A 2-year field study has demonstrated that volatile compounds produced by plants when they are attacked by herbivores act as defenses by attracting predators to the herbivores and increasing the reproduction of the plants.

The development of colonies of cells in choanoflagellates, water-dwelling organisms that feed on bacteria, is triggered by the presence of very low concentrations of a lipid molecule produced by certain types of bacteria.

Electron microscopy has been used to produce the first three-dimensional image of the PRC2 gene-silencing complex.

Biochemical and genetic tests have revealed that a liver protein called NTCP is a functional receptor for hepatitis B and D viruses, which should lead to an improved understanding of the infections caused by these viruses and assist the development of new intervention strategies.

A DNA–protein complex can find target sequences of bases in another DNA molecule by sliding along it.

A genome-organizing protein that is present only in the olfactory system of mice has been found to orchestrate changes in the relative numbers of different odor-sensing neurons on the basis of how active these neurons are.

Preventing premature interactions between microtubules and protein-based structures called kinetochores ensures that chromosomes are segregated by meiosis rather than mitosis in reproductive cells.

Changing the order in which presynaptic and postsynaptic cells are repeatedly activated can change what a mammalian visual cortex neuron communicates to downstream neurons.

The enzyme that collaborates with ubiquitin ligases to promote the release of defective polypeptides from stalled ribosomes in a process named ribosome-associated degradations has been identified as the ATPase Cdc48.

By using immune cells called dendritic cells to deliver drugs, it is possible to target and kill specific members of another class of immune cell, known as T cells, and to prevent these cells from attacking the body's own tissues in cases of autoimmune disease.