All Ecology & Evolution articles – Page 2
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NewsNew study reveals evolutionary and domestication history of button mushroom
A large-scale population genomic study has shed new light on the evolutionary and domestication history of the button mushroom (Agaricus bisporus), one of the most widely cultivated edible fungi in the world.
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NewsThe secret room a giant virus creates inside its host amoeba
Researchers examined Acanthamoeba polyphaga mimivirus-infected amoeba cells using a combination of sequencing methods, including Ribosome profiling to estimate the frequency of translation pausing and tRNA sequencing to determine tRNA composition.
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NewsUshikuvirus: A newly discovered giant virus may offer clues to the origin of life
Researchers have reported the discovery of a giant DNA virus that infects amoeba. Named ushikuvirus after Lake Ushiku in the Ibaraki Prefecture of Japan, where it was isolated. This discovery offers further support for the nuclear virus origin hypothesis.
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NewsCooperation: A costly affair in bacterial social behaviour?
A new study reveals that population bottlenecks can fundamentally reshape how cooperation evolves and persists in complex microbial societies. Researchers explored how repeated bottlenecks affect cooperative traits of Myxococcus xanthus, a model social bacterium.
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NewsNew study uncovers how rice viruses manipulate plant defenses to protect insect vectors
Rather than passively “hitchhiking” within insect vectors, rice viruses actively manipulate plant defense pathways to protect their insect carriers.
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NewsStudy identifies a molecular switch that controls transitions between single-celled and multicellular forms
How did multicellular life evolve from single cells? Researchers have identified genes in marine yeast that may help answer this fundamental question.
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NewsHow the parasite that ‘gave up sex’ found more hosts – and why its victory won’t last
A study has revealed a genetic shortcut that may help Giardia duodenalis and many other parasites jump to new hosts at the cost of long-term survival. The findings may also help explain how parasites evolve drug resistance.
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NewsMicrobes may hold the key to brain evolution
A groundbreaking new study reveals that changes to the gut microbiome can change the way the brain works. It provides the first empirical data showing the direct role the gut microbiome plays in shaping differences in the way the brain functions across different primate species.
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NewsFlour choice shapes sourdough microbial communities
Researchers analyzed sourdough starters to understand how the type of flour shaped the microbial community. They found that strains in the genus Kazachstania, a common sourdough yeast, to be most abundant in all the starters, but the bacterial composition varied by flour varieties.
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NewsGut bacteria have evolved rapidly to digest starches in ultra-processed foods
Researchers have found that gene variants that help microbes digest starches found in ultra-processed foods have “swept” the genomes of some species of gut bacteria in industrialized parts of the world.
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NewsAntibiotic resistance is ancient, ecological, and deeply connected to human activity, new review shows
Antibiotic resistance genes are often portrayed as a modern medical problem driven by the overuse of antibiotics in hospitals and farms. A new comprehensive review published in Biocontaminant reveals a much deeper and more complex story. Antibiotic resistance is an ancient feature of microbial life, shaped by millions of years ...
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NewsRare earth elements: of peptides and the origins of life
Elements from the group of rare earth metals are of great importance today, also in technical applications. Researchers have published two new studies - one examining peptides, which can bind these elements, while the other highlights the potential role of the elements in the origins of life.
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NewsNew machine-learning models capture the rapid evolution of antimicrobial resistance
A tool developed to study bacterial evolution over billions of years has been successfully adapted to quickly and reliably identify resistant strains of Staphylococcus aureus.
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NewsSmarter tools for peering into the microscopic world
In a pair of new studies, researchers introduce powerful tools that make it easier, more accurate and more scalable to figure out how microbes are related. One tool improves how scientists build microbial family trees. The other provides a software foundation used worldwide to analyze biological data.
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NewsSwedish freshwater bacteria give new insights into bacterial evolution
Researchers analyzing the DNA of all known Caulobacterales species, including newly collected samples from Swedish and Finnish forest lakes, discovered that several freshwater species lacked more than a hundred genes typically linked to the group’s complex lifecycle.
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NewsHorseshoe crab fossil reveals early mass-burial event and ancient microbial attack
A remarkably preserved horseshoe crab fossil from North America offers rare insight into some of the earliest known cases of animal disease in a Late Carboniferous swamp – more than 300 million years before the age of dinosaurs.
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NewsParasitic fungus may have emerged 18 million years before the ants with which it lives today
An analysis of 309 strains indicates that the genus Escovopsis emerged 56.9 million years ago, but only began interacting with today’s mutualistic ants 38 million years ago, challenging the theory that they all emerged at the same time.
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NewsHow did Bronze Age plague spread? Ancient sheep might solve the mystery
Researchers have found the first evidence of a Bronze Age plague infection in a non-human host. The scientists discovered Y. pestis DNA in a 4,000-year-old domesticated sheep from Arkaim, a fortified settlement located in the Southern Ural Mountains of present-day Russia.
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NewsSocial lives of viruses affect antiviral resistance
Interactions among viruses can help them succeed inside their hosts or impart vulnerabilities that make them easier to treat. Scientists are learning the ways viruses mingle inside the cells they infect, as well as the consequences of their socializing.
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NewsThe ship-timber beetle’s fungal partner: more than just a food source
Researchers studying the ambrosia fungus of the ship-timber beetle discovered that this fungus stores significantly more nutrients than other types of fungi. The beetle’s symbiotic fungus accumulates various phenolic substances from the wood in its mycelium.