ScienceDaily: Plants & Animals News

Researchers managed to set larger groups of malaria parasites into motion and to analyze the acquired image data. The collectively moving pathogens form vortex systems that are largely determined by physical principles. Computer simulations helped identify the mechanisms underlying these rotating movements.

The microbes that help break down food actually tell the gut how to do its job better, according to a new study in mice. The researchers said it appears that the microbes are able to influence which of the gut's genes are being called into action, and in turn, that interaction might lead to a remodeling of the epithelial cells lining the gut so that they match the diet.

How do our cells organize themselves to give their final shape to our organs? The answer lies in morphogenesis, the set of mechanisms that regulate their distribution in space during embryonic development. A team has just made a surprising discovery in this field: when a tissue curves, the volume of the cells that compose it increases instead of decreasing. This discovery opens new avenues for in vitro organ culture, a partial alternative to animal experimentation. It also suggests new perspectives for the production of certain materials.

The transgenic papaya 'SunUp' was developed in the 1990s and was widely publicized because of its ability to resist the papaya ringspot virus. A new study has now identified the genomic changes involved and how they influence the transgenic plants.

Researchers have untangled the intricate physics and neural controls that enable dragonflies to right themselves while they're falling.

Patients prescribed antibiotics in hospital are more likely to get fungal infections because of disruption to the immune system in the gut, according to a new study.

A single hormone appears to coordinate the lifespan extension produced by a low-protein diet. Low-protein diets produce beneficial metabolic effects in aged mice, improving metabolic health, reducing frailty, and extending lifespan. These beneficial effects were also apparent when protein intake was reduced in middle-aged mice, even protecting against the detriments of obesity. Importantly, these beneficial effects were lost in mice that lacked FGF21, suggesting that its action in the brain is critical for the increase in health and lifespan.

For our sake and the environment, there is a considerable amount of research into the reduction of plastic for many and various applications. Researchers have now found a way to imbue relatively sustainable paper materials with some of the useful properties of plastic. This can be done easily, cost effectively, and efficiently. A coating called Choetsu not only waterproofs paper, but also maintains its flexibility and degrades safely as well.

Human cell division involves hundreds of proteins at its core. Knowing the 3D structure of these proteins is pivotal to understand how our genetic material is duplicated and passed through generations. Scientists are now able to reveal the first detailed structure of a key protein complex for human cell division known as CCAN. By using cryo-electron microscopy, the researchers show important features of the complex's 16 components and challenge previous assumptions about how the complex is able to recognize the centromere, a crucial region of chromosomes in cell division.

Organisms adjust their cell walls according to environmental conditions such as temperature. Some adaptations involve changes in lipids which may still be preserved long after the rest of the organisms has been degraded. Researchers have studied a specific group of lipids called long chain diols which are found in sea sediments all over the world, and which can be preserved for millions of years.

Conservation of sea turtles along much of Africa's east coast has made good progress in recent decades -- but tens of thousands of turtles still die each year due to human activity, researchers say.

The authors of a major study on the once critically endangered pink pigeon say boosting the species' numbers is not enough to save it from extinction in the future. Despite the population increase, the team's analysis shows the pink pigeon has a high genetic load of bad mutations, which puts it at considerable risk of extinction in the wild within 100 years without continued conservation actions.