Turning off genes, the recent way.

A article from Science Daily reported that scientists have discovered an amazing way to turn off genes. They experimented with mice and have uncovered this new approach towards shutting off imprinted genes. To start off, imprinted genes have affected human DNA for some time now, replicating unwanted genes which ultimately damages human beings by causing developmental and neurological disorders or worse, cancer. However, a new component towards turning off genes is by chemical tagging histones, a type of protein that aids in keeping DNA wrapped safely in the nucleus. A histone called H3K27 effectively ceases the activity of some imprinted genes in mice. Yi Zhang, an investigator from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and his colleagues had reported this in a journal called Nature. Yi Zhang says this new finding could improve children who are born with developmental disorders by assisted reproductive technologies such as vitro fertilization. Also, the issues with cloning of mammals could be explained. Mr.Zhang has great expectations with this discovery and has said that he "believes our study will open up a new field of research" Mr Zhang approach towards "silencing" the imprinted genes is by adding methyl groups to the histones. Although this discovery is a massive step towards defeating replicated genes, researchers are still learning about the imprinting process of genes being replicated. But with this significant finding, it is said that diseases such as Angelman syndrome and Beckwith-Wiedemann Syndrome could be reduced. Also, cloning of mammals could be less difficult in the upcoming years as well. Mr Zhang concluded by saying " The new imprinting mechanism may eventually offer a target for treating such development failures"

tuberculous liver abscess

The article covered the rarity of the tuberculosis which affects the liver. Most commonly, tuberculosis is known for affecting the lung but for a person without any in-depth exposure to studies relevant to TB, he or she may not have known that TB comes in variety of forms and affects different region in the human body.

Elsevier is one of the leading organization that published this article. Elsevier is best known for its distinguished articles.
The article mentioned, such rare form of TB is found in more vulnerable ethic groups such as: African American.
The article was a great refresher for me, as I myself have read a few articles pertinent to tuberculosis in previous college courses but, I don’t recall having read any article that broke down microscopically the scope of the disease, in terms of who it affects all the way to why it is not commonly talked about or even reported. https://medlineplus.gov/tuberculosis.html

Bat 1K Project

One of the main focuses, the mystery of how bats teach other bats how to whistle or make any of their standard sounds. Young bats use these sounds later on during courtship, mating, when they retrieve food, and defense. So far, only 50 bat species have been studied and all that was found so far is that the adult male bats teach the young bats how to speak just as children learn to speak from their parents. One gene, FOXP2, was identified to be linked to speech and language in bats because it is the same gene that has a role in how humans speak and learn sounds/language.

Some animals can communicate by singing or calling. Most people think of birds right away, however, four bat species also make vocal sounds. Scientists are interested in how bats are able to teach this melodies or sounds to their young. In efforts to uncover this mystery, the project called Bat 1K is now underway as of November 4. Not only are they studying the ability of bats to sing but they are also investigating how they are able to fly int he dark (echolocation), how their immune systems are so strong, and how their lifespans are considerably long. The oldest bat known to live was 39 years old which is equivalent to over a hundred years in a human due to their size. Bats are the longest-lived mammals for their size. In order to find out all this information, scientists are going to try and sequence the genomes of more than 1,000 bat species. 

After the genome is sequenced for these animals I would think that it would be fairly easy to identify the genes that allow them to communicate considering the one gene is that of a human. The study of bats was a wise choice when it comes to animals that use communication because they are relatively small in comparison to other communicating mammals like elephants and whales. Hopefully the discover of the gene in bats leads to the genes in these other mammals as well.

Source: 

http://www.nature.com/news/geneticists-hope-to-unlock-secrets-of-bats-complex-sounds-1.20997

(Other sources are linked in the text)