Before the parasite Toxoplasma gondii can invade a cell, it has to know it has reached the right place. New research from the Whitehead Institute reveals that the parasite doesn't simply recognize a ready-made doorway into the cell. Instead, it helps create the conditions for its own entry.

Researchers have figured out a missing piece of the puzzle of how human cells detect invading viruses and mount an immune response within an hour.

Slaughterhouses are places most people never want to go, and might seem like unlikely places to search for rare or endangered species. In West Africa, however, they are among the last places one can find a critically endangered species, the Hooded Vulture, which historically thrived as a human commensal species, living in close proximity to people and contributing to waste disposal.

Removing a single amino acid can determine whether new proteins assemble into stable complexes within mitochondria. An enzyme carries out this precise trimming at the start of mitochondrial proteins. Without it, numerous protein complexes lose their stability, according to a study led by Dr. Nora Vögtle of Heidelberg University and Dr. Pitter Huesgen of the University of Freiburg. In their work published in Nature Structural & Molecular Biology, the scientists identified a previously unknown mechanism by which human cells maintain the balance of proteins in their mitochondria.

After taking a pill, the drugs it contains are distributed throughout the body, reaching the tissues and cells affected by disease and performing their intended function. However, they also enter healthy cells, where they often cause more harm than good.

Modern technologies have made it possible to uncover a growing "hidden proteome"—proteins encoded by parts of the genome that researchers previously overlooked. Advances in sequencing and protein analysis are making it possible to find more of these potential proteins and investigate what they do. Researchers at the University of Gothenburg have now identified one such protein.

When plant roots are injured—by insects, for example—the pressure inside the root drops, and a pressure wave spreads rapidly throughout the root system. In neighboring roots, tiny proteins that act as mechanical pressure sensors detect the change and generate electrical and calcium signals.

Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore) scientists have developed a way to "supercharge" a plant's natural immune response.

Medical researchers, clinicians and pharmaceutical scientists often study small molecules called metabolites, which are produced in living cells through a variety of processes, including the breakdown of food, chemicals or drugs. This area of study is known as metabolomics, and it can be used to identify new signs of disease, measure the effectiveness of medical treatment or study how diet and nutrition affect the body.

Every year, birds migrate north and gather in a single location in the Arctic, and a team of University of Kentucky researchers is collaborating with Alaska Native communities to study how diseases spread and evolve at this gathering before they reach human populations.

Wild African elephants living in the Mount Elgon region of Kenya appear to seek out specific plants when unwell. Local experts also reported mothers administering plant-based "medicine" to their offspring.

Scientists have often thought of cells as small, bustling cities with parts that resemble factories, power grids and shipping systems. While past research has illuminated the individual components of these cell cities, scientists haven't had the tools to probe more deeply into how those elements interact.

For many years, antibiotics have been added to animal feed to help control harmful bacteria and improve growth. But amid concerns about antibiotic resistance—when bacteria adapt to survive treatments that would normally kill them—poultry producers are trying alternatives, including probiotics, which contain helpful bacteria, and essential oils, which come from plants and may have antimicrobial properties. Researchers at Penn State have now found that feeding broiler chickens an antibiotic, a probiotic or essential oils did not significantly affect the overall diversity of antimicrobial resistance genes. Instead, the chickens' age had a much stronger effect on the resistome—the collection of antimicrobial resistance genes—as the birds grew.

Scientists discovered two strange new sea spider species in the Salish Sea, including a hairy-legged, red-eyed species that can groom itself with comb-like appendages. Another is frequently covered in tiny parasites, and researchers say many more undiscovered sea spiders may still be hiding in the region.

Our pupils become smaller under brighter conditions and larger under darker conditions. In addition to responding to changes in light, pupil size is influenced by attention, emotion and how visual objects are perceived.

Scientists at Cornell University have found a human genetic element in a poxvirus and discovered that it is both an important gene for brain function and a jumping gene capable of moving and inserting itself into genomes. A study published in Science reports that the gene, called BC200, combines characteristics never before seen together.

"How does the type of music affect plant growth?"—Thomas, 14, Auckland, New Zealand

Tropical forests may look like a uniform sea of green from above, but new research shows that carefully measured differences in forest structure and function can help explain how birds use existing habitats, how they respond to threats and which communities may be most at risk as forests change.

A new tool to mutate bacteriophages—viruses that infect bacteria—provides a "big leap" forward in our understanding of how they function and our ability to harness their full potential.

A bacterial infection is suspected of killing hundreds of baby whales in the southern Argentine region of Patagonia, a marine mammal expert told AFP on Thursday.

The flora of the Alps is changing: Species are moving to higher elevations, new plants are appearing and others are disappearing.

In the world of carnivorous plants, Venus flytraps—with their showy, snapping reflexes—have long hogged the limelight. But plants have many creative bug-capture strategies, from slippery waxes to vibrating lids to bizarrely textured fluids.

During the heat wave of 2018, meadows and pastures also suffered from drought. Are grasslands in diverse landscapes more resilient to yield losses than those in monotonous regions? Researchers at the University of Bonn, led by Marco Ferro and Dr. Jan Börner from the Institute for Food and Resource Economics (ILR), investigated the influence of landscape diversity on the drought tolerance of grasslands as part of Collaborative Research Center 1502 DETECT. The work is published in the American Journal of Agricultural Economics.

Forests provide timber as well as many other ecosystem services. An important question is how measures to conserve biodiversity affect the profitability of forest operations focused on wood production. Researchers from Wageningen University & Research and the University of Freiburg reviewed studies worldwide that compared forest management with biodiversity conservation measures against business-as-usual management without those measures. The work is published in the journal Current Forestry Reports.

Curtin University scientists have uncovered an important missing piece in the puzzle of how some coral reefs can recover from climate events, providing information that could help guide future conservation and restoration efforts.