Biotechnology

Researchers demonstrated how amino acids could spontaneously attach to RNA under early Earth-like conditions using thioesters, providing a long-sought clue to the origins of protein synthesis. This finding bridges the “RNA world” and “thioester world” theories and suggests how life’s earliest peptides may have formed.

Scientists have discovered that a gene called MUC19, inherited from Denisovans through ancient interbreeding, may have played a vital role in helping Indigenous ancestors adapt as they migrated into the Americas. Found at unusually high frequencies in both modern and ancient populations, the gene likely provided immune advantages against new pathogens. This research highlights how archaic DNA, passed through both Denisovans and Neanderthals, enriched human genetic diversity in ways that still shape us today.

Scientists have developed a breakthrough food supplement that could help save honeybees from devastating declines. By engineering yeast to produce six essential sterols found in pollen, researchers provided bees with a nutritionally complete diet that boosted reproduction up to 15-fold. Unlike commercial substitutes that lack key nutrients, this supplement mimics natural pollen’s sterol profile, giving bees the equivalent of a balanced diet.

Two independent research teams have unveiled near-complete reference genomes of the central bearded dragon, a reptile with the rare ability to change sex depending on both chromosomes and nest temperature. Using next-generation sequencing technologies from China and Australia, the projects uncovered the long-sought genetic basis of sex determination in this lizard.

MSU researchers discovered that microbes begin shaping the brain while still in the womb, influencing neurons in a region critical for stress and social behavior. Their findings suggest modern birth practices that alter the microbiome may have hidden impacts on brain development.

Roughly two-thirds of all atmospheric methane, a potent greenhouse gas, comes from methanogens. Tracking down which methanogens in which environment produce methane with a specific isotope signature is difficult, however. UC Berkeley researchers have for the first time CRISPRed the key enzyme involved in microbial methane production to understand the unique isotopic fingerprints of different environments to better understand Earth's methane budget.

Scientists have engineered a groundbreaking cancer treatment that uses bacteria to smuggle viruses directly into tumors, bypassing the immune system and delivering a powerful one-two punch against cancer cells. The bacteria act like Trojan horses, carrying viral payloads to cancer’s core, where the virus can spread and destroy malignant cells. Built-in safety features ensure the virus can’t multiply outside the tumor, offering a promising pathway for safe, targeted therapy.

By flipping a single genetic switch, researchers made one fruit fly species adopt the gift-giving courtship of another, showing how tiny brain rewiring can drive evolutionary change.

Once on the brink during the last ice age, great white sharks made a remarkable recovery globally, but their DNA reveals a baffling story. Classic migration explanations fail, leaving scientists with a mystery that defies reproductive and evolutionary logic.

Researchers at Scripps have created T7-ORACLE, a powerful new tool that speeds up evolution, allowing scientists to design and improve proteins thousands of times faster than nature. Using engineered bacteria and a modified viral replication system, this method can create new protein versions in days instead of months. In tests, it quickly produced enzymes that could survive extreme doses of antibiotics, showing how it could help develop better medicines, cancer treatments, and other breakthroughs far more quickly than ever before.

Scientists discovered that jewel wasp larvae that undergo a developmental "pause" live longer and age more slowly at the molecular level by nearly 30%. This slowdown is tied to conserved biological pathways, hinting at possible applications for human aging.

Apple snails can fully regrow their eyes, and their genes and eye structures are strikingly similar to humans. Scientists mapped the regeneration process and used CRISPR to identify genes, including pax6, as essential to eye development, raising hopes for future human vision restoration.

A group of Chinese scientists has created powerful new tools that allow them to edit large chunks of DNA with incredible accuracy—and without leaving any trace. Using a mix of advanced protein design, AI, and clever genetic tweaks, they’ve overcome major limitations in older gene editing methods. These tools can flip, remove, or insert massive pieces of genetic code in both plants and animals. To prove it works, they engineered rice that’s resistant to herbicides by flipping a huge section of its DNA—something that was nearly impossible before.

Scientists at UC Merced have engineered artificial cells that can keep perfect time—mimicking the 24-hour biological clocks found in living organisms. By reconstructing circadian machinery inside tiny vesicles, the researchers showed that even simplified synthetic systems can glow with a daily rhythm—if they have enough of the right proteins.

Millipedes, often dismissed as creepy crawlies, may hold the secret to future painkillers and neurological drugs. Researchers at Virginia Tech discovered unique alkaloid compounds in the defensive secretions of a native millipede species. These complex molecules, which cause disorientation in ants, interact with human neuroreceptors linked to pain and cognition. By decoding these natural chemical defenses, scientists could open a new path toward innovative drug therapies, though challenges remain in producing the compounds at scale.

