A team of researchers affiliated with several institutions in China and the U.S. has found evidence that suggests three distantly related types of mushrooms gained their ability to produce a dangerous toxin via horizontal ...
Cholera is caused by the bacterium Vibrio cholerae, a waterborne pathogen that infects the gut of humans through contaminated water and food. When ingested, V. cholerae colonizes the gut's inner surface, causing a watery ...
Cell & Microbiology
Apr 7, 2022
0
16
In the epic battle between hosts and viruses, viruses are constantly evolving to be more infectious. Now, researchers from Japan have found that human genes also evolve to help protect our bodies from invasion by life-threatening ...
Molecular & Computational biology
Mar 24, 2022
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75
The first comprehensive analysis of viral horizontal gene transfer (HGT) illustrates the extent to which viruses pick up genes from their hosts to hone their infection process, while at the same time hosts also co-opt useful ...
Evolution
Jan 5, 2022
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1768
Many people—around half of the adult population—are infected with a type of herpesvirus called human cytomegalovirus, or HCMV. Though mostly asymptomatic, the virus can be dangerous for immunocompromised people and unborn ...
Cell & Microbiology
Oct 26, 2021
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54
The findings, published in the journal Science today, demonstrate how integrating vertical descent and horizontal gene transfer can be used to infer the root of the bacterial tree and the nature of the last bacterial common ...
Evolution
May 6, 2021
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107
The capture of the first living Coelacanth, a mighty ocean predator, off the coast of South Africa caused quite a stir in 1938, 65 million years after its supposed extinction. It became known as a "living fossil" owing to ...
Evolution
Feb 9, 2021
5
6792
Rhizobia are soil-dwelling bacteria that form symbioses with legumes and provide biologically useable nitrogen as ammonium for the host plant. During symbiosis, rhizobia must adapt to several different lifestyles. These range ...
Plants & Animals
Dec 3, 2020
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5
Researchers from RMIT University used metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) enhanced with a green tea phytochemical coating to target human prostate cancer cells for the first time.
Cell & Microbiology
Nov 20, 2020
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42
Bacteria living symbiotically within the Hawaiian bobtail squid can direct the host squid to change its normal gene-expression program to make a more inviting home, according to a new study published in PLoS Biology by researchers ...
Plants & Animals
Nov 19, 2020
0
85
