Phys.org Biology

• A sound defense: Noisy pupae puff away potential predators

  Insect pupae hiss like snakes for defense. A Kobe University team now reveals the mechanisms, opening the door to further studies involving predator reactions to defensive sounds.

• Membrane 'neighborhood' helps transporter protein regulate cell signaling

  When a cell receives a message from outside, it generates a molecule called cyclic AMP (cAMP) to relay this message. To ensure the signal reaches the correct effector without triggering pathways accidentally, cAMP levels must be maintained around their point of origin and at the right level. ABCC4, a protein that transports cAMP out of cells and also contributes to drug resistance, helps with this local control. Yet, how ABCC4 is held in place at the right spot to perform these functions was not clear.

• Spain probes five labs in hunt for source of swine fever

  Spanish authorities said Saturday they are investigating five laboratories in an effort to find the source of an African swine fever outbreak that has unnerved Europe's leading pork-producing nation.

• Study finds virus 'socializing' influences effectiveness of antiviral drugs

  Interactions among viruses can help them succeed inside their hosts or impart vulnerabilities that make them easier to treat. Scientists are learning the ways viruses mingle inside the cells they infect, as well as the consequences of their socializing.

• Sick ant pupae emit chemical signals to prompt their own destruction

  Sick young ants release a smell to tell worker ants to destroy them to protect the colony from infection, scientists said Tuesday, adding that queens do not seem to commit this act of self-sacrifice.

• New 'remarkably tame' tinamou species discovered in Amazon mountains may already be at risk of extinction

  The Amazon rainforest has yielded yet another new species, according to a recent study published in Zootaxa. Discovered in the mountains of the Serra do Divisor National Park (SDNP) in Brazil, this ground-dwelling bird has been identified by a research team as a new species of Tinamus, a genus of birds in the Tinamou family Tinamidae.

• Gene editing creates compact goldenberry plants suitable for large-scale farming

  Goldenberries taste like a cross between pineapple and mango, pack the nutritional punch of a superfood, and are increasingly popular in U.S. grocery stores. But the plants that produce these bright yellow-orange fruits grow wild and unruly—reaching heights that make large-scale farming impractical.

• AI can dramatically speed up digitizing natural history collections

  A new study from UNC-Chapel Hill researchers shows that advanced artificial intelligence tools, specifically large language models (LLMs), can accurately determine the locations where plant specimens were originally collected, a process known as georeferencing.

• New Moby Dick-like termite species discovered

  In the canopies of a South American rainforest, a tiny soldier termite has stunned a team of international scientists with its whale-like features.

• Spain not ruling out lab leak as cause of swine fever outbreak

  Spain's government said Friday it had not ruled out an accidental laboratory leak as the cause of an outbreak of African swine fever that has rocked the country's lucrative pork industry.

• Programmable CRISPR platform can reduce stem cell differentiation from months to weeks

  Syntax Bio, a synthetic biology company programming the next generation of cell therapies, has published new research in Science Advances detailing the company's CRISPR-based Cellgorithm technology, which lays the groundwork for programmable control of gene activity in human stem cells and offers an alternative to the slow, variable manual processes researchers use today.

• Study reveals key psychological barriers to game meat consumption in Japan

  A new study provides a crucial roadmap for Japan to address an escalating ecological challenge while advancing food sustainability: overcoming the psychological barriers to game meat consumption.

• Birds shift to higher mountain elevations in Europe as climate warms

  Many bird species have moved toward colder areas in the mountains of Europe as the climate has warmed over the past two decades. Sunny southern slopes attract birds to live at higher elevations than do shadier northern slopes.

• New deep-sea species discovered during mining test

  There is high global demand for critical metals, and many countries want to try extracting these sought-after metals from the seabed. An international study, which has discovered large numbers of new species at a depth of 4,000 meters, shows that such mining has less of a negative impact than expected. However, species diversity declined by a third in the tracks of the mining machine.

• Extreme engineering: Unlocking design secrets of deep-sea microbes

  The microbe Pyrodictium abyssi is an archaeon—a member of what's known as the third domain of life—and an extremophile. It lives in deep-sea thermal vents, at temperatures above the boiling point of water, without light or oxygen, withstanding the enormous pressure at ocean depths of thousands of meters.

• Rice enzyme OsPLC4 triggers Ca²⁺ and ROS bursts to drive ferroptotic cell death in immune response

  A research team at Sejong University's Plant Immunity Laboratory, led by Professor Nam-Soo Jwa, has uncovered an important regulatory component of rice immunity.

• Yeast cell factory converts methanol into L-lactate for biodegradable plastics

  Methanol is an ideal feedstock for bio-manufacturing. Converting it into lactate, a monomer for biodegradable plastic, offers a promising strategy for addressing the challenge of white pollution. However, it remains difficult to engineer microbes to produce lactate from methanol due to methanol toxicity and strong competition between product synthesis and cell growth.

• Penguins queue in Paris zoo for their bird flu jabs

  A curious seagull strolled nonchalantly through the penguin enclosure at a zoo in Paris.

• Extremely rare 'dinosaur mummy' makes its way to Minnesota for study

  The fossil called "Medusa" could be a dinosaur mummy—the remains of an Edmontosaurus about 66 million years old that researchers believe contains a significant amount of skin and tendon tissue.

• The fossil bird that choked to death on rocks, and no one knows why

  A fossil only tells part of the story. When an animal's body is preserved as a fossil, there are often pieces missing, and even a perfectly preserved body doesn't tell the whole story of how that animal behaved, how it lived, and how it ultimately died.

• Visual system of butterflies changes with seasons, research reveals

  The shift from warm summer to cool fall conditions can be stressful for many animals. Surviving each season requires a multitude of different physiological and behavioral traits that scientists are still working to understand.

• Human-cat friendship started much later than you think

  A research team led by Professor Luo Shujin from the School of Life Sciences has uncovered a surprising chapter in the history of cats in China. Through ancient DNA sequencing of feline remains spanning more than 5,000 years, the team discovered that the animals living alongside early Chinese farming communities were not domestic cats, but the native leopard cat.

• Meet the weird, wonderful creatures that live in Australia's desert water holes: They might not be there much longer

  You might think of Australia's arid center as a dry desert landscape devoid of aquatic life. But it's actually dotted with thousands of rock holes—natural rainwater reservoirs that act as little oases for tiny freshwater animals and plants when they hold water.

• When you're happy, your dog might look sad: Study reveals surprising twist in how people read canine emotions

  When people are feeling happy, they're more likely to see other people as happy. If they're feeling down, they tend to view other people as sad. But when dealing with dogs, this well-established psychological effect ceases to work as expected.

• Should lynx and wolves be reintroduced to Britain and Ireland? Young people have mixed feelings

  There are many things people have love-hate relationships with in Britain and Ireland, from Brussels sprouts to cricket or sea swimming. Another item can now be added to this list: the reintroduction of lynx and wolves to the countryside.