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A cancer shredder

09/29/2020
To fight cancer by a newly developed substance shredding carcinogenic aurora proteins: This is the aim of a new study by scientists at universities in Würzburg and Frankfurt.

Researchers at the universities of Würzburg and Frankfurt have developed a new compound for treating cancer. It destroys a protein that triggers its development.

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Burned eucalypt forest in Australia. Avoiding overall post-disturbance logging after such major disturbances can help to maintain biodiversity.

Please do not disturb: After forest fires, bark beetle infestations and other damage, the affected forests should not be cleared. Researchers report this in the journal Nature Communications.

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Complex evolutionary relationships: Long-term expression in one organ predisposes genes for later use in other organs.

The long-term expression of genes in vertebrate organs predisposes these genes to be subsequently utilized in other organs during evolution. The scientists Kenji Fukushima and David D. Pollock report this finding in the journal Nature Communications.

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A specimen of Pabulatrix pabulatricula, which until recently was considered extinct.

An oak forest in Lower Franconia has caused a small sensation in zoology: A moth was discovered there that was considered extinct.

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Resting Chlamydia (left; bright circles), which are held without glutamine. After the addition of glutamine (right) the bacteria enter the division stages (darker circles).

If chlamydiae want to multiply in a human cell, the first thing they need is a lot of glutamine. Würzburg researchers have clarified how the pathogenic bacteria obtain this substance.

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Left two sperm-forming cells expanded with ExM-SIM and imaged with a diffraction limited microscope. On the right, a detailed 3D image of a single synaptonemal complex. The 3D information is colour-coded, the measuring bar on the left corresponds to 25 micrometres, the bar on the right to three micrometres.

New details are known about an important cell structure: For the first time, two Würzburg research groups have been able to map the synaptonemal complex three-dimensionally with a resolution of 20 to 30 nanometres.

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They are small, adaptable and dangerous: trypanosomes - seen here in the intestine of the tsetse fly.

Using a new approach, scientists are applying the techniques of physics to investigate the relationships between parasites and their hosts. The programme is led by the Würzburg cell biologist Markus Engstler.

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When two species of a natural Xiphophorus population in Mexico mate, their offspring frequently exhibit large black skin lesions that turned out to be melanoma.

Environmental pollution is responsible for matings between two fish species that usually don't mix. In their offspring, scientists have now identified genes relevant for the development of skin cancer.

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The distribution of the glutamate receptor mGluR4 and other proteins in the presynaptic membrane Left a high-resolution dSTORM image. On the right, the result obtained with conventional fluorescence microscopy – molecular details are not visible here.

"Distance keeping" is not exactly the motto of the glutamate receptors: Using high-resolution microscopy, it now was discovered that the receptors usually appear in small groups at the synapses and are in contact with other proteins.

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In expansion microscopy, the preparation is magnified more than four times. Here, a germ tube of Aspergillus fumigatus is shown before and after expansion; the scale corresponds to ten micrometers. The plasma membrane (turquoise) and the mitochondria (pink) were stained. (Picture: Ulrich Terpitz / University of Würzburg)

For the first time, the cells of fungi can also be analysed using a relatively simple microscopic method. Researchers from Würzburg and Cordoba present the innovation in the journal "Frontiers in Microbiology".

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The sterlet (Acipenser ruthenus) (Photo: Andreas Hartl)

Sturgeons lived on earth already 300 million years ago and yet their external appearance seems to have undergone very little change. A team of researchers from Würzburg and Berlin has now succeeded in sequencing their genome.

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