According to the ACAAI pollen mold and insect stings are common allergy culprits during the summer months.
In this study the team was able to piece together the biological process that leads to the production of new bone by studying the offspring of mice lacking the Gastric Intrinsic factor gene
The researchers found that bone mass was reduced severely at eight weeks of age in the offspring of mice with Vitamin b12 deficiency.
The team was surprised to find that B12-deficient mice had only one-third of the normal number of bone-creating osteoblast cells
When these mice were fed regular doses of taurine at three weeks of age they recovered bone mass
While the focus of this study was the impact of maternal Vitamin b12 deficiency on offspring in mouse models there are promising parallels between these findings and data from human patients.
The discovery of this unanticipated pathway between gut liver and bone would not have been possible without the use of mouse molecular genetics
and appears to play the same role in mice and human beings raises the prospect that targeting this pathway through pharmacological means could be a novel approach toward an anabolic treatment of osteoporosis. Story Source:
#Mosquito control pesticide use in coastal areas poses low risk to juvenile oysters, hard clamsfour of the most common mosquito pesticides used along the east and Gulf coasts show little risk to juvenile hard clams and oysters according to a NOAA study.
However the study published in the on-line journal Archives of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology also determined that lower oxygen levels in the water known as hypoxia
and environmental resource agencies as they manage the use of mosquito control pesticides near their coastal ecosystems.
This is compounded by a lack of data on the toxicity of mosquito insecticides for these shellfish.
and food sources for other estuarine species. Approximately 200 mosquito species live in the United states . In addition to causing painful itchy bumps to people mosquito bites can transmit serious diseases such as malaria dengue fever
and West Nile virus. One approach to controlling mosquitoes is to apply pesticides by spraying from planes or trucks over a large area.
However to effectively control mosquitoes the pesticides must target species which live in aquatic habitats that are also home to sensitive estuarine species This may pose a risk to coastal environments.
The study sought to address a lack of toxicity data for mosquito control pesticide effects on shellfish early life stages.
The research team examined the toxicity of four mosquito control pesticides (naled resmethrin permethrin and methoprene) to larval and juvenile life stages of hard clams (Mercenaria mercenaria) and Eastern oysters (Crassostrea virginica.
Overall clams were more susceptible to mosquito control pesticides than oysters. Naled an organophosphate chemical was the most toxic compound in oyster larvae
which compared the toxicity thresholds to concentrations expected in the environment the researchers calculated a low-level of risk to clams and oysters from application of these pesticides for mosquito control.
Ant diversity indicates restored grasslandswhen it comes to restoring grasslands ecologists may have another way to evaluate their progress--ants.
When it comes to native grasslands ants are ecosystem engineers. Ecological role of antsants play many ecological roles Winkler explained.
Ants move more soil than earthworms plus they are food for lots of reptiles and birds.
Some ant species support colonies of plant-feeding insects such as aphids or plant hoppers even protecting them from predators.
It's like having dairy cattle Winkler said. Through this technique the ants consume the sugar-rich honey dew the aphids secrete
much as humans use cow's milk. When the ants are need in of protein they simply eat the aphids.
Ants also distribute organic matter by moving dead insects into the colonies and their dead nest mates away from the colonies Winkler added.
Comparing restored undisturbed grasslandswinkler compared tracts of restored grasslands to undisturbed ones at three sites in eastern South dakota--Sioux Prairie in Minnehaha County Oak Lake Field Station
Originally from Des moines Iowa she began working with ants as an undergraduate at Iowa State university focusing on how burning
and how many of the ants are out foraging Winkler pointed out. She suspects that management techniques may also have played a role.
The younger restorations areas tend to have ants that are generalists who can go anywhere
but the older restorations tend to have more specialists such as soil-dwelling ants who are more particular about where they live Winkler explained.
You'll have ants everywhere she pointed out but the greater the diversity the more niches are being filled and the more successful the restoration effort.
and animals that live in these ecosystems. Now new research funded by the NH Agricultural Experiment Station (NHAES) at the University of New hampshire College of Life sciences
There is a fledgling industrial effort underway in Florida to redirect the five million tons of annual citrus waste generated there from low-value cattle feed to produce ethanol for fuel.
