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Could ecological roles offer clues to how life began?

Producers, consumers, and decomposers play different roles in today's ecosystems. Thinking about these familiar roles led me to a question: Could their differences partly reflect the different physical and chemical environments ...

Open-source workflow makes spatial proteomics easier to use

Fabian Coscia and his team have published in Nature Methods an open-source workflow that makes Deep Visual Proteomics easier to use, adapt and scale. OpenDVP enables scientists to spatially map thousands of proteins inside ...

How rice coordinates signals to partner with beneficial soil fungi

Most plants do not gather nutrients from the soil entirely on their own. Many form partnerships with microscopic fungi that grow inside their roots and extend into the surrounding soil. These partnerships, known as arbuscular ...

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Biotechnology
Light-based method could offer first way to detect hypothetical 'mirror life'
Cell & Microbiology
Newly identified metabolic pathway helps explain how cold extends lifespan
Evolution
More current with less calcium: Computational models help solve longstanding ion channel evolution mystery
Molecular & Computational biology
Electronic nose puts police detection dogs to the test
Cell & Microbiology
Scientists reveal how deadly Andes hantavirus attaches to human cells
Cell & Microbiology
Chromosome anchors form hollow shells before cell division, imaging reveals
Cell & Microbiology
Bending a liquid: Liquid membranes flex 100 times more easily than cell membranes
Biotechnology
Two-in-one tool tracks viral RNA inside live infected cells in real time
Plants & Animals
Measuring regrowth: Erk gradients guide zebrafish fins back to their original size after injury
Cell & Microbiology
Unraveling DNA repair: How cells protect their genetic blueprint
Biotechnology
'Raman barcodes' distinguish 20 SARS-CoV-2 variants by their RNA architecture
Molecular & Computational biology
Keeping jumping genes in place: New role for protein complex discovered
Cell & Microbiology
Added receptor helps CAR T cells stay in bone marrow in cancer mouse models
Plants & Animals
Rolling without wheels: How dwarf reedsnakes coordinate their bodies for high-speed escapes
Evolution
Oldest animals on Earth found to share a common wormlike ancestor
Evolution
Ancient Hox code reveals the developmental roots of vertebrate hind fins and limbs
Cell & Microbiology
How enzymes locally block cell wall repair, allowing cells to fuse in an irreversible manner
Cell & Microbiology
How bacteria survive in a world full of killer bacteriophages
Molecular & Computational biology
Q&A: How does technology help track foodborne pathogens and outbreaks?
Biotechnology
Researchers unlock new way to map molecular structure on surfaces

Other news

Biochemistry
Silent bacterial genes yield potential leads for future cancer drugs
Optics & Photonics
Metalens microscope switches focus with voltage, not moving optics
Veterinary medicine
Can cats really thrive on vegan diets? Professor Andrew Knight responds to critics
Education
Scientists produce less disruptive research as they age, but their breakthroughs are more likely to last
Bio & Medicine
Simulations reveal design rules for high-performance DNA particle motors
Analytical Chemistry
Hydrogen production from seawater: Low-cost catalyst could cut energy use and resist corrosion
Education
Audit reveals suspected fabricated references across physics, chemistry, engineering and computing journals
Astronomy
Laser-blasted plasma shows how instabilities could heat the sun's corona
Plants & Animals
Two distinct sleep stages emerge in jumping spider, including a REM-like state
Ecology
Protecting isn't enough—creating integrated conservation landscapes is key
Evolution
How shoes change our bones—and what that tells us about the evolution of walking
Condensed Matter
Diamond defects confirm 80-year-old theory of crystal stress
Planetary Sciences
Clouds on a lava planet challenge what astronomers expected
Evolution
Armored amphibian lived entirely at sea 237 million years ago, fossils suggest
Evolution
Lizard tail preserved in amber sheds light on a 100-million-year-old defense mechanism
Astronomy
JWST and ALMA reveal a dusty, rapidly growing black hole in the early universe
Astronomy
FAST and Arecibo point to possible dark galaxy with vast hydrogen reservoir
Social Sciences
Britain's 1972 school reform may have lowered dementia diagnoses half a century later
Social Sciences
Both selfishness and generosity distort how we see our impact, but the selfish view is more contagious
General Physics
Physicists reveal new paradigm for fiber growth in neurodegenerative diseases

An activity-based probe library for identifying protein function

Proteins are vital to living systems. They build and repair tissues, act as enzymes to speed chemical reactions, regulate hormones and transport nutrients—all of which are important for developing next-generation bioproducts ...

Predictive tools can confuse rare mutations with dangerous ones

When a patient's DNA is read, it is compared with a reference version of the human genome. This allows geneticists and rare disease experts to look at a list of places where the patient's DNA differs. Most variations will ...

'Green thumb' molecule helps leaf stalks grow in crowded conditions

Potassium (K) is one of the three essential nutrients for plants. It plays a critical role in a wide range of processes, including cell growth, photosynthesis and regulation of water balance. Plants take up K from the soil ...

A molecular brake that keeps muscle architecture in check

Every movement we make, from blinking to sprinting, depends on the ability of muscle fibers to contract in a rapid and coordinated way. Achieving this precision requires an intricate internal membrane network known as the ...

How stressed cells put the brakes on protein 'shipping'

Cells synthesize proteins in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER), and these proteins are transported to the Golgi apparatus for distribution to their ultimate destinations inside and outside the cell. The structures that transport ...