US a surprisingly large reservoir of crop plant diversity

North America isn't known as a hotspot for crop plant diversity, yet a new inventory has uncovered nearly 4,600 wild relatives of crop plants in the United States, including close relatives of globally important food crops ...

Biting back: Snake venom contains toxic clotting factors

The powerful venom of the saw-scaled viper Echis carinatus contains both anticoagulants and coagulants finds a study published in the launch edition of BioMed Central's open access journal Journal of Venomous Animals and ...

Tadpoles not just baby frogs

(Phys.org)—Tadpoles may be vital in helping maintain the ecosystems of freshwater streams, a James Cook University researcher is discovering.

Furry crabs may be healing Great Barrier Reef

Furry crabs once thought to be damaging the Great Barrier Reef may in fact be helping save the coral by stopping the spread of disease, a researcher said.

The quest for new cancer-fighting drugs in marine environments

(Phys.org)—Human beings have been using wild plants to cure their ills for thousands of years. While much of the focus has been on the medicinal properties of terrestrial plants, one UConn researcher is exploring a new ...

Dual parasitic infections deadly to marine mammals

A study of tissue samples from 161 marine mammals that died between 2004 and 2009 in the Pacific Northwest reveals an association between severe illness and co-infection with two kinds of parasites normally found in land ...

Sugar withdrawal—killing the leishmania parasite

Findings on how parasites cope with stress on a cellular level could aid the development of drugs that combat leishmaniasis, a tropical disease neglected by the pharmaceutical industry.

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