https://phys.org/biology-news/molecular-computational/ en-us Medical Xpress provides the latest news on molecular and Computational biology Over 70 million people in the U.S. are impacted by hearing loss, and age-related hearing loss is the second most common health problem in older adults, according to the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health. However, scientists still do not fully understand how the cochlea—a delicate, spiral-shaped cavity in the inner ear lined with thousands of specialized sensory cells—performs the signal processing needed to separate meaningful sounds from background noise. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-cochlea-network-reveals-ear-noise.html Cell & Microbiology Mon, 29 Jun 2026 19:10:01 EDT news701969401 Disease management is a significant aspect of aquaculture, a vital industry and major food source. One of the most serious threats is a disease caused by the nervous necrosis virus (NNV), which can wipe out large populations of farmed fish and cause major economic losses in the aquaculture industry. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-breakthrough-aquaculture-oral-vaccine-fish.html Molecular & Computational biology Mon, 29 Jun 2026 18:40:05 EDT news701946164 Scientists discovered a protein secreted by a deep-sea extremophile—an organism adapted to extreme environmental conditions—that self-assembles into a biofilm and is highly stable, boosting its potential for biomedical applications. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-deep-sea-extremophile-yields-protein.html Cell & Microbiology Mon, 29 Jun 2026 17:50:01 EDT news701968261 RNA interference is a natural mechanism for living cells to control whether specific genes are being used. Crowned with the 2006 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, the discovery of RNA interference has since been harnessed by scientists to create a powerful and growing class of drugs capable of suppressing disease-related genes. Seven such drugs have already received Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval, including inclisiran, which can replace daily cholesterol-lowering pills with twice-yearly injections. Despite these clinical successes, the molecular details of how the system executes its cuts remained poorly understood. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-blueprint-rna-therapeutics-reveals-sirna.html Biotechnology Mon, 29 Jun 2026 17:10:04 EDT news701967902 A new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences has offered insight into how Staphylococcus aureus, a major human pathogen, fine-tunes its internal machinery to survive stress and potentially cause infection. The research uncovers new details about the structure and function of a previously understudied nuclease, YhaM, revealing how it regulates cellular machinery and contributes to bacterial virulence, or severity. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-understudied-enzyme-aureus-pathogen-prosper.html Cell & Microbiology Mon, 29 Jun 2026 16:20:05 EDT news701966457 Researchers from the University of Osaka have demonstrated that mitochondrial hyperfusion, when induced by low levels of DRP1 or cellular stress, activates an immune response through the RIG-I–MAVS pathway. Dependent on the involvement of the BAX protein, the release of mitochondrial RNA into the cytosol enhanced natural killer cell cytotoxicity and reduced tumor growth in a xenograft model. The findings, published in Cell Reports, provide new possibilities for cancer research and treatment. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-mitochondria-abnormally-leaked-rna-anti.html Cell & Microbiology Mon, 29 Jun 2026 15:50:01 EDT news701964901 Antibiotic resistance is one of the most urgent threats to global health, linked to an estimated 4.7 million deaths worldwide in 2019 alone. As more bacteria evolve to evade even last-resort drugs, the supply of effective treatments is shrinking. Now, scientists at Scripps Research have discovered a way to restore the effect of one of those critical antibiotics by disabling a key bacterial enzyme. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-disabling-saga-enzyme-vrefm-infections.html Molecular & Computational biology Mon, 29 Jun 2026 15:40:07 EDT news701963653 Certain plants, including legumes, form specialized root organs known as nodules. These plants establish symbiotic relationships with nitrogen-fixing bacteria and utilize atmospheric nitrogen. This process, termed "root nodule symbiosis," is an important biological function that can reduce reliance on chemical nitrogen fertilizers. At the genetic level, previous studies, primarily on legumes, have demonstrated that the transcription factor nodule inception (NIN) is essential for root nodule symbiosis. This finding has led to the prevailing view that the loss of the NIN gene is primarily responsible for nodulation loss. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-functional-nin-persists-nodulating-rethinking.html Molecular & Computational biology Mon, 29 Jun 2026 11:00:07 EDT news701946019 For more than three decades, researchers studying genomes have relied on foundational resources such as Repbase and, more recently, Dfam to identify and classify transposable elements—the mobile DNA sequences that shape genome structure, evolution and function. Now, Dfam and Repbase are coming together under a single, fully open framework. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-dna-databases-fully-resource-transposable.html Biotechnology Mon, 29 Jun 2026 09:40:07 EDT news701944322 A tiny, aquatic, single-celled organism can contract to one-quarter of its body length in less than 5 milliseconds—hundreds of times faster than a human can blink. Researchers have discovered that the organism, Spirostomum ambiguum, uses a calcium-activated protein network in a fishnet-like configuration to power contraction at much faster speeds than human muscles can. The study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, has implications for designing faster artificial muscles and synthetic cellular machinery. