High-coverage Jomon and Yayoi genomes reveal continuity with modern Japanese, continental ancestry, and prehistoric starch adaptations in Japan.

Researchers at the RIKEN Center for Biosystems Dynamics Research (BDR) in Japan have discovered that the natural turnover of gut cells in the fruit fly depends on how much food the flies get, rather than any specific nutrient. They found that gut cell death was prevented when nutrient levels were high and the insides of gut cells were viscous and less fluid. Published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, this finding goes against traditional ideas in nutrient biology, which hold that nutrient sensing relies on biological signaling pathways activated by specific nutrients.

A team led by Penn State researchers has developed a synthetic mimic of an enzymes that drives an enzyme-like reaction, requiring only oxygen and producing only water as waste.

A growing body of evidence suggests that a rare epithelial cell type known as the tuft cell may play a far more significant role in cancer than previously recognized. A recent review proposes that tumors expressing the tuft cell master regulator POU2F3 represent a distinct molecular class of “tuft cell-like” cancers spanning multiple organs, including the lung, pancreas, stomach, colon, breast, prostate, and neuroendocrine tissues. These tumors exhibit unique biological characteristics that may create new opportunities for diagnosis, prognosis, and targeted therapy.

A growing understanding of RNA biology is reshaping how scientists view the relationship between environmental toxicants, brain development, and neurodegenerative disease. A new review highlights the emerging importance of N6-methyladenosine (m⁶A), the most common RNA modification in cells, as a key regulator of nervous system development and a potential contributor to neurological damage caused by toxic environmental exposures.

Researchers combined family genetic studies with AI molecular biology to find a new candidate drug to treat osteoarthritis. In cells in a dish, the new compound prevents OA-associated changes and promotes cell health.

Scientists at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory created a platform that pinpoints genetic triggers that turn microbes into efficient factories for new chemicals and materials. The method enables rapid, precise reprogramming of bacteria as biotechnology tools, supporting the domestic production of valuable products and the recovery of critical minerals and materials, enhancing the nation’s supply chains and global competitiveness.  

In a new study published recently in PLOS Biology, scientists examined the mechanism by which a gene called odd-paired establishes the head-to-tail axis in a moth fly, Clogmia albipunctata, using different mechanisms than more well known genes in fruit flies.

A new study led by a Duke University scientist overturns a long-held idea about how primates, including humans, came to have such large and sophisticated brains. The research finds that the dramatic expansion of the primate neocortex was driven largely by vision, not by the disproportionate growth of the frontal lobe often associated with higher reasoning.