Cell & Microbiology news

Cells can read damaged DNA without missing a beat

Biology / Cell & Microbiology

8 hours ago | 5 / 5 (1) | 0 |

Scientists have shown that cells' DNA-reading machinery can skim through certain kinds of damaged DNA without skipping any letters in the genetic "text." The studies, performed in bacteria, suggest a new mechanism that can ...

Study carried out into biological risks of eating reptiles

Biology / Cell & Microbiology

11 hours ago | 3 / 5 (2) | 4

Reptiles are bred in captivity primarily for their skins, but some restaurants and population groups also want them for their meat. A study shows that eating these animals can have side effects that call into ...

Researchers map all the fragile sites of the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae's genome

Biology / Cell & Microbiology

12 hours ago | not rated yet | 0 |

The research group of Dr. François Robert, a researcher at the Institut de recherches cliniques de Montréal (IRCM), in collaboration with the team of Dr. Daniel Durocher (Samuel Lunenfeld Research Institute and University ...

Scientists measure energy released from a virus during infection

Biology / Cell & Microbiology

Feb 05, 2010 | 5 / 5 (4) | 0 |

Within a virus's tiny exterior is a store of energy waiting to be unleashed. When the virus encounters a host cell, this pent-up energy is released, propelling the viral DNA into the cell and turning it into a virus factory. ...

Road mapping could be key to curing TB

Biology / Cell & Microbiology

Feb 05, 2010 | not rated yet | 0

The complex chain of metabolic events in bacteria that lead to fatal diseases such as tuberculosis (TB) may be better understood using mathematical models, according to an article published in the February issue of Microbiology To ...

Bacteria toxic to wound-treating maggots

Biology / Cell & Microbiology

Feb 04, 2010 | 5 / 5 (4) | 0 |

Bacteria that infect chronic wounds can be deadly to maggot 'biosurgeons' used to treat the lesions, show researchers writing in the journal Microbiology. The findings could lead to more effective treatment of wounds and th ...

Researchers identify regulator of human sperm cells

Biology / Cell & Microbiology

Feb 04, 2010 | 5 / 5 (3) | 0 |

UCSF researchers have identified an elusive molecular regulator that controls the ability of human sperm to reach and fertilize the egg, a finding that has implications on both treating male infertility and preventing pregnancy.

Nuclear pore complexes harbor new class of gene regulators

Biology / Cell & Microbiology

Feb 04, 2010 | 5 / 5 (1) | 0 |

Nuclear pore complexes are best known as the communication channels that regulate the passage of all molecules to and from a cell's nucleus. Researchers at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, however, ...

Breakthrough by Danish scientists in preventing maternal malaria

Biology / Cell & Microbiology

Feb 04, 2010 | not rated yet | 0

Researchers at the University of Copenhagen have become the first in the world to synthesize the entire protein that is responsible for life-threatening malaria in pregnant women and their unborn children.

A molecule that destroys normal metabolism is found

Biology / Cell & Microbiology

Feb 04, 2010 | not rated yet | 0

Overeating in mice triggers a molecule once considered to be only involved in detecting and fighting viruses to also destroy normal metabolism, leading to insulin resistance and setting the stage for diabetes. ...

Bad news for mosquitoes: Study may lead to better traps, repellents

Biology / Cell & Microbiology

Feb 03, 2010 | 5 / 5 (4) | 1 |

Yale University researchers have found more than two dozen scent receptors in malaria-transmitting mosquitoes that detect compounds in human sweat, a finding that may help scientists to develop new ways to combat a disease ...

Biologists determine microRNA activity is suppressed in mouse ovum

Biology / Cell & Microbiology

Feb 03, 2010 | 5 / 5 (1) | 0 |

Biologists at the University of Pennsylvania studying oocytes in mice, the immature egg cells necessary for sexual reproduction, have demonstrated an unusual behavior in microRNA, or miRNA, activity that may be the first ...

PNAS paper cites discovery of small RNA 'quality-control' mechanism

Biology / Cell & Microbiology

Feb 02, 2010 | not rated yet | 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- When a person is exposed to a cold virus, whether he or she actually becomes ill may come down to how well short snippets of RNA in the person's defense response system interact with the RNA-based ...

Why is it so difficult to eradicate salmonella?

Biology / Cell & Microbiology

Feb 02, 2010 | 5 / 5 (1) | 0

Feed contaminated by salmonella bacteria is a familiar and costly problem for the animal feed industry all over the world. Some types of salmonella have succeeded in establishing themselves in feed and fish ...

Double agent: Glial cells can protect or kill neurons, vision

Biology / Cell & Microbiology

Feb 01, 2010 | 5 / 5 (2) | 0 |

Scientists have identified a double agent in the eye that, once triggered, can morph from neuron protector to neuron killer. The discovery has significant health implications since the neurons killed through ...

Cells send dirty laundry home to mom

Biology / Cell & Microbiology

Feb 01, 2010 | 5 / 5 (1) | 0

Understanding how aged and damaged mother cells manage to form new and undamaged daughter cells is one of the toughest riddles of ageing, but scientists now know how yeast cells do it. In a groundbreaking ...

Argonautes: A big turn-off for proteins

Biology / Cell & Microbiology

Feb 01, 2010 | 5 / 5 (1) | 0

Johns Hopkins scientists believe they may have figured out how genetic snippets called microRNAs are able to shut down the production of some proteins.

Tumor suppressor p53 prevents cancer progression in cells with missegregated chromosomes

Biology / Cell & Microbiology

Feb 01, 2010 | not rated yet | 0

Cells missegregate a chromosome approximately once every hundred divisions. But don't be too alarmed: new research in the Journal of Cell Biology shows that the tumor suppressor p53 limits the growth of cel ...