Tokyo, Japan – Researchers from Tokyo Metropolitan University have created a mathematical model that models how the evolutionary strategies of organisms are affected by the environment. They studied salmonid fishes which choose either to migrate to the sea then return to lay eggs or stay in the river depending on their individual features. Their model correctly predicts how the proportion choosing to migrate changes with environmental conditions, predicting how environmental change can trigger eco-evolutionary responses.

Member states of the European Union are obliged to designate Special Protection Areas (SPAs) as part of the Natura 2000 network. These areas are designed to guarantee the preservation and restoration of bird populations. However, due to the paucity of data about rare species, it was not known how well these areas worked. Researchers at the University of Göttingen and Dachverband Deutscher Avifaunisten (DDA) developed citizen science platforms as a new data source to evaluate the effectiveness of the 742 protected areas for birds across Germany. This research shows that although these areas are well placed, their effectiveness varies greatly. When  protected areas were compared with unprotected sites that showed similar geographical characteristics, only a few species thrived better inside the SPAs. The results were published in the journal Biological Conservation.

A new study reveals the complex impact of state-led urban change on residential communities in Korea

When light conditions rapidly change, our eyes have to respond to this change in fractions of a second to maintain stable visual processing. This is necessary when, for example, we drive through a forest and thus move through alternating stretches of shadows and clear sunlight. In situations like these, a corrective mechanism is required. Such a corrective 'gain control' mechanism exists in the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster, where it acts directly downstream of the photoreceptors. A team of researchers at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz has now managed to identify the algorithms, mechanisms, and neuronal networks that enable the fly to sustain stable visual processing when light levels change rapidly. The corresponding article has been published recently in Nature Communications.

Researchers at the Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG) in Barcelona have created the first blueprint of the human spliceosome, the most complex and intricate molecular machine in human biology. The vast majority of human genes – more than nine in ten – are edited by the spliceosome. The sheer number of componentes involved has meant the scientific feat, published today in Science, took more than a decade to complete. The research reveals many new drug targets that could benefit a wide spectrum of diseases including most types of cancer, neurodegenerative conditions and genetic disorders.

People with stronger autistic trails showed distinct exploration patterns and higher levels of persistence in a computer game, ultimately resulting in better performance than people with lower scores of autistic traits, according to a new study published this week in PLOS Computational Biology by Francesco Poli of Radboud Universiteit, the Netherlands, and colleagues.