Basic research into the mechanisms of cell division, using eggs and embryos from frogs and starfish, has led researchers to an unexpected discovery about how animal cells control the forces that shape themselves.
Cell & Microbiology
Oct 23, 2015
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40
Bacteria contain "microcompartments," which are poorly understood organelles that play critical roles in metabolism. Understanding how they work may ultimately enable engineering them for useful applications. In salmonella, ...
Biotechnology
May 12, 2015
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12
Conventional wisdom holds that the cytoplasm of mammalian cells is a viscous fluid, with organelles and proteins suspended within it, jiggling against one another and drifting at random. However, a new biophysical study led ...
Cell & Microbiology
Aug 14, 2014
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Considered as an obsolete theory for many years, the transmission of acquired traits has returned to the forefront of debate thanks to the development of epigenetic research. In this context, a team from the Institut de biologie ...
Biotechnology
May 12, 2014
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The contents of plant cells undergo continuous mixing by a process known as cytoplasmic streaming. Yet although this process was discovered more than 200 years ago, its exact purpose has remained unclear. Motoki Tominaga ...
Biotechnology
Jan 24, 2014
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Our genetic heritage is contained—and protected—in the nucleus of the cells that compose us. Copies of the DNA exit the nucleus to be read and translated into proteins in the cell cytoplasm. The transit between the nucleus ...
Cell & Microbiology
Sep 27, 2013
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Most bacteria are able to communicate with each other by secreting signaling molecules. Once the concentration of signals has reached a critical density ("the Quorum), the bacteria are able to coordinate their behavior. Only ...
Cell & Microbiology
Jul 18, 2013
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Photosynthesis takes place in specialized membrane systems, made up of stacked disks linked together by unstacked planar leaflets. A team of Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitaet (LMU) in Munich has now identified a protein that ...
Cell & Microbiology
Jul 10, 2013
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1
Scientists in the US have developed a novel vaccination method that uses tiny gold particles to mimic a virus and carry specific proteins to the body's specialist immune cells.
Bio & Medicine
Jun 25, 2013
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Parasitic wasps switch off the immune systems of fruit flies by draining calcium from the flies' blood cells, a finding that offers new insight into how pathogens break through a host's defenses.
Plants & Animals
May 20, 2013
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