Loading...
ScienceDaily: Plants & Animals News |
| AI helps design the perfect chickpea Posted: 11 Nov 2021 12:43 PM PST A massive international research effort has led to development of a genetic model for the 'ultimate' chickpea, with the potential to lift crop yields by up to 12 per cent. |
| Shining a light into 'black holes' in the Arabidopsis genome Posted: 11 Nov 2021 12:42 PM PST Scientists have sequenced the genome of the world's most widely used model plant species, Arabidopsis thaliana, at a level of detail never previously achieved. The study reveals the secrets of Arabidopsis chromosome regions called centromeres. The findings shed light on centromere evolution and provides insights into the genomic equivalent of black holes. |
| Pacific rockfish and the trade-offs of a long life Posted: 11 Nov 2021 12:42 PM PST Pacific rockfish are among the longest-lived vertebrates -- some species live 200+ years. Yet others live barely 10. Their varied lifespans make rockfish a unique genus in which to pinpoint genes associated with long lifespan. Biologists sequenced and compared the genomes of 88 species and found longevity-related genes involved in living at depth and growing larger, but also an increase in some types of regulatory genes. Longer life also correlates with decreased population sizes. |
| ‘Dancing molecules’ successfully repair severe spinal cord injuries Posted: 11 Nov 2021 12:36 PM PST Researchers have developed an injectable therapy based on nanofibers that has enabled paralyzed mice with severe spinal cord injuries to regain the ability to walk. |
| CRISPR: Strategy refines genetic base editors Posted: 11 Nov 2021 10:03 AM PST A new strategy seeks to avoid gene-editing errors by fine-tuning specific CRISPR-base editing parameters in advance. |
| Humans hastened the extinction of the woolly mammoth Posted: 11 Nov 2021 10:03 AM PST New research shows that humans had a significant role in the extinction of woolly mammoths in Eurasia, occurring thousands of years later than previously thought. An international team of scientists has revealed a 20,000-year pathway to extinction for the woolly mammoth. |
| Posted: 11 Nov 2021 10:02 AM PST The proportion of UK people reporting eating and drinking plant-based alternative foods such as plant-based milk, vegan sausages and vegetable burgers nearly doubled between 2008 -- 2011 and 2017 -- 2019, according to a new study. |
| Supportive strategies help 'picky eaters' deal with food aversions Posted: 11 Nov 2021 10:02 AM PST In a large national survey, adults who struggled with picky eating habits as children overwhelmingly said they benefitted more from positive and encouraging strategies their parents used than forceful or coercive approaches. |
| Novel approach to a plant-based diet, unique to long-necked dinosaurs Posted: 11 Nov 2021 05:04 AM PST A new study uncovers a novel approach to a plant-based diet, unique to long-necked dinosaurs. |
| Environmental implications of ultra-processed foods Posted: 11 Nov 2021 05:03 AM PST A new study finds that over the last 30 years, Brazil has undergone a nutrition transition toward a diet higher in ultra-processed foods, and that of food types consumed, these have been the largest contributor to worsening impacts on greenhouse gas emissions, the nation's water footprint and ecological footprint, such as deforestation. |
| New species of iguanodontian dinosaur discovered from Isle of Wight Posted: 11 Nov 2021 04:54 AM PST Discoveries of iguanodontian dinosaurs from the Isle of Wight have previously only been assigned to Iguanodon or Mantellisaurus . The diversity of dinosaurs in the Early Cretaceous of the UK is much greater than previously thought. |
| 'Tug of war' between cells – When crucial connections are missing Posted: 10 Nov 2021 02:07 PM PST The ability of cells to move together in harmony is crucial for numerous biological processes in our body, for example, wound healing, or the healthy development of an organism. This movement is made possible by the connections between individual cells. A research team has shown that particularly close connections -- 'tight junctions' -- play an important role in cell movement. In addition, researchers investigated the consequences of losing these connections. |
| Mosaic brain evolution in guppies helps to explain vertebrate cognitive evolution Posted: 10 Nov 2021 11:55 AM PST Researchers have provided the first experimental evidence that brain regions can evolve independently of each other during cognitive evolution. This so called mosaic brain evolution was verified empirically in an artificial selection experiment with guppies (Poecilia reticulata) where telencephalon size (but no other regions) differed by 10 percent after only four generations of selection. The findings can have wide implications for the understanding of cognitive evolution in other vertebrates, such as primates and humans. |
| Introduced birds are not replacing roles of human-caused extinct species Posted: 10 Nov 2021 11:54 AM PST Human-caused bird extinctions are driving losses of functional diversity on islands worldwide, and the gaps they leave behind are not being filled by introduced (alien) species, finds a new study. |
| New research helps explain the genetic basis for why we look the way we do Posted: 10 Nov 2021 11:54 AM PST Comparing features of a common laboratory fruit fly with its rarer cousin collected from Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park, researchers used CRISPR technology to uncover clues about how high-level control genes called Hox genes shape our appearance. |
| Intracellular temperature sensors: Protein complex exhibits temperature-sensitive activity Posted: 09 Nov 2021 05:08 AM PST Investigators have demonstrated temperature-sensitive regulation of actomyosin, a critical protein complex involved in neuronal development. By applying optically controlled heating, the team demonstrated that the protein drebrin E acts as a switch to inhibit actomyosin motility at physiological temperature, with inhibition occurring above a threshold drebrin E concentration. These findings have implications for understanding the role of temperature in embryo development and for the development of artificial nanoscale temperature sensors. |
| Latin American rice breeding gets a boost from genomic tools Posted: 08 Nov 2021 01:14 PM PST How do you like your rice? Sticky, fluffy, brown, or white? These qualities, in addition to grain length, width, appearance, and other traits, are hugely important predictors of rice sales and consumption worldwide. And region matters. Rice preferences in Latin America, for example, are very different from those in West Africa, Japan, India, and elsewhere. |
| Posted: 08 Nov 2021 08:48 AM PST According to new research, crops that experience drought conditions or extreme temperatures during their early stages of growth and survive are better able to deal with those same conditions later in their growth cycle. |
| Muscular wing-body junction improved Pterosaur flight performance Posted: 08 Nov 2021 08:48 AM PST The flying reptiles known as pterosaurs are the closest relatives of dinosaurs and were the first vertebrates to evolve powered flight. However, many details of pterosaur flight anatomy and performance are still unclear. According to a new study pterosaurs evolved a muscular wing-body junction to reduce drag and improve flight performance. |
| You are subscribed to email updates from Plants & Animals News -- ScienceDaily. To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
| Google, 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043, United States | |
Loading...
Loading...
