Biology News

Researchers Discover Gene Network that Drives Color Variation in Bumblebees

Bumblebees exhibit remarkable color pattern diversity that is primarily attributed to Müllerian mimicry. Previous research has identified the red-black mimetic color variation in Bombus melanopygus to be driven by genetic changes in a major upstream developmental gene (Hox gene Abd-B) dictating segmental morphology. Using a stage-specific transcriptomic approach, Rahman et al. unravel how this gene ultimately drives the melanic pigmentation differences, identifying a suite of genes from the most upstream Abd-B, to intermediate developmental genes, and finally to a set of interacting downstream melanin and redox genes. Image credit: Rahman et al., doi: 10.1093/gbe/evab080.
Oct 26, 2021 by News Staff

A Hox gene, a major developmental gene that regulates the identity of structures on the segments of black-tailed bumblebees (Bombus melanopygus), turns on a complex set of downstream genes that ultimately drive segmental changes in bumblebees’ pigmentation, according to new research. Bumblebees exhibit remarkable color pattern diversity that is primarily attributed to Müllerian mimicry. Previous research has identified the red-black mimetic color...

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Human-mediated selection for tusklessness in African savanna elephants (Loxodonta africana) during the Mozambican civil war appears to be driven by recent selection on at least one X-linked locus (AMELX) and one autosomal locus (MEP1a). Image credit: Benh Lieu Song / CC BY-SA 2.0.

Study: Intense Ivory Poaching Resulted in Rapid Evolution of Tusklessness in African Elephants

Oct 22, 2021 by News Staff

In response to heavy poaching by armed forces during the 20-year Mozambican civil war, populations of African savanna elephants (Loxodonta africana) in...

Anomalopus sp. Image credit: Paul Horner / South Australian Museum / Queensland Museum.

Two New Species of Limbless Skinks Discovered in Australia

Oct 20, 2021 by News Staff

Scientists have identified two new species of snake-shaped burrowing skinks (genus Anomalopus) living in mid-eastern Queensland, eastern Australia. Anomalopus...

To identify candidates for a new bacteriotherapy against skin infection, O’Neill et al. screened various bacteria from dogs and cats and co-cultured them with Staphylococcus felis C4 in liquid and agar antimicrobial assays. Image credit: O’Neill et al., doi: 10.7554/eLife.66793.

Feline Antimicrobial Bacterium May Help Fight Difficult-to-Treat Animal and Human Skin Infections

Oct 20, 2021 by News Staff

Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus pseudintermedius (MRSP) is an important emerging zoonotic pathogen that causes severe skin infections. In new research,...

Allium negianum. Image credit: Pandey et al., doi: 10.3897/phytokeys.183.65433.

New Species of Onion Discovered in India

Oct 18, 2021 by News Staff

A team of researchers has described a new species of the genus Allium from the Uttarakhand Himalayan region of India. Allium negianum. Image credit: Pandey...

Transcardial injection of green algae or cyanobacteria in Xenopus laevis tadpoles distributed these photosynthetic microorganisms throughout the CNS causing a light exposure-timed increase of the oxygen concentration upon illumination of the brain; during a general, brain-wide extinction of neuronal activity by sub-atmospheric oxygen levels, green algae, and cyanobacteria were able to reversibly and repetitively reinitiate the spike activity upon illumination, thereby demonstrating the capacity of these microorganisms to rescue brain activity by photosynthetic oxygen. Image credit: Özugur et al., doi: 10.1016/j.isci.2021.103158.

Study: Photosynthesizing Microorganisms Can Produce Oxygen in Brain Blood Vessels of Tadpoles

Oct 15, 2021 by News Staff

Biologists at the Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich have developed a method that allows tadpoles of African clawed frogs (Xenopus laevis) to ‘breathe’...

Hughes et al. demonstrate an endogenously-generated electric field proportional to the membrane potential Vm, and most likely caused by capacitive coupling between cytoplasm and extracellular medium, which manifests as changes in ζ-potential, low-frequency polarization and surface conductance; significantly, this shows red blood cells can alter the way in which they interact with their surroundings by the membrane potential rather than membrane composition, shedding new light on ion channel activity, cardiovascular disease, and drug action. Image credit: Allinonemovie.

Red Blood Cells Act as Tiny Electrodes, New Research Shows

Oct 13, 2021 by News Staff

A team of biologists from the University of Surrey, the MRC Laboratory for Molecular Biology, Wake Forest University and the École Centrale de Lyon has...

CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing can cause hundreds of unintended mutations. Image credit: Lisichik.

Is Junk DNA What Makes Human Brain Unique?

Oct 11, 2021 by News Staff

In the genome of Homo sapiens, about 98% of DNA sequences are non-coding regions that were previously disregarded as ‘junk DNA.’ In fact, junk DNA...

Holotype of Amoria thorae, dredged off Cape Moreton, Queensland and Tweed Heads, New South Wales, Australia: (A) dorsal view; (B) ventral (apertural) view; (C) lateral view; (D) view looking down on spire showing detail of protoconch. Image credit: Healy et al., doi: 10.17082/j.2204-1478.62.2020.2019-02.

