London: A new bacteria resistant steel developed by a British university is likely to be useful in hospitals and other places to prevent the spread of bacterial Diseases. Researchers have developed a technique that not only kills bacteria but is very hard and resistant to wear and tear during cleaning as it introduces silver or copper into the steel surface rather than coating it on the surface,...

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Newly Discovered Viral Genome talks new!

A study published in BioMed Central's Biology Direct journal reports the existence of a previously undetected group of viruses and, more importantly, a new type of viral genome that could have huge implications for theories of viral emergence and evolution. Viruses are the most abundant organisms on earth, yet little is known about their evolutionary history since they have exceptionally...

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70-Year-Old Chemical Mystery Solved: How Tropolone Are Synthesized in Fungi

Chemists and biologists from the University of Bristol have finally cracked one of the longest standing chemical mysteries. In a paper published April 16 inProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the team demonstrate exactly how an unusual class of compounds known as tropolones are synthesised in fungi. In 1942, an 'unidentifiable' aromatic compound known as stipitatic acid was first...

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A Temperature-Controlled Microbe

manufacturing processes rely on microorganisms to perform tricky chemical transformations or make substances from simple starting materials. The authors of a study appearing in mBio®, the online open-access journal of the American Society for Microbiology, on April 17 have found a way to control a heat-loving microbe with a temperature switch: it makes a product at low temperatures but not at...

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Scientists Tailor Cell Surface Targeting System to Hit Organelle ZIP Codes

Scientists who developed a technology for identifying and targeting unique protein receptor ZIP Codes on the cellular surface have found a way to penetrate the outer membrane and deliver engineered particles -- called iPhage -- to organelles inside the cell. This new capacity was used to screen for peptide ligands -- binding agents -- that connect to receptors on mitochondria, which generate a...

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Levels of Germination Proteins in Dormant and Superdormant Spores of Bacillus subtilis

Bacillus subtilis spores that germinated poorly with saturating levels of nutrient germinants, termed superdormant spores, were separated from the great majority of dormant spore populations that germinated more rapidly. These purified superdormant spores (1.5 to 3% of spore populations) germinated extremely poorly with the germinants used to isolate them but better with germinants targeting...

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Study Shows Unified Process of Evolution in Bacteria and Sexual Eukaryotes

Bacteria are the most populous organisms on the planet. They thrive in almost every known environment, adapting to different habitats by means of genetic variations that provide the capabilities essential for survival. These genetic innovations arise from what scientists believe is a random mutation and exchange of genes and other bits of DNA among bacteria that sometimes confers an advantage, and...

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Method Developed to Detect Stealthy, 'Hypervirulent' Salmonella Strains

Salmonella is the most common cause of infection, hospitalization, and death due to foodborne illness in the U.S. This burden may continue to worsen due to the emergence of new strains that would tax current health-control efforts. To address this problem,...

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