ScienceDaily: Plants & Animals News

In the long-term battle between a herpesvirus and its human host, a virologist and her team of students have identified some human RNA able to resist the viral takeover -- and the mechanism by which that occurs.

Single individuals of Atlantic cod and squid occur much further north than previously expected. Scientists have found fish and squid in deep water in the middle of the Arctic Ocean.

Why have some plant species changed pollinators in their evolution? An international team of researchers studied the reproductive systems of three sister species pairs, where one species is pollinated by insects and the other by hummingbirds. Mechanisms were discovered that explain the switch from insect to bird pollination.

A pathway critical for regulating a form of cell death known as necroptosis has been identified. The team's preclinical findings suggest that an inhibitor targeting this PPP13RG protein complex can help prevent or reduce deaths and severe tissue damage from heart attacks and other inflammation-associated diseases.

Strict reservation of large land areas for animals and plants might save humankind from the collapse of species diversity in the next decades. However, in some countries, particularly in the global South, this might endanger food supply.

Legionellosis or Legionnaires' disease affected more than 1 800 people in France in 2019 and caused 160 deaths. This emerging disease is caused by Legionella pneumophila, an environmental bacterium that thrives in hot water systems. Researchers have discovered a mechanism that allows Legionella pneumophila to target the immune response of the cells it infects by secreting a small regulatory RNA. This mechanism, not described before, facilitates the survival and proliferation of Legionella pneumophila during infection. The work provides precious information on the strategies used by bacteria to manipulate their host cells.

Treating babies with antibiotics in the first week of life is linked with a decrease in healthy bacteria necessary amongst others to digest milk and an increase in antimicrobial resistance, research suggests. Experts say that clinicians should consider using antibiotics in a way that causes least harm to the newborns microbiome - the community of microbes that live in our body.

Chemists discovered the structure of a protein that can pump toxic molecules out of bacterial cells. Knowledge of this structure may make it possible to design drugs that could block transport proteins and help resensitize drug-resistant bacteria to existing antibiotics.

A study has identified a gene, KCNJ15, that is associated with helping our immune system fight tuberculosis (TB), and potentially other infectious diseases.