The Genetics and
Microbiology Sciences are two of the key categories
covered by the
Sciences Social network ScienceIndex.com. The users of
the website monitor nearly 190 scientific journals publishing
in these two disciplines. ScienceIndex.com was established in
1998 to index the very latest news, headlines, references and
resources from science journals, books and websites
worldwide. The site covers news in all fields of biology,
business, chemistry, engineering, geography, health,
mathematics and society.

(PRWEB) January 26, 2012

ScienceIndex.com is a Web 2.0
sciences social network established in 1998 to index the very
latest news, headlines, references and resources from science
journals, books and websites worldwide. The site covers news in
all fields of biology, business, chemistry, engineering,
geography, health, mathematics and society. ScienceIndex.com
currently contains over 1.3 million stories distributed among 75
categories. Over 75,100 users monitor nearly 8,200 journals
covering the broad spectrum of sciences. They share circa 2,500
new articles every day. Since new science content is discovered
in real-time, the delay between original publication and
appearance at ScienceIndex.com is no more than two days.

ScienceIndex.com's Biology
Category covers life and living organisms, including their
structure, function, growth, origin, evolution, and
distribution. Besides Genetics and Microbiology, its ten subsections
include Ecology, Environment, Agriculture, Forestry, Anatomy,
Biotechnology, Physiology and Zoology. This category currently
contains 77,600 stories partly derived from 400 science
journals publishing in these two disciplines.

ScienceIndex.com's Genetics Sciences
Category deals with the genetic composition of populations
during successive generations, natural selection, genetic
variation among individuals, and development of new species. It
currently contains over 20,000 articles partly deriving from
over 110 scientific genetics journals. One of the latest
additions shows that derivation of new human
embryonic stem cell lines reveals rapid epigenetic progression
in vitro that can be prevented by chemical modification of
chromatin. This research is based on the fact that human
embryonic stem
cells (hESCs) are pluripotent cell types derived from
the inner cell mass of human blastocysts. For recovering nuclei
with two active X chromosomes (class I), the authors developed
a reprogramming strategy by supplementing hESC media with the
small molecules sodium butyrate and 3-deazaneplanocin A
(DZNep). Their results demonstrate that self-renewal and
survival of class I nuclei are compatible with normoxic hESC
derivation, and that chemical supplementation after derivation
provides a strategy to prevent epigenetic progression and
retain nuclei with two active X chromosomes in the
self-renewing state. Another recently included article covers
gene-gene interactions in breast
cancer susceptibility. Since there have only been few
definitive examples of gene–gene interactions in humans the
authors report four interactions defined as departures from a
multiplicative model between mutations in the breast cancer
susceptibility genes ATM and CHEK2 with BRCA1 and BRCA2. They
conclude that the interactions are such that the resultant risk
of breast
cancer is lower than the multiplicative product of the
constituent risks, and plausibly reflect the functional
relationships of the encoded proteins in DNA repair. Their
findings may have important implications for models of disease
predisposition and clinical translation.

ScienceIndex.com's Microbiology
Sciences Category covers microorganisms and their effects on
other living organisms. One recent article in this category
covers the combined use of whole-cell
protein extracts for the identification (SDS-PAGE) and enzyme
activity screening of lactic acid bacteria isolated from
traditional Greek dairy products. The authors examined 148
strains of lactic acid bacteria from the ACA-DC Collection
which were isolated from traditional Greek dairy products such
as yogurt and cheese. The lactic acid bacteria were then
assigned to the genera Enterococcus, Lactobacillus,
Lactococcus, Leuconostoc and Streptococcus. With only a few
exceptions, all partially characterized strains were identified
to (sub-)species level. For quickly revealing characteristics
which could be important for their use as starter cultures in
dairy fermentations, the authors show that the bacterial
cell-free protein extracts could simultaneously be screened for
peptidase and esterase activities using synthetic substrates.
Another article in this subcategory is based upon a study of
starvation-survival processes of
the bacterial fish pathogen Yersinia ruckeri. While the
fish pathogen survived for more than three months in river,
lake and estuary environments, the three strains showed similar
survival dynamics, regardless of their origin or serotype. The
results of this study demonstrate that Yersinia ruckeri may
undergo a dormant state under certain starvation conditions.
Such dormant cells were easily resuscitated by addition of
fresh medium to the microcosms, showing the resuscitated cells
levels of metabolic activity and plate counts similar to those
seen prior the start of the experiment. The authors also
demonstrate maintenance of virulence during the
non-culturability state.

ScienceIndex.com's content is divided into "Popular" and
"Upcoming" sections. While content in the "Upcoming"
section is rarely older than a few minutes, the "Popular"
section contains approved articles approved between 20 to 60
minutes after submission by users. All articles can easily be
bookmarked with the AddThis Sharing tools which include the
Google+1 button. The website provides an advanced search
feature which suggests up to ten closely related articles for a
search and also for a selected story. The latter list is sorted
primarily by relevancy and secondarily by publishing date. This
helps users compiling lists of related references for
literature retrieval purposes.

Other features include a ScienceIndex.com "Life Traffic
Feed" which is helpful in watching the online traffic in
real-time and a "Top Content" sidebar which includes the
most actively read and shared articles available on the site.
The included Google Translate gadget supports translating
ScienceIndex.com's content into over fifty languages.

ScienceIndex.com offers users to stay updated with the latest
inclusions and news in their favorite science topics by
subscribing to one or more of the seventy-five RSS feeds which
are available for every category. ScienceIndex.com also
maintains the new Twitter account @ScienceIndex_ for improving
public exposure and inform their users about the latest
developments in the sciences.

###

George Maine
ScienceIndex.com
+49-180-35518-59433
Email Information

Excerpt from:
New Genetics and Microbiology Resources Published at ScienceIndex.com