As part of the body’s first line of defense against foreign invaders, macrophages play an integral role in the innate immune system. However, the ability of macrophages to interpret and respond to diverse danger signals remains incompletely understood. Researchers from the University of Manchester have now found that increases in cell volume reprogram macrophage gene expression and induce inflammation. The findings, to be published May 7 in the Journal of Cell Biology (JCB), add another piece to the ever-expanding puzzle of immune-related inflammatory responses.

Scientists from the Natural History Museum, London have described a new genus and species of parasitic wasp found within the Museum’s collections, and named it as a birthday present for Sir David Attenborough.

Adequate boron (B) supply is essential for optimal growth and yield formation in rapeseed (Brassica napus L.). With boron-deficient soils affecting croplands worldwide, developing varieties with enhanced boron-use efficiency represents a sustainable strategy to safeguard productivity. Central to this effort is the identification of genes that regulate boron homeostasis. 

Artificial intelligence can dramatically speed up the painstaking work of tracking wildlife with remote cameras, cutting analysis time from months or even a year to just days while producing nearly the same scientific conclusions as humans. That’s according to a new study led by researchers at Washington State University and Google, published in the Journal of Applied Ecology. The team tested whether a fully automated AI system could replace humans in processing hundreds of thousands to millions of camera trap images collected in Washington, Montana’s Glacier National Park, and Guatemala’s Maya Biosphere Reserve.

High concentrations of free fatty acid (FFA) in ketotic dairy cows activate endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress pathways, contributing to mammary epithelial cell apoptosis and reduced milk yield. The study sets the stage for in vivo trials to validate ER stress inhibitors like Tauroursodeoxycholate (TUDCA) as practical solutions for managing ketosis and enhancing dairy cows health.

A research team from the School of Biomedical Sciences at the LKS Faculty of Medicine, the University of Hong Kong (HKUMed), has uncovered the mechanism underlying how cancer patients respond to a widely used cancer drug, known as paclitaxel, offering insights that may help overcome cancer drug resistance. The study found that small differences in microtubules, the structures inside cells that help the cells divide and move, can determine the efficacy of paclitaxel. This finding was published in Nature Chemical Biology.

Kyoto, Japan -- A hallmark of Type 2 diabetes is the progressive loss of beta cell mass: cells in the pancreas that produce and release insulin.  The endoplasmic reticulum stress response, a cellular pathway that maintains protein homeostasis, plays a critical role in beta cell function and survival, and the protein ATF6α is one of the key regulators of this stress response. However, the significance of ATF6α signaling in the stress-adaptive regulation of beta cell mass has remained unclear, prompting a team of researchers at Kyoto University to investigate.

"Our previous single-cell RNA-sequencing data suggested transient ATF6α upregulation during adaptive beta-cell proliferation, which sparked our interest in its potential role," says first author Daisuke Otani.

The team generated mice lacking ATF6α, specifically in beta cells. They assessed beta cell mass, proliferation and apoptosis, or cell death, of the mice under chronic stress conditions, including high-fat diet and pregnancy. The team also performed complementary in vitro experiments using chronically stressed beta cell lines, and single-cell RNA sequencing using the high-fat diet model.

Kyoto, Japan -- The intrinsic information-seeking impulse we call curiosity is independent of extrinsic rewards, such as food or mating opportunities. Curiosity is purely the pursuit of understanding the unknown, driving both humans and animals to explore their environments. Still, certain stimuli tend to spark curiosity more than others.

Recent research supports a Goldilocks principle, in which curiosity is biased toward moderately complex or uncertain stimuli while avoiding overly simple or convoluted situations. This tendency characterizes human curiosity, but few studies have explored this impulse in nonhuman animals. A team of researchers at Kyoto University's Institute for the Evolutionary Origins of Human Behavior, EHUB, wondered if a new sort of method might be useful in addressing curiosity in monkeys.

Video games are gaining more acceptance as tools that may help train cognitive abilities, and thus improve quality of life for humans. The researchers thought that if they could develop a video game that sparked the curiosity and engagement of animals in laboratories and zoos -- or even pets such as cats and dogs -- this could potentially help improve living environments and contribute to animal welfare.