The results are published in the scientific journal Cell.

Type 2-diabetes is a chronic disease resulting from a reduction in insulin-production from the pancreas or an inability of other tissues in the body to respond adequately to the produced insulin, so called insulin resistance. This leads to increased blood sugar, which in turn leads to a worsening of the insulin resistance, increasing the risk of developing many serious diabetes-associated complications.

An international research team, led by Professor Juleen R. Zierath at Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm have identified previously unknown molecular mechanisms by which elevated blood sugar leads to impaired insulin sensitivity in people with diabetes. The research team identified a fat-burning' gene, the products of which are required to maintain the cells insulin sensitivity. They also discovered that this gene is reduced in muscle tissue from people with high blood sugar and type 2-diabetes. In the absence of the enzyme that is made by this gene, muscles have reduced insulin sensitivity, impaired fat burning ability, which leads to an increased risk of developing obesity.

The expression of this gene is reduced when blood sugar rises, but activity can be restored if blood sugar is controlled by pharmacological treatment or exercise, says Professor Juleen Zierath. Our results underscore the importance of tight regulation of blood sugar for people with diabetes.

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Energy could be stored in the base without competing with any other part of the plant for photosynthesis, as the rest only makes chlorophyll a. Also, the altered corn using the chlorophyll d gene could become a super plant because of its enhanced ability to harness energy from the Sun.

That model is similar to how Acaryochloris marina actually operates in the South Pacific, specifically Australia's Great Barrier Reef. Discovered just 11 years ago, the cyanobacterium lives in a symbiotic relationship with a sponge-like marine animal popularly called a sea squirt. The Acaryochloris marina lives beneath the sea squirt, which is a marine animal that lives attached to rocks just below the surface of the water. The cyanobacterium absorbs red edge light through the tissues of the sea squirt.

The genome, said Blankenship, is fat and happy. Acaryochloris marina lies down there using far red light that no one else can use. The organism has never been under very strong selection pressure to maintain a modest genome size. It's in kind of a sweet spot. Living in this environment is what allowed it to have such dramatic genome expansion.

Touchman said that once the gene that causes the late-step chemical transformation is found and inserted successfully into other plants or organisms, that it could potentially represent a five percent increase in available light for organisms to use.

We now have the complete genetic information of a novel organism that makes this type of pigment that no other organism does, he said. We don't yet know what every gene does, but this presents a fertile area for future studies. When we find the chlorophyll-d enzyme and then look into transferring it into other organisms, we'll be working to extend the range of potentially useful radiation from our Sun.

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