ScienceDaily: Biotechnology News

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• Discovery on how sugars are moved throughout a plant
• Scientists capture single cancer molecules at work
• How Salmonella forms evil twins to evade the body's defenses
• Evolution reveals missing link between DNA and protein shape
• New fluorescent imaging sorts microbiome in human mouth
• New biometric data standard adds DNA, footmarks and enhanced fingerprint descriptions
• Lipid-modifying enzyme: New target for pan-viral therapeutics
• Human cells build protein cages to trap invading Shigella

Discovery on how sugars are moved throughout a plant Posted: 08 Dec 2011 11:20 AM PST Food prices are soaring at the same time as the Earth's population is nearing 9 billion. As a result the need for increased crop yields is extremely important. New research into the system by which sugars are moved throughout a plant -- from the leaves to the harvested portions and elsewhere -- could be crucial for addressing this problem.

Scientists capture single cancer molecules at work Posted: 08 Dec 2011 09:57 AM PST Researchers have revealed how a molecule called telomerase contributes to the control of the integrity of our genetic code, and when it is involved in the deregulation of the code, its important role in the development of cancer. Scientists explained how they were able to achieve their discovery by using cutting edge microscopy techniques to visualize telomerase molecules in real time in living cells.

How Salmonella forms evil twins to evade the body's defenses Posted: 08 Dec 2011 06:27 AM PST To swim or not? The same biological control that determines which capability genetically identical Salmonella will have impacts the virulence of the food pathogen. Swimmers do better in the gut, but non-motile Salmonella avoid triggering killer cells. An unusual protein turns on or off the manufacture of swimming apparatus in each new bacterium.

Evolution reveals missing link between DNA and protein shape Posted: 07 Dec 2011 02:56 PM PST Using evolutionary genetic information, an international team of researchers has taken major steps toward solving a classic problem of molecular biology: Predicting how a protein will fold in three dimensions.

New fluorescent imaging sorts microbiome in human mouth Posted: 07 Dec 2011 10:26 AM PST New fluorescent labeling technology that distinguishes in a single image the population size and spatial distribution of 15 different taxa has uncovered new taxon pairings that indicate unsuspected cooperation -- and standoffishness -- between members of the microbe biofilm that covers teeth.

New biometric data standard adds DNA, footmarks and enhanced fingerprint descriptions Posted: 07 Dec 2011 07:54 AM PST The U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology has published a revised biometric standard that vastly expands the type and amount of information that forensic scientists can share across their international networks to identify victims or solve crimes.

Lipid-modifying enzyme: New target for pan-viral therapeutics Posted: 07 Dec 2011 07:53 AM PST Three different disease-causing viruses -- poliovirus, coxsackievirus, and hepatitis C -- rely on their unwilling host for the membrane platforms enriched in a specific lipid, phosphatidylinositol 4 phosphate (PI4P) on which they can replicate, researchers report.

Human cells build protein cages to trap invading Shigella Posted: 04 Dec 2011 11:46 AM PST In research on the never-ending war between pathogen and host, scientists have discovered a novel defensive weapon, a cytoskeletal protein called septin, that humans cells deploy to cage the invading Shigella bacteria that cause potentially fatal human diarrhea.

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