Thanks to scientists from the Institute of Vertebrate Biology of the Czech Academy of Sciences, what used to take days to weeks and computers with huge computing capacity will be faster and more reliable. They developed "diem", a method of genomes polarization, thanks to which experts around the world across disciplines can more easily analyze genomes. It will be appreciated, for example, by archaeologists when searching for Neanderthal genes in the genome of modern humans or biologists who can track advantageous chunks of genomes and further use them as biomarkers.
Different characteristics between northern and southern bank vole populations in Britain, due to differences in haemoglobin types, could affect their ability to adapt to a changing climate. Research by scientists at the Institute of Animal Physiology and Genetics of the Czech Academy of Sciences has shown that northern populations of these small rodents will “borrow” a more favourable haemoglobin variant, critical for adaptation, from populations adapted to living in the warmer conditions of southern England to survive climate warming. The ability to take advantage of the diversity of traits already present in populations and adapt to climate change through them will be critical to the survival of many plant and animal species, including humans.
The green world that we live in would not have been possible without hidden changes to the plant body over the last 400 million years. To grow beyond just centimetres tall outside of the wettest places on land, plants had to re-arrange their water-conducting tissues to keep them safe from drought. A new study by Martin Bouda of the Institute of Botany of the Czech Academy of Science and co-authors, published in the journal Science, shows how the solution to a hundred-year-old debate in botany reveals a key adaptation that allowed plants to colonise dry land.
Richard Stefl from CEITEC Masaryk University (MU) and Petr Svoboda from the Institute of Molecular Genetics of the Czech Academy of Sciences (IMG CAS) and their colleagues have revealed the unique mechanism of action of mammalian Dicer.
Today (September 27, 2022) at 1:14 AM CEST NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) spacecraft successfully conducted the world’s first full-scale planetary defense test by impacting asteroid moonlet Dimorphos (Greek for “two forms”), which orbits a larger asteroid named Didymos (Greek for “twin”). The kinetic impact demonstrated one possible method of asteroid deflection technology. As a part of an international planetary defense strategy, the DART mission proved that a spacecraft can autonomously navigate to a target asteroid and intentionally collide with it to alter its orbit. DART is accompanied by a small Italian sub-spacecraft called LICIACube, which observed the impact from a distance.
A new protein that plays a key role during sperm-egg adhesion and fusion has been discovered by an international team led by Kateřina Komrsková from the Institute of Biotechnology of the Czech Academy of Sciences at the BIOCEV Centre and the Faculty of Science of Charles University in Prague. The researchers also developed special cell cultures for the “production” of human oocyte proteins. In the future, these new findings may help in the diagnosis and treatment of infertility and could also lead to better contraceptives.
An extensive series of experiments has been carried out by researchers from the Institute of Plasma Physics of the CAS and the international ITER project, which aims to start producing clean and almost inexhaustible energy through the so-called tokamak within the next four years. For the first time, scientists have been able to provide experimental evidence of a physical limit to the electric currents flowing between the plasma and the first reactor wall at a time when the plasma is unstable. The new findings, published in the Nuclear Fusion journal, will help improve computer models for future fusion reactors.
The global food system is in the crisis of growth-addicted development. Exploitative of humans and animals, ecologically rapacious, hooked on fossil fuels, and controlled by a small number of multi-national corporations from food to fork, this system produces massive quantities of the wrong foods at incredible social, ecological and economic cost. With food crises again looming on the near horizon, a strategy to tweak and maintain the current growth-driven food system is highly questionable.
Before the internal biological clock of the fetus starts ticking on its own, the mother's rhythmic behaviour influences the function and development of this structure. This was discovered and published in a new study in the PLOS Biology journal by a team led by Alena Sumová from the Institute of Physiology of the CAS. The discovery significantly contributes to the understanding of the development of the internal clock and may find application in the treatment of premature babies.
Three scientists from the Institute of Atmospheric Physics of the CAS helped to significantly refine the use of so-called atmospheric reanalyses in examining the causes and consequences of extreme precipitation. Knowing the inaccuracies of these "backward" analyses compared to the real situation will help in estimating future weather changes. However, the use of reanalyses is much broader as the provided data are the basis for hydrological applications and climatological studies.
