Small and simple key to evolution success of mammals

Artistic reconstruction of early mammal ancestors (species: Hadrocodium wui) shown hunting insect prey, illustrating how the adoption of an insectivorous diet and miniaturization played an important role in mammal evolution.
Illustration Credit: Dr Stephan Lautenschlager, University of Birmingham

Ancestors of modern mammals evolved into one of the most successful animal lineages by starting out small and simple, researchers have found.

A new study, published today in Communications Biology, shows that skull bones were successively reduced in early mammals around 150 to 100 million years ago.  

The research further demonstrated that alongside the reduction of skull bones, early mammals also became a lot smaller, some of which had a skull length of only 10-12 mm. This miniaturization considerably restricted the available food sources and early mammals adapted to feeding mostly on insects, allowing them to thrive in the shadows of dinosaurs.

In many vertebrate groups (animals with a back bone), such as fishes and reptiles, the skull and lower jaw are composed of numerous bones. This was also the case in the earliest ancestors of modern mammals over 300 million years ago.

Nanotubes as an optical stopwatch for the detection of messenger substances

Bochum research team: Linda Sistemich and Sebastian Kruß
Photo Credit: © RUB, Kramer

Carbon nanotubes not only lighten in the presence of dopamine, but also longer. The lighting duration can serve as a new measurement for the detection of messenger substances.

An interdisciplinary research team from Bochum and Duisburg has found a new way to detect the important messenger substance dopamine in the brain. The researchers used carbon nanotubes for this. In previous studies, the team led by Prof. Dr. Sebastian Kruß has already shown that the tubes light up in the presence of dopamine. Now the interdisciplinary group showed that the duration of the lighting also changes. "It is the first time that an important messenger like dopamine has been detected in this way," says Sebastian Kruß. “We are convinced that this will open up a new platform that will also enable better detection of other human messenger substances such as serotonin. "The work was a cooperation between Kruß’ two working groups in physical chemistry at the Ruhr University Bochum and the Fraunhofer Institute for Microelectronic Circuits and Systems (IMS).

The results are described by a team led by Linda Sistemich and Sebastian Kruß from the Ruhr University Bochum together with colleagues from the IMS and the University of Duisburg-Essen in the journal Angewandte Chemie - International Edition, published online on 9. March 2023.

95-million-year-old sauropod dinosaur skull first of its kind in Australia

Diamantinasaurus matildae head.
Illustration Credit: Elena Marian/ Australian Age of Dinosaurs Musuem of Natural History

A Curtin University-led research team has analyzed Australia’s first nearly complete sauropod dinosaur skull found in Queensland, Australia, gaining a better understanding of the animal’s anatomy, relationships to other sauropods, and feeding habits.

The research, published in Royal Society Open Science and completed in collaboration with the Australian Age of Dinosaurs Museum of Natural History, found that the skull – belonging to a dinosaur nicknamed ‘Ann’ – was from the species Diamantinasaurus matildae. Diamantinasaurus is a member of the dinosaur group Sauropoda, known for having small heads, long necks and tails, barrel-like bodies, and four columnar legs.

Lead researcher and paleontologist Dr Stephen Poropat, from Curtin’s School of Earth and Planetary Sciences, said ‘Ann’ is the first sauropod dinosaur found in Australia to include most of the skull, and also the first Diamantinasaurus specimen to preserve a back foot.

“I was lucky enough to be involved in this Australian-first discovery. Being able to lead the research on these fossils was a huge privilege. This skull gives us a rare glimpse into the anatomy of this enormous sauropod that lived in northeast Australia almost 100 million years ago,” Dr Poropat said.

Sugar molecule in blood can predict Alzheimer’s

Photo Credit: Gerd Altmann

Early diagnosis and treatment of Alzheimer’s disease requires reliable and cost-effective screening methods. Researchers at Karolinska Institutet have now discovered that a type of sugar molecule in blood is associated with the level of tau, a protein that plays a critical role in the development of severe dementia. The study, which is published in Alzheimer's & Dementia, can pave the way for a simple screening procedure able to predict onset ten years in advance.

