US Forest Service researchers have identified what may be a key to unraveling some of the mysteries of White Nose Syndrome. Studying the closest non-disease causing relatives of the WNS fungus have allowed scientists to move forward with genetic work to examining the molecular mechanisms this fungus uses to kill bats. These fungi, many of them still without formal Latin names, live in bat hibernation sites and even directly on bats, but they do not cause the devastating disease that kills millions of bats in the eastern US. Researchers hope to use these fungi to understand why one fungus can be deadly to bats while its close relatives are benign.
This amazing house design uses bacteria to treat, filter, process, and reuse household wastes like sewage, effluent, garbage, wastewater. The central hub in the Microbial Home consists of a methane digester, which converts bathroom waste solids and vegetable trimmings into methane gas that is used to power a series of functions in the home.
A new study highlights the potential importance of the vast majority of human DNA that lies outside of genes within the cell. The researchers found that 85% of these stretches of DNA make lincRNAs (large intergenic non-coding RNAs), molecules that increasingly is being found to play important roles within cells. They also determined that lincRNA is more likely than other non-gene DNA regions to be associated with inherited disease risks.
