Plants- Animals Science News

The lion (Panthera leo) is one of the world's most charismatic carnivores. In an article published November 7 in the open-access journal PLoS Genetics, an international team of researchers provides insights into the genetic structure and history of lion populations.

Their work refutes the hypothesis that African lions consist of a single, randomly breeding (panmictic) population. It also indicates the importance of preserving populations in decline as opposed to prioritizing larger-scale conservation efforts.

Understanding the broader aspects of the evolutionary history of the lion has been hindered by a lack of comprehensive sampling and appropriately informative genetic markers. Nevertheless, the unique social ecology of lions and the well-documented infectious diseases they have experienced, including lion-specific feline immunodeficiency virus (FIVPle), provides the opportunity to study lion evolutionary history using both host and virus genetic information.

In total, a comprehensive sample of 357 individuals from most of the major lion populations in Africa and Asia were studied. The authors compared the large multigenic dataset from lions with patterns of genetic variation of FIVPle to characterize the genomic legacy of lion populations.

The research reveals evidence of unsuspected genetic diversity even in the well-studied lion population of the Serengeti ecosystem, which consists of recently admixed animals derived from three distinct genetic groups.

Parts of feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV) isolated from wild lions have undergone substantial genetic recombination, says new research. The sequencing of the two full FIV genomes of different lion subtypes shows the importance of whole-genome analysis in understanding complex genetic events. These findings will be relevant to big cat conservation and developing more effective animal models for HIV.

FIV is a member of the lentivirus family of retroviruses, as is HIV. The feline virus causes similar disease progression to HIV in domestic cats, and is used by researchers as an animal model for human disease.

FIV also infects a number of other cat species, many of which are endangered. The virulence and pathogenicity of the virus varies between species, but the genetic contribution to this variation is unclear. Full-length viral genome sequences are vital for scientists to understand the extent of genetic involvement yet, until recently, only six species-specific strains of FIV had been sequenced in full: Pallas cat, domestic cat (subtypes A, B and C) and puma (subtypes A and B).

Now, Jill Pecon-Slattery and Stephen J. O'Brien from the National Cancer Institute's Center for Cancer Research in Frederick, MD, USA and colleagues from the USA and Botswana have sequenced the genomes of two lion FIV subtypes in full: FIVPle subtype B, isolated from lions in the Serengeti National Park in Tanzania, and FIVPle subtype E, isolated from lions in the Okavango Delta in Botswana. Using comparative genomics methods the team found that the two viral subtypes shared a common evolutionary history -- confirming earlier research that suggested FIV has evolved in a species-specific manner.

However, the lion viruses showed substantial variation in the env gene region, which encodes the envelope glycoprotein essential for viral binding and entry. Lion virus subtype E was more closely related to domestic cat virus than to lion subtype B or Pallas cat virus. The researchers suggest this is due to recombination between strains in the wild, either involving an unidentified lion FIV strain or a strain from another African cat species.

The authors write: "The changes observed in the env gene as a consequence of recombination in FIVPle will provide important clues to the natural history of these viruses and their hosts, and may lead to insights into genetic determinants of pathogenicity and virulence differences between domestic cat and lion FIV; findings with important implications for HIV pathogenesis in humans and virus attenuation in wild populations of endangered species."


http://www.biomedcentral.com/bmcgenomics/

Although society is accustomed to seeing Garfield-sized cats, obese, middle-aged cats can have a variety of problems including diabetes mellitus, which can be fatal. The causes of diabetes mellitus in cats remain unknown, although there has been a strong debate about whether a dry food diet puts cats at greater risk for diabetes. A new study from a University of Missouri-Columbia veterinarian suggests that weight gain, not the type of diet, is more important when trying to prevent diabetes in cats.

Because dry cat food contains more starch and more carbohydrates than canned cat food, some have argued that a diet containing large amounts of carbohydrates is unnatural for a cat that is anatomically and physiologically designed to be a carnivore. Carbohydrates constitute between 30 percent and 40 percent of dry cat food. Some have been concerned that this unnatural diet is harmful to cats and leads to increased incidence of diabetes. Wet cat food, on the other hand, is high in protein and more similar to a natural carnivore diet.

In the study, Robert Backus, assistant professor and director of the Nestle Purina Endowed Small Animal Nutrition Program at MU, and his team of researchers compared a colony of cats in California raised on dry food with a colony of cats in New Zealand raised on canned food. After comparing glucose-tolerance tests, which measures blood samples and indicates how fast glucose is being cleared from the blood after eating, researchers found no significant difference between a dry food diet and a wet food diet.


They also compared the results between cats less than three years of age and cats older than three. The MU veterinarian indicated that allowing cats to eat enough to become overweight is more detrimental to their health than the type of food they eat.

"Little bits of too much energy lead to weight gain overtime," Backus said. "We did find that cats on canned or wet food diets have less of a tendency towards obesity than cats on dry food diets."

Forty percent of all cats in middle age are overweight or obese. According to Backus, male cats should weigh between 10 and 11 pounds, and female cats should weigh between 5.5 and 7.7 pounds. Besides diabetes, overweight cats are prone to other conditions such as skin diseases, oral diseases and certain cancers. When cats are spayed and neutered, they have a tendency to eat more and gain weight. Backus suggests monitoring the food even more closely at this time and not allowing the cat to eat in excess.

"The most effective thing you can do is be the one who determines how much your cat eats," Backus said. "We have been conditioned to fat cats, but cats should have only between 18 percent to 20 percent body fat."

Backus' research was presented recently at the American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine Conference in Seattle.


http://www.missouri.edu/

New research at the University of Glasgow has found that arthritis in cats is far more common than previously thought.

Professor David Bennett in the University’s Vet School, has found that as many as 30 per cent of all cats over the age of eight may be suffering in pain and a reduced quality of life due to arthritis. It has been supposed cats do not suffer from this disease because their symptoms are less prominent than in other species.

Professor Bennett said: “One of the problems has been in recognizing the signs of arthritis in cats and we have always assumed these are the same as in other animals. Arthritis is often a very painful condition and it is always difficult to detect and quantify pain in animals and cats in particular, but what we do know is that cats with arthritis will generally not limp as a dog or as a horse might do. Also, their joints may not be particularly thickened and crepitus and effusion are rare, again different to other animals. It is also unusual for them to vocalize their pain but this does not mean that cats suffer from arthritis any less frequently than dogs and other animals”.

A recent study of cats with osteoarthritis by Professor Bennett and his team found that the key to recognising pain in cats is to check for any lifestyle changes which may result from mobility issues. These could include an unwillingness to jump or an inability to jump as high as previously, and a reduction in the cats overall activity levels, such as, sleeping more and hunting and playing less. Because cats often exercise out of sight of their owners, abnormalities in their gait can be difficult to spot."

Professor Bennett continued: “In my view, the owner is critical to the diagnostic process. They just have to be asked the right questions. There is undoubtedly a lack of awareness by owners that their cats can suffer from arthritis and they assume that these lifestyle changes such as an unwillingness to jump are just a reflection of ‘getting old’. However, these cats are in significant pain and when given appropriate treatment, they can once again enjoy a much better quality of life, in many cases getting back to their old self.

“Fortunately the emergence of arthritis in cats as a major clinical problem is now being taken much more seriously and pharmaceutical companies are now putting much more effort into developing medicines for treating this unpleasant disease in cats.”

There are currently nine million cats in the UK and a quarter of all households now own at least one cat. This figure is set to grow with cats starting to overtake dogs in numbers possibly due to more single occupancy households and owners with busy lifestyles.

Cats suffer with arthritis as a result of increasing ‘wear and tear’ due to age or as a consequence of previous injury to the skeleton or due to some developmental abnormality of the skeleton which they may have been born with. This eventually results in chronic pain and a significant reduction in the quality of life of the cat.


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Cats, like humans, can develop stress-related illness, University of Edinburgh experts have found. Significant life-changes like moving house or the arrival of a new member of the family can lead to bladder problems in some cats, say the animal specialists. But the biggest stressor of all for a cat is when it doesn't get along with other cats in the house, studies have shown.

Cat health professionals at the University's Hospital for Small Animals studied the lifestyles of a group of cats with no apparent physical cause for their bladder problems and compared them with a control group of disease-free cats. They found that the sick cats were generally more anxious, and were particularly stressed by being in conflict with other cats in the house.

Dr Danielle Gunn-Moore, the Nestlé Purina senior lecturer in feline medicine at the University of Edinburgh Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies, explained: "Feline lower urinary tract disease (FLUTD) is a group of diseases of the bladder, most commonly seen in pedigree, middle-aged, overweight male cats which take little exercise, use an indoor litter box, don't go out much and eat a dry food diet.

"This condition is particularly frustrating for vets and owners, because most cases have no apparent cause, and are categorised as feline idiopathic cystitis (FIC). Earlier studies led us to believe that stress could be a trigger factor for FIC, and we wanted to identify differences in the cats' environments and temperaments which might be causing this condition."

This latest, questionnaire-based study compared 31 cats with FIC to 24 cats in the same households that did not have cystitis. These were in turn compared with a control group of 125 healthy cats.

Dr Gunn-Moore said: " Although many owners of cats taking part in the study reported that a fear of strangers was the most common problem they observed, this tends to be a short-term stressor. If a cat is living with another cat where there is a conflict, this is a chronic situation causing long-term stress. We concluded that this is a significant factor in the development FIC, and will be carrying out further studies to see how best this and other stress factors can be overcome."

