http://phys.org/biology-news/ en-us PhysOrg Team Phys.Org provides the latest news on biology, evolution, microbiology, biotechnology Even though a single raindrop can weigh 50 times more than a mosquito, the insect is still able to fly through a downpour. Georgia Tech researchers used high-speed videography to see how the mosquito's strong exoskeleton and low mass render it impervious to falling rain drops. http://phys.org/news258044546.html Biology 2012-06-04T16:02:41-07:00 Panicked villagers in a remote Indian state complained Monday of an invasion of giant venomous spiders that resemble tarantulas but are unknown to local specialists. http://phys.org/news258042333.html Biology 2012-06-04T15:25:40-07:00 An international team of researchers, led by scientists at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine, suggest that inactivation of two specific genes related to the immune system may have conferred selected ancestors of modern humans with improved protection from some pathogenic bacterial strains, such as Escherichia coli K1 and Group B Streptococci, the leading causes of sepsis and meningitis in human fetuses, newborns and infants. http://phys.org/news258035713.html Biology 2012-06-04T15:00:16-07:00 Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory have identified key elements in the biochemical mechanism plants use to limit the production of fatty acids. The results suggest ways scientists might target those biochemical pathways to increase the production of plant oils as a renewable resource for biofuels and industrial processes. http://phys.org/news258035799.html Biology 2012-06-04T15:00:13-07:00 Giant insects ruled the prehistoric skies during periods when Earth's atmosphere was rich in oxygen. Then came the birds. After the evolution of birds about 150 million years ago, insects got smaller despite rising oxygen levels, according to a new study by scientists at the University of California, Santa Cruz. http://phys.org/news258035891.html Biology 2012-06-04T15:00:06-07:00 An international research team involving 17 institutions including Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory has published the most comprehensive analysis to date of the maize genome. It is an achievement that substantially increases scientists' understanding of differences across related but different species of the plant, which most North Americans call corn, as well as the nature of differences found within individual maize species. http://phys.org/news258025600.html Biology 2012-06-04T10:46:57-07:00 Guido David, associated with VIB and KU Leuven, and Pascale Zimmermann have discovered a new mechanism for the formation of exosomes, small vesicles with a role in tumor development. This research has been published in the authoritative journal Nature Cell Biology. http://phys.org/news258025484.html Biology 2012-06-04T10:44:49-07:00 The yeast Dekkera bruxellensis plays an important role in the production of wine, as it can have either a positive or a negative impact on the taste. Researchers at Lund University in Sweden, among others, have analyzed the yeast's genome sequenced by the US Department of Energy Joint Genome Institute, giving wine producers the possibility to take control of the flavour development of the wine. http://phys.org/news258025244.html Biology 2012-06-04T10:43:08-07:00 New microscope enabled scientists at EMBL Heidelberg to film a fruit fly embryo, in 3D, from when it was about two-and-a-half hours old until it walked away from the microscope as a larva. http://phys.org/news258024774.html Biology 2012-06-04T10:33:39-07:00 Scientists at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Heidelberg, Germany, have for the first time uncovered the detailed structure of the shell that surrounds the genetic material of retroviruses, such as HIV, at a crucial and potentially vulnerable stage in their life cycle: when they are still being formed. The study, published online today in Nature, provides information on a part of the virus that may be a potential future drug target. http://phys.org/news258024717.html Biology 2012-06-04T10:32:13-07:00 (Phys.org) -- An international collaboration between scientists in University College Dublin and the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) has revealed for the first time that 15% of the proteins encoded by the human genome contribute to the process of secretion in cells. This finding has been made possible through the assessment of more than 8 million individual cells. http://phys.org/news258018715.html Biology 2012-06-04T08:52:12-07:00 (Phys.org) -- The release of Eastern bettongs from Tasmania into the ACT’s predator-proof sanctuary at Mulligans Flat Nature Reserve last week, could be the key to help recover endangered Box Gum grassy woodlands, according to research from The Australian National University. http://phys.org/news258016762.html Biology 2012-06-04T08:40:02-07:00 (Phys.org) -- Mammalian cells can now do what an electronic calculator can: perform logical calculations. Swiss researchers have equipped cells with a complex genetic network that can do more than just one plus one. http://phys.org/news258016213.html Biology 2012-06-04T08:10:26-07:00 (Phys.org) -- A team of researchers examining DNA extracted from the skeletons of historic horses in order to throw light on the origin of diseases found in modern horses have, in the course of their work, solved some of the mysteries that have long puzzled the horse-racing world. http://phys.org/news258015586.html Biology 2012-06-04T08:01:10-07:00 Consumer products known as "bug bombs" or "foggers" have been sold for decades for use against many common household insects. However, recent research published in the Journal of Economic Entomology (JEE) shows these products to be ineffective against bed bugs. http://phys.org/news258001982.html Biology 2012-06-04T04:19:37-07:00 (Medical Xpress) -- The transformation of a fertilized egg into a functioning animal requires