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Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on September 16, 2025 at 10:33am

In the history of evolution, life sometimes undergoes transitions which change what it means to be an individual. This happened when single cells evolved to become multicellular organisms and social insects evolved into ultra-cooperative colonies. These individuality transitions transform how life is organized, adapts and reproduces. Biologists have been skeptical that such a transition is occurring in humans.

But the researchers suggest that because culture is fundamentally shared, our shift to cultural adaptation also means a fundamental reorganization of human individuality—toward the group.
Cultural organization makes groups more cooperative and effective. And larger, more capable groups adapt—via cultural change—more rapidly. It's a mutually reinforcing system, and the data suggest it is accelerating.
For example, genetic engineering is a form of cultural control of genetic material, but genetic engineering requires a large, complex society. So, in the far future, if the hypothesized transition ever comes to completion, our descendants may no longer be genetically evolving individuals, but societal "superorganisms" that evolve primarily via cultural change.
The researchers emphasize that their theory is testable and lay out a system for measuring how fast the transition is happening. The team is also developing mathematical and computer models of the process and plans to initiate a long-term data collection project in the near future. They caution, however, against treating cultural evolution as progress or inevitability.
They are not suggesting that some societies, like those with more wealth or better technology, are morally 'better' than others. Evolution can create both good solutions and brutal outcomes. They think this might help our whole species avoid the most brutal parts.
The goal of this work goal is to use their understanding of deep patterns in human evolution to foster positive social change.
Still, the new research raises profound questions about humanity's future. "If cultural inheritance continues to dominate, our fates as individuals, and the future of our species, may increasingly hinge on the strength and adaptability of our societies.
And if so, the next stage of human evolution may not be written in DNA, but in the shared stories, systems, and institutions we create together, the researchers conclude.

Timothy M Waring et al, Cultural inheritance is driving a transition in human evolution, BioScience (2025). DOI: 10.1093/biosci/biaf094. academic.oup.com/bioscience/ad … osci/biaf094/8230384

Part 2

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on September 16, 2025 at 10:28am

Culture is overtaking genetics in shaping human evolution, researchers argue

Some Researchers are theorizing that human beings may be in the midst of a major evolutionary shift—driven not by genes, but by culture.

In a paper published in BioScience, they argue that culture is overtaking genetics as the main force shaping human evolution.

"When we learn useful skills, institutions or technologies from each other, we are inheriting adaptive cultural practices. On reviewing the evidence, we find that culture solves problems much more rapidly than genetic evolution. This suggests our species is in the middle of a great evolutionary transition", they say.

Cultural practices—from farming methods to legal codes—spread and adapt far faster than genes can, allowing human groups to adapt to new environments and solve novel problems in ways biology alone could never match. According to the research team, this long-term evolutionary transition extends deep into the past, it is accelerating, and may define our species for millennia to come.

Cultural evolution eats genetic evolution for breakfast, they argue. 

 In the modern environment cultural systems adapt so rapidly they routinely "preempt" genetic adaptation. For example, eyeglasses and surgery correct vision problems that genes once left to natural selection.

Medical technologies like cesarean sections or fertility treatments allow people to survive and reproduce in circumstances that once would have been fatal or sterile. These cultural solutions, researchers argue, reduce the role of genetic adaptation and increase our reliance on cultural systems such as hospitals, schools and governments.

Today, your well-being is determined less and less by your personal biology and more and more by the cultural systems that surround you—your community, your nation, your technologies. And the importance of culture tends to grow over the long term because culture accumulates adaptive solutions more rapidly.

Over time, this dynamic could mean that human survival and reproduction depend less on individual genetic traits and more on the health of societies and their cultural infrastructure.

But, this transition comes with a twist. Because culture is fundamentally a shared phenomenon, culture tends to generate group-based solutions.

Using evidence from anthropology, biology and history, Waring and Wood argue that group-level cultural adaptation has been shaping human societies for millennia, from the spread of agriculture to the rise of modern states. They note that today, improvements in health, longevity and survival reliably come from group-level cultural systems like scientific medicine and hospitals, sanitation infrastructure and education systems rather than individual intelligence or genetic change.
The researchers argue that if humans are evolving to rely on cultural adaptation, we are also evolving to become more group-oriented and group-dependent, signaling a change in what it means to be human.
Part1

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on September 16, 2025 at 10:13am

Ants defend plants from herbivores, but can hinder pollination by bees

Around 4,000 plant species from different parts of the world secrete nectar outside their flowers, such as on their stems or leaves, through secretory glands known as extrafloral nectaries. Unlike floral nectar, extrafloral nectar does not attract pollinators; rather, it attracts insects that defend plants, such as ants. These insects feed on the sweet liquid and, in return, protect the plant from herbivores. However, this protection comes at a cost.

