03
Apr
New York, April 3 (IANS) Scientists have discovered how human cells sense and respond to the weightlessness experienced in space, an advance that could be useful for keeping astronauts healthy on future space missions. The gravity conditions in space, known as microgravity, trigger a unique set of cellular stress responses. In the study, researchers found that the protein modifier SUMO plays a key role in cellular adaptation to simulated microgravity. "Under normal gravity conditions, SUMO is known to respond to stress and to play a critical role in many cellular processes, including DNA damage repair, cytoskeleton regulation, cellular division and protein…