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Categories: Biology: Cell Biology, Geoscience: Geomagnetic Storms

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The release of captive bred animals carefully selected for their genes can make a significant contribution to the successful recovery of the dwindling wild population and avert the prospect of extinction. Despite revealing extremely low levels of genetic diversity in the wild leopard population in Oman, the research team discovered higher levels of genetic diversity in captive leopards across the region. This important genetic resource has the potential for a major role in successful recovery of the Arabian leopard.

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Findings indicate that soil stored under refrigerated or air-dried conditions can still retain the needed information for understanding microbial community composition and structure for many years.

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From the small ossicones on a giraffe to the gigantic antlers of a male moose -- which can grow as wide as a car -- the headgear of ruminant hooved mammals is extremely diverse, and new research suggests that despite the physical differences, fundamental aspects of these bony adaptations likely evolved from a common ancestor.

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Two newly discovered mechanisms in bacteria have been identified that can contribute to the development of antibiotic resistance. Changing the number of copies of resistance genes in bacteria increases antibiotic resistance, and can do so very quickly. These two mechanisms, along with a third known mechanism, can occur independently of each other, even within the same bacterial cell.

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Scientists have discovered that a protein responsible for the synthesis of a key plant material evolved much earlier than suspected. This new research explored the origin and evolution of the biochemical machinery that builds lignin, a structural component of plant cell walls with significant impacts on the clean energy industry.

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A new study of prion diseases, using a human cerebral organoid model, suggests there is a substantial species barrier preventing transmission of chronic wasting disease (CWD) from cervids -- deer, elk and moose -- to people. The findings are consistent with decades of similar research in animal models.

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The sweet-taste receptor might be the first stop in a metabolic surveillance system for sugar. The receptor is also expressed in certain intestinal cells, where it may facilitate glucose absorption and assimilation, as part of this system. A team found that stimulation and inhibition of the sweet receptor helps regulate glucose metabolism in humans and may have implications for managing such metabolic disorders as diabetes.

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A paper describes how the moving parts of a particular plant protein control whether plants can grow and make energy-intensive products such as oil -- or instead put in place a series of steps to conserve precious resources. The study focuses specifically on how the molecular machinery is regulated by a molecule that rises and falls with the level of sugar -- plants' main energy source.

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New research finds that a continuous, long-term ketogenic diet may induce senescence, or aged, cells in normal tissues, with particular implications for heart and kidney function. But planned breaks from the diet could help in prevention.

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Marine microbes control the flux of matter and energy essential for life in the oceans. Among them, the bacterial group SAR11 accounts for about a third of all the bacteria found in surface ocean waters. A study now reveals that at times nearly 20% of SAR11 cells are infected by viruses, significantly reducing total cell numbers. The viruses can also transform these once thriving bacteria into zombies, a phenomenon observed for the first time and widespread in the oceans.

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Plants have special corrective molecules at their disposal that can make retrospective modifications to copies of genes. However, it would appear that these 'Tipp-Ex proteins' do not have permission to work in all areas of the cell, only being used in chloroplasts and mitochondria. A study has now explained why this is the case. It suggests that the correction mechanism would otherwise modify copies that have nothing wrong with them, with fatal consequences for the cell.

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If fruit fly wings do not develop into the right shape, the flies will die. Researchers have learned how fly embryo cells develop as they need to, opening a window into human development and possible treatments for birth defects.

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An HIV vaccine candidate triggered low levels of an elusive type of broadly neutralizing HIV antibodies among a small group of people enrolled in a 2019 clinical trial.

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A molecular biologist may have found a new 'rule of biology.' The rule challenges long-held notions that most living organisms prefer stability over instability because stability requires less energy and fewer resources.

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A new sensor is giving researchers the best look yet at ATP levels inside living cells, enabling scientists to study in greater detail than ever before how fluctuations in this cellular currency affect the cell and contribute to disease.

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Researchers have found that persimmon tannin, known for its antioxidant properties, improves the growth of yeast in the presence of ethanol.

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Vanilla, the most widely used flavoring compound in confectionaries and cosmetics, gets its sweet flavor and aroma from the chemical compound -- 'vanillin'. However, the large-scale production of natural vanillin is impeded by the lack of microbial processes and enzymes which can commercially generate vanillin. Now, researchers have genetically engineered a novel enzyme which can convert ferulic acid from plant waste into vanillin in a one-step sustainable process.

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Researchers have found a genetic pathway that facilitates inter-species communication between a marine worm, acoel, and its symbiotic algae.

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Understanding how salt marsh grass stays healthy is of crucial ecological importance, and studying the ways bacteria interact with these plants is key. Thanks to recent advances in genomic technology, biologists have begun to reveal never-before-seen ecological processes.

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Some proteins shift their shape when exposed to different temperatures, revealing previously unknown binding sites for medications. The findings could revolutionize wide swathes of biology by fundamentally changing how protein structure is studied and leveraged for drug design.