A study published in the Journal of Ecology points out that the presence of ants can reduce the frequency and duration that bees visit the flowers of plants with extrafloral nectaries.

Pollination is only impaired when extrafloral nectaries are close to the flowers. Plants with these glands in other locations, such as on their leaves or branches, had increased reproductive success, likely due to the protection against herbivores provided by ants.

On the other hand, butterflies, another group of pollinators, are not affected by ants. This may be due to the way these two groups feed. Butterflies use a long, straw-like organ called a proboscis to suck nectar from a distance, keeping them safe from ants.

Bees, on the other hand, need to get very close to the flower to collect pollen and floral nectar, but ants don't allow them to stay for long. Not surprisingly, the new analysis showed that the presence of ants is detrimental to pollination when extrafloral nectaries are close to flowers, but has a positive effect on plant reproduction when they're located further away.

The conclusions are the result of an analysis of data from 27 empirical studies on the relationships between ants, pollinators, and plants with extrafloral nectaries. The articles were selected from an initial screening of 567 studies after applying inclusion and exclusion criteria. The data were compiled and analyzed with computational tools.

Amanda Vieira da Silva et al, Ants on flowers: Protective ants impose a low but variable cost to pollination, moderated by location of extrafloral nectaries and type of flower visitor, Journal of Ecology (2025). DOI: 10.1111/1365-2745.70087

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on September 16, 2025 at 9:49am

The death of the dinosaurs reengineered Earth

Dinosaurs had such an immense impact on Earth that their sudden extinction led to wide-scale changes in landscapes—including the shape of rivers—and these changes are reflected in the geologic record, according to a new study.

Scientists have long recognized the stark difference in rock formations from just before dinosaurs went extinct to just after, but chalked it up to sea level rise, coincidence, or other abiotic reasons. But the new study shows that once dinosaurs were extinguished, forests were allowed to flourish, which had a strong impact on rivers.

Studying these rock layers, the researchers suggest that dinosaurs were likely enormous "ecosystem engineers," knocking down much of the available vegetation and keeping land between trees open and weedy. The result was rivers that spilled openly, without wide meanders, across landscapes. Once the dinosaurs perished, forests were allowed to flourish, helping stabilize sediment and corralling water into rivers with broad meanders.

Their results, published in the journal Communications Earth & Environment, demonstrate how rapidly the Earth can change in response to catastrophic events.

Very often when we're thinking about how life has changed through time and how environments change through time, it's usually that the climate changes and, therefore, it has a specific effect on life, or this mountain has grown and, therefore, it has a specific effect on life. It's rarely thought that life itself could actually alter the climate and the landscape. The arrow doesn't just go in one direction, the researchers say.

 Dinosaur extinction can explain continental facies shifts at the Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary, Communications Earth & Environment (2025). DOI: 10.1038/s43247-025-02673-8

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on September 16, 2025 at 9:43am

Scientists discover how nanoplastics disrupt brain energy metabolism

Scientists have discovered how nanoplastics—even smaller than microplastics—disrupt energy metabolism in brain cells. Their findings may have implications for better understanding neurodegenerative diseases characterized by declining neurological or brain function, and even shed new light on issues with learning and memory.

The study has revealed the specific mechanism by which these tiny nanoplastics can interfere with energy production in the brain in an animal model. The findings, recently published in the Journal of Hazardous Materials: Plastics, provide fresh insights into the potential health risks posed by environmental plastics.

Polystyrene nanoplastics (PS-NPs) are produced when larger plastics break down in the environment. These particles have been detected in multiple organs in the body, including the brain, sparking growing concerns about their possible role in neurological disease.

The researchers focused on mitochondria, which are critical for producing the energy needed for brain function. Mitochondrial dysfunction is a well-known feature of neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson's and Alzheimer's, as well as normal aging.

By isolating mitochondria from brain cells, the researchers showed that exposure to PS-NPs specifically disrupted the "electron transport chain," a simplified term for the set of protein complexes that work together to help generate cellular energy in the form of ATP. While individual mitochondrial complexes I and II were not directly impaired, electron transfer between complexes I–III and II–III, as well as the activity of complex IV, was significantly inhibited.

The scientists found that electron transfer between complex I–III and complex II–III was potently inhibited at much lower concentrations, suggesting environmentally relevant exposures could also impair bioenergetic function over chronic timeframes.

