Invading Hordes of Crazy Ants May Have Finally Met Their Kryptonite

 

Tawny crazy ants swarm on a cobweb spider.
Credit: Mark Sanders.

When tawny crazy ants move into a new area, the invasive species is like an ecological wrecking ball — driving out native insects and small animals and causing major headaches for homeowners. But scientists at The University of Texas at Austin have good news, as they have demonstrated how to use a naturally occurring fungus to crush local populations of crazy ants. They describe their work this week in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

“I think it has a lot of potential for the protection of sensitive habitats with endangered species or areas of high conservation value,” said Edward LeBrun, a research scientist with the Texas Invasive Species Research Program at Brackenridge Field Laboratory and lead author of the study.

In some parts of Texas, homes have been overrun by ants that swarm breaker boxes, AC units, sewage pumps and other electrical devices, causing shorts and other damage. Natives of South America, tawny crazy ants have raised alarm bells as they’ve spread across the southeastern U.S. during the past 20 years. The idea for using the fungal pathogen came from observing wild populations of crazy ants becoming infected and collapsing without human intervention.

“This doesn’t mean crazy ants will disappear,” LeBrun said. “It’s impossible to predict how long it will take for the lightning bolt to strike and the pathogen to infect any one crazy ant population. But it’s a big relief because it means these populations appear to have a lifespan.”

Other study authors are Rob Plowes and Lawrence Gilbert at Brackenridge Field Laboratory, and Melissa Jones formerly of the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department.

New method purifies hydrogen from heavy carbon monoxide mixtures

Chris Arges (right), Penn State associate professor of chemical engineering, proposes using high-temperature proton-selective polymer electrolyte membranes, or PEMs, to separate hydrogen from other gases in an ACS Energy Letters paper. Co-author Deepra Bhattacharya, Penn State doctoral student in chemical engineering, is seen at left.
Credit: Kelby Hochreither/Penn State.

Refining metals, manufacturing fertilizers and powering fuel cells for heavy vehicles are all processes that require purified hydrogen. But purifying, or separating, that hydrogen from a mix of other gases can be difficult, with several steps. A research team led by Chris Arges, Penn State associate professor of chemical engineering, demonstrated that the process can be simplified using a pump outfitted with newly developed membrane materials.

The researchers used an electrochemical hydrogen pump to both separate and compress hydrogen with an 85% recovery rate from fuel gas mixtures known as syngas and 98.8% recovery rate from conventional water gas shift reactor exit stream — the highest value recorded. The team detailed their approach in ACS Energy Letters.

Traditional methods for hydrogen separations employ a water gas shift reactor, which involves an extra step, according to Arges. The water gas shift reactor first converts carbon monoxide into carbon dioxide, which is then sent through an absorption process to separate the hydrogen from it. Then, the purified hydrogen is pressurized using a compressor for immediate use or for storage.

Fuel from waste wood

In collaboration with the Lappeenranta-Lahti University of Technology (LUT) in Finland, researchers at the Straubing Campus for Biotechnology and Sustainability of the Technical University of Munich (TUM) have developed a new process for the production of ethanol.
Image: Maria Schießl / TUM

According to the latest assessment report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a considerable reduction in CO2 emissions is required to limit the consequences of climate change. Producing fuel from renewable sources such as waste wood and straw or renewable electricity would be one way to reduce carbon emissions from the area of transportation. This is an area which is being addressed by researchers at the Technical University of Munich (TUM).

Ethanol is usually produced through the fermentation of sugars from starchy raw materials such as corn, or from lignocellulosic biomass, such as wood or straw. It is an established fuel that decarbonizes the transportation sector and can be a building block to reduce emissions of CO2 over the long term. In collaboration with the Lappeenranta-Lahti University of Technology (LUT) in Finland, researchers at the Straubing Campus for Biotechnology and Sustainability of the Technical University of Munich (TUM) have developed a new process for the production of ethanol.

Accelerated biological aging may cause bowel cancer

Scientists have shown how accelerated biological aging measured by an epigenetic clock may increase the risk of bowel cancer, according to a report published today in eLife.

