2004

The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2004   The organization of odorant receptor inputs in the olfactory cortex Signals derived from two different odorant receptors, M5 and M50, are targeted to different, but partially overlapping clusters of cortical neurons. These clusters have similar locations in the brains of different mice.     Receptor activation…

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The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2004   The Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institutet has awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine jointly to Richard Axel and Linda Buck for their discoveries of odorant receptors and the organization of the olfactory system. In a series of pioneering studies the laureates have clarified in…

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  The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2004             Prevents self-polination Did you know that roses are bisexual? Most plants are like this – they’re hermaphrodites. With such an arrangement, one wonders what prevents plants from fertilising themselves. In fact, ubiquitin-mediated protein breakdown is involved: the plant recognises and rejects its…

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  The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2004             Ubiquitin This is what the actual label looks like. It consists of a short polypeptide chain, a small protein that is so common in the cells of different organisms that it was early named ubiquitin, from the Latin ubique, ‘everywhere’. This protein…

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  The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2004           The most common reason for miscarriage is an error when the mother’s and the father’s chromosomes are to be separated in the formation of sex cells. Ubiquitin-marking plays an important role here. The picture shows a calf embryo.   How are sex cells…

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  The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2004             What proteins are marked? Surprisingly many of the proteins created in the cell are faulty from the start. They must be broken down and rebuilt since they can damage the organism. But perhaps the most important reason for a cell to get…

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