ScienceDaily: Plants & Animals News

A plant-fungi partnership at the origin of terrestrial vegetation

Posted: 20 May 2021 11:53 AM PDT

450 million years ago, the first plants left aquatic life. Researchers have now succeeded in demonstrating that this colonization of land by plants was made possible by a partnership between plants and fungi. Validating this 40-year-old hypothesis allows us to understand a stage that was crucial to the development of life on Earth.

Earth's vegetation is changing faster today than it has over the last 18,000 years

Posted: 20 May 2021 11:53 AM PDT

A global survey of fossil pollen has discovered that the planet's vegetation is changing at least as quickly today as it did when the last ice sheets retreated around 10,000 years ago.

Forests and climate change: 'We can't plant our way out of the climate crisis'

Posted: 20 May 2021 11:53 AM PDT

Some climate activists advocate large-scale tree-planting campaigns in forests around the world to suck up heat-trapping carbon dioxide and help rein in climate change.

Swifts set new record for swiftness

Posted: 20 May 2021 10:39 AM PDT

Swifts aren't called 'swifts' for nothing. They're known for being among the fastest migrating small birds around. When they aren't breeding, common swifts stay in the air most of the time -- up to 10 months of the year. Scientists had thought they travel about 500 kilometers per day on average. Now, new evidence shows that's a conservative estimate.

Young orangutans have sex-specific role models

Posted: 20 May 2021 10:37 AM PDT

Social learning in orangutans is shaped by their sex. Young males learn their foraging skills from immigrant individuals, while young females get their skills by observing their mothers and other residents in the area. These different sets of ecological knowledge help secure their survival.

Origins of life researchers develop a new ecological biosignature

Posted: 20 May 2021 10:37 AM PDT

In groundbreaking work, a team has developed a new ecological biosignature that could help scientists detect life in vastly different environments.

How plants leave behind their parents' genomic baggage

Posted: 20 May 2021 10:37 AM PDT

Small chemical 'epigenetic' modifications help plants control their genes. Baby plants erase these modifications to start with a fresh genome every generation. Scientists discovered a gene responsible for reinstalling the beneficial modifications important for survival. Reinstalling these modifications on mobile genetic elements called transposons may explain the diversity of flowering plants.

Earthquake creates ecological opportunity

Posted: 20 May 2021 06:50 AM PDT

A new study has revealed how earthquake upheaval has affected New Zealand's coastal species.

Declining biodiversity in Tibet's mountainous regions in response to climate change

Posted: 20 May 2021 06:50 AM PDT

Normally, mountain forests are among the most diverse habitats in alpine regions. Yet, as a team discovered in the Tibetan Plateau, the higher, treeless areas are home to far more species.

Tree species diversity is no protection against bark beetle infestation

Posted: 19 May 2021 01:36 PM PDT

An ecologist investigates pest infestation in forests with mixed and monoculture tree stands.

White shark population is small but healthy off the coast of Central California

Posted: 19 May 2021 01:36 PM PDT

The population of white sharks that call the Central California coast their primary home is holding steady at about 300 animals and shows some signs of growth, a new long-term study of the species has shown.

New role for strange organisms in ocean food web

Posted: 19 May 2021 01:36 PM PDT

Researchers have more insight into salps -- a strange sea creature found in oceans around the world -- and what their presence means for the health of a marine ecosystem.

Study on bizarre rodent genetics solves a mystery and reveals another

Posted: 19 May 2021 01:26 PM PDT

Researchers uncover what one co-author describes as 'the weirdest sex chromosome system known to science': an unassuming vole species whose X and Y chromosomes have fused, switched roles and swapped smaller pieces of DNA. The discovery is a rare exception to mammals' remarkably stable sex determination system.

Tampons, sanitary napkins could diagnose yeast infections with color-changing threads

Posted: 19 May 2021 09:09 AM PDT

The yeast Candida albicans can cause itchy, painful urinary tract and vaginal yeast infections. For women in low-resource settings who lack access to healthcare facilities, these infections create substantial social and economic burdens. Now, researchers have developed color-changing threads that turn bright pink in the presence of C. albicans. When embedded in tampons or sanitary napkins, they could allow women to quickly and discreetly self-diagnose vulvovaginal yeast infections, the researchers say.

'Zipcode lottery' of nutrient intake from crops revealed in new study

Posted: 19 May 2021 09:08 AM PDT

The amount of nutrients people get from the crops that they eat is a type of 'postcode lottery', according to new research that has analysed thousands of cereal grains and soils as part of a project to tackle hidden hunger in Malawi and Ethiopia.

