In a new study published in Current Biology, an international team of researchers discover the first evidence of an XX/XY sex determination system in chambered nautiluses and challenge the previously believed system of ZZ/Z0.

The American Federation for Aging Research (AFAR) has received a five-year renewal award totaling $5,722,435 from the National Institute on Aging (NIA), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), to continue and expand the Nathan Shock Centers Coordinating Center (NSC3). The NSC3 coordinates the activities of the 8 Nathan Shock Centers (NSC) of Excellence in the Basic Biology of Aging, which provide expert resources to expand basic research into the biology of aging. 

A new system can capture detailed cell dynamics of an entire small organism at once, with the ability to image 3D changes over a large field of view in real time.

Hypertensive disorders in pregnancy (HDPs), marked by high blood pressure, may influence fetal and placental growth differently by sex. To investigate this, researchers in the United States analyzed birth data and found that male babies of mothers with HDPs had higher birthweight, while female babies had relatively heavier placentas. These findings highlight sex-specific responses to HDPs and may help guide more personalized strategies for monitoring and managing pregnancy and fetal health outcomes.

Symbiotic bacteria that live permanently with a host and are connected to its metabolism lose many genes over the course of evolution that are no longer required. A research team at the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology investigated whether these highly specialized bacteria can adapt their gene activity to different environmental conditions despite their greatly reduced genome, using reed beetles of the genera Donacia and Macroplea. To this end, the expression of symbiont genes was analyzed at different temperatures and at various stages of the reed beetles' development. These symbionts retain only a few genes. Nevertheless, they were found to be able to adapt their gene expression in a targeted manner. For instance, they activate special stress genes in response to cold and adapt their metabolic pathways to their host's diet during different life stages. This demonstrates that symbionts with a greatly reduced genome can still respond flexibly to the needs of their symbiotic partners.

Ankylosing spondylitis (AS) is increasingly recognized as an independent risk factor for premature myocardial infarction (MI), yet the molecular bridge linking chronic axial inflammation to acute coronary events remains poorly mapped. Mining four public microarray cohorts (GSE128470, GSE73754, GSE100927, GSE122897) that profile peripheral blood mononuclear cells from AS patients, MI patients and healthy controls, integrative bioinformatics now delivers a concise pathogenic blueprint. Weighted gene co-expression network analysis identified one AS-related and one MI-related module that significantly overlap; machine-learning (LASSO + SVM-RFE) distilled these to two hub genes—S100A12 and MCEMP1—whose transcript levels rise concordantly across both diseases. ROC curves yield AUCs of 0.92–0.96 for distinguishing AS-MI cases from either disease alone, and a nomogram incorporating age, CRP and the two hubs achieves a net reclassification improvement of 34 %.