Showing 20 articles starting at article 1481

< Previous 20 articles        Next 20 articles >

Categories: Anthropology: Early Humans, Biology: Microbiology

Return to the site home page

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Researchers have developed a DNA enzyme -- or DNAzyme -- that can distinguish between two RNA strands inside a cell and cut the disease-associated strand while leaving the healthy strand intact. This breakthrough 'gene silencing' technology could revolutionize the development of DNAzymes for treating cancer, infectious diseases and neurological disorders.

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

A limited menu of prey may weave a tangled food web by emboldening wolf spiders of multiple species to dine on each other and even cannibalize their own, says a new study.

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Using a new technique, researchers have shown that they can map interactions between gene promoters and enhancers with 100 times higher resolution than has previously been possible.

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Scientists find new route in bacteria to decarbonize industry. The discovery could reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the manufacturing of fuels, drugs, and chemicals. A research team has engineered bacteria to produce new-to-nature carbon products that could provide a powerful route to sustainable biochemicals.

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Humans inherited genetic material from Neanderthals that affects the shape of our noses, finds a new study.

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Researchers have made a major breakthrough earlier this year in the field of evolutionary conservation of molecular dynamics in enzymes. Their work points to potential applications in health, including the development of new drugs to treat serious diseases such as cancer or to counter antibiotic resistance.

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Newly developed 'smart' coatings for surgical orthopedic implants can monitor strain on the devices to provide early warning of implant failures while killing infection-causing bacteria, researchers report. The coatings integrate flexible sensors with a nanostructured antibacterial surface inspired by the wings of dragonflies and cicadas.

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Microbiologists have uncovered the evolutionary origins of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in bacteria. His studies on the bacterium that causes cholera, Vibrio cholerae, provide insight into deciphering what conditions must occur for infectious agents to become resistant. He studied genetic variants of a protein found in bacterial membranes called OmpU. Using computational and molecular approaches, his team found that several OmpU mutations in the cholera bacteria led to resistance to numerous antimicrobial agents. This resistance included antimicrobial peptides that act as defenses in the human gut.

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Using a long-term multifactor experimental field site researchers showed that experimental warming of a tallgrass prairie ecosystem significantly altered the community structure of soil archaea and reduced their taxonomic and phylogenetic diversity.

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Automation uncovers combinations of amino acids that feed two bacterial species and could tell us much more about the 90% of bacteria that humans have hardly studied. An artificial intelligence system enables robots to conduct autonomous scientific experiments -- as many as 10,000 per day -- potentially driving a drastic leap forward in the pace of discovery in areas from medicine to agriculture to environmental science.

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Phytosterols are good for your health, but humans and other animals are not able to make them themselves, only plants can. To acquire phytosterols, humans are increasingly turning to supplements, green smoothies, or a Mediterranean diet with plenty of plant-based foods. Researchers have now discovered that tiny gutless worms from the Mediterranean can synthesize phytosterols on their own. Their study provides evidence that many other animals also have the genes needed to make their own phytosterols.

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

A study in Florida Bay, one of the largest global contiguous seagrass systems, examined if a phytotoxin that accumulates as seagrass ecosystems become more enriched in nutrients prevents a marine seagrass, turtlegrass, from recruiting into open bare sediment following die-off events. While they do 'bounce back,' long-term monitoring indicates the timeframe for recovery after major die-off events is at least a decade. Turtlegrass can successfully recruit into open bare sediment following die-off events due to biomass partitioning.

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Worldwide, growers lose between 10 and 23 per cent of their crops to fungal infection each year, despite widespread use of antifungals. An additional 10-20 per cent is lost post harvest. In a commentary in Nature, academics predict those figures will worsen as global warming means fungal infections are steadily moving polewards, meaning more countries are likely to see a higher prevalence of fungal infections damaging harvests.

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

An international research team has for the first time successfully isolated ancient human DNA from a Paleolithic artefact: a pierced deer tooth discovered in Denisova Cave in southern Siberia. To preserve the integrity of the artefact, they developed a new, nondestructive method for isolating DNA from ancient bones and teeth. From the DNA retrieved they were able to reconstruct a precise genetic profile of the woman who used or wore the pendant, as well as of the deer from which the tooth was taken. Genetic dates obtained for the DNA from both the woman and the deer show that the pendant was made between 19,000 and 25,000 years ago. The tooth remains fully intact after analysis, providing testimony to a new era in ancient DNA research, in which it may become possible to directly identify the users of ornaments and tools produced in the deep past.

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

A research team has developed a novel machine-learning algorithm that can reveal the hidden structure in data recorded from the brain, predicting complex information such as what mice see.

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Gene-editing therapy aimed at two targets -- HIV-1, the virus that causes AIDS, and CCR5, the co-receptor that helps the virus get into cells -- can effectively eliminate HIV infection, new research shows. The study combines a dual gene-editing strategy with antiretroviral drugs to cure animals of HIV-1.

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Researchers have proposed a new evolutionary model for the origin of a kingdom of viruses called Bamfordvirae, suggesting a billion-years evolutionary arms race between two groups within this kingdom and their hosts.

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Dynamic network in the pores of the nuclear envelope blocks dangerous invaders.

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Greenlandic ice is teeming with life, both on the surface and underneath. There are microscopic organisms that until recently science had no idea existed. There is even evidence to suggest that the tiny creatures color the ice and make it melt faster.

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

A new study on herpes infections of the eye helps shed light on the question of viral reinfections by identifying a key protein involved in viral reinfections that could be targeted by antiviral drugs.