Publications by authors named "Sara Ord"
Article Synopsis
- Wildlife biodiversity helps keep ecosystems healthy and strong.
- Scientists study this diversity to learn more about life and how it started.
- Due to the rapid loss of various species, immediate action is needed from conservationists, and new techniques like stem cell technologies could help protect animal diversity.
Article Synopsis
- - This study highlights the fat-tailed dunnart (Sminthopsis crassicaudata) as a promising laboratory model for developmental biology, showcasing its unique reproductive monitoring techniques and extensive embryonic development atlas.
- - Researchers tracked female dunnart reproductive cycles, confirmed pregnancies, and provided insightful observations on embryo development stages, especially noting accelerated growth in craniofacial and limb structures compared to other species.
- - The findings underscore the dunnart's potential for enhancing the understanding of marsupial development and offer valuable resources to support biodiversity conservation efforts and research within the scientific community.
Article Synopsis
- This report examines how natural single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) impact the function of the HSPA1A gene, which is crucial for stress response in humans.
- All mutant proteins can still hydrolyze ATP, but three mutants do so at a significantly lower rate than the wild-type, while some show increased reaction entropies.
- Mutations also influence the ability of HSPA1A to refold proteins and prevent apoptosis, with some leading to increased cell death compared to the wild-type, suggesting alterations in the protein's chaperone activities.
Article Synopsis
- Evolutionary mechanisms influence how mutations and genes develop in populations, particularly through their functional effects.
- This study focuses on the Hsp70 genes HSPA1A and HSPA1B, which are crucial for the cellular stress response and linked to various diseases, revealing that these genes evolved through duplications in the lineage of placental mammals.
- The research found that purifying selection maintained the stability of these genes while gene conversion kept their sequences highly conserved, resulting in mostly synonymous mutations and specific regions lacking mutations, ultimately highlighting the balance between evolution and conservation in stress response mechanisms.