Dr Gunn-Moore recommends that cats that have FLUTD or FIC should be fed wet food, and encouraged to drink more fluid. This can be done, for example, by adding tuna-flavoured ice-cubes to water, or offering water fountains to encourage them to drink.

A small, separate pilot study by Dr Gunn-Moore's team used a synthetic soothing scent to reduce anxiety showed a trend for cats exposed to the scent to have fewer episodes of FIC. More work will continue on this study.

In a complete turnaround, instead of pets being blamed for causing allergies and breathing problems amongst people, human lifestyles are potentially triggering asthma attacks in cats. Cigarette smoke, dusty houses, human dandruff, pollen and certain types of cat litters can all create inflammation in cats' airways and worsen asthma. Now, in a first study of its type in the UK, feline clinicians at the University of Edinburgh's Hospital for Small Animals will look at the part played by a specific bacteria found in the lungs of asthmatic cats, with a view to improving treatments.

Feline asthma is a common disease, with around one in 200 cats suffering from the condition, which causes cough, wheeze and shortness of breath. Pedigree oriental breeds like Siamese cats are more prone to the disease, and the disease is worsened by household irritants.

Nicki Reed, Feline Advisory Bureau senior clinical scholar at the Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies, based at the University's Hospital for Small Animals, explained: "Cats with feline asthma syndrome can be made worse by living in a household where people smoke, or where there are other potential allergens or irritants. We find that bringing asthmatic cats into the hospital here and removing them from the standard 'triggers' like dust and smoke can improve their condition. Also, changing cat litter from granules to a newspaper-based product can help some asthmatic animals."

Recent work in the field of human asthma has suggested a link between bacterial Mycoplasma infection and a worsening of asthmatic symptoms. Research in the United States and Australia has shown this bacterium is present in a fifth of all lung fluid samples from asthmatic cats. The Edinburgh team now seek to study 50 cats with asthma to identify the incidence of this bacterial infection in the UK and improve treatments. The cats will be sent to the Hospital by referring vets.

Aging cats can develop a feline form of Alzheimer's disease, a new study reveals. Scientists at the Universities of Edinburgh, St Andrews, Bristol and California have identified a key protein which can build up in the nerve cells of a cat's brain and cause mental deterioration.


In humans with Alzheimer's disease, this protein creates 'tangles' inside the nerve cells which inhibit messages being processed by the brain. The team says that the presence of this protein in cats is proof that they too can develop this type of disease.

By carrying out post-mortem examination of cats which have succumbed naturally to the disease, scientists may now be able to uncover vital clues about how the condition develops. This may eventually help scientists to come up with possible treatments.

Scientists already thought cats were susceptible to dementia because previous research had identified thick, gritty plaques on the outside of elderly cats' brain cells which are similar to those found in humans. But, by pinpointing this second key marker, the Edinburgh-led team says we can be sure that cats can suffer from a feline form of Alzheimer's.

Dr Danielle Gunn-Moore, at the University of Edinburgh's Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies, said: "This newly discovered protein is crucial to our understanding of the aging process in cats. We've known for a long time that cats develop dementia, but this study tells us that the cat's neural system is being compromised in a similar fashion to that we see in human Alzheimer's sufferers. The gritty plaques had only hinted that might be the case -- now we know.

"The shorter life-span of a cat, compared to humans, allows researchers to more rapidly assess the effects of diet, high blood pressure, and prescribed drugs on the course of the disease. However, we also need to understand more about our geriatric cats for their own benefit, so we can slow down the degeneration the disease brings and keep them as happy cats for as long as possible."

"As with humans, the life expectancy of cats is increasing and with this longer life runs the greater chance of developing dementia. Recent studies suggest that 28% of pet cats aged 11-14 years develop at least one old-age related behaviour problem and this increases to more than 50% for cats over the age of 15."

Experts suggest that good diet, mental stimulation and companionship can reduce the risk of dementia in both humans and cats. Dr Gunn Moore explained: "If humans and their cats live in a poor environment with little company and stimulation, they are both at higher risk of dementia. However, if the owner plays with the cat, it is good for both human and cat. A good diet enriched with antioxidants is also helpful in warding off dementia, so a cat owner sharing healthy meals like chicken and fish with their pet will benefit them both."

Dr Frank Gunn-Moore, at the School of Biology, University of St Andrews, said: "This work relied on a team effort with the different skills and expertise from our different institutions. It has given us an insight into the molecular changes that are occurring in the degenerating brain. From this knowledge we are now currently trying to develop new and novel treatments which will be able to help both cats and humans".

The findings of the study are published in a recent edition of the Journal of Feline Medicine.


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About one in 3,500 people are affected with retinitis pigmentosa (RP), a disease of the retina's visual cells that eventually leads to blindness. Now, a University of Missouri researcher has identified a genetic link between cats and humans for two different forms of RP. This discovery will help scientists develop gene-based therapies that will benefit both cats and humans.

"The same genetic mutations that cause retinal blindness in humans also cause retinal blindness in cats," said Kristina Narfstrom, the Ruth M. Kraeuchi-Missouri Professor in Veterinary Ophthalmology in the MU College of Veterinary Medicine. "Now, cats with these mutations can be used as important animal models to evaluate the efficiency of gene therapy. In addition, the eye is an ideal organ to use as we examine the potential of gene replacement intervention because it offers an accessible and confined environment."

Researchers examined the genetic mutations in two groups of cats; one with a congenital form of RP and another with a late-onset form and were able to identify the genes responsible for both forms of the disease in cats. In the study, researchers found that cats with the late-onset form of the disease have a mutation in the CEP290 gene, which is the same mutation found in humans with Joubert syndrome and Leber's congenital amaurosis. In both of these diseases, the genetic mutations result in changes in the function and structure of the photoreceptors. A photoreceptor is a nerve cell found in the eye's retina that is capable of phototransduction, or the process by which light is converted into electrical signals. The changes in the photoreceptors result in cell death, which lead to blindness.

"Cats are excellent models because they have relatively large eyes that are comparable to those of human babies. The retinal changes that occur and the progression to blindness in cats is similar to what happens in the human disease," Narfstrom said. "As a surgeon, I can use the same treatment methods and tools in cats that they use in humans."

Human autosomal recessive RP is among the most common cause of retinal degeneration and blindness, with no therapeutic intervention available. Initially it leads to night blindness, then loss of peripheral vision and, with progression, there is also a loss of central vision.

Like humans, Abyssinian cats with the CEP290 mutation have normal vision at birth but develop early changes in the interior of their eyes by the time they are approximately 2 years old. The cats with the congenital form of the disease are blind from birth with severe changes in the interior of their eyes after only a couple of months.

In May, Narfstrom will present her latest findings during the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology 2009 Annual Meeting in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. An earlier study, "Mutation in CEP290 Discovered for Cat Model of Human Retinal Degeneration," was published in the Journal of Heredity.


http://www.missouri.edu/

Scientists studying a mysterious neurological affliction in cats have discovered a surprising ability of the central nervous system to repair itself and restore function.


In a study published March 30, 2009 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, a team of researchers from the University of Wisconsin-Madison reports that the restoration in cats of myelin — a fatty insulator of nerve fibers that degrades in a host of human central nervous system disorders, the most common of which is multiple sclerosis — can lead to functional recovery.

"The fundamental point of the study is that it proves unequivocally that extensive remyelination can lead to recovery from a severe neurological disorder," says Ian Duncan, the UW-Madison neuroscientist who led the research. "It indicates the profound ability of the central nervous system to repair itself."

The finding is important because it underscores the validity of strategies to reestablish myelin as a therapy for treating a range of severe neurological diseases associated with the loss or damage of myelin, but where the nerves themselves remain intact.

Myelin is a fatty substance that forms a sheath for nerve fibers, known as axons, and facilitates the conduction of nerve signals. Its loss through disease causes impairment of sensation, movement, cognition and other functions, depending on which nerves are affected.

The new study arose from a mysterious affliction of pregnant cats. A company testing the effects on growth and development in cats using diets that had been irradiated reported that some cats developed severe neurological dysfunction, including movement disorders, vision loss and paralysis. Taken off the diet, the cats recovered slowly, but eventually all lost functions were restored.

"After being on the diet for three to four months, the pregnant cats started to develop progressive neurological disease," says Duncan, a professor of medical sciences at the UW-Madison School of Veterinary Medicine and an authority on demyelinating diseases. "Cats put back on a normal diet recovered. It's a very puzzling demyelinating disease."

The afflicted cats were shown to have severe and widely distributed demyelination of the central nervous system, according to Duncan. And while the neurological symptoms exhibited by the cats are similar to those experienced by humans with demyelination disorders, the malady does not seem to be like any of the known myelin-related diseases of humans.

In cats removed from the diet, recovery was slow, but all of the previously demyelinated axons became remyelinated. The restored myelin sheaths, however, were not as thick as healthy myelin, Duncan notes.

"It's not normal, but from a physiological standpoint, the thin myelin membrane restores function," he says. "It's doing what it is supposed to do."

Knowing that the central nervous system retains the ability to forge new myelin sheaths anywhere the nerves themselves are preserved provides strong support for the idea that if myelin can be restored in diseases such as multiple sclerosis, it may be possible for patients to regain lost or impaired functions: "The key thing is that it absolutely confirms the notion that remyelinating strategies are clinically important," Duncan says.

The exact cause of the neurological affliction in the cats on the experimental diet is unknown, says Duncan, who was not involved in the original study of diet.

