https://phys.org/biology-news/ en-us Phys.org provides the latest news on biology, evolution, microbiology, biotechnology The hemoglobin in the red blood cells ensures that our body cells receive sufficient oxygen. When the blood pigment is broken down, heme is produced, which in turn can influence the protein cocktail in the blood. Researchers at the University of Bonn have now discovered in complex detective work that the activated protein C (APC) can be commandeered by heme. At the same time, APC can also reduce the toxic effect of heme. Perspectively, the findings may provide the basis for better diagnostic and therapeutic approaches to blood diseases. The study has been published online in advance in the journal Antioxidants & Redox Signaling. The print version will be published soon. https://phys.org/news/2020-09-blood-breakdown-product-important-enzyme.html Cell & Microbiology Molecular & Computational biology Fri, 04 Sep 2020 12:43:38 EDT news518442212 Although immune responses are generated by a complex, hierarchical arrangement of immune system organs, tissues, and components, the unit of the cell has a particularly large effect on disease progression and host survival. These cell-level defense mechanisms, known as cell-autonomous immunity, are among the most important determinants of human survival, and are millions to billions of years old, inherited from our prokaryotic and single-celled ancestors. https://phys.org/news/2020-09-cell-autonomous-immunity-pathogen-mediated-evolution-humans.html Evolution Cell & Microbiology Fri, 04 Sep 2020 12:42:52 EDT news518442168 If you have any children in your life, imagine for a moment that they don't look anything like their parents, they don't eat anything humans normally eat, and they're active only while adults sleep. https://phys.org/news/2020-09-big-tadpoles-frogs-complicated.html Plants & Animals Fri, 04 Sep 2020 11:21:15 EDT news518437268 A team of international vets using tranquilliser darts, flatbreads and the soothing lyrics of Frank Sinatra conducted a medical examination Friday on Pakistan's only Asian elephant, ahead of his planned move to Cambodia. https://phys.org/news/2020-09-pakistan-asian-elephant-home.html Plants & Animals Ecology Fri, 04 Sep 2020 11:20:25 EDT news518437220 A research collaboration based at Kumamoto University (Japan) has found that activation of PPARα, a fatty acid receptor that detects fatty acids in cells and regulates physiological functions, causes masculinization of Japanese rice fish (medaka). The discovery of this molecular mechanism is expected to advance the development of new sex control technologies. https://phys.org/news/2020-09-fatty-acid-receptor-involved-temperature-induced.html Plants & Animals Biotechnology Fri, 04 Sep 2020 11:17:18 EDT news518437035 Researchers have discovered how a protein in plant roots controls the uptake of minerals and water, a finding which could improve the tolerance of agricultural crops to climate change and reduce the need for chemical fertilizers. https://phys.org/news/2020-09-protein-discovery-fertilizer.html Plants & Animals Biotechnology Fri, 04 Sep 2020 11:09:05 EDT news518436542 A team of researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology in Jena, Germany, and the University of Virginia, USA, has studied the impact of high ozone air pollution on the chemical communication between flowers and pollinators. They showed that tobacco hawkmoths lost attraction to the scent of their preferred flowers when that scent had been altered by ozone. This oxidizing pollutant thus disturbs the interaction between a plant and its pollinator, a relationship that has evolved over millions of years. However, when given the chance, hawkmoths quickly learn that an unpleasantly polluted scent may lead to nutritious nectar. The study is published in the Journal of Chemical Ecology. https://phys.org/news/2020-09-air-pollution-odors-unattractive-moths.html Plants & Animals Ecology Fri, 04 Sep 2020 11:08:10 EDT news518436485 A new application of the CRISPR/Cas molecular scissors promises major progress in crop cultivation. At Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), researchers from the team of molecular biologist Holger Puchta have succeeded in modifying the sequence of genes on a chromosome using CRISPR/Cas. For the first time worldwide, they took a known chromosome modification in the thale cress model plant and demonstrated how inversions of the gene sequence can be undone and inheritance can thus be controlled specifically. The results are published in Nature Communications. https://phys.org/news/2020-09-inheritance-specifically.html Molecular & Computational biology Fri, 04 Sep 2020 10:10:07 EDT news518430719 The notion of plants talking to us about dead people sounds like a bad horror movie. But that's the theme of a recent scientific paper I co-authored. https://phys.org/news/2020-09-dead-bodies-families-people.html Plants & Animals Ecology Fri, 04 Sep 2020 09:40:02 EDT news518429364 Autophagy, from the Greek for "self-eating," is an essential process that isolates and recycles cellular components under conditions of stress or when resources are limited. Cargoes such