Writing in Nature Biotechnology, an international team of scientists say they have  transferred broad spectrum resistance against some important plant diseases across different plant families.

The findings could provide a new biotechnological solution to engineering disease resistance and may help  improve food security as a result.

Breeding programs for resistance generally rely on single resistance genes that recognize molecules specific to particular strain of pathogens. Hence this kind of resistance rarely confers broad-spectrum resistance and is often rapidly overcome by the pathogen evolving to avoid recognition by the plant.

A new study in Environmental Science and Technology reports that soil microbes have become progressively more resistant to antibiotics over the last 60 years, despite more stringent rules on the use of antibiotics in medicine and agriculture.

The study involved an analysis of 18 different antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) to four different classes of antibiotics in soil samples collected in the Netherlands from 1940 to 2008.

Much like the Chicago Bears' defensive lineman William "The Fridge" Perry cleaned out the New England Patriots in Superbowl XX, you really should clean your fridge out more often.

In fact, most Americans clean their fridges only once or twice a year, according to the Wall Street Journal. That's registering really high on the vomit-encrusted nastiness scale.¹ People don't generally clean fridges until something triggers them to act, such as a spill or a pungent odor. Or, if you're a conscientious renter, when you move into and out of apartments.²

The mechanism by which the parasite Plasmodium intensively replicates itself in human blood to spread malaria has eluded scientists despite decades of rigorous research. But now biologists writing in the journal Genome Research say they have discovered how the deadly parasite regulates its infectious cycle.

In the cells of eukaryotes, such as the unicellular Plasmodium and humans, DNA, which can be as long as two meters, is closely packed to fit into the cell's tiny nucleus. Huge complex proteins called nucleosomes facilitate this DNA compaction so that eventually the DNA is coiled in an ordered manner to form chromosomes.

 Scientists searching for alternatives to synthetic pesticides say volatile organic compounds (VOCs) emitted by the fungus Muscodor albus may offer a biologically based way to rid certain crops of destructive pests. Reseachers from the USDA's Agriculture Research Service laboratories put the idea to the test in three different studies by pitting Muscodor against potato tuber moths, apple codling moths and Tilletia fungi that cause bunt diseases in wheat.

The protein ToxT controls the virulent nature of Vibrio cholerae, the bacteria that causes cholera. And buried within ToxT is a fatty acid that appears to inhibit the protein, preventing V. cholerae from causing cholera. The findings appeared recently in PNAS and the authors say the research may enable the development of a new treatment for the potentially fatal illness.

In some places around the world, reptiles are becoming a delicacy, but researchers writing in the International Journal of Food Microbiology say there are dangerous side effects that come with eating the animals. Experts warn that eating crocodiles, turtles, lizards or snakes may result in exposure to dangerous parasites, bacteria, viruses, and to a lesser extent, contamination from heavy metals and residues of veterinary drugs. According to the study,  people can also catch certain diseases (trichinosis, pentastomiasis, gnathostomiasis and sparganosis) by eating reptile meat.

Using transcriptional profiling, researchers at Singapore's Nanyang Technological University have uncovered previously unknown gene expression patterns in malaria. The discovery could lead to the development of more potent drugs or a vaccine for malaria, which is transmitted to humans by infected mosquitoes and kills up to three million people each year.

Transcriptional profiling is the measurement of the activity of thousands of genes at once, to create a global picture of cellular function. These profiles can, for example, distinguish between cells that are actively dividing, or show how the cells react to a particular treatment.

Bacteria that infect chronic wounds can be deadly to maggot 'biosurgeons' used to treat the lesions, say researchers writing in the journal Microbiology. During the study, maggots applied to simulated wounds heavily infected with the bacterium Pseudomonas aeruginosa, were unable to treat the wound and were left dead after 20 hours. The findings could lead to more effective treatment of wounds and the development of novel antibiotics.

T cells, B cells - antibodies - intervene when viruses and bacteria make us ill and they wipe out intruders effectively but cause collateral damage in the body's own tissue, which has to be repaired.

In order for our immune system to not be in a constant state of 'red alert', causing chronic inflammation, there is a second defense system switched in series between our bodies and the outside world, essential because because there are trillions of bacteria on the barrier tissue like our lungs and skin. The majority of these microorganisms have been living with our body's cells as good neighbors for millions of years and the complex symbiosis of very different microorganisms supplies us with important natural substances such as vitamin B12.