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Researchers Identify Protein Regulating Gas Vesicle Patterning in Bacteria

Gas vesicles are hollow structures made of protein found in the cells of certain microorganisms, and researchers at Rice University believe they can be programmed for use in biomedical applications.

30 Mar 2024

Microbial Viruses Found to be Key Players in Methane Cycling and Climate Change

In a new study, scientists have discovered that viruses that infect microbes contribute to climate change by playing a key role in cycling methane, a potent greenhouse gas, through the environment.

1 Mar 2024

Researchers Discover Core Genes for Bacteria Colonizing Plants

Using a novel experimental approach, Max Planck researchers have discovered a core set of genes required by commensal bacteria to colonize their plant hosts.

20 Dec 2023

Tiny Microbes Help Corals "Remember" and Fight Heat Waves

Some coral species can be resilient to marine heat waves by "remembering" how they lived through previous ones, research by Oregon State University scientists suggests.

19 Dec 2023

FLSHclust Unveils 188 Novel CRISPR-Associated Gene Modules

Employing a groundbreaking algorithm named FLSHclust (“flash clust”), scientists have unearthed 188 uncommon and previously undiscovered CRISPR-associated gene modules, among billions of protein sequences. This includes the identification of a novel type VII CRISPR-Cas system.

24 Nov 2023

Understanding the Intricacies of LUCA

The ‘last universal common ancestor’ of all living organisms, LUCA, lived 4.32 to 4.52 billion years ago.

22 Nov 2023

Using Genetic Engineering to Facilitate Mutualistic Relationships Between Plants and Nitrogen-Fixing Microbes

Nitrogen is an essential nutrient for plant growth, but the overuse of synthetic nitrogen fertilizers in agriculture is not sustainable.

27 Sep 2023

Key Proteins in Human Breast Milk Crucial for Baby’s Healthy Gut

The abundance of two species of bacteria known to be good for human health and used as probiotics, Clostridium butyricum and Parabacteroides distasonis, has been linked to high concentrations of key proteins in human breast milk, particularly osteopontin and κ-casein.

13 Sep 2023

Examining the Biology of Microbes and Their Response to Global Changes

Around the world, organisms are experiencing unprecedented levels of stress from habitat destruction, climate change, and several other human-driven changes to the surrounding.

21 Aug 2023

Amazon Dark Earth for Accelerated Tree Growth

A study published in the journal Frontiers in Soil Science asserts that a type of soil known as terra preta da Amazônia, or Amazon dark earth (ADE), encourages quicker growth of trees and improves their development in terms of quality.

2 Aug 2023

The Asgard Connection: New Research Uncovers the Origins of Complex Life

Thor, the legendary Norse god from the mythological city of Asgard, is not alone. According to groundbreaking research published in the journal Nature, we humans -; along with eagles, starfish, daisies and every complex organism on Earth -; are, in a sense, Asgardians.

23 Jun 2023

Speeding Up Forest Restoration Using New Biotechnological Approaches

Investigators from Brazil reveal that Amazonian dark earth (ADE), soils enriched by Amerindian people thousands of years ago, enhances the establishment and growth of seedlings of tree species vital for reforestation.

8 May 2023

Metabolic Network Compatibility Not Likely the Limiting Factor in Prokaryotic Endosymbiosis

"One of the great mysteries of biology," says Eric Libby, former SFI Postdoctoral Fellow, now an associate professor at the Integrated Science Lab (IceLab), Umeå University in Sweden, "is eukaryogenesis, or how eukaryotes arose." Scientists consider this to be a period of major evolutionary transition, critical to our understanding of the history and evolution of life on Earth.

25 Apr 2023

Viruses Interact with a Far More Diverse Set of Hosts than was Previously Thought

Viruses are the most abundant and diverse biological entities on Earth, living in every type of habitat. In the ocean alone viruses are ten times more abundant than microbes.

7 Apr 2023

Researchers Explain How a Single Mutation Causes Ataxia

Worldwide, only a handful of patients are known to suffer from episodic ataxia type 6, a neurological disease that causes transient loss of muscle control.

4 Apr 2023

Investigating methanogens to unravel the genetics of temperature adaptation

The history of the Earth has been one of physical extremes-;extreme atmospheric conditions, extreme chemical environments, and extreme temperatures.

28 Mar 2023

Elaborating how amino acids shaped the genetic code of ancient microbes

Researchers discovered that without specific amino acids, ancient proteins would not have identified how to evolve into anything alive on the planet today, including plants, animals, and humans, by mimicking early Earth conditions in the lab.

28 Feb 2023

Researchers expand the known defensive abilities of CRISPR–Cas systems

Viruses can infect bacteria and archaea, just as they can humans. These microbes have evolved their own immune defense mechanisms to combat their pathogens. Bacterial defenses, like CRISPR-Cas systems, contain a variety of proteins and functions that aid bacteria in protecting themselves from foreign intruders.

5 Jan 2023

Methane emissions offset atmospheric carbon dioxide uptake in the blue carbon ecosystems

Bladderwrack in the Baltic Sea emits significant amounts of methane, which, to some extent, can offset the uptake of atmospheric carbon dioxide by these algae.

5 Jan 2023

Cryo-EM solves the decades-old mystery of bacterial movement

Scientists from the University of Virginia School of Medicine and their colleagues have discovered a decades-old mystery regarding how E. coli and other bacteria move.

28 Sep 2022