"We think it is extremely unlikely that [irradiated food] could become a human health problem," Duncan explains. "We think it is species specific. It's important to note these cats were fed a diet of irradiated food for a period of time."

In addition to Duncan, authors of the new PNAS study include Alexandra Brower of the Wisconsin Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory; Yoichi Kondo and Ronald Schultz of the UW-Madison School of Veterinary Medicine; and Joseph Curlee, Jr. of Harlan Laboratories in Madison.

A lot better than we do, says Paul Miller, clinical professor of comparative ophthalmology at University of Wisconsin-Madison.


“Dogs have evolved to see well in both bright and dim light, whereas humans do best in bright light. No one is quite sure how much better a dog sees in dim light, but I would suspect that dogs are not quite as good as cats,” which can see in light that’s six times dimmer than our lower limit. Dogs, he says, “can probably see in light five times dimmer than a human can see in.”

Dogs have many adaptations for low-light vision, Miller says. A larger pupil lets in more light. The center of the retina has more of the light-sensitive cells (rods), which work better in dim light than the color-detecting cones. The light-sensitive compounds in the retina respond to lower light levels. And the lens is located closer to the retina, making the image on the retina brighter.

But the canine’s biggest advantage is called the tapetum. This mirror-like structure in the back of the eye reflects light, giving the retina a second chance to register light that has entered the eye. “Although the tapetum improves vision in dim light, it also scatters some light, degrading the dog’s vision from the 20:20 that you and I normally see to about 20:80,” Miller says.

The tapetum also causes dog eyes to glow at night.

Like us, our canine friends are able to form abstract concepts. Friederike Range and colleagues from the University of Vienna in Austria have shown for the first time that dogs can classify complex color photographs and place them into categories in the same way that humans do. And the dogs successfully demonstrate their learning through the use of computer automated touch-screens, eliminating potential human influence.


In order to test whether dogs can visually categorize pictures, and transfer their knowledge to new situations, four dogs were shown landscape and dog photographs, and expected to make a selection on a computer touch-screen.

In the training phase, the dogs were shown both the landscape and dog photographs simultaneously and were rewarded with a food pellet if they selected the dog picture (positive stimulus). The dogs then took part in two tests.

In the first test, the dogs were shown completely different dog and landscape pictures. They continued to reliably select the dog photographs, demonstrating that they could transfer their knowledge gained in the training phase to a new set of visual stimuli, even though they had never seen those particular pictures before.

In the second test, the dogs were shown new dog pictures pasted onto the landscape pictures used in the training phase, facing them with contradictory information: on the one hand, a new positive stimulus as the pictures contained dogs even though they were new dogs; on the other hand, a familiar negative stimulus in the form of the landscape.


When the dogs were faced with a choice between the new dog on the familiar landscape and a completely new landscape with no dog, they reliably selected the option with the dog. These results show that the dogs were able to form a concept i.e. ‘dog’, although the experiment cannot tell us whether they recognized the dog pictures as actual dogs.

The authors also draw some conclusions on the strength of their methodology: “Using touch-screen computers with dogs opens up a whole world of possibilities on how to test the cognitive abilities of dogs by basically completely controlling any influence from the owner or experimenter.” They add that the method can also be used to test a range of learning strategies and has the potential to allow researchers to compare the cognitive abilities of different species using a single method.


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Experiments with various species have shown that monkeys often express resentful behavior when a partner receives a greater reward for performing an identical task. Monkeys have been shown to stage strikes, refusing to participate and ignoring what they perceive as inferior compensation. Dogs are capable of similar, though less sensitive, discrimination, report Friederike Range and colleagues.

The researchers conducted experiments with pairs of domestic dogs accompanied by their owners. While the partner and subject dogs sat next to each other with their owner standing behind them, each dog was prompted to put its paw in the experimenter's hand, and upon complying, given a piece of sausage or bread.

Compared to a variety of control situations, the dogs reacted differently to unfair reward distribution, as measured by their reaction when the partner was given food for the task, but the subject was not. This resentment was quantified in the number of times the experimenters had to prompt the animals, or the number of times the dog would perform the task before refusing. The dogs did not appear to care exactly what reward they were given, or whether the partner did or did not have to perform the task before receiving food.

Dog envy may be an evolutionary precursor to more sophisticated primate emotion, the researchers say.

http://www.pnas.org/

A new study shows how the behaviour of dogs has been misunderstood for generations: in fact using misplaced ideas about dog behaviour and training is likely to cause rather than cure unwanted behaviour. The findings challenge many of the dominance related interpretations of behaviour and training techniques suggested by current TV dog trainers.

Contrary to popular belief, aggressive dogs are NOT trying to assert their dominance over their canine or human “pack”, according to research published by academics at the University of Bristol’s Department of Clinical Veterinary Sciences in the Journal of Veterinary Behavior: Clinical Applications and Research.

The researchers spent six months studying dogs freely interacting at a Dogs Trust rehoming centre, and reanalysing data from studies of feral dogs, before concluding that individual relationships between dogs are learnt through experience rather than motivated by a desire to assert “dominance”.

The study shows that dogs are not motivated by maintaining their place in the pecking order of their pack, as many well-known dog trainers preach.

Far from being helpful, the academics say, training approaches aimed at “dominance reduction” vary from being worthless in treatment to being actually dangerous and likely to make behaviours worse.

Instructing owners to eat before their dog or go through doors first will not influence the dog’s overall perception of the relationship – merely teach them what to expect in these specific situations. Much worse, techniques such as pinning the dog to the floor, grabbing jowls, or blasting hooters at dogs will make dogs anxious, often about their owner, and potentially lead to an escalation of aggression.

Dr Rachel Casey, Senior Lecturer in Companion Animal Behaviour and Welfare at Bristol University, said: “The blanket assumption that every dog is motivated by some innate desire to control people and other dogs is frankly ridiculous. It hugely underestimates the complex communicative and learning abilities of dogs. It also leads to the use of coercive training techniques, which compromise welfare, and actually cause problem behaviours.

“In our referral clinic we very often see dogs which have learnt to show aggression to avoid anticipated punishment. Owners are often horrified when we explain that their dog is terrified of them, and is showing aggression because of the techniques they have used – but its not their fault when they have been advised to do so, or watched unqualified ‘behaviourists’ recommending such techniques on TV.”

At Dogs Trust, the UK’s largest dog welfare charity, rehoming centre staff see the results of misguided dog training all the time. Veterinary Director Chris Laurence MBE, added: “We can tell when a dog comes in to us which has been subjected to the ‘dominance reduction technique’ so beloved of TV dog trainers. They can be very fearful, which can lead to aggression towards people.

“Sadly, many techniques used to teach a dog that his owner is leader of the pack is counter-productive; you won’t get a better behaved dog, but you will either end up with a dog so fearful it has suppressed all its natural behaviours and will just do nothing, or one so aggressive it’s dangerous to be around.”

An explosion of knowledge has been made in the last few years about the basic biology of corals, researchers say in a new report, helping to explain why coral reefs around the world are collapsing and what it will take for them to survive a gauntlet of climate change and ocean acidification.

Corals, it appears, have a genetic complexity that rivals that of humans, have sophisticated systems of biological communication that are being stressed by global change, and are only able to survive based on proper function of an intricate symbiotic relationship with algae that live within their bodies.

After being a highly successful life form for 250 million years, disruptions in these biological and communication systems are the underlying cause of the coral bleaching and collapse of coral reef ecosystems around the world, scientists report in the journal Science.

The research was funded in part by the National Science Foundation.

"We've known for some time the general functioning of corals and the problems they are facing from climate change," said Virginia Weis, a professor of zoology at Oregon State University. "But until just recently, much less has been known about their fundamental biology, genome structure and internal communication. Only when we really understand how their physiology works will we know if they can adapt to climate changes, or ways that we might help."

Corals are tiny animals, polyps that exist as genetically identical individuals, and can eat, defend themselves and kill plankton for food. In the process they also secrete calcium carbonate that becomes the basis for an external skeleton on which they sit. These calcified deposits can grow to enormous sizes over long periods of time and form coral reefs – one of the world's most productive ecosystems, which can harbor more than 4,000 species of fish and many other marine life forms.

But corals are not really self sufficient. Within their bodies they harbor highly productive algae – a form of marine plant life – that can "fix" carbon, use the energy of the sun to conduct photosynthesis and produce sugars.

"Some of these algae that live within corals are amazingly productive, and in some cases give 95 percent of the sugars they produce to the coral to use for energy," Weis said. "In return the algae gain nitrogen, a limiting nutrient in the ocean, by feeding off the waste from the coral. It's a finely developed symbiotic relationship."

What scientists are learning, however, is that this relationship is also based on a delicate communication process from the algae to the coral, telling it that the algae belong there, and that everything is fine. Otherwise the corals would treat the algae as a parasite or invader and attempt to kill it.

"Even though the coral depends on the algae for much of its food, it may be largely unaware of its presence," Weis said. "We now believe that this is what's happening when the water warms or something else stresses the coral – the communication from the algae to the coral breaks down, the all-is-well message doesn't get through, the algae essentially comes out of hiding and faces an immune response from the coral."

This internal communication process, Weis said, is not unlike some of the biological processes found in humans and other animals. One of the revelations in recent research, she said, is the enormous complexity of coral biology, and even its similarity to other life forms. A gene that controls skeletal development in humans, for instance, is the identical gene in corals that helps it develop its external skeleton – conserved in the different species over hundreds of millions of years since they parted from a common ancestor on their separate evolutionary paths.

