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433 news posts in Life sciences

Life sciences

17 Aug 2021

Microplastics hinder the growth of microscopic marine animals

By Tania Fitzgeorge-Balfour, science writer Example of marine dinoflagellates (Dinophysis sp., not the species studied in the paper). Image credit: Rattiya Thongdumhyu/Shutterstock.com Plastic pollution is not just a problem for larger marine animals. Dinoflagellates, which are single-celled marine predators, can also ingest microplastic which in turn limits their growth and consequently their overall abundance. This has implications for the larger animals that feed on these microscopic predators, in terms of available food and the transfer of energy up the food chain. Microscopic marine predators can ingest microplastic, which in turn lowers their growth and overall abundance, finds a recent study published in Frontiers in Marine Science. This has implications for the larger marine animals that feed on these tiny predators, both in terms of available food and the transfer of energy up the food chain. “The plastic pollution of our oceans isn’t just affecting whales and sea turtles, it also impacts the small, microscopic animals towards the bottom of the food chain,” says Susanne Menden-Deuer, coauthor of this research and a professor at the Graduate School of Oceanography, University of Rhode Island, US. “Our study shows that some single-celled marine predators called dinoflagellates ingest microplastic particles, and when they do, […]

Life sciences

15 Jul 2021

The two-thousand-year-old mystery of the havoc-wreaking worm

By Daegan Miller / University of Massachusetts Amherst Office of News and Media Relations Section of a piling attacked by shipworms in Belfast, Maine. Image credit: Barry Goodell / University of Massachusetts Amherst Humans have known for over two thousand years that shipworms, a worm-like mollusk, are responsible for damage to wooden boats, docks, dikes and piers. Yet new research from the University of Massachusetts Amherst published in Frontiers in Microbiology reveals that we still don’t know the most basic thing about them: how they eat. “It’s unbelievable,” says Reuben Shipway, adjunct assistant professor in microbiology at UMass Amherst, research fellow at the Centre for Enzyme Innovation at the University of Portsmouth, UK, and one of the paper’s authors. “The ancient Greeks wrote about them, Christopher Columbus lost his fleet due to what he called ‘the havoc which the worm had wrought,’ and, today, shipworms cause billions of dollars of damage a year.” Read original article. Download original article (pdf) Shipworms also play a key role in mangrove forest ecosystems, found throughout the world’s tropical regions, and are responsible for cycling a huge amount of carbon through the web of life. “Yet,” says Shipway, “we still don’t know how they do what […]

Life sciences

07 Jun 2021

Dr Tal Gordon: ‘During one of my dives, an animal I collected ejected its digestive system at me’

By Mischa Dijkstra, Frontiers science writer / Tal Gordon, George S Wise Faculty of Life Sciences, Tel-Aviv University, Israel Tal Gordon during one of her research dives. Image credit: Tal Zaquin Dr Tal Gordon is a zoologist and molecular biologist interested in the molecular basis of regeneration. She grew up in Eilat (Israel) close to the Red Sea and spent much of her childhood by the sea. Her recent PhD thesis at Tel-Aviv University focused on the development and regeneration in ascidians (sea squirts, a non-monophyletic subdivision of tunicates), in particular Polycarpa mytiligera. She discovered that this species has unique regeneration abilities, which makes it an excellent new model system to study regeneration and stem cells. One key result, recently published in Frontiers in Cell and Developmental Biology, is that P. mytiligera can regenerate any missing body part, including its entire nervous system, by reactivation of evolutionarily conserved developmental programs. Gordon is currently a postdoctoral fellow in the laboratory of Dr Omri Wurtzel at Tel-Aviv University, focusing on the molecular basis of regeneration. In her present research, she uses comparative genomics to unravel regulatory pathways that facilitate ascidian regeneration. As part of our Frontier Scientist series, she told us about […]

Life sciences

20 May 2021

How dancing honey bees could help us save pollinators

By Suzanna Burgelman/Dr Margaret Couvillon, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University Dr Margaret Couvillon. Image: Margaret Couvillon Pollinators are under threat worldwide. Researchers such as Dr Margaret Couvillon study bees to find solutions that will benefit the survival of pollinators. Specifically, Couvillon studies the honey bee waggle dance, to discover where and how bees find food. Her research can help design bee conservation and management strategies. Bees, insects, birds, butterflies, bats. These species have one crucial thing in common: they are pollinators, and our survival depends on them. Around the world, they contribute to the conservation of biodiversity, and importantly, to food security. World Bee Day raises awareness about pollinators and the many threats they face. As an open access publisher, Frontiers has several research topics focused on pollinator research. Check out this post on our news site for a curated list. The theme for World Bee Day 2021 is ‘Bee engaged’ – build back better for bees. Today (20 May) is all about highlighting the need for worldwide cooperation to restore and support pollinators and the crucial role they play in biodiversity conservation. Dr Margaret Couvillon, assistant professor of pollinator biology and ecology at Virginia Tech, specializes in honey […]

Life sciences

05 May 2021

An animal able to regenerate all of its organs even when it is dissected into three parts

By Tel Aviv University photography & media unit Polycarpa mytiligera. Credit: Tel Aviv University An extraordinary discovery in the Gulf of Eilat: Researchers from Tel Aviv University have discovered a species of ascidian, a marine animal commonly found in the Gulf of Eilat, capable of regenerating all of its organs—even if it is dissected into three fragments. The study was led by Prof Noa Shenkar, Prof Dorothee Huchon-Pupko, and Tal Gordon of Tel Aviv University’s School of Zoology at the George S. Wise Faculty of Life Sciences and the Steinhardt Museum of Natural History. The findings of this surprising discovery were published in the leading journal Frontiers in Cell and Developmental Biology. “It is an astounding discovery, as this is an animal that belongs to the phylum Chordata—animals with a dorsal cord—which also includes us humans,” explains Prof Noa Shenkar. “The ability to regenerate organs is common in the animal kingdom, and even among chordates you can find animals that regenerate organs, like the gecko who is able to grow a new tail. But not entire body systems. Here we found a chordate that can regenerate all of its organs even if it is separated into three pieces, with each […]

Life sciences

05 May 2021

Majority of bird species in Americas could survive climate change, shows study

By Robert Hanley / Durham University communications team The Arenal Volcano seen from the Monteverde Cloud Forest. Monteverde-Arenal is one of 21 Important Bird and Biodiversity Areas (IBA) in Costa Rica. Credit: Sorin Vacaru Photography / Shutterstock.com Researchers show that the current network of Important Bird and Biodiversity Areas (IBAs) across the Americas should remain able to house the majority of bird species of conservation concern even after climate change. While individual bird species may shift their distribution range, 73% of species of conservation concern are likely to persist in at least half of the IBAs in which they occur, and 90% of species in at least a quarter of their current IBAs. This implies that future conservation efforts in the Caribbean and Central and South America can focus on expanding the current IBA network. A new study, led by Durham University and published in the journal Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution, investigates the impacts of potential climate change scenarios on the network of Important Bird and Biodiversity Areas (IBAs) across the Caribbean, and Central and South America. The research was carried out in collaboration with Senckenberg Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre, BirdLife International and the National Audubon Society. IBAs are […]