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Recent News and Articles on the Keywords: hold + urchin + man  Related to the article below (Last Update: 8/4/2008)

Nigeria: Tanker Fire Kills 8
AllAfrica.com, Washington - Jul 28, 2008
"I saw area boys (street urchins) taking diesel out of it and I walked passed them. After walking about a mile away, I heard an explosion of the tank. ...
Dali goes to the movies
Lower Hudson Journal news, NY - Jul 11, 2008
Artists like Man Ray and Fernand Leger were experimenting with film about the same time, but only the Dali/Bunuel collaborations took hold of the popular ...
Annie auditions for children and adults set for next week
Meridian Star, MS - Jul 19, 2008
Meridian Little Theatre will hold tryouts for the hit Broadway musical ?Annie,? which will be staged Oct. 2-8. Tryouts for the children roles of Annie and ...

CBS News
Zimbabwe's $100B Bank Note Prized On eBay
CBS News, NY - Jul 24, 2008
Beggars and street urchins rarely bother to pick up such bills dropped on the street. But one recent day in Marondera town outside Harare, traffic stopped ...
Source: Google News

Sea urchin recruitment patterns and implications of commercial fishing -
MJ Tegner, PK Dayton - Science, 1977 - sciencemag.org
... purpuratus fishery and the potential range extension of the urchin-eating sea ... sampled
coralline algae (low, turf-forming plants), cobble, kelp hold- fasts, the ...

Sea Urchin Population Explosion in Southern California Coastal Waters -
WJ North, JS Pearse - Science, 1970 - sciencemag.org
... few decades, and in the place of the hold- ... The high urchin numbers have persisted,
and they have ... unpredictable events that follow environmental change by man. ...

Succession in sea urchin and seaweed abundance in Nova Scotia, Canada -
RJ Miller - Marine Biology, 1985 - Springer
... Sea urchin external disease symptoms were loss of hold on the substratum, inability
to turn upright when placed upside down, few tube feet extended past the ...

Bacteria-Free Sea Urchin Larvae: Selective Uptake of Neutral Amino Acids from Seawater -
DT MANAHAN, JP DAVIS, GC STEPHENS - Science, 1983 - sciencemag.org
... Gudewicz, J. Molnar, MZ Lai, DW Beez- hold, GE Siefring ... 1979); B. Villiger, DG Kelley,
W. Engle- man, C. Kuhn ... Bacteria-Free Sea Urchin Larvae: Selective Uptake ...

Cilia Regeneration in the Sea Urchin Embryo: Evidence for a Pool of Ciliary Proteins -
W Auclair, BW Siegel - Science, 1966 - sciencemag.org
... may offer a suit- able predictive index of drug response in man, and may ... Cilia
Regeneration in the Sea Urchin Embryo: Evidence for a Pool of Ciliary Proteins ...

Destruction of kelp-beds by sea-urchins: A cyclical phenomenon or irreversible degradation? -
KH Mann - Helgoland Marine Research, 1977 - Springer
... in amounts which would enable them to hold sea urchin ... is that lobsters were the only
urchin predators that were being intensively exploited by man. ...

Skepticism fades over pre-Clovis man -
R Lewin - Science, 1989 - sciencemag.org
Skeptcsm Fades Over Pre-Clovis Man ... The Cor- nell archeologist remains virtually the
last hold-out against ... cyclase in the membrane of the sea urchin sperm is ...

… evaluations of substrate types as barriers to sea urchin (Strongylocentrotus spp.) movement -
DR Laur, AW Ebeling, DC Reed - Marine Biology, 1986 - Springer
... or in areas where urchins reach densities high enough to counter surge and hold
their food. ... Himmel- man etal ... (1983) suggested than green urchin numbers decrease ...

The Range of the Sea-urchin Echinus esculentus
DM REID - Journal of Animal Ecology, 1935 - JSTOR
... noted, however, that once it has a firm hold with its ... REID 13. 14 The Range of the
Sea-urchin, Echinus esculentus L ... to be lost in the region of the Isle of Man. ...

MAN AND PLANTS IN ALASKA -
A Hrdli ka - Science, 1937 - sciencemag.org
... in the most favorable spots for man's occupation. ... accumulations consist of ashes,
shells, sea-urchin spines, rotted ... The same might also hold true in principle ...

Source: Google Scholar
 
 

Sea Urchin Genome Suprisingly Similar To Man And May Hold Key To Cures

Article Date: 13 Dec 2006 - 9:00 PST
Sea urchins are small and spiny, they have no eyes and they eat kelp and algae. Still, the sea creature's genome is remarkably similar to humans' and may hold the key to preventing and curing several human diseases, according to a University of Central Florida researcher and several colleagues.

UCF Professor Cristina Calestani was part of the Sea Urchin Genome Sequencing Group, which recently completed sequencing of the sea urchin genome and published its findings in the November issue of Science. The National Institutes of Health funded most of the nine-month project.

The genome of the purple sea urchin is composed by 814 million "letters" coding for 23,300 genes.

Sea urchins are echinoderms, marine animals that originated more than 540 million years ago. The reason for the great interest in sequencing the sea urchin genome is because it shares a common ancestor with humans. Sea urchins are closer to human and vertebrates from an evolutionary perspective than other more widely studied animal models, such as fruit fly or worms. The purple sea urchin, in fact, has 7,000 genes in common with humans, including genes associated with Parkinson's, Alzheimer's and Huntington's diseases and muscular dystrophy.

Article continues below and (thank you)
 
"Another surprise is that this spiny creature with no eyes, nose or hears has genes involved in vision, hearing and smell in humans," Calestani said. "The comparison of human genes with their corresponding ancestral sea urchin genes may give important insight on their function in humans, in the same way the study of history helps understanding the reality of our modern world."

The genome sequencing project was led by Erica Sodergren and George Weinstock at the Baylor College of Medicine-Human Genome Sequencing Center in Houston, along with Dr. Richard Gibbs, director of the Baylor center, and Drs. Eric Davidson and Andrew Cameron at the California Institute of Technology.

Of particular interest to Calestani is the way the sea urchin's immune system works. The human immune system has two components: innate immunity, with which we are born, and acquired immunity, which is the ability to produce antibodies in response to an infection. Sea urchins only have innate immunity, and it is greatly expanded with 10 to 20 times as many genes as in human.

"Considering that sea urchins have a long life span -- some can live up to 100 years -- their immune system must be powerful," Calestani said. "Sea urchins could very well provide a new set of antibiotic and antiviral compounds to fight various infectious diseases."

The sea urchin has been used for many years as a research model to study embryonic development.

Cell development is very complicated. In order to properly regulate just one gene expression of a single-cell layered gut of the sea urchin larva, at least 14 proteins binding the DNA at 50 sites are needed, Calestani said.

"Multiply that hundreds of times and you begin to understand the level of complexity involved in human development," she added.

Using a "simple" creature like the sea urchin embryo to uncover the molecular basis underlying development offers several experimental advantages compared to the use of mice. Raising sea urchin embryos is easy and inexpensive. One female can provide up to 20 millions eggs. The embryos develop in just three days and are transparent. Also, single cells can be easily observed live in the embryos.

"If we know how these biological processes work, then we can begin to figure out how to intercede to repair and to heal," Calestani said. "It holds a lot of promise."

Calestani is continuing her work with sea urchins at UCF in Orlando by examining the development of pigment cells found in the marine creatures. Those cells also might provide some insight into human immunity to diseases.

Calestani, who teaches genetics at UCF, worked with Davidson at Caltech before arriving at UCF.

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Contact: Zenaida Gonzalez Kotala
University of Central Florida
 
 
 
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