Life sciences: genetics, neuroscience, ecology and molecular biology.
Human forebrain organoids classified artificial tactile Braille signals after a sensor converted the touch data into electrical stimulation. Accuracy averaged 61% with one organoid and rose to 83% when responses from three organoids were combined.
A study in mice found that a peptide targeting the memory-related protein CPEB3 reduced the persistence of traumatic memories and anhedonia, a loss of pleasure. The findings are an early genetic preclinical test of a possible approach for PTSD, not evidence of a treatment in people.
Acute heat and sublethal imidacloprid exposure interacted to reduce male fruit flies’ reproductive success more than either stressor alone in some conditions. Stress experienced by fathers also reduced offspring fertility, while a more diverse gut microbiome partly lessened the effects on males.
Predators can trigger different body shapes in Rana pirica tadpoles. The shapes improve swimming efficiency, but the swollen body that helps protect tadpoles from being swallowed also creates drag and reduces escape performance compared with a deeper tail alone.
Carrion crows were trained to respond to visual cues with either a vocalization or a peck. Vocal responses were slower and more variable, and switching into them caused additional delays and occasional errors that were largely absent for pecking.
Japanese bent-winged bats adjusted their echolocation frequencies in response to sounds that could interfere with their calls. A mathematical model and a two-dimensional group simulation indicate that this self-organized behavior can reduce potential misdetections across a flying group.
This human meta-analysis combined 24 retrospective studies involving 1,482 adult women with primary breast cancer and pathologically confirmed intramammary lymph nodes. About 32% of these nodes contained cancer, and positive intramammary nodes were associated with a higher likelihood of cancer in underarm lymph nodes. The review found that prognostic results were inconsistent and that intramammary-node status alone was not accurate enough to replace standard underarm staging.
Different forms of DNA damage changed the shape and movement of surrounding DNA in laboratory tests. The findings suggest that these physical changes could provide an early signal that helps repair proteins locate damage, before they directly engage with it.
Researchers used a porous silica film to increase the amount of DNA produced on an electrochemical chip. The platform synthesized 121-letter DNA strands and encoded, wrote and recovered digital information with error correction.
AlphaFold3 reliably identifies disorder in individual proteins, matching AlphaFold2 and specialized prediction tools. But its results for assemblies of disordered proteins vary substantially between runs, making success difficult to predict from interface features alone.
Researchers mapped the synaptic connections of hormone-producing neurons in the adult fruit-fly brain. The analysis identified corazonin-producing neurons and a downstream partner that influence egg-laying, while also showing how signals from taste, smell and digestive-system neurons reach the network.
Laboratory experiments suggest that taurine can regulate transthyretin, a protein involved in thyroid hormone transport and several amyloid diseases. Taurine increased transthyretin’s affinity for thyroid hormone and showed anti-aggregation effects, but its potential as a treatment has not been tested in people.
A study of Galápagos tree finches has identified a highly differentiated stretch of DNA associated with differences in beak and body size. The result suggests that one genomic region may have helped the finches expand into different ecological roles despite hybridization between species.
A review examines the brain’s fluid-clearance pathways and their connections with the body’s lymphatic, immune and vascular systems. It links impaired clearance with pathological protein buildup, inflammation and vascular dysfunction, while emphasizing that most therapeutic evidence comes from animal studies.
Researchers identified a carboxylesterase enzyme from Bacillus halotolerans that rapidly converted the PET intermediates BHET and MHET. It showed much weaker activity against commercial PET powder, highlighting its main strength as an intermediate-processing enzyme rather than a bulk-plastic degrader.
