Scientists reveal quirky feature of Lyme disease bacteria

Scientists have confirmed that the pathogen that causes Lyme Disease—unlike any other known organism—can exist without iron, a metal that all other life needs to make proteins and enzymes. Instead of iron, the bacteria ...

Research provides key insight into how cells fuse

Researchers at Johns Hopkins have established a high-efficiency cell-cell fusion system, providing a new model to study how fusion works. The scientists showed that fusion between two cells is not equal and mutual as some ...

How cells know when it's time to eat themselves

Researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine have identified a molecular mechanism regulating autophagy, a fundamental stress response used by cells to help ensure their survival in adverse conditions.

Gene network illuminates stress, mutation and adaptation responses

For much of her professional life, Dr. Susan Rosenberg has studied the puzzling response of bacteria to stress and the mutations that result. In the current issue of the journal Science, she puts together the pieces of that ...

Humidity increases odour perception in terrestrial hermit crabs

(Phys.org) -- Max Planck scientists have found out that the olfactory system in hermit crabs is still underdeveloped in comparison to that of vinegar flies. While flies have a very sensitive sense of smell and are able to ...

Shedding light on how body fends off bacteria

To invade organisms such as humans, bacteria make use of a protein called flagellin, part of a tail-like appendage that helps the bacteria move about. Now, for the first time, a team led by scientists at The Scripps Research ...

Catching molecular motion at just the right time

University of Oregon researchers have devised a mathematically rich analytic approach to account for often-missing thermodynamic and molecular parameters in molecular dynamic simulations.

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