using a record-breaking data set of anatomical traits and genetic sequences. The critter turned out to be a tree-climbing
an evolutionary biologist at Oldenburg University in Germany who was not part of the study. The analysis,
but it contradicts genetic studies that put the group s origin at around 100 million years ago.
Genetic studies had suggested that flying lemurs were related most closely. The placental tree also shows that the Afrotheria,
says Mark Springer, an evolutionary biologist at the University of California, Riverside. For example, grouping animals according to their anatomy alone puts physically similar species such as pangolins, anteaters and aardvarks in the same tight group,
but Springer says that the lack of genetic data for extinct species adds uncertainty to their position on the tree,
The new science of synthetic biology aims to make it possible for him to fulfill that moral imperative.
and others, ranging from synthetic biologist George Church of Harvard Medical school to environmental gadfly Steward Brand of the Long Now Foundation
if new genetic tools might enable them to bring back even more species, as Archer is attempting to do with the gastric brooding frog.
they will need also to find A y chromosome to make a male bucardo and then stitch that into the cloned DNA.
or egg cells that bear the DNA of endangered or extinct species and can provide the genetic code to restore
however, is a process still beyond even the most advanced genetic science. You cannot realistically change one
or 10 percent of a genome and have that go to term, Lanza noted in an interview with Scientific American,
the cold of the San diego's frozen zoo may be the key to ensuring that today's biodiversity makes it through the next few centuries of the Anthropocene intact.
despite their importance to us, have dwindled in biodiversity as genetic engineering has created specialized variants that now dominate the landscape.
At this moment, brave conservationists are risking their lives to protect forest elephants from armed poachers, noted biologist David Ehrenfeld of Rutgers University at TEDX.
says Samuel Wasser, director of the Center for Conservation Biology at the University of Washington in Seattle and one of the driving forces behind the push for forensic examinations of elephant ivory.
The single simulation that predicted biomass loss for the Amazonian and Central american rainforests in the current study used a model called Hadcm3
They face a choice between three projects  Biomass, PREMIER and Coreh2o (an acronym referring to cold regions
The Biomass project aims to take radar measurements of global forest biomass to assess terrestrial carbon stocks and fluxes.
2013), nor Japan s Advanced Land Observing Satellite-2 Â to be launched later this year have sensors that can measure forest biomass with the precision of Biomass, for example.
But data on global forest biomass a major store of land carbon and a key indicator of biodiversity are no less important,
who is part of the Biomass assessment group. In particular, he says, satellite observations are needed to quantify global carbon emissions for tropical forests, for
a biologist at St andrews and co-author of the whale study, "so here we have a population with two independently evolving cultural traditions a culture.
and the virus has expanded its geographical range to neighbouring Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces, as well as Beijing in the north and Henan in the centre of the country.
well-established avian flu virus H5n1 may help to target H7n9 surveillance and control efforts. The map shows human cases of H7n9 (blue circles) superimposed on a risk map developed for H5n1,
scientists must identify the sources of the virus, and the route by which it infects humans.
but tens of thousands of tests in poultry and other animals elsewhere have failed so far to turn up significant levels of the virus. It is far from easy to devise effective ways to sample birds and animals for testing in a country with some 6 billion domestic birds
the H5n1 virus that has caused 622 confirmed cases and 371 deaths since 2003, may help inform analyses.
and an expert in the epidemiology and ecology of avian flu viruses at the Free University of Brussels, says that
Such information could also be used to help to modify farming and trade practices to reduce the risk of human exposure to the virus. As more is learned about H7n9,
T. P. V. B. and M. G.,Universitã Libre de Bruxelles, Brussels.)The H7n9 virus has mutations that mean that it spreads from birds to humans more easily than does H5n1.