Scientist Discovers New Species of Carnivorous Marine Snail

Oct 11, 2021 by News Staff

Dr. John Healy, a marine biologist at the Queensland Museum, the University of Queensland, and the Field Museum of Natural History, has described a new...

Aenigmanu alvareziae in the Amazon rainforest. Image credit: Patricia Álvarez-Loayza.

New Tree Species Discovered in Amazon Rainforest

Oct 7, 2021 by News Staff

A strange tree found in the Manu National Park in Peru in 1973 is a new genus and species of the small, mainly neotropical plant family Picramniacea, according...

(A, B) the Nujiang pit viper (Gloydius lipipengi) and (C, D) the Glacier pit viper (Gloydius swild). Image credit: Shi et al., doi: 10.3897/zookeys.1061.70420.

Two New Species of Venomous Snakes Discovered

Oct 6, 2021 by News Staff

Scientists have described two new species of pit vipers in the genus Gloydius from Zayu in Tibet and Heishui in Sichuan, China. (A, B) the Nujiang pit...

Yolk in the intestinal lumen of Caenorhabditis elegans larva after being left on a plate with no food apart from vented yolk for 4 h. Top: Nomarski microscopy image. Bottom left: larva imaged immediately after removal from plates using reflectance confocal microscopy (RCM) to highlight the refractive material of the terminal web that surrounds the intestinal lumen (red) and superimposed airyscan image (green) for GFP-labeled yolk. Bottom right: same larva imaged 100 min later showing yolk no longer in the lumen, either due to defecation or digestion; this disappearance confirms that the green fluorescence indicated in the central panel corresponds to yolk within the intestinal lumen. Scale bar - 20 μm. Image credit: Kern et al., doi: 10.1038/s41467-021-25821-y.

Worm Mothers Provide Milk-Like Fluid for Their Offspring

Oct 6, 2021 by News Staff

Post-reproductive Caenorhabditis elegans nematode mothers exhibit a form of primitive lactation, releasing yolk milk through their vulva that can enhance...

The diet of domestic cats consist primarily of provisioned foods, though the contribution of wild animals to their diets, all of which regularly caught wild animals, is low (cat food 96%, wild animals 3-4%). Image credit: Birgit.

Predatory Instinct is Main Reason why Domestic Cats Regularly Hunt Wild Prey, Study Suggests

Oct 1, 2021 by News Staff

Predation of wildlife by domestic cats (Felis catus) presents a threat to biodiversity conservation in some ecological contexts. The proportions of wild...

The swamp yabby (Cherax latimanus). Image credit: McCormack & Raadik, doi: 10.11646/zootaxa.5026.3.2.

New Species of Freshwater Crayfish Discovered in Australia

Sep 30, 2021 by News Staff

Scientists have described a new species of the crayfish genus Cherax from the Murray-Darling Basin in eastern Australia. The swamp yabby (Cherax latimanus)....

Gloeotrichia echinulata, a colonial species of cyanobacteria. Image credit: Barry Rosen, U.S. Geological Survey.

Oxygenic Photosynthesis and Living Lineages of Cyanobacteria Evolved in Archean Eon, Study Suggests

Sep 30, 2021 by News Staff

Using a new gene-analyzing technique, researchers from MIT and elsewhere have found that all extant species of cyanobacteria can be traced back to a common...

Kea parrots (Nestor notabilisa) don’t differentiate between the real and virtual worlds. Image credit: Amalia Bastos.

Kea Parrots Treat Physical and Virtual Worlds as Continuous and Equivalent, Study Shows

Sep 29, 2021 by News Staff

Using touchscreen laptops, a team of researchers from the University of Auckland has tested whether kea (Nestor notabilisa) — a large species of...

Frank et al. investigated differences in sulfur volatile production between saliva from children and adults using a proton transfer reaction mass spectrometry method using raw cauliflower powder. Image credit: Frank et al., doi: 10.1021/acs.jafc.1c03889.

Study: Dislike of Brassica Vegetables Is Written in Oral Microbiome

Sep 29, 2021 by News Staff

Interactions between Brassica vegetables, such as cabbage, Brussels sprouts, broccoli, and cauliflower, and human saliva can affect in-mouth odor development,...

The common vampire bats (Desmodus rotundus). Image credit: Uwe Schmidt.

Study: Vampire Bats Prefer to Hunt with Socially Bonded Roostmates

Sep 23, 2021 by News Staff

During nightly foraging trips, closely bonded females of common vampire bats (Desmodus rotundus) depart their roost separately, but often reunite far outside...

The pied hoverfly (Scaeva pyrastri). Image credit: Will Hawkes.

Hoverflies Navigate with ‘Time-Compensated Sun Compass’

Sep 23, 2021 by News Staff

The Sun is the most reliable celestial cue for orientation available to daytime migratory insects. New research led by the University of Exeter shows that...

Southeastern pocket gophers (Geomys pinetis) are biofluorescent, giving off a colored glow when illuminated with UV light. Image credit: Pynne et al., doi: 10.1674/0003-0031-186.1.150.

Scientists Observe Biofluorescence in Burrowing Mammals for First Time

Sep 21, 2021 by Sergio Prostak

An international team of researchers led by the University of Georgia has documented ultraviolet biofluorescence in live southeastern pocket gophers (Geomys...

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