Cell & Microbiology news
First-ever blueprint of a minimal cell is more complex than expected
Nov 26, 2009 |
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What are the bare essentials of life, the indispensable ingredients required to produce a cell that can survive on its own? Can we describe the molecular anatomy of a cell, and understand how an entire organism ...
New giant virus discovered
Dec 09, 2009 |
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Scientists in France have isolated a new giant virus that lurks inside amoeba and whose gene pool includes genetic material from other species.
Newly explored bacteria reveal some huge RNA surprises
Dec 02, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- Yale University researchers have found very large RNA structures within previously unstudied bacteria that appear crucial to basic biological functions such as helping viruses infect cells ...
Computational microscope peers into the working ribosome (w/ Video)
Nov 23, 2009 |
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Two new studies reveal in unprecedented detail how the ribosome interacts with other molecules to assemble new proteins and guide them toward their destination in biological cells. The studies used molecular ...
Ice Cold: Cooler Than Being Cool
Nov 24, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- Water expands when it freezes. Anyone who has ever left a can of soda or bottle of water in the freezer too long has witnessed this first hand. So how do plants and animals survive severe ...
Cells defend themselves from viruses, bacteria with armor of protein errors
Nov 25, 2009 |
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When cells are confronted with an invading virus or bacteria or exposed to an irritating chemical, they protect themselves by going off their DNA recipe and inserting the wrong amino acid into new proteins to defend them ...
Gene Hijacked By HIV Ancestor Suggests New Way to Block Viral Reproduction
Dec 07, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- An ancestor of the AIDS virus hijacked an entire gene, perhaps from some prehistoric cat it had infected, a gene that makes it much better able to infect humans, according to a study published ...
New Bacterial Behavior Discovered
Dec 15, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- Bacteria dance the electric slide, officially named electrokinesis by the USC geobiologists who discovered the phenomenon.
Scientists take a step towards uncovering the histone code
Dec 20, 2009 |
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Researchers at Emory University School of Medicine have determined the structures of two enzymes that customize histones, the spool-like proteins around which DNA coils inside the cell.
Mystery solved: Scientists now know how smallpox kills
15 hours ago |
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A team of researchers working in a high containment laboratory at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, GA, have solved a fundamental mystery about smallpox that has puzzled scientists long after the ...
Introns: A mystery renewed
Dec 10, 2009 |
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The sequences of nonsense DNA that interrupt genes could be far more important to the evolution of genomes than previously thought, according to a recent Science report by Indiana University Bloomington and ...
'Rock-breathing' bacteria could generate electricity and clean up oil spills
Dec 14, 2009 |
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A discovery by scientists at the University of East Anglia (UEA) could contribute to the development of systems that use domestic or agricultural waste to generate clean electricity.
Discovery opens new avenues for treating devastating freshwater fish parasite, 'Ich'
Dec 02, 2009 |
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Researchers from the University of Georgia College of Veterinary Medicine have made an "unexpected" dual discovery that could open new avenues for treating Ichthyophthirius multifiliis, or "Ich", a devastating ...
Researchers discover biological basis of 'bacterial immune system'
Nov 25, 2009 |
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Bacteria don't have easy lives. In addition to mammalian immune systems that besiege the bugs, they have natural enemies called bacteriophages, viruses that kill half the bacteria on Earth every two days.
Self-destructing bacteria improve renewable biofuel production
Dec 08, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- An Arizona State University research team has developed a process that removes a key obstacle to producing lower-cost, renewable biofuels. The team has programmed a photosynthetic microbe ...
