Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology in Bremen are developing a user-friendly method to reconstruct and analyze SSU rRNA from raw metagenome data. First the background: Microbiologists traditionally determine which organisms they are dealing with using the small subunit ribosomal RNA or in short SSU rRNA gene. This marker gene allows to identify almost any living creature, be it a bacterium or an animal, and thus assign it to its place in the tree of life. Once…
Blue phosphorus, an atomically thin synthetic semiconductor, becomes metallic as soon as it is converted into a double layer. This has been discovered by an interdisciplinary team led by Prof Thomas Heine from TU Dresden and Prof Gabriel Merino from the Mexican research institute Cinvestav Merida. The scientists are first to describe the possibility of constructing nanoscale, highly efficient transistors consisting of only one element. The results of these investigations were published as highlight article in the current issue of…
For the first time, scientists have visualized a new class of molecular gates that maintain pH balance within brain cells, a critical function that keeps cells alive and helps prevent stroke and other brain injuries. These gates, called proton-activated chloride channels (PAC), nest within cell membranes and regulate the passage of small molecules called chloride ions into and out of cells. This allows cells to sense and respond to their environment. “Proton-activated chloride channels have only recently been described but…
In stress situations, bacteria use special ion channels for defense. Understanding how they function provides the basis for combating harmful bacteria. A Würzburg research group in cooperation with ETH Zurich and the University of Oxford has now been able to decipher how two of these channels are structured and how they open up. The results were published in the renowned journal PNAS. If it starts to rain, this can be a dangerous situation for bacteria. Due to the decreasing salt…
The interplay of many individual genetic variants defines the impact of carcinogenic mutations. Random genetic changes in cancer genes can trigger tumors. However, whether they actually lead to the disease is determined by a large number of genes. A Berlin research team has now shown this in mice. It seems paradoxical: there are heavy smokers who stay healthy throughout their lives, while others take great care of their health and eventually develop cancer nonetheless. Does this mean that it is…
The architecture of the brain supports cognitive and behavioural functions and it is extremely complex with connections at multiple layers that interact with each other. However, research efforts are usually focused on a single spatial scale. In a study led by researchers of the Institute of Complex Systems of the University of Barcelona (UBICS), researchers studied the multiscale spatial organization of the brain and observed that, in a geometric network model, the layers at different resolution are self-similar, that is,…
We perceive the world relative to our own body from a self-centered perspective. Yet our brain is able to transform this information into a world-centered, cognitive map of the environment, guiding us independent of where we look or the direction we face. The mechanism behind this has remained unsolved for decades. Now scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Brain Research and Goethe University Frankfurt discover a neural circuit in the rodent brain that may play a key role in…
Trees and other plants release isoprene into the atmosphere. Oxidation processes result in compounds that are harmful to plants. Researchers at the University of Innsbruck have now uncovered a mechanism by which plants protect themselves from these compounds, and have thus discovered an important biogenic source of oxidized volatile organic compounds in the atmosphere. Plants release large quantities of the hydrocarbon isoprene into the atmosphere, about 600 million metric tons per year, half of which comes from tropical forests. This…
Max Planck Innovation licenses process for the generation of organ-like tissue aggregates to biotech company StemoniX ***Sometimes hundreds of thousands of potential therapeutics need to be tested in large-scale, fully automated experiments to identify a single effective drug. Most compounds do not work as desired, and some are even toxic. Since the development of the induced Pluripotent Stem (iPS) Cell technology in 2006, researchers have been able to produce stem cells from skin biopsies and blood samples. To approach physiological…
Immune response: memory T cells are formed earlier than previously thought. For a person to acquire immunity to a disease, T cells must develop into memory cells after contact with the pathogen. Until now, the number of cells that do this was believed to depend above all on the magnitude of the initial immune response. A team of researchers at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) has now called this into question. When a virus enters the body, it is…
Vaccine protects animals against tick-borne Powassan virus, an emerging infectious disease. Scientists at The Wistar Institute have designed and tested the first-of-its-kind synthetic DNA vaccine against Powassan virus (POWV), targeting portions of the virus envelope protein. A rapidly reemerging tick-borne disease, POWV has been reported to be fatal in 10% of infected people with detrimental neurological consequences including encephalitis and meningitis. This new POWV vaccine candidate, described in a paper published today in PLOS Neglected Infectious Diseases, is one of…
Analysis identified 525 genes encoding proteins that act on the nervous system, cardiovascular system and cell walls. One of the molecules proved effective against cancer cells in preliminary test results. Researchers based in Brazil and the United States have completed the first-ever mapping exercise to profile the toxins produced by tube-dwelling anemones, or cerianthids, a family of marine animals belonging to the same phylum (Cnidaria) as sea anemones, jellyfish and corals. The analysis revealed that the toxins that can act…
Plants have veins that transport nutrients through their body. These veins are highly organized. The hormone auxin travels directionally from cell-to-cell and provides cells with positional information, coordinating them during vein formation and regeneration. Scientists at IST Austria now discovered how cells translate auxin signals into forming a complex system of veins. This phenomenon also applies to wound healing and might lead to more mechanically resistant plants and further agricultural implications. The human body uses veins and blood to transport…
The freezing of water is one of the most common processes. However, understanding the microstructure of ice and its hydrogen-bonding networks has been a challenge. The low-energy structure of water octamer is predicted to be nominally cubic, with eight tri-coordinated water molecules at the eight corners of the cube. Such tri-coordinated water molecules have been identified at the surface of ice. Only a few gas-phase studies have been achieved for experimental characterization of water octamer, and two nearly isoenergetic structures…
Nearly 75% of the world’s coral reefs are under threat from global stressors such as climate change and local stressors such as overfishing and coastal development. Those working to understand and protect coral reefs are building the know-how to mitigate the damage but doing so requires first knowing where reefs are located. Many approaches, such as diver-based observation and satellite imagery, have been used to estimate the distribution of coral reefs around the world, but past approaches have led to…
On the track of evolution: a catalytically active RNA molecule that specifically attaches methyl groups to other RNAs – a research group from the University of Würzburg reports on this new discovery in “Nature”. Enzymes enable biochemical reactions that would otherwise not take place on their own. In nature, it is mostly proteins that function as enzymes. However, other molecules can also perform enzymatic reactions – for example ribonucleic acids, RNAs. These are then called ribozymes. In this field, the…
Feedback
