ScienceDaily: Plants & Animals News

A new study on foot-and-mouth disease among buffalo in South Africa could help explain how certain extremely contagious pathogens are able to persist and reach endemic stage in a population, long after they've burned through their initial pool of susceptible hosts.

Researchers can now rapidly isolate and chemically characterize individual organelles within cells. The new technique tests the limits of analytical chemistry and rapidly reveals the chemical composition of organelles that control biological growth, development and disease.

A new study has found that recent bigleaf maple die-off in Washington is linked to hotter, drier summers that predispose this species to decline. These conditions essentially weaken the tree's immune system, making it easier to succumb to other stressors and diseases.

A nationwide team of researchers has determined how a genetic mutation found in mice and monkeys interferes with viruses such as HIV and Ebola. They say the finding could eventually lead to the development of medical interventions in humans.

Scientist have utilized so-called SNAP-tag technology to radioactively label cells in living organisms. In a proof-of-principle study they developed a SNAP-tag substrate equipped with the radioactive signal emitter fluorine-18 and used it to make tumor cells in the bodies of mice visible in PET images. The labeling method, already established in microscopy, opens up the prospect of studying cells with different imaging techniques and at different temporal stages -- for example, when inflammation begins, continues and resolves again. This may help reveal more about how the functions of individual cells and entire organs are interconnected.

Domestic cats that regularly catch wild animals still get most of their nutrition from food provided at home, new research shows.

Trilobites of the suborder Phacopina had a unique eye in which about 200 large lenses in each eye spanned at least six individual facets, each of which in turn formed its own small compound eye.

The microbiomes of corals -- which comprise bacteria, fungi and viruses -- play an important role in the ability of corals to tolerate rising ocean temperatures, according to new research. The team also identified several genes within certain corals and the symbiotic photosynthetic algae that live inside their tissues that may play a role in their response to heat stress. The findings could inform current coral reef conservation efforts, for example, by highlighting the potential benefits of amending coral reefs with microbes found to bolster corals' heat-stress responses.

Intermittent fasting is a trendy weight loss strategy. A new study of fasting fruit flies shows how the diet, if properly timed, also slows the aging process and increases longevity by cleaning our cells.

The accelerated proliferation of lianas in old-growth forest due to natural disturbance may be altering forest structure, regeneration, and functioning.

Geologists have been baffled by perforations in an Australian quartzite (rock), identical in shape to burrows made in sands by crustaceans; the original sandy sediment is a billion years older than the oldest known animals. An international team of scientists has now resolved the mystery.