NSF boosts research for understanding structure and function of complex plant genomes
...ot nematode worm(Meloidogyne sps.) is an important pathogen of many economically important crops such as soybean. North Carolina State University researchers will take aim at understanding the genes involved in the interaction between the nematode and the plant during the infection process. The outcome of thi...Molecular-scale roughness identified as factor in bacterias ability to stick to surfaces
... operation of water treatment filters and to limit pathogen migration in soil. Bacterial cell adhesion properties have been difficult to control, however, because we hadn1t sufficiently developed techniques to probe, study and describe the adhesion forces." Logan explains that now, new forms of molecula...Researchers find key to tuberculosis persistence in the body
... body has been the main barrier to clearing the TB pathogen with drugs. Current treatments require three to five drugs for at least six months, a regimen many patients are unable or unwilling to follow. The drugs can have unpleasant side effects and in some cases cannot be taken because they interfere with ot...Rice research another step forward for green revolution
...concepts with rice. Researchers say that the blast pathogen specializes in particular "genotypes," or varieties of rice, some of which are glutinous and some of which are non-glutinous. During the past few years they used several known varieties of rice in one of the largest experiments on rice ever conducted...UC Davis expert identifies oak-tree killer and warns public to use caution
...ree-killer. Contrary to some Internet reports, the pathogen is not related to the oak wilt fungus (Ceratocystis fagacearum), an important disease of oaks in the eastern United States. The fungus Rizzo isolated likes the cool, wet conditions typically found along much of the California coastline, especially in...Purdue researchers track deadly foodborne bacterium
...c sensors that should be able to detect the deadly pathogen Listeria monocytogenes in food processing lines. I...od. Listeria monocytogenes is the most deadly food pathogen of them all. It sickens more than 2,500 people each year in the United States, and one out of five o...Even the Immune System works with Pincers
...ic system and in the blood. In this case, the pathogen is marked on its surface through antibodies, which...eukocytes and lymphocytes) are bound. Only now the pathogen is removed when a macrophage engulfs and neutralizes it. As the scientists from Martinsr...Researchers decipher chemical 'cross talk' that determines survival of immunecells
...defense arsenal. When a virus, parasite or other pathogen invades a cell, the immune system's T cells recognize the enemy, and a potent chemical signal is triggered using a docking site known as the T cell receptor. The current research identifies a possible new role for this chemical message. The scientist...New therapy uses viruses to attack bacteria
...local and systemic infection caused by a bacterial pathogen in an animal model of disease," says Gulig. Bacteriophage therapy can have significant benefits to traditional antibiotic therapy. With the continuing rise in antibiotic-resistance in bacteria, this new therapy offers an effective alternative. In ...Nearly identical controls of immune genes in mice and humans hint at new asthma treatment
...hoes and concrete, which have eliminated the usual pathogen target and the timing during which this type of immune response would normally become directed to the gut," Locksley says. ......See page 58 in the final program.) Rapid pathogen detection testing will improve food safety: Microb...e the cornerstones for developing new methods of pathogen testing. (D. J. Armstrong, U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Summit, Ill.; AGFD 78, Monday, March...Diversity of trees in forests may be caused by soil pathogens, IU biologists find
...su/000316/000316-12.html "We showed that a soil pathogen causes the patterns of seedling mortality that we observed in a temperate tree, the black cherry -- high mortality close to the parent tree and low mortality farther away," said Clay, professor of biology. "Animal predators and herbivores may be less...Link between climate change, amphibian declines explored
...-offs to disease. "It's clear this fungus is the pathogen whacking amphibians in Australia, Costa Rica, Panama and the Western United States," Carey said. "It infects and kills populations very rapidly, taking out all the breeding adults in a very short time." Of the three largest populations of endanger...Complex mystery of amphibian decline calls for a new kind of science
...iology of the host changed? Has the biology of the pathogen changed? Has a change in the environment altered the pathogen? Has the environment changed in a way that has caused the immunology of the host to be compromised -- and therefore the amphibian is more susceptible to something that was a natural part ......isms and were gratified to find that the Fusarium pathogen attacked the seeds as well as the plant. The next challenge was to find a way to make the fungus available to farmers. Researchers came up with a starter culture in a capsule, which could be fermented and dried locally. The farmers have their seed...A relative of smallpox is first virus found to invade cells as HIV does
...e AIDS virus. Like HIV, the myxoma poxvirus -- a pathogen that causes a rapid AIDS-like immune deficiency in rabbits -- hones in on chemokine receptors called CCR5 and CXCR4, reports a research team led by a UC San Francisco scientist. The research is published in the December 3 issue of Science. Both vi...A molecular chink in the armor of tuberculosis
...gs." "What really distinguishes tuberculosis as a pathogen is that it passes from person to person by aerosol infection, but it first has to invade the lungs to propagate," said Jacobs. "If we understood how TB propagates in the lungs, we’d have a much better idea of how to combat the infection." The r...New technique identifies M. tuberculosis genes
...e because wesuspect these are vital in keeping the pathogen alive and destructive in thehuman body," says Clark-Curtiss. "The technique used allows us to study genesat different times after the mycobacteria have been introduced intomacrophages. This is important because there really should be some chronolog...Protecting the rice bowl: Chromosomal mapping of the rice blast fungus
...riceblast fungus, Magnaporthe grisea, a widespread pathogen capable of devastatingrice yields and causing regi...s of this fungus and the firstsuch map of any rice pathogen chromosome. To create the map, Zhu and colleagues combined two commonly used techniques,hybridizati...