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Citation: Bérard M, Merlini L, Martin SG (2024) Proteomic and phosphoproteomic analyses reveal that TORC1 is reactivated by pheromone signaling during sexual reproduction in fission yeast. PLoS Biol 22(12): e3002963. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3002963Academic Editor: Sarah E. Zanders, Stowers Institute for Medical Research, UNITED STATES OF AMERICAReceived: September 25, 2024; Accepted: December 2, 2024; Published: December 20, 2024Copyright: © 2024 Bérard et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.Data Availability: Proteomic and phosphoproteomic datasets are…

Contrast between idealized homogeneous and realistic heterogeneous metapopulations. Credit: SOKENDAI, AIST, OIST The evolution of pathogens has received attention in a wide range of scientific fields, such as epidemiology, demography, and evolutionary ecology. Understanding pathogen evolution is particularly urgent for rapidly evolving pathogens, such as SARS-CoV-2, which has spread globally since 2019. Classical evolutionary theory states that virulence evolves to maximize a pathogen’s basic reproduction ratio, i.e., the average number of secondary infections caused by one infected host. This approach provides insights into how pathogen virulence evolves under tradeoffs with other epidemiological parameters such as the rates of infection and…

The evolution of locomotor anatomy and running performance in hominins. Credit: Current Biology (2024). DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2024.11.025 A team of natural scientists, musculoskeletal specialists, and evolutionary biologists affiliated with several institutions in the U.K., working with a colleague from the Netherlands, has found via simulations, that the famous early hominin Lucy, could run upright, but not nearly as quickly as modern humans. In their paper posted on the open-access site Current Biology, the group describes the factors they put into building their simulation and what it showed them once completed. The hominin Lucy, found back in the 1970s, in Ethiopia, has…

Image: Strashila, redrawn by Bechly after Grimaldi & Engel 2005, fig. 12.6. This Fossil Friday features the reconstruction drawing of Strashila incredibilis, an extremely weird fossil insect from the Late Jurassic of Siberia. It was first described by Rasnitsyn (1992) as a new species, genus, and family, and attributed to an unknown order of holometabolan insects, possibly related to scorpionflies and fleas. Rasnitsyn suggested that strashilids were wingless blood-sucking ectoparasites of warm-blooded animals, most likely on the hairy wing membrane of pterosaurs. He based his interpretation on the putative presence of sucking-piercing mouthparts (that were later allegedly destroyed by improper preparation with alcohol)…

SWS1 site 86 genotype ratios in sea snake populations. Credit: Genome Biology and Evolution (2024). DOI: 10.1093/gbe/evae150 Nine species of sea snakes have now been identified as having regained the genetic requirements for advanced color vision, demonstrating that once a complex trait has been lost to evolutionary time, it may be regained in some way. A University of Adelaide study, led by Ph.D. candidate Isaac Rossetto, found the genetic trait may have existed in a common ancestor of the nine species, which all belong to the Hydrophis genus, dating back three million years. Isaac previously identified one species of sea…

PRESS RELEASE: Millions of people around the world are affected by retinal degenerative diseases. In most cases, loss of vision is caused by damage to the macula, a region in the centre of the retina. The macula is rich in cone photoreceptors – cells important for perceiving colour and seeing finer details. Currently, there are no approved treatments to replace the damaged macula, despite its huge impact on the quality of life. Now, a team of researchers from the University of Montreal, led by Professor Gilbert Bernier, found that blind minipigs receiving retinal transplants made from stem cells showed signs…

Our guest on the podcast this week is John Cassidy, director of life sciences and healthtech investments at SoftBank Vision Fund.Softbank Vision Fund is the world’s largest technology-focused investment fund, with $166bn assets under management, and a portfolio of more than 250 companies.In the discussion, we cover investment trends within life sciences, the European health and biotech scene, as well as the precise applications of new and emerging AI technologies. We also look ahead to what the biotech and life sciences fields may hold in 2025.00:55-02:03: About the SoftBank Vision Fund02:03-02:47: Developing timelines02:47-04:27: Managing a large portfolio04:27-11:18: Portfolio company profiles11:18-13:36:…

Photo credit: Guillermo Gonzalez. As a child I used to enjoy making origami figures, including cranes, boats, planes, butterflies, and flowers among others. These were simple, typically requiring no more than a few minutes of my time and a couple dozen steps at most. Now, one of my children makes complex and realistic origami critters that require close to 200 steps. The image at the top, in fact, is an origami Cyclommatus metallifer beetle made by Isaac Gonzalez. The design is from Works of Satoshi Kamiya 2. It has 184 steps and is classified as complex (the highest rating is super complex). In…

Kākā have expanded their range throughout Wellington, often visiting people’s gardens. Credit: Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA As many Wellingtonians will know, kākā can be trouble. New Zealand’s pesky forest parrots have expanded throughout New Zealand’s capital city since they were reintroduced 22 years ago and they are not averse to “modifying” people’s homes to build nests in roof spaces. But mostly, they are the ones in trouble. Kākā populations across Aotearoa New Zealand have declined significantly over the past two centuries, in particular after the introduction of European mammalian predators. Their former New Zealand-wide range is now reduced to a…

Geobiologist Shuhai Xiao (at left) and colleague in the field in Canada. Credit: Danielle Fitzgerald. If all the world’s a stage and all the species merely players, then their exits and entrances can be found in the rock record. Fossilized skeletons and shells clearly show how evolution and extinction unfolded over the past half a billion years, but a Virginia Tech analysis extends the chart of life to nearly 2 billion years ago. The study is published in the journal Science. The chart shows the relative ups and downs in species counts, telling scientists about the origin, diversification, and extinction…