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The egg came first. Then the bee larvae grow up in the incubator and are regularly fed with a pipette. The sense of taste of adult honey bees is examined via their antennae.

Scientists at the University of Würzburg have switched off a sugar receptor gene of the honey bee using CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing. Their study provides new insights into the taste perception of these insects.

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Super-resolution images made in Würzburg: Expansion microscopy ExM can be used to precisely depict fine structures of the brain whose shape changes during learning and memory processes. Pyramid cells from the hippocampus of the mouse line Thy1-eGFP can be seen.

Three experts for super-resolution microscopy jointly want to obtain better images of functioning and pathologically altered nerve cells. The European Research Council ERC is funding them with eleven million euros.

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Breeding system of the sugarcane shot-hole borer Xyleborus affinis in a glass tube with artificial culture medium. At the end of a tunnel you can see a mother beetle with larvae. The tunnel walls are covered with a whitish-coloured layer of food and weed fungi.

Ambrosia beetles are fascinating: they practice agriculture with fungi and they live in a highly developed social system. Biologist Peter Biedermann has now discovered new facts about them.

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The schematically shown ribozyme (green) binds to the target RNA (blue) by base pairing and installs the methyl group (red flag) at a defined site of a selected adenine. The reaction product m1A is shown in the red circle.

On the track of evolution: a catalytically active RNA molecule that specifically attaches methyl groups to other RNAs – a research group from the University of Würzburg reports on this new discovery in "Nature".

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Artistic representation of human stomach cells infected with Helicobacter pylori, showing the special Hummingbird cell shape induced by the bacterium.

The most important pathogenicity factors of the gastric pathogen Helicobacter pylori are centrally regulated by a small RNA molecule, NikS. And this was not the only surprise that NikS provided.

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Photo of a Venus flytrap with an insect inside.

The carnivorous Venus flytrap snaps shut when a prey touches it twice within 30 seconds. In the journal Nature Plants researchers report on how this plant's short-term memory and counting system works.

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Two point mutations are responsible for the fact that arginine is found in the NFATc1 protein instead of the amino acid lysine. This exchange prevents sumoylation and makes the affected T cells less aggressive.

Minor changes in immune cells can significantly affect the immune response, scientists of the University of Würzburg have now discovered. Their findings could be relevant for stem cell therapy.

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Scientists from Würzburg are investigating immune cells in different tissues, here for example ILC2s (red) or T-cells (blue) in the lung (right) or in the mucosa of the small intestine (left).

Specialized immune cells settle permanently in tissues of the body and build “local task forces”. Wuerzburger scientists have recently discovered, how these cells can regenerate themselves and can adapt to the new environment.

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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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Schematic representation of the function of BATF3. In the upper half you can see the physiological function and the consequences if this factor is missing (knockout). The lower half shows the consequences in case of an unnaturally increased expression with the resulting therapeutic applicability.

The immune system will memorize the pathogen after an infection and can therefore react promptly after reinfection with the same pathogen. Now, scientists at the University of Würzburg have deciphered new details of this process.

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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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Professor Michael Baumann and Professor Hermann Einsele.

A new site of the German National Center for Tumour Diseases will be established in Bavaria. It will be coordinated from Würzburg; Erlangen, Regensburg and Augsburg are also involved.

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Boron can be used to convert nitrogen to ammonium.

The industrial conversion of nitrogen to ammonium provides fertiliser for agriculture. Würzburg chemists have now achieved this conversion at room temperature and low pressure using only light elements.

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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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