Recent Clips

Single gene mutation may boost recombination and help produce better crops

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
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As climate change and population growth threaten to destabilize global food security, plant breeders are ramping up efforts to create better, more productive crops. But in order to introduce new traits, breeding techniques typically rely on rare genetic recombination events during meiosis. Now, inactivating a single gene called RECQ4 may triple the number of recombination events during meiosis in certain crop species.

Potential cancer immunotherapy drug shows promise against HIV

NIH Center for Cancer Research

An immunotherapy being tested in a clinical trial as a treatment for metastatic cancer has shown potential in an animal study to reduce recalcitrant pools of SHIV, a laboratory-designed virus used to study human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). The drug, heterodimeric IL-15 (hetIL-15), stimulates the production and activation of white blood cells, boosting their ability to locate and kill cancer cells and cells infected by viruses.

Microbial Mind Control

Society for Neuroscience

Not long ago, scientists discovered that a microscopic parasite can hijack a rat’s brain and cause it to become attracted to one of its predators — the cat. It may not sound surprising that a brain parasite can exert a type of microbial mind control. But what about the microbes living in our gastrointestinal tracts? The GI tract maintains constant communication with the brain, so could the microbes it contains also influence the way our brains work?