Biology
Using ever-growing genome data, scientists with the Department of Energy's (DOE) Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the University of Tennessee are tracing the evolution of the bacterial regulatory system that controls cellular motility, potentially giving researchers a method for predicting important cellular functions that will impact both medical and biotechnology research.
| 4 min read
When the first warm rays of springtime sunshine trigger a burst of new plant growth, its almost as if someone flicked a switch to turn on the greenery and unleash a floral profusion of color. Opening a window into this process, scientists at the U.S. Department of Energys (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory and collaborators at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, have deciphered the structure of a molecular switch much like the one plants use to sense light.
| 3 min read
You might think bacteria that invade trees are there to cause certain destruction. But like the helpful bacteria that live within our guts, some microbes help plants thrive. To find out what makes these microbe-plant interactions tick, scientists at the U.S. Department of Energys (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory decoded the genome of a plant-dwelling microbe theyd previously shown could increase plant growth by 40 percent.
| 3 min read
To support basic research that will build a foundation for generating sustainable, science-based solutions to agricultural problems in developing countries, the National Science Foundation (NSF) has awarded 15 grants in the inaugural year of the Basic Research to Enable Agricultural Development (BREAD) program.
| 3 min read
All contemporary, as well as NextGen and Third Generation sequencing methodologies are dependent on the generation of DNA fragments from initial MegaBase long chromosomal DNA molecules. General requirements are that such fragments have to be random and of similar size.
| 2 min read
UCLA researchers report in the April 30 edition of the journal Cell that they have imaged a virus structure at a resolution high enough to effectively "see" atoms, the first published instance of imaging biological complexes at such a resolution.
| 3 min read
A team of scientists working at beamline 9.0.1 of the Advanced Light Source (ALS) at the U.S. Department of Energys Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory has used x-ray diffraction microscopy to make images of whole yeast cells, achieving the highest resolution11 to 13 nanometers (billionths of a meter)ever obtained with this method for biological specimens. Their success indicates that full 3-D tomography of whole cells at equivalent resolution should soon be possible.
| 4 min read
Montana State University chemists have determined the structure of an intermediate form of a unique enzyme that participates in some of the most fundamental reactions in biology.
| 2 min read
Two chemists at The Scripps Research Institute have synthesized a new nano-scale scientific tool -- a tiny molecular switch that turns itself on or off as it detects metallic ions in its immediate surroundings.
| 2 min read
Scientists at the University of Delaware have developed a new method for producing proteins critical to research on cancer, Alzheimer's, and other diseases.
| 2 min read
A reliable method for producing plants that carry genetic material from only one of their parents has been discovered by plant biologists at UC Davis. The technique, to be published March 25 in the journal Nature, could dramatically speed up the breeding of crop plants for desirable traits.
| 3 min read
A team of researchers at MIT and the University of California at San Diego has shown how cell division in a type of bacteria known as cyanobacteria is controlled by the same kind of circadian rhythms that govern human sleep patterns.
| 2 min read
