Showing posts with label Biology. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Biology. Show all posts

By: David H Urmann

Understanding how human growth hormones work and the possible medical benefits for using supplemental hormones for a variety of disease is a very important scientific achievement. Learn more about all the possibilities and benefits with this article.Human Growth Hormone (HGH) or Somatotrophin is a protein which helps in growth and cell production in animals and humans. It is the hormone which is made naturally in the pituitary glands of humans. The pituitary gland is deep inside the brain just behind the eye. The hormone is made in the body throughout a persons life but the development of this hormone is more when the person is young. The human growth Hormone is a microscopic protein substance and is found secreted in short pulses after the exercise and during first hours of sleep. The hormone plays a very essential role in adult metabolism and growth of children.The growth hormone as then name suggests helps in the growth of the human body. It stimulates the liver and other tissues which in turn stimulates the growth of bones. The process of growing continues till a particular time i.e the time a person reaches adult height. But the role of this particular hormone does not ends, then there will be normal level of this hormone that will maintain the balance throughout lifetime. Another function is to control protein, carbohydrate and fat metabolism, and stimulate the growth of muscle tissue in cell reproduction. Our lifestyle, diet, exercise, adequate sleep, stress levels will have great impact on it and its capacity to function properly.Normal growth and proper function will always keep the body fit but there are condition when there is excessive growth of this hormone or deficiency, both hampers the proper functioning of the body along with some adverse effects. If the level of HGH is increased in the body it results in Giantism in children where the growth is rapid and in continuation. Whereas in adults it results in Acromegaly, a disease in which the bones of the jaws, fingers and toes thickens which exerts pressure on nerves, insulin resistance or a person can suffer from a rare form of type2 diabetes. This is not all, a person with increased growth hormone can have weak muscles and reduced sexual function. This condition is treated with medication which obstructs the release of human growth hormone.When there is deficiency it results in stunted growth in children whereas the effects are mild in grown ups. They will experience muscle weakness, fatigue or weariness and inability to metabolize the fat. The deficiency can be treated with the supplements of human growth hormone. But in more severe conditions the solution lies in surgery.There are HGH injections ,HGH oral sprays and HGH supplements which are meant to fulfill the requirement when the body is not able to produce it naturally. The growth hormone are said to be working as anti aging process, but the more advanced studies reveal that the evidence are inconclusive to prove that HGH reverse the process of aging. Prolong use or regular application of growth hormone will definitely have many side effects and long lasing ill effects on health.

The adaptable nature of bacteria makes it possible to exploit particular strains for their beneficial qualities. The natural biodegradation of organic waste can be greatly enhanced by the introduction of naturally occurring, non genetically engineered, non pathogenic bacteria. Biodegrading "specialists" are scientifically selected for their exceptional enzyme production and long term stability.In the natural environment, both bacteria, and the enzymes they produce, play a significant part in biodegradation: Bacteria produce the enzymes essential for metabolizing the food source (organic waste) into energy necessary for further growth of the living organism. Enzymes facilitate the phase of metabolism in which complex compounds are broken into simpler ones (catabolism). This, in turn, speeds the process of converting the food source into an available energy supply for bacterial growth and reproduction (and continuous enzyme production).A. BACTERIA1. General BackgroundAlthough some bacteria may cause certain diseases, many more bacteria are not only harmless, but they actually are very beneficial. The positive influence of these numerous useful microscopic organisms in our biosphere is incalculable. For example, without bacteria, the soil would not be fertile (and all plants and animals ultimately are dependent upon soil fertility for life sustaining materials). Various species of bacteria are concerned in the decomposition of organic matter, fermentation, and the fixing of atmospheric nitrogen. Many of the common bacteria of air, soil and water are capable of digesting dead organic materials, proteins, carbohydrates, fats and grease, and cellulose breaking them down to simpler molecules and in utilizing these substances. This impressive ability of bacteria as a group to produce such a great diversity of biochemical changes and end results constitutes one of the outstanding facts of the natural world.2. Rate of MultiplicationGiven reasonable and suitable conditions for growth, the rate of asexual multiplication of bacteria is very rapid; it has been found that a cell divides every 20 to 30 minutes. So, assuming that conditions are conducive to a rate of one division every 30 minutes, a single individual cell will have produced 4 cells at the end of the first hour, 16 at the end of two hours, and about one million (1,000,000) at the end of fifteen (15) hours. Thus, when products containing millions of selected bacteria per milliliter are introduced under suitable conditions, the eventual bacterial growth is astronomical, and, by virtue of the presence of such great numbers of efficient, beneficial bacteria, the presence and growth of less productive and often harmful, naturally occurring bacteria are greatly reduced by competitive exclusion. Simply stated, the selected, introduced bacteria are more efficient and out compete