New research by the University of Plymouth has found more than 200 measures to protect sharks and rays across the 22 coastal states of the Mediterranean region. However, while elasmobranchs have made it onto many policy agendas, the study found considerable differences in how effectively any legislation was being monitored with no single source for tracking progress in the conservation and management of sharks at national levels.

By performing single-cell transcriptome sequencing of the zebrafish olfactory epithelium, we revealed the heterogeneity of zebrafish olfactory epithelial cell types and the molecular organization of key components in signal transduction of different olfactory sensory neuron subtypes, and characterized the cell population changes and transcriptional changes associated with exposure to alarm substances.

A recent study published in National Science Review reports the discovery of fossilized chewing lice eggs in mid-Cretaceous Burmese amber, offering the earliest direct evidence of parasitic lice feeding on feathers of early stem-group birds. The eggs, attached to enantiornithine feathers, reveal early host-parasite relationships during the Mesozoic. This finding supports the hypothesis that lice evolved parasitism in association with basal birds and provides insights into their early ecological specialization. The research enriches understanding of lice-host coevolution and highlights the role of ancient vertebrates in the evolutionary transition of lice from free-living ancestors to obligate parasites.

Osaka Metropolitan University researchers have uncovered a daily mating capacity for medaka, providing important insights into the relationship between the cost of gamete production and sexual selection.

Cells degrade components that are no longer needed through autophagy. New results show that a weak molecular interaction is essential for this process.

By modifying this interaction, it is possible to artificially trigger autophagy, which could then enable the degradation of deposits in neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's, or support cancer therapies.

The study was published in the journal Nature Cell Biology and was led by Prof. Dr. Claudine Kraft, a member of the CIBSS Cluster of Excellence at the University of Freiburg, and Dr. Florian Wilfling from the Max Planck Institute of Biophysics in Frankfurt.