Interestingly, the same broad effects were seen in synaptic mitochondria, which are essential for communication between brain cells. This suggests that nanoplastics could also interfere with synaptic plasticity, a process fundamental to learning and memory.

D.M. Seward et al, Polystyrene nanoplastics target electron transport chain complexes in brain mitochondria, Journal of Hazardous Materials: Plastics (2025). DOI: 10.1016/j.hazmp.2025.100003

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on September 16, 2025 at 9:26am

Scientists engineer plants to double carbon uptake ability and produce more seeds and lipids

Typically, plants rely on the Calvin-Benson-Bassham (CBB) cycle to convert carbon dioxide in the atmosphere to usable organic matter for growth. Although this cycle is the main pathway for carbon fixation in all plants on Earth, it is surprisingly inefficient—losing one third of carbon in the cycle when synthesizing the molecule acetyl–coenzyme A (CoA) to generate lipids, phytohormones, and metabolites. Plants also lose carbon during photorespiration, which limits their growth. This is largely due to the inefficiency of an enzyme called RuBisCO.

In efforts to increase carbon uptake and reduce carbon loss in plants to boost biomass and lipid production, scientists have experimented with ways to increase the efficiency of RuBisCO, overexpress CBB cycle enzymes, introduce carbon-concentrating mechanisms, and reduce photorespiration losses. But, a new study published in Science, focuses on a novel approach—creating an altogether new pathway for carbon uptake.

The researchers involved in the study introduced a synthetic CO₂ uptake cycle into the plant Arabidopsis thaliana. They refer to the engineered cycle as the malyl-CoA-glycerate (McG) cycle, which works in conjunction with the CBB cycle to create a dual-cycle CO₂ fixation system. The new cycle increases efficiency by using previously wasted carbon.

"In the McG cycle, one additional carbon is fixed when 3PG is the input, or no carbon is lost when glycolate is the input. In both cases, acetyl-CoA is produced more efficiently, which is expected to enhance the production of lipids and other important plant metabolites, including phytohormones," the authors write.

 Kuan-Jen Lu et al, Dual-cycle CO₂ fixation enhances growth and lipid synthesis in Arabidopsis thaliana, Science (2025). DOI: 10.1126/science.adp3528

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on September 16, 2025 at 7:10am

The sound of crying babies makes our faces hotter, according to new research

Hearing a baby cry can trigger a range of responses in adults, such as sympathy, anxiety and a strong urge to help. However, new research suggests that a deeper physical reaction is also occurring. A baby's cry, particularly if it is in pain or distress, makes our faces physically warmer.

Since they can't speak yet, babies cry to communicate their needs, whether they're in pain or want some attention. When a baby is in distress, they forcefully contract their ribcage, which produces high-pressure air that causes their vocal cords to vibrate chaotically. This produces complex disharmonious sounds known as nonlinear phenomena (NLP).

To study how adults respond to crying babies, scientists played 23 different recordings to 41 men and women with little to no experience with young infants. At the same time, a thermal infrared imaging camera measured subtle changes to their facial temperatures. A rise in temperature in this part of the body is governed by the autonomic nervous system, a network of nerves that controls unconscious processes such as breathing and digestion. After each cry, the participants rated whether the baby was in discomfort or in pain.

The study found that adults' facial temperatures change when they hear a baby cry, a clear sign that the autonomic nervous system has been activated. This suggests that people unconsciously pick up on acoustic features in a baby's cry. The higher the level of NLP (meaning a baby is in more pain or distress), the stronger and more in sync the listener's facial temperature became. In other words, as the cry grew louder, a person's face grew warmer. This physiological reaction was the same for both men and women.

Lény Lego et al, Nonlinear acoustic phenomena tune the adults' facial thermal response to baby cries with the cry amplitude envelope, Journal of the Royal Society Interface (2025). DOI: 10.1098/rsif.2025.0150

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on September 16, 2025 at 7:05am

A pathological partnership between Salmonella and yeast in the gut

Researchers have found that a common gut yeast, Candida albicans, can help Salmonella typhimurium take hold in the intestine and spread through the body. When interacting, a Salmonella protein called SopB prompts the yeast to release arginine, which turns on Salmonella's invasion machinery and quiets the body's inflammation signals.

Gut microbes shape human health across colonization resistance, immune training, digestion, and signaling that reaches distant organs. Bacteria dominate both abundance and research attention, while roles for viruses and fungi remain less defined.

Altered mycobiome composition appears in multiple gastrointestinal diseases, and integration of fungi into gut ecology and into interactions with commensal and pathogenic bacteria remains largely unknown.

