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Categories: Biology: Biochemistry, Ecology: Extinction
Published Butterflies mimic each other's flight behavior to avoid predators
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Researchers have shown that inedible species of butterfly that mimic each others' color patterns have also evolved similar flight behaviors to warn predators and avoid being eaten.
Published Scientists assemble a richer picture of the plight and resilience of the foothill yellow-legged frog
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Up to only a few inches in length, with a lemon-hued belly, the foothill yellow-legged frog may seem unassuming. But its range once stretched from central Oregon to Baja California. In 2023, it was listed under the federal Endangered Species Act. Its rapidly decreasing range is due in part to a fungal pathogen called Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis, or Bd, that has devastated amphibians around the world.
Published Obesity disrupts normal liver function in mice
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Your liver plays a vital role in your metabolism, the biological process which converts food into energy. We know that being overweight can negatively affect metabolic activity, but not exactly how. To better understand this, researchers compared the livers of mice which were a typical weight with mice which were obese. They were surprised to find that biological regulation of metabolic activity, after a period of feasting and fasting, was reversed between them. In typical mice, allosteric regulation (the process which controls metabolism) was inhibited during feeding and activated when fasting. However, in obese mice, allosteric regulation increased during feeding and decreased when fasting.
Published Predatory fish use rapid color changes to coordinate attacks
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Striped marlin are some of the fastest animals on the planet and one of the ocean's top predators. When hunting in groups, individual marlin will take turns attacking schools of prey fish one at a time. Now a new study helps to explain how they might coordinate this turn-taking style of attack on their prey to avoid injuring each other. The key, according to the new work, is rapid color changes.
Published Blindness from some inherited eye diseases may be caused by gut bacteria
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Sight loss in certain inherited eye diseases may be caused by gut bacteria, and is potentially treatable by antimicrobials, finds a new study in mice.
Published The small intestine adapt its size according to nutrient intake
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Resizing of the intestine is a highly conserved strategy employed by a wide range of organisms to cope with fluctuation in nutrient availability. Nevertheless, very little is known about the mechanisms and signals underlying nutrient-mediated gut resizing. New research has identified one of the signaling pathways implicated in this process.
Published Common plant could help reduce food insecurity
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source An often-overlooked water plant that can double its biomass in two days, capture nitrogen from the air -- making it a valuable green fertilizer -- and be fed to poultry and livestock could serve as life-saving food for humans in the event of a catastrophe or disaster, a new study suggests.
Published Using mussels and silkworm cocoons to stop organ bleeding
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source A collaborative research team develops an absorbent multifunctional nanofiber adhesive hemostat based on a protein biomaterial.
Published Ribosomes: Molecular wedge assists recycling
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Researchers reveal how cells regenerate protein factories at endoplasmic reticulum.
Published Altering the circadian clock adapts barley to short growing seasons
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source To ensure that plants flower at the right time of year, they possess an internal clock, which enables them to measure the amount of daylight during a day. Biologists now describe that the mutation of a specific gene makes the flowering time of barley almost entirely independent of day length. This mutation can be useful for breeding varieties adapted to altered climatic conditions with relatively mild winters and hot, dry summers.
Published Neurobiology: How bats distinguish different sounds
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Bats live in a world of sounds. They use vocalizations both to communicate with their conspecifics and for navigation. For the latter, they emit sounds in the ultrasonic range, which echo and enable them to create an 'image' of their surroundings. Neuroscientists have now discovered how Seba's short-tailed bat, a species native to South America, manages to filter out important signals from ambient sound and especially to distinguish between echolocation and communication calls.
Published Killer instinct drove evolution of mammals' predatory ancestors
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source The evolutionary success of the first large predators on land was driven by their need to improve as killers, researchers suggest.
Published 'Dynamic duo' defenses in bacteria ward off viral threats
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Scientists have discovered that bacteria can pair up their defense systems to create a formidable force, greater than the sum of its parts, to fight off attack from phage viruses. Understanding how bacteria react to this type of virus is a big step in combating antimicrobial resistance.
Published Compound vital for all life likely played a role in life's origin
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source A chemical compound essential to all living things has been synthesized in a lab in conditions that could have occurred on early Earth, suggesting it played a role at the outset of life.
Published Snakes do it faster, better: How a group of scaly, legless lizards hit the evolutionary jackpot
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source More than 100 million years ago, the ancestors of the first snakes were small lizards that lived alongside other small, nondescript lizards in the shadow of the dinosaurs.
Published Copies of antibiotic resistance genes greatly elevated in humans and livestock
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Researchers have uncovered a key link between the spread of antibiotic resistance genes and the evolution of resistance to new drugs in certain pathogens. Bacteria exposed to higher levels of antibiotics often harbor multiple identical copies of protective antibiotic resistance genes which are linked to 'jumping genes' that can move from strain to strain. Duplicate genes provide a mechanism for resistance to spread and enable evolving resistance to new drugs.
Published Metabolic diseases may be driven by gut microbiome, loss of ovarian hormones
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Mice that received fecal implants from donors that had their ovaries removed gained more fat mass and had greater expression of liver genes associated with inflammation, Type 2 diabetes, fatty liver disease and atherosclerosis. The findings may shed light on the greater incidence of metabolic dysfunction in postmenopausal women.
Published Carbon emissions from the destruction of mangrove forests predicted to increase by 50,000% by the end of the century
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source The annual rate of carbon emissions due to the degradation of carbon stocks in mangrove forests is predicted to rise by nearly 50,000% by the end of the century, according to a new study. Mangroves in regions such as southern India, southeastern China, Singapore and eastern Australia are particularly affected.
Published Damage to cell membranes causes cell aging
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Researchers have discovered that damage to the cell membrane promotes cellular senescence, or cell aging.
Published Mice surprise: Researchers discover new native species
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Australia can lay claim to two new species of native rodent thanks to a new study. The aptly named delicate mouse was previously thought to be a single species spanning a massive stretch of the country from the Pilbara in Western Australia, across parts of the Northern Territory and through Queensland down to the New South Wales border. We now know there are three distinct species.