Body

Cells making slippery mucus provide a sticking point for disease-causing bacteria in the gut, according to a study published on October 3 in the Journal of Experimental Medicine (www.jem.org).

A foodborne bacterium called Listeria monocytogenes (sometimes found in stinky cheeses) invades the body by binding to a protein called E-cadherin. However, as E-cadherin is normally buried within the junctions between gut cells, and is thus hidden from the cell surface, it's not clear how the bug gains traction.

When a motor nerve is severely damaged, people rarely recover full muscle strength and function. Neuroscientists from Children's Hospital Boston, combining patient data with observations in a mouse model, now show why. It's not that motor nerve fibers don't regrow -- they can -- but they don't grow fast enough. By the time they get to the muscle fibers, they can no longer communicate with them.

The ability to obtain an accurate three-dimensional image of an intact cell is critical for unraveling the mysteries of cellular structure and function. However, for many years, tiny structures buried deep inside cells have been practically invisible to scientists due to a lack of microscopic techniques that achieve adequate resolution at the cell surface and through the entire depth of the cell.

They have been around since the dawn of time and are a model of evolutionary success: viruses. Viruses are extremely adaptable but they have a problem: They cannot reproduce, so they smuggle their genes into suitable host cells. In the case of some viruses, the viral DNA has to enter the cell nucleus to reproduce. This has been known for almost 50 years. We know, for instance, that the adenovirus disassembles its protein shell in the first step. Just how the DNA is exposed and infiltrates the host cell, however, remained unclear despite decades of research.

Neighborhood poverty is likely to make a mother more fearful about letting her children play outdoors, according to a new study by sociologists at Rice University and Stanford University.

"It's no secret that children play outdoors less now than in recent decades, and research shows maternal fear as one reason why," said Rachel Tolbert Kimbro, Rice assistant professor of sociology. She co-authored a paper in the October issue of the journal Family Relations with Ariela Schachter, a Ph.D. student in sociology at Stanford.

Awareness of male breast cancer is low and most men do not even know they are at risk despite an increase in cases, reveals new research from the University of Leeds.

Breast cancer is very much seen as a female disease with around 48,000 diagnoses in women in the UK each year. However around 340 men, equivalent to 30 football teams will be diagnosed with breast cancer each year and around 70 men will die.

OTTAWA, Oct. 3, 2011 – Not only are smokers twice as likely to have strokes, they are almost a decade younger than non-smokers when they have them, according to a study presented today at the Canadian Stroke Congress.

Between January 2009 and March 2011, researchers studied 982 stroke patients (264 smokers and 718 non-smokers) at an Ottawa prevention clinic. They found the average age of stroke patients who smoked was 58, compared to age 67 for non-smokers.

The invasion of a new species into an established ecosystem can be directly compared to the steps involved in cancer metastasis. New research published in BioMed Central's open access journal Theoretical Biology and Medical Modelling uses the Tilman model of competition between invasive species to study the metastasis of prostate cells into bone.

Along with the famous finches the Galápagos mockingbirds had a great influence on Charles Darwin's theory of evolution. Now, 176 years later, three of the four mockingbird species are among the rarest birds in the world. New research published in BioMed Central's open access journal BMC Evolutionary Biology untangles the evolutionary relationships between Galápagos mockingbirds and provides information about their parasites to help ensure the birds survival.

Playing street football two or three times a week could halve the risk of early death in homeless men. Research led by the Universities of Exeter and Copenhagen, out today (3 October), shows the positive impact of street football on the fitness of homeless people, a group with typically poor health and low life expectancy.

WALNUT CREEK, Calif.—The nation's Renewable Fuels Standard calls for annual production of 36 billion gallons of biofuel by 2022. One of the biggest hurdles to achieving this goal lies in optimizing the multistep process involved in breaking down plant biomass and then converting it into fermentable sugars that can be refined into fuel for our transportation needs. To overcome this challenge, the U.S.

HOUSTON - (Oct. 2, 2011) – When cells divide normally, DNA gets copied perfectly and distributed among the daughter cells with an even hand. Occasionally though, DNA breaks during division and is rearranged, resulting in duplications or deletions of important parts of the blueprint.

Researchers funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC), among others, have identified an important cog in the molecular machinery of plant immunity - a discovery that could help crop breeders produce disease-resistant varieties to help ensure future food security. There may also be implications for treating human immune-related disorders. The research, led by Professor Gary Loake at the University of Edinburgh with colleagues from Syngenta is published this evening (02 October 2011) in the journal Nature.

Phase I clinical trials developed by Spanish Superior Scientific Research Council (CSIC) together with Gregorio Marañón Hospital in Madrid and Clínic Hospital in Barcelona, reveals MVA-B preventive vaccine's immune efficiency against Human's immunodeficiency virus (HIV). 90% of the volunteers who went through the tests developed an immunological response against the virus and 85% has kept this response for at least one year. Safety and efficiency of this treatment have been described in articles for Vaccine and Journal of Virology science magazines.

Koalas have a well-earned reputation for being dopey. Sleeping 19 hours out of every 24, and feeding for 3 of the remaining 5 hours, there doesn't seem to be much time for anything else in their lethargic lifestyle: that is until the mating season. Then the males begin bellowing. Benjamin Charlton from the University of Vienna, Austria, explains that they probably bellow to attract females and to intimidate other males. But what messages could these rumbling bellows communicate about their senders?