the naturally occurring bacteria for the food source.3. Conditions Affecting Growth of Bacteriaa. Food requirements. Bacteria must obtain from their environment all nutrient materials necessary for their metabolic processes and cell reproduction. The food must be in solution and must pass into the cell.b. Temperature. For every bacterium, there 'are certain cardinal points of temperature at which growth is most rapid. Although different bacterial species differ widely, the optimum growth temperature for most bacteria lies between 5° C and 55° C (41 ° F to 131 ° F). Growth may slow at temperatures below 5°C (41 ° F) and cell damage may occur at temperatures above 60° C (140° F). The ordinary cells (non spores) are damaged at temperatures of 60° to 80° C (122° F to 140° F); hence a single boiling of a fluid or even pasteurization (application of a heat of 63° C or 145° F) is sufficient to eliminate them. Bacterial spores, however, must be subjected to very prolonged heating at higher temperatures before they are distressed.c. pH. Each bacterium has a pH range within which growth is possible. Growth will occur in environments that have pH values between 4.5 and 10; the optimum pH value differs greatly between species but an environment kept close to neutral (pH 7) will sustain most bacterial species.d. Moisture. Bacteria require moisture. The importance of moisture for bacterial growth will be seen clearly if it is realized that bacteria have no mouth parts and all their food must be absorbed in a soluble form by the process of diffusion through the cell wall; without sufficient moisture, therefore, the inflow of food and the outflow of excreta becomes impossible.e. Oxygen. Bacteria of various kinds exhibit wide differences in their relation to oxygen of the air. Some need oxygen for respiration and cannot grow unless it is provided. These are known as aerobes. Others grow only in the absence of free oxygen and are unable to use it in their respiration, they are called anaerobes. Still others can grow under either condition and are termed facultative.B. ENZYMES1. IntroductionBacteria exhibit great diversity in their physiological activities. The energy necessary for carrying on cell activity and the building materials needed for the formation of new cells during multiplication is secured in a variety of ways. The acquisition of energy and materials, in turn, is related in large measure to the different enzymes produced by various bacteria.2. Examples of Enzyme ActionMany enzymes are discharged from the cells that produce them and, therefore, function outside the living cells ("extra cellular"). For example, the secretions of the digestive tract of animals contain many such extra cellular enzymes. All of the enzymes of the digestive tract act to convert the complex molecules of food into smaller, simpler molecules which are easier to take into the bacterial cell. The process of degradation is called hydrolysis. This degradation, which involves the conversion of solids into water soluble substances, and of large water soluble molecules into smaller ones, is the essence of the process of digestion.C. SPORE FORMATIONSome bacteria are able to form spores. Spores are formed usually when conditions become unsatisfactory for active metabolism and for cell reproduction. Bacterial spores are extremely stable, and resistant to heat, drying, light, disinfectants and other harmful agents than the original vegetative bacterial organism. Spores may survive for many years.When more suitable conditions present themselves, the spore germinates and again develops a cell similar to the one that originally formed the spore. This new cell, under favorable conditions of moisture, temperature, pH and food supply, begins active metabolism, reproduction, and enzyme production.D. CONCLUSIONBacteria in nature actively compete for nutrients and the most successful species in a given habitat will be those capable of best utilizing the conditions that prevail. The introduced, specially selected, beneficial, problem solving bacteria dominate the system they are added to, and safely and economically resolve problems by eliminating the source of the problem (the organic waste is broken down, digested and metabolized). Odors are reduced by eliminating their source; and as a result, Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD), Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD), Suspended Solids (S/S), and Volatile Fatty Acids (VFA) are reduced; and the primary byproducts of this microbial degradation are water (H20)and carbon dioxide (C02).--------------------------------------------------------------------------------BASIC DEFINITIONSAerobic Bacteria:Bacteria that require the presence of oxygen to live and function.Anaerobic Bacteria:Bacteria that do not require the presence of oxygen to survive they are capable of living and functioning in the absence of oxygen.Bacteria:Any of a group of diverse, ubiquitous, microscopic single celled microorganisms.Biochemical Oxygen Demand I(BOD):The amount of oxygen that is required/consumed by bacteria during the digestion of the organic waste in water. BOD is a relative measure of water quality since the higher the BOD, the greater the amount of organic waste in the water. Surcharges and fines are based on the BOD levels of the wastewater.Biodegradation:The digestion of organic substances by biological action, a process usually involving microbes, particularly bacteria.Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD):The amount of oxygen that is required/consumed during the digestion of organic waste by chemical means. COD is a relative measure of water quality since the higher the COD, the greater the amount of organic material in the water.Chemotaxis:The ability of an organism, in this case bacteria, to detect and move toward a particular chemical. Selected bacteria exhibit positive chemotaxis and move toward higher levels of biochemical food sources. This ability is particularly advantageous when the goal is the efficient digestion of organic materials.Colony Forming Unit I(CFU):The standard microbiological method used to count bacteria. The number of viable cells that give rise to a colony of bacteria on a suitable agar medium.Enzyme: (a/k/a non living chemical catalyst):Any of various complex organic substances originating from living microorganisms, and capable of producing certain chemical changes in organic substances by catalytic action. Enzymes are the chemical catalysts of living cells.NOTE: While bacteria metabolize a wide variety of organic material, enzymes are substrate specific. For example:Protease enzyme catabolizes ("breaks down") proteinAmylase enzyme breaks down starch and carbohydrateLipase enzyme breaks down fat and greaseXylanase enzyme breaks down plant material (xylan)Cellulase enzyme breaks down celluloseUrease enzyme breaks down ureaFacultative Bacteria:Bacteria that are capable of living and functioning either in the presence of oxygen or absence of oxygen.Microbial Degradation:The beneficial activities selected of bacteria in carrying out biodegradation.Motile:Capable of motion. Selected bacteria are motile, enabling them to move about their immediate environment.Spore:The inactive/dormant, protected/resistant form that some bacteria can temporarily assume, when conditions are not satisfactory for active metabolism and cell reproduction.Suspended Solids (SS): Particles of organic waste suspended in water. The levels of SS are often used to indicate water quality.Volatile Fatty Acids I(VFA):Volatile Fatty Acids are the compounds primarily responsible for the "sour" or "rancid" odors emanating from decaying organic material. The presence of high levels of VFA's are indicative of inefficient microbial degradation of organic waste.
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Protein crystallography plays one of the most important roles in the structural study of the different proteins. Currently in is impossible to analyze protein functionality without knowing the exact molecular structure of this particular protein. The detailed information about positions of all amino acid residues is crucially important for analysis of protein function.The protein crystallography is relatively young branch of science, which was started from studies of the DNA-double helix structure by James Watson and Francis Crick in April 1953. Currently, it is possible to solve the structure of whole virus with atomic resolution by this technique.From this time the bimolecular crystallography made great breakthrough. It was possible only due to the development of computing power of modern computers. The computational requirements of protein crystallography are enormous. For example, the structure of leucine dehydrogenase contains eight polypeptide chains, each of them contains 350 amino acids, and each of them contains about 15 atoms. So, finally we’ve got about 40 thousand atoms. For each atom we can calculate three positional and between one and nine temperature factors. Then for the simple case we need define about 160 thousand parameters, or about half-million for difficult, high resolution case. Minimization of equation with such amount of independent parameters is not very simple task. Data collection is complicated as well. Modern detectors generate about 30 Mb of raw data per few second. The storage of such informational flow is another problem for computer techniques. Luckily, last few years these computational problems were solved.Modern protein structures, solved by protein crystallography allow to identify not only the exact position of each atoms, including the position of hydrogen atoms but also detect the structural changes related with the enzymatic reactions. This will allow to investigate in great details many of the enzymatic reactions, which was previously only predicted on the basis of the catalytic amino acid residues and on the basis of the static picture of these amino acid residues. These data will be very useful in medicine, biotechnology and other field of human life. The most important is the drug design which is impossible without the knowledge of enzymatic act.Despite the great progress in protein structural studies, there are lot of protein problems which not solved yet. For example, despite the exact knowledge about structures of more than ten thousand protein structures, we do not understand the principles of protein organization and it is almost impossible to predict protein structure. The other problem is to understand the evolution of proteins. Currently we know the static picture of protein structures, but how they appear from scratch? At the moment only small ideas and examples of protein evolution are known. Another great white area in our knowledge is the protein crystallization. We can produce almost any protein by genetic techniques. After this protein purification is a quite routine procedure with the set of standard routines and procedures, but the final step, the protein crystallization is a matter of luck, rather than science. The only one thing can get the results – many trials of different crystallization conditions and maybe lucky you to grow 0.1mm protein crystal.As a conclusion it is possible to note, that despite that protein crystallography is more than 50 year old, this scientific area still have many unsolved problems and it is very interesting and perspective area of science for young biologist, chemist and physicist.


DNA determines the genetic structure of all life
The word science is derived from the Latin word scientia for knowledge, the nominal form of the verb scire, "to know". The Proto-Indo-European (PIE) root that yields scire is *skei-, meaning to "cut, separate, or discern". Other words from the same root include Sanskrit chyati, "he cuts off", Greek schizo, "I split" (hence English schism, schizophrenia), Latin scindo, "I split" (hence English rescind).[1] From the Middle Ages to the Enlightenment, science or scientia meant any systematic recorded knowledge.[2] Science therefore had the same sort of very broad meaning that philosophy had at that time. In other languages, including French, Spanish, Portuguese, and Italian, the word corresponding to science also carries this meaning.