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Centromere pairing enables correct segregation of meiotic chromosomes Curr. Biol. (IF 9.2) Pub Date : 2024-04-25 Jared M. Evatt, Asli D. Sadli, Bartosz K. Rapacz, Hoa H. Chuong, Régis E. Meyer, John B. Ridenour, Rafal Donczew, Dean S. Dawson
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Fungal biomineralization of toxic metals accelerates organic pollutant removal Curr. Biol. (IF 9.2) Pub Date : 2024-04-24 Qianwei Li, Miao Zhang, Biao Wei, Wei Lan, Qinghong Wang, Chunmao Chen, Huazhang Zhao, Daoqing Liu, Geoffrey Michael Gadd
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Threats to reptiles at global and regional scales Curr. Biol. (IF 9.2) Pub Date : 2024-04-23 Harith Farooq, Mike Harfoot, Carsten Rahbek, Jonas Geldmann
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Mechanosensory and command contributions to the Drosophila grooming sequence Curr. Biol. (IF 9.2) Pub Date : 2024-04-23 Shingo Yoshikawa, Paul Tang, Julie H. Simpson
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Root hairs facilitate rice root penetration into compacted layers Curr. Biol. (IF 9.2) Pub Date : 2024-04-22 Xiuzhen Kong, Suhang Yu, Yali Xiong, Xiaoyun Song, Lucia Nevescanin-Moreno, Xiaoqing Wei, Jinliang Rao, Hu Zhou, Malcolm J. Bennett, Bipin K. Pandey, Guoqiang Huang
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Can we end plastic pollution? Curr. Biol. (IF 9.2) Pub Date : 2024-04-22 Michael Gross
By the end of this year, UN member states are due to complete the negotiation of a global deal to end plastic pollution. Meanwhile, the problems are mounting up and the search for more sustainable solutions continues. Michael Gross reports.
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Flowering plant reproduction Curr. Biol. (IF 9.2) Pub Date : 2024-04-22 Nicolas Butel, Claudia Köhler
Flowering plants, also known as angiosperms, emerged approximately 150 to 200 million years ago. Since then, they have undergone rapid and extensive expansion, now encompassing around 90% of all land plant species. The remarkable diversification of this group has been a subject of in-depth investigations, and several evolutionary innovations have been proposed to account for their success. In this
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Neuroethology: Decoding the waggle dance Curr. Biol. (IF 9.2) Pub Date : 2024-04-22 Stanley Heinze
A new study combining high-speed video recordings and computational modeling has revealed an overlooked feature of the famous honeybee waggle dance, yielding the first biologically plausible neural circuit model of how the information transmitted via the waggle dance could be assimilated by the follower bees.
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Evolutionary neurogenomics: Lengthy resolutions for complex brains Curr. Biol. (IF 9.2) Pub Date : 2024-04-22 Leonid L. Moroz
Genomic blueprints underlying unique neuronal organization are enigmatic. A new study reveals the recruitment of ancient, larger genes for synaptic machinery, providing evolutionary constraints and flexibility, with increasing gene sizes being found in animal lineages that led to cephalopods and vertebrates.
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Ant evolution: Amber revelations of extinction, survival and recovery Curr. Biol. (IF 9.2) Pub Date : 2024-04-22 Brendon E. Boudinot
Ant fossils from the Cretaceous are rare but critical for understanding the early evolution of this incredibly successful group of animals. New amber fossils fill important gaps, revealing patterns of death, survival, and radiation around the end Cretaceous extinction.
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Social neuroscience: How we learn to avoid the bully Curr. Biol. (IF 9.2) Pub Date : 2024-04-22 Eduard Maier, Valery Grinevich
During social interactions, individuals evaluate relationships with their peers and switch from approach to avoidance, particularly in response to aggressive encounters. A new study in mice investigated the underlying brain mechanisms and identified oxytocin as a key regulator of social avoidance learning.
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Symbiosis: Did bacteria bias the beetle big bang? Curr. Biol. (IF 9.2) Pub Date : 2024-04-22 Joseph Parker
The massive species richness of certain taxonomic groups has long enchanted evolutionary biologists, but even within such groups there are biases in cladogenesis. A study of Metazoa's greatest radiation — the beetles — points to metabolic symbioses with bacteria as a possible driver of enhanced diversification in herbivorous clades.
