PRESS-NEWS.org - Press Release Distribution
PRESS RELEASES DISTRIBUTION

Hidden signals play a vital role in evolution of warning coloration in amphibians

2023-03-16
(Press-News.org) New findings help answer a particularly vexing evolutionary question: how do species that use bright coloration to keep predators away survive long enough for this warning signal coloration to evolve, before predators who can better spot them through their colors learn to avoid them? A study comparing a series of models points to warning color signaling, or aposematism, likely appearing through intermediate steps where coloration is only visible when an organism is fleeing or intentionally displaying a hidden feature. Evolutionary selection to avoid being eaten by predators has driven considerable variation in the diversity of animal color patterns. Some species have developed camouflage coloration, enabling them to blend into the background and avoid detection by other animals. Others evolved to exhibit bright colors – conspicuous warning signals boldly advertising defenses like toxicity, venom, or aggression to would-be predators. This strategy is also known as aposematism, and its evolutionary origin is poorly understood. Karl Loeffler-Henry and colleagues performed a large-scale phylogenetic analysis of more than 1,400 amphibian species with known warning coloration and a series of nine different evolutionary models to assess how aposematism evolves. Loeffler-Henry et al. found that the transition from camouflage coloration to aposematism is rarely direct and instead likely arises through a series of intermediate steps where warning coloration is first hidden and only selectively visible. According to the authors, predators exposed to these hidden warning signals would continue to treat permanently aposematic mutants with caution, providing selective pressure for warning coloration to become a permanent adaptation. “… Macroevolutionary studies on animal coloration should take into account these underappreciated hidden signals, which are both common and widespread across the animal kingdom, to advance our understanding of the evolution of antipredator defenses,” Loeffler-Henry et al. write.

END


ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

Common gut bacterium exploits Rho factor phase separation to colonize the mammalian gut

2023-03-16
The common commensal gut bacterium Bacteroides thetaiotaomicron uses phase separation of the transcription termination factor Rho to colonize and thrive in the mammalian gut, according to a new study in mice. The findings suggest that phase separation may also be vital for other important gut microbes and relevant for novel microbiome-based clinical applications. The gut microbiota plays a critical role in human health. Manipulating gut commensal communities could provide promising therapeutic pathways for treating a host of diseases. However, this goal requires understanding mechanisms that enable ...

Lessons from China’s coal strategy can inform environmental cooperation

2023-03-16
In 2021, China unilaterally announced that it would stop building new coal-fueled power plants overseas, which was lauded as an important climate milestone. However, this decision stands in contrast to the nation’s continued support for the domestic use of coal plants. In a Policy Forum, Christoph Nedopil discusses this dichotomy and provides new insights into how these decisions were made. According to Nedopil, the findings could inform efforts to improve environmental cooperation with China. China has become the world’s greatest source of greenhouse gas emissions, and its international influence through trade, ...

Nano cut-and-sew: New method for chemically tailoring layered nanomaterials could open pathways to designing 2D materials on demand

2023-03-16
A new process that lets scientists chemically cut apart and stitch together nanoscopic layers of two-dimensional materials — like a tailor altering a suit — could be just the tool for designing the technology of a sustainable energy future. Researchers from Drexel University, China and Sweden, have developed a method for structurally splitting, editing and reconstituting layered materials, called MAX phases and MXenes, with the potential of producing new materials with very unusual compositions and exceptional properties. A “chemical scissor” is a chemical designed to react with a specific compound to break ...

Fomepizole helps overcome antibiotic-resistant pneumonia in mice

Fomepizole helps overcome antibiotic-resistant pneumonia in mice
2023-03-16
Pneumococcal disease leads to over three million hospitalizations and hundreds of thousands of deaths annually. A study publishing March 16th in the open access journal PLOS Biology by Carlos J. Orihuela at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, Alabama, United States, and colleagues suggests that the FDA-approved drug Fomepizole may reduce disease severity in the lungs of mice with some forms of bacterial pneumonia and enhance the efficacy of the antibiotic erythromycin as well. Streptococcus pneumoniae is the leading cause of community-acquired ...

Losing key type of pancreatic cell may contribute to diabetes

Losing key type of pancreatic cell may contribute to diabetes
2023-03-16
Losing Key Type of Pancreatic Cell May Contribute to Diabetes Multiple types of beta cells produce insulin in the pancreas, helping to balance blood sugar levels. Losing a particularly productive type of beta cell may contribute to the development of diabetes, according to a new study by Weill Cornell Medicine investigators. In the study, published March 16 in Nature Cell Biology, Dr. James Lo, associate professor of medicine at Weill Cornell Medicine, and colleagues measured gene expression in individual beta cells collected from mice to determine how many different types of beta cells exist in the pancreas. The team discovered four distinct beta cell types, including one that stood out. ...

