News by Subject Biology

Cryptococcal meningitis causes about one in ten HIV-related deaths, according to a study of autopsies performed in Mozambique and Brazil and coordinated by the Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal), an institution supported by 'la Caixa'.

Most living things have a suite of genes dedicated to repairing their DNA, limiting the rate at which their genomes change through time. But scientists at Vanderbilt and University of Wisconsin-Madison have discovered an ancient lineage of budding yeasts that appears to have accumulated a remarkably high load of mutations due to the unprecedented loss of dozens of genes involved in repairing errors in DNA and cell division, previously thought to be essential.

In 2020, NASA and European-Russian missions will look for evidence of past life on Mars. But while volcanic, igneous rock predominates on the Red Planet, virtually the entire Earth fossil record comes from sedimentary rocks. Addressing the problem in Frontiers in Earth Science, Swedish scientists have begun compiling evidence of fossilized microbes in underexplored igneous rock environments on Earth, to help guide where to search for a Martian fossil record - and what to look for.

Insights into the genes and proteins involved in the predatory behavior of a parasitic yeast species could lead to new strategies for controlling yeast pathogens, according to a study published May 9 in the open-access journal PLOS Pathogens by Jürgen Wendland of the Carlsberg Research Laboratory in Denmark and Vrije Universiteit Brussel in Belgium, and colleagues.

A species of globally recognised medicinal mushroom was recorded for the first time in Thailand. Commonly referred to as lingzhi, the fungus (Ganoderma tropicum) was collected from the base of a living tree in Chiang Rai Province, Northern Thailand. In their study, published in the open-access journal MycoKeys, the scientists also report the first assessment of the optimum conditions needed for the species to grow its mycelia and spread its colony.

A project conducted by researchers in Brazil and the US investigated bacteria living in symbiosis with insects as a source for novel drugs.

Researchers have turned a fungus into a disease-curing factory through modern genetic engineering and patience. The natural antibiotic is a promising cure for a neglected tropical disease called human African trypanosomiasis, or African sleeping sickness, that infects thousands of people in remote, rural areas of sub-Saharan Africa each year.