Researchers report on the average life expectancy of chimpanzees in Japan. The average life expectancy of chimpanzees who reach adulthood — reported as 12-years-old in the paper — is 40 years: 41.5 years for males and 39.2 years for females.
Read moreCertain fungi move from the gut to the pancreas, expand their population more than a thousand-fold, and encourage pancreatic cancer growth, a new study finds.
Read moreThe Great Alaskan Earthquake of 1964 and the tsunamis it spawned may have washed a tropical fungus ashore, leading to a subsequent outbreak of often-fatal infections among people in coastal regions of the Pacific Northwest, according to a new article.
Read moreSimply by moving tropical soils down a mountainside into warmer environments, a team has discovered that much more CO2 may be released due to increased microbial activity as soils warm.
Read moreInfections that are treatable in healthy people can often be fatal in immunocompromised individuals (people with a weak immune system), and hence, they require specialized treatment. Eushearilide is already known to be active against a wide range of pathogenic fungi and yeasts, but its antibacterial properties have not been explored. Now, scientists have derived a new compound from eushearilide and demonstrated its antibacterial and antifungal properties. It can be used to treat lung infections, meningitis, and encephalitis.
Read moreWith the help of advanced genetic testing and hundreds of frog skin swabs, an international team of researchers has created the most complete map to date of when and where different genetic variants of the frog-killing Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis have infected frog populations around the world. The investigation also uncovered a whole new genetic lineage of the fungus, one that appears to have originated in Asia and may be the oldest variant yet discovered.
Read moreFindings from an innovative new study reveal that the way in which human fungal pathogens form colonies can significantly impact their ability to cause disease. Understanding how these colonies form could lead to new therapies that target these infections in critically ill patients.
Read moreThe first extensively drug-resistant (XDR) strains of Salmonella Typhimurium, a pathogen which is responsible for millions of bloodstream infections per year in sub-Saharan Africa, have been identified in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Drug-resistance has increased in successive groups of S. Typhimurium over time. These new strains are resistant to all but one of the commonly available drugs in the DRC, with one sample showing reduced susceptibility to this final antibiotic.
Read moreLarge amounts of fungicides, used in agriculture, leak into nearby surface waters. The effects of it on aquatic organisms are poorly understood and not specifically addressed in the EU regulatory frameworks with respect to the protection of surface waters. Scientists have found that pollution by fungicides can have unforeseen but far-reaching consequences for the functioning of aquatic systems — like indirect effects on the development of algal blooms.
Read moreNew research reveals how nitrogen-fixing bacteria sense iron – an essential but deadly micronutrient. The findings are an important piece in the puzzle of how life deals with iron, a nutrient it cannot do without but one it must also avoid having in excess.
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