Why are frogs diverse in some parts of Africa’s rainforests and less so in others? The patterns of cooling and glaciation during the last ice age would probably not have been your first answer or even your last-ditch guess, but it is, nonetheless, correct.

The outcomes of critically ill patients with liver cirrhosis are particularly poor when ARDS develops. Despite this scenario, the robust studies on the prevalence, prognosis, and prognostic factors of ARDS in patients with cirrhosis have remained scarce. To address this, researchers from France carried out a bicentric retrospective study with the largest cohort of patients with cirrhosis and ARDS. The study is the first to identify independent prognostic factors for short-term mortality in this population.

Researchers at the NTNU Norwegian University of Science and Technology have successfully engineered Corynebacterium glutamicum to produce and secrete two alginate lyases that work synergistically to break down alginate—a complex polysaccharide abundant in brown seaweed—into fermentable monosaccharides.

Studies explored the role of H3K27me3 in early embryonic cell fate decisions via PCGF1-knockout models, finding that PCGF1 deficiency leads to embryonic lethality and blocked gastrulation. Mechanistically, PCGF1 maintains H3K27me3 homeostasis to silence pluripotency genes and balance epigenetic marks, highlighting dynamic H3K27me3 remodeling as a key driver of early lineage specification with implications for developmental biology and regenerative medicine.

Prenatal oxycodone exposure changes how the placenta sends signals to the fetus. A new study revealed how alterations in the protein composition of placental small extracellular vesicles (sEVs) impact fetal heart development. These changes suggest that maternal opioid use may raise the baby’s risk for future heart problems.

Preconditioning mesenchymal stem cells with TNF-α enriches their small extracellular vesicles with anti-inflammatory microRNAs, especially miR-146a-5p, enabling stronger suppression of macrophage-driven inflammation and better preservation of retinal structure and function in a mouse model of inflammatory retinal degeneration.

Metastases, i.e. the secondary growths of cancer cells, are a key problem in many types of cancer. As descendants of the primary tumour, they can grow in other organs distant from the primary site and are often difficult to identify. A research team from the Institute of Genetics at Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf (HHU) has now identified molecular mechanisms, which can enable cancer cells to colonise other tissue. The team led by Dr Tobias Reiff has now published its findings in the scientific journal Nature Communications.