Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology Content

Transparent Worms with Glowing Proteins May Help Fertility Treatments

Andy Fell — November 21, 2024 - 2:03pm

The development of maternal egg cells is pivotal for survival – but also precarious. During meiosis, the DNA-containing chromosomes can easily be broken or lost, causing infertility, miscarriage or genetic disorders like Down syndrome. Scientists have struggled to study these crucial cellular events in humans and other mammals.

For This Beetle, ‘Date Night’ Comes Every Other Day

Andy Fell — January 18, 2024 - 8:00am

Life on Earth runs on a 24-hour cycle as the planet turns. Animals and plants have built-in circadian clocks that synchronize metabolism and behavior to this daily cycle. But one beetle is out of sync with the rest of nature.

Immune Cells Drive Sex Reversal in Zebrafish – and Perhaps Fertility Loss in Women

Andy Fell — December 11, 2023 - 10:01am

Female zebrafish (Danio rerio) have an unusual tendency: if their egg cells are damaged, they can turn into males. Bruce Draper, a professor in the 51�ԹϺ�� Davis Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology and Florence Marlow, a professor at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, have discovered that immune cells called macrophages play a key role in this process.

Citrus Greening Bacteria Affects Pest's Sense of Smell

Andy Fell — November 14, 2023 - 12:45pm

A failed field test has led to a major discovery about the Asian citrus psyllid, the insect that spreads the devastating citrus greening disease. According to new research, the bacteria that cause citrus greening can interfere with the insect’s sense of smell, rendering some kinds of insect traps useless. The work is currently available as a preprint.

Using Glowing Fish to Detect Harmful Pesticides

Andy Fell — August 15, 2023 - 10:00am

Birth defects related to chromosomal abnormalities often stem from exposure to chemicals early in the mother’s life. But determining which chemicals are at fault poses a serious challenge — akin to solving a hit-and-run case, decades after the fact. Two researchers in the 51�ԹϺ�� Davis College of Biological Sciences are developing a method that could identify harmful chemicals far more quickly, with the help of red- and green-glowing zebrafish.

Using Hydra to Understand Tissue Regeneration

Andy Fell — March 06, 2023 - 9:33am

The Greek hero Heracles fought a monster called the Hydra, which grew two new heads for each one he lopped off. Heracles was lucky he wasn’t fighting something with the regenerative ability of the real Hydra, which can re-grow its entire body from a few hundred cells. This simple water animal is helping scientists explore how some animals can regrow missing body parts.

Understanding Healthy Function of Tau, Protein Associated with Dementia

Andy Fell — August 25, 2022 - 11:23am

Insoluble tangles of tau protein are found in Alzheimers and other dementias. But the tau protein also has a role in healthy brains. A new study shows how tau modifies microtubules, helping to regulate cell functions.

Study Provides Live View Into Dance of Chromosomes During Meiosis

Andy Fell — April 12, 2022 - 2:42pm

In the choreography of meiosis—the process responsible for sex cell division in all eukaryotic life—the pairing of homologous chromosomes (homologs) is essential. Errors in this process can lead to an incorrect number of chromosomes in sex cells, which can result in birth defects and miscarriages. Despite being studied for more than 100 years, mysteries about the process still abound.

New Technology Solves Mystery of Respiration in Tetrahymena

Andy Fell — March 31, 2022 - 3:05pm

Tetrahymena, a tiny single celled-organism, turns out to be hiding a surprising secret: it’s doing respiration – using oxygen to generate cellular energy – differently from other organisms such as plants, animals or yeasts. The discovery, published March 31 in Science, highlights the power of new techniques in structural biology and reveals gaps in our knowledge of a major branch of the tree of life.

Start Here to Make a Protein

Andy Fell — September 03, 2020 - 4:39pm

Researchers at the University of California, Davis, and the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, U.K., have solved the structure of the complex formed when mRNA is being scanned to find the starting point for translating RNA into a protein. The discovery, published Sept. 4 in Science, provides new understanding of this fundamental process.