Researchers have found that coronaviruses like SARS-CoV-2 contain genes that appear important for viral survival even though they don’t produce a working protein. Their work investigating how these mystery genes evolve could help forecast which variants might be more dangerous.

Researchers explain how individual cells are capable of rudimentary forms of learning previously thought exclusive to organisms with brains. By using mathematical simulations, they demonstrate that cells can adjust their responses to repeated stimuli through simple molecular circuits which could be a type of cellular ‘memory’, effectively helping cells "remember" and "learn" from experience. The findings could represent an important shift in how we view the fundamental units of life. If single cells can “remember," it could also help explain how cancer cells develop resistance to chemotherapy or how bacteria become resistant to antibiotics.

Cell-to-cell communication through nanosized particles, working as messengers and carriers, can now be analyzed in a whole new way, thanks to a new method involving CRISPR gene-editing technology. The particles, known as small extracellular vesicles (sEVs), play an important role in the spread of disease and as potential drug carriers. The newly developed system, named CIBER, enables thousands of genes to be studied at once, by labeling sEVs with a kind of RNA “barcode.” With this, researchers hope to find what factors are involved in sEV release from host cells. This will help advance our understanding of basic sEV biology and may aid in the development of new treatments for diseases, such as cancer.