Co-authors of the study are John Spangler M d. Mara Vitolins Dr. PH. Stephen Davis M. S. Edward Ip Ph d. Gail Marion Ph d. and Sonia Crandall
The authors note that their study does not consider the value of land cover as habitat for wild fauna and flora.
and be transmitted between ferrets. Ferrets are used often as a mammalian model in influenza research and efficient transmission of influenza virus between ferrets can provide clues as to how well the same process might occur in people.
The researchers dropped H7n9 virus into the noses of six ferrets. A day later three uninfected ferrets were placed inside cages with the infected animals
and another three uninfected ferrets were placed in cages nearby. All the uninfected ferrets inside the cages became infected
while only one of three placed in nearby cages became infected. The team concluded that the virus can infect ferrets
and be transmitted between ferrets both by direct contact and less efficiently by air. The scientists detected viral material in the nasal secretions of the ferrets at least one day before clinical signs of disease became apparent.
The potential public health implication of this observation is that a person infected by H7n9 avian influenza virus who does not show symptoms could
nevertheless spread the virus to others. The researchers also infected pigs with the human-derived H7n9 virus. In natural settings pigs can act as a virtual mixing bowl to combine avian-and mammalian-specific influenza strains potentially allowing avian strains to better adapt to humans.
New strains arising from such mixing have the potential to infect humans and spark a pandemic so information about swine susceptibility to H7n9 could help scientists gauge the pandemic potential of the avian virus. Unlike the ferrets infected pigs in this small study did not transmit virus to uninfected pigs
either through direct contact or by air. All the infected ferrets and pigs showed mild signs of illness such as sneezing nasal discharge
and lethargy but none of the infected animals became seriously ill. The research was supported in part by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious diseases part of the National institutes of health.
Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by NIH/National Institute of Allergy and Infectious diseases.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. Journal Reference e
#Tomatoes: The worlds favorite fruit, only better-tasting and longer-lastingtomatoes said to be the world's most popular fruit can be made both better-tasting and longer-lasting thanks to UK research with purple GM varieties.
Working with GM tomatoes that are different to normal fruit only by the addition of a specific compound allows us to pinpoint exactly how to breed in valuable traits said Professor Cathie Martin from the John Innes Centre.
and colleagues studied tomatoes enriched in anthocyanin a natural pigment that confers high antioxidant capacity The purple GM tomatoes have already been found to prolong the lives of cancer-prone mice
Here lions leopards elephants hippos and giraffes wander free. Rivers of wildebeests zebra and Thompson's gazelles--more than 2 million all told--cross the landscape in one of the largest animal migrations on the planet.
While the park is located ideally for wandering wildebeests its location is less than ideal for the region's residents.
The proposed road could lead to the collapse of the largest remaining migratory system On earth the scientists wrote led by Andrew Dobson from Princeton university.
#Top 10 new species of 2012an amazing glow-in-the-dark cockroach a harp-shaped carnivorous sponge
and the smallest vertebrate On earth are just three of the newly discovered top 10 species selected by the International Institute for Species Exploration at Arizona State university.
Also slithering it way onto this year's top 10 is a snail-eating false coral snake as well as flowering bushes from a disappearing forest in Madagascar a green lacewing that was discovered through social media
Rounding out the list is a new monkey with a blue-colored behind and humanlike eyes a tiny violet and a black staining fungus that threatens rare Paleolithic cave paintings in France.
and that does not count most of the microbial world said Quentin Wheeler founding director of the International Institute for Species Exploration at ASU and author of What on earth?
100 of our Planet's Most Amazing New Species (NY Plume 2013. For decades we have averaged 18000 species discoveries per year
which seemed reasonable before the biodiversity crisis. Now knowing that millions of species may not survive the 21st century it is time to pick up the pace Wheeler added.
while securing evidence of the origins of the biosphere Wheeler said. Taxon experts pick top 10members of the international committee made their top 10 selection from more than 140 nominated species. To be considered species must have been described in compliance with the appropriate code of nomenclature
and animals is difficult. It requires finding an equilibrium between certain criteria and the special insights revealed by selection committee members said Antonio Valdecasas a biologist and research zoologist with Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales in Madrid Spain.
of which we are shared a part Wheeler. At the same time we search the heavens for other earthlike planets we should make it a high priority to explore the biodiversity on the most earthlike planet of them all:
Lyre Sponge Chondrocladia lyra Country: NE Pacific ocean; USA: Californiacarnivorous sponge: A spectacular large harp-or lyre-shaped carnivorous sponge discovered in deep water (averaging 3399 meters) from the northeast Pacific ocean off the coast of California.
