NSF s mission is to advance the progress of science, a mission accomplished by funding proposals for research and education made by scientists, engineers, and educators from across the country.
Study of simplest yet most toxic venom will help explain array of genetic questions
Biologist Mark Margres with an Eastern diamondback rattlesnake on Caladesi Island, Florida.
January 26, 2021
The tiger rattlesnake possesses the simplest, yet most toxic, venom of any rattlesnake species. Now new research led by a University of South Florida biologist explains the genetics behind the predator s fearsome bite.
The research is published in the journal
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. USF biologist Mark Margres and his colleagues sequenced the genome of the tiger rattlesnake to understand the genotype of the venom trait. Despite the simplicity of the rattlesnake s venom, Margres says it is roughly 40 times more toxic than the venom of the Eastern diamondback rattlesnake in Florida.
Surprising species-level extinction millions of years ago may have reached as high as 92%
Plants that grew in both the Cretaceous and Paleogene periods.
January 11, 2021
The asteroid impact 66 million years ago that ushered in a mass extinction and ended the dinosaurs also killed off many of the plants they relied on for food. Fossil leaf assemblages from Patagonia suggest that vegetation in South America suffered great losses but rebounded quickly, according to researchers funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation. The results of the study, the first of its kind in the Southern Hemisphere, appear in the journal Every mass extinction event is like a reset button, and what happens after that reset depends on which organisms survive and how they shape the biosphere, said Elena Stiles of the University of Washington. All the biodiversity that we observe today is related to the organisms that made it past the last big reset 66 million years ago.
Findings may help scientists better understand how other emerging diseases evolve
Scientist Andrew Storfer checks a Tasmanian devil for signs of devil tumor facial disease.
There is some good news about a wildlife pandemic that may also help scientists better understand how other emerging diseases evolve.
Researchers have found strong evidence that a transmissible cancer that has decimated Tasmanian devil populations likely won’t spell their doom.
For the first time, a U.S. National Science Foundation-funded team led by Washington State University biologist Andrew Storfer employed the genomic tools of phylodynamics, typically used to track viruses such as influenza and SARS-CoV-2, to trace Tasmanian devil facial tumor disease. The approach has opened the door for applications to other genetically complex pathogens.
Places that don t have many species provide opportunity for rapid diversification
Birds such as the white-browed purpletuft may have more opportunity to diversify in cold spots.
December 14, 2020
The Amazon rainforest may be a hotspot for animal and plant diversity, but Louisiana State University scientists report that new species form there less often than previously thought. Places such as deserts and mountaintops that do not have many species provide more opportunity for rapid diversification. This paradox of diversity that new species form at a faster pace in cold spots than hotspots was reported in the journal
U.S. National Science Foundation-funded researchers studied diversity in a major group of tropical birds and found that although cold spots might be extreme, with dry, unstable environments, they are also relatively empty, giving new species the elbow room to evolve. In contrast, biodiversity hotspots such as the Amazon rainforest are the result of the gradual