ScienceDaily: Plants & Animals News |
| Scaling laws in enzymes may help predict life ‘as we don’t know it' Posted: 28 Feb 2022 01:16 PM PST A team of researchers is developing tools to predict the features of life as we don't know it. |
| Climate change: A threat to human wellbeing and health of the planet Posted: 28 Feb 2022 10:15 AM PST Human-induced climate change is causing dangerous and widespread disruption in nature and affecting the lives of billions of people around the world, despite efforts to reduce the risks. People and ecosystems least able to cope are being hardest hit, said scientists in the latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report. |
| Discovery of an innate immunological memory in the intestine Posted: 28 Feb 2022 09:56 AM PST The innate immune system plays a crucial role in regulating host-microbe interactions, and especially in providing protection against pathogens that invade the mucosa. Using an intestinal infection model, scientists discovered that innate effector cells -- group 3 innate lymphoid cells -- act not only during the early stages of infection but can also be trained to develop an innate form of immunological memory that can protect the host during reinfection. |
| How a two-faced molecule can silence problematic genes Posted: 28 Feb 2022 08:44 AM PST Researchers have developed a technology, heteroduplex oligonucleotide (HDO), that silences certain genes whose high expression levels fuel disease. Adding a specific molecular tag allowed them to target the HDO to immune cells called lymphocytes safely and efficiently. Doing so with an HDO specific to a gene called Itga4 improved symptoms in a mouse model of multiple sclerosis, suggesting this technology may be developed to use in human immune disorders. |
| Healthy gut microbiome improves success of cancer treatment Posted: 28 Feb 2022 08:44 AM PST The largest study to date has confirmed the link between the gut microbiome and the response to cancer immunotherapy therapy for melanoma. |
| Bark of neem tree may protect against coronavirus variants, study finds Posted: 28 Feb 2022 08:43 AM PST Extract from the bark of the Neem tree may help treat and reduce the spread of coronavirus, according to a new study. The research shows that components of Neem bark may target a wide range of viral proteins, suggesting its potential as an antiviral agent against emerging variants of coronaviruses (including SARS-CoV-2). |
| Snail competition leads to fewer parasites that cause schistosomiasis Posted: 28 Feb 2022 08:43 AM PST A new study shows that schistosome transmission can actually be highest when freshwater snail populations are low. This study demonstrates how the size of a freshwater snail population relates to its parasitic infection rate. |
| Elephant seal’s map sense tells them when to head ‘home’ Posted: 28 Feb 2022 08:43 AM PST Each year, pregnant female elephant seals take an approximately 240-day trek over 10,000 kilometers across the Eastern North Pacific Ocean before returning to their breeding beaches to give birth within five days of their arrival. Now, a study finds that this impressive navigation ability depends on an internal map sense, which functions much like a built-in GPS. |
| For cancer patients on immunotherapy, harmful gut bacteria might matter more than helpful ones Posted: 28 Feb 2022 08:43 AM PST Melanoma patients receiving therapy that helps their immune system kill cancer cells respond to treatment differently depending on the types of microbes in their gut, and new research suggests the microorganisms hindering therapy have more influence than the beneficial ones. |
| Social networking for fossils shows community impacts of mass extinctions Posted: 28 Feb 2022 07:38 AM PST By applying an algorithm akin to what social media sites use to make friend suggestions, researchers have identified communities of ancient life in the fossil record and tracked how their numbers changed through each of the planet's mass extinctions. |
| New way viruses trigger autoimmunity discovered Posted: 28 Feb 2022 07:38 AM PST Studying mice, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have discovered that roseolovirus can trigger autoimmunity in a previously unknown way: by disrupting the process by which immune cells learn to avoid targeting their own body's cells and tissues. |
| Endangered, new to science orchid discovered in Ecuador with the help of a commercial nursery Posted: 28 Feb 2022 06:11 AM PST An astounding new species of rare orchid has been discovered in the cloud rainforest of Northern Ecuador. Known from a restricted area in the province of Carchi, the plant is presumed to be a critically endangered species, as its rare populations already experience the ill-effects of climate change and human activity. The discovery was aided by a local commercial nursery, which was already cultivating these orchids. The study is published in the open-access journal PhytoKeys. |
| New DNA modification system discovered in animals, captured from bacteria more than 60 MYA Posted: 28 Feb 2022 06:11 AM PST In humans and other eukaryotes, two principal epigenetic marks are known. A team has discovered a third, novel epigenetic mark -- one formerly known only in bacteria -- in bdelloid rotifers, small freshwater animals. Epigenetic marks are modifications to DNA bases that don't change the underlying genetic code, but 'write' extra information on top of it that can be inherited along with your genome. |
| Machine learning antibiotic prescriptions can help minimize resistance spread Posted: 25 Feb 2022 07:02 AM PST Researchers find personalized antibiotic prescriptions can reduce the emergence of antibiotic resistance. |
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