Sweet success: Scientists created a highly accurate reference genome for one of the most important modern crops and found a rare example of how genes confer disease resistance in plants. Modern hybrid sugarcane is one of the most harvested crops on the planet, used to make products including sugar, molasses, bioethanol, and bio-based materials. It also has one of the most complex genetic blueprints. Until now, sugarcane’s complicated genetics made it the last major crop without a complete and highly…
Understanding the regulatory mechanism paves the way to enhance the effectiveness of anti-inflammatory therapies and to develop strategies to counteract the negative effects of stress- and age-related cortisol excess. The research group led by Prof. Thorsten Heinzel at the Friedrich Schiller University Jena, together with researchers from the Leibniz Institute on Aging – Fritz Lipmann Institute (FLI) in Jena and the University of Ulm, have now been able to clarify an important aspect of cortisol resistance. The study was funded…
Paradoxical activation of oncogenic signaling shows surprising results. Many new drugs inhibit the processes that cancer cells need to divide rapidly. So as to inhibit the cancer as a whole. But cancer cells have all sorts of workarounds to get around that effect. As a result, the tumor becomes unresponsive to treatment. That’s why researcher Matheus dos Santos Dias is taking a completely different approach. He had to convince some colleagues before he could start working on this quite surprising…
Brazilian scientists tested a simple and sustainable method for monitoring and degrading a mixture of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, compounds present in fossil fuels and industrial waste. An article published in the journal Catalysis Communications describes a simple, efficient and sustainable approach to the degradation and quantitative monitoring of a mixture of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), emerging pollutants that contaminate various ecosystems owing to oil and other fossil fuel spills and improper disposal of industrial waste. Emerging pollutants are chemical compounds that have recently been…
Specialization of ant queens as mere egg-layers is reversible / Queen behavioral specialization is initiated and maintained by the presence of workers. The queens in colonies of social insects, such as ants, bees, and wasps, are considered the veritable embodiment of specialization in the animal kingdom. The common perception is that the queen’s only task is to lay eggs – and that this attribute is an inherent trait, not influenced by external factors. In contrast, recent research undertaken at Johannes…
HIRI scientists identify small RNA that influences the sensitivity of the intestinal commensal Bacteroides thetaiotaomicron to certain antibiotics. The intricacies of how intestinal bacteria adapt to their environment have yet to be fully explored. Researchers from the Helmholtz Institute for RNA-based Infection Research (HIRI) in Würzburg and the University of California, Berkeley, USA, have now successfully closed a gap in this knowledge: They have identified a small ribonucleic acid (sRNA) that affects the susceptibility of the gut pathogen Bacteroides thetaiotaomicron…
Classification system uses genetic fingerprints to identify unintentional ‘bystander’ edits linked with new disease therapies. Since its breakthrough development more than a decade ago, CRISPR has revolutionized DNA editing across a broad range of fields. Now scientists are applying the technology’s immense potential to human health and disease, targeting new therapies for an array of disorders spanning cancers, blood conditions and diabetes. In some designed treatments, patients are injected with CRISPR-treated cells or with packaged CRISPR components with a goal…
During cell division, a ring forms around the cell equator, which contracts to divide the cell into two daughter cells. Together with researchers from Heidelberg, Dresden, Tübingen and Harvard, Professor Jan Kierfeld and Lukas Weise from the Department of Physics at TU Dortmund University have succeeded for the first time in synthesizing such a contractile ring with the help of DNA nanotechnology and to uncover its contraction mechanism. The results have been published in the prestigious journal Nature Communications. In…
Researchers have successfully transformed CO2 into methanol by shining sunlight on single atoms of copper deposited on a light-activated material, a discovery that paves the way for creating new green fuels. An international team of researchers from the University of Nottingham’s School of Chemistry, University of Birmingham, University of Queensland and University of Ulm have designed a material, made up of copper anchored on nanocrystalline carbon nitride. The copper atoms are nested within the nanocrystalline structure, which allows electrons to move from…
Research on protein evolution reveals new starting points for the rapid and targeted development of future drugs. Many important medicines, such as antibiotics and anticancer drugs, are derived from natural products from Bacteria. The enzyme complexes that produce these active ingredients have a modular design that makes them ideal tools for synthetic biology. By exploring protein evolution, a team led by Helge Bode from the Max Planck Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology in Marburg, Germany, has found new “fusion sites” that…
A new study shows how the chemical properties of RNA molecules could have facilitated the emergence of complex life. How was complex life able to develop on the inhospitable early Earth? At the beginning there must have been ribonucleic acid (RNA) to carry the first genetic information. To build up complexity in their sequences, these biomolecules need to release water. On the early Earth, which was largely covered in seawater, that was not so easy to do. In a paper…
Scientists have taken a major step towards developing a blood test that could identify millions of people who spread tuberculosis unknowingly. A breakthrough study has discovered a group of biological markers that are found in high levels among infectious patients. The researchers hope the findings will pave the way for a simple test that can diagnose and stop the spread of the estimated 10 million cases annually. Tuberculosis, or TB, is the world’s deadliest infectious disease and kills more than…
It’s one of life’s most defining moments—that crucial step in embryonic development, when an indistinct ball of cells rearranges itself into the orderly three-layered structure that sets the stage for all to come. Known as gastrulation, this crucial process unfolds in the third week of human development. “Gastrulation is the origin of our own individualization, the emergence of our axis,” says Rockefeller’s Ali Brivanlou. “It is the first moment that separates our heads from our behinds.” Observing the molecular underpinnings of…
Researchers at Goethe University Frankfurt and Kiel University have developed a novel sensor for the detection of bacteria. It is based on a chip with an innovative surface coating. This ensures that only very specific microorganisms adhere to the sensor – such as certain pathogens. The larger the number of organisms, the stronger the electric signal generated by the chip. In this way, the sensor is able not only to detect dangerous bacteria with a high level of sensitivity but…
Researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Biology Tübingen broke new ground by demonstrating that an HMG-box gene in brown algae is crucial for determining male sex. This breakthrough significantly expands our understanding of sex-determination mechanisms in eukaryotic organisms. Until now, master sex-determination genes had been identified in only a select number of vertebrates and plants. Published in Science, this study illuminates the evolutionary parallels in developmental pathways between animals and seaweeds, despite their millions of years of independent evolution….
In a first, LMU evolutionary biologists have identified a gene that influences visual preferences in tropical butterflies. Tropical Heliconius butterflies are well known for the bright colour patterns on their wings. These striking colour patterns not only scare off predators – the butterflies are poisonous and are distasteful to birds – but are also important signals during mate selection. A team led by evolutionary biologist Richard Merrill from LMU Munich, in cooperation with researchers from the Universidad del Rosario in…
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