Credit: Michal Polak/UC
Scientists have accepted natural selection as a driver of evolution for more than 160 years, thanks to Charles Darwin.
But University of Cincinnati biologist Michal Polak says Darwin s book The Descent of Man only tells part of the story. Sometimes when the victor vanquishes his sexual rival, the quest to pass genes to the next generation is just beginning.
According to a new UC study published in the journal
Current Biology, male fruit flies with the most impressive sexual ornamentation also have super sperm that can outcompete that of rivals in the post-mating fertilization game.
UC studied Drosophila bipectinata, a tiny red-eyed fruit fly from the South Pacific. The male s forelegs have a distinctive sex comb, dark bristles that female fruit flies find appealing like the colorful train of a male peacock. Scientists previously found that female flies prefer males with more robust sex combs, which the males use to grasp the female s abdomen before
Credit: Jim Greenfield
The strange social structure of tiny fish called emerald coral gobies may be explained by family loyalty, new research shows.
Coral goby groups contain a single breeding male and female and - as sequential hermaphrodites - the subordinate gobies can take over either role if one of the breeders dies.
The puzzle for biologists is why breeders tolerate the smaller non-breeders sharing their space and competing for food.
One explanation is kin selection (favouring related individuals).
Reef fish are often assumed to disperse at random after hatching, meaning groups of adults should not be closely related, but the new study finds positive relatedness among gobies living close together.
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As the number of pregnant women using opioid drugs continues to rise, questions have been raised about the long-term health effects on children exposed to these drugs in the womb. Researchers at the University of Maryland School of Medicine now have preliminary but striking evidence that suggests that such exposure can cause long-lasting impairment in the brain s ability to process sensory information. These impairments may give rise to autism, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, and substance use disorders during adolescence. The landmark study, recently published in
Journal of Neuroscience, used a preclinical model to study the issue and found that newborn mice exposed to the opioid fentanyl in the womb developed withdrawal symptoms and sensory processing disorders that lasted at least until adolescence.
In a rare study published this week, Andrea Jani, a researcher with the University of Hawai i at Mānoa, determined the skin microbiome of an endangered frog was altered when the frogs were infected by a specific fungus, and it didn t recover to its initial state even when the frog was cured of the infection.
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IMAGE: These maps pinpoint the location of blood progenitors and their differentiating offspring in the mouse bone marrow. This is the first study to image blood production at this level of. view more
Credit: Cincinnati Children s
CINCINNATI Imagine a day when clinicians treating people with blood diseases such as leukemia or multiple myeloma can send in requests for laboratories to custom-produce specific types of blood cells to replace those affected by the disease.
That day became one step closer to reality with a new study led by experts at Cincinnati Children s that provides powerful new insights into how bone marrow tissue works.