433 news posts in Life sciences

Life sciences

23 Sep 2022

Acquired immunity against random food allergens may protect some lucky people against Covid-19

By Conn Hastings, science writer A new study has investigated the potential of proteins in common foods to elicit protection against SARS-CoV-2. The researchers found that antibodies that bind SARS-CoV-2 can also bind to proteins in certain foods, viruses, vaccines, and common bacteria. The results suggest that exposure to such agents may confer some protective immunity to Covid-19, but further research is needed to confirm this. Why do some people become seriously ill with Covid-19, while others have no symptoms at all? The answer may lie in the proteins our immune system has previously been exposed to. A recent study in open-access journal Frontiers in Immunology finds that common foods, vaccines, bacteria and viruses may all prime our immune system to attack SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19. These agents all contain proteins that are similar to those found in SARS-CoV-2. As such, exposure to these proteins may train our immune system to respond when it encounters the virus. The study paves the way for new immunotherapies or vaccines that lead to stronger immunity against Covid-19. SARS-CoV-2: comfort in the familiar? SARS-CoV-2 is new, and the pandemic can make it feel like an alien invader from another planet. However, it […]

Life sciences

22 Sep 2022

Teams of sperm swim more smoothly against the current

By Peter Rejcek, science writer The physics of how sperm navigate their way to an egg in mammals, including humans, are not well understood. The tendency for sperm to cluster together as they make their way upstream through the thickish, elastic-like fluid of the female reproductive tract is more than just random behavior. Researchers have found biological benefits for sperm working together that may have implications for fertility studies. It turns out sperm go against the flow better when they swim together. Despite the popular idea that the fastest and fittest male reproductive cell is the one that wins the fertilization race, research has shown that spermatozoa often team up to navigate the female reproductive tract in a wide range of mammalian species. A new study published in the journal Frontiers in Cell and Developmental Biology offers some compelling reasons behind a newly identified clustering behavior. Previous research by the team, led by scientists out of North Carolina A&T State University and Cornell University, first discovered that sperm naturally pull together without attaching to each other when swimming in viscoelastic fluid. This is the type of fluid encountered by sperm migrating through the cervix and uterus to the oviduct where […]

Life sciences

09 Sep 2022

Scientific ‘detective work’ reveals South American mummies were brutally murdered

By Mischa Dijkstra, Frontiers science writer Sketch from the book by Reiss and Stübel (1887. The necropolis at Ancon) on the excavations and findings at the necropolis of Ancon, Peru. As it was typical at the end of the 19th/beginning of the 20th century, the content of graves was examined on the spot: mummy bundles and objects worth selling were taken away, invaluable items discarded. An international team used interdisciplinary techniques including 3D CT to do a ‘virtual autopsy’ on three mummies found in Peru and Chile, dating to between 900 and 1300 CE. They show that both male mummies had been murdered. These results highlight the wealth of archeological information that can be gained from mummies, as opposed to from skeletons. How frequent was violence in prehistoric human societies? One way to measure this is to look for trauma in prehistoric human remains. For example, a recent review of pre-Columbian remains found evidence of trauma from violence in 21% of males. So far, most studies of this kind focused on skulls and other parts of the skeleton, but a potentially richer source of information are mummies, with their preserved soft tissues. Now in a new study in Frontiers in […]

Life sciences

30 Aug 2022

Beetles rely on unique ‘back pockets’ to keep bacterial symbionts safe during metamorphosis

By Mischa Dijkstra, Frontiers science writer Lagria villosa adult. Image credit: RS Janke Researchers show that beetles in the genus Lagria have evolved unique ‘back pockets’ on their larvae and pupae to house bacterial symbionts, which protect the immature life stages against fungi. But in adult females, the symbionts exclusively occur in the accessory glands, next to the oviduct, from where they are deposited onto eggs. When the adult beetles emerge, friction shuffles the symbionts out of the pockets and backwards to the genital area. They then colonize the accessory glands by an unknown mechanism. Beetles of the genus Lagria need a little help from their bacterial friends throughout their immature life stages. But keeping them in the same spot throughout life isn’t feasible. This is because beetles are holometabolous insects, which undergo an overall bodily reorganization (metamorphosis) as pupae. Here, scientists show for the first time that the beetles have evolved an ingenious solution to this problem: female pupae keep their symbiotic bacteria in specialized pockets on their back. When they emerge as adults, they shuffle the bacteria out of these pockets, backwards and then on into their genital area. These results are published in Frontiers in Physiology. ► Read […]

