Mobile genes are DNA sequences able to move and insert into the genome. They constitute more than 50% of the human genome and 28% of that of Drosophila (Fruit fly). They are an important source of mutations because they promote chromosomal arrangements and insert into genes and regulatory regions. This work is based in one of these transposable...
The Bellingshausen Sea is a remote part of the ocean surrounding the Antarctic, isolated, inhospitable and almost unexplored. A Hespérides expedition has managed to study the fauna which inhabit this region. Examples of 23 species of fish have been studied and at present we are in the process of...
The evolution of large brains in vertebrates, such as primates or parrots, poses a paradox for scientists: if the possession of a large brain carries with it great production and maintenance costs, then why have some animals developed such large brains? A classical...
Islands are specially vulnerable spaces to the invasions of exotic plants. UAB researchers have validated this hypothesis in the case of the Oxalis pes-caprae plant species. They have studied its presence in the Balearic Islands. The results show that Oxalis reproduces much more in the islands than in other Spanish continental zones.
The history of radioactivity, traditionally considered a mere antecedent of nuclear physics, in has in recent years been subject to a through a deeply historographical review. This new perspective takes into account the social, cultural and industrial implications of this science and serves as narrative framework in Néstor Herran?s thesis. In this...
Researchers at the Special Centre for Plant Food Technology Research (CeRPTA) at the UAB have developed for the first time, bread with 0% gluten which is greatly superior in quality to the current products available to celiacs. The product has been100% successful in trials carried out. The...
Wastewater treatment plants are currently one of the most important systems at hand to minimise the dumping of pollutants into the environment. One of the processes, which are used in these facilities, is what is known as EBPR (Enhanced Biological Phosphorus...
Some of those who suffer a severe or moderate head injury experience a ventricular dilatation in the brain that may cause unnecessary suffering to patients. UAB Scientists have studied the origin of these ventricular dilatation. They have concluded that...
The UAB has taken part in a research project that has just made a discovery which questions one of the paradigms of vertebrate immunology, by which phagocytosis (the ability to ”ingest” and destroy microbes) is exercised mainly by...
In our chromosomes there are small disorders that generally do not affect us but that can be decisive for reproduction. This is the case for the so-called chromosomal inversions (a change in direction of a chromosomal fragment within the original chromosome). UAB researchers have studied these alterations and concluded that the larger a...
