Press monitoring
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Resurrecting billion-year-old enzymes reveals how photosynthesis adapted to the rise of oxygen
19.10.2022 | Press monitoring
The central biocatalyst in photosynthesis, Rubisco, is the most abundant enzyme on earth. By reconstructing billion-year-old enzymes, a team of Max Planck Researchers has deciphered one of the key adaptations of early photosynthesis. Their results, now published in Science, not only provide insights into the evolution of modern photosynthesis but...
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Potent antibiotic bone cement ups the ante against staph infection
17.10.2022 | Press monitoring
Procedures such as knee and hip replacements can expose patients to potential bacterial infections, and bone cements are one way physicians can lower the risk. These materials anchor the artificial joint in place and, if loaded with antibiotics, can protect against harmful bacteria at the site. But the rise of drug-resistant bacteria calls for new...
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Engineering duckweed to produce oil for biofuels, bioproducts
14.10.2022 | Press monitoring
Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory and collaborators at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) have engineered duckweed to produce high yields of oil. The team added genes to one of nature's fastest growing aquatic plants to "push" the synthesis of fatty acids, "pull" those fatty acids into oils, and...
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New broad-spectrum antibiotic comes from a pathogenic bacterium in potatoes
12.10.2022 | Press monitoring
The growing threat of antimicrobial resistance has led researchers to search for new compounds everywhere. This week in mBio, a multinational team of researchers in Europe report the discovery of a new antifungal antibiotic named solanimycin. The compound, initially isolated from a pathogenic bacterium that infects potatoes, appears to be produced...
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Watching plants switch on genes using a fluorescent protein
10.10.2022 | Press monitoring
Biologists often use green fluorescent protein (GFP) to see what happens inside cells. GFP, which scientists first isolated in jellyfish, is a protein that changes light from one color into another. Attaching it to other proteins allows researchers to find out if cells produce those proteins and where within cells to find them. This in turn shows...
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Microbiologists improve taste of beer
7.10.2022 | Press monitoring
Belgian investigators have improved the flavor of contemporary beer by identifying and engineering a gene that is responsible for much of the flavor of beer and some other alcoholic drinks. The research appears in Applied and Environmental Microbiology. For centuries, beer was brewed in open, horizontal vats. But in the 1970s, the industry...
Microbes that cause cavities can form superorganisms able to crawl and spread on teeth
5.10.2022 | Press monitoring
Across-kingdom partnership between bacteria and fungi can result in the two joining to form a "superorganism" with unusual strength and resilience. It may sound like the stuff of science fiction, but these microbial groupings are very much part of the here and now. Found in the saliva of toddlers with severe childhood tooth decay, these...
Machine learning may enable bioengineering of the most abundant enzyme on the planet
3.10.2022 | Press monitoring
A Newcastle University study has for the first time shown that machine learning can predict the biological properties of the most abundant enzyme on Earth – Rubisco. Rubisco (Ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase) is responsible for providing carbon for almost all life on Earth. Rubisco functions by converting atmospheric CO2 from the...
Researchers fabricate miniaturized bionic ocean-battery
30.9.2022 | Press monitoring
The researchers from the Institute of Microbiology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences have developed a miniaturized bionic ocean-battery, a bio-solar cell that converts light into electricity, by mimicking the basic ecological structure of marine microbial ecosystems. Viewed from the outer space, marine microbial ecosystems with photoelectric...
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Scientists engineer mosquitoes that cant spread malaria
28.9.2022 | Press monitoring
Scientists have engineered mosquitoes that slow the growth of malaria-causing parasites in their gut, preventing transmission of the disease to humans. The genetic modification causes mosquitoes to produce compounds in their guts that stunt the growth of parasites, meaning they are unlikely to reach the mosquitoes' salivary glands and be passed...
