For over a century, scientists have studied E. coli, one of the bacteria that cause food poisoning, as a model for fighting infections. Such research has led to a variety of antibiotics that penetrate the protective cell ...
Cell & Microbiology
Jul 18, 2018
1
18
For decades, biologists have believed a key enzyme in plants had one function—produce amino acids, which are vital to plant survival and also essential to human diets.
Biotechnology
Jun 15, 2018
5
31
A hand-made super-microscope—capable of seeing the actual building blocks of a bacterial cell wall—has helped Monash researchers decipher how bacteria are able to literally build a wall against the immune system, leading ...
Cell & Microbiology
May 29, 2018
1
218
In the spring, pink cherry blossom petals are borne by the wind. Each of the falling petals leaves behind a little open cut on the plant, which might be prone to infection. The same happens when plants shed leaves, fruits ...
Biotechnology
May 4, 2018
0
57
An international team of scientists including the University of Adelaide has discovered a new complex carbohydrate in moss that could possibly be exploited for health or other uses.
Biotechnology
Apr 23, 2018
0
296
Beta-lactam antibiotics, including penicillin, are one of the most widely used classes of antibiotics in the world. Though they've been in use since the 1940s, scientists still don't fully understand what happens when this ...
Biochemistry
Apr 9, 2018
0
109
Within both plant and animal cells, motor proteins act like the engines in a busy train system. They shuttle material in the cell from one location to another. And just as commuter trains travel a predictable route in a defined ...
Cell & Microbiology
Mar 14, 2018
0
15
A team from MSU, with international and Russian colleagues, has found that mixing dendrimers (tree-like polymers) and proteins induces spontaneous multilayer films. They are easily formed and retain the activity and function ...
Polymers
Mar 6, 2018
0
6
Overcoming the natural resistance of plant cell walls to deconstruction, known as recalcitrance, is a major bottleneck to cost-effective biofuel production. In response, scientists modified lignin. Lignin is one of the polymers ...
Environment
Mar 1, 2018
0
22
Plant cells are under tremendous pressure. To prevent themselves from bursting, plants had to come up with something unique: According to scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research in Cologne, epidermal ...
Biotechnology
Feb 28, 2018
0
28
