News by Subject Biology

Approximately 5% of women experience two or more miscarriages, a condition known as recurrent pregnancy loss (RPL). Although genetic testing is important for evaluating RPL, current tests have revealed shortcomings in clinical practice. A report in The Journal of Molecular Diagnostics describes a new high-resolution melting analysis-based test that is accurate, rapid, cheap, and easy to perform. When used prior to other tests, it improved cost-effectiveness by 30%, an important consideration in areas with limited healthcare resources.

Plant-derived chemicals called cardenolides - like digitoxin - have long been used to treat heart disease, and have shown potential as cancer therapies. But the compounds are very toxic, making it difficult for doctors to prescribe a dose that works without harming the patient. Researchers now show that the wormseed wallflower could be used as a model species to elucidate how plants biosynthesize cardenolides, knowledge that could aid the discovery and development of safer drugs.

There is plenty of scientific evidence that the health of a mother can impact the health of her child. Now a Northwestern University study flips that relationship around: Researchers have discovered the health of the fertilized embryo determines the functional health of the mother, which has implications for healthy aging, stress resilience and suppression of protein damage. Essentially, a bad egg does good by protecting the mother from cellular stress, ensuring she lives longer and is healthy enough to produce the next generation.

Using existing data from controlled experiments and computer simulations, researchers with the University of Tennessee Institute of Agriculture have found that host contact rates and habitat structure affect transmission rates of Bsal among eastern newts, a common salamander species found throughout eastern North America.

UC San Diego scientists studying bacteria have identified the roots of a behavior that is regulated by the circadian clock. The research provides a striking example of the importance of keeping the internal biological clock aligned with the external environment so that key processes occur at the right time of day.

A unique butterfly breeding experiment gave UC Berkeley researchers an opportunity to study the physical and genetic changes underlying the evolution of structural color, responsible for butterflies' iridescent purples, blues and greens. Using helium ion microscopy, the scientists discovered that a 75% increase in thickness of the chitin lamina of wing scales turned iridescent gold to shiny blue. They showed that knocking out a gene called optix achieves the same result: a bluer Common Buckeye.