COVID-19 response by scientists at DBT-inStem and NCBS-TIFR, Bengaluru

Proteins often use Ubiquitin tags to be shuttled within cells or dispatched for degradation. Although small in demeanor, Ubiquitins are hugely influential.

Along with the those on the frontlines, thousands of researchers around the world are working to identify the right approach to tackling the COVID-19 pandemic from various angles and disciplines. The search for effective treatment options and vaccinations for the SARS-CoV-2 has occupied scientists and medical researchers in recent months in an unprecedented manner.

Advanced X-ray MicroCT technology offers unparalleled insights into the functional morphology of specialized organs that mediate interactions between butterfly caterpillars and their ant hosts

Tuberculosis (TB), popularly known as the White Plague, is one of the world’s deadliest infections. ‘Consuming’ millions of lives, the disease owes its success to the fervent microbe, Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) that has been using every trick under its sleeve to outwit the host. Consequently, an understanding of host-microbe interactions has been of paramount importance to combat TB.

Dr. Varadharajan Sundaramurthy and his team of researchers from the National Centre for Biological Sciences have been making significant progress in this front.

Scientists from the National Centre for Biological Sciences (NCBS), Bangalore, have discovered how the Herpes virus escapes one of the defense mechanisms it encounters in its hosts. Cells infected by Herpes viruses bind the viral DNA with proteins called PML NBs (ProMyelocytic Leukemia protein Nuclear Bodies) to stop the production of viral proteins and stall virus reproduction. The viral DNA, however, escapes from its protein prison with the help of ICP0 (Infected Cell Polypeptide 0), a viral enzyme.

If you have spent some time by the pond near the main canteen on campus, you might have noticed tiny damselflies zipping along by the edge of the pond. Because they are so small, you have to look closely to see their beautiful, vivid reds and blues. What do these colours mean? Do they signal something, and to whom? As humans, we signal a lot with the colour of our clothes, and have the luxury of changing them at will. For most animals, colour is not really a behavioural choice, but reflects myriad selection pressures in their evolutionary history.

If you’ve ever tried to swat a fly, you know how hard it is to follow its movements as it ducks and weaves around to escape. You can easily appreciate that a scientist trying to observe and understand the behavior of insects in the natural world has their work cut out.

“The world will not be inherited by the strongest; it will be inherited by those most able to change.”

This quote by evolutionary biologist Charles Darwin is quite appreciable in the microscopic world of bacteria and viruses.

Bacteria, in the natural world are swamped by a myriad of environmental stressors. Changes at the genetic level often beget bacterial adaptations to these challenges, helping them find a fine balance between growth and stress tolerance.

Mistakes are rarely rewarded. Intuitively, one would imagine that a shoddy typist at an office who keeps generating typos would either quickly lose their job, or at least be overlooked for promotion. The idea that this person could in fact benefit from being shoddy and rise above others professionally is counter intuitive, and yet we see this in cells! Like humans, cells too constantly make mistakes. Most of the work within cells is carried out by biomolecules called proteins; without these, cells would not exist.