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Categories: Biology: Biotechnology, Offbeat: Plants and Animals
Published Earth's earliest forest revealed in Somerset fossils
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source The oldest fossilized forest known on Earth -- dating from 390 million years ago -- has been found in the high sandstone cliffs along the Devon and Somerset coast of South West England.
Published Cracking epigenetic inheritance: Biologists discovered the secrets of how gene traits are passed on
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source A research team has recently made a significant breakthrough in understanding how the DNA copying machine helps pass on epigenetic information to maintain gene traits at each cell division. Understanding how this coupled mechanism could lead to new treatments for cancer and other epigenetic diseases by targeting specific changes in gene activity.
Published What makes a pathogen antibiotic-resistant?
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source In a comparative study, researchers describe how two notable pathogens -- Escherichia coli and Acinetobacter baumannii -- employ distinctly different tools to fend off antibiotic attack by two different drugs.
Published Early life adversity leaves long-term signatures in baboon DNA
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Early experiences in an animal's life can have a significant impact on its capacity to thrive, even years or decades later, and DNA methylation may help record their effects. In a study of 256 wild baboons, researchers found that resource limitation during early life was associated with many differences in DNA methylation, a small chemical mark on the DNA sequence that can affect gene activity.
Published The world's most prolific CO2-fixing enzyme is slowly getting better
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source New research has found that rubisco -- the enzyme that fuels all life on Earth -- is not stuck in an evolutionary rut after all. The largest analysis of rubisco ever has found that it is improving all the time -- just very, very slowly. These insights could potentially open up new routes to strengthen food security.
Published Marine algae implants could boost crop yields
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Scientists have discovered the gene that enables marine algae to make a unique type of chlorophyll. They successfully implanted this gene in a land plant, paving the way for better crop yields on less land.
Published Bee-2-Bee influencing: Bees master complex tasks through social interaction
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Bumblebees successfully learned a two-step puzzle box task through social observation. This task was too complex for individual bees to learn on their own. Observing trained demonstrator bees performing the first unrewarded step was crucial for successful social learning. Individual bees failed to solve the puzzle without previous demonstration, despite extensive exposure.
Published Revealing the evolutionary origin of genomic imprinting
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Some of our genes can be expressed or silenced depending on whether we inherited them from our mother or our father. The mechanism behind this phenomenon, known as genomic imprinting, is determined by DNA modifications during egg and sperm production.
Published Universal tool for tracking cell-to-cell interactions
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source An updated method for directly observing physical interactions between cells, could allow scientists to one day map every possible cell interaction.
Published Synthetic gene helps explain the mysteries of transcription across species
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source 'Random DNA' is naturally active in the one-celled fungi yeast, while such DNA is turned off as its natural state in mammalian cells, despite their having a common ancestor a billion years ago and the same basic molecular machinery, a new study finds.
Published Decoding the language of epigenetic modifications
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Epigenetic changes play important roles in cancer, metabolic and aging-related diseases, but also during loss of resilience as they cause the genetic material to be incorrectly interpreted in affected cells. A major study now provides important new insights into how complex epigenetic modification signatures regulate the genome. This study will pave the way for new treatments of diseases caused by faulty epigenetic machineries.
Published New deep-sea worm discovered at methane seep off Costa Rica
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Marine biologists have discovered a new species of deep-sea worm living near a methane seep some 50 kilometers (30 miles) off the Pacific coast of Costa Rica.
Published Genetic mutation in a quarter of all Labradors hard-wires them for obesity
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source New research finds around a quarter of Labrador retriever dogs face a double-whammy of feeling hungry all the time and burning fewer calories due to a genetic mutation.
Published Do some electric fish sense the world through comrades' auras?
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source It would be a game-changer if all members of a basketball team could see out of each other's eyes in addition to their own. Biologists have found evidence that this kind of collective sensing occurs in close-knit groups of African weakly electric fish, also known as elephantnose fish. This instantaneous sharing of sensory intelligence could help the fish locate food, friends and foes.
Published Tiny worms tolerate Chornobyl radiation
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source A new study finds that exposure to chronic radiation from Chornobyl has not damaged the genomes of microscopic worms living there today -- which doesn't mean that the region is safe, the scientists caution, but suggests that these worms are exceptionally resilient.
Published Researchers explore non-invasive method for sampling drug response
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Harnessing a pervasive type of cellular messenger shows early experimental promise as a routine way of sampling and monitoring the body's response to prescription drug exposure. Experiments have successfully isolated drug-metabolizing enzymes from extracellular vesicles (EVs), which are widely secreted throughout the body for cellular communication.
Published Lab-grown liver organoid to speed up turtle research, making useful traits easier to harness
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Researchers developed protocols for growing organoids that mimic a turtle liver, the first organoids developed for a turtle and only the second for any reptile. The discovery will aid deeper study of turtle genetics, including the cause of traits with potential medical applications for humans such as the ability to survive weeks without oxygen.
Published Fossils of giant sea lizard with dagger-like teeth show how our oceans have fundamentally changed since the dinosaur era
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Fossils of a strange new species of marine lizard with dagger-like teeth that lived 66 million years ago, show a dramatically more biodiverse ocean ecosystem to what we see today.
Published Fossil named 'Attenborough's strange bird' was the first in its kind without teeth
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source A new fossil, named 'Attenborough's strange bird' after naturalist and documentarian Sir David Attenborough, is the first of its kind to evolve a toothless beak. It's from a branch of the bird family tree that went extinct in the mass extinction 66 million years ago, and this strange bird is another puzzle piece that helps explain why some birds -- and their fellow dinosaurs -- went extinct, and others survived to today.
Published Modeling the origins of life: New evidence for an 'RNA World'
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Scientists provide fresh insights on the origins of life, presenting compelling evidence supporting the 'RNA World' hypothesis. The study unveils an RNA enzyme that can make accurate copies of other functional RNA strands, while also allowing new variants of the molecule to emerge over time. These remarkable capabilities suggest the earliest forms of evolution may have occurred on a molecular scale in RNA, and also bring scientists one step closer to re-creating autonomous RNA-based life in the laboratory.