Proximity between bird and mammal populations could also give the virus opportunities for further adaptation to mammals,
Flight routes from the outbreak regions would quickly carry any human-transmissible virus to huge population centres in Europe, North america and Asia.
or the international spread of a partially or fully human-adapted virus. Maps presented are for data-visualization purposes only;
Nobel laureate dies Fran §ois Jacob, a Nobel-prizewinning French biologist, died on 19 april aged 92.
or Medicine for his work on gene expression and how it is controlled. While working at the Pasteur institute in Paris, he identified regulatory proteins that bind to DNA,
found that investment in biotechnology and medical devices fell by 28 %and investment in clean technology declined by 35%relative to the previous quarter.
a salmon breeding and biotechnology company on the Queen Charlotte Islands in Canada, is disputing the legality of a search of its offices by the government agency Environment Canada last month.
the resurgence of measles and antimicrobial resistance are discussed all at the European Society of Clinical Microbiology
said Jerry Melillo, a senior scientist at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Massachusetts,
But whatever the biological basis, they say, antiretrovirals will be vital for protecting infants during this time.
H7n9 bird flu poised to spreadthe H7n9 avian flu virus greatly expanded its geographical range over the weekend,
Up until now, the virus had been restricted to Shanghai and neighbouring regions on the Eastern seaboard. Experts worry that this new development may be the start of an expansion that may see H7n9 quickly fan out across large areas of China, and beyond.
There is still no evidence of any sustained human-to-human spread of the H7n9 virus
The Beijing Municipal Health Bureau also announced today that a 4-year-old contact of a 7-year-old girl who had been hospitalized with the virus tested positive for the virus too,
it suggests that the virus might be more widespread among humans than the numbers of reported cases suggest.
That is because reduced virulence can often point to further genetic adaptation of the virus to infection of human beings and thus greater potential to spread.
since that virus began causing outbreaks. If that pace keeps up or accelerates, H7n9 could be a significant public health problem
Genetic analyses of the new virus show that it has several mutations making it more adapted to humans than is H5n1.
Concern that the virus would be next to impossible to track or control because it does not cause serious illness in poultry
says Marius Gilbert, an expert in the epidemiology and ecology of avian flu viruses at the Universitã libre de Bruxelles in Belgium.
The virus may have reached Beijing and Henan provinces via the poultry trade which is extensive in China,
That could mean that the main reservoir of virus in animals is restricted still to the Shanghai region.
Either mechanism could transport the virus far beyond China's borders. Neighbouring countries need to be on high alert,
and other measures needed to try to prevent the introduction of the virus. Nailing down the transmission routes of the virus in China alone is a huge challenge;
and home to some 6 billion poultry as well as many migratory and other wild birds that may have a role in spreading the virus. On Wednesday,
so long as the virus does not start to spread among humans the potential number of human cases can be curtailed by taking urgent tough measures such as keeping poultry flocks away from wild birds
whether this novel avian influenza virus first reported in humans in China less than two weeks ago will rapidly fizzle out,
or morph into a virus that can spread easily between people and spark a deadly pandemic.
analysing the viruses they find; and trying to trace people who have been exposed to infected patients.
Chinese health authorities say that they have 400 laboratories looking for genetic changes in the virus."We are going to be bated sitting with breath over the next month to find out what happens,
the H7n9 virus was found in chickens, pigeons and ducks in live bird markets in Shanghai and Hangzhou making markets the leading suspected source.
The genetic sequences of the H7n9 viruses found in the birds are highly similar to those isolated from human patients,
says Chao-Tan Guo, a virologist at the Zhejiang Academy of Medical sciences in Hangzhou. Although the virus might have come from other sources
including mammals, the pattern of many human cases over a wide area in a short time could be explained by live markets alone,
says Malik Peiris, a flu virologist at the University of Hong kong. Sources: WHO/ECDC/Xinhua state mediabut the various bird species found to be infected may not be the original source,
Researchers know that H7 flu viruses mainly infect wild birds such as ducks, geese, waders and gulls,
But this H7n9 virus has not yet been detected in wild birds in the area.""There is very little specific information on the source of this particular virus strain, its ecology or reservoir,
and it is premature to be hypothesizing on the vectors, says Taej Mundkur, who is flyways programme manager for conservation group Wetlands International in The netherlands.
Wherever the virus originated, a crucial question is whether it could become established in poultry,
says Masato Tashiro, a virologist at the Influenza Virus Research center in Tokyo, the World health organization s influenza reference
Each time the virus encounters new human hosts, it has fresh opportunities to mutate and to acquire the ability to spread between people.
Researchers working on the molecular biology of the virus say that it seems to derive from a reassortment of genetic material from at least three known bird-flu groups (see Nature http//doi. org/k4j;
) A key component the haemagglutinin (H) protein on the surface of the virus already contains mutations known to shift its binding preference from bird cells to those of mammals.
