Showing 20 articles starting at article 1241

< Previous 20 articles        Next 20 articles >

Categories: Biology: Genetics, Ecology: Invasive Species

Return to the site home page

     (via sciencedaily.com) 

Black widow spiders have earned a fearsome reputation for their venomous bite. But in parts of the southern United States these spiders have much to fear themselves -- from spider relatives who really don't like their company. In the past couple decades, researchers have noticed black widow spiders being displaced by the brown widow, a fellow species in the same genus. But new research suggests this isn't a simple case of one species winning the competition for food or habitat. Instead, a study shows brown widow spiders have a striking propensity to seek out and kill nearby black widows.

     (via sciencedaily.com) 

The skeleton, tendons, and glands of a functional jaw all derive from the same population of stem cells, which arise from a cell population known as neural crest. To discover how these neural crest-derived cells know to make the right type of cell in the right location, researchers focused on a particular gene, Nr5a2, that was active in a region of the face that makes tendons and glands, but not skeleton. To understand the role of Nr5a2, the scientists created zebrafish lacking this gene. These mutant zebrafish generated excess cartilage and were missing tendons in their jaws.

     (via sciencedaily.com) 

Jewel beetles are striking insects, easily recognized by their vivid colors and metallic sheen. New research investigated the complex evolutionary history of jewel beetles' vision.

     (via sciencedaily.com) 

Researchers have observed a highly unusual behavior in the endangered freshwater mussel, Unio crassus. The jets disturb the river surface and attract fish. Mussel larvae in the jets can then attach to the gills of the fish and complete their metamorphosis into adults.

     (via sciencedaily.com) 

Strong electric fields can be used to create pores in biomembranes. The method is known as electroporation. Inducing such defects in membranes in a targeted manner is an important technique in medicine and biotechnology, but also in the treatment of foodstuffs.

     (via sciencedaily.com) 

Most cells in the bodies of living things duplicate their contents and physically separate into new cells through the process of cell division. But across many species, germ cells, those that become eggs or sperm, don't fully separate. They remain interconnected through small bridges called ring canals and cluster together. In a new study, researchers uncover how it is that germ cells in fruit flies form these ring canals, a finding that they say will provide new insights into a widely shared feature of development and into diseases in which cell division is disrupted.

     (via sciencedaily.com) 

A review suggests that the parasitoid Eiphosoma laphygmae is likely to be the best classical biological control from the Americas against the devastating fall armyworm pest.

     (via sciencedaily.com) 

In the first step toward understanding how dogs -- and perhaps humans -- might adapt to intense environmental pressures such as exposure to radiation, heavy metals, or toxic chemicals, researchers found that two groups of dogs living within the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone showed significant genetic differences between them. The results indicate that these are two distinct populations that rarely interbreed. While earlier studies focused on the effects of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant disaster on various species of wildlife, this is the first investigation into the genetic structure of stray dogs living near the Chernobyl nuclear power plant.

     (via sciencedaily.com) 

The faba bean genome, which at 13 billion bases is more than four times the size of the human genome, has been sequenced. This is an extraordinary technical achievement and crucial to efforts to breed beans with optimum nutritional content and sustainability of production.

     (via sciencedaily.com) 

Researchers have uncovered new evidence of western pygmy possums interacting with native flowers, providing an eDNA study to simultaneously detect mammal, insect and bird DNA on flowers.

     (via sciencedaily.com) 

Research into the ability of a wildfire to improve the health of a forest uncovered a Goldilocks effect -- unless a blaze falls in a narrow severity range, neither too hot nor too cold, it isn't very good at helping forest landscapes return to their historical, more fire-tolerant conditions.

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Researchers describe a new manner of detecting microbial infection that intercepts pathogen-derived signals of growth to assess the relative threat of virulent bacteria. A nuclear hormone receptor in the nematode C. elegans senses a toxic metabolite produced by the bacterial pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa to activate innate immunity. These data reveal an ancient strategy that informs the origins of pathogen detection and may be among the most primordial forms of immune sensing in animals.

     (via sciencedaily.com) 

The DNA sequence of a gene in wheat responsible for resisting a devastating virus has been discovered, providing vital clues for managing more resistant crops and maintaining a healthy food supply.

     (via sciencedaily.com) 

New methodology and tools provide an opportunity to watch in unprecedented detail as a phage attacks a bacterium.

     (via sciencedaily.com) 

Obese fruit flies are the experimental subjects in a study of the causes of muscle function decline due to obesity. In humans, skeletal muscle plays a crucial role in metabolism, and muscle dysfunction due to human obesity can lead to insulin resistance and reduced energy levels.

     (via sciencedaily.com) 

Once upon a time, prevailing scientific opinion might have pronounced recently published research as unneeded. Now, climate change implications have heightened the need for this line of research. Flowers emit scent chemicals called volatile organic compounds (VOCs). Earlier this year, a study identified a protein that plays a key role in helping petunias emit volatiles.

     (via sciencedaily.com) 

The findings offer a new way to understand how some ants become total layabouts.

     (via sciencedaily.com) 

An international team of bee researchers has integrated a calcium sensor into honey bees to enable the study of neural information processing including response to odors. This also provides insights into how social behavior is located in the brain.

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

In early cytological studies chromatids of metaphase chromosomes were suggested to coil into a spiral called chromonema. This assumption was recently supported by chromosomce conformation capture sequencing. Still, the direct visualization of the coiled chromonema confirming the helical model was lacking. Now, an international research team provides the direct proof of the helical coiling of condensed chromatids via super-resolution microscopy of specifically labelled chromonema regions.

     (via sciencedaily.com) 

Deforestation is resulting in reduced rainfall across large parts of the tropics, according to new research. People living in tropical forest communities have often complained that the climate gets hotter and drier once trees are cleared but until now, scientists have not been able to identify a clear link between the loss of tree cover and a decline in rainfall.