Pining for a beetle genome
The sequencing and assembly of the genome of the mountain pine beetle, Dendroctonus ponderosae, is published online this week in Genome Biology. The species is native to North America, where it is...
View ArticleStudy analyzes dynamical properties in antibiotic resistance enzyme
Antibiotic-resistant bacteria have been emerging at an alarming rate. In some of the scariest of these pathogens, the mechanism responsible for the bacteria's ability to defeat antibiotics is a complex...
View Article3-D molecular syringes: Scientists solve structure of infection tool used by...
Abdominal pain, fever, diarrhoea—these symptoms could point to an infection with the bacterium Yersinia. The bacterium's pathogenic potential is based on a syringe-like injection apparatus called...
View ArticleProbe opens new path for drug development against leading STD
Biochemical sleuthing by an Indiana University graduate student has ended a nearly 50-year-old search to find a megamolecule in bacterial cell walls commonly used as a target for antibiotics, but whose...
View ArticleScientists sleuth out proteins involved in Crohn's disease
(Phys.org) —University of Delaware researchers have identified a protein, hiding in plain sight, that acts like a bodyguard to help protect and stabilize another key protein, that when unstable, is...
View ArticleFighting bacteria—with viruses
Research published today in PLOS Pathogens reveals how viruses called bacteriophages destroy the bacterium Clostridium difficile (C. diff), which is becoming a serious problem in hospitals and...
View ArticleNew insights in survival strategies of bacteria
Bacteria are particularly ingenious when it comes to survival strategies. They often create a biofilm to protect themselves from a hostile environment, for example during treatment with antibiotics. A...
View ArticleChemists modify antibiotic to vanquish resistant bacteria
Scientists at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) have devised a new antibiotic based on vancomycin that is powerfully effective against vancomycin-resistant strains of MRSA and other disease-causing...
View ArticleResearchers discover how microbes build a powerful antibiotic
Researchers report in the journal Nature that they have made a breakthrough in understanding how a powerful antibiotic agent is made in nature. Their discovery solves a decades-old mystery, and opens...
View ArticleWater purification at the molecular level
(Phys.org) —Fracking for oil and gas is a dirty business. The process uses millions of gallons of water laced with chemicals and sand. Most of the contaminated water is trucked to treatment plants to...
View ArticleThe nutritionists within: Firebugs depend on gut bacteria for vitamin supply
Microbial partners are important for the nutrition of many insects. They help detoxify and digest food, but also provide essential nutrients that insects need in order to survive. The European firebug...
View ArticleScientists reveal how penicillin deals bacteria a devastating blow – work...
Penicillin, the wonder drug discovered in 1928, works in ways that are still mysterious almost a century later. One of the oldest and most widely used antibiotics, it attacks enzymes that build the...
View ArticleScientists blueprint tiny cellular 'nanomachine'
Scientists have drawn up molecular blueprints of a tiny cellular 'nanomachine', whose evolution is an extraordinary feat of nature, by using one of the brightest X-ray sources on Earth.
View ArticleUnearthing novel antibiotics to deal with the rise of superbugs
As doctors globally are warned that overconsumption of antibiotics has led to resistance to the drug – medical researchers are equally focussed on finding alternatives to treatments for bacterial...
View ArticleStudy provides insight into bacterial resilience and antibiotic targets
Researchers at UC San Francisco and Stanford University have performed the first comprehensive survey of the central genes and proteins essential to bacterial life. The study, which combined a new...
View ArticleResearch may point to new ways to deliver drugs into bacteria
An exhaustive look at how bacteria hold their ground and avoid getting pushed around by their environment shows how dozens of genes aid the essential job of protecting cells from popping when tensions...
View ArticleHow a germ catches a virus
Bacteriophages – short phages – represent a group of small viruses that infect bacteria and are able to alter or destroy them. That is why their name can be translated as bacteria-eater. In order to...
View ArticleHow the bacterial protective shell is adapted to challenging environments
Researchers at Umeå University in Sweden have published new findings on the adaptation of the bacterial cell wall in the Journal of the American Chemical Society. The study reveals novel bacterial...
View ArticleGenetic comparisons provide insight into the evolution of a crucial filament...
Divergent evolutionary pathways in different domains of life have resulted in distinct filament systems that underlie cellular structure and polymerizing-protein motors, according to A*STAR...
View ArticleSick animals limit disease transmission by isolating themselves from their peers
Sick wild house mice spend time away from their social groups, leading to a decrease in their potential for disease transmission according to a new study by evolutionary biologists from the University...
View ArticleResearchers develop novel wound-healing technology
A WSU research team has successfully used a mild electric current to take on and beat drug-resistant bacterial infections, a technology that may eventually be used to treat chronic wound infections.
View ArticleBacterial protein structure could aid development of new antibiotics
Bacterial cells have an added layer of protection, called the cell wall, that animal cells don't. Assembling this tough armor entails multiple steps, some of which are targeted by antibiotics like...
View ArticleCells divide by 'bricklaying on moving scaffolding'
It is the most crucial mechanism in life - the division of cells. For 25 years, it has been known that bacteria split into two by forming a Z ring at their centre. They use this to cut themselves into...
View ArticleRainbow dyes add greater precision to fight against 'superbugs'
A study reported Feb. 17 in the journal Science led by researchers at Indiana University and Harvard University is the first to reveal in extreme detail the operation of the biochemical clockwork that...
View ArticleFruit flies halt reproduction during infection
A protective mechanism that allows fruit flies to lay fewer eggs in response to bacterial infection is explained in a study published in the journal eLife.
View ArticleScientists engineer human-germ hybrid molecules to attack drug-resistant...
Inspired by viruses that attack and kill bacteria, researchers at The Rockefeller University have created an entirely new weapon against disease-causing bacteria that shows great promise for treating...
View ArticlePredatory bacteria that engineer portholes and paint frescoes in harmful...
A microbiological mystery of how one bacterium could invade another and grow inside it without breaking the other bacterium instantly has been illuminated by scientists at the University of Nottingham...
View ArticleUncovering bacterial cell wall secrets to combat antibiotic resistance
Cell walls—the jacket-like structures that surround all known bacteria—may turn out to be bacteria's undoing , holding the key to developing new drugs that target it for destruction.
View ArticleUsing neutrons to study how resistant bacteria evolve
The discovery of penicillin almost 90 years ago ushered in the age of modern antibiotics, but the growth of antibiotic resistance means bacterial infections like pneumonia and tuberculosis are becoming...
View ArticleMicrobial resident enables beetles to feed on a leafy diet
An international team including researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology has described a bacterium residing in a species of leaf beetles which has an unexpected feature: it...
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