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Plant development: Laying the foundation for high-performance photosynthesis Curr. Biol. (IF 9.2) Pub Date : 2024-04-22 Thomas L. Slewinski
A new study shows that TOO MANY LATERALS/WIP6 acts as a key regulator of vein specification and development across C3 and C4 photosynthetic grasses.
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Whale evolution: Ancient toothed relative of baleen whales breaches northward Curr. Biol. (IF 9.2) Pub Date : 2024-04-22 Olivier Lambert
The mysticetes — baleen whales and their toothed ancestors — have a long evolutionary history that, despite many recent paleontological discoveries, remains highly debated. The description of a new mysticete from the latest Eocene of North America opens promising new research directions.
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Phage biology: The ins and outs of prophages in bacterial populations Curr. Biol. (IF 9.2) Pub Date : 2024-04-22 Darian A. Doakes, Britt Koskella
Bacterial genomes often harbor integrated viruses (prophages), which provide novel functions but also lyse cells under stressful conditions. A new paper combines mathematical models with experimental evolution to determine how prophages are maintained in bacterial populations despite their fitness costs.
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Evolution of endosymbiosis-mediated nuclear calcium signaling in land plants Curr. Biol. (IF 9.2) Pub Date : 2024-04-19 Anson H.C. Lam, Aisling Cooke, Hannah Wright, David M. Lawson, Myriam Charpentier
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Spaced training activates Miro/Milton-dependent mitochondrial dynamics in neuronal axons to sustain long-term memory Curr. Biol. (IF 9.2) Pub Date : 2024-04-19 Alice Pavlowsky, Typhaine Comyn, Julia Minatchy, David Geny, Philippe Bun, Lydia Danglot, Thomas Preat, Pierre-Yves Plaçais
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Stimulus-dependent differences in cortical versus subcortical contributions to visual detection in mice Curr. Biol. (IF 9.2) Pub Date : 2024-04-18 Jackson J. Cone, Autumn O. Mitchell, Rachel K. Parker, John H.R. Maunsell
The primary visual cortex (V1) and the superior colliculus (SC) both occupy stations early in the processing of visual information. They have long been thought to perform distinct functions, with the V1 supporting the perception of visual features and the SC regulating orienting to visual inputs. However, growing evidence suggests that the SC supports the perception of many of the same visual features
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Genes and gene networks underlying spatial cognition in food-caching chickadees Curr. Biol. (IF 9.2) Pub Date : 2024-04-17 Georgy A. Semenov, Benjamin R. Sonnenberg, Carrie L. Branch, Virginia K. Heinen, Joseph F. Welklin, Sara R. Padula, Ajay M. Patel, Eli S. Bridge, Vladimir V. Pravosudov, Scott A. Taylor
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Cannabinoids regulate an insula circuit controlling water intake Curr. Biol. (IF 9.2) Pub Date : 2024-04-17 Zhe Zhao, Ana Covelo, Yoni Couderc, Arojit Mitra, Marjorie Varilh, Yifan Wu, Débora Jacky, Rim Fayad, Astrid Cannich, Luigi Bellocchio, Giovanni Marsicano, Anna Beyeler
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Experience reduces route selection for conspecifics by the collectively migrating white stork Curr. Biol. (IF 9.2) Pub Date : 2024-04-17 Hester Brønnvik, Elham Nourani, Wolfgang Fiedler, Andrea Flack
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Honey bee stressor networks are complex and dependent on crop and region Curr. Biol. (IF 9.2) Pub Date : 2024-04-17 Sarah K. French, Mateus Pepinelli, Ida M. Conflitti, Aidan Jamieson, Heather Higo, Julia Common, Elizabeth M. Walsh, Miriam Bixby, M. Marta Guarna, Stephen F. Pernal, Shelley E. Hoover, Robert W. Currie, Pierre Giovenazzo, Ernesto Guzman-Novoa, Daniel Borges, Leonard J. Foster, Amro Zayed
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Increased flexibility of CA3 memory representations following environmental enrichment Curr. Biol. (IF 9.2) Pub Date : 2024-04-17 Silvia Ventura, Stephen Duncan, James A. Ainge
Environmental enrichment (EE) improves memory, particularly the ability to discriminate similar past experiences.1,2,3,4,5,6 The hippocampus supports this ability via pattern separation, the encoding of similar events using dissimilar memory representations.7 This is carried out in the dentate gyrus (DG) and CA3 subfields.8,9,10,11,12 Upregulation of adult neurogenesis in the DG improves memory through
