As climate change intensifies harmful algal blooms worldwide, an international team led by Hiroshima University has developed a hybrid modeling approach that combines algal movement simulations, AI, and long-term monitoring data to sharpen forecasts of these bloom events—linked to environmental damage, mass fish die-offs, economic losses, and risks to human health.

Embedded ethics in human stem-cell-based embryo model research: An interdisciplinary and international team of ethicists, lawyers, and scientists, including Jesse Veenvliet from the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics in Dresden, Germany, proposes an embedded ethics framework to facilitate responsible research and governance with human stem-cell-based embryo models. In that way, the field could move forward while maintaining public trust.

Myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) are malignant disorders arising from hematopoietic stem cells, yet the precise epigenetic abnormalities occurring in the primitive stem cells remain poorly understood. A collaborative team led by Professor Xuetao Cao at the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences has generated the base-resolution DNA methylation map of human MDS hematopoietic stem cells. The study reveals the distinct patterns of methylation in MDS stem cells, offering insights into MDS pathogenesis and potential therapeutic targets.

In the clonal raider ant (Ooceraea biroi), workers in a colony alternate between caring for larvae and laying eggs in a coordinated cycle. Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology in Jena have discovered how this cycle is controlled. The larvae emit a specific chemical signal that suppresses the fertility of adult workers. The team identified a previously unknown volatile compound produced exclusively by larvae: methyl-3-ethyl-2-hydroxy-4-methylpentanoate (MEHMP). Exposure to synthetic MEHMP drastically reduced egg-laying in adult ants—the same reaction observed in the presence of larvae. Thus, for the first time, the research team was able to chemically characterize a brood pheromone in ants. The study shows that larvae can control their parents’ reproductive behavior using chemical signals. Therefore, larvae are not merely passive recipients of parental care; they also play an active role in shaping the reproductive dynamics of their colonies.

Researchers at Bar-Ilan University have discovered that changing just one letter in DNA can completely alter sex development in mice. In the new study, published in Nature Communications, a single-letter insertion in a non-coding regulatory region caused XX mice, which would normally develop as females, to develop instead as males with testis and male genitalia.

Researchers from China developed the first high-density 10K SNP array for wax gourd using genotyping by target sequencing (GBTS) technology, comprising 10,722 genome-wide SNPs distributed across the genome, including 278 associated with functional trait loci.