Bacteria News and Research

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Scientists reveal mechanisms behind oxygen toxicity

When it comes to oxygen, you can have too much of a good thing. Breathing air that contains higher levels of oxygen than the usual 21 percent found in Earth's atmosphere can cause organ damage, seizures, and even death in people and animals, particularly if it's in excess of the body's oxygen needs. Until now, however, scientists have mostly speculated about the mechanisms behind this phenomenon, known as oxygen toxicity, or hyperoxia.

9 Mar 2023

Researchers discover how specific mutation in a bacterium results in phage resistance

As antibacterial resistance continues to render obsolete the use of some antibiotics, some have turned to bacteria-killing viruses to treat acute infections as well as some chronic illnesses.

7 Mar 2023

Using data from Sanger sequencing to quantify of genetic variants in bacterial cultures

Genetic variations, such as mutations, recombinations, or transpositions occur naturally in cultured microorganisms and are often considered nonneutral mutations.

7 Mar 2023

Researchers track a specialized garbage disposal cell inside lymph nodes for the first time

For almost 140 years, the origin and behavior of an enigmatic cell type inside lymph nodes, called a tingible body macrophage, has remained a mystery.

3 Mar 2023

Innovative method to quickly identify bacteria in fluids

Shine a laser on a drop of blood, mucus, or wastewater, and the light reflecting back can be used to positively identify bacteria in the sample.

3 Mar 2023

Applying crocodile’s unique pH sensing mechanism to benefit humans

Researchers from La Trobe University have just discovered how crocodiles, despite living in dirty water, prevent deadly fungal infections by employing a unique pH sensing mechanism.

3 Mar 2023

CRISPR/Cas method could help save rice crops threatened by climate change

A review of gene editing techniques suggests that the CRISPR/Cas (clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats/Cas) method could be a possible 'savior' for rice crops threatened by climate change and high food demand.

3 Mar 2023

Regulatory T cells produced in the gut play a role in repairing injured muscles

The human immune system is incredibly versatile. Among its most skilled multitaskers are T cells, known for their role in everything from fighting infection to reining in inflammation to killing nascent tumors.

3 Mar 2023

Disinfecting water with peptide-coated silver sulfide quantum dots

Water contaminated with bacteria poses a serious threat to global health. In the scientific publication Angewandte Chemie, a Chinese research team developed a simple new technique for disinfection.

1 Mar 2023

New model, C. elegans, helps pursue research on Parkinson's disease

A tiny worm called the C. elegans is enabling scientists to explore the emerging theory that Parkinson's disease starts in the gut.

1 Mar 2023

Elaborating how amino acids shaped the genetic code of ancient microbes

Researchers discovered that without specific amino acids, ancient proteins would not have identified how to evolve into anything alive on the planet today, including plants, animals, and humans, by mimicking early Earth conditions in the lab.

28 Feb 2023

SXSW 2023 to focus on the critical role microbes in human health

Rebecca Bart, PhD, member at the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center, and her colleagues from Washington University in St. Louis will be featured on a global stage at South by Southwest on March 11 at 2:30 PM at the JW Marriott, Austin Texas.

28 Feb 2023

Study reveals why the FMO5 gene produces an enzyme with a different activity

Our body produces lots of enzymes that break down toxic substances. One class of such enzymes are the flavin-containing monooxygenases (FMOs), which are present in all tetrapods. Humans have five different FMO genes, of which the first four display the same activity. However, the fifth FMO gene triggers a different breakdown reaction. University of Groningen biochemists have succeeded in resurrecting the ancestral genes of all tetrapod FMOs to show how this divergence has occurred. Their results appear on 24 February in Nature Communications.

28 Feb 2023

Prototype treatment shows great potential in neutralizing snake toxins from multiple species

Prototype treatment for snake bite envenoming proves effective against the venom of African and Asian elapid snakes, such as some cobra, mamba, and krait species, new research shows.

24 Feb 2023

Using ultrasound waves to move genetically engineered cells

Let's say you needed to move an individual cell from one place to another. How would you do it? Maybe some special tweezers? A really tiny shovel?

24 Feb 2023

New model describes the enormous range of DNA in nature

Why neutral sequences, frequently referred to as “junk DNA,” are not removed from the genomes of living things in nature and persist there even millions of years later is a scientific mystery that could have a possible answer according to a new model created at Tel Aviv University.

23 Feb 2023

Limiting antibiotic use in livestock associated with reduction in antibiotic-resistant infection

A California policy restricting antibiotic use in animals raised for food is associated with a reduction in one type of antibiotic-resistant infection in people in the state, according to a new study published today in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives.

23 Feb 2023