What made ribose the sugar of choice for life's code? Scientists at Scripps Research may have cracked a major part of this mystery. Their experiments show that ribose binds more readily and selectively to phosphate compared to other similar sugars, forming a structure ideal for RNA formation. This discovery hints at how nature might have selected specific molecules long before enzymes or life existed, and could reshape our understanding of life’s chemical origins.

Gene editing may hold the key to rescuing endangered species—not just by preserving them, but by restoring their lost genetic diversity using DNA from museum specimens and related species. Scientists propose a visionary framework that merges biotechnology with traditional conservation, aiming to give struggling populations like Mauritius’ pink pigeon a fighting chance against extinction. From agriculture to de-extinction, these tools are already transforming biology—and now, they could transform the future of biodiversity itself.

What scientists once dismissed as junk DNA may actually be some of the most powerful code in our genome. A new international study reveals that ancient viral DNA buried in our genes plays an active role in controlling how other genes are turned on or off, especially during early human development. These sequences, originally from long-extinct viruses, have evolved to act like tiny genetic switches. Using new analysis tools and large-scale experiments, researchers discovered that certain viral DNA fragments are especially strong at activating genes and may even have helped shape what makes humans different from other primates.

Tourists feeding wild elephants may seem innocent or even compassionate, but a new 18-year study reveals it s a recipe for disaster. Elephants in Sri Lanka and India have learned to beg for snacks sugary treats and human food leading to deadly encounters, injuries, and even the ingestion of plastic. Once wild animals become accustomed to handouts, they lose their natural instincts, grow bolder, and risk both their lives and the safety of humans.

Scientists have discovered that a protein once thought to be just a cellular "courier" actually helps plants survive drought. This motor protein, myosin XI, plays a critical role in helping leaves close their pores to conserve water. When it's missing, plants lose water faster, respond poorly to drought, and activate fewer protective systems. The finding could open the door to hardier crops that can withstand a warming, drying world.

Scientists have uncovered a surprisingly simple “tissue code”: five rules that choreograph when, where, and how cells divide, move, and die, allowing organs like the colon to remain flawlessly organized even as they renew every few days. Mathematical models showed that manipulating just these parameters faithfully recreates real tissue architecture, hinting that the same code may govern skin, brain, and more. The discovery offers a fresh way to understand healing, birth defects, and cancer, and could supercharge initiatives such as the Human Cell Atlas by turning static cell maps into dynamic predictions.

In a bold step toward sustainable space travel, scientists are engineering a radically small, protein-rich rice that can grow in space. The Moon-Rice project, led by the Italian Space Agency in collaboration with three universities, aims to create crops that thrive in microgravity while boosting astronaut nutrition and well-being.

Scientists at MIT have turbocharged one of nature’s most sluggish but essential enzymes—rubisco—by applying a cutting-edge evolution technique in living cells. Normally prone to wasteful reactions with oxygen, this revamped bacterial rubisco evolved to work more efficiently in oxygen-rich environments. This leap in enzyme performance could pave the way for improving photosynthesis in plants and, ultimately, increase crop yields.

Scientists have decoded the sea spider’s genome for the first time, revealing how its strangely shaped body—with organs in its legs and barely any abdomen—may be tied to a missing gene. The detailed DNA map shows this ancient creature evolved differently from its spider and scorpion cousins, lacking genome duplications seen in those species. With new gene activity data, researchers now have a powerful tool to explore how sea spiders grow, regenerate, and evolved into some of the oddest arthropods on Earth.

Kenyan fig trees can literally turn parts of themselves to stone, using microbes to convert internal crystals into limestone-like deposits that lock away carbon, sweeten surrounding soils, and still yield fruit—hinting at a delicious new weapon in the climate-change arsenal.

Scientists have discovered that starving and then refeeding worms can reveal surprising secrets about aging. When a specific gene (called TFEB) is missing, these worms don’t bounce back from fasting—they instead enter a state that looks a lot like aging in humans, with signs of stress and cell damage. This research gives scientists a simple but powerful way to study how aging begins—and how it might be stopped. Even more intriguing, the same process might help explain how some cancer cells survive treatment by going into a kind of sleep mode.

Scientists have discovered that the bacteria behind Lyme disease and anaplasmosis have a sneaky way of surviving inside ticks—they hijack the tick’s own cell functions to steal cholesterol they need to grow. By tapping into a built-in protein pathway, the bacteria keep themselves alive until they can infect a new host. The research opens the door to new methods of stopping these diseases before ticks ever get the chance to bite. A new web tool also reveals that this trick might be used by other blood-feeding bugs too.

Leafcutter ants live in highly organized colonies where every ant has a job, and now researchers can flip those jobs like a switch. By manipulating just two neuropeptides, scientists can turn defenders into nurses or gardeners into leaf harvesters. These same molecular signals echo in naked mole-rats, revealing a deep evolutionary link in how complex societies function, even across species. The study also teases out a possible connection to insulin and longevity, hinting at new frontiers in understanding human behavior and lifespan.

