Swapping a single amino acid in a simple bacterial protein changes its structure and function, revealing the effects of complex gene evolution, finds a new study. The study -- conducted using E. coli ...

Jackson Ryan was CNET's science editor, and a multiple award-winning one at that. Earlier, he'd been a scientist, but he realized he wasn't very happy sitting at a lab bench all day. Science writing, ...

Textbook images show peptidoglycan as straight and ordered. The biopolymer peptidoglycan that makes up bacterial cell walls was always assumed to be highly ordered. Textbook images like the one below ...

Bacteria are traditionally imagined as single-cell organisms, spread out sparsely over surfaces or suspended in liquids, but in many environments the true bacterial mode of growth is in sticky ...

ITHACA, N.Y. - Cornell researchers have uncovered the structure of a regulatory mechanism unique to bacteria, opening the door for designing new antibiotics targeted to pathogens. As the threat of ...

Evo’s success wasn’t limited to proteins. When they tested a different toxin that had an RNA-based inhibitor, the system ...

Background and aims Aluminum is a major deleterious factor for soybean productivity in acidic soils. Soil enzyme activities and bacteria play important roles in improving the stress tolerance of ...

Pili are short, hair-like structures on the cell surface of prokaryotic cells. They can have a role in movement, but are more often involved in adherence to surfaces, which facilitates infection, and ...

Nature often inspires engineering. Cicada wings, for example, have long tantalized researchers with their water-repellent and antimicrobial properties, which would be useful to replicate in ...