The study provides evidence that biological age might play a causal role in the increased risk of certain diseases, and paves the way for interventions that could slow down this process.

Epigenetic markers are changes to DNA which may alter the way in which our genes work and are known to vary as we age. A type of epigenetic marker called DNA methylation is often used to measure age. DNA methylation patterns on the genome have been shown to relate closely with age and they can provide insights into 'biological aging' – that is, how old our cells look compared to how old they are in years.

“When an individual’s biological age is older than their chronological age, they are said to be experiencing epigenetic age acceleration,” explains first author Fernanda Morales-Berstein, a Wellcome Trust PhD Student in Molecular, Genetic and Lifecourse Epidemiology at the MRC Integrative Epidemiology Unit, University of Bristol. “Epigenetic age acceleration, as measured by DNA methylation-based predictors of age called epigenetic clocks have been associated with several adverse health outcomes including cancer. But although epigenetics can be used to predict cancer risk or detect the disease early, it is still unclear whether accelerated epigenetic aging is a cause of cancer.”

When maggots uncover a murder

These maggots belong to the latrine fly. They are quasi criminal officers.
Credit: Roberto Schirdewahn

Investigators still have to go in search of traces. But if they find crawling animals at the scene, they can be of great help to them.

First come the blowflies. A few hours after death, they control the eyes, nose, mouth and wounds of a lifeless body. Here they lay their eggs - and just a few days later it is teeming with life: numerous maggots hatch and feed on the dead tissue until they finally become new flies. Not only gliding, other types of flies join in over time, and finally various beetles are crawled on. The hustle and bustle that takes place on corpses can be quite revealing - for example, if you want to find out when and under what circumstances a person died.

With these questions, Dr. Ersin Karapazarlioglu is only too good. He conducts research in the RUB Faculty of Biology and Biotechnology in the Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Kirchner. Before coming to Germany in 2020, he worked for 17 years in Turkey as a criminal officer and as a lecturer at the police college and a university. He always looked for insects at crime scenes. With their help, he was able to determine the time of death of a body more precisely than with other methods. The method is called forensic entomology. The method was initially established in the USA and is still in its infancy in Europe.

Scorpions’ venomous threat to mammals a relatively new evolutionary step

Prashant Sharma displays a scorpion in a container
Credit: University of Wisconsin–Madison

Despite their reputation as living fossils, scorpions have remained evolutionarily nimble — especially in developing venom to fend off the rise of mammal predators. A new genetic analysis of scorpions’ toxin-making reveals recent evolutionary steps and may actually be a boon for researchers studying scorpion venom’s benefits to human health.

An international team of researchers led by University of Wisconsin–Madison biologists has assembled the largest evolutionary tree of scorpions yet, showing seven independent instances in which, the distinctive eight-legged creatures evolved venom compounds toxic to mammals.

“The last major changes to their body shape, their morphology, happened about 430 million years ago, when they left the water and moved onto land,” says Carlos Santibáñez-López, a former postdoctoral researcher at UW–Madison and lead author of the new study published today in the journal Systematic Biology. “But we know now that they have evolved in very important ways much more recently.”

Solar energy explains fast yearly retreat of Antarctica’s sea ice

A research vessel in Antarctica on June 3, 2017, the first day researchers saw the sun rise above the horizon after weeks of polar darkness. New research shows that solar radiation drives the relatively fast annual retreat of sea ice around Antarctica at the end of each calendar year.
Credit: Ben Adkison

In the Southern Hemisphere, the ice cover around Antarctica gradually expands from March to October each year. During this time the total ice area increases by 6 times to become larger than Russia. The sea ice then retreats at a faster pace, most dramatically around December, when Antarctica experiences constant daylight.

New research led by the University of Washington explains why the ice retreats so quickly: Unlike other aspects of its behavior, Antarctic Sea ice is just following simple rules of physics.

The study was published March 28 in Nature Geoscience.

