Although the addition of nutrients to soil helps to maximize crop production, fertilizer can leech nutrients, polluting the water supply. A recent study by researchers at the University of Minnesota shows alternative cropping practices may help to protect the environment by reducing high nitrate levels in surface and ground water caused by conventional fertilizer use.

Nitrogen is one of the most important elements required in agricultural systems for plant and animal production. While treatment with the correct amount of nitrogen-based fertilizer optimizes crop yield and minimizes environmental damage, too much nitrogen can lead to nitrate loss.

Human cells function through the concerted action of thousands of proteins that control their growth and differentiation. Yet, the specific function of most human proteins remains either unknown or poorly characterized.

Diseases being often due to aberrations in the function of key cellular proteins, numerous large-scale research initiatives have been launched internationally to crack the function of all human proteins.

A research team led by Dr. Benoit Coulombe from the Institut de recherches cliniques de Montréal (IRCM) describes a powerful proteomics approach that promises to have a profound impact on our current understanding of the human proteome and the function of its individual proteins.

There are lots of things that brain cells need to survive. Add to that list microRNAs. New research from Rockefeller University shows that neurons that cannot produce microRNAs, tiny single strands of RNA that regulate the expression of genes, slowly die in a manner similar to what is seen in such human neurodegenerative disorders as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases.

To many people, the scent of jasmine flowers suggests a romantic interlude in an exotic locale. But jasmonate, the main component of the lush scent, carries far different meanings for plants. It is a hormone they use to regulate reproductive development, immunity to pathogens, defense against insect herbivores and other critical aspects of their biology.

Despite jasmonate’s importance in plant development and function, the chemical steps that convert the hormonal signal into genetic and cellular action have remained elusive. Now researchers at Washington State University and Michigan State University have identified the family of proteins that allow a plant to perceive and respond to the hormone. They have also proposed a model for how the proteins, dubbed JAZ proteins, work.

Finding a decent, honest mate is challenging enough without the added problem of reduced visibility caused by human-induced changes to the aquatic environment.

Yet this is precisely the sort of dilemma female stickleback fish are facing in the Baltic Sea, according to a recent study published in the August issue of the American Naturalist by Dr. Bob Wong, an Australian researcher from Monash University, and his Scandinavian colleagues, Dr. Ulrika Candolin from the University of Uppsala and Dr. Kai Linstrom from the Åbo Akademi in Finland.

A team of scientists from the Institute of Human Genetics of the GSF Research Center, the Technical University of Munich and the Max Planck Institute for Psychiatry have now identified risk factors which are involved in the development of Restless Leg Syndrome.

The patients suffer from an urge to move and paresthesia in the legs in the evening and during the night which can only be relieved by moving or walking around. The consequence may be severe sleeping disorders and chronic sleep loss. The frequency of RLS increases with age: up to ten per cent of over 65 year olds are affected, albeit in very different forms though hildren can also contract the disease.

The cause of RLS has so far been completely unknown.