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Tag: "molecules" at biology news

Antifungal drug kills TB bug

... complex organisms. "In humans, P450s oxygenate molecules in the body and are essential for steroid metabolism; they are also prevalent in the liver where they help us detoxify and dispose of countless chemicals and toxins that enter our system. Most bacteria have few, if any, P450s but we discovered that t...

New mechanism for nutrient uptake discovered

...sts have found that the interaction of neighboring molecules is essential to this regulation. Since plants, animals, bacteria, and fungi all share similar genes for this activity, the scientists believe that the same feature could occur across species. The discovery, published in the February 11th on-line edit...

Penn study on olfactory nerve cells shows why we smell better when we sniff

...ility to smell, enhancing the detection of odorous molecules in the air. The second is a peripheral drive in the brain to synchronize rhythmic activity, which is the concurrent firing of neurons in the olfactory bulb with breathing. "The mechanosensitivity may increase the sensitivity of our nose, especial...

Scientists discover how body fights to control spread of cancer

... at the University of Liverpool have found how two molecules fight in the blood to control the spread of cancer cells. Researchers discovered that a large protein, which forms a protective shield around cancer cells and prevents them from causing secondary tumours, is attacked by a small protein that exists i...

New study sheds light on 'dark states' in DNA

...nsient absorption, which is based on the idea that molecules absorb light at specific wavelengths, and allows them to study events happening in less than a picosecond. They found that DNA dissipates UV energy through the dark state 10-50 percent of the time, depending on which DNA base is excited, and whethe...

Biologists develop large gene dataset for rice plant

...gene sequences representing nearly 47 million mRNA molecules and three million small RNAs, a larger dataset than has been reported for any other plant species. Small RNAs are considered one of most important discoveries in biotechnology in the last 10 years. Because they are so much smaller than mRNAs, smal...

Fighting to keep Darwin in the classroom

...ducation in Evolution, we'll cover the gamut, from molecules to ecosystems and from 'intelligent design' to natural selection. We aim to make a big difference in evolutionary education." Amelia McNamara, Vice President, Publishing, Life Sciences and Biomedicine at Springer, said, "Springer stands behind ev...

Vasectomy may put men at risk for type of dementia

...cells prevent blood-borne infections and poisonous molecules from entering the semen. After a vasectomy, however, the protective barrier is broken and semen mixes into the blood. The immune system recognizes the sperm as invading foreign agents and produces anti-sperm antibodies in 60 to 70 percent of men....

Yale biologists 'trick' viruses into extinction

... that HIV recognizes the T-cells it infects by CD4 molecules on the cell surface, but it then requires function...ossibility of engineering trap cells that have CD4 molecules on their surface, but no nucleus for virus reproduction. Mature red blood cells could fill the bill,...

Scientists use nanoparticle to discover disease-causing proteins

...preserve its natural environment and see where two molecules meet and what the interaction is when they bind. "Taking small samples of blood, cells or tissue to study extracted proteins in laboratory dishes damages the sample and the natural environment is destroyed." The dendrimers would carry one of th...

Darwin's famous finches and Venter's marine microbes

...s. They control the activity of proteins and small molecules by attaching tiny phosphate groups to them. By contrast, much less has been known about their bacterial counterparts. Again and again, the researchers combed the GOS data for bacterial kinases, each time rebuilding their domain profiles by includi...

Destructive enzyme shows a benevolent side

... called PMR1. That enzyme attaches to certain mRNA molecules and remains there like a hand grenade with its pin in place. These mRNAs carry the information for making highly potent proteins, proteins that cells must stop making suddenly. When that 'stop' command arrives, the pin is pulled and the enzyme des...

Stability of mRNA/DNA and DNA/DNA duplexes modulates mRNA transcription

... binding proteins. However, nucleic acids are real molecules with defined physical characteristics, which can influence their biological functions." In this work the authors present a calculation of the thermodynamic stability of DNA/DNA and mRNA/DNA duplexes across the genomes of four species in the genus ...

Instruction manual for creating a molecular nose

...ch is to act as receptors, passing on signals from molecules in the air, for example, to the cell interior. They are thus ideal biosensors, but until now were difficult to access in the lab. However, Max Planck scientists have now managed to incorporate in-vitro synthesized membrane proteins directly into ar...

New biofuels process promises to meet all US transportation needs

...ficiency of generating hydrogen by splitting water molecules using solar energy to drive the electrolysis. Usually, the hydrogen in liquid fuels made from biomass comes from the plant matter itself. But it typically takes more than 10 times the solar energy to grow crops than it does to produce the equivalent ...

Researchers from the UGR use a bacterium to obtain biopreservatives from food

...anes and will also help in designing antimicrobial molecules with new characteristics. "Our work," states Marina Sánchez, "has determined which AS-48 amino acids are essential for membranestability and biological activity, and it has also helped us understand how this molecule permeabilizes bacterial membranes...

Protein sensor for fatty acid buildup in mitochondria

...rgy from nutrients. Most of the cell's energy-rich molecules called ATP are made in the mitochondria, and these ATP molecules serve as the "currency" with which the cell can "buy" all of the biochemical reactions that keep the...

Exploring the molecular origin of blood clot flexibility

...change by pulling engineered strands of fibrinogen molecules using an atomic force microscope. This alpha-helical coiled-coil "spring" is a common motif in protein structure, first identified more than 50 years ago and so its stretchiness may have broader implications in biology and medicine. By understandi...

Researchers create artificial enzyme that mimics the body's internal engine

... to the molecule of oxygen, converting it into two molecules of water. "CcO has to behave perfectly," Collma...of electrons to the model as it transformed oxygen molecules into water-a process called steady turnover. "The biochemists that study the enzyme typically stu...

RNA enzyme structure offers a glimpse into the origins of life

... of life known today, the synthesis of DNA and RNA molecules is carried out by enzymes made of proteins. The in...e acted on by Darwinian natural selection, and the molecules would evolve into bigger and better ribozymes. That's what makes this structure so interesting." ...

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