Beyond direct improvements to plants, insects, and animals, including humans, that genetic modification technologies have brought to the world, these techniques have also served as crucial tools for modeling other conditions and creating a better understanding of how to not only improve the overall health of living organisms, but also how to combat a myriad […]
Basic research has always had the tendency to contain surprising revelations on how the world functions. Whether in physics, chemistry, or biology. And in the case of biological studies, it is one of the reasons why model organisms are so important, as a reflection of all other organisms similar to them and as a way […]
A lot of the time when speaking of pathogens, the conversation stays on just the pathogenic organism itself and the host it exploits. But there are many other interactions that are possible and that complicate the scenario, especially those that involve an intermediate vector needed to spread the pathogen to the eventual host. It has […]
While the effects of a singular gene and its protein output can be measured and quantified, many traits of organisms are part of far more complex regulatory pathways involving dozens of genes that turn on and off different systems. Mapping out how these pathways interact and what genes make them up has been a key […]
When dealing with pathogens of plants, it is those of the viral kind in conjunction with their vector pests that can prove to be the biggest threats. Aphids, especially, are known for transmitting dozens of dangerous viral diseases while also themselves managing to kill a host plant outright through sucking up too much sap. Therefore, […]
While genetic modification technologies have been expanding rapidly in the biological and medical spheres, there is an obvious limitation in how this sort of research is applied. For the microscopic level and the macro beyond it, only a select number of organisms have proven to be amenable to such modification techniques. Others have either shown […]
While the honeybee has a comparatively negligible role when it comes to pollination in the wild, that niche filled by the dozens of other bee species that are also often colony-less, they nonetheless have an important spotlight on them when it comes to human agriculture. This is so even if they only make up less […]
For all the advances we’ve made in medical science toward treatment of dangerous disorders and diseases, along with recent announcements such as a secondary success in long-term HIV remission, there are still plenty of conditions that we have a long way to go toward any sort of viable treatment. Spinal cord injuries are one such […]
Since the beginning of genetic engineering and its use in plant biology, the microorganism Agrobacterium tumefaciens has been a prominent figure in scientific endeavors. The natural processes of the species involves them modifying their cellular surroundings inside tree hosts to provide them with the nutrients they need. As a side effect of this process, they […]
When attempting to produce new traits and properties in plants, it’s commonplace to try and expose them to stressful conditions alongside mutagenic agents in the hopes that this will help induce the formation of resistance genes. This process sometimes is successful, but it involves a large amount of trial and error, as most experiments involving […]