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Learning enhances representations of taste-guided decisions in the mouse gustatory insular cortex Curr. Biol. (IF 9.2) Pub Date : 2024-04-16 Joshua F. Kogan, Alfredo Fontanini
Learning to discriminate overlapping gustatory stimuli that predict distinct outcomes—a feat known as discrimination learning—can mean the difference between ingesting a poison or a nutritive meal. Despite the obvious importance of this process, very little is known about the neural basis of taste discrimination learning. In other sensory modalities, this form of learning can be mediated by either
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Cooperative transport in sea star locomotion Curr. Biol. (IF 9.2) Pub Date : 2024-04-16 Theodora Po, Eva Kanso, Matthew J. McHenry
It is unclear how animals with radial symmetry control locomotion without a brain. Using a combination of experiments, mathematical modeling, and robotics, we tested the extent to which this control emerges in sea stars (Protoreaster nodosus) from the local control of their hundreds of feet and their mechanical interactions with the body. We discovered that these animals compensate for an experimental
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A hemizygous supergene controls homomorphic and heteromorphic self-incompatibility systems in Oleaceae Curr. Biol. (IF 9.2) Pub Date : 2024-04-15 Pauline Raimondeau, Sayam Ksouda, William Marande, Anne-Laure Fuchs, Hervé Gryta, Anthony Theron, Aurore Puyoou, Julia Dupin, Pierre-Olivier Cheptou, Sonia Vautrin, Sophie Valière, Sophie Manzi, Djamel Baali-Cherif, Jérôme Chave, Pascal-Antoine Christin, Guillaume Besnard
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The homomorphic self-incompatibility system in Oleaceae is controlled by a hemizygous genomic region expressing a gibberellin pathway gene Curr. Biol. (IF 9.2) Pub Date : 2024-04-15 Vincent Castric, Rita A. Batista, Amélie Carré, Soraya Mousavi, Clément Mazoyer, Cécile Godé, Sophie Gallina, Chloé Ponitzki, Anthony Theron, Arnaud Bellec, William Marande, Sylvain Santoni, Roberto Mariotti, Andrea Rubini, Sylvain Legrand, Sylvain Billiard, Xavier Vekemans, Philippe Vernet, Pierre Saumitou-Laprade
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Claustrum projections to the anterior cingulate modulate nociceptive and pain-associated behavior Curr. Biol. (IF 9.2) Pub Date : 2024-04-12 Christian A. Faig, Gloria H.K. Kim, Alison D. Do, Zoë Dworsky-Fried, Jesse Jackson, Anna M.W. Taylor
The anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) is critical for the perception and unpleasantness of pain.1,2,3,4,5,6 It receives nociceptive information from regions such as the thalamus and amygdala and projects to several cortical and subcortical regions of the pain neuromatrix.7,8 ACC hyperexcitability is one of many functional changes associated with chronic pain, and experimental activation of ACC pyramidal
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Differences in expression of male aggression between wild bonobos and chimpanzees Curr. Biol. (IF 9.2) Pub Date : 2024-04-12 Maud Mouginot, Michael L. Wilson, Nisarg Desai, Martin Surbeck
Researchers investigating the evolution of human aggression look to our closest living relatives, bonobos (Pan paniscus) and chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes), as valuable sources of comparative data.1,2 Males in the two species exhibit contrasting patterns: male chimpanzees sexually coerce females3,4,5,6,7,8 and sometimes kill conspecifics,9,10,11,12 whereas male bonobos exhibit less sexual coercion13
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Colonial-driven extinction of the blue antelope despite genomic adaptation to low population size Curr. Biol. (IF 9.2) Pub Date : 2024-04-12 Elisabeth Hempel, J. Tyler Faith, Michaela Preick, Deon de Jager, Scott Barish, Stefanie Hartmann, José H. Grau, Yoshan Moodley, Gregory Gedman, Kathleen Morrill Pirovich, Faysal Bibi, Daniela C. Kalthoff, Sven Bocklandt, Ben Lamm, Love Dalén, Michael V. Westbury, Michael Hofreiter
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Pathological claustrum activity drives aberrant cognitive network processing in human chronic pain Curr. Biol. (IF 9.2) Pub Date : 2024-04-12 Brent W. Stewart, Michael L. Keaser, Hwiyoung Lee, Sarah M. Margerison, Matthew A. Cormie, Massieh Moayedi, Martin A. Lindquist, Shuo Chen, Brian N. Mathur, David A. Seminowicz