One of the world's most prestigious scientific journals, Nature, recently published the research findings of a team of Czech researchers. Their empirical research shows that a large part of the public has misconceptions about doctors' views on the COVID-19 vaccination. Although the vast majority of physicians trust and support the vaccination, there is a common belief among the public that doctors' opinions are split roughly 50–50. Informing the public of the broad consensus of the doctors' opinions has persistently increased vaccination rates and has played an important role in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.
They are always there, dwelling in the water, where they play a key role in food webs, in cycling of nutrients, matter and energy, and water purification. However, as happens with organisms that tend to be inconspicuous and often invisible to the naked eye, society mostly neglects them, and forgets their huge importance in providing support and stability of aquatic ecosystems. What is even more problematic, we also forget that they are exposed to a wide range of threats from human activities. Without proper conservation measures, their populations can decline and go extinct just like all of the other, more conspicuous aquatic organisms, with unforeseen consequences for marine and freshwater ecosystems. This was the object of a study by an international team led by researchers from the Biology Centre of the Czech Academy of Sciences, as well as from the Leibniz Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries (IGB) in Germany, and the University of Coimbra in Portugal.
Bird species whose males perform aerial displaying inhabit open rather than closed (forest) environments and are more likely to have multiple mates. They usually have more elongated wings, which is related to the fact that they migrate longer distances, and breed at higher latitudes, i.e. further from the equator. In addition, the aerial displaying seems to be relatively common in generally small passerine species with brightly coloured plumage. All of this suggests that the evolution of aerial displays in passerine is the result of both sexual and natural selection, as scientists from the Institute of Vertebrate Biology of the Czech Academy of Sciences and the Faculty of Science of Charles University have found in a recent comprehensive analysis.
Today we commonly encounter contactless RFID chips in a number of products, but can similar technology be implemented at the molecular level? The answer is yes. The principle of molecular encoding conceived by Miloslav Polášek and his team at IOCB Prague represents a novel method on the frontier of chemistry and modern technologies.
Unique structures, called guanine quadruplexes (G4), have been discovered by a team of Czech scientists in the genetic information of a tick-borne encephalitis virus. The experts found out that these structures play an important role in the virus' replication and can be targeted in the search for new antivirals. In testing potential chemicals that recognize these G4 structures, they found promising molecules with a high antiviral effect. In the future, these substances may thus expand the repertoire of potential drugs for this infection.
An international team of scientists led by Hana Hanzlíková from the Institute of Molecular Genetics of the Czech Academy of Sciences (CAS) and Keith Caldecott from the University of Sussex in the UK has discovered which sites in the DNA molecule inside cancer cells are the basis of the effect of anticancer drugs (called PARP inhibitors). The results, published recently in the prestigious Nature Structural and Molecular Biology journal, will be used to understand the mechanism of the effect of PARP inhibitors that lead to the death of certain types of cancer cells and open the path to new ways of treating tumors.
The so-called hydropeaking, i.e. discontinuous flow changes in rivers, significantly disrupts fish reproduction. In the current study, scientists from the Institute of Hydrobiology of the Biology Centre of the Czech Academy of Sciences focused on how hydropeaking affects the spawning asp shoal in the Želivka River. The local asp shoal, protected under the Natura 2000, faces unpredictable water current changes.
At high pressure, chromium iodide crystals start to exhibit remarkable magnetic properties, losing their regular structure and moving into a chaotic, so-called spin-glass arrangement. Their physically exotic behaviour can be used, for example, to increase the capacity of operational memory. Scientists from the J. Heyrovsky Institute of Physical Chemistry of the Czech Academy of Sciences and Charles University have found this out. Their study was recently published in the Physical Review B journal.
A team of scientists and physicians from the Institute of Biotechnology of the CAS at the BIOCEV centre and the Institute of Clinical and Experimental Medicine in Prague has demonstrated a positive effect of MitoTam on type 2 diabetes. The research was published today in the prestigious journal Nature Communications.
Butterfly wing disease (epidermolysis bullosa) affects approximately one in 50,000 born babies. This inherited connective tissue disease is characterized by blistering over the entire body surface but it also affects mucous membranes as well as digestive, respiratory, and excretory systems. In a study published in the Journal of Cell Biology, an international research team led by Martin Gregor from the Institute of Molecular Genetics of the CAS described the mechanism by which plectin, one of the proteins associated with the disease, controls the mechanical properties of tissues.