There's still much to learn about this process, researchers said, and tremendous variation in it. For one thing, there are 1,000 species of coral and perhaps thousands of species of algae all mixing and matching in this symbiotic dance. And that variation, experts say, provides at least some hope that combinations will be found which can better adapt to changing conditions of ocean temperature, acidity or other threats.

The problems facing coral reefs are still huge, and increasing. They are being pressured by changes in ocean temperature, pollution, overfishing, sedimentation, acidification, oxidative stress and disease, and the synergistic effect of some of these problems may destroy reefs even when one cause by itself would not. Some estimates have suggested 20 percent of the world's coral reefs are already dead and an additional 24 percent are gravely threatened.

The predicted acidification of the oceans in the next century is expected to decrease coral calcification rates by 50 percent and promote the dissolving of coral skeletons, the researchers noted in their report.

"With some of the new findings about coral symbiosis and calcification, and how it works, coral biologists are now starting to think more outside the box," Weis said. "Maybe there's something we could do to help identify and protect coral species that can survive in different conditions. Perhaps we won't have to just stand by as the coral reefs of the world die and disappear."

A total of 11 beavers have been released into the wild in Argyll as part of a reintroduction programme.

Four more may join the Scottish Beaver Trial being run in Knapdale Forest.

The beavers have been brought to Scotland from Norway and their release marks a return to the UK after a 400-year absence.

The release will be studied to determine whether the trial should be extended and beavers reintroduced across Scotland.

Colin Galbraith, of Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH), has been an enthusiastic backer of the scheme.

He said: "I think this is a hugely exciting move and one in which we've got to take people with us.

"There's never been a reintroduction of a mammal back to the UK.

"We've done the red kite and the sea eagle - they've gone pretty well - people are now behind that.

"We've got to try to do this reintroduction of a mammal in a very scientific careful and monitored way."

But not everyone has been behind the scheme.

Alan Kettlewhite, a biologist with Argyll Fisheries Trust, said: "Potentially they can alter the habitats of fish, restricting access to spawning grounds.

"I think the concerns are based on studies in other countries where sometimes dam-building can prevent fish access to their spawning grounds, particularly in dry years where you don't get much rain in the autumn time."

But SNH's Colin Galbraith said he felt a duty towards the beavers.

"For me the argument is very simple. They were here - we killed them out. I think we've got the moral obligation to bring them back," he said.

Continuously tested

Project officer Jenny Holden said: "The main things people are concerned about are giardia and cryptosporidium.

"They are bacteria that can infect the guts of humans and make you feel really quite unwell - food-poisoning type bugs.

"The beavers that are released will have been tested continuously for six months and then throughout the five year trial to make sure they are clear of these bacteria.

"So if we find a few years down the line that the beavers are infected, they won't have brought it in, they will have caught it out in the environment here."

Darren Dobson is from the Carinbaan Hotel near the release site.

He is delighted at the prospect of beavers, and hopes they will prove to be a major tourist attraction.

He said: "Generally speaking it's all positive. I haven't met anyone myself who is negative to the idea.

"It's going to bring more tourists - and this is just one more thing to add to what this area's got."

Scottish Natural Heritage, (SNH), will monitor the relationship between beavers and woodland, water plants, river habitat, water levels, otters, dragonflies, damselflies and freshwater fish.

The beavers themselves will also be under close scrutiny, using tracking data.

SNH will co-ordinate the scientific monitoring work with a range of independent bodies, including Oxford University Wildlife Conservation Research Unit and the Argyll Fisheries Trust.

SNH is contributing £275,000 to the cost of monitoring the trial.

It is claimed the trial will be a major contribution to Scotland's Species Action Framework, which identifies 32 species, including European beaver, as the focus of new management action.

Move over 'Longface', 'Spooktacular' and 'Trickster' - there's a new face in the pumpkin patch. Welcome 'Orange Bulldog', a new variety of the familiar fall fruit that may soon be available to consumers and wholesale pumpkin growers. Researchers at the University of Georgia recently introduced the new, virus-resistant pumpkin, specifically developed for ornamental fall and Halloween displays.

Dr. Gerard Krewer from the Department of Horticulture at the University of Georgia's College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences, collected pumpkin seeds in remote areas of Brazil in 1996. The Brazilian seeds were then planted in laboratories, hybridized, and ultimately used to develop 'Orange Bulldog'.

Dr. George Boyhan, Assistant Professor and Extension Horticulturist at the University of Georgia and lead author of the study published in the October 2007 issue of HortScience, explained that pumpkins have not been readily available in southern states because conventional pumpkins are highly susceptible to viruses and often die before they produce fruit.

The research team set out to develop a virus-resistant pumpkin with bright orange color and an open cavity that would be suitable for Halloween carving. According to Boyhan, 'Orange Bulldog' seeds "consistently produced fruit during fall production, whereas commercial pumpkin cultivars often succumb to severe virus infections before fruiting."

Although 'Orange Bulldog' is not yet available to growers or the public, Boyhan's team hopes that a commercial supplier will soon handle the seeds and make the new pumpkin available to pick-your-own pumpkin growers and consumers.

John R. Clark and James N. Moore of the Department of Horticulture at the University of Arkansas introduced 'Natchez' in the October 2008 issue of the American Society of Horticultural Science's journal HortScience. According to Clark, the new blackberry is a result of a cross of Ark. 2005 and Ark. 1857 made in 1998. The original plant was selected in 2001 from a seedling field at the University of Arkansas Fruit Research Station in Clarksville, and tested as selection Ark. 2241.

'Natchez' produces large fruit, near 9 grams on average in research trials. Fruit of 'Natchez' are elongated, somewhat blocky, and very attractive with an exceptional glossy, black finish.

'Natchez' exceeded postharvest performance of 'Arapaho' in most years. This is noteworthy, explain the researchers, because the comparison cultivars are considered to have exceptional shelf life. 'Natchez' is recommended for commercial shipping production, and is targeted as a replacement for the early season 'Arapaho'.

Outstanding characteristics of 'Natchez' include early fruit-ripening date, high fruit quality, consistent high yields, large fruit size, and excellent postharvest fruit-handling potential. Superior plant characteristics include thornless, erect to semierect canes and good vigor and health. 'Natchez' also shows good potential for home garden use.

'Natchez' is expected to perform well in areas where 'Apache', 'Arapaho', 'Ouachita', or 'Navaho' are adapted, including all areas of the South and into the Midwest, in addition to the West and Pacific Northwest.

An application for a U.S. plant patent has been filed for 'Natchez'.

Researchers at the University of Florida have introduced 'Delicious', a new muscadine grape cultivar. 'Delicious' ripens early, produces high yields, and is disease-resistant. The black fruit features exceptional taste and texture with an edible skin, making it well-suited for fresh fruit consumption and the potential for wine production. The name 'Delicious' was selected based on the comments of vineyard visitors who sampled the fruit.


According to Dr. Dennis J. Gray, who led the research study published in the February 2009 issue of HortScience, 'Delicious' (Vitis rotundifolia Michx.) originated from a cross between AA10-40, a self-fertile, bronze-fruited selection with medium-sized berries, and CD8-81, a self-fertile, black-fruited selection with larger berries. The researchers noted that black berry color of 'Delicious' likely originated from 'Southland' and the self-fertile trait came from 'Carlos', 'Southland', and/or 'Welder'. The original seedling was planted in 1993.

The berries of 'Delicious' are oval shaped and reddish, turning dark purple/black when ripe. Fruit ripening dates vary seasonally, but tend to occur in early August at Apopka, Florida, remarkably 2 to 3 weeks earlier than other muscadine cultivars evaluated. Early ripe fruit have a semicrunchy flesh and an edible skin. Fruit allowed to ripen further tend to have a softer flesh, become noticeably juicier, but retain an edible skin. The berries have a dry stem scar and harvest readily with mechanical shaking.

Although 'Delicious' is being released primarily as a fresh eating grape, it has some potential for wine. Based on preliminary trials, the flavor of the wine (2006 vintage) rated equal to those of 'Carlos' (a popular cultivar for wine) by a panel of 30 winemakers. The color is a medium to light red, generally lighter than many red muscadine wines.

Delicious' was publically released by the Cultivar Release Committee of the Florida Agricultural Experiment Station, an agricultural research program of the University of Florida's Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, in October 2007. Inquiries regarding the availability of 'Delicious' should be directed to Florida Foundation Seed Producers, Inc. P.O. Box 110200, Gainesville, FL 32611-0200.


http://www.ashs.org/

When tomatoes ripen in our gardens, we watch them turn gradually from hard, green globules to brightly colored, aromatic, and tasty fruits. This familiar and seemingly commonplace transformation masks a seething mass of components interacting in a well-regulated albeit highly complex manner.


For generations, agriculturalists and scientists have bred tomatoes for size, shape, texture, flavor, shelf-life, and nutrient composition, more or less, one trait at a time. With the advent of molecular biology, mutagenesis and genetic transformation could produce tomatoes that were more easily harvested or transported or turned into tomato paste. Frequently, however, optimizing for one trait led to deterioration in another. For example, improving flavor could have a negative effect on yield.

The revolution in genomics, with a wealth of data emerging from sequencing and simultaneous expression analysis of thousands of genes, has made it possible to study the numerous pathways and regulatory networks--systems--that operate to produce a desirable fruit. This systems approach in the new fields of metabolic and functional genomics is producing the tools, information, and biological materials needed for screening and breeding efforts in tomato and other members of the Solanaceae.

