Researchers at Gladstone Institutes have devised a way to track the exact routes that debris uses when exiting the brain. Their approach, described in Cell, has revealed new details about how the brain clears waste, including how bordering immune cells interact with waste products and how Alzheimer’s disease disrupts this carefully orchestrated system.

β-1,2-Glucans are glucose-based polymers found across a wide range of organisms that play important roles in bacterial infection and symbiosis. However, how bacteria import these sugars remains poorly understood. In a recent study, researchers from Japan identified and characterized Chy400_4166, a novel β-1,2-glucan-binding protein from the bacterium Chloroflexus aurantiacus. This protein exhibits a binding mechanism distinct from any previously described transporter of this kind, expanding our understanding of how bacteria recognize and take up β-1,2-glucans.

Kyoto, Japan -- Bright colors in animals are beautiful but often considered risky because they are more obvious to predators. However, conspicuous colors can also serve defensively, signaling toxicity or even luring predators away from more vulnerable body parts.

Previous studies have shown that the presence of predators such as dragonfly nymphs can induce tadpoles to develop bright orange tail coloration, an ability called phenotypic plasticity. But how this color change helps them avoid predation has not been clear. While observing tadpoles of the East Japan tree frog, Dryophytes leopardus, a team of researchers at Kyoto University was inspired to investigate how their predator-induced orange tails function as a defensive trait.

"After seeing these tadpoles with orange tails at the university's experimental farm, I wondered what role such a bright tail could have," says corresponding author Akihiro Noda.

An international team of researchers from Japan and Malaysia has shown that wild orangutan juveniles continue to consume their mother’s milk continuously until at least six and a half years of age, the longest breastfeeding period known among mammals. Using a new technique called fecal proteomics, the team detected milk-specific proteins in the feces of wild Bornean orangutans in Malaysian Borneo. The study also suggests that prolonged breastfeeding supports intestinal defenses and a healthy gut microbiome, helping sustain orangutans’ slow reproductive rates and lower juvenile mortality.

There’s a conundrum that has perplexed biologists since Charles Darwin himself. Why do some exotic species take off as invasive pests while others don’t?