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The ordered areas of proteins are readily studied. Consequently, a great deal is known about the role of these areas in the biological function of the respective proteins. However, an international research team led by biochemist Ute Hellmich has shown that disordered areas are also pivotal. Their comprehensive examination of the disordered area of a receptor channel protein has been published in the renowned scientific journal "Nature Communications." The group demonstrated through eleven different methods how this area influences the function of the entire protein.

Bacteria of the genus Streptomyces produce chemical substances called arginoketides, to which many other microorganisms react: Bacteria form biofilms, algae join together to form aggregates, and fungi produce signalling substances that they would not otherwise produce triggering new responses from other organisms.

Either 1 or 0. Either current flows or it does not. In electronics, everything is controlled via the binary system. Electrons already generate information quite fast and well, pass them on and take over various switching functions. But it can be done even faster. Paul Herrmann and Sebastian Klimmer from the Friedrich Schiller University of Jena have proven that.

Our cells are crisscrossed by a system of membrane tubes and pockets called the endoplasmic reticulum (ER). It is crucial for the production of biomolecules and is continuously built up and degraded. Degradation, known as ER-phagy, is promoted by the protein ubiquitin, which controls many processes in the cell.

Glass is a very special material: it can be produced in almost unlimited variety from compounds of almost all'elements of the periodic table. The only prerequisite is that the components can be melted together and that the melt is then cooled quickly enough. In the process, the liquid mixture solidifies and forms a glass.

If there were ever a prize for the longest journey to work, the Jena University team led by Christina Braun would stand a good chance of winning it. To reach their research area, the polar ornithologist and her team travel some 14,000 kilometres - as the crow flies - each time. Their destination is the Fildes Peninsula on King George Island in the Antarctic.

Breakthroughs in ancient genome reconstruction and biotechnology are now revealing the rich molecular secrets of Paleolithic microorganisms. In a new study published in "Science", a transdisciplinary team of researchers led by the Leibniz Institute for Natural Product Research and Infection Biology, the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Friedrich Schiller University Jena and Harvard University reconstructed bacterial genomes of previously unknown bacteria dating to the Pleistocene.

Global warming is affecting terrestrial insects in multiple ways. In response to increasingly frequent heat extremes, they have to either reduce their activity or seek shelter in more suitable microhabitats. A new study led by researchers from the German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) and Friedrich Schiller University Jena shows: The more diverse these microhabitats are, the better for the insects.

Whether an animal is flying, running or swimming, its traveling speed is limited by how effectively it sheds the excess heat generated by its muscles, according to a new study led by Alexander Dyer from the German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) and the Friedrich Schiller University Jena, published now in the open access journal "PLOS Biology".

Bas E. Dutilh is an expert in modelling microbial balances. Whether in hot springs, in the human intestine or in the deep sea - microorganisms colonise almost every place on earth, sometimes under extreme conditions. Depending on how these organisms have adapted to the particular environmental conditions in such ecological niches, ecologists classify them as "generalists" or "specialists".

Modern energy storage systems are an important building block for a climate-friendly future. "Modern" means not only that their performance meets the demands of a high-tech society, but also that they can be produced and recycled sustainably. In the search for new resources, scientists sometimes hit upon surprising raw materials - for example brewery waste.

In our modern society huge amounts of data are transmitted every day, mainly as short optical pulses propagating through glass fibres. With the steadily increasing density of such optical signals, their interaction grows, which can lead to data loss. Physicists at the Friedrich Schiller University Jena and the College of Optics and Photonics in Orlando, Florida are investigating how to control large numbers of optical pulses as precisely as possible to reduce the effect of such interactions.

Ulf Peschel and his team report in the magazine "Science" that the propagation of optical pulses through an optical fibre follows the rules of thermodynamics. In our modern society huge amounts of data are transmitted every day, mainly as short optical pulses propagating through glass fibres. With the steadily increasing density of such optical signals, their interaction grows, which can lead to data loss.

In autoimmune encephalitis, a rare but serious and sometimes life-threatening inflammation of the central nervous system, the body's own defences are directed against the central nervous system. This disease was first identified in 2007, and the most common type is Anti-NMDA receptor encephalitis. In this autoimmune disease, a protein that plays an important role in signal transmission in the brain is disrupted: the NMDA-type glutamate receptor, or NMDA receptor for short.

A new study, published in the journal Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution, investigated the foraging behaviour of children in a present-day forager society. Already from an early age, there was a gender-specific development of foraging skills. These new findings, combined with the high level of food sharing in forager societies, support the embodied capital theory, offering an explanation for the substantially larger brains in humans.

A new study, published in the journal Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution, investigated the foraging behaviour of children in a present-day forager society. Already from an early age, there was a gender-specific development of foraging skills. These new findings, combined with the high level of food sharing in forager societies, support the embodied capital theory, offering an explanation for the substantially larger brains in humans.

For the first time, researchers have recorded live and in atomic detail what happens to the material in an asteroid impact. The team of Falko Langenhorst from the University of Jena and Hanns-Peter Liermann from DESY simulated an asteroid impact with the mineral quartz in the lab and pursued it in slow motion in a diamond anvil cell, while monitoring it with DESY's X-ray source PETRA III.

Insect numbers have been declining over the past decades in many parts of the world. Protected areas could safeguard threatened insects, but a team of researchers led by the German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv), the Friedrich Schiller University Jena, the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ), and the University of Queensland now found that 76 % of globally assessed insect species are not adequately covered by protected areas worldwide.

An international team of researchers has succeeded in solving one of the riddles of evolution. The scientists investigated the question why the life cycles of animal species differ significantly from each other. Specifically, the question was why invertebrates in particular go through a larval stage during their individual development.

An international team of researchers, including scientists from Jena, has succeeded in developing a new and particularly precise type of measurement in tiny quantum systems. Applications are conceivable in semiconductor manufacturing, for example, but also in mobile radio technology or microscopy in the future.