Dr. Fernando Carrari and his colleagues, Laura Kamenetzky, Ramon Asis, Luisa Bermudez, Ariel Bazzini, Sebastian Asurmendi, Marie-Anne Van Sluys, Jim Giovannoni, Alisdair Fernie, and Magdalena Rossi use a systems approach that integrates genomic, genetic, and biochemical tools to model the metabolic networks that interact in the process of tomato fruit development. Dr. Carrari, of the Instituto de Biotecnologia, (INTA), Argentina, will be presenting this work at a symposium on the Biology of Solanaceous Species at the annual meeting of the American Society of Plant Biologists in Mérida, Mexico (June 29, 9:10 AM).

Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) is a member of the Solanaceae or nightshade family, which also includes potato, eggplant, tobacco, and chili peppers. The center of origin and diversity of tomato species is in the northern Andes, where endemic populations of wild tomato species still grow. These wild populations represent considerable genetic diversity, whereas cultivated tomatoes are genetically very narrow. The Tomato Genome Consortium is an international collaboration that is sequencing, mapping and analyzing the genomes of both wild and cultivated varieties. Carrari and his co-workers, as well as other scientists, have begun to make use of this wealth of sequence data in functional and metabolic analyses of tomato and other crops.

Plants produce an immense variety of chemical compounds for growth, metabolism, signaling, defense, and reproduction. These metabolites function in complex networks and pathways in which they regulate and are regulated by parallel networks of genes. It is not possible to realistically model these metabolic systems one compound or gene at a time.

Moreover, many, if not most traits in tomato, are not the result of one gene, but of many genes located together in chromosomal regions called quantitative trait loci (QTLs), because they produce a range of values in fruit or plant size or color, rather than just two extremes. Thus metabolites, enzymes, and genes must be analyzed simultaneously and in parallel in order to capture their dynamic relationships. To accomplish this, Carrari and his colleagues made use of the high genetic diversity of an ancestral tomato species, Solanum pennellii.

Through crosses, chromosomal segments of S. pennellii were introgressed into the genome of the cultivar Solanum lycopersicum var. Roma. Different lines of the cultivar were then created that differed only in the chromosomal segment received from the wild species. In this way, over 1200 metabolic QTLs or quantitative metabolic loci (QMLs) were identified and analyzed. Almost 900 of these QMLs were found to be associated with fruit metabolism.

The scientists then sampled a number of metabolites such as carbohydrates, pigments, and hormones, among others, throughout flower and fruit development. They also used microarrays to determine which genes were expressed at those same times. Pairwise comparisons and network analyses were then made to determine which of those genes and metabolites are associated in possible functional networks. These associations do not establish causality or regulatory direction, because they are only correlational. Expression of certain genes may regulate metabolite activity, but metabolites may also have a regulatory effect on gene expression.

To begin to define causal direction, Carrari and his colleagues perturbed these systems by treatment with external metabolites and followed the transmission of information from metabolite to gene. In continuing research, Carrari and co-workers are using these methods, as well as RNA interference and transgenesis to map QMLs and to identify and utilize candidate genes that function at network nodes.

These systems approaches make it possible to model the whole organism throughout its development. Moreover, an understanding of metabolic networks will make it possible to alter metabolic pathways to produce fruits with different secondary compounds that influence texture, taste, aroma, and nutrition, as well as to improve yield. Metabolite analysis also has possible applications in drug discovery, nutrient enhancement and biofuel production. One important goal is the use of ancestral genetic resources in place of simplistic genetic modification to avoid possible deleterious environmental effects as well as resistance by consumers to genetically modified food.


http://www.aspb.org/

In general, domesticated food plants have larger fruits, heads of grain, tubers, etc, because this is one of the characteristics that early hunter-gatherers chose when foraging for food. In addition to size, tomatoes have been bred for shape, texture, flavor, shelf-life, and nutrient composition, but it has been difficult to study these traits in tomatoes, because many of them are the result of many genes acting together. These genes are often located in close proximity on chromosomal regions called loci, and regions with groups of genes that influence a particular trait are called quantitative trait loci (QTLs).

When a trait is influenced by one gene, it is much simpler to study, but quantitative traits, like skin and eye color in humans or fruit size in tomatoes, cannot be easily defined just by crossing different individuals. Now, with genome sequencing and genomics tools, chromosomal regions with QTLs can be mapped and cloned more easily than in the past. These genomic maps can also be compared across plant genomes to identify similar genes in other species. With this knowledge, breeders can improve tomato varieties as well as other less well known food plants in the family Solanaceae.

Dr. Steven D. Tanksley and his colleagues, Bin Cong and Luz S. Barrero, are studying QTLs that influence fruit size. Dr. Barrero, of the Corporación Colombiana de Investigación Agropecuaria (CORPOICA), Colombia, will be presenting this work at a symposium on the Biology of Solanaceous Species at the annual meeting of the American Society of Plant Biologists in Mérida, Mexico (June 29, 2008).

Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) is a member of the Solanaceae or nightshade family, which also includes potato, eggplant, tobacco, and chili peppers. The center of origin and diversity of tomato and other solanaceous species is in the northern Andes, where endemic wild populations of these species still grow. Tanksley and his colleagues have been employing the data emerging from the International Tomato Genome Sequencing Project as well as the tools of structural genomics to clone and characterize the major gene and QTL responsible for extreme fruit size during tomato domestication--fas.

The first QTL, fw2.2, was the first ever cloned in plants and may have been the site of one of the earliest mutations in tomato that led to its selection by humans and subsequent domestication. The size of tomato fruit can vary up to 30% as a result of variation at this locus alone. Cloning and sequencing of this locus reveals that the wild type protein codes for a repressor of cell division. When the control sequence is mutated, the repressor protein is not expressed or only very little, leading to higher cell division during fruit development and, consequently, larger fruits.

However, fw2.2 and associated genes related to cell-cycle control and cell division are not solely responsible for extreme fruit size. Two other loci-- locule-number and fasciated (fas)-- influence fruit size indirectly by affecting the number of carpels, the female parts of the flower that will become seed chambers in the fruit. Most wild tomatoes have only 2-4 locules (ovary chambers) while domesticated varieties can have 8 or more, and it appears that increase in locule number can increase fruit size by 50%. The data indicate that, of the two loci, fas has the larger effect. Tanksley and his colleagues used positional cloning to isolate the fas locus.

Sequencing suggested that the fas gene encodes a protein (YABBY-like transcription factor) that controls transcription of DNA into RNA as the first step of gene expression. It also revealed that there were no changes in the protein coding region of the gene but rather the mutation consisted of an insertion in the first intron, which is a non-coding sequence embedded within the protein coding sequence.

Although introns are not part of a gene's protein code and are removed from the RNA sequence before translation into proteins, they are nevertheless structurally and functionally important, as demonstrated in this locus. The presence of an insertion in this intron reduces expression of the fas gene. The scientists looked at where and when the gene is expressed and found it dramatically reduced in developing flower buds in plants with high locule numbers.

Further comparisons of this locus across different tomato cultivars, including wild varieties, which turned out not to contain the mutation, suggests the mutation occurred relatively recently in tomato domestication and spread rapidly throughout modern tomatoes as a result of selection for extreme fruit size. Comparative genomics tools are being applied in both well-known and obscure solanaceous species. Conservation of genes and loci across a number of these species suggests that the knowledge gained from these efforts can also be applied in crop and yield improvement for other members of the Solanaceae.


http://www.aspb.org/

It's not always easy spotting the cuckoo in the nest. But if you don't, you pay a high price raising someone else's chick. How hosts distinguish impostor eggs from their own has long puzzled scientists. The problem remained largely unsolved while looking at it through our own eyes. It was only when people started thinking from the birds' perspective that they began to understand how hosts recognise a cuckoo egg in the nest.

Marcel Honza from the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic explains that birds see UV wavelengths that are well outside our own visual range.

Knowing that many bird eggs reflect UV wavelengths, Honza wondered whether altering the reflected UV spectrum of an egg would affect a bird's ability to recognise it as foreign and reject it. Would a blackcap recognise and evict an impostor egg if the reflected UV spectrum were different from the wavelengths reflected by the bird's own clutch? Teaming up with Lenka Pola iková, Honza headed into a near-by forest to test blackcap responses to impostor eggs.

But instead of testing the birds' reactions to real cuckoo eggs, the team found abandoned blackcap eggs, introducing them as impostors to successful blackcap clutches. Having identified nests with well-established clutches, the team coated some impostor eggs in UV blocker, to alter their UV appearance, and others in Vaseline, which didn't alter the egg's UV reflectivity, before planting the impostors in their new nest. Then the team kept their fingers crossed, hoping that the nests weren't washed out by a heavy downpour or raided by a hungry predator, as they waited 5 days to see if the parents rejected the interlopers.

Of the 16 eggs coated in Vaseline, 11 of the impostors were accepted by the nesting parents, while five were rejected; most of the interloper blackcap eggs were visually indistinguishable from the nesting parents' own eggs and were accepted as belonging to the brood. However, it was a different matter for the birds sitting on UV-block-coated impostors. Seventeen brooding parents evicted the strange looking egg, pecking at the shell until they had made a large enough hole to stick their beak in and carry it away. Only 11 blackcaps accepted the interloper with its altered appearance.