Lichen from the Mojave Desert has stunned scientists by surviving months of lethal UVC radiation, suggesting life could exist on distant planets orbiting volatile stars. The secret? A microscopic “sunscreen” layer that protects their vital cells—even though Earth’s atmosphere already filters out such rays.

Two Ice Age wolf pups once thought to be early dogs have been identified as wild wolves, thanks to detailed DNA and chemical analysis. Surprisingly, their last meals included woolly rhinoceros meat—an unusually large prey item—hinting that ancient wolves might have been bigger than today’s. Their well-preserved bodies also shed light on wolf pack behavior and Ice Age environments.

In a remarkable twist of science, researchers have transformed a fungus long associated with death into a potential weapon against cancer. Found in tombs like that of King Tut, Aspergillus flavus was once feared for its deadly spores. Now, scientists at Penn and several partner institutions have extracted a new class of molecules from it—called asperigimycins—that show powerful effects against leukemia cells. These compounds, part of a rare group known as fungal RiPPs, were bioengineered for potency and appear to disrupt cancer cell division with high specificity.

Even after 20 million years of evolutionary separation, two tiny worm species show astonishingly similar patterns in how they turn genes on and off. Scientists mapped every cell s activity during development and found that genes essential to basic functions like muscles and digestion remained largely unchanged. Meanwhile, genes linked to sensing the environment or brain-like functions showed more variation. This high-resolution comparison of every cell between species may help unlock mysteries of how life evolves and adapts without always changing how it looks.

Researchers investigating the enigmatic and antibiotic-resistant Pandoraea bacteria have uncovered a surprising twist: these pathogens don't just pose risks they also produce powerful natural compounds. By studying a newly discovered gene cluster called pan, scientists identified two novel molecules Pandorabactin A and B that allow the bacteria to steal iron from their environment, giving them a survival edge in iron-poor places like the human body. These molecules also sabotage rival bacteria by starving them of iron, potentially reshaping microbial communities in diseases like cystic fibrosis.

Scientists have uncovered that fish biofluorescence a captivating ability to glow in vivid colors has ancient roots stretching back over 100 million years. This trait evolved independently in reef fish more than 100 times, likely influenced by post-dinosaur-extinction reef expansion. The glowing spectacle is more diverse than previously imagined, spanning multiple colors across hundreds of species.

Sea cucumbers, long known for cleaning the ocean floor, may also harbor a powerful cancer-fighting secret. Scientists discovered a unique sugar in these marine creatures that can block Sulf-2, an enzyme that cancer cells use to spread. Unlike traditional medications, this compound doesn t cause dangerous blood clotting issues and offers a cleaner, potentially more sustainable way to develop carbohydrate-based drugs if scientists can find a way to synthesize it in the lab.

The biosynthesis of the great variety of natural plant products has not yet been elucidated for many medically interesting substances. In a new study, an international team of researchers was able to show how ipecacuanha alkaloids, substances used in traditional medicine, are synthesized. They compared two distantly related plant species and were able to show that although both plant species use a comparable chemical approach, the enzymes they need for synthesis differ and a different starting material is used. Further investigations revealed that the biosynthetic pathways of these complex chemical compounds have developed independently in the two species. These results help to enable the synthesis of these and related substances on a larger scale for medical use.

Some microbes living on sand grains use up all the oxygen around them. Their neighbors, left without oxygen, make the best of it: They use nitrate in the surrounding water for denitrification -- a process hardly possible when oxygen is present. This denitrification in sandy sediments in well-oxygenated waters can substantially contribute to nitrogen loss in the oceans.

Researchers have synthesized a new compound called infuzide that shows activity against resistant strains of pathogens.

Scientists in Australia have developed a smart, bacteria-repelling coating based on resilin the ultra-elastic protein that gives fleas their legendary jumping power. When applied to surfaces like medical implants or surgical tools, the engineered resilin forms nano-droplets that physically disrupt bacterial cells, including antibiotic-resistant strains like MRSA, without harming human tissue. In lab tests, the coating was 100% effective at keeping bacteria from sticking and forming biofilms, a key cause of infection after surgery.

Laboratory could improve crop resilience In a discovery three decades in the making, scientists have acquired detailed knowledge about the internal structures and mode of regulation for a specialized protein and are proceeding to develop tools that can capitalize on its ability to help plants combat a wide range of diseases. The work, which exploits a natural process where plant cells die on purpose to help the host plant stay healthy, is expected to have wide applications in the agricultural sector, offering new ways to protect major food crops from a variety of devastating diseases, the scientists said.

