Drosophila Sugar Receptors in Sweet Taste Perception, Olfaction, and Internal Nutrient Sensing
Published in Current Biology
Vegetation history across the Permian–Triassic boundary in Pakistan (Amb section, Salt Range)
VR 2014-5232 The evolutionary history of ferns
Observation of reward delivery to a conspecific modulates dopamine release in ventral striatum
Published in Current Biology
Summary Dopamine (DA) neurons increase and decrease firing to rewards that are better and worse than expected, respectively. These correlates have been observed at the level of single-unit firing and in measurements of phasic DA release in ventral striatum (VS) [1-10]. Here, we ask if DA release is modulated by delivery of reward, not to oneself, b...
Biofilms: Five Star Accommodations for the Aerobically Challenged
Published in Current Biology
Summary The human microbiome contains a diverse array of microbes that affect human health. A recent study finds that fungal biofilms are capable of supporting growth of anaerobic bacteria suggesting that these fungi can promote bacterial growth in otherwise toxic environments.
Cohesin’s ATPase Activity Couples Cohesin Loading onto DNA with Smc3 Acetylation
Published in Current Biology
Summary Background Cohesin mediates sister chromatid cohesion by topologically entrapping sister DNA molecules inside its ring structure. Cohesin is loaded onto DNA by the Scc2/NIPBL-Scc4/MAU2-loading complex in a manner that depends on the adenosine triphosphatase (ATPase) activity of cohesin’s Smc1 and Smc3 subunits. Subsequent cohesion establish...
Enhancing Perception of Contaminated Food through Acid-Mediated Modulation of Taste Neuron Responses
Published in Current Biology
Phylogenomics Resolves a Spider Backbone Phylogeny and Rejects a Prevailing Paradigm for Orb Web Evolution
Published in Current Biology
Summary Spiders represent an ancient predatory lineage known for their extraordinary biomaterials, including venoms and silks. These adaptations make spiders key arthropod predators in most terrestrial ecosystems. Despite ecological, biomedical, and biomaterial importance, relationships among major spider lineages remain unresolved or poorly suppor...
On the age of eukaryotes: evaluating evidence from fossils and molecular clocks.
Published in Cold Spring Harbor perspectives in biology
Our understanding of the phylogenetic relationships among eukaryotic lineages has improved dramatically over the few past decades thanks to the development of sophisticated phylogenetic methods and models of evolution, in combination with the increasing availability of sequence data for a variety of eukaryotic lineages. Concurrently, efforts have b...
Brain Rhythms: Towards a Coherent Picture of Ensemble Development in Learning
Published in Current Biology
Summary A recent study suggests that coherence of 20–40 Hz brain oscillations in the hippocampus and upstream lateral entorhinal cortex may support encoding of task-relevant information during associative learning. Coordination of local hippocampal circuits in this frequency range could be important for encoding new information.
A soft handoff of attention between cerebral hemispheres.
Published in Current biology : CB
Each cerebral hemisphere initially processes one half of the visual world. How are moving objects seamlessly tracked when they traverse visual hemifields? Covert tracking of lateralized objects evokes a difference between slow-wave electrophysiological activity observed from contralateral and ipsilateral electrodes in occipitoparietal regions. This...
