Latest science news in Biology & Nature
Neurons can fuse, cause behavioral changes in nematodes
Scientists at the University of Queensland successfully engineered nematode worms to express fusogens in their neurons, causing their brain cells to fuse together.
August is open season for hunting invasive insects
It's a busy time of year for the Texas A&M Forest Service—many highly destructive pests are emerging in their adult form to reproduce and lay eggs. One such pest on...
Wolverines return to Mount Rainier National Park after 100 years
Mount Rainier National Park is now home to wolverines again after a more than 100-year hiatus.
Penis bones, echolocation calls, and genes reveal new kinds of bats
If you've ever seen a bat flying around at sunset, chances are good it was a vesper bat. They're the biggest bat family, made up of 500 species, found on...
Ocean acidification causing coral 'osteoporosis' on iconic reefs
Scientists have long suspected that ocean acidification is affecting corals' ability to build their skeletons, but it has been challenging to isolate its effect from that of simultaneous warming ocean...
Mosquito immune system mapped to help fight malaria
Scientists have created the first cell atlas of mosquito immune cells, to understand how mosquitoes fight malaria and other infections. Researchers from the Wellcome Sanger Institute, Umeå University, Sweden and...
Seeing around corners: Cells solve mazes and respond at a distance using attractant breakdown
During development and metastasis, cells migrate large distances through complex environments. Migration is often guided by chemotaxis, but simple chemoattractant gradients between a source and sink cannot direct cells over...
A synthetic synaptic organizer protein restores glutamatergic neuronal circuits
Neuronal synapses undergo structural and functional changes throughout life, which are essential for nervous system physiology. However, these changes may also perturb the excitatory–inhibitory neurotransmission balance and trigger neuropsychiatric and...
A heterogeneous microbial consortium producing short-chain fatty acids from lignocellulose
Microbial consortia are a promising alternative to monocultures of genetically modified microorganisms for complex biotransformations. We developed a versatile consortium-based strategy for the direct conversion of lignocellulose to short-chain fatty...
Mosquito cellular immunity at single-cell resolution
Hemocytes limit the capacity of mosquitoes to transmit human pathogens. Here we profile the transcriptomes of 8506 hemocytes of Anopheles gambiae and Aedes aegypti mosquito vectors. Our data reveal the...
Structural basis of a shared antibody response to SARS-CoV-2
Molecular understanding of neutralizing antibody responses to severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) could accelerate vaccine design and drug discovery. We analyzed 294 anti–SARS-CoV-2 antibodies and found that immunoglobulin...
A nitrogenase-like enzyme system catalyzes methionine, ethylene, and methane biogenesis
Bacterial production of gaseous hydrocarbons such as ethylene and methane affects soil environments and atmospheric climate. We demonstrate that biogenic methane and ethylene from terrestrial and freshwater bacteria are directly...
Diverse enzymatic activities mediate antiviral immunity in prokaryotes
Bacteria and archaea are frequently attacked by viruses and other mobile genetic elements and rely on dedicated antiviral defense systems, such as restriction endonucleases and CRISPR, to survive. The enormous...
Locating and severing lethal links in DNA
Chemical lesions in the genetic material DNA can have catastrophic consequences for cells, and even for the organism concerned. This explains why the efficient identification and rapid repair of DNA...
A prion-related protein senses warmer temperature in plants
Many plants and trees flower in the spring when it gets warmer. How plants sense Scientists from the UK, France, Korea and Germany focused on a protein called EARLY FLOWERING3...
Structural biology reveals new target to neutralize COVID-19
An international team of researchers have discovered a new and highly conserved site on the SARS-CoV-2 virus that can be neutralized by a specific antibody. Previous studies have reported that...
How the environment and the microbiome jointly shape the body
All multicellular living beings are colonized by an unimaginably large number of microorganisms and have developed together with them from the very beginning of multicellular life. The natural microbiome, i.e. the totality of...
Japanese sake: the new pick-me-up? Yeast strain makes fatigue-fighting ornithine
Researchers have found that that a mutant strain of sake yeast produces high levels of the amino acid ornithine. Ornithine has been found to reduce fatigue and improve sleep quality,...
Watch: Mo Willems' family special coming to HBO Max on Sept. 17
Bestselling children's book author and illustrator Mo Willems will release his first ever live-action special on HBO Max on Sept. 17.
Binding sites for protein-making machinery
Researchers can predict how tightly a cell's protein synthesis machinery will bind to RNA sequences - even when dealing with many billions of different RNA sequences. This binding plays a...
South African wildlife management/conservation models do not protect carnivores equally
In results released this week, an international team of wildlife ecologists reports that the trend toward more reliance on private game farms and reserves to manage and conserve free-ranging carnivores...
Study reveals DNA 'grammar'
DNA three-dimensional structure is determined by a series of spatial rules based on particular protein sequences and their order. This was the finding of a study recently published in Genome...
Genetic link between cattle temperament and autism
A strong association between the genes influencing cattle temperament and autism in humans has been discovered by University of Queensland researchers.
Decoded: The structure of the barrier between three cells
Organs in animals and in humans have one thing in common: they are bounded by so-called epithelial cells. These, along with the muscle, connective and nervous tissues, belong to the...
Lin-Manuel Miranda, Blake Lively join 'The Making Of' romantic comedy
Lin-Manuel Miranda, Blake Lively, Richard Gere and Diane Keaton will star in "The Making Of," a new film directed by Ed Zwick.
Regulating gene regulatory regions offers a novel mechanism to control ATXN1 levels
People with a rare genetic neurodegenerative disease known as spinocerebellar ataxia type 1 (SCA1) usually have progressive problems with movement, including loss of coordination, and balance (ataxia) and muscle weakness....
Watch: Anya Taylor-Joy plays chess prodigy in 'The Queen's Gambit' teaser
"The Queen's Gambit," a new miniseries about a chess prodigy struggling with addiction, will premiere Oct. 23 on Netflix.
Call of the wild: Individual dolphin calls used to estimate population size and movement
A new study has shown for the first time that acoustic monitoring can be used in place of photographs to generate abundance estimates of dolphin populations.