ScienceDaily: Plants & Animals News |
| Posted: 31 Mar 2022 03:53 PM PDT Zinc's immune-boosting properties are well-established, but scientists haven't known exactly how it works. Scientists now reveal two ways the mineral supports immunity and suggest how it could be used to improve health. Using mice, the team discovered that zinc is needed for the development of disease-fighting immune cells called T cells and prompts regeneration of the thymus, the immune organ that produces T cells. |
| Polynesian Island yields 'treasure trove' of fungal biodiversity Posted: 31 Mar 2022 02:08 PM PDT Researchers have provided a detailed description of the stunning array of fungi that make their home on the Polynesian island of Mo'orea. The collection includes more than 200 species of macrofungi -- that is, fungi producing visible, fruiting bodies -- many of which may be new to science. |
| Easy test can see if breeding bulls have the right stuff Posted: 31 Mar 2022 12:15 PM PDT Forget sending bull semen out for complicated laboratory tests to learn whether the agricultural animal is virile. Scientists have developed a faster, easier microfluidics method. |
| German and Austrian deer thus far spared SARS-CoV-2 infections, unlike in North America Posted: 31 Mar 2022 12:15 PM PDT In North America, SARS-CoV-2 has spread from humans to white-tailed deer. The deer are now considered SARS-CoV-2 reservoirs and may even spill virus back to humans. Scientists have now shown that in Germany and Austria this has not happened as all deer tested were negative for SARS-CoV-2 antibodies. |
| How giant viruses mature: New evidence from the medusavirus sheds light Posted: 31 Mar 2022 12:15 PM PDT Medusavirus, a giant virus, is more closely related to eukaryotic cells than other giant viruses are. In an exciting new study, scientists have used electron microscopy and time-course analysis to discover four different types of medusavirus particles within and outside infected amoeba cells, representing four different stages of virus maturation. Their results indicate that the medusavirus has a unique maturation process, providing new insights into the structural and behavioral diversity of giant viruses. |
| New technology solves mystery of respiration in Tetrahymena Posted: 31 Mar 2022 12:14 PM PDT Tetrahymena, a tiny single celled-organism, turns out to be hiding a surprising secret: it's doing respiration -- using oxygen to generate cellular energy -- differently from other organisms such as plants, animals or yeasts. The discovery highlights the power of new techniques in structural biology and reveals gaps in our knowledge of a major branch of the tree of life. |
| Scientists bioprint tissue-like constructs capable of controlled, complex shape change Posted: 31 Mar 2022 12:14 PM PDT New cell-laden bioink, comprised of tightly-packed, flake-shaped microgels and living cells, the production of cell-rich 4D bioconstructs that can change shape under physiological conditions. |
| Easier, faster assay enables many more laboratories to identify COVID-19 variants Posted: 31 Mar 2022 12:14 PM PDT Using a commercially available test and simplified process, any laboratory that can run a real-time PCR assay can detect known SARS-CoV-2 variants in patient samples, researchers report. |
| Light pollution increasing year round for some migrating birds Posted: 31 Mar 2022 12:12 PM PDT Nighttime light pollution levels are increasing the most in the southeastern United States, Mexico, and Central America--findings based on year-round data collected over the last two decades in the Western Hemisphere. |
| Fruit flies adapt activity to 'white nights' Posted: 31 Mar 2022 10:42 AM PDT Fruit flies with a new variant of a 'clock gene' are spreading northwards. Neurobiologists have now found an explanation for this phenomenon. |
| Increased heat and drought stunt tropical trees, a major carbon sink Posted: 31 Mar 2022 10:42 AM PDT For a long time, ecologists assumed tree rings to be absent in tropical trees because of a lack of temperature and rain fluctuations in the trees' environment. But in recent decades, the formation of growth rings has been proven for hundreds of tropical tree species, which are sensitive to drought and usually experience at least a month or two of slightly reduced rainfall every year. |
| Apples and other fruits can host drug-resistant, pathogenic yeasts on surfaces, study finds Posted: 31 Mar 2022 09:11 AM PDT Fungicides used to prolong shelf life of fruits may select for pathogenic yeasts and boost transmission. Those pathogens include Candida auris, a drug-resistant pathogenic yeast found in stored apples in a recent study. |
| African network protects key turtle sites Posted: 31 Mar 2022 07:15 AM PDT A network of West African Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) covers key sites used by green turtles, new research shows. |
| A scaffold with a twist: Cryo-EM reveals the building blocks of poxvirus Posted: 31 Mar 2022 07:15 AM PDT Researchers have revealed how poxviruses build their scaffold - a temporary protein coat that forms and disappears as the virus matures. |
| Babies exposed to cannabis in the womb may be at risk for obesity, high blood sugar Posted: 31 Mar 2022 07:14 AM PDT Cannabis use among pregnant women is on the rise and may be associated with negative health outcomes in children, according to a new study. |
| How would a nuclear winter impact food production? Posted: 30 Mar 2022 01:45 PM PDT Research focuses on how meeting food security and nutrition in the face of potential risks is one of humanity's major challenges over the next decades. |
