Biology News

Oct 8, 2024 by News Staff

The venom of black widow spiders contains a cocktail of seven specific latrotoxins, but only one — α-latrotoxin — targets vertebrates, including humans. Chemists at the University of Münster have now deciphered the structure of α-latrotoxin before and after membrane insertion at near atomic resolution. Cryo-EM structure of α-latrotoxin in two distinct tetrameric states. Image credit: Klink et al., doi: 10.1038/s41467-024-52635-5. Latrotoxins...

Oct 7, 2024 by News Staff

Two injured individuals of Mnemiopsis leidyi, a species of planktonic animals known as comb jellies or ctenophores, are capable of rapidly fusing into...

Oct 7, 2024 by News Staff

Geckos use the saccule — a part of their inner ear traditionally associated with maintaining balance and body positioning — to detect low-frequency...

Oct 4, 2024 by Natali Anderson

A team of marine biologists led by a Florida International University researcher has described a new species of the shark genus Sphyrna from the Caribbean...

Oct 4, 2024 by Sergio Prostak

Xibalbanus tulumensis, a venomous remipede found in anchialine caves on the Yucatán Peninsula, is the only crustacean for which a venom system has been...

Oct 4, 2024 by News Staff

Fungus-farming ants cultivate multiple species of fungi for food, but the history of fungus-ant co-evolution is poorly known. In a new study published...

Oct 3, 2024 by News Staff

Play is a widespread behavior present in distant species that, in its social form, relies on complex communication. Playful communication has been largely...

Oct 3, 2024 by News Staff

Researchers from the University of Tokyo and elsewhere have found pockets of living microbes in mineral-filled veins within 2-billion-year-old rock from...

Oct 2, 2024 by News Staff

Recent studies suggest that a muscle called the levator anguli oculi medialis (LAOM) is unique to dogs (Canis familiaris) and evolved due to domestication....

Sep 27, 2024 by News Staff

Sea robins are unusual ocean fish that possess specialized leg-like appendages used to ‘walk’ along the sea floor. New research shows that these appendages...

Sep 25, 2024 by News Staff

Despite the long history of consumption of fermented dairy, little is known about how the fermented microbes were utilized and evolved over human history....

Sep 25, 2024 by News Staff

Amaga pseudobama has been found in three locations in North Carolina and in some infested plants from Georgia. Amaga pseudobama, living specimen collected...

Sep 24, 2024 by News Staff

Dubbed EndoMac progenitors, the newly-discovered type of cell has the potential to enhance the future of tissue repair and generation, according to a team...

Sep 23, 2024 by News Staff

Catechins are the major active compounds present in the tea plant (Camellia sinensis), the main industrial crop cultivated worldwide. Tea catechins are...

Sep 23, 2024 by News Staff

The dingo is a wild dog endemic to Australia with enigmatic origins. Dingoes are one of two remaining unadmixed populations of an early East Asian dog...

Sep 17, 2024 by News Staff

Bubble use evolved in many small invertebrates to enable underwater breathing, but, until recently, there has been no evidence that vertebrate animals...

Sep 17, 2024 by Natali Anderson

Syntretus perlmani infects the adult stage of fruit flies in the genus Drosophila, including one of the most deeply studied model organisms in biology,...

Sep 15, 2024 by News Staff

Blood groups are complex. The two best known blood group systems are ABO and Rh. Within each blood group, red cells can carry surface markers called antigens....

Sep 5, 2024 by News Staff

Researchers at Stanford University have found that an aqueous solution of a common food color approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, tartrazine,...

Sep 4, 2024 by Natali Anderson

Named Haliotis pirimoana, the newly-identified gastropod species is only found at Manawatāwhi Three Kings Islands, off New Zealand’s North Island. Shells...