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The tardigrade Hypsibius exemplaris dramatically upregulates DNA repair pathway genes in response to ionizing radiation Curr. Biol. (IF 9.2) Pub Date : 2024-04-12 Courtney M. Clark-Hachtel, Jonathan D. Hibshman, Tristan De Buysscher, Evan R. Stair, Leslie M. Hicks, Bob Goldstein
Tardigrades can survive remarkable doses of ionizing radiation, up to about 1,000 times the lethal dose for humans. How they do so is incompletely understood. We found that the tardigrade Hypsibius exemplaris suffers DNA damage upon gamma irradiation, but the damage is repaired. We show that this species has a specific and robust response to ionizing radiation: irradiation induces a rapid upregulation
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Productivity declines threaten East African soda lakes and the iconic Lesser Flamingo Curr. Biol. (IF 9.2) Pub Date : 2024-04-12 Aidan Byrne, Emma J. Tebbs, Peter Njoroge, Ally Nkwabi, Michael A. Chadwick, Robin Freeman, David Harper, Ken Norris
Soda lakes are some of the most productive aquatic ecosystems.1 Their alkaline-saline waters sustain unique phytoplankton communities2,3 and provide vital habitats for highly specialized biodiversity including invertebrates, endemic fish species, and Lesser Flamingos (Phoeniconaias minor).1,4 More than three-quarters of Lesser Flamingos inhabit the soda lakes of East Africa5; however, populations are
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Coral-infecting parasites in cold marine ecosystems Curr. Biol. (IF 9.2) Pub Date : 2024-04-11 Morelia Trznadel, Corey C. Holt, Samuel J. Livingston, Waldan K. Kwong, Patrick J. Keeling
Coral reefs are a biodiversity hotspot,1,2 and the association between coral and intracellular dinoflagellates is a model for endosymbiosis.3,4 Recently, corals and related anthozoans have also been found to harbor another kind of endosymbiont, apicomplexans called corallicolids.5 Apicomplexans are a diverse lineage of obligate intracellular parasites6 that include human pathogens such as the malaria
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Dynamic prediction of goal location by coordinated representation of prefrontal-hippocampal theta sequences Curr. Biol. (IF 9.2) Pub Date : 2024-04-11 Yimeng Wang, Xueling Wang, Ling Wang, Li Zheng, Shuang Meng, Nan Zhu, Xingwei An, Lei Wang, Jiajia Yang, Chenguang Zheng, Dong Ming
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Information flow between motor cortex and striatum reverses during skill learning Curr. Biol. (IF 9.2) Pub Date : 2024-04-10 Stefan M. Lemke, Marco Celotto, Roberto Maffulli, Karunesh Ganguly, Stefano Panzeri
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Transfer of polarity information via diffusion of Wnt ligands in C. elegans embryos Curr. Biol. (IF 9.2) Pub Date : 2024-04-10 Pierre Recouvreux, Pritha Pai, Valentin Dunsing, Rémy Torro, Monika Ludanyi, Pauline Mélénec, Mariem Boughzala, Vincent Bertrand, Pierre-François Lenne
Different signaling mechanisms concur to ensure robust tissue patterning and cell fate instruction during animal development. Most of these mechanisms rely on signaling proteins that are produced, transported, and detected. The spatiotemporal dynamics of signaling molecules are largely unknown, yet they determine signal activity’s spatial range and time frame. Here, we use the Caenorhabditis elegans
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Prophage maintenance is determined by environment-dependent selective sweeps rather than mutational availability Curr. Biol. (IF 9.2) Pub Date : 2024-04-09 Zachary M. Bailey, Claudia Igler, Carolin C. Wendling
Prophages, viral sequences integrated into bacterial genomes, can be beneficial and costly. Despite the risk of prophage activation and subsequent bacterial death, active prophages are present in most bacterial genomes. However, our understanding of the selective forces that maintain prophages in bacterial populations is limited. Combining experimental evolution with stochastic modeling, we show that
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Schreckstoff: It takes two to panic Curr. Biol. (IF 9.2) Pub Date : 2024-04-08 Marcus C. Stensmyr
Schreckstoff (fear substance) is an alarm signal released by injured fish that induces a fear response. Its chemical nature has long been debated. A new study finds that zebrafish Schreckstoff is composed of at least three components, two of which elicit the fear response only in combination.
