Researchers led by the University of Tsukuba find that differences in egg structure among stonefly species can provide insight into the evolutionary history of the order. If a creature with eight legs, a large abdomen, and lots of eyes comes crawling your way, even if you have never seen one like it before, you know instinctively that it is a spider. Likewise, an animal with wings, feathers, and a beak is unlikely to be mistaken for anything other than a…
Researchers from TU Graz and acib succeed in the first enzyme-driven biocatalytic synthesis of nucleic acid building blocks. This facilitates the development of antiviral agents and RNA-based therapeutics. Due to the COVID 19 pandemic and the associated intensive search for therapeutics and vaccines, the chemical substance class of nucleosides is experiencing an enormous increase in interest. Natural and synthetic nucleosides have an antiviral effect and can act as building blocks of ribonucleic acids (RNA). When incorporated into RNA, novel interactions…
The display of a smartphone reacts to finger pressure. The carnivorous Venus flytrap, on the other hand, even notices when a lightweight like a fly lands on it. Special genes make this possible. All plant cells can be made to react by touch or injury. The carnivorous Venus flytrap (Dionaea muscipula) has highly sensitive organs for this purpose: sensory hairs that register even the weakest mechanical stimuli, amplify them and convert them into electrical signals that then spread quickly through…
In many species all over the animal kingdom, males have eye-catching characteristics. Although often impractical, they are beneficial in finding a mate. Scientists have now mapped the genetic bases of such a male ornament in a fish. The tail feathers of the peacock, the enormous horn of male rhinoceros beetles, the protruding antlers of some deer: In nature, there are countless examples of features which at first sight may only have disadvantages for their owners. After all, it is more…
Princeton Chemistry’s Scholes Group is reporting evidence that quantum vibrations participate in electron transfer, establishing with ultrafast laser spectroscopy that the vibrations provide channels through which the reaction takes place. Seeking to establish an experimental proof for a highly contested topic – the role of vibrations in processes fundamental to solar energy conversion – Princeton researchers set out to map the progress of a photoinduced electron transfer (ET) reaction. The short laser pulses in ultrafast spectroscopy helped to lock all…
The environment is polluted by microplastics worldwide. The tiny particles enter food chains, and thereby the digestive systems of animals and humans; moreover, they can be inhaled. Instead of being excreted, small microplastics can be incorporated into the body tissue. A research team at the University of Bayreuth has now discovered that microplastic particles find their way into living cells more easily if they were exposed to natural aquatic environments, i.e. fresh water and seawater. Biomolecules occurring in the water…
Natural antibiotics produced in wounds increase sleep and survival after injury. When wounded, our body sets off a complex immune response. As part of it, the wound produces small antimicrobial molecules to fight off the pathogens locally. Researchers from the Biotechnology Center (BIOTEC) of the TU Dresden and Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry in collaboration with the Centre d’Immunologie de Marseille-Luminy (CIML) in France have found that these natural antibiotics can also act as long-range molecular messengers. They signal…
University of Victoria biologists have discovered how some corals managed to survive a globally unprecedented heatwave, in a first-ever study that provides new hope for the long-term survival of coral reefs in the face of climate change. “The devastating effects of climate change on coral reefs are well known. Finding ways to boost coral survival through marine heatwaves is crucial if coral reefs are to endure the coming decades of climate change,” says UVic marine biologist Julia Baum, the study’s…
Researchers at the RIKEN Center for Biosystems Dynamics Research (BDR) in Japan have completed a feasibility study indicating that electric rays and sting rays equipped with pingers will be able to map the seabed through natural exploration The ocean is a big place full of natural resources including fossil fuels, minerals, and of course, fish. The problem is that many of these resources are on the ocean floor in places we have yet to find. Ocean exploration is therefore necessary,…
This novel method was the first to detect conformational changes in the protein TDP-43 in the patients’ CSF. The project team headed by Professor Klaus Gerwert and Professor Lars Tönges published their research results in the international journal Annals of Clinical and Translational Neurology from 3 December 2020. Altered protein structures in ALS ALS is a fatal neurodegenerative disease causing a rapid loss of motor function, which usually results in a serious condition with early death within a few years….
Protein therapies are often more potent and selective toward their biochemical targets than other types of drugs, particularly small molecules. However, proteins are also more likely to be quickly degraded by enzymes or cleared from blood by the kidneys, which has limited their clinical use. Now, researchers reporting in ACS Central Science have engineered red blood cell (RBC) carriers that release therapeutic proteins when stimulated by light, with the help of a honey bee peptide. Because protein drugs are unstable…
Oldenburg chemical scientists publish results of three interconnected research projects. How do molecular catalysts – molecules which, like enzymes, can trigger or accelerate certain chemical reactions – function, and what effects do they have? A team of chemists at the University of Oldenburg has come closer to the answers using a model molecule that functions like a molecular nanobattery. It consists of several titanium centres linked to each other by a single layer of interconnected carbon and nitrogen atoms. The…
Leibniz Campus ComBioCat Creates the Basis for Green Chemistry. How can chemical processes for the production of commonplace chemicals be made more sustainable, environmentally friendly and economical than before? For example, without high temperatures and organic solvents? The Leibniz Institute for Catalysis in Rostock has found an answer for the industrially significant reaction of hydroformylation. The institute uses a structurally modified enzyme that catalytically controls the production of aldehydes, important basic chemicals, under mild reaction conditions. This basic research is…
Our bones have so-called mechanosensors that react to pressure and communicate with each other. “These sensors enable that bone is formed where it is mechanically necessary and broken down elsewhere,” says Richard Weinkamer from the Biomaterials Department. In their research they have come a decisive step closer to solving the mystery of where these mechanosensors are located: Hidden within a structure of canals inside the bone, a cell network “senses” external bone stress. This works by translating the mechanical loading…
A new machine learning approach offers important insights into catalysis, a fundamental process that makes it possible to reduce the emission of toxic exhaust gases or produce essential materials like fabric. In a report published in Nature Communications, Hongliang Xin, associate professor of chemical engineering at Virginia Tech, and his team of researchers developed a Bayesian learning model of chemisorption, or Bayeschem for short, aiming to use artificial intelligence to unlock the nature of chemical bonding at catalyst surfaces. “It…
Neurobiologists at the German Primate Center developed a model that for the first time can completely represent the neuronal processes from seeing to grasping an object Every day we effortlessly make countless grasping movements. We take a key in our hand, open the front door by operating the door handle, then pull it closed from the outside and lock it with the key. What is a natural matter for us is based on a complex interaction of our eyes, different…
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