When cold and flu season comes around, we take steps like getting our flu shots and taking immune supplements to strengthen our bodies’ defenses against pathogens. Plants face pathogenic threats, too. Plant pathogens can have devastating impacts on crop yield, with up to 40% of global food crops lost annually, and such loss has severe implications for food security. But what if we could boost plant immune systems like we do our own, and make them better able to withstand or fend off biological threats? Recently published in Nature Communications Biology, new research from scientists at the Boyce Thompson Institute (BTI) explored this very concept and found that a previously unrecognized natural compound can provide lasting protection against a broad range of plant pathogens.

Salk scientists developed genetic tools that reveal how individual neurons control distinct, opposing behaviors in fruit flies. The study identifies a specific group of neurons that help suppress aggression in both male and female fruit flies. These findings provide a roadmap for understanding equivalent human neurological signaling, and help reveal how disruptions in signaling may contribute to brain dysfunction.

A new manufacturing method could help move the production of nanoscale sensors from specialized fabrication facilities to conventional semiconductor manufacturing plants.

Why do some tissues regenerate efficiently after injury while others develop chronic inflammation, scar formation, or even fibrosis? A newly published review proposes that immunometabolism is not a universal "pro-inflammatory or anti-inflammatory" program but a dynamic adaptation process shaped by organ structure, regenerative capacity, injury stage, and local microenvironment. The article systematically compares six tissues—intestine, skin, liver, lung, heart, and skeletal muscle—and introduces the concept of niche-dependent immunometabolic regulation.

Acting as an armor, a scaffold, and a communication platform, the plasma membrane lies at the heart of many crucial cellular processes. Now, researchers at OIST and collaborating institutions have revealed a crucial yet often overlooked membrane component: complex sugar chains, known as glycans. They found that glycans carried by gangliosides form weak, short-lived pairs through repeated "fleeting encounters," helping build membrane nanodomains and regulate epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) signaling, which in turn modulates cell division. 

When proteins and lipids interact at the cell surface, they kick off essential cellular signaling pathways that play a role in physiological processes throughout the body. When these interactions and signaling pathways are disrupted, it can create conditions where cells can grow out of control and turn into tumors or other diseases. Therefore, understanding how these molecules interact at the cell surface may help inform the development of more targeted therapies in the future. Beyond proteins and lipids, polymers made of sugars called glycans that form a layer on the cell surface also seem to play a similarly important role that has yet to be completely understood.

Researchers from Sun Yat-sen University and Southern Marine Science and Engineering Guangdong Laboratory (Zhuhai) recently observed a species of armored searobin, Scalicus engyceros, walking sideways and backward on the sea floor in the South China Sea. This is the first time a species of fish has been observed walking backward.