The UV appearance of the eggs was very important in enabling the blackcaps to recognise the new eggs as impostors. The blackcaps rejected far more eggs when Pola iková and Honza covered them in UV block. By altering the eggs' UV reflectivity the team had made them stand out from the crowd.

Honza admits that he was surprised that the UV reflectivity had such a significant effect on the blackcap's ability to reject an impostor. Having found that an interloper's UV appearance is key to its acceptance in a clutch, Honza is keen to see whether cuckoos try to outsmart their victims by choosing clutches that closely match their own eggs' UV reflectivity

http://jeb.biologists.org/

Birds' eggs are unique in their diverse pigmentation. This diversity is greatest amongst perching birds (order Passeriformes: 60% of all bird species), which include many familiar species including tits and warblers. Despite intense interest, the purpose, in most species, of these patterns was unknown.


Most passerines lay eggs speckled with reddish protoporphyrin spots forming a ring around the egg's blunt end, on an otherwise unpigmented shell. Evidence in a paper by Gosler, Higham & Reynolds soon to appear in Ecology Letters now suggests that rather than giving a visual signal, protoporphyrins strengthen the eggshell by compensating for reduced eggshell-thickness caused by calcium deficiency.

Pigment spots on great tit eggs specifically marked thinner areas of shell, with darker spots marking yet thinner shell than paler spots, and females nesting on low-calcium soils, laid thinner-shelled, more-spotted eggs than those on high-calcium soils nearby. Pigmentation may offer a way to assess eggshell quality.


http://eu.wiley.com/WileyCDA/Section/index.html

Veterinary medical officer Jean Guard Bouldin, at the ARS Southeast Poultry Research Laboratory in Athens, Ga., found an interesting phenomenon--not only was Salmonella present inside chicken eggs, but other bacteria were there also. Since these bacteria are usually seen in eggs that have been contaminated through cracks in the shell, Bouldin theorized that poor eggshell quality allowed the bacteria to enter the egg.

Salmonella enteritidis is hard to detect in chickens because there are no symptoms. This poses a significant problem, because S. enteritidis, found inside the egg, is an important cause of human food-borne illness.

Bouldin and Jeff Buhr, of the ARS Poultry Processing and Meat Quality Research Unit in Athens, Ga., conducted tests in which chickens were inoculated with S. enteritidis. Eggs were then tested for hardness by compressing them until a hairline crack formed. Eggs from Salmonella-infected hens cracked easier than those from noninfected hens. Other research has shown that some strains of S. enteritidis seem to target the hen's reproductive tract, which appears to result in an egg with a less resilient shell, according to Bouldin.

At low-dose infection, Bouldin found that S. enteritidis actually stimulated egg production, particularly in older hens. This increased production may have stretched the limited eggshell material--calcium--a bit too thin, literally.

Other diseases of chickens can also decrease shell quality, but usually they result in a decrease in production and illness in hens. Changes to eggshell quality over the lifespan of a laying hen are to be expected, and thus a hen's age could be an additional risk factor.

ARS is the USDA's chief scientific research agency.

Agricultural Research Service (ARS) microbiologist Peter S. Holt and entomologist Christopher J. Geden found that the common housefly, Musca domestica, readily picks up bacteria from its surroundings. When the chickens eat the flies, the bacteria get inside the birds. Holt works in the Egg Safety and Quality Research Unit at the ARS Richard B. Russell Research Center in Athens, Ga., while Geden is at the ARS Center for Medical, Agricultural and Veterinary Entomology in Gainesville, Fla.

ARS is the U.S. Department of Agriculture's chief scientific research agency.

In three experiments, Holt placed chickens in individual, adjacent laying cages. Geden delivered fly pupae just 48 hours short of hatching as flies; this timing ensures the flies aren't exposed to any microbe prior to emergence. The fly pupae were placed in an open box in the bird room. Three days later, hens were orally infected with Salmonella.

The researchers detected the bacteria in and on 45 to 50 percent of the flies within the first 48 hours of the flies' hatching.

Next, uninfected hens were exposed to the newly infected flies. Just being around the flies didn't cause healthy birds to become infected, but eating infected flies did. This showed that simple physical contact may not be the primary method of transfer of Salmonella bacteria to different surfaces in a poultry house. But, according to the researchers, a hen's eating of contaminated flies does seem to be the primary mechanism of transmission of Salmonella from flies to birds.

According to Holt, this shows that flies in poultry houses are not only a nuisance, but also a threat to the safety of poultry products.

http://www.ars.usda.gov/main/main.htm

Salmonella is increasingly resistant to antibiotics and can sometimes go undetected in animals, which increases the risk of the infection being spread to humans. The team tested the strains found in birds in the laboratory and found that antibiotics were able to kill off the bacteria.

Scientists believed that wild birds carried a variety of Salmonella strains and passed the infection on to livestock through their faeces. Scientists at Liverpool, however, have found that only two Salmonella strains are common in garden birds, neither of which is prevalent in livestock or humans.

Research showed that these strains were a fairly distinct population of bacteria and well adapted in garden birds. They were particularly common in finches - such as greenfinch, siskins and goldfinches - as well as house sparrows.

Dr Paul Wigley, from the National Centre for Zoonosis at the University of Liverpool, said: "Salmonella is a bacterium that causes intestinal infection in humans and can cause illness such as vomiting and diarrhoea - usually through contaminated food like meat or eggs. Symptoms in birds include weight loss, feather ruffling and lethargy. We have witnessed a number of deaths due to Salmonella infection in garden birds and so it was important that we investigated how the disease was being spread.

"We thought that wild birds were incubators for Salmonella but have now found that garden birds carry two strains of a group of Salmonella microorganisms, called Salmonella Typhimurium, itself only one of over 2,500 types of Salmonella. We screened Salmonella genes we knew to be involved in causing disease and found that they lacked a gene normally found in the human form of the infection.

"The work suggests that the infection will keep circulating in the same species, increasing the risk of further disease outbreaks. We now know that these Salmonella strains are not resistant to antibiotics but it would be inadvisable to use antibiotics in garden birds as this would inevitably lead to the development of antibiotic resistant bacteria within these populations. We also now need to explore other possible sources to understand the infection in livestock and humans."

The research, conducted as part of the Garden Bird Health Initiative led by the Institute of Zoology and in conjunction with the Health Protection Agency, is published in BMC Veterinary Research.


http://www.liv.ac.uk/

For the first time UK scientists have shown what the food poisoning bug Salmonella feeds on to survive as it causes infection: glucose.

Their discovery of Salmonella’s weakness for sugar could provide a new way to vaccinate against it. The discovery could also lead to vaccine strains to protect against other disease-causing bacteria, including superbugs.

“This is the first time that anyone has identified the nutrients that sustain Salmonella while it is infecting a host’s body,” says Dr Arthur Thompson from the Institute of Food Research.

The nutrition of bacteria during infection is an emerging science. This is one of the first major breakthroughs, achieved in collaboration with Dr. Gary Rowley at the University of East Anglia.

Salmonella food poisoning causes infection in around 20 million people worldwide each year and is responsible for about 200,000 human deaths. It also infects farm animals and attaches to salad vegetables.

During infection, Salmonella bacteria are engulfed by immune cells designed to kill them. But instead the bacteria multiply.

Salmonella must acquire nutrients to replicate. The scientists focused on glycolysis, the process by which sugars are broken down to create chemical energy. They constructed Salmonella mutants unable to transport glucose into the immune cells they occupy and unable to use glucose as food. These mutant strains lost their ability to replicate within immune cells, rendering them harmless

“Our experiments showed that glucose is the major sugar used by Salmonella during infection,” said Dr Thompson.

The mutant strains still stimulate the immune system, and the scientists have filed patents on them which could be used to develop vaccines to protect people and animals against poisoning by fully virulent salmonella.

Glycolysis occurs in most organisms including other bacteria that occupy host cells. Disrupting how the bacteria metabolise glucose could therefore be used to create vaccine strains for other pathogenic bacteria, including superbugs.

The harmless strains could also be used as vaccine vectors. For example, the flu gene could be expressed within the harmless Salmonella strain and safely delivered to the immune system.

The next stage of the research will be to test whether the mutants elicit a protective immune response in mice.

In Germany the nutrition of bacteria is the subject of a six-year priority programme of research to investigate why bacteria are able to multiply inside a host’s body to cause disease.

The IFR is an institute of the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC). This research was funded by a Core Strategic Grant from BBSRC.

http://www.ifr.ac.uk/

When frogs reproduce, like all vertebrates, they either lay their eggs in water or on land -- with one exception, according to new research by a team of Boston University scientists who discovered a treefrog (Dendropsophus ebraccatus) in Panama that reproduces both ways. The neotropical frog makes a behavioral decision to lay egg masses aquatically in a pond or terrestrially on the overhanging plants above a pond, where the newly-hatched tadpoles simply fall into the water.

The dual reproductive capabilities enable this species of tree frogs to choose the best environment for egg development avoiding either aquatic predators or the hot tropical sunlight that dries out the eggs. In two shady forest ponds the mating frogs laid terrestrial egg masses, as expected from previous research. In a third pond in an old gravel quarry without a forest canopy, the vast majority -- 76 percent -- of the eggs were laid in water, supported by aquatic vegetation. The remaining 24 percent were on leaves above the pond, although the mortality rate of these eggs was high due to the heat and lack of shade.

