Researchers at the University of Warwick's horticultural research arm Warwick HRI have created an extensive new range of libraries of plant DNA that will provide a massive boost to the world's plant researchers. The new collection of DNA libraries is the largest of its type in the world and will provide researchers with a unique resource.

Researchers have uncovered the link between two biochemical pathways that plants use to defend themselves against pathogens – pathways that scientists have long believed worked independently of each other.

Knowing how these pathways of immunity work may one day help researchers breed plants that can better resist a variety of pathogens, said David Mackey, the study's lead author and an assistant professor of horticulture and crop science at Ohio State University .

He and his colleagues explain their findings in the current issue of the journal Cell.

University of Utah researchers showed that a fruit fly gene is crucial for determining when juveniles begin to mature into adults, and how the transformation initially proceeds. Understanding this process in humans may help explain how adorable children become surly teenagers.

Nucleic acids specialist MWG Biotech, Ebersberg, Germany, announces the extension of their siRNA portfolio (small interfering RNA – used for analyzing the function of genes and for silencing gene activity), with the addition of multiple scales and siRNA in either the classical 21mer or the new 27mer format, plus a new advanced siRNA online design tool. MWG offers licensed high quality custom siRNA and pre-designed siRNA synthesis, produced with proprietary siMAX™ technology (an advanced TBDMS- based synthesis chemistry) which allows reliable synthesis, high coupling yields and greatly reduced interfering n-x products in fast turn-around time. MWG Biotech sells the new MWG siRNA products under the siMAX™ brand name.

Millions of people take the anticoagulant drug warfarin to prevent harmful clotting after a heart attack, stroke, or major surgery. But the proper dose of warfarin can vary greatly and can be hard to predict. Some of this variability may boil down to a recently identified gene involved in blood clotting, according to a new study published in the June 2 issue of The New England Journal of Medicine.

Got milk? Many people couldn't care less because they can't digest it. A new Cornell University study finds that it is primarily people whose ancestors came from places where dairy herds could be raised safely and economically, such as in Europe, who have developed the ability to digest milk.

For Tadeusz Molinski, the sea is full of riches -- and he does not mean oil fields or fisheries. Molinski, a professor of chemistry at the University of California, Davis, is searching for new treatments for cancer, infectious diseases and other conditions that could be made from natural products in the soft bodies of some of the ocean's simplest inhabitants.

Scientists at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC) have uncovered the structure of a network of proteins that help regulate the life cycle of cells. Understanding the network's physical layout is an important step toward learning its precise function, and in finding ways to correct flaws in the system that could lead to cancer.

Remember how it felt the last time you burned your finger on a hot stove? Imagine what it's like to have that burning pain in your hands or feet all the time and know there's virtually nothing you can do about it.

A report by Yale scientists in the journal Cell sheds new light on how the protein Ro, a major autoantigen in patients with autoimmune disease, recognizes misfolded RNAs, creating a RNA quality control system for cells.