Sleeping sickness parasite shows how cells divide their insidesNovember 08, 2005New Haven, Conn. - Researchers at Yale have brought to light a mechanism that regulates the way an internal organelle, the Golgi apparatus, duplicates as cells prepare to divide, according to a report in Science Express. Graham Warren, professor of cell biology, and his colleagues at Yale study Trypanosoma brucei, the parasite that causes Sleeping Sickness. Like many parasites, it is exceptionally streamlined and has only one of each internal organelle, making it ideal for studying processes of more complex organisms that have many copies in each cell. When thinking about how cells divide, doubling and separating DNA in chromosomes is often the focus. Equally important is the way a cell prepares its internal organelles for distribution. Warren studies the Golgi complex, a membrane compartment in the cytoplasm that delivers newly-made proteins to different membranes in the cell. "Basal bodies in particular and centrosomes in general have been implicated in the biogenesis of a number of membrane-bound organelles," said Warren. "It prompted us to study further their role in Golgi duplication." Warren's group has identified a new cellular structure, distinct from the basal body, involved in the duplication of the Golgi apparatus and defined by a highly-conserved protein, Centrin2. This structure has two lobes - one at the old Golgi, the other where the new Golgi forms. Once a new Golgi has grown, the Centrin structure itself duplicates so that two complete structures, and associated Golgi, are ready to be allocated to daughter cells. Significant recent advances in the molecular genetics of trypanosomes by Elisabetta Ullu and Christian Tschudi's group at Yale, allowed direct manipulation of protein levels using the innate RNA interference (RNAi) system.The relationship between the growing Golgi, the Centrin proteins and other cellular organelles was shown in experiments using RNAi, and visualizing the process was possible with fluorescent protein tags. How this process relates to higher organisms is the focus of present research. Yale University |
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| Related Sleeping Sickness Current Events and Sleeping Sickness News Articles Possible help in fight against muscle-wasting disease A compound already used to treat pneumonia could become a new therapy for an inherited muscular wasting disease, according to researchers at the University of Oregon and the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry in New York. How much is the world spending on neglected disease research and development? The first comprehensive survey of global spending on neglected disease R&D, published in this week's PLoS Medicine, finds that just over $US 2.5 billion was invested into R&D of new products in 2007, with three diseases-HIV/AIDS, TB, and malaria-receiving nearly 80% of the total. Scans show immune cells intercepting parasites Researchers may have identified one of the body's earliest responses to a group of parasites that causes illness in developing nations. DNA chunks, chimps and humans Researchers have carried out the largest study of differences between human and chimpanzee genomes, identifying regions that have been duplicated or lost during evolution of the two lineages. Death by hyperdisease It took less than a decade for native rats to become extinct on the Indian Ocean's previously uninhabited Christmas Island once Eurasian black rats jumped ship onto the island at the turn of the 20th century. 'Deadly dozen' reports diseases worsened by climate change Health experts from the Wildlife Conservation Society today released a report that lists 12 pathogens that could spread into new regions as a result of climate change, with potential impacts to both human and wildlife health and global economies. New UNC laboratory to help track and control tropical diseases The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Public Health has established a new Gillings Innovation Lab to track and map tropical infectious diseases such as malaria, using state-of-the-art molecular and demographic methods. Sleeping sickness finding could lead to earlier diagnosis Sleeping sickness creates a metabolic 'fingerprint' in the blood and urine, which could enable a new test to be developed to diagnose the disease, according to new research published today in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. New drug combination shows promise for African sleeping sickness A small clinical trial in Uganda, conducted within a long-established Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) treatment program for African sleeping sickness, has found that a new combination treatment using the drugs nifurtimox and eflornithine holds promise and deserves further evaluation. Study finds multiple neglected tropical diseases effectively treated with drugs The neglected tropical diseases are a group of 13 infectious diseases, including elephantiasis, hookworm, African sleeping sickness and trachoma, which affect more than 1 billion people worldwide, most of whom live in extreme poverty. More Sleeping Sickness Current Events and Sleeping Sickness News Articles |
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