Life sciences

17 Aug 2022

Modern pesticides damage the brain of bees so they can’t move in a straight line

By Mischa Dijkstra, Frontiers science writer Image: Shutterstock.com Researchers show for the first time that honeybee foragers exposed to the pesticides sulfoxaflor and imidacloprid have an impaired optomotor response, which makes them poor at keeping themselves on a straight trajectory while moving. This impairment is accompanied by damage to brain cells and dysregulation of detoxification genes. These results add to the growing evidence that modern pesticides are highly damaging to beneficial insects like bees. The challenge to let people walk back and forth in a straight line isn’t just used by police to test if drivers are intoxicated: it’s also used by neurologists to diagnose neurological disorders like ataxia, where parts of the brain that coordinate movement are impaired. Now, researchers use an insect version of this challenge to show for the first time that modern pesticides damage the nervous system of honeybees so that it becomes hard for them to walk in a straight line. The results are published in Frontiers in Insect Science. “Here we show that commonly used insecticides like sulfoxaflor and the neonicotinoid imidacloprid can profoundly impair the visually guided behavior of honeybees. Our results are reason for concern because the ability of bees to respond […]

Life sciences

15 Aug 2022

Humans have totally altered small mammal communities in just a few centuries

By Suzanna Burgelman, science writer Image: Paul Abrahams/Shutterstock.com Researchers have found that small mammal communities today are fundamentally different from even a few centuries ago, during North America’s pre-colonial past. They identified small mammal remains from the Anthropocene and archaeological Holocene along a geographical area with varying degrees of human impact and examined diversity across these sites and time periods. Optimistically, the researchers also found that even small, protected spaces can conserve native small mammal communities, highlighting their important role in urban conservation projects. Characterized by rapid climate change, pollution, and landscape alteration, the Anthropocene is an unofficial unit of geological time and is defined as the most recent period in Earth’s history (from the 1950s to present) when human activity started to have a significant impact on the planet’s ecosystems and climate. This impact is increasingly modifying natural ecosystems and threatening biodiversity, for example by quickly expanding urbanization. Researchers at Stanford University have now discovered that modern small mammal communities from the Anthropocene are less diverse and are differently structured then even a few centuries ago, during the Holocene (around 500 years ago), showing the extent of the impacts of human activities on our ecosystems. The results were published […]

Life sciences

02 Aug 2022

Yoda-like tarsiers push virtuoso singing to their physiological limits

By Mischa Dijkstra, Frontiers science writer Pair of Gursky’s spectral tarsiers, Tarsius spectrumgurskyae. Image credit: Arie de Gier / Shutterstock.com Researchers show that the notes within duets between female and male Gursky’s spectral tarsiers on Sulawesi are taxing for the singers, presumably due to physiological constraints. An individual’s ‘virtuosity’ in singing these demanding notes could thus signal fitness to conspecifics, similarly to the costly tail of peacocks. Opera arias are typically rich in coloratura, for example fast, high notes that stretch over a wide frequency range. Coloratura aren’t just beautiful to listen to: they are also designed to allow the best singers to show off their virtuosity. Now, researchers from Sam Ratulangi University in Indonesia and Cornell University in the US show that pairs of Gursky’s spectral tarsier sing duets that have evolved to similarly show off virtuosity – at least, for those individuals that manage to pull off their species’ version of coloratura: rapidly repeated broadband notes emitted in coordination to form a duet between adult males and females. The results are published today in Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution. The researchers show that not all tarsiers can sing these duets equally well. Some Gursky’s spectral tarsiers achieve a […]

Life sciences

21 Jul 2022

Microbial ´dark matter´: centuries-old lava caves of Hawaiʻi Island contain thousands of unknown bacterial species

