news 2024

A research team of scientists from Freie Universität Berlin and Princeton University provide insights into the origins of complete metamorphosis in insects More than sixty percent of all'animal species are insects. The majority of these species undergo complete metamorphosis, whereby the larva transforms into a pupa and then an adult.

Interdisciplinary research team uses DNA microbeads to control the development of cultivated tissue A new molecular engineering technique can precisely influence the development of organoids. Microbeads made of specifically folded DNA are used to release growth factors or other signal molecules inside the tissue structures.

Researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology in Bremen, Germany, now reveal how a bacterial parasite infects and reproduces in the nuclei of deep-sea mussels from hydrothermal vents and cold seeps. A single bacterial cell invades the mussel's nucleus where it reproduces to over 80,000 cells, while ensuring that its host cell stays alive.

Numerous studies have shown that the older the father, the higher the risk of disease for the offspring. Human geneticists at the University of Würzburg have now taken a closer look at the processes responsible for this. SPIEGEL writes about "Old fathers being a risk factor", "Late fathers have more sick children" is the headline in WELT.

Bonn researchers get to the bottom of the social aspect of communication for mental activity Across all species, critical skills are passed on from parents to offspring through communication. Researchers at the University Hospital Bonn (UKB) and the Researchers at the University of Bonn showed that effective communication relies on how both the sender and receiver represent information.

Bonn researchers get to the bottom of the social aspect of communication for mental activity Across all species, important survival skills such as hunting prey are passed on from parents to offspring through communication. Researchers at the University Hospital Bonn (UKB) and the University of Bonn were able to show that effective language-like communication is a two-way process between sender and receiver.

Bonn researchers find causative mutations in the keratin 31 gene for the dominantly-inherited form of monilethrix From infancy and usually for life, some families suffer from broken hair due to a congenital form of hair loss called monilethrix. Researchers at the University Hospital Bonn and the University of Bonn have now identified causative mutations in another keratin gene, KRT31.

As we age, our brain ages too. Every single cell is subject to this process, which is accompanied by changes in gene activity, among other things. Our brain consists of various cell types, each with specific properties, functions and connections, which together perform the brain's complex computations.

Max Planck scientists in Marburg have used a synthetic microbial community to study the gradual evolution of mutualism. The study demonstrates for the first time in detail how an evolutionary loss of independence can occur in communities of different groups of organisms. Mutualism, an association between organisms of two different species that benefits both, is widely recognised in animals and plants, but also plays a crucial role in the microbial world, where diverse species often live in close association.

Researchers from Bonn and Japan clarify how neighboring synapses coordinate their response to plasticity signals Nerve cells in the brain receive thousands of synaptic signals via their "antenna", the so-called dendritic branch. Permanent changes in synaptic strength correlate with changes in the size of dendritic spines.

The risk gene adenylyl cyclase 2 is associated with bipolar disorder, as has been repeatedly confirmed in genome-wide association studies. However, until now there has not been any proof of a causal relationship. Researchers from the Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry have now provided this: for the first time, they experimentally demonstrated that mice with a risk variant of the gene showed behavioral changes reminiscent of manic symptoms in patients with bipolar disorder.

Researchers at Max Planck Institute for Biology Tübingen and Kobe University discovered populations of female brown algae that reproduce from unfertilised gamete s'and thrive without males. They used -Amazonalgae to shed light on the phenotypic and genetic consequences of shift from sexual to asexual reproduction.

It's not just us humans who suffer from heatwaves. Researchers at the University of Würzburg discovered that hot temperatures rob bumblebees of their sense of smell - and makes them struggle when searching for food. Climate change is affecting ecosystems in many different ways. One of its consequences are increasingly longer and more intense periods of heat, which affect essential natural processes - such as pollination.

Using newly generated "optogenetic" tobacco plants, research teams from the University of Würzburg's Departments of Plant Physiology and Neurophysiology have investigated how plants process external signals. When it comes to survival, plants have a huge disadvantage compared to many other living organisms: they cannot simply change their location if predators or pathogens attack them or the environmental conditions change to their disadvantage.

Letting go of learned fears is difficult. New research findings reveal that the environment in which we learn the fear could also play a crucial role in unlearning it. When we learn something, we can usually recall it in any new context: If someone passes their driving test in France, they can also drive a car in Germany.

All higher organisms such as fungi, plants, animals and humans consist of eukaryotic cells. These are cells that have a nucleus and organelles such as mitochondria. Mitochondria supply eukaryotic cells with energy. In contrast to eukaryotes, prokaryotes are unicellular organisms. They have a simpler structure and are mostly significantly smaller than eukaryotes.

Study on fruit flies' ability to reliably perceive threats during courtship carried out by researchers from Birmingham and Berlin published in "Nature" The results of an international study carried out by researchers from the University of Birmingham and Freie Universität Berlin show that male fruit flies are more likely to ignore dangers such as predators during courtship.

Chlamydiae are sexually transmitted pathogens that can apparently survive in the human gut for a long time. Researchers from Würzburg and Berlin report this in the journal PLOS Pathogens. People who are infected with chlamydia can transmit these bacteria to other people during unprotected sex. The pathogens usually cause no or only mild symptoms at first, such as itching in the vagina, penis or anus.

Bonn researchers clarify self-regulation of the immune response in the CRISPR bacterial defense system CRISPR gene scissors, as new tools of molecular biology, have their origin in an ancient bacterial immune system. But once a virus attack has been successfully overcome, the cell has to recover. Researchers from the University Hospital Bonn (UKB) and the University of Bonn, in cooperation with researchers from the Institut Pasteur in France, have discovered a timer integrated into the gene scissors that enables the gene scissors to switch themselves off.

Together with an international team of researchers, Freie Universität Berlin bioarchaeologist Sarah Defant is shedding light on how rural communities in northern Italy developed following the fall of the Roman Empire How did political shifts in power and migration influence how rural communities developed after the fall of the Roman Empire?