Understanding cooperation and conflict in plant symbionts

The traditional idea of symbiosis—long-term interactions between two organisms—is that the participants mutually benefit each other. However, researchers have debated whether the interests of the symbionts always line ...

Targeted enzymes destroy virus RNA

A research team led by the Technical University of Munich (TUM) has successfully used specific enzymes to destroy the genetic information of SARS-CoV-2 directly after the virus penetrates the cell. The findings could serve ...

Sex chromosomes of birds as reservoir for jumping genes

Occurring in the genomes of most living organisms, transposable elements (TEs) are short DNA sequences that have the ability change their position. By means of various molecular mechanisms—so-called copy-paste or cut-and-paste—they ...

Effect of small polyanions on retroviruses

A retrovirus is a virus that inserts a copy of its genome into the DNA of a host cell that it invades, thus changing that cell's genome. Once inside the host cell's cytoplasm, the virus uses its reverse transcriptase enzyme ...

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