To test if genetic differences made frogs lay eggs in water or on land, or if instead their different environments affected egg-laying choices, Touchon and Warkentin built miniature ponds in an open field and in the forest. When they placed pairs of mating treefrogs in the shaded ponds, the frogs laid eggs on leaves above the water. In unshaded ponds, however, frogs put most of their eggs in the water.

Although this frog is the first vertebrate discovered to show reproductive flexibility, Touchon and Warkentin emphasize that it is probably not alone. The way an animal reproduces has been viewed as fixed, since most aquatic eggs die on land, and terrestrial eggs drown in water. This little yellow treefrog shows us such inflexibility is not universal.

Thus, the evolutionary change from aquatic to terrestrial eggs -- which has happened many times -- may not be a dichotomous switch but instead represent movement along a continuum.

Touchon and Warkentin suggest that this treefrog "could represent an intermediate stage in the evolution of terrestrial reproduction, combining a retained ancestral capacity for aquatic development with a derived ability for terrestrial oviposition and development." This discovery opens new avenues of research into the evolution of reproduction on land. The treefrog's ability to vary where it lays its eggs might also help it cope with changes in its environment, improving its chances of surviving habitat clearing or climate change.

A groundbreaking new study into the mating and nesting practices of a common Australian frog has found they partner up to eight males sequentially – the highest recorded of any vertebrate.

Dr Phillip Byrne, from Monash University's School of Biological Sciences, has researched the frog species Bibron's toadlet (Pseudophryne bibronii) for six years and in this latest field trip, discovered a new behaviour undetected in a frog species until now.

"Our study revealed that females made the active decision to distribute their eggs between the nests of up to eight different males," Dr Byrne said.

Dr Byrne led the study, which involved Professor Scott Keogh from Australian National University, in an area at Jervis Bay National Park on the New South Wales south coast .

They worked overnight shifts from 6 pm to 6 am, seven days a week for over four months and kept track of almost 100 frogs.

Using DNA markers Dr Byrne found females that distributed their available eggs between the nests of more males, as opposed to leaving them in one nest, had elevated offspring survival, presumably by insuring against nest failure.

"Traditionally it was thought that males, but not females, should benefit from promiscuous behaviour because males generally invest less in reproduction. This level of promiscuity is a new record among vertebrates and certainly supports the old adage of not putting all your eggs in the one basket," Dr Byrne said.

"Our study advances our understanding of female promiscuity by being the first to show that promiscuous females can safeguard against choosing fathers that provide poor homes for their offspring.

"It is becoming increasingly apparent that females in many animal species choose to mate with multiple partners as a safeguard against choosing a genetically inferior sire, but insurance against a father who provides a lousy home is a novel and potentially widespread explanation for the evolution of female promiscuity," Dr Byrne said.

The Pseudophryne bibronii is brown to black in colour and at just 30mm in length is one of the smaller frog species in Australia. It can be found along the eastern states of Australia and lives in forests, heathlands and grasslands.


http://www.monash.edu.au/

The India’s smallest land vertebrate, a 10-millimeter frog, has been discovered from the Western Ghats of Kerala by Delhi University Systematics Biologist, S D Biju and his colleagues.

Indian land vertebrates (all animals with backbone except fishes), comprises of 2,400 species including 218 frog species.

S D Biju and his colleagues discovered the tiny night frog living under leaf litter and among the roots of ferns in the humid rainforest of the Western Ghats of Kerala, a mountainous region in the western portion of India. Biju gave a new name for the frog, Nyctibatrachus minimus.

With adult males of barely 10 mm in length, Nyctibatrachus minimus is the smallest of all known Indian land vertebrates and compete with miniature frogs in other parts of the world, including Cuba, the Amazon and Borneo.

This frog can be found during nighttime (hence the common name of the genus- Nightfrog) and also can be heard (mating calls) from under the leaf litter during monsoon months, the ideal time for reproduction.

Biju has been working in the Western Ghats to find new species of frogs over the past several years, and his findings include the purple frog (Nasikabatrachus) and the first canopy frog (Philautus nerostagona) from India.

The discovery was published recently in the Journal Current Science.

http://www.du.ac.in/hindi/

A new poisonous frog was recently discovered in a remote mountainous region in Colombia by a team of young scientists supported by the Conservation Leadership Programme (CLP). The new frog, which is almost two centimetres in length, was given the name the "golden frog of Supatá."


Originally, the young scientists thought the frog was similar to several other common species in the area. However, after scientific analysis of the frog's characteristics, and review of their findings by experts at Conservation International, it was determined that the golden frog of Supatá is unique and only found within a 20 hectare area in Colombia's Cundinamarca region. Colombia is one of the world's richest countries in amphibian diversity, with more than 583 species.

Unfortunately, since this frog is a recent discovery, and endemic to only the Cunidnamarca region, little is known about it. So far, scientists say that the golden frog of Supatá belongs to a group of "dart frogs" that are known to be highly venomous. In the coming months, the young scientists hope to have more information about the frog.

"The importance of this project is not just the discovery of the new frog," said Oswaldo Cortes, team leader and one of the winners of the 2007 Conservation Leadership Programme awards. "But, most importantly, what this new discovery shows is how little we still know about our planet, and the many species that haven't yet been discovered. This is why it is so important to work with local communities and educate them about the need for conservation."

Hundreds of golden frog tadpoles hatched at Hotel Campestre in El Valle earlier this month, product of the Golden Frog Project that started in 2001. The Project aims to serve as Noah's Ark until a solution to control a fungus is found.


Principal investigator Edgardo Griffith, STRI visiting scientist from Southern Illinois University and research assistant Heidi Ross were surprised at the event “We didn't expect that the conditions for reproduction were already there.”

The new facilities of Hotel Campestre include at least one 100 gal aquarium irrigated with tap water filtered with activated charcoal to insure purity. River stones with emerging algae, tropical plants and petri dishes containing tadpole food based on algae are also contained in the aquarium, providing a simple but effective ecosystem for the new golden frogs. These frogs are the survivors of many highland species in Panama, victims to a chitrid fungus Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd). Along with habitat loss, soils use change, and commercial overexploitation, Bd is responsible for the decimation of populations and extinction of many species of amphibians. No wild golden frogs are found in El Valle.

The new tadpoles are the offsprings of two resident couples of golden frogs of the Hotel. In normal conditions in the wild, without the fungus, maybe only 25% of the tadpoles would survive, but given the conditions provided by the project all 100% of tadpoles may reach adulthood.

The efforts to conserve the golden frog and many other species of amphibians is shared by ANAM, the Houston Zoo, the World Association for Zoos and Aquaria, World of Conservation, Zoo Atlanta, etc.


http://www.stri.org/

Researchers exploring a Colombian mountain range found surviving members of a species of Harlequin frog believed extinct due to a killer fungus wiping out amphibian populations in Central and South America.

The discovery of what could be the last population of the painted frog (Atelopus ebenoides marinkellei) indicates the species has survived the fungus, providing hope that other species also might avoid elimination from the epidemic caused by a pathogenic fungus of unknown origin.

Professor Carlos Rocha and a team of researchers from the Pedagogical and Technological University of Boyacá - UTPC supported by Conservation International, the Darwin Initiative and the Fund for Environmental Action and Childhood made the discovery in early May in the deserts of Sarna and Toquilla in Boyacá in eastern Colombia.

The painted frog, which is found only in the deserts of Colombia’s highlands, was last seen in 1995 in the area of Siscunsi, in the same region as Boyacá. After 11 years without a sighting, scientists considered the species extinct because of a lethal skin fungus, known as chytridiomycosis, and other hazards threatening the survival of a third of all amphibian species around the world.

"The scientific importance of the finding must motivate us to adopt urgent measures toward saving the last of these amphibians, both in the wild and through captive breeding programs," said Fabio Arjona, executive director of Conservation International in Colombia. "That will require a lot of support from the local and international communities."

The painted frog is one of 110 species of a diverse group of neo-tropical amphibians that live mostly in Colombia. The country’s amphibian population is considered among the most diverse on Earth and key in the conservation efforts to protect amphibian species worldwide. So far, 42 of the 113 species of Atelopus found in the Tropical Andes Hotspot that includes parts of Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela have experienced population declines of up to 50 percent.

Frogs provide innumerable ecosystem services by consuming insects and serving as indicators of overall environmental health of an ecosystem. The disappearance of amphibians could cause numerous consequences, including an increase in illnesses such as malaria due to the disappearance of amphibians that feed on mosquitoes carrying the disease. An extinction crisis among amphibians indicates drastic environmental changes caused by human impact such as deforestation and global warming.

The research was conducted as part of the Atelopus Initiative, a regional program that monitors the state of amphibian populations in the Tropical Andes Hotspot. CI will work with partners on extending Atelopus conservation initiatives into Peru and Bolivia under the Amphibian Conservation Action Plan created in 2005 as result of the 2004 Global Amphibian Assessment.


http://www.conservation.org/Pages/default.aspx

Between 129 and 221 new species of frogs have been identified in Madagascar, practically doubling the currently known amphibian fauna. The finding suggests that the number of amphibian species in Madagascar, one of the world’s biodiversity hotspots, has been significantly underestimated. According to the researchers, if these results are extrapolated at a global scale, the number of amphibian species worldwide could double.

Their study, conducted with participation of the Spanish Scientific Research Council (CSIC), is published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Science.

As Professor David R. Vieites, CSIC researcher at the Spanish National Natural Sciences Museum in Madrid, states: “the diversity of species in Madagascar is far from being known and there is still a lot of scientific research to be done. Our data suggest that the number of new species of amphibians not only has been underestimated but it is spatially widespread, even in well studied areas. For example, two of the most visited and studied National parks, Ranomafana and Mantadía/Analamazaotra, harbour 31 and 10 new species respectively.”

