Credit: Katie Hall
Larger bumblebees are more likely to go out foraging in the low light of dawn, new research shows.
University of Exeter scientists used RFID - similar technology to contactless card payments - to monitor when bumblebees of different sizes left and returned to their nest.
The biggest bees, and some of the most experienced foragers (measured by number of trips out), were the most likely to leave in low light.
Bumblebee vision is poor in low light, so flying at dawn or dusk raises the risk of getting lost or being eaten by a predator.
However, the bees benefit from extra foraging time and fewer competitors for pollen in the early morning.
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IMAGE: Removing the phosphate group from kinases can activate them, which can be problematic. LanCL adds glutathione to these kinases, after which they became deactivated. view more
Credit: Wilfred van der Donk
Researchers from the Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology in collaboration with scientists at Oxford University have published a paper in
Cell reporting the function of LanCL proteins. These proteins are found in eukaryotic cells but their function was previously unknown. The study is the first step towards understanding the importance of these ubiquitous proteins.
Bacteria contain enzymes called LanC that are capable of producing small proteins called lanthipeptides, which are characterized by the addition of a thiol group to a modified serine or threonine amino acid. Similar proteins called LanC-like or LanCL have been found in different eukaryotic cells for decades, but their function was unknown.
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Credit: John Innes Centre
Research has identified critical factors that enable dangerous bacteria to spread disease by surviving on surfaces in hospitals and kitchens.
The study into the mechanisms which enable the opportunistic human pathogen
Pseudomonas aeruginosa to survive on surfaces, could lead to new ways of targeting harmful bacteria.
To survive outside their host, pathogenic bacteria must withstand various environmental stresses. One mechanism is the sugar molecule, trehalose, which is associated with a range of external stresses, particularly osmotic shock - sudden changes to the salt concentration surrounding cells.
Researchers at the John Innes Centre analysed how trehalose is metabolised by
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Older adults are more willing to make an effort to help others than younger adults, according to new research from the University of Birmingham.
The study, led by researchers in the University s School of Psychology, is the first to show how effortful prosocial behaviour - intended to benefit others - changes as people get older. In particular, it focused on people s willingness to exert physical effort, rather than to give money or time, since attitudes to both these are known to change with age. The research results are published in
Psychological Science.
In the study, the research team tested a group of 95 adults aged between 18 and 36, and a group of 92 adults aged 55-85. Each participant made 150 choices about whether or not to grip a handheld dynamometer - a device for measuring grip strength or force,- with 6 different levels of how hard they had to grip. Before the experiment, the researchers measured each person s maximum grip strength, so they could make su