Biologists Find Stem-Cell-Like Functions In Ordinary Cells 35
mattrandy123 writes with news that scientists from NYU and Utrecht University have discovered ordinary plant cells can fulfill some of the same regenerative functions previously attributed to stem cells. Quoting:
"In the study, the researchers cut off the plant's root tip, thereby excising the stem cell niche, and examined the return of cell identities by measuring all gene activity. The results suggested that stem cells returned quite late in regeneration after other cells were already replaced. The researchers then used mutant plants in which the stem cell niche no longer functions to confirm their initial observations. Despite the absence of the stem cell niche, the plant's ordinary cells worked to regenerate all the major tissues constituting the root tip — a process that began hours after it had been removed. However, researchers found that plants without functional stem cell niches could not resume normal growth, showing that other cells did not replace all functions of stem cells."
Well DUH! (Score:1, Funny)
Anybody who's seen Invasion of the Body Snatchers already knew this...
Rawr! (Score:1)
Animal (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Animal (Score:5, Informative)
None, zero and zilch.
Plants and animals have a distinct origin of multicellularity. Many of the genes used to control patterning are homologous between the two clades, but that's as far as it goes.
Now, something similar may very well happen in some animals, where somatic tissue cells resume dividing in response to injury. But these experiments tell you nothing about that, one way or another.
plants are easy (Score:4, Informative)
I thought getting a new plants from a few cells was something possible for a long time, and quite easy?
Often simply putting a piece into soil has a gopod chance of success, and with the right chemical treatment, anything is possible?
This would imply the existence of these stem-cell like cells, but it does not translate that well to animals.
Re: (Score:1, Informative)
This is fairly true for many plant cells. They form many of their different cell types much later in their life cycle and are not "born" with these cell types already present. Therefore, of course they need some sort of stem-cell-like capability for normal development.
So this is really not news.
Dr. Reginald Bushroot (Score:5, Funny)
Re: (Score:1)
I, for one, will NEVER welcome plant-duck mutant hybrid masters!
Plant-duck mutant hybrid overlords, on the other hand...
Pre-emptive troll-bait thread here... (Score:1, Troll)
Okay, we all know where this is going, so might as well collect all the trolls under one thread. Here goes:
Bush banned stem cell research, holding back cures that would have been available during the Obama administration.
Good, now that *that* little piece of misinformation is out of the way, I'd like to add just one thing more. It appears to me that while this discovery is promising, it will do nothing to mollify the supporters of embryonic stem cell research (ECS). It's not that ECS proponents reall
Conceptual differences (Score:2)
Bad puns aside, conception is the point at which the process of a person's growing starts. The natural process for egg and sperm, prior to their union, and without union, is that both die. It is when united that they begin the process which - apart from human intervention or natural death (disease, malformation, etc...) - results in a person. Living in the womb is nothing more than an early stage of human life.
It isn't a matter of *potential* persons, but of actual members of the human race who have n
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2, Interesting)
I'm probably just feeding the trolls: it's hard to imagine that anyone actually believes this; but here goes.
At the time Roe v Wade was decided, it was not commonly known that a person's physical characteristics were uniquely determined at conception.
A person's physical characteristics depend on much more than genetics (e.g. nutrition and exercise) but, anyway, classical genetics has been around for over a hundred years. Certainly, there has been progress in the fields of development and genetics since Roe v. Wade but I'm not aware of any fundamental paradigm shifts.
The other point here is that "conception" is actually a fairly complex process. A
Re: (Score:1, Insightful)
Once it obtains DNA other than that of my own, I have no right to destroy it, without their permission.
Apparently you haven't heard of viruses.
A female can take a pill and destroy the egg without harm as it is part of her body.
You may have to rethink that position once human cloning becomes available.
The fact that most people disagree with the Iraq war because of the collateral damage,...
Many of the people most adamantly opposed to abortion still think the Iraq war was a good thing. But it doesn't matter whether it was the Iraq war or any other war: innocent people always end up getting killed by both sides. Only absolute pacifists can claim to be opposed to all killing of innocent people.
...if we don't define what a living human is, there is nothing really stopping me from killing you for no particular reason and just telling your family "Oh, but he wasn't a human, so it's all cool!"
First, it's not clear that you would want to kill me. That there might be reason enough.
Se
Anonymous Coward (Score:1, Insightful)
It's great that GWB coerced researchers to find alternate sources of stem cells, otherwise every walk-in clinic in the country would be blending embryos in the back room by now. Tom Dickson would be proud.
Re:Anonymous Coward (Score:5, Funny)
On The Other Hand... (Score:1, Flamebait)
Of course, if embryonic stem cell research had not faced such resistance, then we might have had more results helping humans instead of plants by now.
That many plants can be cloned simply by cutting parts of them I have known since I was a small child. Now what we would like to know is how to make parts of human bodies regenerate in
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
I have to assume that your comment was sarcasm. But then why did you get an "insightful" mod? Maybe the insightful mod was also sarcasm?
Either that or people are intelligent enough to read through the sarcasm, see his actual intended meaning, and moderate accordingly.