“The role of glycans, structures made up of sugar molecules, is a relatively unexplored field in dementia research,” says the study’s first author Robin Zhou, medical student and affiliated researcher at the Department of Neurobiology, Care Sciences and Society (NVS), Karolinska Institutet. “We demonstrate in our study that blood levels of glycans are altered early during the development of the disease. This could mean that we’ll be able to predict the risk of Alzheimer’s disease with only a blood test and a memory test.”

In Alzheimer’s disease, the neurons of the brain die, which is thought to be a result of the abnormal accumulation of the proteins amyloid beta and tau. Clinical trials for Alzheimer’s drugs show that treatment should commence early in the pathological process, before too many neurons have died, to reverse the process before it is too late.

The brain’s cannabinoid system protects against addiction

Test participants’ emotional reactions are measured using electrodes that record tension in the small facial muscles. From left: Madeleine Jones and Irene Perini. 
Photo Credit: Thor Balkhed

High levels of the body’s own cannabinoid substances protect against developing addiction in individuals previously exposed to childhood maltreatment, according to a new study. Those who had not developed an addiction following childhood maltreatment seem to process emotion-related social signals better.

 Childhood maltreatment has long been suspected to increase the risk of developing a drug or alcohol addiction later in life. Researchers at Linköping University have previously shown that this risk is three times higher if you have been exposed to childhood maltreatment compared with if you have not, even when accounting for confounds from genetics and other familial factors.

“There’s been a lot of focus on addiction as a disease driven by a search for pleasure effects and euphoria, but for many it has more to do with the drugs’ ability to suppress negative feelings, stress sensitivity, anxiety and low mood. Based on this, we and other researchers have had a theory that if affected in childhood, the function of the brain’s distress systems is altered, and that this may contribute to addiction risk in adulthood,” says Markus Heilig, professor and director of the Center for Social and Affective Neuroscience, CSAN, at Linköping University and consultant at the Psychiatric Clinic of the University Hospital in Linköping.

Researchers devise new system for turning seawater into hydrogen fuel

Researchers collect seawater in Half Moon Bay, California, in January 2023 for an experiment that turned the liquid into hydrogen fuel. From left: Joseph Perryman, a SLAC and Stanford postdoctoral researcher; Daniela Marin, a Stanford graduate student in chemical engineering and co-author; Adam Nielander, an associate staff scientist with the SUNCAT, a SLAC-Stanford joint institute; and Charline Rémy, a visiting scholar at SUNCAT.
Photo Credit: Adam Nielander/SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory

The SLAC-Stanford team pulled hydrogen directly from ocean waters. Their work could help efforts to generate low-carbon fuel for electric grids, cars, boats and other infrastructure.

Seawater’s mix of hydrogen, oxygen, sodium and other elements makes it vital to life on Earth. But that same complex chemistry has made it difficult to extract hydrogen gas for clean energy uses. 

Now, researchers at the Department of Energy's SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and Stanford University with collaborators at the University of Oregon and Manchester Metropolitan University have found a way to tease hydrogen out of the ocean by funneling seawater through a double-membrane system and electricity. Their innovative design proved successful in generating hydrogen gas without producing large amounts of harmful byproducts. The results of their study, published in Joule, could help advance efforts to produce low-carbon fuels.

“Many water-to-hydrogen systems today try to use a monolayer or single-layer membrane. Our study brought two layers together,” said Adam Nielander, an associate staff scientist with the SUNCAT Center for Interface Science and Catalysis, a SLAC-Stanford joint institute. “These membrane architectures allowed us to control the way ions in seawater moved in our experiment.” 

Research reveals dual nature of beneficial bacteria UD1022

UD post-doctoral researcher Amanda Rosier is lead author on two papers reporting on the behavior of UD1022, a UD-patented beneficial bacteria that can help protect alfalfa from fungal pathogens.
Photo Credits: Evan Krape and courtesy of Amanda Rosie

Scientific Frontline: Extended "At a Glance" Summary: UD1022 (Beneficial Bacteria)

The Core Concept: UD1022 is a unique, patented strain of Bacillus subtilis, a naturally occurring bacterium that colonizes the surface of plant roots to promote vigorous growth and trigger system-wide resistance against microscopic disease agents.

