Female Fireflies Lure Males For Defense Chemical
...males close enough to eat them. The males contain defensive chemicals that females need to repel predators, su...alone or only tasted them. Because the fireflies' defensive compound was found to have a close chemical resemblance to bufalin steroids in the venom of poisono...Ant Pheromone May Aid Alzheimer's Patients
...s that appear in tobaccoleaves, in marine worms as defensive compounds and in ants to help them obtainfood." -30- On the Pheromone Trail "Chemical Communication Among Ants" Source: Athula Attygalle, Ph.D., Mass Spectrometry Facility, Cornell Departmentof Chemistry -- MORE THAN SEX: In the animal worl...Transposable Elements May Have Had A Major Role In The Evolution Of Higher Organisms
...e global repressionmechanisms initially arose as a defensive response to the selfish drive oftransposable elements." The lines of evidence McDonald uses in developing his theory focus onthe two gene-silencing mechanisms that organisms have developed. One of thesemechanisms involves the formation of a ...Plants Thrive With Insect-Induced Immune Responses
...these responses and raises the question of whysuch defensive mechanisms evolved in such a way that they can be switched on andoff, rather than remaining constantly active. "Inducible responses have been observed in plants for more than 100 years, butwere experimentally confirmed only in the last two decades," ...'Mean Gene' Found In Africanized Honey Bees
...e aggression when a bee stings you, but we call it defensive behavior," Hunt says. "Different insects use vario...tion throughout North America. "In the tropics the defensive behavior gives the bees an advantage; we don't know if it will be an advantage in temperate areas, t...Jellyfish Help To Make Sugar Smarter
...elieve they emit a flash of fluorescent light as a defensive measure to deter predators. "The gene was discovered overseas and optimised by US and British researchers for use in higher cellular organisms. We've been able to adapt it for use in sugarcane and other crops," Dr Elliott says. "It is a lot ...Ecological Consequences Of Jasmonate-Induced Responses For Plants In Native Populations
...to cope with this variability by altering their defensive phenotype adaptively. The resistance traits elicted by jasmonates are costly in terms of seed production, but these costs are offset by their benefit when the probability of fitness reductions due to herbivore attack is high. The advance...Clever Chemistry Protects Beetle Babies
...imple molecules into a veritable arsenal ofcomplex defensive compounds and secreting them through microscopic b...hly complex mixture, a library of large rings. The defensive chemicals can be seen under high magnification, as shown in MariaEisner's SEM (scanning electron mi...Evidence Appears Strong To Bolster Concept Of Co-Evolution, Scientists Say
...rvival. At each site, levels in the plants of four defensive compounds, calledfuranocoumarins, match remarkably to thelevels of detoxification enzymes in the insects. "If 30 percent of the plants have a particular chemical phenotype, then roughly30 percent of the insects have thephenotype that permits them to ...Gene Discovery Paves Way For Preventing Deadly Bacterial Shock
...in-1 (IL-1), alert the immune system, mobilizing a defensive response. "If the early-warning system fails, the infection continues to spread throughoutthe body. This can result in massive overproduction of TNF and IL-1," Beutlersaid. "This deluge of chemical weapons can cause shock." Discovery of the gene whic...New Worlds Of Order, Argentine Ants Succeed By Outnumbering The Competition
...xed success. Argentine ants employed both chemical defensive compounds and physicalaggression during confrontations with other ants. Although chemical defense wastypically more effective than physical aggression, the chemical compounds of theinvasive ants did not appear more repellent than those found in the ...Male Moth's Sperm Protects Females
...encounter with the spiders, while mothswithout the defensive chemical in their bodies were killed or eaten. Th... all, the recipient of the sperm." "Of course the defensive alkaloids also protect the male," Rossini says, "andthey have a secondary benefit for him during co......ed decreased feeding in response to thepresence of defensive chemicals in salt marsh plants. Feeding pressures in the tropics may have played an evolutionary role in thedevelopment of defenses by salt marsh plants. Studies in biogeography have beenaround for more than three decades, and among the first books t...Researcher finds way to kill bacteria in tiny places
...ormal remedies don't work on them. "The film is a defensive mechanism," hesays. Although the patented process was first used with dental equipment and has abright future in those applications, Day says the chemicals can be put to a widevariety of uses. The microbiologist explains that the chemical combina...A molecular chink in the armor of tuberculosis
...igure out whether these lipids are an offensive or defensive weapon," said Jacobs. "Are these lipids protecting the bacillus from some killing function of the macrophage? Or, are the bacteria using these lipids to launch an offensive strike on the macrophage?"...Beetle uses fecal defense against predators
... Archbold laboratory and under the microscope, the defensive strategy was revealed: Just minutes after hatching...redators have to eat, too. And every time we see a defensive strategy that seems to work perfectly - until it fails - we learn something more about how living or...Blister beetles use sex and subterfuge to infiltrate bee's nests
...her species." Blister beetles are named for their defensive mechanism of releasing a drop of bright-orange blood laced with the chemical cantharidin, which causes severe pain and blistering upon contact with the skin. This substance is also used in the dubious aphrodisiac "Spanish Fly," which, when ingested, ...Chemical discovered that causes plant tumors
... a benign tumor, apparently as part of the plant's defensive mechanism against an insect pest. The study, done by scientists from Oregon State University, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and a private company, will be published Tuesday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. There is no im......le for spotting pathogenes at an early stage. This defensive response, which is also known as "innate immunity", sees to it, for example, that micro-organisms are tackled during the first hours and days of an infection. In the priority programme Innate Immunity, researchers study the cellular and molecular mec...