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Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on December 14, 2025 at 8:52am

Cancer-promoting DNA circles hitchhike on chromosomes to spread to daughter cells

Extrachromosomal DNA circles (ecDNA) in cancer cells persist by attaching to chromosomes during cell division using specific retention elements, mimicking natural gene regulation mechanisms. Disrupting this attachment, such as by adding methyl groups to retention elements, leads to ecDNA loss and reduced cancer cell survival, highlighting a potential therapeutic target for cancer treatment.

Venkat Sankar et al, Genetic elements promote retention of extrachromosomal DNA in cancer cells, Nature (2025). DOI: 10.1038/s41586-025-09764-8

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Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on December 14, 2025 at 8:52am

Playing specific bat-like ultrasounds can suppress moth reproduction, offering a smart way to protect crops Exposure to bat-like ultrasonic pulses alters the behavior of Autographa nigrisigna moths, with higher pulse repetition rates causing erratic flight or flight cessation, especially in egg-bearing females. This response reduces egg-laying and suggests that ultrasonic cues can be used to suppress moth reproduction, offering a potential environmentally friendly method for crop protection.

Ming Siang Lem et al, Ultrasonic pulse repetition rates triggering escape responses of a moth pest, Pest Management Science (2025). DOI: 10.1002/ps.70204

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on December 14, 2025 at 8:52am

Scientists call for greater focus on conserving whole ecosystems instead of charismatic species

Conservation programs are often too focused on a single charismatic species.

 

With many species worldwide experiencing population declines, there is an urgent need for conservation initiatives to support their recovery. However, this urgency, combined with insufficient scientific knowledge about endangered species, means that conservationists have often relied on oversimplified measures of success. For example, historical conservation efforts often focused on the abundance of a single charismatic species as a proxy for overall ecosystem health.

 

Researchers highlight three examples from China where oversimplified conservation priorities led to negative outcomes. The Chinese giant salamander (Andrias davidianus) is known as a "cryptic species," because it has multiple, genetically distinct populations that look identical to the naked eye.

Unaware of this, conservationists began a large-scale captive breeding and reintroduction program, which led to genetic mixing that threatened native populations. In the case of the crested Ibis (Nipponia nippon) and Père David's deer (Elaphurus davidianus), intensive captive breeding and release programs with limited suitable habitat have resulted in overcrowding, inbreeding and increased mortality.

Although well-intentioned, these initiatives have caused unforeseen issues for the ecosystem, and have often failed to improve the conservation status of the target species.

To avoid repeating these mistakes, the researchers advocate for a more nuanced approach to conservation, focused on creating balanced ecosystems, restoring habitats and minimizing human intervention. Although there has recently been more emphasis placed on protecting whole ecosystems, charismatic species conservation is still prevalent in the world.

Conservation programs that aim to preserve and restore ecosystem functions are a more effective use of limited resources, and are less likely to have unintended consequences, the researchers say. 

Shi H-T, et al. Are we over-conserving charismatic species? PLOS Biology (2025). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pbio.3003494

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on December 14, 2025 at 8:51am

Cancer cells keep their chromosomes intact to continue dividing relentlessly

Cancer cells maintain their ability to divide by using telomerase to repair chromosome ends (telomeres). An internal actin protein network in the nucleus helps telomerase access damaged telomeres, supporting cell survival even after chemotherapy-induced DNA damage. Targeting telomerase or this actin network could enhance chemotherapy effectiveness and reduce side effects.

Ashley Harman et al, Nuclear actin and DNA replication stress regulate telomere maintenance by telomerase, Nature Communications (2025). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-025-66506-0

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on December 14, 2025 at 8:51am

Fossils reveal anacondas have been giants for over 12 million years

Researchers  analyzed giant anaconda fossils from South America to deduce that these tropical snakes reached their maximum size 12.4 million years ago and have remained giants ever since.

Many animal species that lived 12.4 to 5.3 million years ago, in the period known as the "Middle to Upper Miocene," were much bigger than their modern relatives due to warmer global temperatures, extensive wetlands and an abundance of food.

While other Miocene giants—like the 12-meter caiman (Purussaurus) and the 3.2-meter giant freshwater turtle (Stupendemys)—have since gone extinct, anacondas (Eunectes) bucked the trend by surviving as a giant species.

Anacondas are among the largest living snakes in the world. They are usually four to five meters long and in rare cases can reach seven meters.

The team measured 183 fossilized anaconda backbones, representing at least 32 snakes, discovered in Falcón State in Venezuela, South America. Combining these measurements with fossil data from other sites in South America allowed them to calculate that ancient anacondas would have been four to five meters long. This matches the size of anacondas that exist today. 

An early origin of gigantism in anacondas (Serpentes: Eunectes) revealed by the fossil record, Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology (2025). DOI: 10.1080/02724634.2025.2572967

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on December 14, 2025 at 8:51am

Ant brood signal deadly infection in altruistic self-sacrifice

Terminally ill ant pupae emit specific non-volatile odor signals that prompt worker ants to remove and disinfect them, preventing pathogen spread within the colony. This targeted signaling occurs only when infections are uncontrollable, ensuring colony health while minimizing unnecessary sacrifice, and parallels immune responses in multicellular organisms.

