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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?

Until recently, little was known about Bishop Teodomiro, after St James the Apostle one of the most important figure associated with the pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela. Now, a interdisciplinary investigation has conducted a comprehensive analysis of the potential remains of the bishop using advanced techniques.

Using the largest dataset of human fossils from Ice Age Europe to date, an international research team shows how prehistoric hunter-gatherers coped with climate change in the period between 47,000 and 7,000 years ago.

An international research team has sequenced the largest genomes of all'animals - those of lungfish. The data will help to find out how the ancestors of land vertebrates managed to conquer the mainland. Let's travel back through time to the late Devonian period, around 380 to 360 million years in the past.

Aerobic methane-oxidizing bacteria are also permanently active in oxygen-free water Methane-oxidizing bacteria could play a greater role than previously thought in preventing the release of climate-damaging methane from lakes, researchers from Bremen report. They also show who is behind the process and how it works.

Memory loss, confusion, speech problems - Alzheimer's disease is the most common cause of dementia, affecting about 35 million people worldwide, and the number is growing. The protein amyloid beta, which occurs naturally in the brain, plays a central role in the disease: It accumulates in patients in insoluble clumps that form plaques between neurons in the brain, damaging them.

Prerequisite for protective effects of fasting is an increase in the concentration of the endogenous substance spermidine in the organism / international study involving the team of Stephan Sigrist from Freie Universität According to the results of an international study involving the Freie Universität Berlin, fasting can prolong life and increase the health span.

The protective effects of fasting depend on an increase in the concentration of spermidine, according to an international study involving a team led by Professor Stephan Sigrist from Freie Universität Berlin According to the findings of an international study, fasting can extend people's lifespan and increase overall health.