News by Subject Biology

Mycetoma is a common neglected disease caused by either fungi or bacteria which organize themselves into grains--areas of inflammation surrounded by a collagen capsule. Now, researchers reporting in PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases have studied two immune molecules inside these grains and discovered patterns to where the molecules appear.

Ranavirus is linked to amphibian decline or extinction in other parts of the world, but in Brazil, it has been reported only in captive animals.

Pathogenic fungal spores capitalize on host immune cells to escape the lung and gain access to the brain to cause fatal disease in mice, according to a study published June 27, 2019 in the open-access journal PLOS Pathogens by Christina Hull of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and colleagues. These insights into the interactions between pathogenic fungal spores and lung immune cells provide new opportunities for understanding spore-mediated fungal diseases.

Researchers from Virginia Tech and UC Santa Cruz did a field trial on the effect of probiotic bacteria on white-nose syndrome in bat populations. They found that it reduces the impact of the disease about five-fold. These findings were published recently in Scientific Reports.

Cicadas can carry a fungus containing chemicals similar to those found in hallucinogenic mushrooms, making them zombie-like fliers.

A new biosynthetic production pathway developed by scientists at the Joint BioEnergy Institute could provide a sustainable alternative to conventional synthetic blue dye. The highly efficient fungi-based platform may also open the door for producing many other valuable biological compounds that are currently very hard to manufacture.

In eukaryotic cells, molecules can only move into or out of the nucleus through specialized channels called nuclear pore complexes (NPCs). Each NPC has a ring of nucleoporin proteins flanking either end of the central channel, which usually share an identical structure. But in fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe, researchers led by Osaka University have found that the NPC outer ring structures are completely asymmetrical, shedding new light on the structure and function of the nucleus.