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.

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.

Genetic susceptibility to neurodevelopmental conditions such as schizophrenia, autism, and ADHD can be linked, in part, to distinct epigenetic signatures in newborn cord blood. An analysis of nearly 6,000 newborns in Biological Psychiatry, published by Elsevier, revealed that genetic susceptibility to neurodevelopmental conditions is already associated with measurable differences in DNA methylation (DNAm) patterns at birth. These differences were particularly strong for susceptibility to schizophrenia and clustered in genes involved in immune function, notably, the major histocompatibility complex, which has been consistently linked to schizophrenia risk and immune function in research on adults.

Researchers from Turku Bioscience Centre at the University of Turku, Finland, have developed a new computational method to interpret complex single-cell data. The method helps researchers identify and group cell types across samples.

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.