as misfolded proteins or damaged organelles are captured in a double membrane-bound compartment called the autophagosome and targeted for degradation. A fundamental question concerns precisely how these "garbage bags" form in the cell. Scientists led by Sascha Martens from the Max Perutz Labs, a joint venture of the University of Vienna and the Medical University of Vienna, have now reconstructed the first steps in the formation of autophagosomes. They show that tiny vesicles loaded with the pro-tein Atg9 act as the seed from which the autophagosome emerges. The study is published in Science. https://phys.org/news/2020-09-scientists-reveal-key-formation-recycling.html Cell & Microbiology Molecular & Computational biology Fri, 04 Sep 2020 09:31:15 EDT news518430672 A team of researchers from Chile, Hungary, and Spain has created a model to show the factors that can result in heat death in multiple species of fruit flies. In their paper published in the journal Science, the group describes using established mathematical models to predict heat death under different scenarios and comparing it with heat tolerance data from prior research efforts. Raymond Huey and Michael Kearney with the University of Washington and the University of Melbourne, respectively, have published a Perspective piece in the same journal issue outlining the work by the team in this effort. https://phys.org/news/2020-09-death-fruit-flies-due-climate.html Ecology Fri, 04 Sep 2020 09:29:24 EDT news518430557 Researchers at the University of Illinois Chicago have developed a unique method for precisely controlling the deposition of hydrogel, which is made of water-soluble polymers commonly used to support cells in experiments or for therapeutic purposes. Hydrogel mimics the extracellular matrix – the natural environment of cells in the body. https://phys.org/news/2020-09-coaxing-stem-cells-specialized.html Cell & Microbiology Molecular & Computational biology Fri, 04 Sep 2020 09:15:42 EDT news518429739 Mosses and their microbial partners are important players in fertilizing the boreal forests that make up nearly a third of all Earth's forests. But climate may be changing mosses' role in how these forests access nutrients, according to a new study led by the Center for Ecosystem Science and Society (Ecoss) at Northern Arizona University and the University of Saskatchewan. https://phys.org/news/2020-09-mosses-climate-fate-nitrogen-boreal.html Ecology Fri, 04 Sep 2020 09:09:20 EDT news518429359 Humans have long been inspired and transfixed by the Moon, and as we're discovering, moonlight can also change the behavior of Australian wildlife. https://phys.org/news/2020-09-predators-prey-moonlight-phases-moon.html Ecology Fri, 04 Sep 2020 09:07:05 EDT news518429223 Locusts are threatening another part of Africa, with up to 7 million people in the southern region facing further food insecurity, the United Nations said Friday. https://phys.org/news/2020-09-locusts-threatening-southern-africa.html Ecology Fri, 04 Sep 2020 06:15:15 EDT news518418910 Some male butterflies go to extreme lengths to ensure their paternity—sealing their mate's genitalia with a waxy "chastity belt" to prevent future liaisons. But female butterflies can fight back by evolving larger or more complex organs that are tougher to plug. Males, in turn, counterattack by fastening on even more fantastic structures with winglike projections, slippery scales or pointy hooks. https://phys.org/news/2020-09-butterfly-sexes-males-deploy-chastity.html Plants & Animals Ecology Thu, 03 Sep 2020 15:37:39 EDT news518366254 If naked mole-rats were human, they would be prescribed hearing aids. With six mutations in genes associated with hearing, naked mole-rats can barely hear the constant squeaking they use to communicate with one another. This hearing loss, which is strange for such social, vocal animals, is an adaptive, beneficial trait, according to new findings published in the journal Current Biology. https://phys.org/news/2020-09-loss-naked-mole-rats-advantage-hardship.html Plants & Animals Ecology Thu, 03 Sep 2020 15:06:40 EDT news518364387 In 2013 the Rim Fire—the largest fire on record in the Sierra Nevada—burned one third of the potential California Spotted Owl (Strix occidentalis occidentalis) habitat in Yosemite National Park. The park provides prime habitat for this Spotted Owl subspecies, which is listed as a Species of Special Concern by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, and concern grew regarding the fire's effect on Yosemite's owl populations. But recent research provides some good news regarding the park's owls, and it may be due to Yosemite's unique history and fire management strategy. https://phys.org/news/2020-09-megafire-deter-yosemite-owls.html Plants & Animals Ecology Thu, 03 Sep 2020 15:06:03 EDT news518364361 Researchers at the University of California, Davis and the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, U.K. have solved the the structure of the complex formed when mRNA is being scanned to find the starting point for translating RNA into a protein. The discovery, published Sept. 4 in Science, provides new understanding of this fundamental process. https://phys.org/news/2020-09-protein-mrna-complex-insight-cancer.html Biotechnology Molecular & Computational biology Thu, 03 Sep 2020 14:00:01 EDT news518337847 A study led by researchers from Tasmania, Chile and Germany has furthered our understanding of plant evolution by tracking the origins of electrical signaling components that plants developed to communicate and adapt to life on land. https://phys.org/news/2020-09-cells-tracking-evolution-electrical.html Plants & Animals Evolution Thu, 03 Sep 2020 12:25:03 EDT news518354699 This fall, apple lovers can look forward to three new varieties from the oldest apple breeding program in the U.S.