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Categories: Biology: Microbiology, Ecology: General

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Viruses, including the coronavirus that causes COVID-19, can get passed from person to person via contaminated surfaces. But can some surfaces reduce the risk of this type of transmission without the help of household disinfectants? Wood has natural antiviral properties that can reduce the time viruses persist on its surface -- and some species of wood are more effective than others at reducing infectivity.

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An international team of scientists has recently found that non-native species are expanding their ranges many orders of magnitude faster than native ones, in large part due to inadvertent human help. Even seemingly sedentary non-native plants are moving at three times the speed of their native counterparts in a race where, because of the rapid pace of climate change and its effect on habitat, speed matters. To survive, plants and animals need to be shifting their ranges by 3.25 kilometers per year just to keep up with the increasing temperatures and associated climactic shifts -- a speed that native species cannot manage without human help.

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Researchers discovered that mycoviruses, or oomycete viruses, can increase the sensitivity of plant pathogenic oomycete to fungicides like metalaxyl. Their findings suggest greater potential for mycoviruses in biocontrol and contributing to sustainable agriculture.

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Some areas of the Amazon rainforest are more resilient to drought than others, new research shows. But if not managed carefully, we could 'threaten the integrity of the whole system,' researchers say.

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Natural hazards can speed up the extinction process of land animals that have limited distribution and/or small populations. But there is hope to turn the negative development around, says researchers behind new study.

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A study has revealed a link between gut microbiota and Parkinson's disease. The researchers discovered a decrease in bacterial genes related to the synthesis of vitamins B2 and B7. The lack of these genes was associated with reduced intestinal short-chain fatty acids and polyamines, agents that maintain the intestinal barrier and prevent the leakage of toxins into the blood that can then access the brain. Using B vitamin therapy to address these deficiencies may restore the barrier and treat Parkinson's disease.

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New research shows when animals are fed a diet high in saturated fat for nine weeks, their gut bacteria change in ways that influence brain chemicals and fuel anxiety.

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Understanding organismal traits and learning how they evolve and adapt to different environments is crucial for biologists and the battle against biodiversity loss. To be truly efficient, however, the researchers need to use huge amounts of data, including physical traits and DNA. Furthermore, those different data types need to be accurately linked to each other, so that computers and next-age AI technology can correctly process it. Currently, this process of accurate linking is extremely difficult and largely inefficient. To solve this problem, researchers created a brand new computer language called Phenoscript.

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Using genome reconstruction, scientists unveiled a once 'invisible' fish parasite present in many marine fish world-wide that belongs to the apicomplexans, one of the most important groups of parasites at a clinical level. However, it had gone unnoticed in previous studies. The parasite is geographically and taxonomically widespread in fish species around the planet, with implications for commercial fishing and oceanic food webs.

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Filamentous cyanobacteria buckle at a certain length when they encounter an obstacle. The results provide an important basis for the use of cyanobacteria in modern biotechnology.

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Scientists have shown in laboratory experiments that an increase in temperature from 37 to 40 degrees Celsius increased the resistance rate for two antimicrobials, while for a third antimicrobial, the higher temperature reduced the resistance rate. If these results can be replicated in human patients, fever control could be a new way to mitigate the emergence of antibiotic resistance.

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In mammals, only 3% of the genome consists of coding genes which, when transcribed into proteins, ensure the biological functions of the organism and the in-utero development of future individuals. But genes do not function alone. They are controlled by other sequences in the genome, called enhancers, which, like switches, activate or deactivate them as required. A team has now identified and located 2700 enhancers -- among millions of non-coding genetic sequences -- that precisely regulate the genes responsible for bone growth. This discovery sheds light on one of the major factors influencing the size of individuals in adulthood, and explains why their failure could be the cause of certain bone malformations.

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The amount of infectious H5N1 influenza viruses in raw milk rapidly declined with heat treatment in laboratory research. However, small, detectable amounts of infectious virus remained in raw milk samples with high virus levels when treated at 72 degrees Celsius (161.6 degrees Fahrenheit) for 15 seconds -- one of the standard pasteurization methods used by the dairy industry. The authors of the study stress, however, that their findings reflect experimental conditions in a laboratory setting and are not identical to large-scale industrial pasteurization processes for raw milk.

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New research may help close the nutrition gap between infant formula and human breast milk. The study shows how plants can be programmed to produce a diverse array of beneficial sugars found in human breast milk. The findings could lead to healthier and more affordable formula for babies, or more nutritious non-dairy plant milk for adults.

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Some species of tardigrades are highly and unusually resilient to various extreme conditions fatal to most other forms of life. The genetic basis for these exceptional abilities remains elusive. Researchers have now successfully edited genes using the CRISPR technique in a highly resilient tardigrade species previously impossible to study with genome-editing tools. The successful delivery of CRISPR to an asexual tardigrade species directly produces gene-edited offspring. The design and editing of specific tardigrade genes allow researchers to investigate which are responsible for tardigrade resilience and how such resilience can work.

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Researchers are unlocking the mystery of how bacteria harness viruses to wipe out the competition. The answers could help spur the development of alternatives to antibiotics.

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The increase in the frequency and intensity of marine heatwaves in recent decades is one of the effects of global climate change. A study shows that the extreme heatwave of 2022 caused an 'unprecedented' increase in mortality of the red gorgonian Paramuricea clavata, affecting 70% of the colonies located in the Montgr Natural Park, the Medes Islands and the Baix Ter. According to the researchers, these results are 'alarming and threaten the viability' of this species of great value for the biodiversity of benthic ecosystems, since it is considered to be an inhabitant-forming species.

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Gray whales that spend their summers feeding in the shallow waters off the Pacific Northwest coast have undergone a significant decline in body length since around the year 2000, a new study found.

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Significant progress has been made in the development of a small device, about the size of a vitamin pill, that can be swallowed and passed through the gastrointestinal tract to sample and help identify the full inventory of microbiome bacteria in an individual.

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Researchers have adapted a class of techniques employed in astronomy to unblur images of far-away galaxies for use in the life sciences, providing biologists with a faster and cheaper way to get clearer and sharper microscopy images.