Because flu viruses evolve rapidly, comparing viral sequences from each of the human cases might reveal
but virologists are sequencing more and posting them on the GISAID flu database. If human-to-human transmission does start to occur,
Humanity has never been exposed widely to H7 or N9 flu viruses, and so lacks resistance to these subtypes.
says Markus Reichstein, a carbon-cycle scientist at the Max Planck Institute of Biogeochemistry in Jena, Germany, who coordinates CARBO-Extreme.
which raged northeastward from the Bay of biscay, slashing forest biomass by 16 million tonnes. By the end of this century, model studies suggest,
Existing biosphere models do not capture such effects, which Bahn thinks might be due to changes in soil microbes.
whether to publish genetic data on old tissue samples that were established originally without their donor s consent.
Researchers hurriedly removed from public databases their recently published genome of the world s most famous cell line, Hela,
Lacks s descendants, together with bioethicists and other scientists, said that it could reveal information about traits carried by living family members
although other genetic data about Hela cells remain available online. See go. nature. com/ymiwgi for more.
and from Shanghai, contracted the H7n9 virus in February and died within 8 Â days.
A 35-year-old woman from Anhui province, who contracted the virus in March, was in a critical condition as Nature went to press.
GM crop deal Two agricultural biotechnology giants agreed on 26 Â March to settle a lengthy legal battle over patent rights to next-generation genetically modified (GM) soya beans.
and a third was seriously ill from being infected with a new avian influenza virus, H7n9, that has never been seen before in humans.
Emerging preliminary analyses of the genome of the virus point to the possible spectre of a pathogen that might spread silently in poultry without causing serious disease.
That would make the virus difficult to monitor, with animal reservoirs of the virus likely going undetected.
Should the virus become established in birds or other animals regular human infections might then occur providing opportunities for the virus to adapt better to humans,
and ultimately to spread between them, potentially sparking a pandemic. Scientists stress that it is much too early to do a full risk assessment of the potential pandemic threat.
But the initial analysis of viral sequences is"worrisome because they show several features that are suggestive of adaptation to humans,
says Masato Tashiro, a virologist at the Influenza Virus Research center in Tokyo, the World health organization (WHO) influenza reference
says Malik Peiris, a flu virologist at the University of Hong kong. Any time an animal influenza virus crosses to humans it is a cause for concern,
and with three severe cases of disease over a short period of time, we certainly have to take it seriously,
The first case infected by the novel H7n9 virus was an 87-year-old man in Shanghai who became ill on 19 february
So far, there seems to be sustained no spread of the virus between people. Chinese authorities tracked dozens of contacts of the three cases and reported that none showed relevant symptoms
or tested positive for the virus. Some uncertainty hangs over whether family members related to the first patient who were hospitalized with severe pneumonia just before their elderly father might have passed on the virus to the housebound man
Although the family members reportedly tested negative for the virus, the results might have been false negatives.
Chinese researchers have moved swiftly to decipher the new virus. THE WHO Chinese National Influenza Center in Beijing has sequenced isolates from each of the three cases,
since been racing to discover what clues the genome might hold  including the source of the virus,
Analyses suggest that the virus is a novel virus that has been generated by reassortment which occurs when different virus strains infect a host at the same time
and swap genes with each other. Flu viruses have eight genes: two that encode the haemagglutinin (H) and neuraminidase (N) proteins that stud the surface of the virus,
and six that code for internal proteins. In the three human cases, the genes coding for the internal proteins seem to come from H9n2 viruses a class that is endemic in birds,
including poultry, in Asia and elsewhere. More specifically, the sequences appear similar to recent H9n2 viruses found in China and South korea.
The gene for the N protein, says Tashiro, seems to be similar to avian H11n9 viruses that were found in South korea in 2011;
in Hongze, Jiangsu, in 2010; and in the Czech republic in 2005. The gene for the H protein especially critical,
because this protein allows the virus to bind to host cells seems to belong to a Eurasian group of H7 avian flu viruses.
In other words, the new virus seems to stem from a reassortment of three virus strains that infect only birds.
This is in contrast to the 2009 H1n1 pandemic virus, which was a mix of viruses that infect birds, pigs and humans.