Plant consumers play unexpectedly large role in the evolution of seedling success

Posted: 19 May 2021 09:08 AM PDT

Scientists have found that herbivores have a lot to say about plant evolution and determining the success of seedlings. The influence of birds, rabbits, mice and other herbivores likely counteracts early plant emergence due to climate change, the researchers found.

Cholesterol levels sustainably lowered using base editing

Posted: 19 May 2021 09:07 AM PDT

Base editing is a novel gene editing approach that can precisely change individual building blocks in a DNA sequence. By installing such a point mutation in a specific gene, an international research team has succeeded in sustainably lowering high LDL cholesterol levels in the blood of mice and macaques. This opens up the possibility of curing patients with inherited metabolic liver diseases.

New study shows flies mutant for schizophrenia-associated genes respond well to anti-psychotics

Posted: 19 May 2021 09:07 AM PDT

Scientists have successfully treated flies displaying behavioral problems linked to newly discovered schizophrenia-associated genes in humans, using common anti-psychotics.

Researchers use 'hole-y' math and machine learning to study cellular self-assembly

Posted: 19 May 2021 08:48 AM PDT

A new study shows that mathematical topology can reveal how human cells organize into complex spatial patterns, helping to categorize them by the formation of branched and clustered structures.

An illuminating possibility for stroke treatment: Nano-photosynthesis

Posted: 19 May 2021 05:05 AM PDT

Blocked blood vessels in the brains of stroke patients prevent oxygen-rich blood from getting to cells, causing severe damage. Plants and some microbes produce oxygen through photosynthesis. What if there was a way to make photosynthesis happen in the brains of patients? Now, researchers have done just that in cells and in mice, using blue-green algae and special nanoparticles, in a proof-of-concept demonstration.

Saving the eastern monarch butterfly

Posted: 18 May 2021 05:54 PM PDT

Researchers are playing a key role in guiding conservation efforts to protect a declining butterfly population. The eastern monarch butterfly, an important pollinating species known for its distinct yellow-orange and black color, is diminishing due to the loss of the milkweed plant--its primary food source.

Grape genetics research reveals what makes the perfect flower

Posted: 18 May 2021 05:54 PM PDT

Scientists have identified the DNA markers that determine grape flower sex. In the process, they also pinpointed the genetic origins of the perfect flower.

Scientists discover five new species of listeria, improving food safety

Posted: 18 May 2021 10:08 AM PDT

While examining the prevalence of listeria in agricultural soil, food scientists have stumbled upon five previously unknown and novel relatives of the bacteria.

New peanut has a wild past and domesticated present

Posted: 18 May 2021 10:07 AM PDT

The wild relatives of modern peanut plants have the ability to withstand disease in ways that peanut plants can't. Researchers have been homing in on the genetics of those wild relatives to make use of the advantageous ancient genes.

Environmental concerns propel research into marine biofuels

Posted: 18 May 2021 08:49 AM PDT

A global effort to reduce sulfur and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from ships has researchers investigating the potential use of marine biofuels.

Peatlands pose complex, poorly understood risk for serious fires

Posted: 18 May 2021 08:49 AM PDT

Five years after a disastrous wildfire in Fort McMurray, Alberta, researchers are warning that the complex role of peatlands, a factor critical to projecting the risk and behaviour of future fires, is missing from the forecasting model.

Swiss farmers contributed to the domestication of the opium poppy

Posted: 18 May 2021 08:42 AM PDT

Fields of opium poppies once bloomed where the Zurich Opera House underground garage now stands. Through a new analysis of archaeological seeds, researchers have been able to bolster the hypothesis that prehistoric farmers throughout the Alps participated in domesticating the opium poppy.

Mutation linked to autism impairs oxytocin-mediated social behavior in mice

Posted: 18 May 2021 08:41 AM PDT

Mutations associated with autism can inhibit the release of the bonding hormone oxytocin and cause abnormal social behavior in mice, researchers report.

New testing platform for COVID-19 is an efficient and accurate alternative to gold-standard RT-qPCR tests, researchers say

Posted: 18 May 2021 08:41 AM PDT

A microchip technology test kit may facilitate point-of-care testing in remote locations, clinics, and airports while providing similar accuracy to the tube-based real-time PCR tests, investigators report.