Plants cut the mustard for basic discoveries in metabolism

You might think you have nothing in common with mustard except hotdogs. Yet based on research in a plant from the mustard family, Salk scientists have discovered a possible explanation for how organisms, including humans, ...

Small-scale soil studies provide big benefits

When it comes to studying microbial communities in soil, the smaller the sample, the better. Only by approaching the scale at which microbes interact and function, the micron scale, can scientists understand how the community ...

Twenty-year protein mystery solved with surprising results

(PhysOrg.com) -- A new study of the CRYM protein, previously connected with deafness and cancer, has now proven that it has an enzymatic function. This opens up new implications for the treatment of neurological and psychiatric ...

Fundamental discovery casts enzymes in new light

Just as a breeze causes leaves, branches and ultimately the tree to move, enzymes moving at the molecular level perform hundreds of chemical processes that have a ripple effect necessary for life. Protein complexes are often ...

A question of gene silencing

When investigating cancer cells, researchers discovered numerous peculiarities: Particular RNA molecules are present in large numbers, particular genes are overactive. Do these characteristics have a relation to cancer? Do ...

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