http://phys.org/ en-us Phys.org internet news portal provides the latest news on science including: Physics, Nanotechnology, Life Sciences, Space Science, Earth Science, Environment, Health and Medicine. (PhysOrg.com) -- Methane, a potent greenhouse gas, seeps naturally from the seafloor in many places around the planet, including in the Gulf of Mexico. http://phys.org/news225459593.html Space & Earth Tue, 24 May 2011 12:40:11 EST news225459593 Advanced biofuels – liquid transportation fuels derived from the cellulosic biomass of perennial grasses and other non-food plants, as well as from agricultural waste – are highly touted as potential replacements for gasoline, diesel and jet fuels. Equally touted is the synthesis of these fuels through the use of microbes. However, many of the best candidate compounds for advanced biofuels are toxic to microbes, which presents a "production versus survival" conundrum. Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)'s Joint BioEnergy Institute (JBEI) have provided a solution to this problem by developing a library of microbial efflux pumps that were shown to significantly reduce the toxicity of seven representative biofuels in engineered strains of Escherichia coli. http://phys.org/news224336912.html Biology Wed, 11 May 2011 12:49:30 EST news224336912 Sampling just a few genes can reveal not only the "lifestyle" of marine microbes but of their entire environments, new research suggests. http://phys.org/news171559310.html Biology Mon, 07 Sep 2009 16:23:06 EST news171559310 (PhysOrg.com) -- Killed or disabled viruses have proven safe and effective for vaccinating billions worldwide against smallpox, polio, measles, influenza and many other diseases. http://phys.org/news171273137.html Biology Fri, 04 Sep 2009 10:00:16 EST news171273137 Scientists are beginning a large-scale effort to identify and analyze the vast majority of cells in or on your body that aren't of human origin. http://phys.org/news171139045.html Biology Wed, 02 Sep 2009 21:10:01 EST news171139045 (PhysOrg.com) -- Naturally occurring organic matter in water and sediment appears to play a key role in helping microbes convert tiny particles of mercury in the environment into a form that is dangerous to most living creatures. http://phys.org/news169827722.html Space & Earth Tue, 18 Aug 2009 15:22:45 EST news169827722 By washing your hands after digging in beach sand, you could greatly reduce your risk of ingesting bacteria that could make you sick. In new research, scientists have determined that, although beach sand is a potential source of bacteria and viruses, hand rinsing may effectively reduce exposure to microbes that cause gastrointestinal illnesses. http://phys.org/news169202278.html Space & Earth Tue, 11 Aug 2009 09:38:30 EST news169202278 (PhysOrg.com) -- Researchers may be able to predict how people will respond to particular drugs by analysing their urine samples, suggest scientists behind a new study published today in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. http://phys.org/news169136809.html Medicine & Health Mon, 10 Aug 2009 16:00:03 EST news169136809 As the body creates antibodies to fight invaders, a three-protein DNA repair complex called MRN is crucial for a normal gene-shuffling process to proceed properly, University of Michigan research shows. http://phys.org/news168678106.html Biology Wed, 05 Aug 2009 08:50:01 EST news168678106 (PhysOrg.com) -- In their most recent experiments with Geobacter, the sediment-loving microbe whose hairlike filaments help it to produce electric current from mud and wastewater, Derek Lovley and colleagues at the University of Massachusetts Amherst supervised the evolution of a new strain that dramatically increases power output per cell and overall bulk power. It also works with a thinner biofilm than earlier strains, cutting the time to reach electricity-producing concentrations on the electrode. http://phys.org/news168019852.html Chemistry Tue, 28 Jul 2009 17:20:03 EST news168019852 NOAA-supported scientists, led by Nancy Rabalais, Ph.D., from the Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium (LUMCON), found the size of this year's Gulf of Mexico dead zone to be smaller than forecasted, measuring 3,000 square miles. However the dead zone, which is usually limited to water just above the sea floor, was severe where it did occur, extending closer to the water surface then in most years. http://phys.org/news167720984.html Space & Earth Sat, 25 Jul 2009 06:10:13 EST news167720984 Ten articles describing how a universal language to describe genes is bringing benefits to the study of the microbial world have been published in a special issue of Trends in Microbiology, co-edited by Virginia Bioinformatics Institute professor Brett Tyler. The Gene Ontology is a powerful language that gives researchers a shared vocabulary to describe disease-related and beneficial interactions between a microbe and its host. By allowing scientists to link experimental results to a computer-readable language, the Gene Ontology provides scientists with an important bridge between specific experiments that characterize gene function and larger-scale, systems biology efforts to provide a global picture of host-microbe interactions. http://phys.org/news166808777.html Biology Tue, 14 Jul 2009 16:46:55 EST news166808777 Microbes contribute to manifold human endeavors ranging from bioenergy to agriculture to medicine. Moreover, they make the Earth's biogeochemical cycles go round, a prerequisite for all life on the planet. Exceedingly numerous, they are also extremely diverse, encompassing most of Earth's total biodiversity. http://phys.org/news166442353.html Biology Fri, 10 Jul 2009 10:59:45 EST news166442353 Emory researchers are tapping the latest-generation DNA sequencing technology to become the first explorers of the genomics of agricultural ant societies. http://phys.org/news166355602.html Biology Thu, 09 Jul 2009 10:53:45 EST news166355602 The Rosetta Stone of bacterial communication may have been found. http://phys.org/news166162905.html Biology Tue, 07 Jul 2009 06:30:11 EST news166162905 What's so great about sex? From an evolutionary perspective, the answer is not as obvious as one might think. An article published in the July issue of the American Naturalist suggests that sex may have evolved in