Latest Steroid hormone Stories
Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB Barcelona) Looking at the transformation of a fly larva into a pupa may help researchers to understand the molecular mechanisms that trigger puberty. A study conducted on the fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster, by scientists at the Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB Barcelona) led by ICREA research professor Marco Milán, identifies an miRNA as key to the relationship between hormones that control growth and sexual maturity. According to...
In the body's ongoing effort to maintain a healthy weight, an arsenal of cellular proteins called androgen receptors is critical for blocking fat accumulation. Now researchers reporting in the September issue of the Cell Press Journal Chemistry & Biology have discovered that naturally occurring steroids called glucocorticoids can thwart the receptors' activity, ultimately encouraging fat buildup. "This has implications in this era of an obesity epidemic," says senior author Dr. Michael...
Thomas Jefferson University researchers uncover how two nuclear receptors -- EcR/Usp and E75A -- work against each other during Drosophila metamorphosis Growing up just got more complicated. Thomas Jefferson University biochemistry researchers have shown for the first time that the receptor for a major insect molting hormone doesn't activate and repress genes as once thought. In fact, it only activates genes, and it is out-competed by a heme-binding receptor to repress the same genes...
University of Alberta researchers have identified a key regulator that controls the speed of development in the fruit fly. When the researchers blocked the function of this regulator, animals sped up their rate of development and reached maturity much faster than normal. The U of A research team, led by molecular geneticist Kirst King-Jones, noticed a peculiar behaviour of the protein they were studying, DHR4: The protein acted as a sentinel to either allow or prohibit the production of...
Scientists have known for some time how important plant steroids called brassinosteroids are for regulating plant growth and development. But until now, they did not know how extensive their reach is. Now researchers, including Yu Sun and Zhi-Yong Wang at Carnegie's Department of Plant Biology, have identified about a thousand brassinosteroid target genes, which reveal molecular links between the steroid and numerous cellular functions and other hormonal and light-activated chain reactions....
In a study with important consequences for studies on the effects of chemicals on steroid responses in humans, a team of French and American scientists, including Michael E. Baker, PhD, professor in UC San Diego's Department of Medicine, Division of Nephrology-Hypertension, have found that "“ contrary to earlier assumptions "“ enzymes used for the synthesis of steroids in insects, snails, octopuses and corals are unrelated to those used in humans.The research, led by a team at the...
A particular nuclear hormone receptor called DAF-12 and molecules called microRNAs in the let-7 family form a molecular switch that encourages cells in the larvae of a model worm to shift to a more developed state, said a consortium led by researchers from Baylor College of Medicine (www.bcm.edu) in a report that appears online today in the journal Science (www.sciencemag.org). As organisms go through the stages of life, hormones coordinate the changes. Nuclear receptors respond to hormones...
