Recognize

Newly recognized gene mutation may reduce seeds, resurrect plants

A mutated plant that seems to return from the dead may hold the secret to how some flora protect their progeny during yield-limiting drought and other stresses, according to Purdue University scientists whose study of the plant led to discovery of a gene. The gene, called RESURRECTION1 (RST1), has revealed a previously unknown genetic connection between lipid development and embryo develop...

Bacteria recognize antimicrobials, respond with counter-defenses

Many living things, from fruit flies to people, naturally produce disease-fighting chemicals, called antimicrobial peptides, to kill harmful bacteria. In a counter move, some disease-causing bacteria have evolved antimicrobial detectors. The bacteria sense the presence of antimicrobial peptides as a warning signal. This alarm sets off a reaction inside the bacteria to avoid destruction. Un...

Animal brains 'hard-wired' to recognize predator's foot movements, Queen's study suggests

The reason people can approach animals in the wild more easily from a car than by foot may be due to an innate "life detector" tuned to the visual movements of an approaching predator's feet, says Queen's University psychologist Niko Troje. "We believe this visual filter is used to signal the presence of animals that are propelled by the motion of their feet and the force of gravity," sug...

What recognizes what in plant disease resistance?

Plants have an immune system that resists infection, yet 10% of the world's agricultural production is lost annually to diseases caused by bacteria, fungi, and viruses. Understanding how disease resistance works may help combat this scourge. In a new study published online this week in the open-access journal PLoS Biology, Tessa Burch-Smith, Savithramma Dinesh-Kumar, and colleagues show h...

Mimicking how the brain recognizes street scenes

At last, neuroscience is having an impact on computer science and artificial intelligence (AI). For the first time, scientists in Tomaso Poggio's laboratory at the McGovern Institute for Brain Research at MIT applied a computational model of how the brain processes visual information to a complex, real world task: recognizing the objects in a busy street scene. The researchers were pleasantly sur...

New details on how the immune system recognizes influenza

Drawing upon a massive database established with funds from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), one of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), scientists have completed the most comprehensive analysis to date of published influenza A virus epitopes--the critical sites on the virus that are recognized by the immune system. The findings, reported by researchers at th...

Plants recognize their siblings, biologists discover

The next time you venture into your garden armed with plants, consider who you place next to whom. It turns out that the docile garden plant isn’t as passive as widely assumed, at least not with strangers. Researchers at McMaster University have found that plants get fiercely competitive when forced to share their pot with strangers of the same species, but they’re accommodating when potted wi...