Scientists already knew that flowering plants in contrast to animals require not one but two sperm cells for successful fertilisation:
Termites, fungi play more important role in decomposition than temperatureclimate change models could have a thing
or two to learn from termites and fungi according to a new study released this week.
and termites which help break down wood may play a more significant role in the rate of decomposition than temperature alone.
and biology of fungi and termites is a key to understanding how the rate of decomposition will vary from place to place.
because they reflect the activity of fungi and termites. The team suggests that scientists need to embrace the variability found across data collected from many different sites instead of averaging it all together to create better models with more accurate predictions.
whether to the consumption of fungi growing on the wood or to termites consuming the wood.
The study is the first to pinpoint the genetic differences that make sheep different from other animals.
This team--the International Sheep Genomics Consortium--compared the sheep's genes with those of other animals--including humans cattle goats and pigs.
It also reveals genes that underpin the evolution of the rumen--a specialised chamber of the stomach that breaks down plant material to make it ready for digestion.
Sheep were one of the first animals to be domesticated for farming and are still an important part of the global agricultural economy.
Like many other insect pollinators bees find their way around by using a polarization sensitive area in their eyes to'see'skylight polarization patterns.
However while other insects are known to use such sensitivity to identify appropriate habitats locate suitable sites to lay their eggs
whether bumblebees (Bombus terrestris) can learn the polarization patterns of artificial'flowers 'in order to obtain a food reward.
They found that freely foraging bumblebees soon learnt to differentiate between rewarding (sucrose solution providing) and aversive (quinine solution providing) artificial'flowers'with two different polarization patterns.
Both pollinator and plant fitness is greatly dependent on the ability of pollinators to discriminate flowers accurately
which pollinators can discriminate flowers and it is advantageous for a plant to produce a number of different signals that a pollinator can utilise effectively.
Our findings suggest polarisation vision may provide sensory access to an additional floral cue for bees.
Writtle College and several conservation organizations (the Society for Conservation Biology Royal Society for Protection of Birds Birdlife Europe Butterfly Conservation Europe and Friends of the Earth--Switzerland.
This continues to take a heavy toll on wildlife with dramatic declines in everything from the farmland bird index to'permanent'grassland that in newer member states has shrunk over 11%in just the last decade.
While some specific carefully designed actions--such as planting flowers for pollinators restoring species-rich grassland
or providing nesting areas for ground-nesting birds--have been shown to work when properly implemented these are included not as options under the new compulsory greening elements said Dr Lynn Dicks a co-author from the Department of Zoology in the University of Cambridge.
and diverse communities of wild insects to pollinate crops or regulate pest outbreaks. These are enjoyed things by everyone
but not so easy to pay for through food sales. Finding a way to produce enough food for humanity without losing these assets is perhaps the biggest challenge of the twenty-first century.
Successfully reducing deforestation is essential as forests are home to a wide range of plants and animals and vital to the livelihoods of indigenous communities.
or livestock--we lose vital resources put animals at risk of extinction and release massive quantities of carbon dioxide stored in the trees
This spring he bought a second aircraft an A r. Drone 2. 0 with GPS produced by The french wireless electronics manufacturer Parrot.
The Parrot drone which cost about $250 can be controlled with a smartphone or tablet using Apple or Android operating systems and Wi-fi signals.
The Parrot came with a protective polystyrene hull for use indoors and Bowman has demonstrated it during meetings with area farmers.
When I'm running the Parrot drone during a conference I pick somebody that looks scared when
or reflecting light differently an indication that the plants are under some type of stress such as pests disease or nutrient deficiencies.
and launch a couple drones that fly out over his farms and collect imagery that's sent wirelessly to his office Bowman said.
It's like a boxer getting hit by a flurry of punches says lead author William Laurance of James Cook University in Cairns Australia.
because pigs are much closer to humans than many other test animals. Many medical researchers prefer conducting studies with pigs
because they are more anatomically similar to humans than other animals such as mice and rats Prather said.
Physically pigs are much closer to the size and scale of humans than other animals and they respond to health threats similarly.
