Tiny amino acid differences can lead to dramatically different enzymes
Just a few changes to an enzyme's amino acids can be enough to dramatically change its function, enabling microbes to inhabit wildly different environments.
Just a few changes to an enzyme's amino acids can be enough to dramatically change its function, enabling microbes to inhabit wildly different environments.
Biochemistry
May 7, 2021
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197
While evolution is normally thought of as occurring over millions of years, researchers at the University of California, Irvine have discovered that bacteria can evolve in response to climate change in 18 months. In a study ...
Evolution
Apr 28, 2021
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234
In a recently published study, investigators from Norwich and Surrey have more than doubled the number of microbial species known to live in the chicken gut. As the health and wealth of humans is tied to the health and productivity ...
Cell & Microbiology
Apr 13, 2021
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6
For centuries, people in Baltic nations have used ancient amber for medicinal purposes. Even today, infants are given amber necklaces that they chew to relieve teething pain, and people put pulverized amber in elixirs and ...
Biochemistry
Apr 5, 2021
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3982
For a bacterium, the world can be a tough place to survive, a constant competition for food and space. Some bacteria, like Pseudomonas aeruginosa, secrete toxic molecules that act as a defense mechanism against nearby competitor ...
Cell & Microbiology
Mar 15, 2021
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34
The balance of human intestinal microbiota, consisting of hundreds of bacterial species and phages (bacteria viruses), is crucial to good health. A research team, including scientists from the CNRS and the Institut Pasteur, ...
Cell & Microbiology
Mar 10, 2021
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15
A toxin produced by bacteria as a defense mechanism causes mutations in target bacteria that could help them survive, according to a study published today in eLife.
Cell & Microbiology
Feb 23, 2021
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6
A recent discovery that, in real-world conditions bacteria, similar to animals, cooperate and selflessly act for the greater good of the group, could help scientists to predict how helpful and harmful strains behave. The ...
Cell & Microbiology
Feb 22, 2021
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29
Scientists have discovered an essential protein in cholera-causing bacteria that allows them to adapt to changes in temperature, according to a study published today in eLife.
Cell & Microbiology
Feb 16, 2021
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30
Just as beneficial microbes in the human gut can be affected by antibiotics, diet interventions and other disturbances, the microbiomes of other animals can also be upset. In a rare study published this week, Andrea Jani, ...
Plants & Animals
Feb 11, 2021
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128