salk institute for biological studies

How plants fine tune their natural chemical defenses

admin — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0500

(Salk Institute) Even closely related plants produce their own natural chemical cocktails, each set uniquely adapted to the individual plant's specific habitat. Comparing antifungals produced by tobacco and henbane, researchers at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies discovered that only a few mutations in a key enzyme are enough to shift the whole output to an entirely new product mixture.

Exercise In A Pill: Researchers Identify Drugs That Enhance Exer...

admin — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 21:15:02 -0500

Trying to reap the health benefits of exercise? Forget treadmills and spin classes, researchers at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies may have found a way around the sweat and pain. They identified two signaling pathways that are activated in response to exercise and converge to dramatically increase endurance.

Can You Hear Me Now? Primitive Single-Celled Microbe Expert In C...

admin — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 10:45:07 -0500

When it comes to cellular communication networks, a primitive single-celled microbe that answers to the name of Monosiga brevicollis has a leg up on animals composed of billions of cells. It commands a signaling network more elaborate and diverse than found in any multicellular organism higher up on the evolutionary tree, researchers at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies have discovered.