The rising atmospheric concentration of CO2 is beneficial for the physiology of sorghum, an economically and nutritionally important crop grown worldwide. This is the conclusion of a study performed at the University of São Paulo in Brazil. The researchers found that when this plants were kept in a low-humidity environment, CO2 not only protected them against drought but also promoted a systemic adjustment in their metabolism that led their seeds to accumulate 60 percent more protein.

Researchers at the University of São Paulo's Bioscience Institute in Brazil, at Harvard Medical School and Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard in the United States, have shown that a gene called Jagged1, or JAG1 for short, could be a target for the development of new approaches to treat Duchenne muscular dystrophy, a genetic disorder characterized by progressive muscle degeneration.

Because of decreasing deforestation and emissions from forest fires in the Amazon, the amount of particulate matter, ozone, carbon monoxide and other atmospheric pollutants released by burning biomass has fallen by 30 percent on average in dry season in Brazil, Paraguay, Bolivia and Argentina. This improvement in the region's air quality may be helping to prevent the premature deaths of some 1,700 adults per year throughout South America, according studies made in Brazil, UK and USA.

A new study published in the Journal of Virology reveals that NS1, a nonstructural protein composing the replication machinery of the dengue virus, binds to a well-known human enzyme as a way to increase energy production to be used for viral replication.

Brazilian scientists found that ADHD children and their mothers are more likely to have shorter telomeres, a hallmark of cellular aging, which is associated with increased risk for chronic diseases and conditions like diabetes, obesity and cancer.

Given the fear that the variola virus could be reintroduced to humans in weaponized form, new generations of smallpox vaccines are highly needed. A new study provides fresh insights on the relationship among the vaccinia strains used to eradicate smallpox in the world and indicates that differently than previously thought, the Dryvax virus that led to the second-generation of smallpox vaccine in the USA is closely related to the Brazilian strain and might as well have come from the French and not the British.