Spin-off: 12 million euros for a novel gene editing platform

2023-03-16
The TU Dresden Spin-off Seamless Therapeutics Launches with $12.5M Seed Financing to Advance Transformative Gene Editing Platform Based on Programmable Precision Designer Recombinases in Dresden Seed round co-led by Wellington Partners and Forbion, with additional non-dilutive financial support from the BMBF (GO-Bio funding) enables maturation of the proprietary platform and pipeline towards first clinical evaluation Seamless Therapeutics, a Dresden based start-up of the Technische Universität Dresden, today announced a $12.5 million (€11.8M) seed financing round which will accelerate further development ...

Paxlovid associated with lower risk of hospital admission

2023-03-16
PASADENA, Calif. — A Kaiser Permanente study confirms the benefit of nirmatrelvir-ritonavir, also known as Paxlovid, as an early-stage treatment to prevent hospitalization for people with mild to moderate COVID-19, regardless of prior immunity or age. The study was published March 15, 2023, in Lancet ID. “Among Kaiser Permanente members in Southern California who tested positive for coronavirus infection, receiving Paxlovid within 5 days of the start of COVID-19 symptoms was associated with substantial reductions in the risk of hospital admission or death,” said Sara Tartof, PhD, the senior author of the study and an epidemiologist with the Kaiser ...

Children at risk of multiple sclerosis often go undetected in early stages

2023-03-16
Criteria used by neurologists to assess for multiple sclerosis (MS) in adults may fail to identify the illness in children with imaging suspicious for the disease, an oversight that could delay treatment of the disease at its earliest stages, according to a Rutgers study.   Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is the primary tool used for diagnosis of MS, and doctors have applied various standards over the years to classify those most likely to develop the disease. The most recent standard, known as the McDonald criteria, was last updated in 2017.   In some cases, imaging suspicious for MS is found incidentally ...

Breakthrough in the understanding of quantum turbulence

Breakthrough in the understanding of quantum turbulence
2023-03-16
Researchers have shown how energy disappears in quantum turbulence, paving the way for a better understanding of turbulence in scales ranging from the microscopic to the planetary. Dr Samuli Autti from Lancaster University is one of the authors of a new study of quantum wave turbulence together with researchers at Aalto University. The team’s findings, published in Nature Physics, demonstrate a new understanding of how wave-like motion transfers energy from macroscopic to microscopic length scales, and their results confirm ...

Selwyn Rogers named associate editor of prestigious New England Journal of Medicine

Selwyn Rogers named associate editor of prestigious New England Journal of Medicine
2023-03-16
Renowned University of Chicago Medicine trauma surgeon Selwyn O. Rogers Jr., MD, MPH, has been named an associate editor of the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM), effective March 16. The founding director of the UChicago Medicine Trauma Center, Rogers is a Professor of Surgery at UChicago and Chief of Trauma and Acute Care Surgery at its 1,296-bed academic health system based on Chicago’s South Side. A leading public health expert whose research focuses on the healthcare needs of underserved populations — particularly those impacted by intentional violence — he is the first surgeon in more than a decade to serve as an associate editor at NEJM, ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

Making table tennis accessible for blind players #Acoustics23

Twice daily electrical stimulation may boost mental processes in Alzheimer’s disease

Young age at first menstrual cycle linked to heightened diabetes risk in mid-life

State abortion access key factor in future US doctors’ training (residency) choices

Tobacco related annual medical spend of US Minorities who smoke double that of White peers

Singing in the rain: Why the bundengan sounds better wet #Acoustics23

Limitations of asteroid crater lakes as climate archives

AAAS announces addition of Biomaterials Research to Science Partner Journal program

Picking up good vibrations: The surprising physics of the didjeridu #Acoustics23

Bacteria's mucus maneuvers: Study reveals how snot facilitates infection

Shuqing Xu receives ERC Consolidator Grant for his research on the evolution in ecological communities in response to climate change

Study of sourdough starter microbiomes to boost bread quality and safety

UT receives National Institute of Justice awards for forensics research

Newly identified biomarkers may detect early cognitive decline via blood test

Researchers predict climate change-driven reduction in beneficial plant microbes

Addicted to your phone? New tool identifies overuse of digital media

International consensus report on gaps and opportunities for the clinical translation of precision diabetes medicine

Depression, constipation, and urinary tract infections may precede MS diagnosis

Chemists create organic molecules in a rainbow of colors

NCCN summit navigates solutions for financial and other cancer-related hardships

Incarcerated women punished at higher rates for minor infractions than men, UTEP study shows

Conference on microplastics in water: characterization, cure and prevention

Dorothee Dormann receives an ERC Consolidator Grant to support her research into neurodegenerative diseases

Reducing the energy consumption of software: Sebastian Erdweg receives ERC Consolidator Grant

Study finds plant nurseries are exacerbating the climate-driven spread of 80% of invasive species

Jefferson Lab site grows with addition of Applied Research Center

Texas A&M receives $1.8 million NIH grant to support bone health in people with down syndrome

Membrane raft redox signaling contributes to visfatin-induced inflammation and kidney damage

New study highlights COVID-19’s adaptive strategy for infection

Type 1 diabetes: B cell-derived natural antibodies suppress autoimmune pathogenesis

[Press-News.org] Hidden signals play a vital role in evolution of warning coloration in amphibians