Pathogen News and Research

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Scientists observe detailed images of spike proteins in coronavirus

Coronaviruses, similar to the one that causes COVID-19 infection, are embedded with protein “spikes” that attach to receptors on their victims’ cells.

21 Dec 2020

New study targets small proteins in Salmonella to combat the pathogen

Salmonella is a type of bacteria that causes food poisoning upon infection, with acute diarrhea.

17 Dec 2020

Researchers identify suitable biocatalyst for designing COVID-19 vaccine

The chemical substance class of nucleosides is attracting a great deal of interest, and this can be attributed to the ongoing COVID 19 pandemic.

17 Dec 2020

Gene expression database sheds light on pneumococcal infection

Researchers at the University of Maryland School of Medicine published one of the most comprehensive analyses of how genes get expressed during infection (known as a transcriptome).

16 Dec 2020

Biochemical methods reveal signal transduction mystery inside human pathogen

In order to adapt to the changing environment, bacteria must quickly transform extracellular information into appropriate intracellular reactions. Two component system (TCS) is the main signal transduction protein in prokaryotic cells to transform environmental stimuli into cellular responses.

16 Dec 2020

New antibiotic can help treat drug-resistant pathogens

Researchers from Johns Hopkins University and Medicine have designed a potential new antibiotic for a pathogen that is highly resistant to drugs and is often lethal to individuals suffering from lung diseases, including cystic fibrosis.

11 Dec 2020

A genetic shortcut to help visualize proteins at work

A group at Gladstone Institutes and UC San Francisco (UCSF) has demonstrated that a large-scale and systematic genetic approach can indeed yield reliable and detailed information on the structure of protein complexes.

11 Dec 2020

New portable optical sensor can monitor plant stress

The portable device allows rapid detection of nitrogen deficiency - a critical nutrient for plant health. When tested on popular vegetables such as Spinach and Kai-Lan, the device was also able to detect levels of other metabolites; allowing measurement of a wider range of plant stress phenotypes such as drought, heat/cold, saline, and light stress.

11 Dec 2020

Toxic pollutants may be influencing wildlife disease spread, finds study

Exposure to toxic pollutants associated with human activities may be influencing the spread of infectious diseases in wildlife, according to a new study from the University of Georgia.

From University of Georgia 11 Dec 2020

Study provides new insight on how lung bacteria protect against invading pathogens

New insight on how bacteria in the lungs protect against invading pathogens has been published today in the open-access eLife journal.

9 Dec 2020

Researchers discover molecular mechanism of plant immune receptors

In a recent study, Alexander von Humboldt Professor Jijie Chai at the University of Cologne and his team together with MPIPZ researchers have succeeded for the first time in reconstructing the sequence of molecular events that activate an inactive plant immune receptor and thus mediate the death of the host cell.

8 Dec 2020

Gasdermin E triggers pyroptosis and involved in pathogen-induced coral death

Pyroptosis is a highly inflammatory form of programmed necrotic cell death that acts as a defense mechanism against the infection of bacterial and viral pathogens. Pyroptosis is executed by gasdermin, a family of pore-forming proteins.

7 Dec 2020

Researchers design living plant-based sensor to track arsenic levels

For the first time, researchers from SMART have engineered a living plant-based sensor for the detection of arsenic in the belowground environment

3 Dec 2020

Specific immune mechanism in COVID-19 patients triggers inflammatory process

Researchers at the University of São Paulo (USP) in Brazil have demonstrated for the first time that in COVID-19 patients an immune mechanism known as the inflammasome participates in activation of the inflammatory process that can damage several organs and even lead to death.

3 Dec 2020

Study shows metabolic state of disease-causing parasite influences its resistance to drugs

A new study has revealed how a disease-causing parasite is able to resist the present range of therapies. The study was recently published in eLife.

2 Dec 2020

Scientists conduct “molecular dissection” of part of virus that causes foot-and-mouth disease

Scientists have conducted a 'molecular dissection' of a part of the virus that causes foot-and-mouth disease, to try and understand why the pathogen is so infectious.

1 Dec 2020

Scientists use genomics to track the outbreak of Yellow fever virus in São Paulo

Yellow fever virus is normally confined to the Amazon region, but the virus circulated in the Southeast of Brazil between 2016 and 2018, causing the worst epidemic and epizootic outbreaks there for decades. The Ministry of Health confirmed 2,251 cases of yellow fever in humans and 1,567 cases in monkeys in Brazil between December 2016 and June 2019.

6 Nov 2020

Composition of virus communities is shaped by host genetic factors

Plants can be infected by multiple viruses at once. However, the composition of the pathogen community varies, even if individuals belong to the same species and the same population.

6 Nov 2020

Researchers discover how tomato plants identify Cuscuta as a parasite

Working together with researchers from the University of Tübingen, the University of Tromsø, the UC Davis and the Sainsbury Laboratory in Norwich, biologists from Friedrich-Alexander Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU) have discovered how tomato plants identify Cuscuta as a parasite.

5 Nov 2020