News by Subject Biology

Using electron microscopy and high-speed atomic force microscopy, researchers show the internal molecular motor behind the gliding mechanism for Mycoplasma mobile to consist of two ATP synthase-like molecules. Sharing a similar structure with ATP synthase suggests a common evolutionary ancestor. This synthase-like ATPase is challenging the origin of cells and proteins themselves.

In a mouse model, scientists from the Institut Pasteur, in collaboration with Inserm, Université de Paris and Necker-Enfants Malades Hospital (AP-HP) demonstrated that the immaturity of both the gut microbiota and epithelial barriers such as the gut and choroid plexus play a role in the susceptibility of newborn infants to bacterial meningitis caused by group B streptococcus (GBS). The findings were published in the journal Cell Reports on June 29, 2021

Dogs infected with echinococcosis play a major role in spreading tapeworms across human populations around the world. Now, researchers have developed a "smart collar" which gradually delivers a steady dose of a deworming drug to dogs. The collar successfully reduces the animals' risk of echinococcosis, the team reports in PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases.

Earthworms are special because they keep our soil healthy. From the outside they appear inconspicuous. But what earthworms look like from the inside, from their organs to the microbes and parasites that colonize them, has been difficult to grasp. Scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology have developed a method to visualize anatomical structures including products of an earthworm's metabolism. Now published in the US-American Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

Researchers have revealed that praying mantis (mantids) infected with parasitic hairworms are attracted to horizontally polarized light that is strongly reflected off the surface of water, which causes them to enter the water. In a world-first, these results demonstrate that parasites can manipulate the host's specific light perception system to their advantage, causing the host to behave in an abnormal manner.

Smithsonian marine biologists and colleagues at Temple University tested predictions about biological invasions, first in Panama and then in an experiment of unprecedented geographic scale. Their results are published in companion papers in the journal Ecology.