This means that research in pigs is more likely to have results similar to those in humans for many different tests and treatments.
#Tree hugging helps koalas keep their coolaustralia's koalas cope with extreme heat by resting against cooler tree trunks new research has revealed.
Thermal imaging uncovered the koalas'cool plan confirming that they choose to hug trees that can be more than 5â°C cooler than the air during hot weather.
Researchers observed the behavior of 30 koalas during hot weather at French Island Victoria. Co-author Andrew Krockenberger from James Cook University in Cairns in far northeast Australia says heat wave events can hit koala populations hard.
We know that about a quarter of the koalas in one population in New south wales died during a heat wave in 2009 Professor Krockenberger said.
Understanding the types of factors that can make some populations more resilient is important. Koalas also pant
and lick their fur to cool down but that can lead to dehydration. Access to these trees can save about half the water a koala would need to keep cool on a hot day lead researcher Dr Natalie Briscoe from the University of Melbourne said.
Access to cool tree trunks would significantly reduce the amount of heat stress for koalas. Co-author Dr Michael Kearney said the findings were important as climate change is bringing about more extreme weather.
Researchers used a portable weather station on a long pole to measure what the koalas were experiencing in the places they chose to sit compared to other places available to them.
When we took the heat imagery it dramatically confirmed our idea that'tree hugging'was an important cooling behavior in extreme heat Dr Michael Kearney said.
Cool tree trunks are likely to be an important microhabitat during hot weather for other tree dwelling species including primates leopards birds and invertebrates.
Professor Krockenberger's research includes some of Australia's warmest koalas--the population on Magnetic Island in the country's tropical northeast.
These findings underscore the importance of trees to koalas especially in the context of climate extremes he said.
They're not a koala food tree but clearly they can be important when it comes to coping with the heat.
Citrus greening first enters the tree via a tiny bug the Asian citrus psyllid which sucks on leaf sap
UF/IFAS researchers have attempted everything from trying to eradicate the psyllid to breeding citrus rootstock that shows better greening resistance.
#Parasites fail to halt European bumblebee invasion of the UKA species of bee from Europe that has stronger resistance to parasite infections than native bumblebees has spread across the UK according to new research at Royal Holloway
The study published in the Journal of Animal Ecology shows that tree bumblebees have rapidly spread
despite them carrying high levels of an infection that normally prevents queen bees from producing colonies.
Researchers collected tree bumblebee queens from the wild checked them for parasites and then monitored colony development in a laboratory
and high levels of a nematode parasite that usually castrates other species 25 per cent of the queens were able to produce offspring.
Scientists believe the spread of tree bumblebees could have both positive and negative impacts on native bees.
Since its arrival to the UK the tree bumblebee has been rapidly spreading despite high levels of this castrating parasite said researcher Catherine Jones from the School of Biological sciences at Royal Holloway.
and the populations of our native bumblebees have declined in recent decades. The arrival of tree bumblebees could be hugely beneficial to us by absorbing parasite pressure from our native species as well as helping to pollinate wild plants and crops.
Professor Mark Brown from the School of Biological sciences at Royal Holloway added: While these findings show promising signs for bee populations in the UK we still don't know
if the bumblebees compete for food or nesting sites. Further research should focus on how our native bees are affected
#Could spiders be the key to saving our bees? A novel bio-pesticide created using spider venom
and a plant protein has been found to be safe for honeybees --despite being highly toxic to a number of key insect pests.
New research led by Newcastle University UK has tested the insect-specific Hv1a/GNA fusion protein bio-pesticide--a combination of a natural toxin from the venom of an Australian funnel web spider
and snowdrop lectin. Feeding acute and chronic doses to honeybees--beyond the levels they would ever experience in the field--the team found it had only a very slight effect on the bees'survival and no measurable effect at all on their learning and memory.
Publishing their findings today in the academic journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B the authors say the insect-specific compound has huge potential as an environmentally-benign'bee-safe'bio-pesticide and an alternative to the chemical neonicotinoid pesticides
which have been linked to declines in pollinator populations. Honeybees perform sophisticated behaviors while foraging that require them to learn
and remember floral traits associated with food. Disruption to this important function has profound implications for honeybee colony survival
because bees that cannot learn will not be able to find food and return to their hives.
