Crucial brain development gene identified
...have discovered that a gene known as "lethal giant larvae 1" (a.k.a. Lgl1) plays a critical role in shaping cell behavior during embryonic brain development. Lgl1 was initially identified in the fruit fly Drosophila, where it regulates cell polarity (the overall directionality of a cell) as well as cell pro...Isolated corals reefs are at risk from global climate change
For species such as corals the dispersal of their larvae and restocking of damaged reefs is critical to their ability to survive the changes produced by global warming. In the latest issue of Ecology Letters, David Ayre and Terry Hughes from the Australia's Wollongong and James Cook Universities have for ...Researchers find no safe place to sit in California tick-infested forest
...he clue may be in an important animal host for the larvae and nymphs of the western black-legged tick. "The western fence lizard is an important host for the ticks, and the lizards often use logs in sunlit areas as basking sites," said Lane. "Nymphal ticks that are seeking hosts to feed upon may be going t...Fly with brain tumor may shed light on cancer causing genes
...osophila larval brain to overgrow. The majority of larvae do not make it to adulthood - only 15% of them turn into flies. Surviving flies have large brains made up of cancerous tissue, and they normally die young. If cells from this cancerous tissue are transplanted into a healthy fly, they grow rapidly and...Sediments in many Central Valley streams contain toxic levels of pyrethroid pesticides
...fect on sediment-dwelling organisms, such as midge larvae or shrimp-like amphipods, said University of Calif...a's Central Valley and exposed amphipods and midge larvae to the sediments for 10 days. Twenty-eight percent of the sediment samples (20 of 71) killed amphipo...Pearly mussels: One of North America's natural jewels is disappearing
... highly specialized animals, mussels begin life as larvae before spending their adulthood as sedentary bival...ssel diets or the fascinating relationship between larvae and their fish hosts. As mussel beds decline in size, ecologists still don't know the role that they...When 'reaper' gene comes, cell death follows
...th when Drosophila (fruit flies) metamorphose from larvae to adults. Death of obsolete larval tissue is critical in insect metamorphosis. The two genes--reaper (rpr) and hid (head involution defective)--act by overcoming the protective efforts of a death inhibitor, DIAP1. Once DIAP1 is disabled, the inexor......Sogard (National Marine Fisheries Service) studied larvae from 20 female black rockfish (Sebastes melanops). Their experiment showed that larvae from the oldest female rockfish not only grew up to three times faster than offspring from younger m...Floods, bugs and Hollywood disasters
...quitoes breed in still puddles of water. Black fly larvae thrive in clean, flowing water. Rivers and steams ... their banks are heaven for black flies, since the larvae cling to grasses and filter food from moving water. Floods, in effect, create a black fly smorgasbor...Choice of food helps hungry caterpillar
...ruit appears to be passed on to caterpillar. Wasp larvae cannot develop within the caterpillar and so H. su...e researchers note that the ability of H. subflexa larvae to develop without linolenic acid seems to give them almost exclusive access to Physalis fruit. H. ...Study probes ecosystem of tree holes
...asic organisms protozoans, rotifers and mosquito larvae is rampant, and varies depending on resources and...er than rotifers and will prey upon them. Mosquito larvae browse and filter-feed and will attack either of the groups of species. 'It's war inside a...New model explains why costly insect 'outbreaks' hard to predict
...h species and variability in the ability of insect larvae to resist disease. Taking into account so many dynamics yields a formula more complex and more useful than others that have been used to explain insect outbreaks. The model offers solutions for many of the insect-outbreak myster......ributed 7-15) that cinnamon oil can "kill mosquito larvae more effectively than DEET" is misleading since we...ication is often effective in controlling mosquito larvae before they hatch, repeated use of these agents has raised serious environmental and health concerns...How wounds heal Clues from flies
...or studying wound healing. After stabbing fruitfly larvae with a needle to create a nonfatal puncture wound,...rmis was either blocked or defective. In contrast, larvae with defects in a gene required for the generation of crystal cells--a type of blood cell implicated...Forest fire sensor inspired by nature
... to avoid freshly scorched areas, the jewel beetle larvae can develop with hardly any competition. The adult insects owe their sense of burning to clever sensory organs located on their underside. These organs are pits containing a large number of receptors ("sensilla") that are extremely responsive precise...Whale carcass yields bone-devouring worms
...ore this happens, they must release enough eggs or larvae so that some tiny proportion will be transported by the ocean currents until they can find and colonize another whale carcass. Rouse notes that, "Because of the highly unusual anatomy of the females, at first we were at a loss to know what t...Essential smell gene may provide key to new insect repellents
...normal, but they could not smell at all, either as larvae or as adults. The scientists tested the flies' sense of smell by three methods. First they placed larvae one at a time in the middle of a Petri dish, with a drop of fruity-smelling ethyl acetate near the e...Identifying tick genes could halt disease, bioterrorism threat
... the case of Lyme disease-carrying deer ticks, the larvae feed on infected white-footed mice and other small mammals that harbor the pathogens. The tick develops into a nymph, which carries the Lyme disease-producing bacteria to people, pets and other animal species. The tick's olfactory system, or what we ...Proteins show promise for mosquito control
... mosquito larvae, producing promising results--the larvae died. The results were dose-dependent; that is, at higher concentrations, larger numbers of larvae died. Still, the concentrations were very small, Lan says, in the range of 10 parts per million. L......in a highly patterned way, sequentially abandoning larvae for direct development, gaining highly specialized, projectile tongues, et cetera." "The results were stunningly different than what we anticipated," he said. "Only one of the currently recognized four major groups is supported." The study, published...