Bioscience News - GEG Tech top picks

Scientists set out to prove experimentally what they had first deduced from computational studies: that the apple plasminogen-nematode domain, or PAN, is linked to cell proliferation that drives tumor growth in humans and defense signaling during plant-microbe interactions in bioenergy crops. The association was first made when researchers explored the genomes of crops like poplar and willow. In the latest study, the research team identified four core amino acids called cysteine residues in the HGF protein essential for PAN domain function and studied their behavior in human cancer cell lines. They found that mutation of one of these amino acids, achieved using CRISPR-9, disabled the signaling pathway known as HGF-c-MET that is abnormally high in cancer cells, forcing them to multiply and spread rapidly. The team's findings, published in Nature Communications Biology, open a new avenue for the development of selective drug therapies to fight a variety of cancers such as those that start in the breast and stomach.