By pollinating some key crop species honeybees make a vital contribution to food security. The decline of these insects raises significant concerns about our ability to feed a growing population.
Professor Angharad Gatehouse based in Newcastle University's School of Biology and one of the supervisors on the project explains:
Our findings suggest that Hv1a/GNA is unlikely to cause any detrimental effects on honeybees.
Previous studies have shown already that it is safe for higher animals which means it has real potential as a pesticide and offers us a safe alternative to some of those currently on the market.
The project is part of the Insect Pollinators Initiative jointly funded by the Biotechnology and Biological sciences Research Council Defra the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) the Scottish government and the Wellcome Trust under the auspices of the Living
with Environmental Change (LWEC) partnership. This research involving academics from Newcastle and Durham Universities and the Food and Environment Research Agency was funded by the UK's innovation agency the Technology Strategy Board.
During the study the bees were exposed to varying concentrations of the spider/snowdrop bio-pesticide over a period of seven days.
Throughout the study period the team carried out a series of memory tests and recorded any changes in behaviour.
Research lead Erich Nakasu a Phd student at Newcastle University explains: This is an oral pesticide so unlike some that get absorbed through the exoskeleton the spider/snowdrop recombinant protein has to be ingested by the insects.
Unlike other pesticides Hv1a/GNA affects an underexplored insecticidal target calcium channels. These are more diverse than commonly-targeted insecticide receptors such as sodium channels
Although Hv1a/GNA was carried to the brain of the honeybee it had no effect on the insect
which suggests the highly selective spider-venom toxin does not interact with the calcium channels in the bee.
Dr Geraldine Wright one of the authors on the paper heads up Newcastle University's Honeybee Lab. Last year she led the research
and remember and subsequently communicate to their hive mates. Around 90pc of the world's plants are directly
or indirectly reliant on pollinators to survive she explains. If we destroy the biodiversity of pollinators then it will be irrelevant how effective our pesticides are
because we won't have any crops to protect. There is now substantial evidence linking neonicotinoid pesticides to poor performance and survival in bees and
What we need is integrated an pest management strategy and insect-specific pesticides will be just one part of that.
Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by Newcastle University. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.
and levels of land planarians (Cephaloflexa bergi) in 11 site localities in and out the Serra do Mar biological corridor in the Atlantic Forest.
Innovatively the study carried out by UB research group is focused on the land planarian (Cephaloflexa bergi) a low-dispersal organism
Land planarians an animal model of phylogeographic studiesauthors explain that to formulate an efficient conservation policy a good understanding of spatial and temporal biodiversity patterns
The research group performed a comparative analysis of DNA sequence variation of land planarian by means of a nuclear and a mitochondrial gene.
and conservationthe study published in the journal Heredity highlights that land planarians are an advantageous biological model for making phylogenetic
Hwang also considered metal oxide frameworks that trap carbon dioxide molecules but they had the unfortunate side effect of capturing the desired methane as well
They get old die (due to fire insects hurricane etc. and regenerate. This paper improves on a fundamental theory in ecosystem development:
and sunlight and respires less just like an animal or human being says lead author Jianwu (Jim) Tang an assistant scientist in the MBL Ecosystem Center.
& Tropical Medicine today launch Bug Off--the first ever Insect repellent Awareness Day to highlight the issue.
They recommend applying repellents containing 20-50%DEET to the skin when in countries with diseases spread by insects such as malaria and dengue fever.
However the scientists behind Bug Off have carried out a review of published studies and conclude that there is insufficient evidence to show that DEET is unsafe.
Brazil for example has dengue fever--a viral infection that is transmitted to humans by Aedes mosquitoes which can cause life-threatening illness.
and misconceptions about how to repel mosquitoes and other biting insects which can leave people at risk of harm to their health.
The Bug Off campaign also involves an educational outreach programme including school visits and a poster competition
which opens today. Key facts on insect repellents: Dr James Logan Senior Lecturer in Medical Entomology at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine and Director of arctec said:
Biting arthropods can transmit a whole range of diseases to humans and it is vital to protect ourselves.
and when insects transmit disease and we also teach courses on all aspects of biting insects vector-borne diseases and travel health.