The harp-shaped structures or vanes number from two to six and each has more than 20 parallel vertical branches often capped by an expanded balloon-like terminal ball.
This unusual form maximizes the surface area of the sponge for contact and capture of planktonic prey.
Lesula Monkey Cercopithecus lomamiensis Country: Democratic Republic of the Congoold World monkey: Discovered in the Lomami Basin of the Democratic republic of the congo the lesula is an Old world monkey well known to locals
but newly known to science. This is only the second species of monkey discovered in Africa in the past 28 years.
Scientists first saw the monkey as a captive juvenile in 2007. Researchers describe the shy lesula as having humanlike eyes.
More easily heard than seen the monkeys perform a booming dawn chorus. Adult males have a large bare patch of skin on the buttocks testicles
and perineum that is colored a brilliant blue. Although the forests where the monkeys live are remote the species is hunted for bush meat
and its status is vulnerable. No to the Mine! Snake Sibon noalamina Country: Panamasnail-eating snake:
A beautiful new species of snail-eating snake has been discovered in the highland rainforests of western Panama.
The snake is nocturnal and hunts soft-bodied prey including earthworms and amphibian eggs in addition to snails and slugs.
This harmless snake defends itself by mimicking the alternating dark and light rings of venomous coral snakes.
The species is found in the Serranã a de Tabasarã¡mountain range where ore mining is degrading
and diminishing its habitat. The species name is derived from the Spanish phrase No a la mina or No to the mine.
A Smudge on Paleolithic Art Ochroconis anomala Country: Francefungus: In 2001 black stains began to appear on the walls of Lascaux Cave in France.
By 2007 the stains were so prevalent they became a major concern for the conservation of precious rock art at the site that dates back to the Upper Paleolithic.
An outbreak of a white fungus Fusarium solani had been treated successfully when just a few months later black staining fungi appeared.
World's Smallest Vertebrate Paedophryne amanuensis Country: New Guineatiny frog: Living vertebrates--animals that have a backbone
or spinal column--range in size from this tiny new species of frog as small as 7 millimeters to the blue whale measuring 25.8 meters.
The new frog was discovered near Amau village in Papua new guinea. It captures the title of'smallest living vertebrate'from a tiny Southeast Asian cyprinid fish that claimed the record in 2006.
The adult frog size determined by averaging the lengths of both males and females is only 7. 7 millimeters.
With few exceptions this and other ultra-small frogs are associated with moist leaf litter in tropical wet forests--suggesting a unique ecological guild that could not exist under drier circumstances.
Endangered Forest Eugenia petrikensis Country: Madagascarendangered shrub: Eugenia is a large worldwide genus of woody evergreen trees and shrubs of the myrtle family that is particularly diverse in South america New caledonia and Madagascar.
The new species E. petrikensis is a shrub growing to two meters with emerald green slightly glossy foliage and beautiful dense clusters of small magenta flowers.
It is one of seven new species described from the littoral forest of eastern Madagascar
Lightning Roaches? Lucihormetica luckae Country: Ecuadorglow-in-the-dark cockroach: Luminescence among terrestrial animals is rather rare and best known among several groups of beetles--fireflies
and certain click beetles in particular--as well as cave-inhabiting fungus gnats. Since the first discovery of a luminescent cockroach in 1999 more than a dozen species have (pardon the pun) come to light.
All are rare and interestingly so far found only in remote areas far from light pollution.
The latest addition to this growing list is L. luckae that may be endangered or possibly already extinct.
This cockroach is known from a single specimen collected 70 years ago from an area heavily impacted by the eruption of the Tungurahua volcano.
The species may be most remarkable because the size and placement of its lamps suggest that it is using light to mimic toxic luminescent click beetles.
No Social Butterfly Semachrysa jade Country: Malaysiasocial media lacewing: In a trend-setting collision of science and social media Hock Ping Guek photographed a beautiful green lacewing with dark markings at the base of its wings in a park near Kuala lumpur
and shared his photo on Flickr. Shaun Winterton an entomologist with the California Department of Food
and Agriculture serendipitously saw the image and recognized the insect as unusual. When Guek was able to collect a specimen it was sent to Stephen Brooks at London's Natural history Museum who confirmed its new species status. The three joined forces
and prepared a description using Google docs. In this triumph for citizen science talents from around the globe collaborated by using new media in making the discovery.
