The ability to anticipate and flexibly plan for the future is critical for achieving goal-directed outcomes. Extant data suggest that neural and cognitive stress mechanisms may disrupt memory retrieval and restrict prospective planning, with deleterious impacts on behavior. Here, we examined whether and how acute psychological stress influences goal-directed navigational planning and efficient, flexible

Research over the past decade has established the gustatory insular cortex (GC) as a model for studying how primary sensory cortices integrate sensory, affective, and cognitive signals. This integration occurs through time-varying patterns of neural activity. Selective silencing of GC activity during specific temporal windows provided evidence for GC’s role in mediating taste palatability and expectation

Insects evolve dependence—often extreme—on microbes for nutrition. This includes cases in which insects harbor multiple endosymbionts that function collectively as a metabolic unit [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]. How do these dependences originate [6], and is there a predictable sequence of events leading to the integration of new symbionts? While co-obligate symbioses, in which hosts rely on multiple nutrient-provisioning

The potential for neuronal representations of external stimuli to be modified by previous experience is critical for efficient sensory processing and improved behavioral outcomes. To investigate how repeated exposure to a visual stimulus affects its representation in mouse primary visual cortex (V1), we performed two-photon calcium imaging of layer 2/3 neurons and assessed responses before, during

Memory allows organisms to predict future events based on their prior sampling of the world. Rather than faithfully encoding each detail of related episodes, the brain is thought to incrementally construct probabilistic estimates of environmental statistics that are re-evaluated each time relevant events are encountered [1]. When faced with evidence that does not adequately fit mnemonic predictions

Pain is an integrated sensory and affective experience. Cortical mechanisms of sensory and affective integration, however, remain poorly defined. Here, we investigate the projection from the primary somatosensory cortex (S1), which encodes the sensory pain information, to the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), a key area for processing pain affect, in freely behaving rats. By using a combination of optogenetics

Mammals and reptiles have evolved divergent adaptations for processing abrasive foods. Mammals have occluding, diphyodont dentitions with taller teeth (hypsodonty), more complex occlusal surfaces, continuous tooth eruption, and forms of prismatic enamel that prolong the functional life of each tooth [1, 2]. The evolution of prismatic enamel in particular was a key innovation that made individual teeth

Forests absorb a large fraction of anthropogenic CO2 emission, but their ability to continue to act as a sink under climate change depends in part on plant species undergoing rapid adaptation. Yet models of forest response to climate change currently ignore local adaptation as a response mechanism. Thus, considering the evolution of intraspecific trait variation is necessary for reliable, long-term

The human ability to imagine motor actions without executing them (i.e., motor imagery) is crucial to a number of cognitive functions, including motor planning and learning, and has been shown to improve response times and accuracy of subsequent motor actions [1, 2]. Although these behavioral findings suggest the possibility that imagined movements directly influence primary motor cortex (M1), how

The extracellular RNAs (exRNAs) from human biofluid have recently been systematically characterized. However, the correlations of biofluid exRNA levels and human diseases remain largely untested. Here, considering the unmet need for presymptomatic biomarkers of sporadic Alzheimer’s disease (AD), we leveraged the recently developed SILVER-seq (small-input liquid volume extracellular RNA sequencing)

Categorical perception is a fundamental cognitive function enabling animals to flexibly assign sounds into behaviorally relevant categories. This study investigates the nature of acoustic category representations, their emergence in an ascending series of ferret auditory and frontal cortical fields, and the dynamics of this representation during passive listening to task-relevant stimuli and during

ATP-binding cassette (ABC) transporters are the largest family of ATP-hydrolyzing transporters, which import or export substrates across membranes, and have members in every sequenced genome. Structural studies and biochemistry highlight the contrast between the global structural similarity of homologous transporters and the enormous diversity of their substrates. How do ABC transporters evolve to

Traction forces are generated by cellular actin-myosin system and transmitted to the environment through adhesions. They are believed to drive cell motion, shape changes, and extracellular matrix remodeling [1, 2, 3]. However, most of the traction force analysis has been performed on stationary cells, investigating forces at the level of individual focal adhesions or linking them to static cell parameters

Investigating the evolution of plant biochemistry is challenging because few metabolites are preserved in fossils and because metabolic networks are difficult to experimentally characterize in diverse extant organisms. We report a comparative computational approach based on whole-genome metabolic pathway databases of eight species representative of major plant lineages, combined with homologous relationships

Marine environments have increased in temperature by an average of 1°C since pre-industrial (1850) times [1]. Given that species ranges are closely allied to physiological thermal tolerances in marine organisms [2], it may therefore be expected that ocean warming would lead to abundance increases at poleward side of ranges and abundance declines toward the equator [3]. Here, we report a global analysis

Acoustic monitoring is increasingly used to observe wildlife that might otherwise remain elusive, such as marine mammals. It is also useful on land and in the air, however, enabling researchers to study a range of questions from evolution through to ecology. Michael Gross reports.

Two new studies use Drosophila to unravel the role of sleep in clearance of damaged neural processes.

Ecological interactions can generate strong selection. Two new studies reveal that the tempo and patterns of evolutionary change in a mammalian gut commensal can be altered dramatically during interactions with both the host and its microbiome.

A metagenomic study of marine sediments from a hydrothermal vent field in the Arctic Mid-Ocean Ridge revealed wider diversity amongst members of the phylum Chlamydiae than was previously known. Unlike known chlamydiae, some of the newly described marine-sediment species may be potentially free-living.

A new study has uncovered three mechanisms of motor-independent membrane tubulation. In vitro reconstitution using a minimal set of proteins shows that the accumulation of crosslinking proteins at the membrane–microtubule interface is sufficient to drive tubulation, which is enhanced by coupling with microtubule dynamics.

