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International research team describes for the first time the structure and function of the Zorya system, a highly specialised antiviral protection mechanism of bacteria.

A team of Würzburg neuroscientists investigates communication pathways in the brain and predicts intelligence. A new study approach uses machine learning to improve our conceptual understanding of intelligence. The human brain is the central control organ of our body. It processes sensory information and enables us, among other things, to form thoughts, make decisions and store knowledge.

Many animals orient themselves using their sense of magnetism. However, this can be based on different physical mechanisms. A research team from Oldenburg and Würzburg has now investigated the navigation of the desert ant. Desert ants of the Cataglyphis nodus species use the Earth's magnetic field for spatial orientation, but these tiny insects rely on a different component of the field than other insects, a research team led by Dr Pauline Fleischmann from the University of Oldenburg reports in the journal Current Biology.

Researchers from the University of Jena and the Leibniz Institutes in Jena have published new findings on the adaptability of the microalgae Chlamydomonas reinhardtii. The interdisciplinary study, largely carried out by researchers from the Cluster of Excellence -Balance of the Microverse-, shows how the tiny green alga can adapt its shape and metabolism under natural conditions without changing its genome.

Blue-throated macaws, a critically endangered parrot species, have demonstrated automatic imitation of intransitive (goal-less) actions-a phenomenon previously documented only in humans. In a study conducted by an international team of researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Biological Intelligence, in collaboration with the Loro Parque Fundación, scientists reveal that macaws involuntarily copy intransitive movements.

Circadian clocks control physiological processes and behavior in virtually all living organisms. Now an international research team led by researchers from the University of Würzburg has created a detailed map of the internal clock in the brain of the fruit fly. All animals including humans are subject to daily rhythms in their activity and sleep, hunger, metabolism, and reproduction.

New therapies could prevent the adjustments in intestinal bacteria that enable them to survive in inflamed regions New studies suggest that evolutionary medicine could shape the future of gastroenterology. They pave the way for new approaches to treating inflammatory diseases, such as chronic inflammatory bowel diseases.

Results from the University of Bonn and the LMU Munich challenge previous ideas Some sequences in the genome cause genes to be switched on or off. Until now, each of these gene switches, or so-called enhancers, was thought to have its own place on the DNA. Different enhancers are therefore separated from each other, even if they control the same gene, and switch it on in different parts of the body.

Compared to intensive land use, sustainable land use allows better control of underground herbivores and soil microbes. As a result, the soil ecosystem is more resilient and better protected from disturbance under sustainable management than under intensive land use. Researchers from Leipzig University, the German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig and other research institutions found that the total energy flux and the activities of so-called decomposers, herbivores and predators in the soil food web remained stable.

Researchers led by Alexandros Karakostis from the Institute for Archaeological Science and the Senckenberg Centre for Human Evolution and Palaeoenvironment at the University of Tübingen suggest that changes in the brain could have enabled early humans to use tools with precision, thus setting in motion the biocultural evolution that led to today's humans.

The yeast " Candida parapsilosis" is emerging as a growing threat for hospitalized patients in a new study. A team led by Dr Amelia Barber from the Cluster of Excellence "Balance of the Microverse" at Friedrich Schiller University Jena and Dr Grit Walther from the National Reference Centre for Invasive Fungal Infections (NRZMyk) investigated an outbreak of multi-drug resistant hospital-acquired strain of this fungus.

Proteins that regulate animal stem cells are much older than animals themselves Critical proteins involved in animal stem cell regulation are much older than previously thought, predating the origin of animals that likely evolved more than 700 million years ago. This is the result of a study by a international research team including scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology in Germany.

Researchers develop mathematical model to map tumor growth, for example Researchers from the Universities of Bonn and Cologne and the University Hospital of Cologne have developed a three-dimensional mathematical model for prostate cancer. The model depicts various processes, including tumor growth, genetic evolution and competition between tumor cells.

Plant breeders, aiming to develop resilient and high-quality crops, often cross plants from different species to transfer desirable traits. However, they frequently encounter a major obstacle: hybrid seed failure. This reproductive barrier often prevents closely related species from producing viable seeds.

Research team at Freie Universität Berlin discovers unexpected differences in aging bacterial cells Surprising findings on bacterial aging have emerged from a study carried out by a team of researchers led by the biologist Dr. Ulrich Steiner at Freie Universität Berlin. In a new paper published in Science Advances the team demonstrated that even genetically identical bacterial cells living in the same environment react differently to the aging process and that changes occur at different rates within different regions of the cell.

Motion illusion overrides compensatory mechanism for eye movements The visual perception of optical stimuli demands high performance from the brain. Every second, the eyes absorb more than ten million pieces of information and transmit them to the brain via thousands of nerve fibres. This leads us to perceive the world as stable, even though we are constantly moving our eyes.

New work on sleep in a reptile reveals surprising similarities between networks that control motor rhythms and those controlling sleep Sleep is one of the most mysterious, yet ubiquitous components of our biology. It has been described in all major groups of animals, including worms, jellyfish, insects or cephalopods, and in all vertebrates, from fish to humans.

A team of biologists from the University of Münster has investigated whether and how the immune system can influence the behaviour of sticklebacks It's a well-known fact that if you don't get enough sleep, you're more likely to get sick. And it has also been observed that people sleep differently when they're infected.

Researchers from Bonn uncover how tiny eye movements and the density of our photoreceptors aid in sharp vision Our ability to see starts with the light-sensitive photoreceptor cells in our eyes. A specific region of the retina, termed fovea, is responsible for sharp vision. Here, the color-sensitive cone photoreceptors allow us to detect even the smallest details.

The mid-embryonic developmental stages are strikingly similar in animals, plants and algae Recent observations in brown algae from researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Biology Tübingen and the University of Dundee reveal the same hourglass pattern during embryogenesis as animals and plants. The -hourglass modelof development in multicellular organisms suggests that embryos of the same phylum display differences morphologically and molecularly at the earliest and latest stages but resemble one another at the mid-embryonic period.