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MADISON — Leaf-cutter ants, which cultivate fungus for food, have many remarkable qualities.

Here's a new one to add to the list: the ant farmers, like their human counterparts, depend on nitrogen-fixing bacteria to make their gardens grow. The finding, reported this week (Nov. 20) in the journal Science, documents a previously unknown symbiosis between ants and bacteria and provides insight into how leaf-cutter ants have come to dominate the American tropics and subtropics.

MADISON — This week, scientists are revealing the genetic instructions inside corn, one of the big three cereal crops. Corn, or maize, has one of the most complex sequences of DNA ever analyzed, says University of Wisconsin-Madison genomicist David Schwartz, who was one of more than 100 authors in the article in the journal Science.

"The maize genome is a true maze — full of confusing repeats and dead-ends that have troubled would-be sequencers for years," says Schwartz.

Maize is an important crop in many countries of the world. It is widely used for human consumption, animal feed, and industrial materials. It also is considered an exemplar plant species for studying domestication, molecular evolution, and genome architecture. The authors of the research presented in this special collection used the first description of the B73 maize genome to probe some of the most intriguing questions in genetics and plant biology.

Scientists from the University of Arizona led by Arizona Genomics Institute director Rod A. Wing and from collaborating institutions have deciphered the complete genetic code of the maize plant for the first time.

The researchers, who have been collaborating for the past four years on the National Science Foundation-funded Maize Genome Sequencing Project, have provided the complete sequence and structures of maize genes and their locations, in linear order, on both the genetic and physical maps of maize.

When it comes to corn, 1 + 1 = more than 2: The offspring of two inbred strains tend to be superior to both of their parents. Characterizing the gene-level variability that leads to this phenomenon, known as heterosis or hybrid vigor, could boost our ability to custom-tailor crops for specific traits, such as high protein content for human consumption or high glucose content for biomass fuel.

GAINESVILLE, Fla. --- Scientists have long known that the offspring of two inbred strains tend to be superior to both their parents. Now, a team of researchers including a University of Florida geneticist has discovered clues to why that might be the case for one of the most important crops in the world: corn.

The result could boost scientists' ability to custom-tailor corn for specific traits, such as high protein content for human consumption or high glucose content for biomass fuel.

Cold Spring Harbor, NY – A four-year, multi-institutional effort co-led by three Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) scientists culminated today in publication of a landmark series of papers in the journal Science revealing in unprecedented detail the DNA sequence of maize (Zea mays). Maize, or corn, as it is commonly called by North American consumers, is one of the world's most important plants and the most valuable agricultural crop grown in the United States, representing $47 billion in annual value.

LA JOLLA, CA – November 19, 2009 –A team led by scientists at The Scripps Research Institute have discovered a direct link between insulin—a hormone long associated with metabolism and metabolic disorders such as diabetes—and core body temperature. While much research has been conducted on insulin since its discovery in the 1920s, this is the first time the hormone has been connected to the fundamental process of temperature regulation.

ANN ARBOR, Mich.---Since the discovery in 2007 that a component of human semen called SEVI boosts infectivity of the virus that causes AIDS, researchers have been trying to learn more about SEVI and how it works, in hopes of thwarting its infection-promoting activity.

For the first time, scientists have successfully used a method called exome sequencing to quickly discover a previously unknown gene responsible for a mendelian disorder.

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - Researchers have shown how an experimental drug might restore the function of nerves damaged in spinal cord injuries by preventing short circuits caused when tiny "potassium channels" in the fibers are exposed.

The chemical compound also might be developed as a treatment for multiple sclerosis.

Most countries throughout the world participate in the $40-million-per-year culinary trade of frog legs in some way, with 75 percent of frog legs consumed in France, Belgium and the United States. Scientists at the Smithsonian Institution and colleagues have found that this trade is a potential carrier of pathogens deadly to amphibians. The team's findings are published in the scientific journal Frontiers in Ecology, Thursday, Nov. 19.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — A new statistical technique developed by researchers at the University of Illinois allows scientists to scan a genome for specific gene-regulatory regions without requiring prior knowledge of the relevant transcription factors. The technique has been experimentally validated in both the mouse genome and the fruit fly genome.

COLLEGE PARK, Md. – Cigarettes are "widely contaminated" with bacteria, including some known to cause disease in people, concludes a new international study conducted by a University of Maryland environmental health researcher and microbial ecologists at the Ecole Centrale de Lyon in France.