EurekAlert! News by Subject: Biology - News by Subject: Biology

Biology

Updates every hour. Last Updated: 17-Nov-2025 11:11 ET (17-Nov-2025 16:11 GMT/UTC)

Parasitic matricide, ants chemically compel host workers to kill their own queen

Kyushu University
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Researchers report on how two species of parasitic ants—Lasius orientalis and Lasius umbratus—invade and overtake a host ant colony. In both cases, the parasitic ant queen invades the nest and sprays the host colony queen with what is likely formic acid. This manipulates the host colony worker ants to attack and execute their own queen.

Journal: Current Biology
Funder: Sumitomo Foundation, Tokuo Fujii Research Fund

Parasitic ant tricks workers into killing their queen, then takes the throne

Cell Press
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Scientists document a new form of host manipulation where an invading, parasitic ant queen “tricks” ant workers into killing their queen mother. The invading ant integrates herself into the nest by pretending to be a member of the colony, then sprays the host queen with fluid that causes her daughters to turn against her. The parasitic queen then usurps the throne, having the workers serve her instead as the new queen regent. This work appears in the Cell Press journal Current Biology on November 17.

Journal: Current Biology
Funder: Sumitomo Foundation

A study conducted in the Technion Faculty of Biology reveals a unique mechanism in immune system aging

Technion-Israel Institute of Technology
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Technion study uncovers mechanism of immune system aging and proposes strategy to rejuvenate immune response

Researchers from the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology’s Faculty of Biology have uncovered a unique mechanism driving immune system decline with age and proposed a way to counter it. The study, published in Nature Aging and led by Assistant Professor Noga Ron-Harel and doctoral student David Ezuz, reveals that the spleen’s aging plays a central role in weakening immune function.

The team found that as the spleen ages, it accumulates iron deposits and toxic by-products, creating an oxidative environment that damages T cells — key immune cells responsible for fighting infections and cancer. In response, T cells reduce their iron uptake to protect themselves, but this adaptation inadvertently limits their ability to activate and mount an immune response.

The researchers demonstrated that targeted iron supplementation during T-cell activation can restore immune responsiveness in older mice, significantly improving their reaction to vaccination.

The findings provide a new framework for understanding immune aging and suggest a promising strategy to rejuvenate immune function in older individuals.

The research was supported by the European Research Council (ERC) under the Horizon 2020 program.

Journal: Nature Aging

A microbial blueprint for climate-smart cows

University of California - Davis
Peer-Reviewed Publication

UC Davis research reveals which gut microbes in a cow could reduce methane, bringing them a step closer to engineering microbes to create climate-smart cows.

Journal: Microbiome
Funder: Audacious Project, Lyda Hill Philanthropies, Acton Family Giving, Valhalla Foundation, Hastings/Quillin Fund, Silicon Valley Community Foundation, CH Foundation, Laura and Gary Lauder and Family, Sea Grape Foundation, Emerson Collective, Mike Schroepfer and Erin Hoffman Family Fund, Anne Wojcicki Foundation, Shurl and Kay Curci Foundation, U.S. Department of Energy

In mice, fertility treatments linked to higher mutations than natural conception

Jackson Laboratory
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Mice pups conceived with in vitro fertilization (IVF) in the lab have slightly increased rates of DNA errors, or mutations, compared to pups conceived naturally, a new study on artificial reproductive technologies suggests.

Journal: Genome Research
Funder: National Institute of General Medical Sciences

Reviving exhausted immune cells boosts tumor elimination

Weill Cornell Medicine
Peer-Reviewed Publication

A new study has discovered a molecular signal that tumors exploit to exhaust the T cells meant to destroy them—and how silencing that signal could revive the body’s immunity. The study led by Weill Cornell Medicine researchers was published Nov. 17 in Nature Immunology and shows that tumors not only evade the immune system but can actively reprogram immune cells to stop fighting.

Journal: Nature Immunology

Menstruation, a topic still stigmatised

Universitat Politècnica de València
Peer-Reviewed Publication

The menstrual taboo persists. This is the main conclusion of a pioneering macro-study in Spain involving more than 4,000 participants and led by the INGENIO Institute, a joint centre of the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) and the Universitat Politécnica de València (UPV). According to the analysis, 4 out of 10 people perceive menstruation as a topic that is still stigmatised.

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