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Categories: Biology: Genetics, Ecology: Extinction

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Biochemists have succeeded in resurrecting the ancestral genes of five detoxifying enzymes which are present in all tetrapods to show how their divergence in function has occurred.

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Amphibians worldwide are affected by climate change and potentially one of the most threatened. Biologists found that some species of amphibians are more likely to be sensitive to climate change because they are not protected by state or federal regulations. The team determined that approximately 11 percent of anuran species are sensitive to climate change, but are not currently listed as at-risk either at the state, federal, or international levels.

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After more than 30 years, botanists have rediscovered Thismia kobensis, a type of mysterious-looking rare plant commonly referred to as 'fairy lanterns'. Thismia kobensis was presumed extinct and the surprise rediscovery of this Japanese variety has illuminated hidden aspects of fairy lanterns that have puzzled and fascinated botanists for centuries.

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By simulating early Earth conditions in the lab, researchers have found that without specific amino acids, ancient proteins would not have known how to evolve into everything alive on the planet today -- including plants, animals, and humans.

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Textbooks will tell you that in dividing cells, production of new DNA peaks during the S-phase, while production of other macromolecules, such as proteins, lipids, and polysaccharides, continues at more or less the same level. Molecular biologists have now discovered that this is not true: protein synthesis shows two peaks and lipid synthesis peaks once.

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Haematopoietic stem cell transplantation for the treatment of severe blood cancers is the only medical intervention that has cured two people living with HIV in the past. An international group of physicians and researchers has now identified another case in which HIV infection has been shown to be cured in the same way. The successful healing process of this third patient was for the first time characterized in great detail virologically and immunologically over a time span of ten years.

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Influenza viruses are becoming increasingly resilient to medicines. For this reason, new active ingredients are needed. Important findings in this regard have been provided: for the virus to proliferate, the polymerase of the influenza A virus has to be modified many times through enzymes in the host cells. The team of researchers was able to produce a comprehensive map of types of modification. Medicines directed against the enzymes woud be resilient to rapid mutations in the virus, thus offering great potential for the future.

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By exploring the stability and collapse of marine ecosystems during the Permian-Triassic mass extinction, researchers gain insights into modern biodiversity crisis.

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Researchers believe rising sea temperatures are to blame for the plummeting number of invertebrates such as molluscs and sea urchins at Rottnest Island off Western Australia, with some species having declined by up to 90 per cent between 2007 and 2021.

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A team has developed a method for selectively manipulating genetically engineered cells with ultrasound.

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Growing wheat in drought conditions may be easier in the future. Researchers found the right number of copies of a specific group of genes can stimulate longer root growth, enabling wheat plants to pull water from deeper supplies.

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The meat-eating dinosaurs known as theropods that roamed the ancient Earth ranged in size from the bus-sized T. rex to the smaller, dog-sized Velociraptor. Scientists puzzling over how such wildly different dinosaur sizes evolved recently found -- to their surprise -- that smaller and larger theropod dinosaurs like these didn't necessarily get that way merely by growing slower or faster.

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Psyllium fiber protects against ulcerative colitis and suppresses inflammation by activating the bile acid nuclear receptor, a mechanism that was previously unrecognized, according to a new study.

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High-resolution microscopy techniques, for example electron microscopy or super-resolution microscopy, produce huge amounts of data. The visualization, analysis and dissemination of such large imaging data sets poses significant challenges. Now, these tasks can be carried out using MoBIE, which stands for Multimodal Big Image Data Exploration, a new user-friendly, freely available tool. This means that researchers such as biologists, who rely on high-resolution microscopy techniques, can incorporate multiple data sets to study the processes of life at the very smallest scales.

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The endangered Saimaa ringed seal is an Ice Age relict living in the highly labyrinthine Lake Saimaa, Finland. The newly published work shows that although individual seals have greatly reduced genetic variation, the loss of variation has been complementary, preserving the adaptive potential of the whole population.

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It was the height of summer 2022 when the calls started coming in. Scores of dead deer suddenly littered rural properties and park preserves, alarming the public and inconveniencing landowners. According to officials at the Urbana Park District, it was Epizootic Hemorrhagic Disease (EHD), a midge-borne viral illness that pops up in white-tailed deer populations around the state every few years. And when susceptible deer are infected, they die within days. Now, scientists have found gene variants in deer associated with the animals' susceptibility to EHD.

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Biologists use current and historical bird surveys to reveal how land use change has amplified -- and in some cases mitigated -- the impacts of climate change on bird populations in Los Angeles and the Central Valley over the past century. The study found that urbanization and much hotter and drier conditions in L.A. have driven declines in more than one-third of bird species in the region.

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Researchers have provided the first experimental evidence that a species of endangered sea star protects kelp forests along North America's Pacific Coast by preying on substantial numbers of kelp-eating urchins.

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Aquaculture, or the farming of aquatic plants and animals, contributes to biodiversity and habitat loss in freshwater and marine ecosystems globally, but when used wisely, it can also be part of the solution, new research shows.

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New research shows that the feathers of seabirds such as the Wandering Albatross can provide clues about their long-distance foraging, which could help protect these species from further decline.