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Brazilian and German scientists have completed a collaborative project to sequence and analyze the whole genome of Arapaima gigas, a giant freshwater fish known in Brazil as pirarucu and elsewhere as arapaima or paiche. Its growth rate is the fastest among known freshwater fish species. Its natural distribution covers most of the Amazon River basin in Peru and Brazil. The research led to discoveries that help determine sex at an early stage, facilitating the separation of female and male fry [...]

New research has demonstrated the presence of S. aureusin 40% of the cell phones of students sampled at a university. S. aureus is a common cause of hospital and community-based infections and is currently considered an important pathogen because of its level of antibiotic resistance. The research, conducted at the Western University of São Paulo, Brazil, is presented at ASM Microbe, the annual meeting of the American Society for Microbiology. Of the bacteria isolated, 85% were [...]

Some fungi and bacteria live in close association, or symbiosis, with tree roots in forest soil to obtain mutual benefits. The microorganisms help trees access water and nutrients from the atmosphere or soil, sequester carbon, and withstand the effects of climate change. In exchange, they receive carbohydrates, which are essential to their development and are produced by the trees during photosynthesis. More than 200 scientists from several countries, including 14 from Brazil, collaborated to [...]

Plants in the Brazilian savanna, the Cerrado, have evolved to deal with fire. When fire is used intelligently as part of a carefully planned land management method, it is indispensable to the conservation of this superb ecosystem, the world's most biodiverse savanna. Two months suffice for the Cerrado to burst into flower after a fire ( read more at agencia.fapesp.br/26064 and agencia.fapesp.br/26542 ). The study " From ashes to flowers: a savanna sedge initiates flowers 24 h after [...]

Cranial fossils belonging to two extinct species of monkey - Caipora bambuiorum and Cartelles coimbrafilhoi - were examined by computed tomography (CT) scan and reconstructed with three-dimensional imaging by a group of scientists from various countries. The fossils were found almost 30 years ago in a cave complex in Bahia, Brazil, located in the Caatinga, a semiarid biome that occupies part of Brazil's Northeast Region. The images were compared with those of craniums from 14 extant [...]

One of the main challenges of second-generation biofuel production is identifying enzymes produced by microorganisms for use in a "cocktail" of enzymes to catalyze biomass hydrolysis, in which the enzymes act together to break down the carbohydrates in sugarcane trash and bagasse, for example, and convert them into simple sugars for fermentation. A group of researchers at the University of Campinas (UNICAMP), working in partnership with colleagues at the Brazilian Biorenewables [...]

Research conducted at the University of Campinas (UNICAMP) in São Paulo State, Brazil, shows that vigorous physical exercise such as strength and weight training can reduce accumulated liver fat and improve blood sugar control in obese and diabetic individuals in a short time span, even before significant weight loss occurs. In experiments with mice, researchers at UNICAMP's Molecular Biology of Exercise Laboratory (LaBMEx) found that two weeks of such exercise was sufficient to [...]

The promise of new treatments for sickle cell disease, a group of inherited red blood cell disorders, has never been so great, but it will only be realized if there is constant investment in health policies such as programs for screening newborns, especially in sub-Saharan Africa, where most cases occur. This point is made in a comprehensive review of the main research findings regarding sickle disease published in Nature Reviews Disease Primers and signed by experts affiliated with [...]

The tube anemone Isarachnanthus nocturnus is only 15 cm long but has the largest mitochondrial genome of any animal sequenced to date, with 80,923?base pairs. The human mitochondrial genome (mitogenome), for example, comprises 16,569 base pairs. Tube anemones (Ceriantharia) are the focus of an article recently published in Scientific Reports describing the findings of a study led by Sérgio Nascimento Stampar ( https://bv.fapesp.br/en/pesquisador/171695/sergio-nascimento-stampar/ ), a [...]