The lacewing is named not for its color--rather for Winterton's daughter Jade. Hanging Around in the Jurassic Juracimbrophlebia ginkgofolia Country:
Chinahangingfly fossil: Living species of hangingflies can be found as the name suggests hanging beneath foliage where they capture other insects as food.
They are a lineage of scorpionflies characterized by their skinny bodies two pairs of narrow wings and long threadlike legs.
and represent a rare example of an insect mimicking a gymnosperm 165 million years ago before an explosive radiation of flowering plants.
Scientists will need access to as much evidence of evolutionary history as possible said the institute's Wheeler who is also a professor in ASU's School of Life sciences in the College of Liberal arts and Sciences and in the School of Sustainability as well as a senior sustainability scientist
and know nothing about Wheeler added. No investment makes more sense than completing a simple inventory to the establish baseline data that tells us what kinds of plants
and animals exist and where. Until we know what species already exist it is folly to expect we will make the right decisions to assure the best possible outcome for the pending biodiversity crisis. Additionally the announcement is made on or near May 23 to honor Linnaeus.
and animals nearly two million species have been named described and classified. Excluding unknown millions of microbes scientists estimate there are between 10 and 12 million living species Story Source:
#Bee and wild flower biodiversity loss slowsdeclines in the biodiversity of pollinating insects and wild plants have slowed in recent years according to a new study.
but what we are seeing is a significant slowing or reversal of the declines for wild plants and their insect pollinators.
and we know that most crop pollination is done by wild pollinators. Biodiversity is important to ensuring we don't lose that service.
The study published in the journal Ecology Letters found a 30 per cent fall in local bumblebee biodiversity in all three countries between the 1950s and the 1980s.
while in Belgium and The netherlands bumblebee diversity had stabilised. The picture was better for other wild bees with an 8 per cent reduction in diversity in The netherlands and a stable picture in Great britain turning into significant increases (7 per cent in The netherlands and 10
Butterfly diversity continued to fall in all three countries at roughly the same rates as in the past.
However while we can use biodiversity records to measure changes in the diversity of pollinators we can't tell what's happening to their overall abundance
and the United states used historical and contemporary records of species'presence held by organizations including the European Invertebrate Survey Butterfly Conservation the Bees Wasps and Ants Recording Society the INBO Research Institute
Treatment of animals with GNVS seemed to cause less adverse effects than treatment with drugs encapsulated in synthetic lipids.
and their pests--and also about the history of the people who grew these plants according to Kentaro Yoshida from The Sainsbury Laboratory in Norwich.
During the span of more than 60 million years Gondwana shifted from a state of deep freeze into one so hot and dry it supported the appearance of reptiles.
and the biology of other ruminant species. The Tibetan antelope (Pantholops hodgsonii) is a native of the high mountain steppes and semidesert areas of the Tibetan plateau.
For nonnative mammals such as humans they may experience life-threatening acute mountain sickness when visiting high-altitude regions.
Through the comparison between Tibetan antelope and other plain-dwelling mammals researchers found the Tibetan antelope had the signals of adaptive evolution
and the highland American pika have signals of positive selection for genes involved in DNA repair and the production of ATPASE.
#Climate change may have little impact on tropical lizards: Study contradicts predictions of widespread extinctiona new Dartmouth College study finds human-caused climate change may have little impact on many species of tropical lizards contradicting a host of recent studies that predict their widespread extinction in a rapidly warming planet.
The findings appear in the journal Global Change Biology. Most predictions that tropical cold-blooded animals especially forest lizards will be hard hit by climate change are based on global-scale measurements of environmental temperatures
which miss much of the fine-scale variation in temperature that individual animals experience on the ground said the article's lead author Michael Logan a Ph d. student in ecology and evolutionary biology.
To address this disconnect the Dartmouth researchers measured environmental temperatures at extremely high resolution and used those measurements to project the effects of climate change on the running abilities of four populations of lizard from the Bay Islands of Honduras. Field tests on the captured lizards
which were released unharmed were conducted between 2008 and 2012. Previous studies have suggested that open-habitat tropical lizard species are likely to invade forest habitat
and drive forest species to extinction but the Dartmouth research suggests that the open-habitat populations will not invade forest habitat
The overall results suggest that global-scale predictions generated using low-resolution temperature data may overestimate the vulnerability of many tropical lizards to climate change.
Whereas studies conducted to date have made uniformly bleak predictions for the survival of tropical forest lizards around the globe our data show that four similar species occurring in the same geographic region differ markedly in their vulnerabilities to climate warming the authors wrote.
