The cell membrane is a fundamental biological structure. These lipid layers surround and organize every cell, controlling everything from signaling to transport. But for membranes to function properly, their physicochemical ...
Researchers sequenced the genomes of three medaka, or Japanese rice fish, a common model organism used in biological research, nearly 10 and 20 years ago. While sequencing the genomes was relatively straightforward, assembling ...
Salty water flowing through Antarctica's Blood Falls contains a distinct community of marine-specific microorganisms, providing evidence that the brine system beneath the glacier has a marine origin, according to a paper ...
The signals that cells use to switch genes on have remained almost unchanged across 2 billion years of evolution, but the ones used to switch genes off vary dramatically from one branch of life to another, according to a ...
Hundreds of feet below Earth's surface, rocks and water teem with fungi and support complex ecosystems of tiny organisms, according to a University of Michigan study that finds fungi are far more abundant deep underground ...
Social amoebae are unicellular organisms that act in concert, requiring extensive communication. Pierre Stallforth and colleagues studied modes of communication among cells of the social amoeba Dictyostelium discoideum, using ...
Spliceosomal introns are noncoding DNA sequences located between exons in many eukaryotic protein-coding genes. Most are removed post-transcriptionally by RNA splicing and do not encode proteins, but they have been implicated ...
Viruses lack the molecular machinery required for protein synthesis. Instead, they hijack the host's protein-making machinery, specifically ribosomes and translational factors. This process is essential for viral multiplication ...
How do microorganisms orient themselves to find the optimal habitat? Scientists have thoroughly investigated so-called magnetotactic bacteria, which use the Earth's magnetic field as a biological compass. Some eukaryotic ...
How life started on our own planet may not seem as interesting as finding evidence of life on Mars or the icy moons Europa or Enceladus. But the search for the first eukaryotes on Earth remains as important to astrobiology ...
