Evolution of developmental mechanisms and life history in cnidarians
Functional extinction of birds that feed on large seeds in the Brazilian Atlantic forest is associated with reduction in seed size of a palm species. Seed size is an important trait for many aspects of a plant’s fitness, however, the size of a seed can constrain it’s dispersal capacity by reducing the number of bird […]
In response to a recent deluge of inquiries about the mythical creatures, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Admistration (NOAA) has attempted to clarify the situation by releasing the following statement: “no evidence of aquatic humanoids has ever been found”.
Sequencing the genome of an Aboriginal Australian indicates that Aborigines diverged ~62,000-75,000 years ago from the gene pool shared by all living non-african humans, and represent a separate migration into Asia from the ancestors of modern Asians, which diverged from european ancestors ~25,000-38,000 years ago. The authors note that their data is consistent with […]
Anciently Asexual Bdelloid Rotifers Escape Lethal Fungal Parasites by Drying Up and Blowing Away. — Wilson and Sherman explore a mechanism that asexual rotifers may utilize (dessication and aeolian dispersal) to escape the Red Queen model’s problem of coevolved pathogens/parasites in asexual lineages.
Interactions between cancer stem cells and their niche govern metastatic colonization. — Malanchi, et al., find that infiltrating tumour cells need to induce stromal periostin (POSTN) expression in the secondary target organ to initiate colonization. POSTN is required for cancer stem cell maintenance, and blocking its function prevents metastasis. POSTN recruits Wnt ligands and thereby […]
Acropora digitifera genome suggests earlier date for anemone-coral divergence of about 500 million years ago, approximately 260 million years earlier than the emergence of reef-building scleractinian corals in the fossil record.