Most of the genetic analyses are still being carried out confidentially within THE WHO's global flu-research networks.
But some researchers such as a team at the University of Edinburgh, UK, have started also posting their preliminary analyses online.
A striking feature of the novel virus is that its H protein is structurally similar to that of viruses that don t cause severe sickness in birds,
and different from those that do, such as the H5n1 virus that has been ravaging poultry flocks in Asia since late 2002.
Flu viruses that don t sicken birds can, however, cause severe disease in humans simply because we lack any immunity to them.
They also may be more lethal in people depending on how the viruses bind to receptors in the human airway.
Although it is early days scientists say that it seems clear from the sequence that the novel virus has acquired key mutations that permit the H protein to latch onto receptors on mammalian cells in the airways instead of onto avian receptors.
The virus also contains several other genetic variations that are known from past studies in mice and other animals to cause severe disease.
Initial data also suggest that the virus is affecting cells deep in the lung, which would fit with a picture of a virus much like that of the novel coronavirus that emerged in the middle East last year  that can cause severe disease.
But it could also indicate that the virus doesn t spread as easily as one that affects the nose and throat
which can be coughed and sneezed out more readily. The full pattern of receptor binding has yet to be worked out, cautions Peiris.
The fact that the virus does not seem to cause serious disease in birds has potential epidemiological and public-health implications,
Peiris adds. It could be spreading in poultry undetected and thus could create a reservoir of infection that would lead to frequent sporadic human infections that crop up without warning.
A highly pathogenic virus such as H5n1 is easy to spot because it wipes out flocks,
and can be controlled by extended culling. But it might be almost impossible to control a virus in birds that generates few visible symptoms
says Peiris. That really would be quite a problem, he says. The question is whether it's already too late to stamp out or not.
China has reported not any recent H7 flu infections in birds, perhaps because such infections would not show up as serious disease,
or maybe because of shortcomings in surveillance or reporting. A key requirement now, Peiris says, is to track down which birds
or animals the affected humans caught the virus from. H7 viruses are common in wild birds but much less so in poultry.
It therefore seems unlikely that three human cases in such a short space of time could result from contact with wild birds
Domestic fowl are the most likely alternative source of the virus . But given that H7n9 has mutations that enable it to infect mammals,
Flu experts say that other urgent requirements include testing any human cases of serious pneumonia for traces of the virus
Vosshall s team genetically engineered A. aegypti mosquitoes to lack the gene orco, which makes a protein that helps build the receptor molecules that sense many smells.
because mosquitoes without the gene are attracted still to humans. A more probable scenario is that DEET jams a mosquito s sensory system
so a chemical that targets the gene could help to keep pests away from economically important crops."
Since last week, Cooley, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Connecticut in Storrs, has been on the road mapping populations of periodical cicadas (Magicicada.
The insect genus with the longest known life cycles, Magicicada has confounded scientists for centuries. In 1665, the first volume of Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society included a report from New england concerning"swarms of strange insects,
Biologists generally agree that the giant synchronized emergence of periodical cicadas overwhelms potential predators, allowing some of the relatively defenceless insects to reproduce.
Gene Kritsky, an entomologist at the College of Mount St joseph in Cincinnati, Ohio, says that nymphs seem to count the number of times that trees set their leaves in the spring;
Researchers are making more progress in probing the biological mechanisms that allow cicadas to switch their life cycles.
The researchers suggest that those splits are explained by a common genetic mechanism across the species. Chris Simon,
a co-author and evolutionary biologist at the University of Connecticut, plans to follow up those results with several genetic studies, including sequencing the RNA transcripts of genes that are active at different stages in the cicada life cycle.
She is interested particularly in probing the occasional tendency of periodical cicadas to emerge 4 Â years early or late.
or that a genetic factor has caused some members of the 17-year Brood  X to switch to a 13-year life cycle,
Pathogen genome tracks Irish potato famine back to its rootsthe great potato famine of the 1840s was a defining event in Ireland s recent history.
Working from 150-year-old dried leaves, two competing teams have sequenced now the genome of the single-celled organism that wreaked havoc on The irish potato crop.
