From: “Sindbis virus polyarthritis outbreak signalled by virus prevalence in the mosquito vectors”, J.O. Lundström, J.C. Hesson, M.L. Schäfer, Ö. Östman, T. Semmler, M. Bekaert, M. Weidmann, Å. Lundkvist and M. Pfeffer (2019), PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pntd.0007702 Sindbus virus (SINV) is a virus found across the world. Usually, it is transmitted between birds such …
Continue reading “A Seven-year Sickness? Tracking Sindbis virus in Swedish Mosquitoes”
From: “Daphnia parasite dynamics across multiple Caullerya epidemics indicate selection against common parasite genotypes”, E. González-Tortuero, J. Rusek, P. Turkode, A. Petrusek, I. Maayan, L. Piálek, C. Tellenbach, S. Gießlerc, P. Spaak, J. Wolinska (2019), Zoology 119:4 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.zool.2016.04.003 Parasite-host interactions are rapidly becoming a major frontier in evolutionary biology, and are increasingly recognised a major …
Continue reading “Is it better to be different? How water fleas resist parasites”
From “Deep south-north genetic divergence in Godlewski’s bunting (Emberiza godlewskii) related to uplift of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and habitat preferences”, J. Li, G, Song, N. Liu, Y. Change and X. Bao (2019), BMC Evolutionary Biology 19:161 From almost the beginning of recorded history through to the twentieth century the basic unit of Chinese politics has …
Continue reading “A House Divided: what splits a lineage of birds?”
From “Subterranean Termite Social Alarm and Hygienic Responses to Fungal Pathogens”, M.S. Bulmer, B.A. Franco and E.G. Fields (2019), Insects 10:8, 240 https://doi.org/10.3390/insects10080240 Throughout history, one of the biggest dangers of city living has been contagious disease. Where people live close to one another, germs and pathogens can easily pass between them, causing epidemics. From …
Continue reading “Public health in termite cities: how insects prevent epidemics”
From “Among-population divergence in personality is linked to altitude in plateau pikas (Ochotona curzoniae)”, J. Qu, D. Réale, Q.E. Fletcher and Y Zhang. (2019), Frontiers in Zoology 16:26 Plateau Pikas (Ochotona curzoniae) are rather cute rabbit-like animals which can be found across the Tibetan Plateu, north of India and on the western edges of China. …
Continue reading “Live fast, die young? Where personality is linked to altitude”
From: “Multiple origins of melanism in two species of North American tree squirrel (Sciurus)”, H.R. McRobie, N.D. Moncrief and N.I. Mundy (2019), BMC Evolutionary Biology 19:140 https://doi.org/10.1186/s12862-019-1471-7 Melanin is one of the most common pigments in nature. It determines our hair and skin colour, as well as that of many other animals – the more …
Continue reading “How melanic was my squirrel: how dark squirrels got their colour”
From: “Synthetic cell division via membrane-transforming molecular assemblies”, S. Kretschmer, K.A. Ganzinger, H.G. Franquelim and P. Schwille (2019), BMC Biology 17:43 https://doi.org/10.1186/s12915-019-0665-1 Cell membranes are the structures that make life possible. They are what keeps a patch of water having all the interesting biologically-important molecules* at high enough concentrations for all the chemical reactions which …
Continue reading “Creating a growing cell: synthetic biology and the role of FtsZ in cell division”
From “Potential animal reservoirs (dogs and bats) of human visceral leishmaniasis due to Leishmania infantum in French Guiana”, H. Medkour, B. Davoust, F. Dulieu, L. Maurizi, T. Lamour, J-L. Marié, and O. Mediannikov (2019), PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases 13:6 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pntd.0007456 Leishmaniasis is a neglected tropical disease caused by several species of the animal-like single-celled parasite …
Continue reading “Looking for Leishmaniasis in Bats and Dogs”
From: “Hidden in plain sight: what remains to be discovered in the eukaryotic proteome?” by V. Wood, A. Lock, M.A. Harris, K. Rutherford, J. Bähler and S.G. Oliver (2019), in Open Biology 9:2 https://doi.org/10.1098/rsob.180241 Proteins are the main movers in biochemistry. Genes code for proteins, and when the gene is expressed (activated), it produces its …
Continue reading “How do you put a number on what we haven’t discovered?”
Having recently left university with a degree in Biology and History, I thought I’d use my degree by writing weekly summaries of publically available Biology papers*, written in a jargon-light, easy-to-understand manner. The aim is both to give myself a reason to keep up with the latest science, and to make science more accessible to …
Open Access Biology Summaries