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Categories: Biology: Biotechnology, Ecology: Sea Life
Published Smart soil can water and feed itself
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source A newly engineered type of soil can capture water out of thin air to keep plants hydrated and manage controlled release of fertilizer for a constant supply of nutrients.
Published Switching off inflammatory protein leads to longer, healthier lifespans in mice
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Scientists have discovered that 'switching off' a protein called IL-11 can significantly increase the healthy lifespan of mice by almost 25 percent.
Published Genome recording makes living cells their own historians
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Genomes can now be used to store information about a variety of transient biological events inside of living cells, as they happen, like a flight recorder collecting data from an aircraft. The method, called ENGRAM, aims to turn cells into their own historians. ENGRAM couples each kind of biological signal or event inside a cell to a symbolic barcode. This new strategy traces and archives the type and timing of biological signals inside the cell by inserting this information into the genome. For example, this record-keeping can track the commands that turn genes on or off.
Published Influenza viruses can use two ways to infect cells
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Most influenza viruses enter human or animal cells through specific pathways on the cells' surface. Researchers have now discovered that certain human flu viruses and avian flu viruses can also use a second entry pathway, a protein complex of the immune system, to infect cells. This ability helps the viruses infect different species -- and potentially jump between animals and humans.
Published Llama nanobodies: A breakthrough in building HIV immunity
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Biology researchers have developed a new antibody therapy that can neutralize a wide variety of HIV-1 strains. They found success in an unlikely source -- llamas.
Published A new addition to the CRISPR toolbox: Teaching the gene scissors to detect RNA
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source CRISPR-Cas systems, defense systems in bacteria, have become a plentiful source of technologies for molecular diagnostics. Researchers have now expanded this extensive toolbox further. Their novel method, called PUMA, enables the detection of RNA with Cas12 nucleases, which naturally target DNA. PUMA promises a wide range of applications and high accuracy.
Published Unique characteristics of previously unexplored protein discovered
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Research achieves scientific breakthrough in understanding cell division.
Published Ancient microbes offer clues to how complex life evolved
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Researchers have discovered that a single-celled organism, a close relative of animals, harbors the remnants of ancient giant viruses woven into its own genetic code. This finding sheds light on how complex organisms may have acquired some of their genes and highlights the dynamic interplay between viruses and their hosts.
Published Unlocking the mystery of preexisting drug resistance: New study sheds light on cancer evolution
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source The evolution of resistance to diseases, from infectious illnesses to cancers, poses a formidable challenge. Despite the expectation that resistance-conferring mutations would dwindle in the absence of treatment due to a reduced growth rate, preexisting resistance is pervasive across diseases that evolve -- like cancer and pathogens -- defying conventional wisdom.
Published Loss of oxygen in lakes and oceans a major threat to ecosystems, society, and planet
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Oxygen is a fundamental requirement of life, and the loss of oxygen in water, referred to as aquatic deoxygenation, is a threat to life at all levels. In fact, researchers describe how ongoing deoxygenation presents a major threat to the stability of the planet as a whole.
Published Building a roadmap to bioengineer plants that produce their own nitrogen fertilizer
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Nitrogen fertilizers make it possible to feed the world's growing population, but they are also costly adn harm ecosystems. However, a few plants have evolved the ability to acquire their own nitrogen with the help of bacteria, and a new study helps explain how they did it, not once, but multiple times.
Published Big boost for new epigenetics paradigm: CoRSIVs, first discovered in humans, now found in cattle
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source A study opens new possibilities to improve production efficiency in the cattle industry and potentially animal agriculture more broadly.
Published How domestic rabbits become feral in the wild
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source After sequencing the genomes of nearly 300 rabbits from Europe, South America, and Oceania, researchers found that all of them had a mix of feral and domestic DNA. They say this was not what they had expected to find.
Published New ways to study spinal cord malformations in embryos
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Scientists have successfully created mechanical force sensors directly in the developing brains and spinal cords of chicken embryos, which they hope will improve understanding and prevention of birth malformations such as spina bifida.
Published A better way to make RNA drugs
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source RNA drugs are the next frontier of medicine, but manufacturing them requires an expensive and labor-intensive process that limits production and produces metric tons of toxic chemical waste. Researchers report a new, enzyme-based RNA synthesis method that can produce strands of RNA with both natural and modified nucleotides without the environmental hazards.
Published A comprehensive derivative synthesis method for development of new antimicrobial drugs
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source A method to screen a wide variety of drug candidates without laborious purification steps could advance the fight against drug-resistant bacteria.
Published Opening the right doors: 'Jumping gene' control mechanisms revealed
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source International joint research led by Akihisa Osakabe and Yoshimasa Takizawa of the University of Tokyo has clarified the molecular mechanisms in thale cresses (Arabidopsis thaliana) by which the DDM1 (Decreased in DNA Methylation 1) protein prevents the transcription of 'jumping genes.' DDM1 makes 'jumping genes' more accessible for transcription-suppressing chemical marks to be deposited. Because a variant of this protein exists in humans, the discovery provides insight into genetic conditions caused by such 'jumping gene' mutations.
Published Urban seagulls still prefer seafood
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Seagull chicks raised on an 'urban' diet still prefer seafood.
Published First ever 3D reconstruction of 52,000-year-old woolly mammoth chromosomes thanks to serendipitously freeze-dried skin
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source An international research team has assembled the genome and 3D chromosomal structures of a 52,000-year-old woolly mammoth -- the first time such a feat has been achieved for any ancient DNA sample. The fossilized chromosomes, which are around a million times longer than most ancient DNA fragments, provide insight into how the mammoth's genome was organized within its living cells and which genes were active within the skin tissue from which the DNA was extracted. This unprecedented level of structural detail was retained because the mammoth underwent freeze-drying shortly after it died, which meant that its DNA was preserved in a glass-like state.
Published A new species of extinct crocodile relative rewrites life on the Triassic coastline
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source The surprising discovery of a new species of extinct crocodile relative from the Triassic Favret Formation of Nevada, USA, rewrites the story of life along the coasts during the first act of the Age of Dinosaurs. The new species Benggwigwishingasuchus eremicarminis reveals that while giant ichthyosaurs ruled the oceans, the ancient crocodile kin known as pseudosuchian archosaurs ruled the shores across the Middle Triassic globe between 247.2 and 237 million years ago.