesity worldwide, there must be an unknown mechanism(s) promoting energy accumulation under conditions of overnutrition. We identified a feed-forward mechanism favoring energy storage, originating in hepatic glucokinase (GK) upregulation. High-fat feeding induced hepatic GK upregulation, and hepatic GK overexpression dose-dependently decreased adaptive thermogenesis by downregulating ...

Hyperinsulinemia is associated with obesity and pancreatic islet hyperplasia, but whether insulin causes these phenomena or is a compensatory response has remained unsettled for decades. We examined the role of insulin hypersecretion in diet-induced obesity by varying the pancreas-specific Ins1 gene dosage in mice lacking Ins2 gene expression in the ...

How do gene regulatory networks evolve? A new study in yeasts shows that cis- and trans-regulatory changes resulted in a hybrid state of coexisting ancestral and derived regulatory circuits. This hybrid state then diversified into a variety of modern networks.

The processes underlying the large-scale reorganisation of chromatin in mitosis that form compact mitotic chromosomes and ensure the fidelity of chromosome segregation during cell division still remain obscure. The chromosomal condensin complex is a major molecular effector of chromosome condensation and segregation in diverse organisms ranging from bacteria to humans. ...

Host-plant specialization plays a key role in insect evolution, but little is known about its molecular basis. A new paper shows that a cactus-feeding fly became restricted to its host by changes in an enzyme that converts dietary sterols into essential hormones.

Despite decades of research there are still basic aspects of planar cell polarity that are not well understood. Recent work in mouse tracheal epithelial cells links microtubules with both establishing asymmetry as well as responding to this asymmetry to coordinate cellular orientation.

The massive nuclear pore complex mediates nucleocytoplasmic traffic ranging from a single histone to a viral genome. To date, dissecting mechanism has been more an exercise in prediction than biochemical certainty. A recent study combines recombinant proteins with nuclei reconstituted in vitro to test predictions in a startlingly productive manner.

'How many species are there?' is a basic question about life. From Acoela worms to Zoantharia corals, oceans are taxonomically more divergent than land. Answering the question requires many experts.

Mycorrhizal root endosymbiosis is an ancient property of land plants. Two parallel studies now provide novel insight into the mechanism driving this interaction and how it is used by other filamentous microbes like pathogenic oomycetes.

Scientists long thought they knew what the wings of early birds looked like. But new reconstructions of Archaeopteryx and its kin suggest quite different feather arrangements on their wings with profound implications for the evolution of flight.

Information relevant for social interactions is thought to be processed in specific neural circuits. Recent studies shed new light on how that social information is encoded and processed by different brain areas.

Pacemaker cells are specialized cell types that drive biological rhythms like the heartbeat and intestinal peristalsis. What determines whether a cell functions as a pacemaker? Studies in Caenorhabditis elegans suggest that pacemaking activity may be controlled in part by microRNAs.

Animals that live or repeatedly alight on the surface of water often need to escape from predators or return to land. We show that flightless pygmy mole crickets use a new strategy to jump rapidly from water. Their powerful hind legs are moved so quickly that they penetrate the surface ...

To identify and examine factors that affect postoperative binocularity in children diagnosed with acquired nonaccommodative esotropia (ANAET). Retrospective chart review. Thirty-four pediatric patients who received surgery for ANAET by 1 surgeon (I.M.) at the Ivey Eye Institute, University of Western Ontario (London, Ont.). A multivariate logistic regression analysis was performed ...

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a progressive disease associated with a cellular inflammatory response mostly concerned with cigarette smoking. Chemokine receptors CCR1/5 play an important role in the inflammatory cells recruitment in the lung of COPD patients. The aim of this study was to determine the impact of cigarette ...

Voltage-gated K(+) (Kv) channels are known to be associated with the proliferation of several types of cancer cells, including lung adenocarcinoma cells, and certain Kv channel blockers inhibit cancer cell proliferation. In the present study, we investigated the effects of Kv channel blockers in gefitinib-resistant H460 non-small cell lung cancer ...

On behalf of the Drug Metabolism Discussion Group, Regulatory Bioanalysis AstraZeneca (UK) recently organized and hosted an extremely successful Drug Metabolism Discussion Group Short Meeting on 'microsampling - the next big thing'. This attracted over 140 delegates and a strong line up of presenters of respected scientists within the field. ...

Kingella kingae is a bacterium that colonizes the upper respiratory tract. Despite its low pathogenicity in this location, previous respiratory pathological processes may favor its systemic spread causing bone and joint infections, mainly in children under five years. It can be considered an emerging pathogen in osteoarticular infection in pediatric ...

With economic growth and urbanization there have been significant changes in the life style and diet of urban residents in large cities of China, which is experiencing a rapid increase in the prevalence of diabetes. While high prevalence of diabetes has been reported, little is known of the long-term effects ...