Showing papers in "Current Biology in 2017"

TL;DR: A new study reveals that additional pheromone cues released only by younger females may prompt males to avoid them in favor of older but more fecund females.

TL;DR: Since the establishment of the organelle, proteins have been gained, lost, transferred and retargeted as mitochondria have specialized into the spectrum of functional types seen across the eukaryotic tree of life.

TL;DR: The results reveal that the extant sawfly diversity is largely the result of a previously unrecognized major radiation of phytophagous Hymenoptera that did not lead to wood-dwelling and parasitoidism.

TL;DR: In this work, phase transitions have emerged as a novel form of cellular organization that is associated with compartments that are surrounded by lipid membranes.

TL;DR: The heterogeneity of the senescence program is characterized using numerous whole-transcriptome datasets generated by us or publicly available and it is shown that the senescent phenotype is dynamic, changing at varying intervals after senescent induction.

TL;DR: Research findings have implicated the insula in an overwhelming variety of functions ranging from sensory processing to representing feelings and emotions, autonomical and motor control, risk prediction and decision-making, bodily- and self-awareness, and complex social functions like empathy.

TL;DR: A novel analysis technique to assess group-based neural coherence demonstrates that the extent to which brain activity is synchronized across students predicts both student class engagement and social dynamics, suggesting that brain-to-brain synchrony is a possible neural marker for dynamic social interactions.

TL;DR: The reconstruction of deep metazoan relationships using a 1,719-gene dataset with dense taxonomic sampling of non-bilaterian animals that was assembled using a semi-automated procedure, designed to reduce known error sources outperforms previous metazoa gene superalignments in terms of data quality and quantity.

TL;DR: Measurements of dormancy must always be accompanied by analysis of environmental contexts in which phenotypes or behaviours are described, because seeds whose dormancy-inducing pathways are activated to higher levels will germinate in an ever-narrower range of environments.

TL;DR: It is suggested that research in this area is entering a new stage of development, in which phenomic pipelines can help researchers transform large numbers of images and sensor data into knowledge, necessitating novel methods of data handling and modelling.

TL;DR: Timed meals play a role in synchronizing peripheral circadian rhythms in humans and may have particular relevance for patients with circadian rhythm disorders, shift workers, and transmeridian travelers.

TL;DR: The fast bio-degradation of PE by larvae of the wax moth Galleria mellonella, producing ethylene glycol is reported, indicating that new solutions for plastic degradation are urgently needed.

TL;DR: This analysis identifies 64 endangered species in particular need of new or stricter protections and 514 species in need of improvements to fisheries management, and designate priority countries for such actions, recognizing the widely differing fishing pressures and conservation capacity.

TL;DR: In this article, structural network modules become more segregated with age, with weaker connections between modules and stronger connections within modules, and they are associated with enhanced executive performance and mediate the improvement of executive functioning with age.

TL;DR: There is unequivocal evidence that ants are the sister group to bees+apoid wasps (Apoidea) and that bees are nested within a paraphyletic Crabronidae, and that taxon choice can fundamentally impact tree topology and clade support in phylogenomic inference.

TL;DR: It is found that post-perceptual decisions about orientation were indeed systematically biased toward previous stimuli and this positive bias did not strongly depend on the spatial location of previous stimuli (replicating previous work), but observers' perception was repelled away from previous stimuli, particularly when previous stimuli were presented at the same spatial location.

TL;DR: A complete circuit for path integration and steering in the central complex of the bee brain is proposed, with anatomically identified neurons suggested for each processing step, and the receptive fields of the newly discovered speed neurons can support path integration for the holonomic motion typical of bee flight.

TL;DR: It is demonstrated that the mechanism by which the VAPB-PTPIP51 tethers regulate autophagy involves their role in mediating delivery of Ca2+ to mitochondria from ER stores, which reveals a new molecular mechanism for regulatingAutophagy.

TL;DR: It is shown that an isolated population from Batang Toru, at the southernmost range limit of extantSumatran orangutans south of Lake Toba, is distinct from other northern Sumatran and Bornean populations, and a new species, Pongo tapanuliensis, is identified.

TL;DR: This study provides experimental and theoretical evidence for a simple mechanism to explain the emergence of collective behavior from consistent individual differences, including variation in the structure, leadership, movement dynamics, and functional capabilities of groups, across social and ecological scales.

TL;DR: Taheri-Araghi et al. as mentioned in this paper showed that cells sense neither space nor time but add constant mass, irrespective of birth size, and this automatically ensures size homeostasis.

TL;DR: This Primer discusses how plant cells have solved the problem of balancing strength and extensibility, allowing them to support often very large increases in volume and to develop a broad variety of shapes.

TL;DR: Ketanserin inhibited the LSD-induced attribution of personal relevance to previously meaningless stimuli and modulated the processing of meaningful stimuli in cortical midline structures, pointing to the crucial role of the 5-HT2AR subtype and cortical midline regions in the generation and attribution ofpersonal relevance.

TL;DR: The results strongly support sponges as the sister group of all other animals and provide further evidence that Ctenophora-sister represents a tree reconstruction artifact.

TL;DR: Migration through micron-size constrictions has been seen to rupture the nucleus, release nuclear-localized GFP, and cause localized accumulations of ectopic 53BP1-a DNA repair protein, which can associate with heritable changes.

TL;DR: How many marine species are named and estimated to exist is assessed, paying particular regard to whether discoveries of deep-sea organisms, microbes and parasites will change the proportion of terrestrial to marine species.

TL;DR: The distinct marine ecosystems found in these environments include estuarine and coastal wetlands, such as marshes and mangroves, sand beaches and dunes, seagrass beds, and coral and oyster reefs.

TL;DR: Analysis of phylogenomic and supernetwork analyses of the most comprehensive dataset analyzed so far strongly support that plastids evolved from deep-branching cyanobacteria and that the present-day closest cultured relative of primary plastid is Gloeomargarita lithophora.

TL;DR: The hypothesis that targeted electrical stimulation can modulate neural encoding states and subsequent memory outcomes is tested and the conditions under which stimulation modulates memory are identified, suggesting strategies for therapeutically treating memory dysfunction.

TL;DR: This review outlines the historical origins of the discovery ofREM sleep, the diversity of REM sleep expression across and within species, the potential functions of REMSleep, the neural circuits that control REM sleep, and how dysfunction of REMsleep mechanisms underlie debilitating sleep disorders such as REM sleep behaviour disorder and narcolepsy.