| Subsidy would improve fruit and veggie intake by as much as 15%, say economists Posted: 30 Mar 2022 11:14 AM PDT High fixed costs for retailing fresh fruit and vegetables means that they cost 40% more than would be efficient, unlike unhealthy alternatives, which trade close to marginal cost, a new study demonstrates. |
| SARS-CoV-2 spike protein more stable, slower changing than earlier version Posted: 30 Mar 2022 11:13 AM PDT New computational simulations of the behavior of SARS-CoV-1 and SARS-CoV-2 spike proteins prior to fusion with human cell receptors show that SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, is more stable and slower changing than the earlier version that caused the SARS epidemic in 2003. |
| Hands, feet, and fins: The connection that explains acral melanoma Posted: 30 Mar 2022 09:14 AM PDT Scientists are using zebrafish to understand human skin cancer that attacks the hands and feet. |
| Posted: 30 Mar 2022 09:12 AM PDT Until now, proteins have been the target of most medications for the prevention and treatment of human disease. Drug developers have perceived RNA to be too unstable to target with drug therapy. However, a screen of 50,000 compounds has revealed drug-like activity against an RNA prototype called Xist, a result that opens the door for development of new medications. |
| Posted: 30 Mar 2022 08:13 AM PDT A research team studied how bacteria swim in complex fluids, providing insight into how the microorganisms move through different environments, such as their natural habitats or inside the human body. |
| Oxytocin treatment can take lions from ferocious to friendly Posted: 30 Mar 2022 08:13 AM PDT Lions typically aren't keen on making new friends. The giant cats guard their territory fiercely and can mortally wound a foe with a single swipe. While aggression is an advantage for apex predators in the wild, it poses real challenges for lions on reserves or in captivity, a number that is growing due to habitat loss. Researchers working on a wildlife reserve in Dinokeng, South Africa found that an intranasal application of the 'love hormone' oxytocin could make lion meet-cutes less life-threatening. |
| Researchers discover new model for 'global' DNA repair Posted: 30 Mar 2022 08:13 AM PDT Two studies provide a radically new picture of how bacterial cells continually repair damaged sections (lesions) in their DNA. |
| Molecular 'blueprint' illuminates how plants perceive light Posted: 30 Mar 2022 08:13 AM PDT Plants rely on their ability to sense light for survival. But unlike animals, plants don't have eyes full of photoreceptors to capture and convey messages from visual stimuli. Instead, plants are coated with a network of light-sensing photoreceptors that detect different wavelengths of light, allowing them to regulate their lifecycles and adjust to environmental conditions. Now, scientists have determined the molecular structure of one of these vital photoreceptors -- a protein known as PhyB -- revealing a wholly different structure than previously known. The findings may have implications for agricultural and 'green' bioengineering practices. |
| Flowers' unseen colors can help ensure pollination, survival Posted: 30 Mar 2022 07:33 AM PDT You can't see it, but different substances in the petals of flowers create a 'bulls-eye' for pollinating insects, according to a scientist whose research sheds light on chemical changes in flowers which helps them respond to environmental changes, including climate change, that might threaten their survival. |
| Pathogenic bacteria causing lung diseases hitchhike on red blood cells Posted: 30 Mar 2022 07:33 AM PDT Mycobacteria are a group of pathogenic bacteria that cause diseases like leprosy and tuberculosis in humans. Now, a new study finds that mycobacteria are associated with red blood cells at lung infection sites, an interaction that has escaped scientific notice for 140 years since the discovery of the organism causing tuberculosis. The new research, published in Microbiology Spectrum, illuminated the interaction of mycobacteria with red blood cells and its role in lung disease. |
| New ‘crime scene investigation’ may save endangered carnivorous plants Posted: 30 Mar 2022 07:33 AM PDT Researchers have combined macro photography with DNA metabarcoding to create a new botanical "CSI" tool that may hold the key to safeguarding the future of Australia's critically endangered carnivorous plants. |
| Eating two servings of avocados a week linked to lower risk of cardiovascular disease Posted: 30 Mar 2022 07:32 AM PDT A 30-year study of more than 110,000 health professionals found that participants who ate at least two servings of avocado a week had a lower risk of cardiovascular disease compared to those who rarely ate avocados. Replacing animal products like butter, cheese or bacon with avocado was also associated with a lower risk of cardiovascular disease events. |
| The worrying arrival of the invasive Asian needle ant in Europe Posted: 30 Mar 2022 07:32 AM PDT A research team has, for the first time in Europe, identified a specimen of Asian needle ant (Brachyponera chinensis), a highly invasive species. |
| European earthworms reduce insect populations in North American forests Posted: 29 Mar 2022 04:17 PM PDT Earthworms introduced into northern North America have a negative impact on the insect fauna above ground. Soil ecologists found this impact for abundance as well as for biomass and species richness of insects. Their results indicate that changes in insect communities can have causes that have previously received little attention. |
| Methane could be the first detectable indication of life beyond Earth Posted: 28 Mar 2022 12:05 PM PDT A new study assesses the planetary context in which the detection of methane in an exoplanet's atmosphere could be considered a compelling sign of life. |
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