If you happen to come across plants of the Balanophoraceae family in a corner of a forest, you might easily mistake them for fungi growing around tree roots. Their mushroom-like structures are actually inflorescences, composed ...
Plants & Animals
Sep 21, 2023
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271
Mold and diseases caused by fungi can greatly impact the shelf life of fruit and vegetables. However, some fungi benefit their hosts by aiding plant survival. Colletotrichum tofieldiae (Ct) is a root mold that typically supports ...
Ecology
Sep 6, 2023
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87
Bioengineers can tailor the genomes of cells to create "cellular therapies" that fight disease, but they have found it difficult to design specialized activating proteins called transcription factors that can throw the switch ...
Cell & Microbiology
Aug 14, 2023
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1
Viruses in man-made environments cause public health concerns, but they are generally less studied than bacteria. A recent study led by environmental scientists from City University of Hong Kong (CityU) provided the first ...
Ecology
Jul 6, 2023
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35
The human gut hosts a complex ecosystem comprising an intricate plasmidome with abundant undiscovered plasmids, driving horizontal gene transfer events.
Cell & Microbiology
Jun 28, 2023
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27
Genetic variation is the ultimate fuel for evolution, says Utah State University evolutionary geneticist Zachariah Gompert. But, over centuries, that fuel reservoir gets depleted in the course of natural selection and random ...
Plants & Animals
Jun 12, 2023
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306
While the presence of harmful critters in your home may be addressed by a call to the exterminator, harmful parasites in the body can be much harder to expel. A single-celled parasite known as Toxoplasma gondii (hereafter ...
Cell & Microbiology
Jun 6, 2023
0
19
Graduate student Reese Martin and his doctoral advisor, Ann Tate, assistant professor of biological sciences, used theoretical modeling to identify a potential relationship between genetic pleiotropy and the evolution of ...
Evolution
Apr 14, 2023
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175
A research team from Kiel University describes an unknown defense mechanism in bacteria that selectively wards off foreign and potentially harmful genetic information.
Cell & Microbiology
Mar 8, 2023
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120
All chlamydiae today live inside the cells of hosts ranging from amoeba to animals. A team of scientists from the University of Vienna and the Wageningen University & Research found that the ancestor of chlamydiae likely ...
Evolution
Jan 10, 2023
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51
