Syngonium auritum- Bacterial leaf blight

Plant Pathogenic Bacteria: An Overview of Genetic Engineering Solutions

Tracking plant pathogens is no simple matter. Due to their possible environmental hidey holes being in the soil, the air, other plants, or the host plants themselves lying dormant, any and every possibility must be accounted for. And the triggers that begin active pathogenicity and harm to the plant is connected to a convoluted system […]

Caenorhabditis elegans DAPI

Transgenic Gene Knockouts May Allow Autophagy To Extend Lifespans

The cellular processes of aging are complicated and varied. There are both genetic and mechanical components that all have an ultimate effect on a person as they age and reach the period of senescence. But it is not only humans and our medical community that are attempting to arrest this mechanism, the cells themselves also […]

Spotted-wing Drosophila (Drosophila suzukii) male (15359228246)

Medea Gene Drive Developed To Target The Summer Fruit Fly

The worldwide migration of insect pests has only become more of a concern as plants, animals, and materials have begun being shipped or flown to places around the globe. Ways to control these pests through providing resistance to plants or by killing off the insects directly has proven effective, but only to a point. Many […]

Creek and old-growth forest-Larch Mountain

The Role of Prions in Plants: An Overview

The diseases out there in the world seem limitless. Every new nook and cranny we uncover shows new lifeforms and new diseases they cause or that are subjected upon them. The Earth is just a melting pot of infection (and parasitism) of every species trying to take advantage of every other. Due to their ubiquity, […]

Soybean fields at Applethorpe Farm

Temperature Tolerance: Recent Efforts In Biotechnology

Temperature is something we worry about in our lives all the time. What temperature is it outside so you know what to wear and what are the conditions going to be in coming days or weeks. Farmers have to worry about this as well, as excessive periods of heat or cold snaps can prove damaging […]

Rat primary cortical neuron culture, deconvolved z-stack overlay (30614937102)

CRISPR-Cas9 Allows Photographic Imaging Of Genes In Live Cells

Imaging cellular processes has always been difficult. With biotechnology, we have been able to use marker genes like green fluorescent protein (GFP) to follow the activities of individual cells, but that is a far cry from interior mechanisms within a cell. Since the dawn of the field, technology has advanced so that fluorescent microscopy has […]

Diverse e Coli

Genetically Engineered Inflammation-Sensing Bacteria Made With Synthetic Biology

Synthetic biology is complicated. When you’re building biological systems from the ground up, how could it not be? But the results are almost always something amazing, a real revolutionary accomplishment that wouldn’t be possible with any other field of science. The only other field that comes close is nanotechnology and mechanical systems are still somewhat […]

Banana Bunchy Top Virus: A Century Old Killer

Crop diseases have always been one of the main combatants in the war between farmers and nature. Regardless of the source, whether viral, bacterial, fungal, or other, diseases that affect plant health, growth, and production have devastated every type of crop ever grown. It has only been through strenuous effort that farmers have fought back […]