https://phys.org/biology-news/molecular-computational/ en-us Medical Xpress provides the latest news on molecular and Computational biology An international group of scientists led by Josep M. Serra-Diaz, researcher at the Botanical Institute of Barcelona (IBB, CSIC-MCNB), has developed the first global early warning system capable of forecasting when and where vertebrate species will be exposed to unprecedented heat up to nine months in advance. The study, published in Nature Climate Change, demonstrates how operational climate prediction tools can be repurposed to anticipate biological risks in near-real time, providing the kind of foresight needed as extreme heat events intensify worldwide. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-wildlife-months.html Ecology Tue, 09 Jun 2026 17:50:01 EDT news700243862 Proteins are how cells get work done. They carry out nearly every important cellular task, from ferrying messages to controlling which genes are turned on or off. And in order for proteins to perform their various roles, the strings of amino acids that make them up need to be folded into the correct shape. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-scientists-uncover-rna-hidden-role.html Cell & Microbiology Tue, 09 Jun 2026 16:40:05 EDT news700234098 Farmed oysters are mixing with and potentially adding to populations of wild oysters—a once-abundant species in New York's estuaries and rivers that has declined drastically over the last century. A new study, published in the journal Molecular Ecology, offers genetic evidence and the first documented proof that farmed eastern oysters are adding to and breeding with wild eastern oyster populations in the western and central Long Island Sound. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-farmed-oysters-boost-york-dwindling.html Ecology Tue, 09 Jun 2026 14:00:03 EDT news700227902 Sloths are the slowest mammals on the planet, but living in dense jungles has made them notoriously difficult to study. For the first time, scientists have now sequenced and analyzed the two-toed sloth genome and revealed the genetics behind its extremely slow metabolism. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-sloths-dna.html Evolution Tue, 09 Jun 2026 12:00:03 EDT news700222262 Rhodoliths may look like small rocks on the seafloor, but they are actually living algae that create habitats for marine life and contribute to long-term carbon storage. A new study found that the deeper, low-light waters off Japan's Tanegashima Island harbor a surprisingly distinct and diverse community of these living pink rocks, including four species completely new to science. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-underwater-pink-carbon-scientists-species.html Ecology Tue, 09 Jun 2026 09:48:35 EDT news700217282 A drug once dismissed as ineffective suddenly worked—when scientists tested it under more realistic conditions that mimic the human body. In this surprising new discovery, Northwestern University scientists uncovered a hidden rule of drug behavior. A medicine's effectiveness can change dramatically depending on the conditions inside our cells. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-drugs-unrealistic-conditions-scientists.html Biotechnology Tue, 09 Jun 2026 09:40:03 EDT news700213922 Similar to the way DNA damage can contribute to human diseases such as cancer, it can also disrupt growth, development and survival in plants. Every day, plants endure environmental stresses such as sunlight, radiation, drought and soil stress—all of which can damage their DNA. However, they cannot move away from danger. How do plants handle all that damage? https://phys.org/news/2026-06-survive-constant-dna-newly-protein.html Molecular & Computational biology Mon, 08 Jun 2026 19:30:01 EDT news700157401 Thanks to effective therapies, more and more people are now able to live with or after cancer in the long term. Consequently, the number of patients affected by the long-term effects of their treatment is also increasing. Secondary leukemias are particularly serious. These can develop when cellular stress caused by chemotherapy or radiotherapy triggers DNA breaks in specific regions of the genome. If these breaks are incorrectly repaired by the body's own repair mechanisms, detrimental rearrangements can occur that promote the development of leukemia. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-peptide-blocks-dna-treatment-leukemia.html Molecular & Computational biology Mon, 08 Jun 2026 19:10:01 EDT news700157281 Rice is a staple food for nearly half the global population and an important dietary source of magnesium, a mineral essential for human health, plant growth and energy metabolism. Although magnesium is known to influence grain quality and taste, the biological mechanism controlling how the mineral reaches rice grains has remained largely unknown. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-magnesium-discovery-rice-nutrition.html Molecular & Computational biology Mon, 08 Jun 2026 18:10:01 EDT news700156741 Sesame seeds are rich in lipid-soluble lignans such as sesamin, which are widely known as health-promoting phytochemicals. While these compounds rapidly decrease during germination and are converted into water-soluble glucosides, the molecular mechanism underlying this large-scale metabolic transition had remained unclear. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-sesame-dynamically-rewires-lignan-metabolism.html Molecular & Computational biology Mon, 08 Jun 2026 16:10:01 EDT news700152481 A three-year study has cracked open the hidden biology behind coral reproduction, revealing hormone cycles that echo those of humans and other animals, and a new way to detect reef distress before it's too late. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-corals-hormonal-clock.html Ecology Mon, 08 Jun 2026 16:00:05 EDT news700143665 How do bacteria regulate the production of their proteins? Researchers at the University of Hamburg, in collaboration with international partners, have now demonstrated how small protein building blocks, known as peptides, specifically influence bacterial protein production. The findings have been published in two articles in the journal Nature Communications. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-ribosome-tunnel-interactions-reveal-bacteria.html Cell & Microbiology Mon, 08 Jun 2026 15:20:06 EDT news700143232 Maize (Zea mays L.) plays an important role in global food security. During 9,000 years of maize domestication and breeding, however, protein content was not a major breeding target. Consequently, many beneficial gene variants associated with higher protein content were gradually lost from cultivated maize. As a result, modern maize varieties often have low seed protein content, leading to a heavy reliance on imported soybean meal for livestock feed. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-recovered-wild-maize-gene-boosts.html Molecular & Computational biology Mon, 08 Jun 2026 14:20:06 EDT news700139643 For plants, light is an important environmental factor not only as a source of energy for photosynthesis, but also as a signal for capturing environmental information. Light signals are sensed by photoreceptor proteins called phytochromes. The amino acids that make up proteins are transparent and cannot absorb visible light. Therefore, pigments are essential for photoreceptor proteins to sense light, and these are called chromophores. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-cells-heme-hidden-reshapes-photosynthesis.html Cell & Microbiology Mon, 08 Jun 2026 12:00:03 EDT news700132647 Hiroshima University researchers say a newly proposed three-step "detour" pathway for making dolichol, a molecule cells need to properly process proteins, may be more universal than scientists realized. Experiments in yeast suggest eukaryotes may rely on overlapping biochemical pathways, including the evolutionarily conserved detour and evidence of a possible backup route, to produce a molecule essential to life. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-yeast-reveal-evolutionarily-backup-route.html Cell & Microbiology Mon, 08 Jun 2026 11:55:17 EDT news700138501 A study, published in the journal Development, is the first to precisely map endogenous UTY occupancy across the human genome and demonstrate that UTY remains functionally involved in transcriptional regulation during early human development. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-chromosome-retain-uty.html Cell & Microbiology Mon, 08 Jun 2026 11:40:13 EDT news700132210 Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University have shown that bacteria can learn from past experiences, store memories across generations and adapt their behavior to changing environments, all without a brain or nervous system. The research could shape how scientists think about bacterial infections and antibiotic treatment. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-bacteria-memories-brain.html Cell & Microbiology Mon, 08 Jun 2026 09:40:04 EDT news700129742 Decomposers are crucial for keeping Earth habitable, breaking down dead biomass and returning key nutrients, such as carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus, to the ecosystem. Most decomposers, including fungi, survive through osmotrophy—a means of feeding by absorbing dissolved nutrients rather than engulfing prey. But how this method of feeding repeatedly arose across the eukaryotic tree of life remains unclear. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-gene-swapping-planet-decomposers.html Ecology Sun, 07 Jun 2026 16:20:01 EDT news699875427 Recent research showed that an artificially constructed self-replicating RNA system modeling primitive life at the origin of life evolved to become more prone to extinction under certain experimental conditions. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-early-life-rna-extinction-prone.html Molecular & Computational biology Sun, 07 Jun 2026 15:40:03 EDT news700065437 Typically, the information encoded in DNA allows organisms to develop, function, and pass traits across generations. Yet DNA alone does not explain how genes are switched on and off in different cells and environments. This regulation is partly controlled by other factors called epigenetics, such as DNA methylation, a chemical modification that can influence gene activity without changing the genetic code itself. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-epigenetic-inherited-dna-animals.html Evolution Sun, 07 Jun 2026 13:00:01 EDT news699634336 Imagine a train parked at the station. Passengers climb aboard and find their seats. Conductors move up and down the aisles, checking tickets. But there's a problem—the engineer's watch is broken. As a result, the doors never close, the whistle never sounds, and the train never starts. Something similar occurs in cells when developmental timing is disrupted. Rather than making people late for work, it can mean the difference between maturing into a healthy adult and never growing up at all. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-nonrepeating-biological-clock-elegans-growth.html Molecular & Computational biology Sun, 07 Jun 2026 06:40:01 EDT news700029701 Scientists have discovered a previously unknown regulatory mechanism in plant photosynthesis in the unicellular green alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii. It helps plants adapt to changes in light conditions. The results, published in the journal Nature Plants, show how a crucial protein interaction at the interface between photosystems I and II controls the photosynthetic machinery. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-hidden-protein-photosynthesis-conditions.html Molecular & Computational biology Sun, 07 Jun 2026 05:50:01 EDT news700029348 Chloromethane is a gas that is toxic to humans and contributes to the depletion of the ozone layer. It is produced during the combustion of coal, biomass and other raw materials. Natural sources such as algae, plants and fungi also release it. A research team led by biologist Prof. Julia Kurth from the University of Münster has discovered and characterized a previously unknown enzyme system in anaerobic bacteria of the species Acetobacterium dehalogenans. This system converts the gas into nontoxic substances. The results, published in the journal Nature Communications, are of interest for environmental remediation, climate research and biotechnology. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-previously-unknown-detoxification-pathway-chloromethane.html Molecular & Computational biology Sat, 06 Jun 2026 15:00:01 EDT news699874689 Plenty of studies have linked exposure to nature to a wide variety of health benefits, from improved cognitive function to lower blood pressure to better mental health. Other research has found connections between the human microbiome and time spent outside. But an overlooked, understudied player in that connection is the assemblage of microbes found in the nose, or the nasal microbiome. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-green-space-exposure-mental-health.html Cell & Microbiology Sat, 06 Jun 2026 10:00:02 EDT news699884942 In recent years, human population growth, coupled with the climate crisis, environmental pressures, and current production and consumption patterns, has driven the search for alternative food sources. With 1,611 insect species listed as edible, organizations such as the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) have proposed insects as a sustainable food source. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-europe-aversion-insects-deep-ecological.html Ecology Fri, 05 Jun 2026 14:00:01 EDT news699791942 IS110 transposons are a large, diverse family of bacterial insertion sequences (IS elements)—small, mobile DNA elements that can move from one genomic location to another. They have recently attracted broad interest due to the finding that some of these transposons use a bridge RNA (bRNA) to recognize both donor DNA and target DNA. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-rna-transposon-mechanics-figure-intermediate.html Cell & Microbiology Fri, 05 Jun 2026 13:40:08 EDT news699882121 Northwestern Medicine scientists have developed a novel synthetic biomolecular condensate that can degrade intracellular disease-causing proteins, providing a framework for new therapeutic approaches for a wide range of diseases, as detailed in a recent study published in Nature Communications. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-synthetic-biomolecule-degrades-disease-proteins.html Biotechnology Thu, 04 Jun 2026 17:40:05 EDT news699804361 Northwestern Medicine scientists have discovered that little-studied DNA structures play a central role in organizing the human genome and controlling gene activity, according to a new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The study revealed that G-quadruplexes (G4s)—four-stranded DNA structures—directly interact with a key genome-organizing protein called CTCF, helping shape how DNA folds inside the cell and how genes are turned on or off. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-overlooked-dna-genome.html Cell & Microbiology Thu, 04 Jun 2026 16:00:04 EDT news699795302 DNA is the blueprint of the human body. However, tens of thousands of DNA lesions occur in our bodies every day. In particular, if "apurinic/apyrimidinic sites" (AP sites, damaged sites where one letter of DNA information has been erased) are not properly repaired, they can lead to cancer and aging. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-dna-enzyme-dimensional-key-sites.html Cell & Microbiology Thu, 04 Jun 2026 12:40:05 EDT news699789361 A new technology allows scientists to map, in single cells, the DNA binding sites of transcription factors and other regulatory proteins that control gene activity, according to a study led by investigators at Weill Cornell Medicine and the New York Genome Center. With key advantages over methods currently in use, the technology is expected to be a powerful addition to biologists' toolkit for studying cells in health and disease. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-dd-seq-dna-protein-interactions.html Cell & Microbiology Thu, 04 Jun 2026 11:00:01 EDT news699716101