“In spite of the puzzling longer-term trends and the large year-to-year variations in Antarctic Sea ice, the seasonal cycle is really consistent, always showing this fast retreat relative to slow growth,” said lead author Lettie Roach, who conducted the study as a postdoctoral researcher at the UW and is now a research scientist at NASA and Columbia University. “Given how complex our climate system is, I was surprised that the rapid seasonal retreat of Antarctic Sea ice could be explained with such a simple mechanism.”

Little understood brain region linked to how we perceive pain

A new review paper, published in the journal Brain, has shown that a poorly understood region of the brain called the claustrum may play an important role in how we experience pain.

The little understood area of the brain called the claustrum may be the next frontier in improving outcomes for brain damage patients.

A collaboration of Oxford University research groups from the Department of Physiology, Anatomy & Genetics (DPAG), the Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences (NDCN) and Experimental Psychology (EP) have uncovered new clues regarding the function of one of most densely interconnected, yet rarely studied, areas of the brain.

The researchers reviewed studies of patients with lesions in the claustrum, which although rare show cognitive impairments and seizures. Furthermore, the lack of clinical focus on the claustrum may mean there are many more cases yet to be uncovered.

They also uncovered an underappreciated link between the claustrum and pain. It is already known that there are links between the claustrum and perception, salience and the sleep-wake cycle, but this is the first time a research team has shown how the claustrum might be more involved in the debilitating experience of pain.

Unprecedented videos show RNA switching ‘on’ and ‘off’

Similar to a light switch, RNA switches (called riboswitches) determine which genes turn “on” and “off.” Although this may seem like a simple process, the inner workings of these switches have confounded biologists for decades.

Now researchers led by Northwestern University and the University at Albany discovered one part of RNA smoothly invades and displaces another part of the same RNA, enabling the structure to rapidly and dramatically change shape. Called “strand displacement,” this mechanism appears to switch genetic expression from “on” to “off.”

Using a simulation they launched last year, the researchers made this discovery by watching a slow-motion simulation of a riboswitch up close and in action. Affectionately called R2D2 (short for “reconstructing RNA dynamics from data”), the new simulation models RNA in three dimensions as it binds to a compound, communicates along its length and folds to turn a gene “on” or “off.”

The findings could have potential implications for engineering new RNA-based diagnostics and for designing successful drugs to target RNA to treat illness and disease.

Scientists identify overgrowth of key brain structure in babies who later develop autism

The amygdala is a small structure deep in the brain important for interpreting the social and emotional meaning of sensory input – from recognizing emotion in faces to interpreting fearful images that inform us about potential dangers in our surroundings. Historically the amygdala has been thought to play a prominent role in the difficulties with social behavior that are central to autism.

Researchers have long known the amygdala is abnormally large in school-age children with autism, but it was unknown precisely when that enlargement occurs. Now, for the first time, researchers from the Infant Brain Imaging Study Network, used magnetic resonance imaging to demonstrate that the amygdala grows too rapidly in infancy. Overgrowth begins between six and 12 months of age, prior to the age when the hallmark behaviors of autism fully emerge, enabling the earliest diagnosis of this condition. Increased growth of the amygdala in infants who were later diagnosed with autism differed markedly from brain-growth patterns in babies with another neurodevelopmental disorder, fragile X syndrome, where no differences in amygdala growth were observed.

Published in the American Journal of Psychiatry, the official journal of the American Psychiatric Association, this research demonstrated that infants with fragile X syndrome already exhibit cognitive delays at six months of age, whereas infants who will later be diagnosed with autism do not show any deficits in cognitive ability at six months of age, but have a gradual decline in cognitive ability between six and 24 months of age, the age when they were diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder in this study. Babies who go on to develop autism show no difference in the size of their amygdala at six months. However, their amygdala begins growing faster than other babies (including those with fragile X syndrome and those who do not develop autism), between six and 12 months of age, and is significantly enlarged by 12 months. This amygdala enlargement continues through 24 months, an age when behaviors are often sufficiently evident to warrant a diagnosis of autism.