It is the first ancient plant pathogen to have decoded its genome. In 2011, scientists reported the sequence of the plague-causing bacteria responsible for the Black death of the 1340s.
a plant geneticist at the Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology in T Â bingen, Germany, who co-led a study published today in the journal elife1."
Mitochondrial genomes from the famine strains showed they were more closely related to the US-1 strain than the earlier research suggested
Weigel s team also found nothing in the nuclear genomes of the famine strains to explain their ferocity.
In fact, the strains lack a gene found in modern strains of P. infestans that overcomes the plant s resistance genes.
evolutionary geneticists at the University of Copenhagen, looked more closely at such genes after sequencing the nuclear genomes of five herbarium strains of P. infestans.
In unpublished work, the team identified numerous genes that differ between the historical samples and modern strains, including many disease genes that were missing from the famine strains.
Their work also suggests that P. infestans may have been exported to Europe more than once during the famine."
A 32-month-old girl living near Mogadishu has been paralysed by the virus. There have been no polio immunizations in some parts of the country since 2009.
genetic testing was under way to determine the virus s origin. The only other countries that have recorded wild poliovirus cases in 2013 are Pakistan, Afghanistan and Nigeria,
Transgene patents The US Supreme court ruled on 13 Â May that a farmer had violated intellectual-property laws by planting genetically modified soya beans without buying the goods from the crop s patent-holder,
if trust in vaccines falls. 18-21 may The American Society for Microbiology holds its annual general meeting in Denver, Colorado,
with scientific discussions including threats from the avian influenza viruses H7n9 and H5n1. gm. asm. org21-23 may The Pasteur institute in Paris hosts an international symposium on HIV research,
and Vega, head of the Institute for Sustainable Local Development and Andean Amazon Cultural and Biological Conservation (INBIAPERU) in Trujillo, Peru, had stumbled on a species unknown to science.
Hepatitis drug A new hepatitis-C drug sofosbuvir, has been found to be highly effective in clinical trials.
the drug is one of several in development that could replace existing hepatitis-C treatments,
Carrozza is a biorobotics specialist and was rector of an elite university in Pisa, the Sant Anna School of Advanced Studies,
Transgenic salmon nears approvalin the remote highlands of Panama, in tanks protected by netting, barbed wire and guard dogs, swim the world s most expensive
says Gregory Jaffe, director of biotechnology at the Center for Science in the Public interest, a consumer group in WASHINGTON DC that monitors the regulation of GM foods.
In 1989, the salmon were engineered to overexpress a growth-hormone gene. The result: Aquadvantage fish that grew to full size in around 18 Â months rather than the usual 3 Â years.
a synthetic biology company based in Blacksburg, Virginia. At first glance, the Panama facility hardly seems to be the key to financial prosperity.
Mark Walton, chief marketing officer at Recombinetics, an animal-biotechnology company in St paul, Minnesota, says that his company will focus initially on medical applications   using modified farm animals as disease models
Pesticides spark broad biodiversity lossagricultural pesticides have been linked to widespread invertebrate biodiversity loss in two new research papers.
Pesticide use has reduced sharply the regional biodiversity of stream invertebrates, such as mayflies and dragonflies, in Europe and Australia, finds a study published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences1.
Considering pesticides along with other known threats to biodiversity may be crucial for halting species declines, she says.
from biologist Dave Goulson of the University of Sussex, UK, reviews the environmental risk posed by neonicotinoid insecticides2.
That includes cattle movement controls, increasing biosecurity, development of vaccines and control of the wildlife reservoir.
How the chicken lost its penisthe case of the missing bird penis is a longstanding mystery in evolutionary biology.
a developmental biologist at the University of Florida in Gainesville, looked for differences between developing duck and chicken embryos.
but the team discovered that many of the same genes that drive penis growth in ducks continued to be expressed strongly in chickens.
Bob Montgomerie, an evolutionary biologist at Queen's university in Ontario, Canada, disagrees. He and others have suggested that
and light have altered the city birds biological clocks1. The finding helps to explain prior reports that urban songbirds adopt more nocturnal lifestyles2-4 data that prompted Davide Dominoni, an ecologist at the Max Planck Institute for Ornithology in Radolfzell, Germany,
says Niels Rattenborg, an avian sleep biologist at the Max Planck Institute for Ornithology in Seewiesen,
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