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Categories: Biology: Biotechnology, Biology: Molecular

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Shigella bacteria can infect humans but not mice. A team can now explain why. Their findings may explain the multifariousness of a key weapon of our immune system.

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Aging cells express a protein that is produced by human cytomegalovirus and is targeted by certain immune cells in the body. Harnessing the immune response to this protein could have multiple health benefits during aging.

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Researchers used computational modeling to reveal finer details surrounding the outer shell of the COVID-19 virus. The work expands the scientific community's understanding of SARS-COV-2, and could lead to more refined antiviral therapies and better vaccines.

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The fruit of the cocklebur plant, which grows worldwide and is often considered a noxious weed, has antioxidant and anti-inflammatory components that could make it useful as a skin protectant, according to new research.

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The Indo-West Pacific is the largest marine ecosystem on Earth, but scientists who study its diversity have to contend with a problem so well-known it was remarked upon by Charles Darwin: related species in the IWP have similar appearances, making it difficult to assess just how many there are. A new study reveals that nearly identical crab species have one consistently distinguishing feature, which only evolves when their ranges overlap.

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Researchers have developed a method to measure coral biodiversity through extracting the environmental DNA (or eDNA) from a liter of surface seawater collected from above a reef. The method has been confirmed to work through observations made by scientific divers in the same areas of ocean. This has paved the way for large-scale comprehensive surveys of reef-building coral to take place and removes the reliance of direct observations made through scientific scuba diving or snorkeling.

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A group of researchers discovered that the rhodopsin -- a protein in the eye that detects light -- of whale sharks has changed to efficiently detect blue light, which penetrates deep-sea water easily. The amino acid substitutions -- one of which is counterintuitively associated with congenital stationary night blindness in humans -- aid in detecting the low levels of light in the deep-sea. Although these changes make the whale shark rhodopsin less thermally stable the deep-sea temperature, allows their rhodopsin to keep working. This suggests that the unique adaptation evolved to function in the low-light low-temperature environment where whale sharks live.

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Naloxone -- a fast-acting opioid antidote -- has saved lives, but it's less effective against powerful synthetic opioids, such as fentanyl. In an interesting twist, researchers are now investigating cannabidiol (CBD), a component of marijuana, as a possible alternative to the popular antidote. Today, a team reports compounds based on CBD that reduce fentanyl binding and boost the effects of naloxone.

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Researchers discover that actin acts in the cell nucleus and is partly responsible for the expression of male sexual characteristics.

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Free-range organic chicken or factory farming? Scientists have developed a new detection method that can reveal such differences in husbandry. The so-called epigenetic method is based on the analysis of the characteristic patterns of chemical markers on the genome of the animals.

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With CRISPR-Cas9 technology, humans can now rapidly change the evolutionary course of animals or plants by inserting genes that can easily spread through entire populations. An evolutionary geneticist proposes that we call this evolutionary meddling 'genetic welding.' He argues that we must scientifically and ethically scrutinize the potential consequences of genetic welding before we put it into practice.

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Researchers identify the most promising advancements and greatest challenges of artificial mitochondria and chloroplasts. The team describes the components required to construct synthetic mitochondria and chloroplasts and identifies proteins as the most important aspects for molecular rotary machinery, proton transport, and ATP production. The authors believe it is important to create artificial cells with biologically realistic energy-generation methods that mimic natural processes; replicating the entire cell could lead to future biomaterials.

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A team of scientists designed a molecule that disrupts the infection mechanism of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus and could be used to develop new treatments for COVID-19 and other viral diseases.

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To develop treatments that may one day entirely rid the body of HIV infection, scientists have long sought to identify all of the places that the virus can hide its genetic code. Now, in a study using blood samples from men and women with HIV on long-term suppressive therapy, a team of scientists reports new evidence that one such stable reservoir of HIV genomes can be found in circulating white blood cells called monocytes.

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Squids and octopuses are masters of camouflage. But some aspects of how they become reversibly transparent are still 'unclear,' because researchers can't culture cephalopod skin cells in the lab. Now, researchers have replicated the tunable transparency of squid skin in mammalian cells, which are more easily cultured.

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Researchers have developed a hybrid micro-robot, the size of a single biological cell (about 10 microns across), that can be controlled and navigated using two different mechanisms -- electric and magnetic. The micro-robot is able to navigate between different cells in a biological sample, distinguish between different types of cells, identify whether they are healthy or dying, and then transport the desired cell for further study, such as genetic analysis.

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A parasite which has devastating impacts on agriculture and human health is the first pathogen to have its proteins located and mapped within its cells -- providing clues to their function and helping to identify potential drug targets.

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MitoQ, a mitochondrial antioxidant that is available to the public as a diet supplement, was found in a mouse study to reverse the detrimental effects that HIV and antiretroviral therapy (ART) have on mitochondria in the brain, heart, aorta, lungs, kidney and liver.

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Researchers have found that the body's process of removing old and damaged cell parts, is also an essential part of tackling infections that take hold within our cells, like TB. If this natural process can be harnessed with new treatments, it could present an alternative to, or improve use of antibiotics, especially where bacteria have become resistant to existing drugs.

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Researchers have uncovered a key role for a new type of cell in touch detection in the skin of the fruit fly.