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Of whales and women Curr. Biol. (IF 9.2) Pub Date : 2024-04-08 Michael Gross
The long period of post-reproductive survival is a highly unusual feature of our species. We now know of five other mammals that share this trait — all of them are toothed whales. Still, comparative studies can help us to understand how the menopause evolved in our ancestors. Michael Gross reports.
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Morphogenesis: Setting the pace of embryo folding Curr. Biol. (IF 9.2) Pub Date : 2024-04-08 D. Nathaniel Clarke, Adam C. Martin
Tissue folding is a key process for shape generation during embryonic development. A new study reports how a fold in the Drosophila embryo forms by a propagating trigger wave.
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Evolutionary origins of bitter taste receptors in jawed vertebrates Curr. Biol. (IF 9.2) Pub Date : 2024-04-08 Akihiro Itoigawa, Yasuka Toda, Shigehiro Kuraku, Yoshiro Ishimaru
Taste is a sense that detects information about nutrients and toxins in foods. Of the five basic taste qualities, bitterness is associated with the detection of potentially harmful substances like plant alkaloids. In bony vertebrates, type 2 taste receptors (T2Rs), which are G-protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs), act as bitter taste receptors1,2. In vertebrates, six GPCR gene families are described as
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The twin-arginine translocation (Tat) system Curr. Biol. (IF 9.2) Pub Date : 2024-04-08 Tracy Palmer, Ben C. Berks
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Cell migration: Collective cell migration is intrinsically stressful Curr. Biol. (IF 9.2) Pub Date : 2024-04-08 Heng Wang, Jiong Chen
Collective cell migration is a key cellular process in development and disease. A new study reports that ER stress is induced during collective cell migration and an intrinsic mechanism prevents migratory cells from over-reacting to ER stress.
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Developmental neuroscience: Building sex-specific adult circuitry from common larval origins Curr. Biol. (IF 9.2) Pub Date : 2024-04-08 Alexandra Venuto, Christa A. Baker
The development of sex-specific neural circuitry is critical for reproductive behaviors. A new study traces the developmental origin of female-specific neurons that underlie an adult mating behavior to larval neurons common to both sexes in Drosophila.
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Animal behavior: Mosquitos ride the wave Curr. Biol. (IF 9.2) Pub Date : 2024-04-08 Mark Frye, Athena Coates
Some insects have a frustrating knack for avoiding a swatter. A new study shows that mosquitos not only evade the visual image of the looming threat, they also surf the wave of air the swatter creates.
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Understanding the limits to animal cognition Curr. Biol. (IF 9.2) Pub Date : 2024-04-08 Scarlett R. Howard, Andrew B. Barron
The thriving field of comparative cognition examines the behaviour of diverse animals in cognitive terms. Comparative cognition research has primarily focused on the abilities of animals — what tasks they can do — rather than on the limits of their cognition — tasks that exceed an animal’s cognitive abilities. We propose that understanding and identifying cognitive limits is as important as demonstrating
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High-resolution vision in pelagic polychaetes Curr. Biol. (IF 9.2) Pub Date : 2024-04-08 Michael J. Bok, Armando Macali, Anders Garm
High-resolution object vision — the ability to separate, classify, and interact with specific objects in the environment against the visual background — has only been conclusively shown to have evolved in three of the thirty-five animal phyla: chordates, arthropods, and mollusks (cephalopods)1. However, alciopid polychaetes (Phyllodocidae, Alciopini), which possess a pair of bulbous camera-type eyes
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Sociosexual interactions: A clock synchronized by smell Curr. Biol. (IF 9.2) Pub Date : 2024-04-08 David Doležel
While the daily rhythmicity of organisms is entrained by several cues, light is thought to be the strongest signal. Surprisingly, a new study in a moth shows that olfactory communication can be even more powerful for synchronization, and, at least to some extent, works across related species.