Sylvia Cremer, Altruistic disease signalling in ant colonies, Nature Communications (2025). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-025-66175-z. www.nature.com/articles/s41467-025-66175-z

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on December 14, 2025 at 8:50am

Electric vehicle high-nickel batteries: Fundamental cause of performance degradation identified

Succinonitrile (CN₄), an electrolyte additive previously used to enhance stability in lithium-ion batteries, has been identified as a primary cause of rapid degradation in high-nickel batteries. CN₄ binds strongly to nickel ions, disrupting the cathode’s protective layer, causing structural damage, and accelerating performance loss.

Seung Hee Han et al, Unveiling Bidentate Nitrile-Driven Structural Degradation in High-Nickel Cathodes, ACS Energy Letters (2025). DOI: 10.1021/acsenergylett.5c02845

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on December 14, 2025 at 8:49am

Deadly Asian floods are no fluke.

They're a climate warning, scientists say Southeast Asia is experiencing increasingly severe and unpredictable floods and storms, consistent with climate change projections. The region is warming nearly twice as fast as the global average, intensifying extreme weather events. Governments are struggling to prepare for and respond to these disasters, which are exacerbated by deforestation and unregulated development. Economic losses are substantial, while climate finance remains insufficient.
Climate patterns last year helped set the stage for 2025's extreme weather.Atmospheric levels of heat-trapping carbon dioxide jumped by the most on record in 2024. That "turbocharged" the climate, the United Nation's World Meteorological Organization says, resulting in more extreme weather.Asia is bearing the brunt of such changes, warming nearly twice as fast as the global average. Scientists agree that the intensity and frequency of extreme weather events are increasingWarmer ocean temperatures provide more energy for storms, making them stronger and wetter, while rising sea levels amplify storm surges While the total number of storms may not dramatically increase, their severity and unpredictability will What we're seeing in the region is dramatic and it's unfortunately a stark reminder of the consequences of the climate crisis, scientists conclude.
Source: News Agenices

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on December 14, 2025 at 8:48am

NASA discovers new bacteria 'playing dead'

New research conducted on a NASA-discovered bacterium shows the microbe is capable of entering an extreme dormant state, essentially "playing dead" to survive in some of the cleanest environments on Earth. 

The finding could potentially reshape how scientists think about microbial survival on spacecraft and the challenges of preventing contamination during missions to space. Preventing contamination matters because it helps keep space missions safe, while ensuring that any signs of life spotted elsewhere in the solar system can be trusted.

It shows that some microbes can enter ultra-low metabolic states that let them survive extremely austere environments, including clean rooms that naturally select for the hardiest organisms.

The fact that this bacterium can intentionally suspend its metabolism makes survival on spacecraft surfaces or during deep-space cruise more plausible than previously assumed .

What stood out most to me is that these microbes don't form spores .  Seeing a non-spore-former achieve comparable robustness through metabolic shutdown alone suggests there are additional, underappreciated survival mechanisms in bacteria that we haven't fully characterized.

Madhan Tirumalai et al, Tersicoccus phoenicis (Actinobacteria), a spacecraft clean room isolate, exhibits dormancy, Microbiology Spectrum (2025). DOI: 10.1128/spectrum.01692-25

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on December 14, 2025 at 8:48am

'Brainquake' phenomenon links psychotic states to chaotic information flow

Some psychiatric disorders, particularly schizophrenia and bipolar disorder (BP), can prompt the emergence of so-called psychotic states, mental states characterized by distorted thinking patterns, altered perceptions and unusual beliefs. Detecting and diagnosing these states is not always easy, as they often overlap with the symptoms of other mental health disorders, and reliable methods to identify psychosis are still lacking.

Researchers  recently carried out a study aimed at further exploring the neural signatures of psychotic states. Their findings, published in Molecular Psychiatry, suggest that the activity in the brains of individuals who are experiencing psychosis is significantly more random, following patterns that hint at an unstable flow of information.

As part of their study, the researchers scanned the brains of individuals diagnosed with BP or schizophrenia using fMRI.  They looked at the complexity of the activity patterns in the participants' brains. Moreover, they tried to understand how information flowed between different brain regions, used tools rooted in information theory. Specifically, they tried to measure the overlapping of information (i.e., redundancy) and combination of information (i.e., synergy) within specific brain networks. 

To further investigate these disruptions, they estimated brain network connectivity using redundancy and synergy measures, aiming to assess the integration and segregation of topological information in the psychotic brain. Their findings reveal a disruption in the balance between redundant and synergistic information, a phenomenon they term brainquake in this study, which highlights the instability and disorganization of brain networks in psychosis.

They found that this "brainquake" disruption resulted in a widespread instability across several neural networks involved in the processing of emotions and sensory information, as well as memory and other mental functions. 

This  exploration of higher-order topological functional connectivity reveals profound disruptions in brain information integration, wrote the authors in their research paper.

Aberrant information interactions were observed across both cortical and subcortical ICNs. They specifically identified the most easily affected irregularities in the sensorimotor, visual, temporal, default mode, and fronto-parietal networks, as well as in the hippocampal and amygdalar regions, all of which showed disruptions. 

The findings underscore the severe impact of psychotic states on multiscale critical brain networks, suggesting a profound alteration in the brain's complexity and organizational states.

Qiang Li et al, Spatiotemporal complexity in the psychotic brain, Molecular Psychiatry (2025). DOI: 10.1038/s41380-025-03367-5. 

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