ScienceDaily: Plants & Animals News

Gene editing may be a potential treatment for anxiety and alcohol use disorder in adults who were exposed to binge drinking in their adolescence, according to the results of an animal study. The researchers used a gene-editing tool called CRISPR-dCas9 in their experiments to manipulate the histone acetylation and methylation processes at the Arc gene in models of adult rats.

As climate change continues to alter weather patterns around the planet including the Midwest, researchers are modeling the impact on crops such as corn.

Researchers have created an improved method for turning genes on and off using electrical signals.

A new study summarizing the 2020 California wildfire year said just over 9,900 wildfires burned 4.3 million acres in 2020. That's twice the previous record but only average compared to burn rates before Euro-American settlement. Fire severity is the far greater concern.

A study provides the first published in-depth description of the anti-cancer activity of capsaicin sustained release formulations. Capsaicin is naturally found in chili peppers and is the agent that provides the hot and spicy taste when eating chili peppers.

Some strains of Aedes aegypti -- the mosquito that carries Zika, malaria and dengue fever -- have evolved to bite humans almost exclusively. A team has now discovered how they target us so precisely.

A significant change in the genetics of tiger sharks reveals a vulnerability to direct exploitation and shark control programs.

Animals have three main strategies to survive the freezing temperatures of winter: migrating, remaining in place and resisting the cold, and reducing body temperature and metabolic rate in a state called torpor.

Using second-long electrical shocks, scientists discovered they could control the types of cells in a community of bacteria. Being able to direct the ratio of cells holds implications for settings spanning agriculture to health care, where antibiotic resistance is a significant threat.

Substituting 20 % of meat from cattle with microbial protein -- a meat alternative produced in fermentation tanks -- by 2050 could halve deforestation, a new analysis finds. The market-ready meat alternative is very similar in taste and texture, but is a biotech product which -- by replacing beef -- involves much less land resources and greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture and land-use change. This goes under the assumption of a growing world population's increasing appetite for beefy bites, and it is the first time researchers have projected the development of these market-ready meat substitutes into the future, assessing their potential impact on the environment.

Plants can't speak up when they are thirsty. And visual signs, such as shriveling or browning leaves, don't start until most of their water is gone. To detect water loss earlier, researchers have created a wearable sensor for plant leaves. The system wirelessly transmits data to a smartphone app, allowing for remote management of drought stress in gardens and crops.

Researchers have identified a shift that occurs in canine coronavirus that may provide clues as to how it transmits from animals to humans.