Tag: "poisons" at biology news

Scientists find genes involved in the battle between Hessian flies and wheat

...hin the Hessian fly larval digestive system. These poisons then disrupt the insects' gut function. "The larvae probe the plant to open a sustained feeding site," said Jonathan Neal, a Purdue entomologist and another author of the paper. "Resistant plants block the larvae from establishing a feeding s...

Wheat can fatally starve insect predators

...expect the plant to fortify its cell walls or make poisons to use against insects and pathogens." Instead,...t cost the plant much to produce, unlike producing poisons and stronger walls. Those inducible defenses use a lot of a plant's energy that could be used toward...

Nonvenomous Asian snakes 'borrow' defensive poison from toxic toads

...ands. When under attack, the snakes re-release the poisons from these neck glands. Many invertebrates sequester dietary toxins for use in defense, including milkweed insects and sea slugs. But vertebrate examples of toxin sequestration, especially from vertebrate prey, are rare. "A snake that's dependent ...

Harmful Algal Blooms monitored from space in Chile

...oms, which occur when some algae species producing poisons bloom rapidly in water, causing physical or biochemical damage to fish and shellfish. Early detection of Harmful Algal Blooms (HABs) allows fish farmers to make timely key decisions in order to minimise the damage to aquaculture. To aid in this eff...

Mayo Clinic researchers challenge sepsis theory

...k and often death. Sepsis is thought to occur when poisons from bacterial infection interfere with the cells....aiming at the wrong target -- the bacteria and the poisons they produce," says senior author Jeffrey Platt, M.D. "That's why the death rate remains so high des...

Scientists develop a way to make the deadliest toxin known even more toxic

...icacy." Botulinum neurotoxins are the most lethal poisons known. They produce progressive paralysis by binding to nerves at the point where they connect to muscles, and blocking the release of acetylcholine, which signals the muscles to contract, including those that regulate breathing. Blocking the nerve s...

Invasive species harms native hardwoods by killing soil fungus

... growth, implying that the weed uses phytochemical poisons to disrupt native plants' mycorrhizal associations and stunt their growth. When the study was subsequently replicated with seedlings of 16 other native plants, only the hardwoods and other woody plants were harmed by the presence of garlic mustard....

Small worm yields big clue on muscle receptor action

...own to be sensitive to levamisole, a chemical that poisons nematodes. Two additional receptor subunits -- ACR-16 and ACR-8 -- identified using Vanderbilt's data, were found to be likely candidates for the remaining acetylcholine response. ACR-16 was singled out as the key subunit. "We've shown the ACR-16-co...

Development of portable infectious disease detector

...makes it possibleto detect the presence of unknown poisons as long as they affect cellmetabolism. Furthermore, by examining the impact that an unknown agenthas on different cell types--such as heart, lung, nerve, skin,etc.--this approach also can rapidly provide critical insights into itsmode of action."Pria...

Source of molecular triggers in cutaneous T cell lymphoma identified

...gens and target the malignant cells with selective poisons delivered through the vehicle of LC." The study also showed that CTCL cells, after stimulation by LC, become functioning regulatory T (Treg) cells that suppress the immune responses of normal T cells to microbial agents. This may explain the suscept...

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