This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:

"Colorectal cancer is the fourth most common cancer and the fifth leading cause of cancer death worldwide. Two important hallmarks of the disease are faulty tumor suppressor genes and altered composition of the community of microbes that live in the colon. That prompted researchers to explore whether there is a connection between the two. They examined 33 tissue samples from patients with colorectal cancer. Protein-assisted DNA sequencing revealed the prominence of Fusobacterium nucleatum, pathogenic bacteria associated with gum disease, and Hungatella hathewayi, rod-shaped bacteria with no substantial track record of causing disease. Further experiments showed that these bacteria can actually mute genes that normally suppress cancer, promoting the spread of colorectal cancer cells. The findings are unexpected evidence that bacteria in the colon can regulate genes linked to cancer suppression and reveal at least a few targets for anti-cancer therapy..."

The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.

Biology is designed for multi-semester biology courses for science majors. It is grounded on an evolutionary basis and includes exciting features that highlight careers in the biological sciences and everyday applications of the concepts at hand. To meet the needs of today’s instructors and students, some content has been strategically condensed while maintaining the overall scope and coverage of traditional texts for this course. Instructors can customize the book, adapting it to the approach that works best in their classroom. Biology also includes an innovative art program that incorporates critical thinking and clicker questions to help students understand—and apply—key concepts.

By the end of this section, you will be able to:Describe how changes to gene expression can cause cancerExplain how changes to gene expression at different levels can disrupt the cell cycleDiscuss how understanding regulation of gene expression can lead to better drug design

This lesson is a self contained lesson on DNA structure.  It will keep the students busy for days and days and even a week or more.  There is no associated lecture.  It requires no knowledge of DNA or biology or anything.  The learning objective is the structure of DNA and nothing more.DNA in cells is elegant in its simplicity.  Catch your breath DNA is elegant in its simplicity.  Both are made of four things and both can only go together in one way.The core of this cool lesson plan is a paper template.  The students will be coloring the bases and cutting them out.  They can only go together one way and the students will see that.The paper templates are made on an ordinary copy machine and the template is included in the literature.  The templates are copied front and back with a front and back template. But it is not great trick.  The download includes all information and there is a video for the teacher and a video for the kids.The lesson plan is suitable for all students, from 4th grade up.  It would be suitable for college as well.The documentation can be found here https://app.box.com/s/hlhung3gz5heqmno82yc0xwfs7zl2puhIt references the videos.  But the videos is here:https://youtu.be/1BiTYfTpTu4Licensed under Creative Commons ...mrphysh

During development a single totipotent cell gives rise to the vast array of cell types present in the adult human body, yet each cell has essentially the same DNA sequence. As cells differentiate, distinct sets of genes must be coordinately activated and repressed, ultimately leading to a cell-type specific pattern of gene expression and a particular cell fate. In eukaryotic organisms, DNA is packaged in a complex protein super structure known as chromatin. Modification and reorganization of chromatin play a critical role in coordinating the cell-type specific gene expression programs that are required as a cell transitions from a pluripotent stem cell to a fully differentiated cell type. Epigenetics refers to such heritable changes that occur in chromatin without altering the primary DNA sequence. This class will focus on the role of epigenetic regulation with respect to developmental fate and also consider the fact that the epigenetic mechanisms discussed have broad implications, including how seemingly normal cells can be transformed into cancerous cells.
This course is one of many Advanced Undergraduate Seminars offered by the Biology Department at MIT. These seminars are tailored for students with an interest in using primary research literature to discuss and learn about current biological research in a highly interactive setting. Many instructors of the Advanced Undergraduate Seminars are postdoctoral scientists with a strong interest in teaching.

This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:

"Endometrial cancer is the most common form of uterine cancer and is most frequently diagnosed in women over 55. A new study proposes a key mechanism that promotes the formation of endometrial tumors. It starts with ERα, one of two receptors activated by the sex hormone estrogen. Experiments on human cancer cells showed that activating ERα significantly increased the expression of the protein PIWIL1, which is detected in different forms of cancer in both men and women. A closer look revealed that ERα binds to a unique site of the PIWIL1 gene known as a half-ERE. That binding signals the expression of the PIWIL1 protein and thereby promotes tumor growth. Understanding how this estrogen-stimulated pathway works in the female body could help researchers and clinicians expand treatment options available to women with endometrial cancer..."

The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.

This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:

"The concept of trained immunity suggests that exposure to nonpathogenic microbes or their metabolites can enhance an organism’s immune response later in life. But while trained immunity has been addressed by many studies focusing on vertebrate animals, little is known about its role in invertebrates. A recent study showed that microorganism exposure early in development increased the survival of the Pacific oyster when challenged with infectious disease. Researchers cultured Pacific oysters in filtered and UV-treated seawater that had either been enriched with naturally occurring microbes or unmanipulated as a control. These oysters and their offspring were then exposed to the virus that causes Pacific oyster mortality syndrome, a disease that devastates oyster farms worldwide. The team found increased survival not only among the oysters directly exposed to the microbe-enriched seawater but also among their progeny..."

