Fungi don't have sexes, they have mating types, but a new study in PLoS says there are similarities between the parts of DNA that determine the sex of plants and animals and the parts of DNA that determine mating types in certain fungi.

It makes fungi interesting as new model organisms in studies of the evolutionary development of sex chromosomes.

In the plant and animal kingdoms there are individuals of different sexes, that is, bearers of either many tiny sex cells (males) or a few large ones (females). In the third eukaryote kingdom (organisms with DNA gathered in the cell nucleus), the fungi kingdom, there are no sexes but rather a simpler and more primitive system of different so-called mating types. These are distinguished by different variants of a few specific genes.

DUSSELDORF, Germany, March 17 /PRNewswire/ -- The rating agency Moody's has raised the rating for the Gerresheimer Group from Ba3 to Ba2 with "Outlook stable".

As a result, the Group's financial standing in the market and its refinancing possibilities are substantially enhanced. Moody's justifies this step by reference to the considerably strengthened business profile as a result of successful acquisitions and in view of the Group's increased profitability and cash flow strength. In the detailed justification, Moody's emphasises the company's leading market position and its stable customer relationships in the pharmaceutical and cosmetics industries.

NIEUWEGEIN, the Netherlands, March 17 /PRNewswire/ -- As of 14 March 2008, the Supervisory Board has allocated options to the members of the Board of Management: 40,000 options to Mr Theo Bruijninckx, 30,000 options to Mr Ruud Jacobs and 30,000 options to Mr Romeo Malizia.

The options are allocated in accordance with the options regulations as determined during the Extraordinary General Meeting of Shareholders on 26 October 2006.

The exercise price is EUR 25.11, which represents the average closing price of shares of the Ballast Nedam N.V. certificate of deposit on NYSE Euronext Amsterdam on the five trading days up to and including the day of allocation.

MADRID, March 17 /PRNewswire/ -- Data presented today from the first ever Phase III study using a biological treatment in children and adolescents with plaque psoriasis indicate that etanercept (Enbrel(R)) significantly reduces the symptoms in these patient groups.(1) Over half the patients (57 per cent) treated with etanercept for 12 weeks achieved the 'gold standard' in improvement compared to eleven per cent of patients who received placebo.(1)

MADRID, March 17 /PRNewswire/ --

- Improved Remission Rates Lead to Fewer Sick Days and Increased Productivity at Work

Leading rheumatologists have highlighted the importance of early intervention in rheumatoid arthritis to achieve clinical remission, a key goal in the management of the disease. In the first major rheumatoid arthritis trial to use clinical remission as a primary endpoint, over 50% of patients with less than two years of early active rheumatoid arthritis who received a combination of Enbrel (etanercept) and methotrexate achieved clinical remission.(1)

If you're a student of culture, a number of things have likely piqued your curiosity; like why so many modern people get drunk about ancient religous stuff.

Take Mardi Gras, for example - go to any Mardi Gras celebration and 98% of people there will be Protestants, so they haven't fasted for Lent in over 400 years, and 85% won't know why they are getting drunk at all, but they still act like they are getting ready to starve for 40 days - if by starving we mean not having yards of beer for 11 straight hours.  It's a real mystery but at least it gets people thinking about religion and its relationship to Brazilian strippers.

Stegography is an ancient technique of hiding data within data. Unlike encryption, it isn't obviously encrypted. Today it is used to take advantage of unused bits of data in images or audio/video files to transmit secrets.

The basic concept of understanding the hidden data in files can also be used in understanding computer networks and biology, says Weixiong Zhang, Ph.D., Washington University associate professor of computer science. He and his co-authors writing in Physical Review E say they have created an algorithm to automatically discover communities and their subtle structures in various networks, including biological ones. They used it to identify the community structure of a network of co-expressed genes involved in bacterial sepsis.

Crop scientists have cloned a gene that controls the shape of tomatoes, a discovery that could help unravel the mystery behind the huge morphological differences among edible fruits and vegetables, as well as provide new insight into mechanisms of plant development.

The gene, dubbed SUN, is only the second ever found to play a significant role in the elongated shape of various tomato varieties, said Esther van der Knaap, lead researcher in the study and assistant professor of horticulture and crop science at Ohio State University’s Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center (OARDC) in Wooster.

On September 27, 2004, the front part of a baby mammoth’s body was found in Olchan mine in the Oimyakon Region of Yakutia. Specialists of the Museum of Mammoth of the Institute of Applied Ecology of the North, Academy of Sciences of Sakha Republic (Yakutia), have been thoroughly studying the finding and they have published the first results.

The remains were only the head, part of the proboscis, the neck area and part of the breast of the baby mammoth’s body. The body was mostly cut off behind the withers and shoulder area. The skin on the head was torn on the forehead and cinciput, the skull was damaged and the proboscis was torn off. The baby mammoth’s skin was well preserved - smooth, greyish-brown and even the tawny hair had fallen out and frozen into the ice near the body.

Tuberculosis kills two million people per year and so remains a very dangerous disease, though less so in America.

Researchers worldwide have been working to produce efficient tuberculosis vaccines but no one has created something that can ensure complete protection from the disease. The efficacy of one of the most widespread vaccines – BCG – varies from 80% to as little as 0%.

Specialists of the State Research Center for Virology and Biotechnology “Vector” have tested an experimental preparation for tuberculosis vaccinal prevention. The preparation is nontoxic and does not provoke an immune response in mice. Because it has not received all required verifications and approvals it cannot be called a vaccine yet.