News & Views

Two reports shed light on the molecular basis of resistance to Bt toxins.

Nanowire sensors decorated with specific capture molecules can detect minute quantities of biological and chemical species.

A rapid method for exploring gene function uses alphavirus expression cloning.

The tomato has been engineered to express in its plastids high levels of a recombinant protein.

Microarrays of purified proteins, representing most of the yeast genome, prove useful for studying protein function on a genome-wide scale.

Biosensors based on a quartz crystal microbalance show promise for sensitive and rapid viral detection.

Transgenic plants expressing an enzyme that degrades microbial signaling molecules show promise in controlling damage caused by bacterial infections.

In vitro protein synthesis using a mixture of purified components now offers the possibility of efficient production of labile products and more detailed study of the translation process.

Peptides derived from tiny bacterial viruses may offer an alternative strategy for combating bacterial infections.

Slowly, more information is emerging about the function of untranslated RNAs in regulating transcript maturation and splicing.

A variation on an approach that uses diphtheria toxin to ablate specific cells in mice provides a better means of assessing biological function.

Microbeads embedded with quantum dots show promise as a multiplex coding technology for the analysis of nucleic acids and proteins.

Transgenic corn co-expressing two complementary endotoxins from Bacillus thuringiensis shows promise in controlling these pernicious pests, but questions remain on how best to avoid the emergence of resistance.

Progress continues in exploiting ionic conductance of a membrane channel for single-molecule DNA sequence detection.

If known pathways represent preferred paths through global protein networks, large-scale experiments should focus on how to recognize these paths among all of the alternatives.

Induction of apoptotic death by modified caspases enhances the function of “naked” DNA vaccination.

The targeted disruption of two genes in sheep confirms the feasibility of gene targeting in large animals, but falls short of producing viable offspring.

Two new approaches offer the means to expand the repertoire of amino acids available for protein engineering.

Coupling pheotype to genotype without physical linkage.

The genetic selection of mutant cells in a glycoconjugate biosynthetic pathway may provide insights into metabolic disease.