—located at Cornell AgriTech in Geneva, New York, part of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences (CALS). https://phys.org/news/2020-09-crunchy-complex-apples.html Plants & Animals Thu, 03 Sep 2020 12:21:01 EDT news518354459 Gene therapy generally relies on viruses, such as adeno-associated virus (AAV), to deliver genes into a cell. In the case of CRISPR-based gene therapies, molecular scissors can then snip out a defective gene, add in a missing sequence or enact a temporary change in its expression, but the body's immune response to AAV can thwart the whole endeavor. https://phys.org/news/2020-09-immune-response-gene-therapy-effective.html Cell & Microbiology Biotechnology Thu, 03 Sep 2020 12:18:22 EDT news518354295 A new species of freshwater Crustacea has been discovered during an expedition of the desert Lut, known as the hottest place on Earth. https://phys.org/news/2020-09-species-freshwater-crustacea-hottest-earth.html Plants & Animals Ecology Thu, 03 Sep 2020 12:13:38 EDT news518354015 Zimbabwe wildlife authorities on Thursday said they suspect ten more elephants succumbed to a bacterial infection that killed 12 young pachyderms last week. https://phys.org/news/2020-09-zimbabwe-dead-elephants-bacteria.html Ecology Thu, 03 Sep 2020 12:12:14 EDT news518353932 New research reveals current understanding of safe antibiotic levels in rivers may not prevent evolution of antibiotic resistance and fully protect human health. The study suggests the need to introduce thresholds to help fight the spread of resistant bacteria. https://phys.org/news/2020-09-safe-thresholds-antibiotics-sewage-combat.html Ecology Cell & Microbiology Thu, 03 Sep 2020 11:00:08 EDT news518334119 The ability for humans to digest milk as adults has altered our dietary habits and societies for centuries. But when and how that ability—known as lactase persistence or lactose tolerance—occurred and became established is up for debate. By testing the genetic material from the bones of people who died during a Bronze Age battle around 1,200 BC, an international team of scientists including Krishna Veeramah, Ph.D., of Stony Brook University, suggest that lactase persistence spread throughout Central Europe in only a few thousand years, an extremely fast transformation compared to most evolutionary changes seen in humans. Their findings are published in Current Biology. https://phys.org/news/2020-09-reveals-lactose-tolerance-quickly-europe.html Evolution Other Thu, 03 Sep 2020 11:00:06 EDT news518334771 Search teams looking for human remains are often slowed by painstaking on-foot pursuits or aerial searches that are obscured by forest cover. In a Science & Society article appearing September 3 in the journal Trends in Plant Science, the authors discuss utilizing tree cover in body recovery missions to our advantage, by detecting changes in the plant's chemistry as signals of nearby human remains. Though the impact of human decomposition on plants has not yet been thoroughly explored, the researchers outline the steps needed to make body recovery using vegetation more of a reality. https://phys.org/news/2020-09-dead-bodies-forensic-botanists.html Plants & Animals Other Thu, 03 Sep 2020 11:00:04 EDT news518343238 It is commonly said that childhood experiences shape adult behavior; that events that we may not even remember can have long-lasting or even permanent effects. In a new article by scientists at the Champalimaud Center for the Unknown in Portugal, published in Current Biology, experiments using zebrafish show that social experiences during the very first week of development impact behavior at an early larval stage, before the fish are considered social. This suggests that these experiences mark the fish much earlier than previously thought. https://phys.org/news/2020-09-social-impact-zebrafish-early-age.html Plants & Animals Ecology Thu, 03 Sep 2020 11:00:04 EDT news518345403 Old male elephants play a key role in leading all-male groups, new research suggests. https://phys.org/news/2020-09-males-vital-elephant-societies.html Plants & Animals Ecology Thu, 03 Sep 2020 11:00:01 EDT news518335265 To date only the length of the legendary giant shark Megalodon had been estimated but now, a new study led by the University of Bristol and Swansea University has revealed the size of the rest of its body, including fins that are as large as an adult human. https://phys.org/news/2020-09-true-size-prehistoric-mega-shark-revealed.html Plants & Animals Thu, 03 Sep 2020 10:28:52 EDT news518347727