Roughly 1 billion people are infected with nematode parasites, but there is little understanding of the genomic changes that accompany the evolution of parasitism. A new study analyzes the genome of Caenorhabditis bovis, a nematode that may be evolving a parasitic lifestyle.

Are rats willing to avoid causing suffering in other rats? A new study shows that rats might change their behaviour if it is harmful to others.

Plants respond flexibly to changes in temperature. A new study shows that a small electrophilic, lipid-derived molecule protects both land plants and streptophyte algae from high temperature. This suggests that a mechanism of thermal signalling was present in the common ancestor of the land plants and streptophyte algae.

Oxygen is essential for many organisms who have therefore evolved mechanisms to enable survival during hypoxia. A new study describes how a well-known bacterial surfactant, called surfactin, facilitates bacterial viability when oxygen becomes limiting by reducing oxygen consumption.

Understanding the diversity of insect societies is tied to explaining the mechanisms of reproductive division of labor. Small societies were not expected to use chemical signals or queen pheromones for this purpose. A new study shows that one of them does while using unexpected compounds.

The velocity of intraflagellar transport among evolutionarily distant organisms differs substantially, while the transport machinery is well conserved. A new in vitro study finds that the velocity difference is encoded in the motor proteins driving transport.

Some nonhuman animals form adaptive long-term cooperative relationships with nonkin that seem analogous in form and function to human friendship [1, 2, 3, 4]. However, it remains unclear how these bonds initially form, especially when they entail investments of time and energy. Theory suggests individuals can reduce the risk of exploitation by initially spreading out smaller cooperative investments

The retrosplenial cortex (RSC) is involved in a broad range of cognitive functions, integrating rich sensory, motor, and spatial signals from multiple brain areas, including the hippocampal system. RSC neurons show hippocampus-dependent activity reminiscent of place cell sequences. Using cellular calcium imaging in a virtual reality (VR)-based locomotion task, we investigate how the integration of

An outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by the 2019 novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) began in the city of Wuhan in China and has widely spread worldwide. Currently, it is vital to explore potential intermediate hosts of SARS-CoV-2 to control COVID-19 spread. Therefore, we reinvestigated published data from pangolin lung samples from which SARS-CoV-like CoVs were detected by Liu et al

It has been hypothesized that crossmodal recalibration plays a crucial role for the development of multisensory integration capabilities [1]. To test the developmental trajectory of multisensory integration and crossmodal recalibration, we used a combined ventriloquist/ventriloquist aftereffect paradigm [2] in children aged 5–9 years. The ventriloquist effect (indicating multisensory integration),

Protected areas form the backbone of biodiversity conservation, yet their effectiveness is often not known nor even evaluated [1, 2, 3]. China—best known for its record of ecological degradation in the face of rapidly increasing gross domestic product and resource consumption [4]—has in recent years enacted a series of policies and programs to conserve its natural resources. Chief among them is an

Quantifying morphological evolution is key to determining the patterns and processes underlying the origin of phyla. We constructed a hierarchical morphological character matrix to characterize the radiation and establishment of echinoderm body plans during the early Paleozoic. This showed that subphylum-level clades diverged gradually through the Cambrian, and the distinctiveness of the resulting

Protected areas have been the cornerstone for conservation globally [1], but gaps still exist in preserving biodiversity [2]. Meanwhile, areas designated as protected have overlaps between designations and might vary in their management [3, 4]. All three phenomena—coverage gaps, overlapping designations, and disparities in management—are present in China [5, 6]. China plans to establish a national

Migratory animals move up to thousands of kilometers every year [1]. Losses of migration (i.e., migratory drop-offs) occur when individuals of a migratory species stop migrating and establish founder sedentary populations, a phenomenon documented in birds [2, 3, 4, 5] and butterflies [6]. In theory, losses—and also gains—of migration might promote speciation if sedentary and migratory populations become

Sleep is considered to be of crucial importance for performance and health, yet much of what we know about sleep is based on studies in a few mammalian model species under strictly controlled laboratory conditions. Data on sleep in different species under more natural conditions may yield new insights in the regulation and functions of sleep. We therefore performed a study with miniature electroencephalogram

Differential growth plays a crucial role during morphogenesis [1, 2, 3]. In plants, development occurs within mechanically connected tissues, and local differences in cell expansion lead to deformations at the organ level, such as buckling or bending [4, 5]. During early seedling development, bending of hypocotyl by differential cell elongation results in apical hook structure that protects the shoot

Sleep is a cross-species phenomenon whose evolutionary and biological function remain poorly understood. Clinical and animal studies suggest that sleep disturbance is significantly associated with disruptions in protein homeostasis—or proteostasis—in the brain, but the mechanism of this link has not been explored. In the cell, the protein kinase R (PKR)-like endoplasmic reticulum kinase (PERK) pathway

The linguistic distinction between function words (functors) (e.g., the, he, that, on…), signaling grammatical structure, and content words (e.g., house, blue, carry…), carrying meaning, is universal across the languages of the world. These two lexical categories also differ in their phonological makeup (functors being shorter and more minimal) and frequency of occurrence (individual functors being

In polygynous and polygynandrous species, there is often intense male-male competition over access to females, high male reproductive skew, and more male investment in mating effort than parenting effort [1]. However, the benefits derived from mating effort and parenting effort may change over the course of males’ lives. In many mammalian species, there is a ∩-shaped relationship between age, condition

The manual and pedal grasping abilities of primates, characterized by an opposable hallux, flat nails, and elongated digits, constitute a unique combination of features that likely promoted their characteristic use of arboreal habitats. These hand and foot specificities are central for understanding the origins and early evolution of primates and have long been associated with foraging in a fine-branch