ScienceDaily: Top Environment News

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• 'Designer sperm' inserts custom genes into offspring
• Secrets to 'extreme adaptation' found in Burmese python genome
• Functional importance of dinosaur beaks illuminated
• Microplastic transfers chemicals, impacting health: Plastic ingestion delivers pollutants and additives into animal tissue
• Difficult dance steps: Learning how membrane transporters move
• Reforestation in Lower Mississippi Valley reduces sediment
• Division of labor in the test tube
• New means of growing intestinal stem cells
• Microplastics make marine worms sick
• Koalas' low-pitched voice explained by unique organ
• Can big cats co-exist? Study challenges lion threat to cheetah cubs
• Evolution, Civil War history entwine in plant fossil with a tragic past
• How legless, leaping fish living on land avoids predators
• Researchers pinpoint superbug resistance protein
• New family of proteins linked to major role in cancer
• Corals surviving ocean's pollution
• Marine reserves enhance resilience to climate change
• Detailed image shows how genomes are copied

'Designer sperm' inserts custom genes into offspring Posted: 02 Dec 2013 02:19 PM PST The "new genetics" promises to change faulty genes of future generations by introducing new, functioning genes using "designer sperm." Research shows that introducing genetic material via a viral vector into mouse sperm leads to the presence and activity of the genetic material in the embryos. These genes are inherited and functioning through three generations of the mice tested, and the discovery could break new ground in genetic medicine.

Secrets to 'extreme adaptation' found in Burmese python genome Posted: 02 Dec 2013 01:21 PM PST The Burmese python's ability to ramp up its metabolism and enlarge its organs to swallow and digest prey whole can be traced to unusually rapid evolution and specialized adaptations of its genes and the way they work, an international team of biologists says.

Functional importance of dinosaur beaks illuminated Posted: 02 Dec 2013 01:21 PM PST Why beaks evolved in some theropod dinosaurs and what their function might have been is the subject of new research by an international team of palaeontologists.

Microplastic transfers chemicals, impacting health: Plastic ingestion delivers pollutants and additives into animal tissue Posted: 02 Dec 2013 11:27 AM PST With global production of plastic exceeding 280 metric tons every year, a fair amount of it makes its way to the natural environment. However, until now researchers haven't known whether ingested plastic transfers chemical additives or pollutants to wildlife. A new study shows toxic concentrations of pollutants and additives enter the tissue of animals that have eaten microplastic.

Difficult dance steps: Learning how membrane transporters move Posted: 02 Dec 2013 10:48 AM PST Researchers have tried for decades to understand the undulations and gyrations that allow transport proteins to shuttle molecules from one side of a cell membrane to the other. Now scientists report that they have found a way to penetrate the mystery. They have worked out every step in the molecular dance that enables one such transporter to do its job.

Reforestation in Lower Mississippi Valley reduces sediment Posted: 02 Dec 2013 10:46 AM PST A modeling study shows that reforesting the Lower Mississippi Alluvial Valley can significantly reduce runoff from agricultural lands and the amount of sediment entering the area's rivers and streams -- and ultimately the Gulf of Mexico.

Division of labor in the test tube Posted: 02 Dec 2013 10:46 AM PST The division of labor is more efficient than a struggle through life without help from others -- this also applies to microorganisms. Researchers came to this conclusion when they performed experiments with bacteria that were deficient in the production of certain amino acids and depended on a partner to provide the missing nutrient. Bacterial strains that complemented each other's need showed a fitness increase of 20 percent relative to a non-deficient strain without partner.

New means of growing intestinal stem cells Posted: 02 Dec 2013 09:15 AM PST Researchers have shown that they can grow unlimited quantities of intestinal stem cells, then stimulate them to develop into nearly pure populations of different types of mature intestinal cells.

Microplastics make marine worms sick Posted: 02 Dec 2013 09:14 AM PST Tiny bits of plastic trash could spell big trouble for marine life, starting with the worms. Marine worms play a key ecological role as an important source of food for other animals.

Koalas' low-pitched voice explained by unique organ Posted: 02 Dec 2013 09:14 AM PST The pitch of male koalas' mating calls is about 20 times lower than it should be, given the Australian marsupial's relatively small size. Now, researchers have discovered their secret: koalas have a specialized sound-producing organ that has never before been seen in any other land-dwelling mammal. The key feature of this newly described organ is its location outside the voice box, what scientists call the larynx.

Can big cats co-exist? Study challenges lion threat to cheetah cubs Posted: 02 Dec 2013 09:13 AM PST New research into cheetah cub survival has refuted the theory that lions are a cub's main predator and that big cats cannot coexist in conservation areas. The study found that cubs in the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park were seven times more likely to survive then on the Serengeti Plains and that lions were not found to be the cubs' main predatory threat.

Evolution, Civil War history entwine in plant fossil with a tragic past Posted: 02 Dec 2013 08:21 AM PST A fossil leaf collected on a Virginia canal bank is one of North America's oldest flowering plants, a 120-million-year-old species new to science. The find raises questions about whether pollen evolved along with flowering plants or came later. It also unearths a forgotten Civil War episode reminiscent of "Twelve Years a Slave": Union troops forced a group of freedmen to dig the canal that exposed the fossil.

How legless, leaping fish living on land avoids predators Posted: 02 Dec 2013 07:53 AM PST One of the world's strangest animals -- a legless, leaping fish that lives on land -- uses camouflage to avoid attacks by predators such as birds, lizards and crabs, new research shows. Researchers studied the unique fish -- Pacific leaping blennies -- in their natural habitat on the tropical island of Guam. These terrestrial fish spend all of their adult lives living on the rocks in the splash zone.

Researchers pinpoint superbug resistance protein Posted: 02 Dec 2013 07:52 AM PST Researchers have recently identified a resistance protein that allows a "superbug" to survive a disinfectant used in hospitals.

New family of proteins linked to major role in cancer Posted: 02 Dec 2013 07:52 AM PST Scientists have described a new family of proteins that appear to play a key role in cancer and might be targets for future cancer drugs. A major new study sets out the structure of the new family, called glutamate intramembrane proteases -- the founding member of which plays a critical role in transforming healthy cells into cancer cells.

Corals surviving ocean's pollution Posted: 02 Dec 2013 05:24 AM PST Unlike other marine species, the corals are still capable of adapting under current circumstances of sea acidification. "The first models indicated that the coral reefs would disappear midcentury, but our study reveals that corals are adapting to the ocean's acidification that has increased since the industrial revolution", the head researcher notes.

Marine reserves enhance resilience to climate change Posted: 01 Dec 2013 02:43 PM PST A new study highlights the potential for fish communities in marine reserves to resist climate change impacts better than communities on fished coasts.

Detailed image shows how genomes are copied Posted: 01 Dec 2013 02:43 PM PST For the first time, researchers have succeeded in showing how the DNA polymerase epsilon enzyme builds new genomes. The detailed image produced by these researchers shows how mutations that can contribute to the development of colorectal cancer and cervical cancer lead to changes in the structure of the protein.

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