An Osaka Metropolitan University-led study evaluated abnormal genes and immune cell composition in canine hepatocellular carcinoma through RNA sequencing. 

Researchers at University of Tsukuba have discovered the adaptive significance of the remarkable waste-management behavior in the social spider mite Stigmaeopsis longus, a tiny herbivorous arthropod that lives in cooperative groups. These mites protect their eggs from the adverse effects of fecal accumulation by defecating in designated areas near the nest entrance. This study is the first to experimentally demonstrate the adaptive function of excretory behavior in a social spider mite, offering new insights into the evolution of sociality and nest-based living in arthropods.

Kyushu University researchers have created a novel “ACTG” naming system for human gene types, and launched the Joint Open Genome and Omics Platform 1.0 (JoGo 1.0), a global database cataloging 4.7 million gene types from more than 19,000 genes. Integrated with other public resources, the platform establishes a universal language for human gene types, empowering applications in fields such as disease research, drug development, and evolutionary biology.

For the first time, real-time imaging tracks what happens to cancer cells arriving in the brain, identifying a new strategy to prevent brain tumors. Published in Cancer Research, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research, the study identifies two proteins that seed cells use to avoid being destroyed by microglia when they first arrive. By genetically removing these proteins, researchers showed that microglia play a key role in eliminating cancer cells during the early stage of their arrival in the brain.

A new study from Ritsumeikan University reveals how everyday repairs and spatial adjustments help maintain autonomy within a Japanese squatted space. Based on participant observation in the Takayama Architecture Summer School squat, the research shows that social activism can emerge from ordinary acts, such as fixing a door or rearranging a room, enabling diverse groups to coexist and shape their environment without the need for professional expertise

Maintaining long-term health has become a major challenge, driving research into ways to extend “healthspan” rather than lifespan alone. In a recent study, researchers from Japan investigated COX7RP, a mitochondrial protein that promotes the assembly of mitochondrial respiratory supercomplexes essential for efficient energy production. They found that boosting COX7RP improves mitochondrial performance, enhances metabolic health, and significantly prolongs lifespan in mice, opening doors to novel anti-aging interventions and therapeutic strategies for aging-related diseases.

The Jahn–Teller effect is a well-explored phenomenon in solid-state physics. In a new development, researchers from Waseda University, Japan, focused on spinel-type compounds with the formula AV₂O₄, discovering a phenomenon in which a structural phase transition occurs simultaneously with magnetic ordering in Co₁₋ₓFeₓV₂O₄. This innovation holds fundamental scientific interest and is expected to open new avenues for applications in quantum information.

In fusion research, the plasma core must be heated to about one hundred million degrees, but heat naturally spreads outward, making it important to slow this spreading as much as possible. Turbulence that appears together with the heat also moves outward. A research team at the National Institute for Fusion Science used the Large Helical Device to study this process and identified turbulence that acts as a mediator, rapidly distributing heat across the plasma. When rapid heating was applied, this mediator became stronger and caused the heat to spread almost instantly. The team also showed for the first time that turbulence plays two roles, both carrying heat and connecting distant regions. These findings reveal how sudden heat spreading occurs and provide a basis for predicting and controlling heat transport in future fusion reactors.

At the base of mossy trees, deep in the mountains of Taiwan and mainland Japan or nestled in the subtropical forests of Okinawa, grows what most might mistake for a mushroom – but what is actually a very unique plant with some of the smallest flowers and seeds in the world. With no chlorophyll to photosynthesize with and no root system to supply it with water from the ground, Balanophora has evolved a series of extreme traits to survive entirely as a parasite on the roots of specific trees. Some species and populations produce seeds only without fertilization (obligate agamospermy) – which is exceedingly rare in the plant kingdom. 

 

Researchers from the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology (OIST), Kobe University, and the University of Taipei have now joined forces to survey Balanophora across its sparse and inaccessible habitats, upending our understanding of photosynthesis loss in land plants, obligate agamospermy, and the role of the plastids.   

There are plants that are neither green nor sexually reproductive, but precisely because of that they teach us a lot about what it means to be a plant. New research with Kobe University participation took a close look at Balanophora to learn how such non-green, asexual plants evolve and live.