ScienceDaily: Plants & Animals News

Thanks to a unique combination of biology and ecology, the guppies have provided researchers with insights into evolution for decades. Evans and Fitzpatrick have pushed those insights a step further, showing the guppies' potential to help probe big questions about how microbes living in host organisms contribute to health, survival and quality of life.

Pine cones open when dry and close when wet. In this way, pine seeds are released only under advantageous conditions, namely when it is dry and the seeds can be carried far by wind. Opening and closing is of particular interest to researchers because the actuation is passive, that is, it does not consume metabolic energy. This is why the pine cone has already served as a model for biomimetic flap systems that react to moisture and are used, for example, in building envelopes to regulate the climate.

Plant fossils dating back 55 to 40 million years ago, during the Eocene epoch reveal details about the warmer and wetter climate. These conditions meant there were palms at the North and South Pole and predominantly arid landmasses like Australia were lush and green. By focusing on the morphology and taxonomic features of 12 different floras, the researchers developed a more detailed view of what the climate and productivity was like in the ancient hothouse world of the Eocene epoch.

Researchers investigated genes connected to lifespan. Their research uncovered specific characteristics of these genes and revealed that two regulatory systems controlling gene expression -- circadian and pluripotency networks -- are critical to longevity. The findings have implications both in understanding how longevity evolves and in providing new targets to combat aging and age-related diseases.

The diet of fossil extinct animals can hold clues to their lifestyle, behavior, evolution and ultimately extinction. However, studying an animal's diet after millions of years is difficult due to the poor preservation of chemical dietary indicators in organic material on these timescales. An international team of scientists has applied a new method to investigate the diet of the largest shark to have ever existed, the iconic Otodus megalodon. This new method investigates the zinc isotope composition of the highly mineralized part of teeth and proves to be particularly helpful to decipher the diet of these extinct animals.

Cells rely on a process known as RNA interference (RNAi) to control protein production. The centerpiece of that process is the protein Argonaute, which seeks out and destroys mRNA molecules. Scientists have now discovered how Argonaute efficiently jumps from one target to the next. Their work may help improve current RNAi-based therapies and develop better ones in the future.

A new study suggests that the European cuttlefish (sepia officinalis) may combine, as necessary, two distinct neural systems that process specific visual features from its local environment, and visual cues relating to its overall background environment to create the body patterns it uses to camouflage itself on the sea floor.

An innovative artificial enzyme has shown it can chew through woody lignin, an abundant carbon-based substance that stores tremendous potential for renewable energy and materials.