Prokaryotes News and Research

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Scientists unveil the hidden respiratory mechanisms of gut bacteria

Study explores the use of respiratory electron acceptors by diverse gut bacteria, revealing a novel type of anaerobic respiration linked to the gut metabolome and microbial energy metabolism.

8 Jan 2024

Bacteria fight phages with RNA-based immune defense

There's no organism on earth that lives free of threat-;including bacteria. Predatory viruses known as phages are among their most dire foes, infiltrating their cells to replicate and take over.

15 Nov 2023

Scientists unravel step-by-step activation process of protein with deep evolutionary history

Scientists have unraveled the step-by-step activation process of a protein with a deep evolutionary history in all domains of life, opening the door to harnessing its functions for use as a biotechnology tool.

26 Jul 2023

First programmable RNA-guided system found in eukaryotes

A team of researchers led by Feng Zhang at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard and the McGovern Institute for Brain Research at MIT has uncovered the first programmable RNA-guided system in eukaryotes -; organisms that include fungi, plants, and animals.

28 Jun 2023

Exploring metabolic compatibility as a possible limiting factor to prokayrotic endosymbioses

"One of the great mysteries of biology," says Eric Libby, former SFI Postdoctoral Fellow, now an associate professor at the Integrated Science Lab (IceLab), Umeå University in Sweden, "is eukaryogenesis, or how eukaryotes arose." Scientists consider this to be a period of major evolutionary transition, critical to our understanding of the history and evolution of life on Earth.

24 Apr 2023

Does the skin microbiome contribute to protection from prolonged solar damage?

Researchers examined how the skin microbiome contributes to protection from solar damage.

19 Apr 2023

3D structure of a probable precursor to the CRISPR-Cas12 enzyme revealed

Gene editing is one of the latest breakthroughs in biology. The widely known CRISPR-Cas gene editing system provided prokaryotes (organisms that lack cell nuclei) an immunity against foreign DNA. Since the discovery of the CRISPR gene editing technology, scientists are revealing the evolution of the CRISPR-Cas proteins from their precursors.

7 Apr 2023

Is mRNA decoding in humans structurally and kinetically distinct from bacteria?

Researchers examined molecular-level differences in ribosomal translational fidelity between humans and bacteria.

7 Apr 2023

Plastic waste's 'plastisphere' could harbor and spread eukaryotic pathogens

A recent study reviews the potential for helminth, fungal, and protozoan pathogens to associate with plastisphere.

3 Apr 2023

What is the role of cyclophilin-A in alleviating SARS-CoV-2 infections?

A new study aimed to analyze the molecular interactions between the hCypA protein and the SARS-CoV-2 variants to determine the impact of variants on the blocking and binding potential of the hCypA–S protein complex with the ACE2 receptor.

2 Nov 2022

On-site ultrasensitive monkeypox viral testing using CRISPR/Cas12a

In a new study posted to the medRxiv* preprint server, researchers in China developed an MPXV assay combining clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats and CRISPR-associated protein (CRISPR/Cas) and recombinase-aided amplification (RAA) for the first time.

18 Oct 2022

Biosynthetic proteins show promise as SARS-CoV-2 antivirals targeting spike protein

Researchers developed an αRep series specific to the RBD of the SARS-CoV-2 S, which could easily adapt to work stably against SARS-CoV-2 variants at a low cost.

8 Sep 2022

Researchers challenge a popular scenario put forward to explain the arrival of the first eukaryotic organisms

In the beginning, there was boredom. Following the emergence of cellular life on earth, some 3.5 billion years ago, simple cells lacking a nucleus and other detailed internal structure dominated the planet. Matters would remain largely unchanged in terms of evolutionary development in these so-called prokaryotic cells-;the bacteria and archaea-;for another billion and a half years.

8 Aug 2022

Researchers delve deeper into the structure of protein receptor crucial for cardiovascular health

5 Aug 2022

Using CRISPR to Lift the Lid on Probiotics

In this interview, we speak to Echo Pan, a Ph.D. student from North Carolina State University about her latest research that used CRISPR to uncover more on probiotics.

26 Jul 2022

Identifying a core human microbiome

Researchers provide a critical review of the concept of the core human microbiome.

19 Jul 2022

Study opens a door to better understanding the role of viruses in ecology

The first discovery of viruses infecting a group of microbes that may include the ancestors of all complex life has been found, researchers at The University of Texas at Austin report in Nature Microbiology.

27 Jun 2022

Marine bioactive compounds against SARS-CoV-2

A new review paper published in the journal Environmental Science and Pollution Research aimed to determine the possibilities of using biologically active compounds derived from various chemical classes of marine organisms against SARS-CoV-2 infection at various stages of the life cycle of the virus.

6 May 2022

CRISPR-based detection of SARS-CoV-2 RNA directly from patient swabs

Researchers developed a clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats-based diagnostic technique for detecting SARS-CoV-2 RNA.

21 Apr 2022

Prion-like domains in SARS-CoV-2 RBD and ACE2 play important functional roles in viral adhesion and entry

Scientists have recently detected and analyzed viral PrDs in the S protein of SARS-CoV-2, which are the novel regulators of virion assembly.

31 Jan 2022