Some humans placentas do not form the complex structure seen in animals
The nine-month pregnancy in humans is influenced by the structure of the placenta, according to new research into the evolution of reproduction in mammals which ends a 100-year mystery.
Continue reading… “Length of Pregnancy Influenced by Placenta Structure”
More Important to Evolution Than Thought, Beetle Study Suggests
A new study of beetles shows a genetic ‘battle of the sexes’ could be much harder to resolve and even more important to evolution than previously thought.
Continue reading… “Genetic ‘Battle of the Sexes’”
green pistil surrounded closely by white anthers
A research team led by Teh-hui Kao, professor of biochemistry and molecular biology at Penn State University, in collaboration with a team lead by Professor Seiji Takayama at the Nara Institute of Science and Technology in Japan, has discovered a large suite of genes in the petunia plant that acts to prevent it from breeding with itself or with its close relatives, and to promote breeding with unrelated individuals.
Continue reading… “Flowering Plants Have Evolved Multiple Genes”
“It’s crazy how realistic they look when there under a microscope!”
The nature-nurture debate is a “giant step” closer to being resolved after scientists studying bees documented how environmental inputs can modify our genetic hardware. The researchers uncovered extensive molecular differences in the brains of worker bees and queen bees which develop along very different paths when put on different diets.
Continue reading… “Bees Reveal Nature-Nurture Secrets”
Some are stronger than others!
A new study analysing how complex, highly-evolved societies are organised in nature has found that it is workers that play a pivotal role in creating well-ordered societies where conflict is minimised. For when it comes to determining who reproduces in ants, University of Leicester biologists have found the humble worker is queenmaker — it is they who choose their queen.
Continue reading… “Workers Hold Key to Power in Nature’s Oldest Societies”
Following months of gruelling tests and trials, scientists now reveal the World’s strongest insect to be a species of dung beetle called Onthophagus taurus.
Continue reading… “Pulling Power Points the Way to World’s Strongest Insect — A Dung Beetle”
Male pipefishes and their seahorse cousins are the only males that actually become pregnant and give birth, but pipefishes likely will never win any Father of The Year awards — their attitude towards their offspring can range from total love to total neglect, according to new findings from Texas A&M University researchers.
Researchers at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) and the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) have discovered that injecting a simple hormone into leeches creates a novel way to study how hormones and the nervous system work together to produce species-specific reproductive behavior.
Continue reading… “Scientists Establish Leech as Model for Study of Reproductive Behavior”
Living organisms have good reason for engaging in sexual, rather than asexual, reproduction according to Maurine Neiman, assistant professor of biology in the UI College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and researcher in the Roy J. Carver Center for Genomics.
Continue reading… “Value of Sexual Reproduction Versus Asexual Reproduction”
Some mouse sperm can discriminate between its brethren and competing sperm from other males, clustering with its closest relatives to swim faster in the race to the egg. But this sort of cooperation appears to be present only in certain promiscuous species, where it affords an individual’s sperm a competitive advantage over that of other males.
Continue reading… “Some Mouse Sperm Can Identify, and Even Cooperate With, Its Brethren”
Females can be too attractive to the opposite sex — too attractive for their own good — say biologists at UC Santa Barbara. They found that, among fruit flies, too much male attention directed toward attractive females leads to smaller families and, ultimately, to a reduced rate of population-wide adaptive evolution.
Continue reading… “Female Fruit Flies Can Be ‘Too Attractive’ to Males, Scientists Show”
Testosterone gets female canaries singing. Dutch researcher Tessa Hartog knows how you can make a female canary sing using testosterone and the protein BDNF. Normally, female canaries don’t sing, but with a few tweaks, the females’ brain structure can be altered in a way that lets them burst into song. Their singing can even be considered sexy.
Continue reading… “Female Canaries Sing Sexily With Testosterone”
