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

Biology

Updates every hour. Last Updated: 22-Jul-2025 02:11 ET (22-Jul-2025 06:11 GMT/UTC)

Why are patients with mitochondrial disease more susceptible to infections? New JAX study finds the answer

Jackson Laboratory
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Scientists at The Jackson Laboratory have finally pinpointed why patients with mitochodrial disease get so sick.

Journal: Nature Communications

Gene print-based cell subtypes annotation of human disease across heterogeneous datasets with gPRINT

Higher Education Press
Peer-Reviewed Publication

This study introduces gPRINT (generalized approach for cell subtype Identification with single cell's voicePRINT), a novel algorithm designed to unify the annotation of disease-specific cell subtypes (DSCSs) across heterogeneous single-cell datasets(scRNA-seq). By integrating gene expression levels and chromosomal positional information into unique "gene prints," gPRINT overcomes the limitations of conventional annotation methods, enabling high-precision identification of cell subtypes in complex diseases such as fibrosis and tendinopathy.Validated across multiple platforms and tissues, gPRINT achieved an external validation accuracy of 98.37%, surpassing existing tools and offering transformative potential for precision medicine.

Journal: Protein & Cell
Funder: National Natural Science Foundation of China, National Key Research and Development Program of China, Zhejiang Provincial Natural Science Foundation of China, China Postdoctoral Science Foundation, Postdoctoral Fellowship Program of CPSF, “Leading Goose” Science and Technology Project of Zhejiang Province, Fundamental Research Funds for the Zhejiang Provincial Universities, General Research Fund of the Research Grants Council of Hong Kong

Researchers identify molecular brake that regulates synaptic maturation

Vlaams Instituut voor Biotechnologie
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Researchers from the lab led by Prof. Joris De Wit (VIB-KU Leuven) have discovered an important clue to how connections between brain cells, known as synapses, mature. These new findings, published in Developmental Cell, demonstrated how two different proteins, GPR158 and PLCXD2, interact to form a specific component in developing synapses – the spine apparatus.

Journal: Developmental Cell

Baby on board: Humpback whales give birth while migrating and carry on travelling

Frontiers
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Some humpback whale babies are born on the move. We used to think that humpback whales lived in cold waters for half of the year, eating lots of krill to develop reserves for migration and reproduction, and then travelled to tropical waters because they need the warmth and safety to give birth and nurse new calves. But new research reveals that humpback whales around Australia and New Zealand can give birth much further south than we expected. These results question much of our understanding of humpback whales’ lives, and they could also mean we need to protect more areas to safeguard vulnerable calves.

Journal: Frontiers in Marine Science
Funder: NSW Government Marine Estate Management Strategy

A head and a hundred tails: how a branching worm manages reproductive complexity

University of Göttingen
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Scientists have uncovered the genetic underpinnings of one of the ocean’s most bizzare animals: a branching marine worm named Ramisyllis kingghidorahi that lives inside sea sponges and reproduces in a truly extraordinary way. Living hidden in tropical waters, this worm grows multiple body branches within a host sponge, each tail capable of producing separate living reproductive units called “stolons”. But how does a single animal coordinate sexual reproduction across so many branches? To find out, researchers led by the University of Göttingen analysed gene expression across different body regions and between male, female and juvenile specimens. This provides the first complete “genetic activity map” – or transcriptome – of any branching worm, revealing how this creature manages to control reproduction across its branching body. Their findings were published in BMC Genomics.

Journal: BMC Genomics

Fitness fight: Native bees struggle against invasive honey bee

Curtin University
Peer-Reviewed Publication

New Curtin University research has revealed that high densities of European honey bees could be harming Australian native bees’ ‘fitness’ by reducing their reproductive success and altering key traits linked to survival.

Journal: Frontiers in Bee Science

New BU study examines how a protein called PAX3 controls genes in melanoma

Boston University School of Medicine
Peer-Reviewed Publication

PAX3 is a transcription factor (proteins involved in converting DNA into RNA) that drives melanoma progression by promoting cell growth, migration and survival, while inhibiting cellular terminal differentiation, which is the final stage where a cell becomes specialized and cell division ends. However, known PAX3 target genes are limited and cannot fully explain the wide impact of PAX3 function, suggesting that there are most likely many other genes that PAX3 controls that are undiscovered.

The PAX3 protein can regulate DNA through two separate binding domains, the paired domain (PD) and homeodomain (HD), which bind different DNA motifs, short recurring sequences within a DNA strand that regulate gene expression. It is not clear if these two domains bind and work together to regulate genes and if they promote all or only a subset of downstream cellular events.

A new study by researchers at Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine has discovered that PAX3 mainly uses the PD to bind to the DNA, and that it mostly turns on genes—many of which help cells grow and make other proteins – activities that support cancer growth.

Journal: Genes