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-tiny-faster.html Cell & Microbiology Mon, 29 Jun 2026 08:40:03 EDT news701941142 The AI-based program AlphaFold predicts a protein's 3D structure with remarkable accuracy. However, it tends to reduce heterogeneous structures to a single dominant conformation, or shape, and overlooks experimental conditions that can alter local structure. Researchers at the Institute of Science and Technology Austria (ISTA) and international collaborators have now developed a way to guide AlphaFold with experimental data. Their approach, published in Nature Biotechnology, paves the way for improved future predictive models. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-alphafold-ai-tool-conformation-limitation.html Biotechnology Mon, 29 Jun 2026 05:00:01 EDT news701700061 A new study sheds light on how the ancestors of modern land plants survived one of the most challenging aspects of life outside water: exposure to harmful ultraviolet (UV) radiation. By examining a microscopic alga closely related to the earliest land plants, researchers have uncovered a sophisticated and dynamic system for coping with sunburn—one that likely helped plants colonize land more than 500 million years ago. The results are published in Current Biology. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-ancient-algal-defenses-uv-conquer.html Evolution Sun, 28 Jun 2026 13:00:01 EDT news701360043 Researchers at the University of California San Diego have developed a large-scale screening approach that identifies proteins controlling a fundamental step in gene expression known as alternative polyadenylation (APA). APA determines where an RNA molecule is cut and finished before it is translated into protein, influencing the stability, localization and function of thousands of genes. The paper is published in the journal Molecular Cell. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-screen-reveals-proteins-rna.html Molecular & Computational biology Fri, 26 Jun 2026 12:53:38 EDT news701697149 The closest thing marine taxonomists have to the Olympics is now underway in San Diego. But instead of racing for medals, leading scientists are spending two weeks working together to catalog the extraordinary diversity of life along the California coast. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-california-unidentified-coastal-species-dna.html Ecology Fri, 26 Jun 2026 12:00:02 EDT news701684521 A global team has cracked a decades-old mystery, revealing the atomic structures of the molecules in our eyes that allow us to see colors. "To understand how we detect light and perceive colors, we need to know the exact structure of light-sensitive molecules in our eyes," said The Australian National University (ANU) researcher Emeritus Professor Trevor Lamb. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-secrets-revealed-molecular.html Cell & Microbiology Fri, 26 Jun 2026 10:00:02 EDT news701683976 Sertraline is one of the most widely prescribed antidepressants in the world. Global sertraline sales are expected to keep growing, projected to expand from an estimated US$1.94 billion in 2025 to approximately US$3.13 billion by 2032. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-scientists-antidepressant-brains-sharks-coast.html Ecology Fri, 26 Jun 2026 09:00:03 EDT news701674201 Scientists have discovered that two common human pathogens can work together by managing copper in their shared environment—a finding that could open new ways to break down stubborn mixed biofilms. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-copper-economy-fungi-bacteria-stubborn.html Cell & Microbiology Fri, 26 Jun 2026 05:00:06 EDT news701590681 Biomaterials with extraordinary properties, such as spider silk, have so far been known primarily from animals. Researchers at the University of Salzburg in Austria have now deciphered a surprising counterpart from the world of single-celled organisms: The shells of tintinnids, microscopic planktonic organisms, consist of self-assembling structural proteins that form a particularly resilient material and are capable of absorbing UV light. This is the first description of a biomaterial produced by a eukaryotic single-celled organism (protist), establishing tintinnids as a new model system for the future development of advanced biomaterials. More than 200 years after the discovery of tintinnids, the composition of their shells has finally been deciphered. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-centuries-planktonic-shell-mystery-discovery.html Cell & Microbiology Thu, 25 Jun 2026 18:40:01 EDT news701618339 The Korea Research Institute of Standards and Science has developed an ultrasensitive immunoassay-based analytical platform that can detect and quantify trace amounts of "Small Excised Damaged DNA (sedDNA)" fragments generated during cellular DNA repair. This technology enables highly sensitive detection with quantification down to the level of several thousand molecules, measuring up to 22 times more DNA fragments than conventional methods. It provides a new analytical foundation for comparing DNA repair capacity between individuals and studying cellular responses to anticancer drugs and carcinogenic agents. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-ultra-precise-technology-dna-fragments.html Biotechnology Thu, 25 Jun 2026 16:40:05 EDT news701617855 When bacteria are under antibiotic attack, it is not "every man for himself." Researchers at Baylor College of Medicine and colleagues from collaborating institutions have discovered that bacterial populations work as a team to survive antibiotics. The study, published in the journal Science, reveals that bacteria pool their resources, helping quiescent or dormant cells survive. The findings help explain why some bacteria are hard to eliminate and suggest potential future approaches to improve antibiotic effectiveness. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-antibiotics-trigger-bacterial-teamwork-boosting.html Cell & Microbiology Thu, 25 Jun 2026 14:00:01 EDT news701601481 As climate change intensifies droughts and other environmental stresses, maintaining crop productivity has become a major challenge for global agriculture. Drought can impair chloroplast development, reducing photosynthetic efficiency and ultimately lowering crop yields. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-dual-function-rice-gene-boosts.html Molecular & Computational biology Thu, 25 Jun 2026 10:40:01 EDT news701596191 A research team at the Ruhr University Bochum Department of Molecular and Cellular Botany, led by Professor Christopher Grefen, has uncovered how plants form the tiny pores on their leaves responsible for gas exchange and water regulation. The scientists identified the two lipid-modifying enzymes GELP80 and GELP100 as deciding factors in the formation of functional stomata. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-discovery-enzymes-pores-leaf-surfaces.html Molecular & Computational biology Thu, 25 Jun 2026 09:20:05 EDT news701594941 Cells can spontaneously change shape even without external signals, but the underlying mechanisms behind this form of self-organization have remained unclear. Now, researchers from Japan have discovered self-propelled treadmilling actin filaments (SpTAs), mobile protein assemblies that function as self-propelled particles. The team's work shows that even though SpTAs move randomly, they push the cell membrane outward to grow protrusions, thereby defining the overall shape of the cell. The work appears in EMBO Reports. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-propelled-actin-filaments-cells-spontaneously.html Cell & Microbiology Thu, 25 Jun 2026 05:00:03 EDT news701532481 When viruses travel through the air in tiny droplets, they can quickly start to dry out. Yet many viruses remain infectious after rehydration—something that is still not fully understood. Now, an international team of researchers has directly observed at the European XFEL how the protein shells of viruses can change shape during dehydration, offering new clues to viral resilience and opening new possibilities for virology research. The results, published in Light: Science & Applications, lay the groundwork for potential applications in virology and public health and can, for instance, help develop antiviral strategies. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-ray-snapshots-reveal-viral-shells.html Biotechnology Wed, 24 Jun 2026 18:50:01 EDT news701538782 When an animal's environment changes faster than the animal can adapt, its chances of survival can flatline. The same is true for populations and even entire species. Now, scientists at MIT and the University of Leicester have found that this connection between evolutionary adaptation and the pace of environmental change holds up at the global scale as well—and can determine life's susceptibility to mass extinction. The researchers have developed a theoretical model of this phenomenon, which they present in a paper published today in Physical Review Letters. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-environmental-outpaces-life-ability.html Evolution Wed, 24 Jun 2026 18:40:03 EDT news701532659 A new method for recognizing and targeting DNA that dramatically expands the range of genetic sequences scientists can identify has been developed by experts at the University of Portsmouth. Published this week in Nature Communications, the research opens new possibilities for gene-targeting technologies, molecular diagnostics and DNA nanotechnology. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-synthetic-dna-toolkit-scientists-ability.html Biotechnology Wed, 24 Jun 2026 18:00:03 EDT news701529781 A global analysis of fish biodiversity using environmental DNA (eDNA) reveals how human activity and climate influence biodiversity patterns in river ecosystems. An international research team led by the University of Zurich, Eawag and Yunnan University has found that in warmer climates, biodiversity accumulation is more pronounced as river catchment size increases, while human activities weaken this relationship. The work is published in the journal Nature Ecology & Evolution. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-environmental-dna-reveals-impact-climate.html Ecology Wed, 24 Jun 2026 18:00:01 EDT news701536443 Genome editing lets scientists rewrite DNA, the instruction manual inside every living cell, with a precision that was unthinkable a generation ago. Technologies such as CRISPR have made this almost routine, and its uses now reach far beyond medicine, from engineering hardier crops and more productive microbes to creating sustainable biomaterials. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-cleanfinder-browser-based-genome-analysis.html Biotechnology Wed, 24 Jun 2026 17:20:09 EDT news701528761 How the proteins in our bodies bind together to form protein complexes plays a critical role in numerous cell functions—staving off diseases, for instance, or transporting ions across cell membranes. A better understanding of how they bind could lead to new medicines and possibly the design of new protein complexes. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-piecing-puzzle-proteins-simpler-outperforms.html Molecular & Computational biology Wed, 24 Jun 2026 17:10:01 EDT news701537102 In a study published in Nature Communications, researchers at Karolinska Institutet have mapped key steps in the assembly of the mitochondrial ribosome, offering new clues to how defects in this process can lead to disease. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-mitochondria-protein-factories-energylinked-disease.html Cell & Microbiology Wed, 24 Jun 2026 16:40:08 EDT news701526100