Washington, August 30 (ANI): University of Georgia researchers have discovered that the extent of genes under the control of the biological clock in Neurospora crassa, bread mold, is dramatically higher than previously reported.

While only 16 clock-controlled genes had been discovered in Neurospora in more than 40 years of research, the new study has uncovered a remarkable 295 genes that are influenced by the biological clock.

Jonathan Arnold, a professor in the UGA department of genetics and director of the research project, says that that number could be dramatically higher.

"This new finding may help to explain why the clock is so far-reaching in its effects on the organism. We found that some 25 percent of the genes in our model organism appear to be under clock control. I wasn't suspecting anything remotely like that," said Arnold, whose team used a new methodology called Computing Life to yield these discoveries.

Writing about the study in the Public Library of Science One, Arnold said: "It appears the clock influences a number of biological processes, including cell cycling, protein metabolism and varied signalling processes. But perhaps the most important role we've seen so far is the clock's role in ribosome biogenesis."

Ribosomes assemble individual amino acids into polypeptide chains by binding a messenger RNA, and then using this as a template to connect the correct sequence of amino acids.

Since ribosome biogenesis is the process of making ribosomes, the researchers said that the knowledge that the process was under clock control added a dramatic new dimension to the clock's inherent biological value as an adaptation.

The new Computing Life technology, refined in the Arnold and Schuttler labs, integrates several cycles of modeling and experiments to yield discoveries about a genetic network.

Using Computing Life, the scientists were able to unravel how a network of genes and their products tell time, thereby demonstrating the solution of one of the key problems in systems biology.

"The resulting molecular mechanism or genetic network for the clock identified by this mode-guided discovery process will have a broad appeal to geneticists, physiologists and those with an interest in signalling pathways. The methods used to characterize what makes a biological clock tick will have numerous applications in finding genetic networks describing other complex traits in many biological systems," said Arnold.

The discovery also had broad implications for understanding biochemical signalling and other regulatory processes in cells, the researcher added. (ANI)

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Melbourne, Aug 30 (ANI): A genetic test has been developed which can help take action to prevent heart disease, say experts.

Three Australian experts had called for more support to screen families with familial hypercholesterolaemia (FH), which involves a defective gene that prevents liver cells from taking up cholesterol from the blood.

The call follows reports that UK authorities may soon recommend at-risk children under the age of 10 years be screened for the FH gene.

"[The UK proposals] represent an approach we would like to see in Australia," ABC online quoted Dr David Sullivan, president of the Australian Atherosclerosis Society, who spoke at a forum organised by the Australian Science Media Centre in Adelaide.

Sullivan says FH affects up to 1 in 500 Australians but only 7percent of people with the condition are adequately treated.

FH increases the chance of early heart attack and stroke and is probably causing about 10 percent of heart attacks in people under age 60, he says.

Sullivan says half of the men with the usual form of FH develop coronary heart disease before they are 50.

He says a genetic test could help identify FH early so people could take action to prevent heart disease - such as improving diet, preventing smoking, or undertaking drug treatment.

Sullivan says the UK has been researching FH for a relatively long time and more work is needed to tailor a screening program to the specific mutations and circumstances relevant to Australia.

Some experts say while prevention is a laudable aim, genetic tests may not necessarily trigger the preventive health measures people expect.

"Overall, logically it sounds beneficial but we already know people have risks of heart disease and are not able to change their behaviour," says social scientist Associate Professor Sandra Taylor of Central Queensland University.

"They may not have access to the correct information. They may not be able to afford healthier food," Sandra said. (ANI)

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