Botulism bug says no to nitric oxide, provides key to molecule's role in human cell signaling
...arted by identifying the protein that the botulism bug uses to detect and evade NO," Raman said. "What we have ultimately shown is how this protein evolved from being part of a protective mechanism into a system that learned to use the toxin to benefit the organism." In human beings, nitric oxide bind...Acid-resistant bug doesn't give in to alcohol either
... "Important enzymes in this bug resist acid in a way almost all organisms cannot, ...xcluding the grape skins from the wine because the bug lives there." Plants, microorganisms, and their proteins are the bases for developing valuable drugs...Essential oils could help to stamp out MRSA
... chemical compounds which the MRSA and other super bug bacteria finds difficult to resist. The problem with current treatments is that they are made of single compounds which MRSA relatively quickly becomes resistant to, so treatment is only successful in around 50% of cases. "While a wide range of prod...Gene sequencing explains bioremediation 'bug'
... been dumped or spilled? And what on earth had the bug been eating before synthetic chlorinated compounds...been interested enough to fund the research. For a bug that thrives in nature, Strain 195 and other Dehalococcoides varieties are proving difficult to cu...Harvard scientists discover how the venus flytrap snaps
... vibrations caused by the movement, so the unlucky bug doesn't spill out. It then takes the plant up to eight hours to ready its leaves for the next unsuspecting bug." To reveal how the Venus flytrap snaps, the researchers painted ultraviolet fluorescent dots on the external face of the leaves and fil...Alien woodwasp, threat to US pine trees, found in N.Y.
...t would be loblolly pines in Georgia. Finding one bug in a trap is no small matter. Where there's one, there's likely to be more, says E. Richard Hoebeke, a Cornell senior extension associate in entomology. "Whenever you find an insect in a trap, it probably is established." Hoebeke was sifting through...Cure for common cold will need to wiggle to work, scientists say
...cause it always looks like someone else - it's the bug of a hundred faces." The viral shell also changes shape during the life cycle of a single rhinovirus particle. One part of the shell that seems to guide these shape changes is a small, cigar-shaped cavity within the folds of a protein called VP-1 tha...A radical solution for environmental pollution
...ut the first step is understanding exactly how the bug breaks down toluene. "The challenge is that the chemical reactions these bacteria use are very unusual---not the standard chemical reactions that chemists usually think about," said Marsh. "It turns out that the solution to metabolizing these very i...Life detection instrument passes key test on road to Mars
... In a place that hadn't seen a blade of grass or a bug for ages, and contending with dust and temperature extremes that left her either freezing or sweating, Skelley ran 340 tests that proved the instrument could unambiguously detect amino acids, the building blocks of proteins. More importantly, she and...North & South American researchers find architectural abnormalities in T. cruzi ribosome
... which is transmitted to humans by a blood-sucking bug usually found in poor areas with substandard housing. An estimated 16 to 18 million people in Latin America are infected, and another 100 million are at risk. Some cases have spread through blood transfusion. Screening blood for the disease is mandat...Immune system's distress signal tells bacteria when to strike back
...ese could signal the bug," said Alverdy, "then the bug strikes back and then the inflammation process snowballs." Because the bacteria in this case are "normal flora," people with no real infection develop a chronic disease. The battles between pathogens and their hosts have been going on for millions o...Bacteria are key to 'green' plastics, drugs
...es succinate as it's only metabolic byproduct. The bug contains more than a half-dozen genetic modificati... per pound of glucose converted. Bennett and San's bug -- known only by the designation SBS550MG -- contains an ingenious bit of metabolic engineering that...Unusual antibiotics show promise against deadly 'superbugs'
...ne, acts as a key defense mechanism by helping the bug maintain a chemical barricade that is impervious to antibiotics. Mobasherys group recently discovered, in a study published in the Feb. 16 issue of the Journal of the American Chemical Society , that the enzyme interacts with certain components of t...Faster method to create antibodies for disease research
...us cause deadly blood infections and 'flesh eating bug disease'. Traditional methods of producing antibodies for research are slow and laborious and pose a significant bottleneck to proteomics research as they can take months of effort. This research offers a potential solution that could produce antibod...Poison + water = hydrogen. New microbial genome shows how
...rapidly on carbon monoxide than other species: The bug boasts at least five different forms of a protein machine, dubbed carbon monoxide deyhydrogenase, that is able to manipulate the poisonous gas. Each form of the machine appears to allow the organism to use carbon monoxide in a different way. Most o...Penicillin, amoxicillin: Step aside for strep throat treatment
...mmon medications used to treat the strep germ, the bug that causes millions of sore throats in U.S. child...ihood that a less powerful medication can kill the bug just as well as a more powerful drug. In the case of throat infections, doctors try to preserve thei...Common food preservative might provide treatment for cystic fibrosis
...tt said, "but for whatever reason, this particular bug doesn't make them, or has very low levels of them. "That's the fatal flaw in mucoid Pseudomonas aeruginosa." Dr. Hassett and his colleagues had worked on the hypothesis that the mucoid bacteria--because they flourish in patients who are essentially...Scientist uses dragonflies to better understand flight
...two and an unusual pitching stroke that allows the bug to hover and even shift into reverse, the slender, elegant insect is a marvel of engineering. Z. Jane Wang, professor of theoretical and applied mechanics at Cornell University, presented her research on flying systems and fluid dynamics today (Feb. ...NYU'S Childress demonstrates tool for studying hovering flight at international science meeting
... cylindrical flight chamber. They then simulated a bug using a small winged body made of paper and placin... the airflow. The wings are driven to flap and the bug hovers in the flow. This allows analysts to compare the hovering of a passive flexible body in an os......high percentage of snakes carry the food-poisoning bug Salmonella, but until this study we didn't know whether the snakes became infected through eating contaminated food, or by another route. Dr Matthias Schrter of the Institute of Public Health, Northrhine Westphalia in Germany said: "This study sheds ...