ScienceDaily: Plants & Animals News

Researchers have reworked CRISPR-Cas9 gene-editing technology to manipulate the genome in three-dimensional space, allowing them to ferry genetic snippets to different locations in a cell's nucleus.

For the first time in 60 years, researchers have discovered a new mechanism of genetic transduction, the process by which bacteriophages transfer bacterial DNA between bacteria. This new mechanism (lateral transduction) is the most powerful to date, able to transfer large DNA stretches at high frequencies. It likely plays a major role in bacterial evolution and acquisition of antibiotic resistance.

A Washington State University researcher has completed the most thorough analysis yet of The Great Drought -- the most devastating known drought of the past 800 years -- and how it led to the Global Famine, an unprecedented disaster that took 50 million lives. She warns that the Earth's current warming climate could make a similar drought even worse.

The aging of males and females is influenced by how they choose to invest their available energy, according to a study of fruit flies. The results support the idea that differences in strategy between the sexes to maximize the number of offspring contribute to differences in aging between males and females.

Pneumonia-causing bacteria can be spread through picking and rubbing the nose, according to new research. This study is the first to show that transmission can occur via contact between the nose and the hands after exposure to pneumococcus bacteria.

Newly published research has determined that many strains of cannabis have virtually identical levels of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and cannabidiol (CBD), despite their unique street names.

A new, long-term study of how environmental conditions affect the abundance and distribution of jellyfish in the nation's largest estuary helps explain the widely reported scarcity of sea nettles within Chesapeake Bay during the past few months and raises concerns about how a long-term continuation of this trend might harm Bay fisheries as climate continues to warm.

Scientists describe a new way to create customized mouse models for studying the brain. After killing off young brain cells, the developing forebrain can then be reconstituted from genetically engineered stem cells containing the specific genetic modifications desired for study.