The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.

This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:

"Underground plant-associated microbiomes – soil, root, and rhizosphere – are critical to plant health and growth. Plant growth-promoting bacteria (PGPB) are being identified and tested to increase crop productivity and improve sustainability. However, the bacteria introduced as PGPB usually do not persist in soils, despite improving plant growth. If PGPB are promoting plant growth without establishing in the environment or plant microbiome, how are they continuing to influence plant growth? To answer this question, a recent study examined the influence of PGPB treatment on pokeweed. The PGPB inocula in this study had little influence on the rhizosphere microbiome assembly and did not colonize the plant roots. Instead, the PGPB induced DNA methylation in the roots. Methylation is an epigenetic mechanism that influences which genes are expressed and is sometimes passed on to offspring..."

The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.

This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:

"Does skeletal muscle have a memory? That’s the question researchers from the UK set out to answer in one of their most recent studies. Their finding: Yes, muscle memory is real. But it’s not quite the same type of memory you might be thinking of. This is memory of previous muscle growth—even after a period of muscle loss. The implications for athletes looking to bulk up is clear. But the results could also clue clinicians in on how to help patients retain muscle mass into older age. The researchers analyzed more than 850,000 sites on human DNA, discovering distinct patterns in how genes in these regions were chemically marked or unmarked during periods of exercise or no exercise. One cluster of genes lost its tags during muscle growth following exercise, kept them off after a period of no exercise, and lost even more during a second exercise period. Known as an epigenetic modification, this “untagging of DNA” is associated with switching gene expression on..."

The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.

This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:

"In prokaryotes, DNA methylation participates in numerous cellular processes. Most studies on prokaryotic methylation have been conducted in culturable microbes, but the majority of environmental bacteria aren’t culturable. Therefore, the real-world diversity and functions of microbial methylation remain unclear. To learn more, researchers recently analyzed the microbes in Pacific Ocean seawater samples using meta-epigenomics. Through short- and long-read sequencing, they reconstructed 15,056 viral, 252 prokaryotic, 56 giant viral, and 6 eukaryotic metagenome-assembled genomes, most of which represented novel taxa. Single-molecule real-time (SMRT) sequencing revealed that DNA methylation was present across the dominant bacterial, archaeal, and viral populations and showed that epigenetic marks were correlated with population differentiation..."

The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.

This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:

"Does skeletal muscle have a memory? That’s the question researchers from the UK set out to answer in one of their most recent studies. Their finding: Yes, muscle memory is real. But it’s not quite the same type of memory you might be thinking of. This is memory of previous muscle growth—even after a period of muscle loss. The implications for athletes looking to bulk up is clear. But the results could also clue clinicians in on how to help patients retain muscle mass into older age. The researchers analyzed more than 850,000 sites on human DNA, discovering distinct patterns in how genes in these regions were chemically marked or unmarked during periods of exercise or no exercise. One cluster of genes lost its tags during muscle growth following exercise, kept them off after a period of no exercise, and lost even more during a second exercise period. Known as an epigenetic modification, this “untagging of DNA” is associated with switching gene expression on..."

The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.

This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:

"Non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) is one of the most common cancers worldwide. To better understand factors involved in carcinogenesis, a recent study examined the contribution of one class of proteins. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small non-coding RNAs that regulate the expression of target genes. The study focused on one miRNA family member: miR-1250, which is embedded in the second intron of its host gene, apoptosis-associated tyrosine kinase (AATK). Researchers studied the methylation status of AATK/miR-1250 in healthy controls compared to that in lymphoma cell lines and 120 primary lymphoma samples. They found that while AATK/miR -1250 was not methylated in healthy peripheral blood and tonsils. in NHL cell lines and patient samples, methylation was detected, correlating with repression of miR-1250-5p and AATK expression. Restoring miR-1250-5p resulted in decreased cell proliferation as well as enhanced apoptosis and cell death..."

The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.

This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:

"Early detection of breast cancer can be the deciding factor between successful treatment and death. But mammography – the most common detection method – doesn’t always find tumors before cancer has spread. Now, using only a sample of blood, an international research team has found a way to identify fatal breast cancers up to 12 months before they’re usually diagnosed. The blood test can even find cancer before tumors become visible, creating new possibilities for early treatment. To develop the test, the researchers first identified DNA signatures specific to breast cancer. Cancer cells shed small pieces of DNA into the blood. This genetic material carries unique DNA methylation patterns. DNA methylation is an epigenetic modification, meaning it can alter gene function even when the gene’s sequence stays the same. Because methylation patterns change very early in breast cancer development, they offer a promising detection tool..."

The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.