By K.E.D. Coan, science writer Thick microbial mats hang under a rock ledge in steam vents that run along the Eastern Rift Zone on Hawaiʻi Island. Image Credit: Jimmy Saw Volcanic habitats in Hawaiʻi are rich in bacterial diversity, including many yet undiscovered species, shows a new study. These lava caves and geothermal vents are similar to what may have once existed on Mars and the bacterial communities that co-exist there provide clues about how life can exist in extreme environments. This work also suggests that there is still much to learn about as-of-yet unknown bacteria here on Earth. The lava caves, lava tubes and geothermal vents on the big island of Hawaiʻi have higher bacterial diversity than scientists expected, reports a new study in Frontiers in Microbiology. These habitats represent how life might have existed on Mars and early Earth in the past, and this study explores the diversity and interactions within these microbial ecosystems. Surprisingly, the results revealed that a group of bacteria called Chloroflexi are often ‘hub’ species, meaning that they are connected with many other species and usually play key ecological roles in the community. Little is known about many Chloroflexi species and further study will […]

Life sciences

19 Jul 2022

Scientists identify DNA ‘hotspots’ that tell zebrafish to change sex in warmer waters

By Mischa Dijkstra, Frontiers science writer Zebrafish, Danio rerio Scientists identify 54 ‘hotspots’ in the genome for cross-talk between the environment, in particular water temperature, and genes predisposing zebrafish to develop into either sex. There, DNA methylation prompts genetic pathways to change, allowing the influence of temperature to ‘overrule’ the sex-determining genes. As a result, certain born females develop into males. Higher water temperatures induce specific chemical tags at targeted locations on the DNA of embryonic zebrafish. These ‘epigenetic’ changes can then reroute genetic pathways, so that the embryos change sex. This finding, in Frontiers in Cell and Developmental Biology, is not just of fundamental scientific interest. It’s also relevant for conservation, since an influence of temperature on sex determination could be recipe for disaster for species living through rapid climatic change. The study’s first author, Dr Shahrbanou Hosseini, a postdoctoral researcher at the Molecular Livestock Science and Diagnostics Group of the Department of Animal Sciences at Göttingen University, said: “Here we show that epigenetic modifications influence the variation in sex ratio between zebrafish families. This implies that the interaction between genotype and environment in determining sex is mediated by epigenetics.” Genes interact with environment to determine sex From high […]

Life sciences

14 Jul 2022

‘Maths’ genes used by fish to count may help us treat human neurodevelopmental diseases

By K.E.D. Coan, science writer A recent review shows that fish estimate quantities in a similar way as many other vertebrate animals. By pinpointing the cells and even genes that make basic maths possible, this research could provide a starting point for treating human neurodevelopmental diseases that impair number processing skills. Fish are helping researchers track down the origins of how brains compute maths, reports a review in Frontiers in Neuroanatomy. An international team has reviewed more than 200 publications, which together show that fish perceive quantities using similar parts of their brains as mammals and birds. Research is still underway to find the specific brain circuitry that makes number processing possible, but these findings could eventually help treat human diseases that impair the ability to do maths. “Fish are on par with other animals in possessing a sense of quantity,” said corresponding author Prof Giorgio Vallortigara of the University of Trento in Italy. “There are species, most notably the zebrafish, that are ideal models for studying the molecular and genetic bases of the sense of quantity. This could have important implications for neurodevelopmental diseases affecting number cognition, such as developmental dyscalculia, which impairs maths skills in up to 6% […]

Life sciences

14 Jun 2022

Installation of deep-water pipeline gives immediate boost to sea-floor animals

By Tania Fitzgeorge-Balfour, science writer Image credit: DeeAnn Cranston / Shutterstock.com An underwater survey finds the abundance and types of animals on the deep-sea floor west of Africa, off the Angolan coast, increased in response to the installation of an underwater pipeline. This is thought to be related to the pipeline providing shelter and trapping organic matter that the animals feed on. Despite the remoteness of this area, the study also revealed a large increase in the amount of litter, which was trapped against the pipeline. An underwater survey west of Africa, off the Angolan coast, found that both the abundance and types of animals on the deep-sea floor increased significantly in response to the installation of a pipeline. Published in Frontiers in Marine Science, the study also revealed a large increase in the amount of litter on the seafloor, which was trapped against the pipeline. “In a short space of time the installation of a pipeline led to increases in the abundance and diversity of marine life in most areas,” said Daniel Jones, associate head of ocean biogeosciences at the National Oceanography Centre, UK, and author of this study. “We believe this could be related to the pipeline providing […]