Dr. Frank Glaw, curator of herpetology at the Zoologische Staatssammlung from Munich explains: ”During the past 15 years, we discovered and described over 100 new frog species from Madagascar, which led us to believe that our species inventory is almost complete. But as our new surveys show, there are many more species than we suspected.”

The paper suggests that the total biodiversity on the island could be much higher also in other groups, so the actual destruction of natural habitats may be affecting more species than previously thought. This is important for conservation planning, as the rate of destruction of rainforests in Madagascar has been one of the highest in the planet, with more than 80% of the historic surface of rainforest already lost.

“Although a lot of reserves and national parks have been created in Madagascar during the last decade, the actual situation of politic instability is allowing the cut of the forest within national parks, generating a lot of uncertainty about the future of the planned network of protected areas,” explains Vieites. Almost a quarter of the new species discovered have not been found yet in protected areas.

Biodiversity

The study proposes different criteria -- morphological, genetic and bioacoustic -- to assign the candidate species (the ones which have been identified as potential new species but not yet formerly described) to different categories. In Madagascar, the number of candidate species is higher than the number of described species in some genera.

“Using these criteria and the integration of different techniques under the principle of congruence could help to boost the inventory and the process of species description worldwide,” explains Vieites. Dr. Miguel Vences, professor at the Technical University of Braunschweig adds: "People think that we know which plant and animal species live on this planet. But the century of discoveries has only just begun – the majority of life forms on Earth is still awaiting scientific recognition."

Also participating in the study were researchers from the Technical University of Braunschweig, Museo regionale di Scienze Naturali from Torino, and the Hessisches Landesmuseum from Darmstadt.

Madagascar is the fourth largest island in the world and one of the most biodiverse areas globally, with a high degree of endemic species. “To get an idea of its biodiversity, while in the Iberian Peninsula are about 30 species of amphibians and in Germany about 20, in a single locality in Madagascar we can find ca. 100 species of frogs,” explains Vieites.


http://www.csic.es/index.do

Moths and butterflies, particularly silkworms, are well known producers of silk. And we all know spiders use it for their webs. But they are not the only invertebrates who make use of the strength and versatility of silk.


Dr Tara Sutherland and her group from CSIRO Entomology are looking at silks produced by other insects and the results of their recent work have been published in Molecular Biology and Evolution, in the paper Conservation of Essential Design Features in Coiled Coil Silks.

“Most people are unaware that bees and ants produce silk but they do and its molecular structure is very different to that of the large protein, sheet structure of moth and spider silk. The cocoon and nest silks we looked at consist of coiled coils - a protein structural arrangement where multiple helices wind around each other. This structure produces a light weight, very tough silk,” she says.

“We had already identified the honeybee silk genes,” says Dr Sutherland, “and now we have identified and sequenced the silk genes of bumblebees, bulldog ants and weaver ants, and compared these to honeybee silk genes. This let us identify the essential design elements for the assembly and function of coiled coil silks”.

“To do this, we identified and compared the coiled coil proteins from cocoon and nest silks from species which span the evolutionary tree of the social Hymenoptera (bees, ants and wasps),” she says.

Bees and ants produce high-performance silk and, although the silks in all these species are produced by the larvae and by the same glands, they use them differently.

Honeybee larvae produce silk to reinforce the wax cells in which they pupate, bulldog ant larvae spin solitary cocoons for protection during pupation, bumblebee larvae spin cocoons within wax hives (the cocoons are reused to store pollen and honey), and weaver ants use their larvae as ‘tools’ to fasten fresh plant leaves together to form large communal nests..

These groups of insects have evolved silks that are very tough and stable in comparison to the classical sheet silks and it is probable that the evolution of this remarkable material has underpinned the success of the social Hymenoptera.

Coiled coil silks are common in aculeate social insects i.e. those that have stings but not in aculeate parasitic wasps. These social insects are higher up the evolutionary tree and the coiled coil silks appear to have evolved about 155 million years ago.

The silk research is part of the joint CSIRO and Grains Research & Development Corporation (GRDC) Crop Biofactories Initiative (CBI).


http://www.csiro.au/

Spider silks could become the intelligent materials of the future, according to a review article published this month in the journal Microbial Cell Factories. The characteristics of spider silk could have applications in areas ranging from medicine to ballistics.

The distinctive toughness of spider silk could allow manufacturers to improve wound-closure systems and plasters, and to produce artificial ligaments and tendons for durable surgical implants. The silk could also be woven into strong textiles to make parachutes, body armour, ropes and fishing nets. A whole range of ecological materials could emerge from the industrial production of spider silk.

Thomas Scheibel, from the Department of Chemistry of the Technische Universität in München explains that there are currently over 34,000 described species of spider, each with a specific tool-kit of silks with different mechanical properties serving specific purposes.

For example, major ampullate silk, a very tough silk with a tensile strength comparable to Kevlar, is used for the primary dragline or scaffolding of the spider's web. Minor ampullate silk with its very low elasticity is used to reinforce the web, while the strong and stretchy flagelliform silk forms the capture spiral of the web.

Biotechnologists are currently analysing the properties of silk proteins and how they assemble into threads. Knowing exactly how silk fibers are formed and what mechanical properties result from different assembly processes could allow the manufacture of artificial spider silks with special characteristics such as great strength or biochemical activity.

"The future objective might not be to prepare identical copies of natural silk fibers, but rather to capture key structural and functional features in designs that could be useful for engineering applications" explains the author.

Spiders are territorial and cannibalistic and so impossible to farm. The only way to produce large quantities of silk is to engineer and insert silk genes into other cells or organisms. But this has been complicated by the nature of the genes, which include many repeated sequences and rely on a different codon reading system from ours. However, in recent studies parts of the genes were successfully inserted into the bacterium E. coli, mammal and insect cells, which in turn produced silk proteins.

"Using 'protein engineering' based on knowledge achieved from investigations of the natural silks, artificial proteins can be designed that allow bacterial synthesis at high yields" writes Scheibel in the article*.

Engineering new proteins would also allow the design of completely new types of silk fiber, which could assemble with biochemically or biologically active groups into new types of mesh. These 'intelligent' materials would then be able to carry out enzymatic reactions, chemical catalysis or electronic signal propagation, for example.

Before this can be achieved, the spinning of proteins into fibers has to be resolved. So far there have been a few attempts at spinning silk on silicon micro-spinnerets. The outcomes have been promising but are far from matching naturally produced silks. For the moment the fibers produced are too wide, with diameters ranging from 10 to 60mm, compared with diameters of 2.5 to 4.0mm in natural fibers.


http://www.biomedcentral.com/

Could a dose of webicillin beat that stubborn infection? Could a cobweb bandage help soldiers and accident victims with bleeding wounds? Is a wrapping of spider silk the key to preventing the body from rejecting implants?

A review of research on spider silk concludes that scientists have largely overlooked such possible medical applications of this extraordinary natural material, which is stronger than steel. In a report in the current (Sept. 13) issue of the ACS monthly journal Chemical Reviews, Randolph V. Lewis, of the University of Wyoming, describes other scientific research on spider silk during the last 15 years.

"Very few studies of biological testing of spider silk have been done in a rigorous manner," Lewis states.

"There is a large body of folklore concerning the antibiotic, wound-healing, and clot-inducing activity of spider silk. However, much of that lore has not been seriously tested."

The lore dates to the first century A.D. when spider webs were prized as wound dressings. They even found a place in Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream: "I shall desire you of more acquaintance, good master cobweb," the character "Bottom" said. "If I cut my finger, I shall make bold of you."

The scanty scientific evidence is tantalizing, Lewis notes. He cites, for instance, animal studies concluding that spider silks do not induce an immune response -- which causes rejection of implants.

http://portal.acs.org/portal/acs/corg/content

A scientist from the University of Manchester has discovered the first identified droplets of spider blood in a piece of amber up to 20 million years old.

Two droplets of blood, technically known as haemolymph, have been preserved in the amber which also contains the spider -- Filistatidae -- a family commonly found in South America and the Caribbean.

The droplets are the first identified examples of spider blood ever found in an amber fossil. It is possible the blood could be used to extract DNA.

The fossil, which is 4cm long and 2cm wide, was discovered in the Dominican Republic and dates back to the Miocene period.

Palaeontologist Dr David Penney, of the School of Earth, Atmospheric and Environmental Sciences, has now used the blood droplets to trace how, when, and where the spider died all those years ago.

David, said: "It's amazing to think that a single piece of amber with a single spider in it can open up window into what was going on 20 million years ago.

"By analysing the position of the spider's body in relation to the droplets of blood in the amber we are able to determine how it died, which direction it was travelling in and even how fast it was moving."

In the latest issue of the journal Palaeontology (2005, vol. 48, part 5) David describes how the spider died. He believes the spider was climbing up a tree when it was struck head-on by a sudden strong flow of resin. The spider then became engulfed in the resin and died.

He argues that the shape and position of the blood droplets reveals which direction the spider was travelling in. It also reveals which of the spider's legs broke first.

David discovered the fossil in 2003 during a visit to the Museo del Ambar Dominicano in Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic. His research initially focused on the spider which he identified as an entirely new species of spider. On his return to the UK, further research revealed the droplets of blood and the information the fossil contained.


http://www.manchester.ac.uk/