News by Subject Biology

A team at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) has completed the first study of the effects of a simultaneous infection with blood flukes (schistosomes) and the bacterium Helicobacter pylori -- a fairly common occurrence in some parts of the world. They identified a complex interaction which resulted -- among other effects -- in a weakening of the adverse impact of the pathogens acting individually.

The frigid waters of the Antarctic may yield a treatment for a deadly disease that affects populations in some of the hottest places on earth. Current medications for that scourge -- malaria -- are becoming less effective as drug resistance spreads. But researchers report in ACS' Journal of Natural Products that a peptide they isolated from an Antarctic sponge shows promise as a lead for new therapies.

This research revealed that mycoparasites can live up to 21-days on mildew-free host plant surfaces, where they can attack powdery mildew structures as soon as they appear. Also of note, this research showed that these mycoparasites cannot spread in sterile soil or in decomposing leaves on the ground, showing that concerns about the potentially negative environmental impact of the BCAs are largely unsubstantiated.

Researchers at the Universities of Abuja and Nigeria, in collaboration with the University of Bristol, have detected a potentially human-infective microbe in pet dogs in Nigeria.

"We were able to achieve the monosex population without the use of hormones or genetic modifications and thus address two major agricultural considerations: monosex populations and ecological concerns," says Levy. "Prawns serve as efficient biocontrol agents against parasite-carrying snails. And since we can now use monosex prawns, which do not reproduce, it reduces the hazard of prawns becoming an invasive species."

The protozoan disease visceral leishmaniasis (VL) has recently expanded to places where it had not previously been reported and has expanded its geographic distribution within countries where it was already endemic. Now, researchers writing in PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases describe three dispersion routes that have moved Leishmania infantum into and through central-Southern Brazil, helping shed light on the overall mechanisms of VL dispersal.

The oldest parasite DNA ever recorded has been found in the ancient, desiccated feces of a puma.