Life sciences

14 Jun 2022

Fighting malaria by manipulating the amount of serotonin mosquitos obtain from blood meals

By Maryam Clark and Mischa Dijkstra, science writers Image credit: Somboon Bunproy / Shutterstock.com A new study shows that by feeding blood containing high levels of the neurotransmitter serotonin to female invasive city-dwelling mosquitos (Anopheles stephensi), we can decrease the mosquitos’ flight speed, and reduce their motivation to seek out a second blood meal. This suggests that we could ultimately prevent the mosquitos’ transmission of malaria, by manipulating the amount of host serotonin that mosquitos normally obtain from their blood meals. Many people have heard of serotonin as a signaling molecule in the human brain that affects our mood. But across the animal kingdom, serotonin signaling is crucial for regulating a vast range of other functions, for example blood pressure, heart rate, nausea, and the rate of food passage in the gut. Now, a study in Frontiers in Physiology shows how we could take advantage of the pivotal role of serotonin in physiological pathways across unrelated species, to disrupt the transmission of malaria. The results suggest that by increasing the amount of serotonin that mosquitos ingest with mammalian blood, we can change the mosquitos’ behavior to make them less efficient vectors of malaria parasites. ► Read original article► Download original article (pdf) […]

Life sciences

08 Jun 2022

New study finds 19th century wooden shipwrecks to be thriving habitats for deep-sea microbiomes

New study in Frontiers in Marine Science finds 19th century wooden shipwrecks to be thriving habitats for deep-sea microbiomes

Life sciences

10 May 2022

Children grow faster during school year than during summer holidays

By Mischa Dijkstra, Frontiers science writer Image credit: MIA Studio / Shutterstock.com Children grow faster during the school year than during the summer period, show scientists. In contrast to the strong seasonality of vertical growth, there is little seasonality in increase in body weight over time. Slower vertical growth affects the BMI and contributes to the “obesogenicity” of the summer period. It has been long recognized that in Western countries, children are more likely to become overweight or obese over the summer. Causes of this include changes in kids’ physical activity and diet over the summer period, including the summer holidays. But in a new study in Frontiers in Physiology, scientists from the US show that this ‘obesogenicity” of summers has another unexpected cause: children grow faster over the school year than over the summer. And because Body Mass Index (BMI) is the ratio of body weight in kg and height in meters squared, faster vertical growth during the school leads to increased BMI during summers. “Here we show seasonality in standardized body mass index (BMIz), with children gaining height at a greater rate during the school year compared to the summer,” said Dr Jennette P Moreno, an assistant professor […]

Life sciences

26 Apr 2022

Think fast! Clever monkeys plan their food trips to avoid stronger rivals

By Mischa Dijkstra, Frontiers science writer Vervet monkey, Chlorocebus pygerythrus, from K social group in Uganda. Image credit: TJM Arseneau-Robar, KA Anderson, EN Vasey, P Sicotte, JA Teichroeb Researchers show that vervet monkeys take into account complex social contexts to plan their food trips. When higher-ranking competitors are nearby, they rush to secure the best food immediately. But when they have sufficient time, they choose a route that maximizes the total food intake and minimizes travel distance. Vervet monkeys are quick and clever planners of the best route to follow on foraging trips, shows a new study. When dominant group mates are too far away to interfere, vervets tend to choose the shortest route along successive food sites, snacking on each at leisure. But when dominants group mates are nearby, they seem to assess the time before these can approach and displace them at the feeding site. They then choose the route that maximizes their food intake and minimizes travel distance before the competitors’ arrival. These results, published in Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution, mean that vervets have excellent cognitive skills for quickly appraising the social context and planning their route accordingly. These skills allow them to choose foraging strategies […]