ScienceDaily: Plants & Animals News

Researchers have identified an immune protein tied to the rare neurodegenerative condition known as Niemann-Pick disease type C. The finding, made in mouse models, could offer a powerful new therapeutic target for Niemann-Pick disease type C, a condition that was identified more than a century ago but still lacks effective treatments.

When kids sit down to eat lunch at school, fruits and vegetables may not be their first choice. But with more time at the lunch table, they are more likely to pick up those healthy foods. If we want to improve children's nutrition and health, ensuring longer school lunch breaks can help achieve those goals, according to new research.

Rabbits were raised for over a thousand years in Mexico without becoming domesticated. A new study finds that their solitary lifestyle and greater species diversity made domestication unlikely.

Common yeast are able to adapt and thrive in response to a long-term rise in temperature by changing the shape, location and function of some of their proteins. The surprising findings demonstrate the unappreciated plasticity in the molecular and conformational level of proteins and bring the power of molecular biology to the organismal response to climate change.

During cell division, chromosomes are duplicated and separated so that one copy of each chromosome is inherited by each of the two emerging daughter cells. Correct distribution of chromosomes requires high accuracy and defects in this process can cause aberrant distribution of chromosomes and facilitate cancer development. By analyzing the structure of the protein responsible for chromosome separation, a team has shed light on the mechanisms controlling this essential player in cell division.

Researchers at RIKEN, Japan have succeeded in creating the first genetically engineered marsupial. This study will contribute to deciphering the genetic background of unique characteristics observed only in marsupials.

A landmark study documenting instances where native Mediterranean species have preyed upon two highly invasive marine fish -- the Pacific red lionfish and the silver-cheeked toadfish -- has just been published.

Whether summer or winter, midnight sun or polar night, the sand on the ocean floor is always inhabited by the same bacteria. Although the microbial communities differ between different ocean regions, they do not change between the seasons. Presumably, there is simply no room for change. Researchers now describe this phenomenon in a new study.

The parasites that cause severe malaria are well-known for the sinister ways they infect humans, but new research may lead to drugs that could block one of their most reliable weapons: interference with the immune response.

Sweeping changes in marine nutrients may seem to be a likely consequence of increasing global temperatures; however, new research suggests that processes below the ocean surface could play a larger role than previously thought.

Scientists have developed a tool that is able to differentiate the endangered salt marsh harvest mouse from its non-endangered doppelgänger with up to 99% accuracy.