The aging process of humans and other organisms can be hijacked by another species, like a virus, for the reproductive or survival advantage of the hijacker, while distorting the age of the host organism, according to a new study.
Hereditary information is passed from parent to offspring in the genetic code, DNA, and epigenetically through chemically induced modifications around the DNA. New research from the John Innes Centre has uncovered a mechanism which adjusts these modifications, altering the way information beyond the genetic code is passed down the generations.
To grow and multiply efficiently, bacteria must coordinate cell division with chromosome segregation. Crucial to this process in the bacterium Bacillus subtilis is a protein called Nucleoid Occlusion Factor or Noc.
An international team of scientists has proposed a cross-disciplinary approach to biosecurity that may benefit both invasion biologists, who study the spread of non-native species, and epidemiologists, who study human infectious pathogens.
Plants have microscopically small pores on the surface of their leaves, the stomata. With their help, they regulate the influx of carbon dioxide for photosynthesis. They also use the stomata to prevent the loss of too much water and withering away during drought.
Surface-associated multicellular organisms are found throughout the biosphere and include common land plants, corals, lichens, bacterial biofilms and slime molds. Yet despite their prevalence, little is known about how they evolved.
The Institut Pasteur has issued the following press release:
Cells contain machinery that duplicates DNA into a new set that goes into a newly formed cell.
Penn State University has issued the following press release:All life on Earth 500 million years ago lived in the oceans, but scientists know little about how these animals and algae developed.
The University of Toledo has issued the following press release:
Corals are colonies of tiny, genetically identical animals known as polyps that form their characteristic skeletons by combining the mineral calcium carbonate with fibers of living matter, in a process known as biomineralization. But how the skeletons of stony corals arrange scores of different proteins in the process of biomineralization has been largely unknown.
Archaea are one of three domains of life, along with bacteria and the more complex eukaryotes. Now, new research has confirmed that archaea microbes package their DNA in tight coils that bend like a slinky, which may be the precursor for the more elaborate DNA system of eukaryotes.
Scientists have developed a new, more efficient method for converting one type of human cell into another type of human cell for use in disease modeling, cell transplants, and gene therapies.
The physiology of baleen whales is not well understood, but a new research project is changing what marine biologists know about the health and environmental stress of these large aquatic animals.
Scientists have identified how the giant unicellular slime mold, Physarum polycephalum, uses its own body network to encode the position of a food source for future use.
For an embryo to develop, new cells of different types must know precisely where to place themselves and in what direction to grow. How the cells are able to do this has been an unexplained question for more than a century.
The risk of developing cancer usually increases with body size and lifespan in mammals, but elephants and some other animals are an exception.
Rice University has discovered that there is a previously unknown relationship between mammals’ biodiversity and the forests that they dwell in, according to a press release.
What drove the explosion of diversity in an East African cichlid freshwater fish that radiated into more than 2,000 species in the last few million years?
Waiting to get care is dangerous, OHSU co-author emphasizes