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Earliest Ancestors of Life Explored in Latest Scientific Study

A digital representation illustrating how LUCA was already under attack from viruses even at 4.2 billion years ago. Image Credit: Science Graphic Design

15 Jul 2024

New Gene-Editing Tool Offers More Precision and Flexibility

Researchers at the University of Sydney have created a gene-editing instrument that is more precise and adaptable than the industry standard CRISPR, which has transformed genetic engineering in biotechnology, agriculture, and medicine.

24 Jun 2024

Ancient Archaea Reveal Secrets of Hydrogen Utilization

An international scientific team has redefined our understanding of archaea, a microbial ancestor to humans from two billion years ago, by showing how they use hydrogen gas.

12 Jun 2024

Cryo-EM Study Reveals Cas7-11-CRISPR Complex Regulation Mechanisms

In a recent study published in Signal Transduction and Targeted Therapy, Chinese researchers studied the cryo-electron microscopy structures of the CRISPR-Cas7-11 nuclease, both alone and in complex with the regulatory protein tetratricopeptide repeat fused with Cas/(human enhancer of filamentation 1) HEF1-associated signal transducer (TPR-CHAT).

24 May 2024

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