26 Mar
Ants as fungus farmers
It turns out ants, like humans, are true farmers. The difference is that ants are farming fungus. Entomologists Ted Schultz and Sen Brady at the Smithsonians National Museum of Natural History have published a paper in the March 24 issue of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, providing new insight into the agricultural abilities of ants and how these abilities have evolved throughout time. Using DNA sequencing, the researchers were able to construct an evolutionary tree of fungus-growing ants, which revealed a single pioneering ancestor that discovered agriculture approximately 50 million years ago……..
By injecting a customized “genetic patch” into early stage fish embryos, scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis were able to correct a genetic mutation so the embryos developed normally. The research could lead to the prevention of up to one-fifth of birth defects in humans caused by genetic mutations, as per the authors……..
Brown bears from the Iberian Peninsula are not as genetically different from other brown bears in Europe as was previously thought. An international study being published this week in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, PNAS, shows that, on the contrary, the Spanish bear was only recently isolated from other European strains. These findings shed new light on the discussion of how to save the population of Spanish bears……..
Their gentle nature, large size, odd sounds and low-maintenance care have made Madagascar hissing cockroaches popular educational tools and pets for years. But the giant insects also have one unfortunate characteristic: Their hard bodies and feces are home to a number of mold species that could be triggering allergies in the kids and adults who handle the bugs, as per a new study……..
Take a deers body, attach a camels head and add a Jimmy Durante nose, and you have a saiga the odd-ball antelope with the enormous schnoz that lives on the isolated steppes of Central Asia. Unfortunately, they are as endangered as they are strange-looking due to over-hunting. Now, as per a recent Wildlife Conservation Society study, their migration routes are in jeopardy as well……..
As per scientists at the Monell Center, fruit flies are more like humans in their responses to a number of sweet tastes than are almost any other species. The diverse range of molecules that humans experience as sweet do not necessarily taste sweet to other species. For example, aspartame, a sweetener used by humans, does not taste sweet to rats and mice……..
Today’’s entry, organized by Connor Fitzpatrick, is the fourth in a BPotD series for UBC Research Week. The photographs and write up come courtesy of Dr. Fred Sack, Professor and Head, Department of ………
Using a systems biological analysis of genome-scale data from the model plant Arabidopsis, an international team of scientists identified that the master gene controlling the biological clock is sensitive to nutrient status. The study will appear in the latest issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. This hypothesis derived from multi-network analysis of Arabidopsis genomic data, and validated experimentally, has shed light on how nutrients affect the molecular networks controlling plant growth and development in response to nutrient sensing……..
Endangered sea turtles are victims of sloppy logging practices in the west central African country Gabon, as per a research studyled by William Laurance, staff scientist at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute. The study will be published online in the journal Oryx later this month. Sea turtle nesting attempts are impeded by lost or abandoned logs that accumulate along the countrys coastal beaches. Logs are floated downriver from forests to coastal lumberyards in the Gabonese Republic, but some float out to sea and then wash ashore, where they form large tangles……..
