Biology News

New Study Shows How Dormant Toxoplasma Parasites Manipulate Neurons to Survive

Microscopic cysts containing Toxoplasma gondii develop in the tissues of many vertebrates. Here, in mouse brain tissue, thousands of bradyzoites (stained red) are enveloped by a thin parasite cyst wall. Image credit: Jitinder P. Dubey.
Dec 27, 2021 by News Staff

Toxoplasma gondii develops a latent infection in the muscle and central nervous system that acts as a reservoir for acute-stage reactivation in vulnerable patients. Until now little is understood about how these parasites manipulate host cells during latent infection and the impact this has on survival. New research led by the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research, the University of Melbourne and the Wellcome Center for Anti-Infectives...

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New Caledonian crows (Corvus moneduloides) are particularly careful when handling their most valuable tools. Image credit: James St Clair.

New Caledonian Crows Prefer Hooked Stick Tools, Safely Store Them Underfoot or in Holes

Dec 22, 2021 by News Staff

According to a new study, New Caledonian crows (Corvus moneduloides) strongly prefer hooked stick tools made from stems of the ground tamarind (Desmanthus...

Coast redwoods (Sequoia sempervirens) on U.S. Route 199 in California, the United States. Image credit: Acroterion / CC BY-SA 3.0.

Scientists Sequence Genome of Coast Redwood

Dec 20, 2021 by News Staff

Researchers have successfully sequenced, assembled and annotated the genome of coast redwood (Sequoia sempervirens), one of the most widely recognized...

Crocidura pallida, one of the 14 new species discovered by Esselstyn et al. Image credit: Kevin Rowe.

Fourteen New Shrew Species Discovered in Indonesia

Dec 17, 2021 by News Staff

An international team of scientists has examined 1,368 specimens of shrews from the Indonesian island of Sulawesi and found clear, mostly consistent evidence...

The barreleye fish (Macropinna microstoma). Image credit: MBARI.

Deep-Sea Fish with Transparent Head Caught on Camera

Dec 16, 2021 by Natali Anderson

A deep-sea fish species called the barreleye fish (Macropinna microstoma) has been observed with MBARI’s remotely operated vehicle (ROV) Ventana in Monterey...

The leggiest animal on Earth: a female of Eumillipes persephone with 330 segments and 1,306 legs. Scale bar - 0.5 mm. Image credit: Marek et al., doi: 10.1038/s41598-021-02447-0.

New Record-Setting Species of Millipede Has 1,306 Legs

Dec 16, 2021 by Natali Anderson

Eumillipes persephone, the new record-setting species of millipede from Western Australia, is a diminutive (0.95 mm wide and 95.7 mm long) animal with...

Screenshot from the OneZoom tree of life explorer with leaves colored according to extinction risk and showing the ‘spiral’ view of the tree. Image credit: OneZoom.

OneZoom: Researchers Create Interactive Tree of Life

Dec 15, 2021 by News Staff

The interactive tree of life explorer OneZoom maps the connections between 2.2 million living species, the closest thing yet to a single view of all species...

The Adler’s mouse opossum (Marmosa adleri) is much smaller than its sister species (pictured here), the Alston’s mouse opossum (Marmosa alstoni). Image credit: Victor Acosta.

New Species of Mouse Opossum Discovered in Panama

Dec 10, 2021 by Natali Anderson

A team of researchers from the American Museum of Natural History, Siena College and the Bell Museum at the University of Minnesota, St. Paul, has discovered...

Gaire et al. demonstrate that substrates conditioned by human skin or treated with compounds from human skin can prevent bed bug arrestment. Image credit: CDC / World Health Organization.

Human Skin Triglycerides Repel Bed Bugs, Study Shows

Dec 9, 2021 by News Staff

Bed bugs (Cimex lectularius) are blood-sucking insects that live in close proximity to humans. They have proliferated globally and have become one of the...

The olivaceous flatbill (Rhynchocyclus olivaceus). Image credit: Hector Bottai / CC BY 4.0.

New Species of Bird Discovered in South America

Dec 7, 2021 by Natali Anderson

A team of ornithologists from Brazil and Finland has discovered a cryptic new species of flatbill flycatcher living in the Amazonian lowlands. The olivaceous...

Delhey et al. demonstrate a general association between lightness and migratory behavior across all birds; their results confirm previous findings reporting a correlation between plumage lightness and migration, where the authors of those studies speculated that lighter plumage in migratory birds may be used in competition for territories; instead, Delhey et al. suggest thermoregulation as an alternative explanation that fits with the reported changes in migration altitude between night and day. Image credit: Frauke Riether.