Key Distinction/Mechanism: While it acts as a highly effective, broad-spectrum antifungal by producing an antibiotic molecule called surfactin and forming protective biofilms, UD1022 exhibits a complex "dual nature." It can inadvertently harm plants by secreting molecules that interrupt the "quorum sensing" (chemical communication) of other beneficial, nitrogen-fixing bacteria like rhizobium, thereby preventing them from colonizing the roots.

Major Frameworks/Components:

• Surfactin Production: An antibiotic molecule synthesized by UD1022 that directly inhibits fungal pathogen growth.
• Biofilm Formation: Thick, sugary coatings produced by the bacteria that help them adhere to plants and suppress specific fungal species.
• Quorum Sensing Interference: The mechanism by which UD1022 silences the chemical signaling molecules of symbiotic bacteria, inhibiting root colonization and nitrogen fixation.
• Rhizosphere Dynamics: The complex, localized ecological interactions between plant roots, soil, and competing microbial communities.

Modified Botox gives long-term pain relief after nerve injury without side effects

A single injection of the elongated Botox could relieve pain for months without risk of paralysis or addiction
Photo Credit: Mufid Majnun

A modified form of Botox could give long-term pain relief to patients with chronic nerve injury pain, according to a new study.

A team of scientists from the Universities of Sheffield, Reading and University College London (UCL) and US-based biopharmaceutical company Neuresta have created a new, elongated botulinum neurotoxin which can alleviate chronic pain without risk of paralysis or addiction. 

Chronic pain is extremely difficult to manage, and currently available drugs are limited by dangerous side effects. Opioids like morphine and fentanyl are the gold standard for short-term pain relief but they cannot effectively treat chronic pain due to the risk of addition, abuse and overdose. 

Findings of the new study, published in the journal Life Science Alliance, show that a single injection of the precisely engineered botulinum neurotoxin provides long-lasting relief in mice models, without adverse effects.

The team, led by Professor Bazbek Davletov, Chair of Biomedical Science, and Research Associate Charlotte Leese from the University of Sheffield, developed a new way of rebuilding Botox by using elements of Clostridium botulinum and created a biopharmaceutical with new properties, without unwanted toxic effects. 

Neutrons for better vaccines against multidrug resistant germs

Dr. Jia-Jheng Kang prepares measurements for the vaccines at the KWS-2 sample site.
Photo Credit: Bernhard Ludewig, FRM II / TUM

Neutrons from the Research Neutron Source Heinz Maier-Leibnitz (FRM II) can be used to explore the structure of biomolecules. The most recent success: the precise analysis of a promising vaccine against multidrug resistant germs.

Bacteria which are resistant to all conventional antibiotics cause more than a million deaths each year. Consequently, researchers around the world are searching for new therapeutic approaches to combat these pathogens. Two years ago, an international team in Grenoble identified an active ingredient suitable for the production of a vaccine against multidrug resistant bacteria Pseudomonas aeruginosa. The vaccine has in the meantime been successfully tested on mice.

"As with many new vaccines, in this case the active ingredient is embedded in liposomes. The exact characterization and understanding of these nanoscopic biomolecules is a key factor in the development and optimization of future vaccines," says Dr. Marco Maccarini, biophysicist at the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS). Together with experts at the TIMC laboratory of the Université Grenoble Alpes (UGA) and at the FRM II he has successfully analyzed the structure of the candidate vaccine against Pseudomonas aeruginosa.

USF geoscientist discovers new phosphorus material after New Port Richey lightning strike

Matthew Pasek
Courtesy of University of South Florida

After lightning struck a tree in a New Port Richey neighborhood, a University of South Florida professor discovered the strike led to the formation of a new phosphorus material. It was found in a rock – the first time in solid form on Earth – and could represent a member of a new mineral group. 

“We have never seen this material occur naturally on Earth – minerals similar to it can be found in meteorites and space, but we've never seen this exact material anywhere,” said geoscientist Matthew Pasek. 

In a recent study published in Communications Earth & Environment, Pasek examines how high-energy events, such as lightning, can cause unique chemical reactions, and in this instance, result in a new material – one that is transitional between space minerals and minerals found on Earth. 

“When lightning strikes a tree, the ground typically explodes out and the surrounding grass dies, forming a scar and sending electric discharge through nearby rock, soil and sand, forming fulgurites, also known as ‘fossilized lightning’,” Pasek said.