A facile one step route that introduces functionality to polymer powders for laser sintering.

Laser Sintering (LS) is a type of Additive Manufacturing (AM) exploiting laser processing of polymeric particles to produce 3D objects. Because of its ease of processability and thermo-physical properties, polyamide-12 (PA-12) represents ~95% of the polymeric materials used in LS. This constrains the functionality of the items produced, including limited available colours.

A potential alternative to fungicides using actives-free (meth)acrylate polymers for protection of wheat crops from fungal attachment and infection.

Fungicidal compounds are actives widely used for crop protection from fungal infection, but they can also kill beneficial organisms, enter the food chain and promote resistant pathogen strains from overuse. Here we report the first field crop trial of homopolymer materials that prevent fungal attachment, showing successful crop protection an actives-free approach. In the trial, formulations containing two candidate polymers were applied to young wheat plants that were subject to natural infection with the wheat pathogen .

Methylation Warfare: Interaction of Pneumococcal Bacteriophages with Their Host.

Virus-host interactions are regulated by complex coevolutionary dynamics. In , phase-variable type I restriction-modification (R-M) systems are part of the core genome. We hypothesized that the ability of the R-M systems to switch between six target DNA specificities also has a key role in preventing the spread of bacteriophages.

Draft Whole-Genome Sequences of Periodontal Pathobionts , , and Contain Phase-Variable Restriction-Modification Systems.

Periodontal disease comprises mild to severe inflammatory host responses to oral bacteria that can cause destruction of the tooth-supporting tissue. We report genome sequences for 18 clinical isolates of , , and , Gram-negative obligate anaerobes that play a role in the periodontal disease process.