Migratory Birds are Lighter Colored, New Study Shows

Dec 7, 2021 by News Staff

Migratory birds undertake long and challenging journeys that have selected for a suite of adaptations. Several recent studies revealed that migrating individuals...

Western honeybees (Apis mellifera). Image credit: PollyDot.

Western Honeybees May Have Originated in Asia, New Study Says

Dec 3, 2021 by News Staff

The origin of the western honeybee (Apis mellifera) has been intensely debated. Addressing this knowledge gap is essential for understanding the evolution...

Meteorus stellatus. Image credit: S. Fujie.

Newly-Discovered Parasitoid Wasp Species Constructs Enigmatic Star-Shaped Cocoons

Dec 1, 2021 by Enrico de Lazaro

Meteorus stellatus inhabits primary forests of the Okinawa-hontô and Amami-ôshima Islands, subtropical Japan. Meteorus stellatus. Image credit: S. Fujie. “Parasitoid...

Kriegman et al. show that clusters of cells, if freed from a developing organism, can similarly find and combine loose cells into clusters that look and move like they do, and that this ability does not have to be specifically evolved or introduced by genetic manipulation. Image credit: Kriegman et al., doi: 10.1073/pnas.2112672118.

Researchers Create Self-Replicating Living Robots

Nov 30, 2021 by News Staff

Professor Joshua Bongard, a computer scientist and robotics expert at the University of Vermont, and his colleagues from Tufts University and Harvard University’s...

Proposed pathway between intestinal glycerophospholipid production and memory enhancement: based on metagenomic and metabolomic analyses, Li et al. suggest that increased levels of Lactobacillus apis (and other Firm-5 species which similarly contain many genes for the PTS sugar transport pathway) will cause increased sugar metabolism, which will lead to the production of more glycerophospholipids; these glycerophospholipids are then transported into the hindgut and are rapidly secreted into the hemolymph (perhaps helped by an increase in mGlu2 receptors); they are transported to the brain via the bee’s open circulatory system, with attached metabolites, leading to improved structure and function of neural and synaptic membranes, thereby promoting better memory. Purple shapes: genes that positively correlated with long-term memory; rectangles: genes found in all three analyses (analyses based on genes mapped to the whole gut microbiota, Firm-5 and Lactobacillus apis). Ovals: genes found in whole gut microbiota and Firm-5 analyses. Rounded rectangles: remaining memory-correlated genes. Gray shapes: genes which did not correlate with long-term memory. Blue arrows: sugar metabolism. Red arrows: glycerophospholipid metabolism. Purple arrows: the increase or decrease of metabolites after Lactobacillus apis supplementation. Image credit: Li et al., doi: 10.1038/s41467-021-26833-4.

Study: Gut Bacteria Improve Long-Term Memory in Bumblebees

Nov 25, 2021 by News Staff

A team of scientists from Jiangnan University, Queen Mary University of London and the University of Oulu has identified a causal link between an increased...

The screaming tree frog (Litoria quiritatus), male, in Darkes Forest, New South Wales, Australia. Image credit: Jodi Rowley.

Two New Species of Tree Frogs Discovered in Australia

Nov 22, 2021 by News Staff

The two new frog species have been scientifically described with the help of citizen scientists and their recordings through the FrogID app. The screaming...

The star octopus (Octopus djinda). Image credit: Mark Norman / Amor & Hart, doi: 10.11646/zootaxa.5061.1.7.

Marine Biologists Discover New Species of Octopus

Nov 18, 2021 by Natali Anderson

The newly-discovered octopus species inhabits the shallow waters off southwest Australia and belongs to the Octopus vulgaris group, according to a new...

The calico rockfish (Sebastes dallii). Image credit: K. Lee.

Scientists Identify Genetic Drivers of Extreme Longevity in Pacific Ocean Rockfishes

Nov 16, 2021 by News Staff

A team of researchers from the University of California, Berkeley, and elsewhere has sequenced and analyzed the genomes of 88 Pacific Ocean rockfish species...

Highly variable neuron size and input-output properties across 10 mammalian species. Image credit: Beaulieu-Laroche et al., doi: 10.1038/s41586-021-04072-3.

Human Neurons are Strikingly Different from Those of Other Mammals, Study Says

Nov 11, 2021 by News Staff

Human neurons have a much smaller number of channels that control the flow of ions (such as potassium and sodium) than expected, compared to the neurons...

Vespa soror hornets attack a hive of eastern honeybees (Apis cerana) in Vietnam. Image credit: Heather Mattila / Wellesley College.

Study: Eastern Honeybees Use Specific Sound to Communicate Threat of Giant Hornets

Nov 10, 2021 by News Staff

An international team of researchers has documented the unique vibroacoustic signals the eastern honeybees (Apis cerana) use to alert members of their...

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