part as a defense against parasites. http://phys.org/news166118400.html Biology Mon, 06 Jul 2009 17:00:32 EST news166118400 A group of plant proteins that "shut the door" on bacteria that would otherwise infect the plant's leaves has been identified for the first time by a team of researchers in Denmark, at the University of California, Davis, and at UC Berkeley. http://phys.org/news165474803.html Biology Mon, 29 Jun 2009 06:15:26 EST news165474803 (PhysOrg.com) -- The genomes or DNA of microbes contain defined DNA patterns called genome signatures. Such signatures may be used to establish relationships and to search for DNA from viruses or other organisms in the microbes' genomes. Foreign DNA in bacteria has often been associated with disease-causing abilities. http://phys.org/news165160386.html Biology Thu, 25 Jun 2009 14:53:49 EST news165160386 Ready for some live, active cultures in your chocolate? How about your breakfast cereal? Probiotics, the so-called "friendly" bacteria with health benefits, have busted out of the dairy case and are colonizing other areas of the supermarket. http://phys.org/news164638153.html Medicine & Health Fri, 19 Jun 2009 14:20:01 EST news164638153 Immobilized microbes can break down potentially harmful phthalates, according to researchers in China, writing in the International Journal of Environment and Pollution. The microbes might be used to treat industrial waste water and so prevent these materials from entering the environment. http://phys.org/news164631553.html Biology Fri, 19 Jun 2009 11:59:39 EST news164631553 An international team of scientists has discovered extensive similarities between a strain of bacteria commonly associated with plants and one increasingly linked to opportunistic infections in hospital patients. The findings suggest caution in the use of the plant-associated strain for a range of biotech applications. The genetic analysis was conducted in part at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory, and will be published in the July 2009 issue of Nature Reviews Microbiology, now available online. http://phys.org/news164379448.html Biology Tue, 16 Jun 2009 14:30:01 EST news164379448 A novel bacterium that has been trapped more than three kilometres under glacial ice in Greenland for over 120 000 years, may hold clues as to what life forms might exist on other planets. http://phys.org/news164251242.html Biology Mon, 15 Jun 2009 02:21:07 EST news164251242 Bioremediation of industrial sites and petrochemical spillages often involves finding microbes that can gorge themselves on the toxic chemicals. This leaves behind a non-toxic residue or mineralized material. Writing in the International Journal of Environment and Pollution, researchers in China describe studies of a new microbe that can digest hydrocarbons. http://phys.org/news163937198.html Biology Thu, 11 Jun 2009 11:06:59 EST news163937198 In a drama played out across the southeastern U.S. in containers as small as a coffee cup, native and invasive mosquito larvae compete for resources and try to avoid getting eaten. One of the invasive mosquitoes, the Asian tiger mosquito (Aedes albopictus), can carry dengue fever, a viral disease that sickens 50 to 100 million people a year in the tropics, so this seemingly inconsequential struggle has implications for human health. http://phys.org/news163332110.html Biology Thu, 04 Jun 2009 11:02:19 EST news163332110 Sulfolobus islandicus, a microbe that can live in boiling acid, is offering up its secrets to researchers hardy enough to capture it from the volcanic hot springs where it thrives. In a new study, researchers report that populations of S. islandicus are more diverse than previously thought, and that their diversity is driven largely by geographic isolation. http://phys.org/news162642213.html Biology Wed, 27 May 2009 11:24:12 EST news162642213 Supply and demand could be a governing principle even at the genetic level, because most genes are only expressed when needed. Biologists at the Ludwigs-Maximilians-Universitat in Munich, Germany, show that in microbes evolutionary factors determine which regulation mechanism will regulate a given gene. http://phys.org/news162553268.html Biology Tue, 26 May 2009 10:41:43 EST news162553268 Thank parasites for making some of our immune proteins into the inflammatory defenders they are today, according to a population genetics study that will appear in the June 8 issue of the Journal of Experimental Medicine (online May 25). The study, conducted by a team of researchers in Italy, also suggests that you might blame parasites for sculpting some of those genes into risk factors for intestinal disorders. http://phys.org/news162464032.html Medicine & Health Mon, 25 May 2009 10:03:33 EST news162464032 (PhysOrg.com) -- It appears that some superbugs have evolved to develop the ability to manipulate the immune system to everyone's advantage. http://phys.org/news162395261.html Medicine & Health Sun, 24 May 2009 14:48:05 EST news162395261 (PhysOrg.com) -- An ingenious new method of obtaining marine microbe samples while preserving the microbes' natural gene expression has yielded an unexpected boon: the presence of many varieties of small RNAs -- snippets of RNA that act as switches to regulate gene expression in these single-celled creatures. Before now, small RNA could only be studied in lab-cultured microorganisms; the discovery of its presence in a natural setting may make it possible finally to learn on a broad scale how microbial communities living at different ocean depths and regions respond to environmental stimuli. http://phys.org/news161532776.html Biology Thu, 14 May 2009 15:14:11 EST news161532776 An ingenious new method of obtaining marine microbe samples while preserving the microbes' natural gene expression has yielded an unexpected boon: the presence of many varieties of small RNAs — snippets of RNA that act as switches to regulate gene expression in these single-celled creatures. Before now, small RNA could only be studied in lab-cultured microorganisms; the discovery of its presence in a natural setting may make it possible finally to learn on a broad scale how microbial communities living at different ocean depths and regions respond to environmental stimuli. http://phys.org/news161439205.html Biology Wed, 13 May 2009 13:14:02 EST news161439205