To achieve the European Green Deal's goal of 25% organic agriculture by 2030, researchers argue that new genomic techniques (NGTs) should be allowed without pre-market authorization in organic as well as conventional food production. NGTs -- also known as gene editing --- are classified under the umbrella of GMOs, but they involve more subtle genetic tweaks.

The process of necrosis, a form of cell death, may represent one of the most promising ways to change the course of human aging, disease and even space travel, according to a new study.

A professor of crop sciences and of plant biology describes research efforts to 'future-proof' the crops that are essential to feeding a hungry world in a changing climate. Long, who has spent decades studying the process of photosynthesis and finding ways to improve it, provides an overview of key scientific findings that offer a ray of hope.

Researchers have identified a monoacylglycerol acyltransferase-coding gene named bishu-1. It is involved in the thermal responsiveness of cool temperature-sensing neurons by regulating ionotropic receptor expression, thereby maintaining the cool temperature avoidance behaviors in Drosophila larvae.

New HIV research shows that small changes in the virus affect how quickly or slowly it replicates and how easily it can reawaken in the body. These insights bring researchers closer to finding ways to flush out the dormant virus and eliminate it for good.

Scientists analyzed almost 200 cannabis genomes to create the most comprehensive, high-quality, detailed genetic atlas of the plant to date. The atlas reveals unprecedented diversity and complexity within the species, sets the stage for advances in cannabis-based agriculture, medicine, and industry, and builds on a 10,000-year long relationship between humans and cannabis, showing that cannabis can be as important as other crops like corn or wheat.

The protein DNase1 is one of the oldest biological agents in history: It has been on the market since 1958 and is now used, among other things, to treat cystic fibrosis. However, it takes considerable effort to produce it in immortalized hamster cells. This process is also costly. It would be far more cost-effective to produce it with undemanding yeast cells.

Scientists have developed a unified theory for mathematical parameters known as gauge freedoms. Their new formulas will allow researchers to interpret research results much faster and with greater confidence. The development could prove fundamental for future efforts in agriculture, drug discovery, and beyond.

Chemists have demonstrated how RNA (ribonucleic acid) might have replicated itself on early Earth -- a key process in the origin of life.

Researchers find high-fat diets set off metabolic dysfunction in cells, leading to weight gain, but these effects can be reversed by treatment with an antioxidant.

A team identified herpes virus saimiri, which infects the T cells of squirrel monkeys, as a source of proteins that activate pathways in T cells that are needed to promote T cell survival.

Scientists have discovered cells in the skin of Atlantic salmon that offer new insights into how wounds heal, tissues regenerate, and cellular transitions support long-term skin health.

Flowers grow stems, leaves and petals in a perfect pattern again and again. A new study shows that even in this precise, patterned formation in plants, gene activity inside individual cells is far more chaotic than it appears.

A gene that regulates the development of roots in vascular plants is also involved in the organ development of liverworts -- land plants so old they don't even have proper roots. The discovery highlights the fundamental evolutionary dynamic of co-opting, evolving a mechanism first and adopting it for a different purpose later.

In biology, enzymes have evolved over millions of years to drive chemical reactions. Scientists have now derived universal rules to enable the de novo design of optimal enzymes. As an example, they considered the enzymatic reaction of breaking a dimer into two monomer molecules. Considering the geometry of such an enzyme-substrate-complex, they identified three golden rules that should be considered to build a functional enzyme.

The molecular pathways involved in antiviral defenses and counter-defenses in host-pathogen systems remain unclear. Researchers have used Neurospora crassa as a model organism to explore how RNA editing influences fungal antiviral responses. They identified two neighboring genes -- an RNA-editing enzyme (old) and a transcription factor (zao) -- that regulate virus-induced gene expression. Their findings show how the old-zao module controls both asymptomatic and symptomatic infections, providing new insight into conserved antiviral mechanisms in fungi.

Proteins catalyze life by changing shape when they interact with other molecules. The result is a muscle twitching, the perception of light, or a bit of energy extracted from food. The ability to engineer shapeshifting proteins opens new avenues for medicine, agriculture, and beyond.

A new study proves that a type of genetic element called 'introners' are the mechanism by which many introns spread within and between species, also providing evidence of eight instances in which introners have transferred between unrelated species in a process called 'horizontal gene transfer,' the first proven examples of this phenomenon.

The bacteria that cause tuberculosis (TB) may have an 'on-off switch' that lets them pause and restart growth, according to a new study. The research helps explain why TB is so hard to treat with antibiotics and could pave the way for better drugs.

If you've ever regretted ordering a spicy meal, take note: A new study identifying molecules that suppress the heat of chili peppers hints at the possibility of adapting these compounds into an 'anti-spice' condiment for food that's too fiery to eat. The research helps explain differences in chili pepper pungency, or spiciness, by identifying three compounds in a range of pepper samples that chemical analysis predicted, and study participants on a tasting panel confirmed, are linked to lower heat intensity.