host 2 10

Tag: "host" at biology news

Intelligently designed molecular evolution

...s to acquire the specialized functions needed by a host organism to survive. "This process is highly dependent on the fact that the functions of promiscuous proteins can be altered with just a small number of amino acid substitutions, a property known as plasticity," said Keasling. "It was our conte...

Wisconsin scientists discover a master key to microbes' pathogenic lifestyles

...s more, the microbe can lay dormant in an infected host for years. "All of these organisms exhibit this property of latency," says Klein. "They can remain dormant until immune defenses are lowered. It's a significant medical problem in endemic regions." The discovery of the switch that governs dimorphis...

HIV accessory protein disables host immunity via receptor-protein intermediary

...an HIV-1 accessory protein called Vpr destroys the host cell's ability to survive by binding to a host receptor. This, in turn, keeps an important enzyme from activating the cell's immune system. These f...

Web model of influenza-host lifecycles will aid scientists in creating anti-viral drugs

...ractions between the influenza virus and its human host will help guide researchers in creating new anti-v...hem. "Understanding how influenza reacts with its host is really critical for the rational design of anti-viral drugs and new vaccines," said Dr. Richard S...

UCSD study finds anthrax toxins also harmful to fruit flies

... anthrax bacterium Bacillus anthracis to evade the host immune system and cause disease. Using a combina...nt tool to understand the effect of a toxin on its host and to determine the molecular mechanism underlying its toxicity, because the fly system is already ...

Stress substantially slows human body's ability to heal

...rm inflammation which, in turn, is implicated in a host of age-related illnesses. These include cardiovascular disease, osteoporosis, arthritis, type-2 diabetes, certain lymphoproliferative diseases and cancers, Alzheimers disease and periodontal disease, the researchers said. "In our past wound-healing...

Chlamydia parasite lives off our fat

...site" which means that it relies on its eukaryotic host for everything from reproduction to synthesizing A...w and multiply. Because lipid acquisition from the host is necessary for chlamydial replication, these pathogens are essentially lipid parasites. So, to ad...

How Rickettsial pathogens break into cells

...nited States has identified both the bacterial and host receptor proteins that enable Rickettsia conorii, ...how this bacterium interacts with the cells of its host could lead to new therapeutic strategies for diseases caused by related pathogens, including Rocky ...

Polio vaccination strategies assessed as eradication nears

... the microbes that cause them; and on disorders of host immune mechanisms. Articles in JID include research results from microbiology, immunology, epidemiology, and related disciplines. JID is published under the auspices of the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA). Based in Alexandria, Va., IDSA...

Free-energy theory borne out in large-scale protein folding

...s role in Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, diabetes and a host of other diseases, so mapping the normal route a protein takes - and finding the off-ramps that might lead to misfolding ?are vitally important," Wittung-Stafshede said. Rice's studies were carried out on monomeric lactose repressor protein, or MLAc...

Plant defenses prompt bacterial countermeasure in the form of 'island' DNA excision

...ing specific genes from its genome to overcome the host plant's specific defenses. Throughout evolution ?...a bacterial pathogen to survive in the face of its host plant's defenses. The research is reported by John Mansfield and colleagues at Imperial College Lond...

Same-sex mating by fungi spawned infection outbreak, evidence suggests

...duce progeny with altered virulence, geographic or host range or other advantageous characteristics." Collaborators on the study include Steven Giles, Emily Wenink, Scarlett Geunes-Boyer, Jo Rae Wright, Stephanie Diezmann, Andria Allen, Jason Stajich, Fred Dietrich and John Perfect, all of Duke. ...

Shorter colds, milder flu may follow from newly revealed immune mechanism

...ould deprive the virus of its home and protect the host against the spread of infection. But in the case o... Preventing the death of the macrophage allows the host to ultimately clear the viral debris and so finally halt the infection. Balancing these cell death a...

Scientists map one of biology's critical light-sensing structures

...particular, react to light, opening the door for a host of manipulations that could have sweeping implications for agriculture. Writing in the Nov. 17, 2005 issue of the journal Nature, a team of scientists from the University of Wisconsin-Madison report that they have obtained the crystal structure of a...

Bacterial protein mimics host to cripple defenses

...acterium slips into plant cells and imitates a key host protein in order to cripple the plant's defenses. ...eria with plants to find what determines whether a host succumbs to disease. Martin and graduate student Robert Abramovitch previously found that AvrPtoB, a...

Plants have a double line of defence

...lant is resistant to it ?in other words, it cannot host the pathogen. This durable type of immunity of a plant to parasites is called nonhost resistance. Although, in nature, nonhost resistance stops almost all parasite attacks, it has been the subject of little research. Scientists from the Max Planck ...

Dangerous tricksters: Some bacterie use immune cells to reproduce

...this means is that the rhodococci manipulate their host cell, they make it themselves comfartable in an environment free of acid and digestive enzymes and multiply there,' Professor Haas comments. Within a few days after the onset of the infection, the macrophages die of the infection, they disintegrate a...

Small molecule inhibitor of cholera discovered

...s, factors that help the bacteria invade its human host and cause disease. They then showed that the most promising compound prevented cholera bacteria from setting up an infection when introduced into the digestive tract of mice. Since most disease-causing organisms use elaborate virulence factors such...

CO2 sensing proves critical for fungal pathogens to adapt to life in air and human hosts

...at surround and protect the invading cell from the host during infection. In their new work, Mühlschlagel... a vital mediator of fungal virulence in different host environments--for example, at different sites within the body. In a related paper, Joseph Heitman a...

Biotech cotton 8: Bugs 0

...icides used to control pink bollworm resulted in a host of other insect pests becoming more serious problems," Dennehy said. Everything changed in 1996, he said, when Bt cotton and two other "soft" insect control tactics replaced a large amount of the harsh pesticides used on cotton crops. Spraying less ...

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10