We hope Insect repellent Awareness Day will cause people to stop and think this summer and pack their repellents.
According to Bradford the use of mean responses can mask the local-scale information such as the abundance of soil fungi and animals
and other animals and the risk--while minimal--may stand in the way of public acceptance.
Livestock now represents the largest biomass among terrestrial vertebrates ahead of that of the human population and far ahead of that of wild animals.
and spread of zoonotic infectious agents originating in wild animals. Finally it is estimated today that one in three human in the world--1. 46 billion--is obese or overweight a problem to
Plant-feeding insects are attracted often to odors that are released by damaged plant tissue because these plants are already under attack
The jumping plant louse Diaphorina citri hones in on the odor methyl salicylate that is released by damaged young leaves of citrus trees
Jumping plant lice that fly towards the source of the odor are duped: they will not find enough food there as the bacterium has lowered drastically the nutritional quality of infected leaves.
Enter the wasp Tamarixia radiata which lays its eggs on young jumping plant lice so that the wasp larvae can feed on them.
Lukasz Stelinski and colleagues from the University of Florida asked whether the wasp is attracted likewise to the odor of methyl salicylate while hunting for plant lice.
They placed female wasps in an olfactometer a Y-shaped device that delivers two opposing air flows each carrying a different odor.
The wasps had the choice of flying towards methyl salicylate or to a control odor such as limonene another compound produced by citrus trees.
The wasps were attracted strongly to the smell of both bacteria-infected and louse-infested citrus plants and also to pure methyl salicylate.
A further experiment revealed that the wasps were more likely to find and attack young plant lice on plants infected with the bacterium
or on plants that had been treated with methyl salicylate. This proves that the wasp finds its prey by eavesdropping on the odor signal exchanged between bacteria citrus trees and plant lice.
Communication between species is widespread in nature but almost always involves only two or three species. Here we show for the first time that the same signal connects four different species each at a different level in the food chain.
The USDA organic seal verifies that irradiation sewage sludge and genetically modified organisms were used not.
and nutrition and can grow successfully in environments stressed by drought pests diseases or poor soil quality.
since the development of agriculture typically use apparent physical traits to guide strain selection for crossbreeding with the hope that the offspring will manifest a combination and improvement of the desired traits such as drought pest and disease resistance
#Butterfly eyespots add detail to story of evolutiona new study of the colorful eyespots on the wings of some butterfly species is helping to address fundamental questions about evolution that are conceptually similar to the quandary Aristotle wrestled with about 330 B c
and across vast numbers of species. Repeated vertebra that form a spinal column rows of teeth and groups of eyespots on butterfly wings are all examples of serial homologues.
Butterfly wings are helping to answer that question. These eyespots common to the butterfly Family nymphalidae now serve many butterflies in dual roles of both predator avoidance and mate identification.
One theory of their origin is evolved that they from simpler single spots; another theory is evolved that they from a band of color
What we basically conclude is that neither of the existing theories about butterfly eyespots is correct said Jeffrey Oliver a postdoctoral scholar in the Department of Integrative Biology of the OSU College of Science.
and because of that value were retained by future generations of butterflies. And at all times they retained the biological capacity for positional awareness--the eyespots formed in the same place until a new mutation came along.
At first it appears the eyespots helped this group of butterflies with one of the most basic aspects of survival value
which is avoiding predators Oliver said. On the side of the wing that predators saw when the wings were closed the eyespots could have served as camouflage from a distance
and up close almost a bulls-eye for a predator to see and attack. But this directed the attack toward the tips of less-important wings and not the more vulnerable head or body of the insect.
But just as important Oliver said the study indicates how through continued mutation these eyespots moved to a completely different place--the other side of the wing.
There they performed a completely different function--helping the butterfly to attract and be identified by optimal mates.
If you take this same concept and apply it to other important features like vertebra
But one bone or butterfly eyespot at a time the pieces continue to come together. Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by Oregon State university.
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