Millions of people worldwide carry viral infections they acquired at birth, often for life. For a long time it was assumed that the immune system hardly fights these pathogens. Researchers show that the body’s defenses do indeed act against the virus.
In order to defend themselves, plants have to quickly produce proteins that detect and combat infiltrating microbes. Researchers discovered that Pseudomonas syringae disrupts this process by triggering the formation of P-bodies – small, droplet-like structures in the cell that store and regulate RNA molecules.
Researchers who previously identified a highly unusual RNA virus in a high-temperature hot spring ecosystem searched for distinct types of self-replicating RNAs in a similar extreme environment, and a novel circular RNA replicon was identified within the microbial community inhabiting the hot spring.
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After nearly four decades, the world’s longest-running soil warming experiment is revealing a surprising result: even ‘stable’ carbon in forest soils can break down as temperatures rise, releasing more CO₂ into the atmosphere.
Lifestyle factors, such as physical activity and dietary modifications can beneficially modulate the gut microbiome of cancer patients - however their effects are often shaped by non-modifiable variables.
Lakes on the Tibetan Plateau are undergoing a dramatic transformation; once stable carbon sinks, they are rapidly becoming significant sources of greenhouse gases due to climate warming.
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