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Open Days - A peek into our labs and lives
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Open Days 2021
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Check out sessions on a variety of themes in life sciences. Understanding diseases to studying cells and its inner workings to entrepreneurship to career choices - you will find it all.
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Fidelity for partners in pockets of biomolecules
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Recent work from Sankar's lab show how cells have evolved machineries to identify and select the right biomolecules as well as reject the incorrect ones in the myriad of reactions within a cell - lipid metabolism pathway in this case.
Their earlier work had found two kinds of molecules, call them FACLs and FAALs. They are both very similar outwardly and can house fatty acyl AMP molecules within its structure. FACLs allow the entry of a chemical called CoA through a promiscuous pocket to make fatty-acyl CoA. It is a traditionally well-known precursor that makes various kinds of lipids. But FAALs fail to make fatty-acyl CoA. This suggests that CoA cannot go in the FAALs. So, how do FAALs stop the very abundant and easily diffusible CoA?
This study reports that the opening of the promiscuous pocket in FAALs is structurally sealed. This stops the entry of CoA into FAALs. Instead, FAALs have developed another highly selective pocket to allow in, another chemical, very similar to CoA, attached to a protein called Holo-acyl carrier protein. Together with fatty-acyl AMP, they make precursors of active metabolites in bacteria such as antibiotics and complex lipids.
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Y-chromosome - not a bunch of junk DNA
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Studies led by Rachel Jesudasan show a bunch of DNA repeats on mouse Y chromosome that regulate genes expressed from other chromosomes in testis, specifically those required in reproduction. These repeats are species-specific, and might be at the fulcrum of species identity and evolution.
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What happens in a coronavirus infected person?
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Gene analysis of COVID-19 patients hospitalized during the first wave of infections in India by our Bioinformatics team is out now. It shows that smell/ taste associated genes were suppressed, in line with loss of these senses being a key symptom of COVID-19. Expression of many genes associated with respiratory, cardiac, endocrine and neurological systems was also lowered. Genes controlling the body's first line of defense, the innate immune response, were highly activated. On the other hand, pro-inflammatory genes remained normal in these patients.
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Getting the vaccines right
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Inactivated whole viruses are used as vaccines against COVID-19. In this report, Krishnan lab describes the optimal conditions for inactivation of SARS-CoV-2 cultures for the preparation of vaccines. They show that β-propiolactone (BPL) can effectively inactivate SARS-CoV-2 cultures, but doses higher than 1:2000 (v/v) result in loss of antigenicity. This is important as loss of antigenicity would make the preparation ineffective as a vaccine. In addition, higher doses of BPL also cause aggregation of viral particles, thereby potentially compromising the inactivation efficiency.
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Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta - where does it stop?
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Check it out on our brand new website for science communication - SciTales by CCMB.
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Milo CCMB - How can we protect the Deccan ecosystem?
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Our latest discussion is on protecting the Deccan ecosystem. One of the ways is to identify an appropriate representative flagship species and design conservation efforts around it. Dr Karthikeyan Vasudevan suggests the yellow-throated bulbul as an apt candidate for it.
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How can monitoring yellow-throated bulbuls help in protecting the Deccan?
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In our next comics in I'm a Scientist, let's go through Zeba's journey from Patna to Hyderabad, in her quest to become the first scientist in her family.
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DNA fingerprinting technology - Its success and future
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Hear it from a scientist, police officer and a lawyer on DNA fingerprinting technology's possibilities and future in India. Read its summary here.
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International conferences at CCMB - Register soon!
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Check out a wide range of national and international confirmed speakers on a variety of questions dealt by omics tools. And if you are a young student, you might be especially interested in the Education Day.
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If you have enjoyed reading the CCMB Daak, do subscribe and share it with your friends and colleagues!
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Please send us your feedback at socialmedia[at]csirccmb[dot]org. Looking forward to them.
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