From food crops to cancer clinics: Lessons in extermination resistance

Anonymous, 22/11/2024 | Source: Agriculture and Food News -- ScienceDaily

Researchers explore how established agricultural pest management strategies could be adapted to address cancer therapy. The pioneering method opens new possibilities for controlling drug resistance and improving patient survival.

Unravelling the centromere landscape and evolution in the model plant <i>Nicotiana benthamiana</i>

Anonymous, 22/11/2024 | Source: Nature Plants - nature.com science feeds

Nature Plants, Published online: 22 November 2024; doi:10.1038/s41477-024-01872-z

The complete genome assembly of the model plant Nicotiana benthamiana reveals the genetic and epigenetic landscape of its centromeres, which have evolved via satellite expansion, retrotransposon enrichment, and mitochondrial DNA integration. These insights enhance knowledge of polyploid centromere diversity and evolution in Solanaceae species.

ABA-activated low-nanomolar Ca<sup>2+</sup>–CPK signalling controls root cap cycle plasticity and stress adaptation

Ziwei Lin
, 22/11/2024 | Source: Nature Plants - nature.com science feeds

Nature Plants, Published online: 22 November 2024; doi:10.1038/s41477-024-01865-y

This study reveals ABA-triggered low-nanomolar Ca2+ dynamics in diverse plant organs and cell types using an ultrasensitive Ca2+ biosensor. Spatiotemporal Ca2+ dynamics modulate the root cap cycle in adaptation to stress through ABA–Ca2+–CPK signalling.

How anti-obesity drugs are linked to food waste

Anonymous, 21/11/2024 | Source: Agriculture and Food News -- ScienceDaily

Taking anti-obesity drugs has led some U.S. adults to throw away more food than they tossed before starting the medications, a new study has found.

Climate warming speeds up species succession in Himalayan treelines

Anonymous, 21/11/2024 | Source: Nature Plants - nature.com science feeds

Nature Plants, Published online: 21 November 2024; doi:10.1038/s41477-024-01860-3

Climate warming is accelerating successional processes, leading to late-successional species (fir) quickly outcompeting pioneer species (birch) at Himalayan treelines. This finding offers insights into the composition and interactions of future forest species, as well as their influences on ecosystem services.

An innovative antibiotic for drug-resistant bacteria

Anonymous, 20/11/2024 | Source: Genetically Modified News -- ScienceDaily

Antibacterial drugs are important for treating infections. But increasingly, bacterial resistance to current drugs -- so they don't work well, or even at all -- means new ones are urgently needed. Researchers have demonstrated a potential antibacterial treatment from a modified darobactin, a compound originally from a bacterium. The team reports proof-of-concept animal trials on infections caused by bacteria, including E. coli, that are known to develop drug resistance.

Automated 3D computer vision model offers a new tool to measure and understand dairy cow behavior and welfare

Anonymous, 20/11/2024 | Source: Agriculture and Food News -- ScienceDaily

Dairy cows typically rest for 10 or more hours a day, so a dry, clean, and comfortable place -- such as a freestall -- to lie down and rest is essential for their health, well-being, and production performance. One key factor in whether stalls are comfortable for cows is the ease with which they can get up and down, so it is common on farms for staff to watch for abnormal rising behaviors as part of standard welfare management.

Probiotic delivers anticancer drug to the gut

Anonymous, 20/11/2024 | Source: Genetically Modified News -- ScienceDaily

Researchers shrink gastrointestinal tumors in mice using a yeast probiotic to deliver immunotherapy to the gut, offering a potentially novel strategy to target hard-to-reach gut cancers.

Scientists use ancient DNA to shed light on adaptation of early Europeans

Anonymous, 19/11/2024 | Source: Agriculture and Food News -- ScienceDaily

Leveraging a unique statistical analysis and applying it to ancient DNA extracted from human skeletal remains, a team of researchers has revealed new insights into how ancient Europeans adapted to their environments over 7,000 years of European history.

Will agricultural weeds finally claim the upper hand in a changing climate?

Anonymous, 19/11/2024 | Source: Agriculture and Food News -- ScienceDaily

A few years back, a group of weed scientists showed that soil-applied herbicides are less effective against agricultural weeds in the context of our changing climate. Now, the same research group has shown the same is true of post-emergence (POST) herbicides.