thousands of cell divisions and intricate rearrangements of those cells. That process is captured with unprecedented speed and precision by a new imaging technology developed at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Janelia Farm Research Campus, which lets users track each cell in an embryo as it takes shape over hours or days. http://phys.org/news257959849.html Biology 2012-06-03T16:31:01-07:00 Transgenic crops that produce insect-killing proteins from the bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) have reduced reliance on insecticide sprays since 1996. Yet, just as insects become resistant to conventional insecticides, they also can evolve resistance to the Bt proteins in transgenic crops. Thus, to delay pest resistance, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has required farmers to plant "refuges" of crops that do not produce Bt proteins near Bt crops. But how much refuge acreage is enough? http://phys.org/news257922664.html Biology 2012-06-03T15:00:01-07:00 An interdisciplinary team, led by researchers at Cornell University and the U.S. Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Research Service (USDA-ARS), today published the most comprehensive analysis to date of the corn genome. http://phys.org/news257924677.html Biology 2012-06-03T13:00:09-07:00 Researchers at the University of California, Davis, report that ancient farmers had a stronger impact on the evolution of maize, or corn, than modern plant breeders have had on the grain — now one of the world's top production crops. http://phys.org/news257924803.html Biology 2012-06-03T13:00:08-07:00 Computer-designed proteins are under construction to fight the flu. Researchers are demonstrating that proteins found in nature, but that do not normally bind the flu, can be engineered to act as broad-spectrum antiviral agents against a variety of flu virus strains, including H1N1 pandemic influenza. http://phys.org/news257798075.html Biology 2012-06-01T19:34:42-07:00 A newly published genetic sequence and map of foxtail millet, a close relative of switchgrass and an important food crop in Asia, is giving scientists working to increase biofuel and crop yields a powerful new tool. http://phys.org/news257797764.html Biology 2012-06-01T19:29:30-07:00 The French government is to ban a pesticide made by Swiss giant Syngenta used in rapeseed cultivation that has been found to shorten bees' lifespan, Agriculture Minister Stephane Le Foll said Friday. http://phys.org/news257774354.html Biology 2012-06-01T12:59:31-07:00 Early human activity has left a greater footprint on today's ecosystem than previously thought, say researchers working at the University of Pittsburgh and in the multidisciplinary Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) Network, created by the National Science Foundation to investigate ecological processes over long temporal and broad spatial scales. Highlighted in the June issue of BioScience, the Pitt/LTER collaboration shows how historic human actions caused changes in nature that continue to reverberate throughout present-day ecosystems. http://phys.org/news257771264.html Biology 2012-06-01T12:09:32-07:00 A recent study of the impact of climate change on butterflies suggests that some species might adapt much better than others, with implications for the pollination and herbivory associated with these and other insect species. http://phys.org/news257770644.html Biology 2012-06-01T11:59:15-07:00 Silicon-based computers are fine for typing term papers and surfing the Web, but scientists want to make devices that can work on a far smaller scale, recording data within individual cells. One way to do that is to create a microscopic hard drive out of DNA, the molecule that already stores the genetic blueprints of all living things. http://phys.org/news257767224.html Biology 2012-06-01T11:02:15-07:00 There was no hanky-panky involved when a fairy-tale white foal was born to two brown Standardbreds at the Four Winds Farm in New Jersey. DNA tests confirm that the snowy foal, born May 6, is a mutant, but that's nothing to be ashamed of. So are most humans, according to a new analysis. http://phys.org/news257766434.html Biology 2012-06-01T11:00:02-07:00 (AP) — An environmentalist says three endangered Sumatran elephants have been poisoned and found dead within a palm oil plantation in western Indonesia. http://phys.org/news257766057.html Biology 2012-06-01T10:41:02-07:00 A rose by any other name would smell as sweet -- but it might confound scientists interested in understanding the chemical components of its fragrance or discovering where its ancestors grew in the wild. http://phys.org/news257765594.html Biology 2012-06-01T10:33:21-07:00 In one of the most famous faux pas of exploration, Columbus set sail for India and instead 'discovered' America. Similarly, when scientists at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Heidelberg, Germany, set out to find enzymes – the proteins that carry out chemical reactions inside cells – that bind to RNA, they too found more than they expected: 300 proteins previously unknown to bind to RNA – more than half as many as were already known to do so. The study, published online today in Cell, could help to explain the role of genes that have been linked to diseases like diabetes and glaucoma. http://phys.org/news257764967.html Biology 2012-06-01T10:23:13-07:00 Several studies have shown that a lack of nitrogen in soils adversely affects crop yields. The modern use of nitrogen fertilizers has improved yields to meet expanding global food demand, but in some cases up to 50% of the nitrogen in fertilizers reaches surrounding water bodies in the form of nitrate, causing pollution. As the use of nitrogen fertilizers is rapidly increasing worldwide each year, there is a fundamental need to understand how plants absorb nitrate, and how this absorption can be improved in crops. http://phys.org/news257762047.html Biology 2012-06-01T10:00:02-07:00