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In this newsletter we describe how experiments in which bacteria without cell walls are allowed to grow in an artificial environment can shed new light on the proliferation of primitive life-forms billions of years ago. Plus, researchers have determined the structure of the "D-loop", a short-lived intermediate state that is formed when DNA molecules undergo a process called strand exchange.

– Peter Rodgers, Chief Magazine Editor

Multiple mutations in a single gene explain why the two-spotted spider mite, Tetranychus urticae, became resistant to the pesticide cyetpyrafen so quickly. Image credit: Cao et al. (CC BY 4.0)

Making conferences in the plant sciences more inclusive

Conferences can sometimes appear unwelcoming to researchers from groups that are underrepresented in science. This Feature Article describes how a number of professional societies in the plant sciences, mostly based in the United States, collaborated on a project called ROOT & SHOOT – short for Rooting Out Oppression Together and SHaring Our Outcomes Transparently – to make conferences in the field more inclusive.

12-minute read

Microfossils: Mimicking early life-forms in the lab

Fossil evidence suggests that the earliest known life-forms – single-cell organisms from about 3.5 billion years ago – did not have cell walls, but it is not clear how these fossils were formed. Now, as described in this Insight article, researchers have generated bacteria that lack cell walls, and watched them divide and grow in salt water. The process of cell division seen in the experiments was much simpler than that used by bacteria with cells walls, but the matted structures formed by the wall-free bacteria were similar to the structures seen in fossils.

4-minute read

Homologous Recombination: Snapshot of an intermediate structure

Strand exchange is a crucial process in biology in which some of the DNA in a molecule of double-stranded DNA is replaced by DNA from a single strand of DNA. However, many details of this process  are not fully understood. Now, as highlighted in this Insight article, researchers have used cryogenic electron microscopy to determine the detailed structure of an intermediate state called a “D-loop” that is formed by the two molecules for a very short period of time, before they go their separate ways.

4-minute read

Tracking pesticide resistance

Just as bacteria can evolve to become resistant to drugs, the pests that attack crops can become resistant to chemical pesticides. For example, the two-spotted spider mite – a pest that attacks many different food crops and vegetables – became resistant to a pesticide called cyetpyrafen within a few years of its introduction. Now researchers have identified 15 distinct mutations – all in the protein targeted by the pesticide – in spider mites that were resistant to cyetpyrafen. This high number of mutations explains why resistance to this pesticide developed so quickly.

2-minute read

Membrane Biology: Nothing can replace polyunsaturated lipids

Lipids are important components of the membrane that surrounds a cell, and the number of double bonds in the fatty acid ‘tail’ of the lipid influences the properties of this membrane, notably its fluidity. Until now, however, it has been challenging to study the precise role of polyunsaturated lipids – lipids with two or more double bonds – in cells. Now, as explained in this Insight article, researchers have used a combination of different genetic approaches to overcome this problem in experiments on the roundworm C. elegans.

4-minute read

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