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Ecology: The fruits of local knowledge Curr. Biol. (IF 9.2) Pub Date : 2024-04-08 Kate L. Wootton, Phil O’B. Lyver
Local and indigenous communities often have an intimate connection to nature that is reflected in their ecological knowledge and practices. A new study shows that local ecological knowledge can transform the scientific understanding of an ecological network.
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Infants’ brain responses to social interaction predict future language growth Curr. Biol. (IF 9.2) Pub Date : 2024-04-08 Alexis N. Bosseler, Andrew N. Meltzoff, Steven Bierer, Elizabeth Huber, Julia C. Mizrahi, Eric Larson, Yaara Endevelt-Shapira, Samu Taulu, Patricia K. Kuhl
In face-to-face interactions with infants, human adults exhibit a species-specific communicative signal. Adults present a distinctive “social ensemble”: they use infant-directed speech (parentese), respond contingently to infants’ actions and vocalizations, and react positively through mutual eye-gaze and smiling. Studies suggest that this social ensemble is essential for initial language learning
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Neuroscience: Memory modification without catastrophe Curr. Biol. (IF 9.2) Pub Date : 2024-04-08 Mircea van der Plas, Alberto Failla, Edwin M. Robertson
Adaptive behaviour is supported by changes in neuronal networks. Insight into maintaining these memories — preventing their catastrophic loss — despite further network changes occurring due to novel learning is provided in a new study.
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Cortical cellular encoding of thermotactile integration Curr. Biol. (IF 9.2) Pub Date : 2024-04-05 Philipp Schnepel, Ricardo Paricio-Montesinos, Ivan Ezquerra-Romano, Patrick Haggard, James F.A. Poulet
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Daphnia uses its circadian clock for short-day recognition in environmental sex determination Curr. Biol. (IF 9.2) Pub Date : 2024-04-04 Shione Abe, Yugo Takahata, Hitoshi Miyakawa
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A receptor required for chitin perception facilitates arbuscular mycorrhizal associations and distinguishes root symbiosis from immunity Curr. Biol. (IF 9.2) Pub Date : 2024-04-03 Jingyi Zhang, Jongho Sun, Chai Hao Chiu, David Landry, Kangping Li, Jiangqi Wen, Kirankumar S. Mysore, Sébastien Fort, Benoit Lefebvre, Giles E.D. Oldroyd, Feng Feng
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Effects of neural oscillation power and phase on discrimination performance in a visual tilt illusion Curr. Biol. (IF 9.2) Pub Date : 2024-04-02 Jessica G. Williams, William J. Harrison, Henry A. Beale, Jason B. Mattingley, Anthony M. Harris
Neural oscillations reflect fluctuations in the relative excitation/inhibition of neural systems1,2,3,4,5 and are theorized to play a critical role in canonical neural computations6,7,8,9 and cognitive processes.10,11,12,13,14 These theories have been supported by findings that detection of visual stimuli fluctuates with the phase of oscillations prior to stimulus onset.15,16,17,18,19,20,21,22,23 However
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A chronometric study of the posterior cerebellum’s function in emotional processing Curr. Biol. (IF 9.2) Pub Date : 2024-04-01 Andrea Ciricugno, Chiara Ferrari, Lorella Battelli, Zaira Cattaneo
The posterior cerebellum is a recently discovered hub of the affective and social brain, with different subsectors contributing to different social functions. However, very little is known about when the posterior cerebellum plays a critical role in social processing. Due to its location and anatomy, it has been difficult to use traditional approaches to directly study the chronometry of the cerebellum