Considering that these populations occur over extremely small geographic ranges it is possible that many tropical forest lizards
Herbert Hoi and colleagues of the University of Veterinary medicine Vienna together with scientists from the Slovak Academy of Sciences Bratislava carried out experiments with reed warblers to see how a situation of potential infidelity affects later paternal investment in the chicks
Reed warblers are socially monogamous defend their territory and both parents care for the offspring. Scientists of the Konrad-Lorenz-Institute of Ethology of the Vetmeduni Vienna for the first time tried to experimentally test the behaviour of reed warblers (Acrocephalus scirpaceus) after a potential act of cheating by the female.
How does the male treat a competitor and how does an affair affect care for the brood?
To answer these questions they simulated an increased risk of adulterous behaviour in female reed warblers by briefly introducing a caged extra male to 31 reed warbler pairs during the female's fertile period.
In addition they played back recorded songs of randomly selected warbler males from the area. The scientists then observed nest building activity and feeding of offspring and determined chick paternity through DNA analyses.
When the going gets toughfrom previous observations it was known that male territory owners will aggressively try to chase away intruders (conspecific males)
A cuckoo in the nesthoi and colleagues found that many nests housed nestlings fathered outside the pair-bond.
Those females that had been observed to show interest in the intruder were also later found to be more likely to have extra-pair chicks in their nest.
#Insecticides lead to starvation of aquatic organismsneonicotinoid insecticides have adverse effects not only on bees but also on freshwater invertebrates.
These measures have been taken in response to evidence that neonicotinoids are toxic to honeybees and are contributing to the decline of bee colonies.
Problems seen with constant exposurean Eawag study published today in the journal PLOS ONE (Public library of Science) now shows that at least one of the insecticides in this class also has toxic effects on freshwater invertebrates.
It has become common for topnotch studies to report genealogies that strongly contradict each other in where certain organisms sprang from such as the place of sponges on the animal tree
#Flower power fights orchard pestswashington State university researchers have found they can control one of fruit growers'more severe pests aphids with a remarkably benign tool:
They found that plantings of sweet alyssum attracted a host of spiders and predator bugs that in turn preyed on woolly apple aphids a pest that growers often control with chemical sprays.
The results were striking said Lessando Gontijo who led the research project while a doctoral student in the WSU Department of Entomology.
After one week aphid densities were significantly lower on trees adjacent to flowers than on control plots
which have larvae that often feed on aphids. Hoverflies and other insects are attracted to flowers because they can find food in the form of pollen and nectar.
A syrphid hovers over alyssum. Researchers compared plots of apple trees with sweet alyssum to plots without flowers.
and colleagues found few hoverfly larvae showing that the hoverflies had only a marginal effect on the aphid population.
The mystery of the disappearing aphids seemed solved when the researchers found a diverse community of spiders and predatory insects in the plots with sweet alyssum.
But was it really the flowers that attracted aphid predators? The scientists sprayed protein markers on the sweet alyssum
and later captured insects and spiders at a distance from the flower plots. Many of the insects and spiders tested positive for the proteins proving that they had visited the flowers.
The woolly apple aphid is surprisingly damaging for an aphid attacking tree shoots and roots said Betsy Beers an entomologist based at WSU's Tree Fruit Research
and Extension Center in Wenatchee and Gontijo's mentor and co-author on the paper. These aphids also secrete a sticky liquid called honeydew
which can coat the apples causing much annoyance during harvest. The aphids were kept previously at bay
when orchardists sprayed pesticides to control codling moths. Since the phase out of organophosphate insecticides though the woolly apple aphid has been making a comeback in central Washington and elsewhere.
The researchers state that the use of sweet alyssum for biological control can be integrated easily with standard orchard-management practices
and should be especially appealing to organic growers who have fewer insecticide options. The article Flowers promote aphid suppression in apple orchards was published in the July 2013 edition of Biological Controlstory Source:
The above story is provided based on materials by Washington state University. The original article was written by Bob Hoffmann.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. Journal Reference e
#Untangling the tree of lifethese days phylogeneticists--experts who painstakingly map the complex branches of the tree of life--suffer from an embarrassment of riches.
It has become common for topnotch studies to report genealogies that strongly contradict each other in where certain organisms sprang from such as the place of sponges on the animal tree
#Flower power fights orchard pestswashington State university researchers have found they can control one of fruit growers'more severe pests aphids with a remarkably benign tool:
They found that plantings of sweet alyssum attracted a host of spiders and predator bugs that in turn preyed on woolly apple aphids a pest that growers often control with chemical sprays.
