Researchers find proteins responsible for orchid shape

(Phys.org)—A team of researchers with National Chung Hsing University in Taiwan has found the proteins responsible for determining the shape of orchid lips. In their paper published in the journal Nature Plants, the team ...

Unearthing how a carnivorous fungus traps and digests worms

A new analysis sheds light on the molecular processes involved when a carnivorous species of fungus known as Arthrobotrys oligospora senses, traps and consumes a worm. Hung-Che Lin of Academia Sinica in Taipei, Taiwan, and ...

Recently discovered protein domain regulates collagen transport

Collagen is the protein that holds our body together. It is produced inside cells, from where it must be transported to its site of action in connective tissue. The protein domain that is responsible for the recognition of ...

Selection drives functional evolution of large enzyme families

Researchers at Umeå University, together with researchers at the Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, show in a new study how natural selection drives functional evolution of a large protein family in conifer ...

Altering pH bumps prions out of danger zone

Prion diseases are scary, incurable and fatal. They first gained notoriety when cows became infected by prion proteins and, in turn, infected people. Fervor surrounding mad cow disease resulted in the U.S. banning imports ...

Condensins mutually interact to fold DNA into a zigzag structure

DNA in a cell is comparable to tangled spaghetti strands on a plate. To be able to divide DNA neatly between the two daughter cells during cell division, the cell organises this tangle into tightly packed chromosomes. A protein ...

New clues about mitochondrial 'growth spurts'

Mitochondria are restless, continually merging and splitting. But contrary to conventional wisdom, the size of these organelles depends on more than fusion and fission, as Berman et al. show. Mitochondrial growth and degradation ...

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