The golden age of antibiotics may be drawing to a close. The discovery of E. coli carrying mcr-1 and ndm-5 has left clinicians without an effective means of treatment for the superbug. But, researchers have assembled a team of three antibiotics that, together, are capable of eradicating the deadly bacterium.
The genes that are involved in the development of the fetus are activated in different tissues and at different times. Their expression is carefully regulated by so-called “enhancer sequences” and requires the DNA molecule to loop around and bring them in close proximity to their target genes.
It is a lunchbox staple so ubiquitous as to have become mundane. But the apple we know today is the fruit of an extraordinary journey, researchers have revealed. Scientists studying the genetics of the humble apple have unpicked how the cultivated species emerged as traders travelled back and forth along the Silk Road.
A study published in Neurobiology of Aging provides the most extensive evidence of Alzheimer’s disease brain pathology in a primate species to date. Researchers found that the brains of aged chimpanzees, our closest living relatives, show pathology similar to the human Alzheimer’s disease brain.
Poor sleep is often regarded as a modern affliction linked to our sedentary lifestyles, electric lighting and smartphones on the bedside table. New research suggests that fitful sleep could be an ancient survival mechanism designed to guard against nocturnal threats. The study tracked the sleep patterns of a modern-day hunter-gatherer tribe.
Two vertebrate species go extinct every year on average, but few people notice, perhaps because the rate seems relatively slow – not a clear and present threat to the natural systems we depend on. This view overlooks trends of extreme decline in animal populations, which tell a more dire story.