The results were striking said Lessando Gontijo who led the research project while a doctoral student in the WSU Department of Entomology.
After one week aphid densities were significantly lower on trees adjacent to flowers than on control plots
which have larvae that often feed on aphids. Hoverflies and other insects are attracted to flowers because they can find food in the form of pollen and nectar.
A syrphid hovers over alyssum. Researchers compared plots of apple trees with sweet alyssum to plots without flowers.
and colleagues found few hoverfly larvae showing that the hoverflies had only a marginal effect on the aphid population.
The mystery of the disappearing aphids seemed solved when the researchers found a diverse community of spiders and predatory insects in the plots with sweet alyssum.
But was it really the flowers that attracted aphid predators? The scientists sprayed protein markers on the sweet alyssum
and later captured insects and spiders at a distance from the flower plots. Many of the insects and spiders tested positive for the proteins proving that they had visited the flowers.
The woolly apple aphid is surprisingly damaging for an aphid attacking tree shoots and roots said Betsy Beers an entomologist based at WSU's Tree Fruit Research
and Extension Center in Wenatchee and Gontijo's mentor and co-author on the paper. These aphids also secrete a sticky liquid called honeydew
which can coat the apples causing much annoyance during harvest. The aphids were kept previously at bay
when orchardists sprayed pesticides to control codling moths. Since the phase out of organophosphate insecticides though the woolly apple aphid has been making a comeback in central Washington and elsewhere.
The researchers state that the use of sweet alyssum for biological control can be integrated easily with standard orchard-management practices
and should be especially appealing to organic growers who have fewer insecticide options. The article Flowers promote aphid suppression in apple orchards was published in the July 2013 edition of Biological Controlstory Source:
The above story is provided based on materials by Washington state University. The original article was written by Bob Hoffmann.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. Journal Reference e
#Nonsmoking hotel rooms still expose occupants to tobacco smokenon-smokers should give hotels that allow smoking in certain rooms a wide berth say the authors
Also known as elephant grass miscanthus is one of a new generation of renewable energy crops that can be converted into renewable energy by being burned in biomass power stations.
Following analysis of H7n9 influenza viruses collected from live poultry markets it was found that these viruses circulating among birds were responsible for human infections.
Of these 20 positive samples 10 were isolated from chickens 3 from pigeons and 7 were from environmental samples.
The complete genome of three H7n9 isolates from a chicken pigeon and environmental sample was sequenced
The analysis of these novel H7n9 influenza virus isolates showed that that the six internal genes were derived from avian H9n2 viruses
We suggest that strong measures such as continued surveillance of avian and human hosts control of animal movement shutdown of live poultry markets
and number of animals. The researchers also determined that contrary to some previous suggestions grazing does not reduce cheatgrass abundance.
and associated wildlife that had evolved with little herbivore pressure. Cheatgrass displaces native grasses and wildlife can increase fire frequency
The clues lie in the genome of the carnivorous bladderwort plant Utricularia gibba. The U. gibba genome is the smallest ever to be sequenced from a complex multicellular plant.
and water and its flowers generate heat to attract pollinators. Now researchers report in the journal Genome Biology that they have sequenced the lotus genome
--and there are dozens--sacred lotus bears the closest resemblance to the ancestor of all eudicots a broad category of flowering plants that includes apple cabbage cactus coffee cotton grape melon peanut poplar
birds could pose risk to humansin the summer of 1968 a new strain of influenza appeared in Hong kong.
A new study from MIT reveals that there are many strains of H3n2 circulating in birds
or birds have caused several notable flu pandemics. When one of these avian or swine viruses gains the ability to infect humans it can often evade the immune system which is primed to recognize only strains that commonly infect humans.
Strains of H3n2 have been circulating in humans since the 1968 pandemic but they have evolved to a less dangerous form that produces a nasty seasonal flu.
However H3n2 strains are also circulating in pigs and birds. Sasisekharan and his colleagues wanted to determine the risk of H3n2 strains reemerging in humans
and birds focusing on the gene that codes for the viral hemagglutinin (HA) protein. After comparing HA genetic sequences in five key locations that control the viruses'interactions with infected hosts the researchers calculated an antigenic index for each strain.
Of these 549 came from birds and 32 from pigs. The researchers then exposed some of these strains to antibodies provoked by the current H3 seasonal-flu vaccines.
There could be viral genes that mix among pigs or between birds and pigs. Sasisekharan and colleagues are now doing a similar genetic study of H5 influenza strains.
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