New Genetic Data Overturn Long-held Theory Of Limb Development:
Long before animals with limbs (tetrapods) came onto the scene about 365 million years ago, fish already possessed the genes associated with helping to grow hands and feet (autopods) report University of Chicago researchers in the May 24, 2007, issue of Nature. This finding overturns a long-held, but much-debated, theory that limb acquisition was a novel evolutionary event, requiring the descendents of lobed-fin fish to dramatically alter their genes to adapt their bodies to their new environments of streams and swamps.
New Species Of Biting Aquatic Insects Found In Thailand:
While in Thailand, a University of Missouri-Columbia researcher found a treasure-trove of previously unknown information about aquatic insects in the country. In the process, he learned firsthand that a few of these little critters pack quite a punch when they bite.
Archaea In Hot Springs Use Ammonia For Energy: May Shed Light On Early Evolution:
Discovered in the late 1970s, archaea are one of the three main branches on the tree of life, with bacteria and eukaryotes such as plants and animals on the other two branches. But scientists are just now gaining a fuller understanding of what archaea do -- in an ecological sense -- to make a living. A new study led by University of Georgia researchers and announced on Wednesday at the American Society for Microbiology meeting in Toronto finds that crenarchaeota, one of the most common groups of archaea and a group that includes members that live in hot springs, use ammonia as their energy source. Chuanlun Zhang, lead author of the study and associate research scientist at UGA's Savannah River Ecology Laboratory, said such a metabolic mode has not been found in any of the other known high-temperature archaea.
Scientists have long assumed that fungi exist mainly to decompose matter into chemicals that other organisms can then use. But researchers at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University have found evidence that fungi possess a previously undiscovered talent with profound implications: the ability to use radioactivity as an energy source for making food and spurring their growth.
Comments
The fungus story is extremely interesting, definition fuel for the imagination...foods that fortify themselves when you zap them in the microwave!
On a serious note, the fact that melanin is important in these species seems like one more piece of evidence that fungi are more closely related to animals than plants (not that it was in that much doubt, but still, it's nice when pieces fit together).
Posted by: Anne-Marie | May 24, 2007 11:48 PM