How stress hormones guide bacteria in their host

In humans and animals, catecholamines such as epinephrine, norepinephrine, and dopamine are common stress hormones. Stress can increase the body's susceptibility to bacterial infections. In the laboratory, stress hormones ...

Understanding molecular basis of lateral root development in rice

The ability of rice plants to modify their root systems to adapt to the surrounding soil water conditions is a great example of a phenomenon called phenotype plasticity. However, the exact mechanism behind this remained unknown. ...

Scientists identify essential factors for limb formation

Scientists at the Centro Nacional de Investigaciones Cardiovasculares (CNIC), working in partnership with researchers at the Institut de Recherches Cliniques de Montréal (IRCM) in Canada, have identified Meis transcription ...

Starving tuberculosis of sugars may be a new way to fight it

Tuberculosis is a devastating disease that claims over 1.5 million lives each year. The increase in TB cases that are resistant to the current antibiotics means that novel drugs to kill Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) are ...

Cracking the code of a shapeshifting protein

A shapeshifting immune system protein called XCL1 evolved from a single-shape ancestor hundreds of millions of years ago. Now, researchers at the Medical College of Wisconsin (MCW) discovered the molecular basis for how this ...

The pressure sensor of the Venus flytrap

All plant cells can be made to react by touch or injury. The carnivorous Venus flytrap (Dionaea muscipula) has highly sensitive organs for this purpose: sensory hairs that register even the weakest mechanical stimuli, amplify ...

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