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Categories: Biology: Biotechnology, Ecology: Endangered Species

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Researchers report that they have found a way to get antibacterial drugs through the nearly impenetrable outer membrane of Pseudomonas aeruginosa, a bacterium that -- once it infects a person -- is notoriously difficult to treat.

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Researchers have used laser-powered ‘optical tweezers’ to reveal a universal motor mechanism used by viruses for packaging their DNA into infectious particles.

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Investigators have played a key role in deciphering a previously unidentified cluster of genes responsible for producing sartorypyrones, a chemical made by the fungal pathogen Aspergillus fumigatus, whose family causes Aspergillosis in humans.

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A new analysis sheds light on the molecular processes involved when a carnivorous species of fungus known as Arthrobotrys oligospora senses, traps and consumes a worm.

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Malaria is one of the most widespread and deadly infectious diseases worldwide. New compounds are continuously required due to the risk of malaria parasites becoming resistant to the medicines currently used. A team of researchers has now combined the anti-malaria drug artemisinin with coumarin, which, like artemisinin, is also found in plants, and developed an auto-fluorescent compound from both bioactive substances.

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Researchers have determined the gene mutation responsible for an observable trait in bison -- albinism.

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Wild caviar, a pricey delicacy made from sturgeon eggs, has been illegal for decades since poaching brought the fish to the brink of extinction. Today, legal, internationally tradeable caviar can only come from farmed sturgeon, and there are strict regulations in place to help protect the species. However, by conducting genetic and isotope analyses on caviar samples from Bulgaria, Romania, Serbia, and Ukraine -- nations bordering the remaining wild sturgeon populations -- a team of sturgeon experts found evidence that these regulations are actively being broken. Their results show that half of the commercial caviar products they sampled are illegal, and some don't even contain any trace of sturgeon.

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New research  paints an uncharacteristically upbeat picture for the planet. This is because more realistic ecological modelling suggests the world's plants may be able to take up more atmospheric CO2 from human activities than previously predicted.

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For over 20 years, a research team has studied the common bluetail damselfly. Females occur in three different color forms -- one with a male-like appearance, something that protects them from mating harassment. In a new study, an international research team found that this genetic color variation that is shared between several species arose through changes in a specific genomic region at least five million years ago.

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Unlike humans, zebrafish can completely regenerate their hearts after injury. They owe this ability to the interaction between their nervous and immune systems, as researchers now report.

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CITE-seq (cellular indexing of transcriptomes and epitopes) is an RNA sequencing-based method that simultaneously quantifies cell surface protein and transcriptomic data within a single cell readout. The ability to study cells concurrently offers unprecedented insights into new cell types, disease states or other conditions.   While CITE-seq solves the problem of detecting a limited number of proteins while using single-cell sequencing in an unbiased way, one of its limitations is the high levels of background noise that can hinder analysis.

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Australia's only vulture, and a fearsome extinct eagle, are among the earliest recorded birds of prey from the Pleistocene period more than 50,000 years ago -- and now researchers are bringing them to 'life' again.    Along with new scientific information, a bold new pictorial reconstruction of a newly named eagle and the only known Australian vulture will be unveiled at the World Heritage-listed Naracoorte Caves in South Australia's Limestone Coast this month.  

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Nature photographers posting to social media are helping improve biodiversity conservation mapping in South Asia, and the method could go global.

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Researchers have rediscovered and successfully cultivating Rhabdamoeba marina -- a rare marine amoeba that has only been reported in two cases in the past century. Using this culture strain, they performed a comprehensive analysis of its genetic sequence, revealing for the first time the phylogenetic position of this enigmatic amoeba, and proposed a novel taxonomic classification based on their research findings.

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Researchers have discovered a 'genomic tug of war' in animal studies that could influence how well certain patients -- or certain cancers -- respond to decitabine, a drug used to treat myelodysplastic syndromes that is plagued by drug resistance issues. For the first time, researchers show that decitabine causes coding and non-coding regions of DNA to engage in a tug of war for a gene activator, called H2A.Z. Typically, deticabine draws this gene activator away from coding DNA, causing gene expression to grind to a halt and cells to die. However, many types of cancer have very high levels of H2A.Z, which may help them overcome this decitabine-induced tug of war, allowing the cancer to grow.

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A new theoretical model helps explain how epigenetic memories, encoded in chemical modifications of chromatin, are passed from generation to generation.  Within each cell's nucleus, researchers suggest, the 3D folding patterns of its genome determines which parts of the genome will be marked by these chemical modifications.

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Researchers take a look at data that has so far been mostly discarded as contamination, revealing the previously underestimated role of extracellular vesicles (EVs). These are important for the exchange of genetic information between cells and thus for the microbial community in the sea.

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Many mammals, from domestic cats and dogs to giant pandas, use scent to communicate with each other. A new study shows how domestic cats send signals to each other using odors derived from families of bacteria living in their anal glands. 

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Ancient cycad lineages that survived the extinction of the dinosaurs may have done so by relying on symbiotic bacteria in their roots to fix atmospheric nitrogen. The finding came from an effort to understand ancient atmospheres, but became an insight into plant evolution instead.

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Cannabinoids, naturally occurring compounds found in hemp plants, may have evolved to deter pests from chewing on them, according to new research that showed higher cannabinoid concentrations in hemp leaves led to proportionately less damage from insect larvae.