Non-typhoidal Salmonella ranks among the best-studied enteric pathogens, infecting an estimated 100 million people each year. Healthy individuals typically experience localized inflammatory diarrhea, while immunocompromised patients face risks of spread to peripheral organs.

Establishing gut colonization requires competition with resident microorganisms, and commensal fungi occur across tested mammalian species, yet mycobiome contributions during enteric infection remain largely unexplored.

Candida albicans is a frequent colonizer of human mucosal surfaces, present in the gut of more than 60% of healthy humans. Usual behavior is commensal, with pathogenic potential particularly in immunocompromised hosts. A key virulence trait is morphology switching from yeast to epithelium-penetrating hyphae.

Associations with inflammatory bowel disease, specifically Crohn's disease, have been reported. C. albicans cannot induce gut inflammation and has been shown to exacerbate it. Both Salmonella and C. albicans thrive under inflammatory gut conditions, and C. albicans likely resides in the gut of many patients at the time Salmonella infection occurs.

In the study, "Commensal yeast promotes Salmonella Typhimurium virulence," published in Nature, researchers investigated cross-kingdom interactions to determine how Candida albicans influences Salmonella colonization, systemic dissemination, and host inflammatory responses.

In the experiments conducted in mice, Candida in the gut led to higher Salmonella loads in the large intestine and more bacteria reaching the spleen and liver, with co-infected mice losing more weight. Candida also boosted Salmonella entry into human colon cell lines. Gene readouts showed Salmonella's invasion machinery switched on near Candida.

Co-cultures contained millimolar arginine, and adding L-arginine alone increased invasion in a dose-dependent way, while an arginine-transporter mutant did not respond to Candida. Candida lacking arginine production also failed to boost Salmonella invasion or gut colonization, and an ARG4 revertant restored the effect.

Researchers conclude that C. albicans colonization represents a susceptibility factor for Salmonella infection, with arginine acting as a pivotal metabolite connecting fungus, bacterium, and host. Findings point to SopB-driven arginine production in Candida that boosts Salmonella's invasion program while softening host inflammatory signals.

 Kanchan Jaswal et al, Commensal yeast promotes Salmonella Typhimurium virulence, Nature (2025). DOI: 10.1038/s41586-025-09415-y

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on September 13, 2025 at 8:40am

Researchers may have found a way to limit the debilitating damage strokes can cause

With limited treatment options for stroke patients available,  researchers are developing an experimental drug that is capable of protecting the brain and improving recovery after a cerebral vascular accident also known as a brain attack.

They targeted a small regulatory biological molecule called microRNA, which becomes abnormally elevated after stroke and promotes inflammation, contributes to tissue loss and causes a decline in neurological function. 

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are a class of non-coding RNAs, which do not translate into proteins, that play important roles in regulating gene expression. 

So the researchers developed a next-generation inhibitor of this MiRNA to block its harmful effects. 

Unlike traditional experimental drugs that target only a single protein or molecule, this approach simultaneously suppresses multiple damaging processes by targeting several proteins. This reduces brain injury, inflammation, and the damage of the tissue while enhancing protective factors that support repair.

 

 

Source: https://medicalxpress.com/news/2025-09-limit-debilitating.html?utm_...

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Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on September 13, 2025 at 8:22am

Microbial allies: Some Bacteria help fight against cancer

An international team of scientists have discovered that microbes associated with tumors produce a molecule that can control cancer progression and boost the effectiveness of chemotherapy.

Most people are familiar with the microbes on the skin or in the gut, but recent discoveries have revealed that tumors also host unique communities of bacteria. Scientists are now investigating how these tumor-associated bacteria can affect tumour growth and the response to chemotherapy.

New research, published online in Cell Systems, provides a significant breakthrough in this field, identifying a powerful anti-cancer metabolite produced by bacteria associated with colorectal cancer.

This finding opens the door to new strategies for treating cancer, including the development of novel drugs that could make existing therapies more potent.

The researchers used a sophisticated large-scale screening approach to test over 1,100 conditions in C. elegans. Through this, they found that the bacteria E. coli produced a molecule called 2-methylisocitrate (2-MiCit) that could improve the effectiveness of the chemotherapy drug 5-fluorouracil (5-FU).

Using computer modeling, the team demonstrated that the tumor-associated microbiome (bacteria found within and around tumors) of patients was also able to produce 2-MiCit. To confirm the effectiveness of 2-MiCit, the team used two further systems; human cancer cells and a fly model of colorectal cancer. In both cases, they found that 2-MiCit showed potent anti-cancer properties, and for the flies could extend survival.

Bacteria are associated with tumors, and now scientists are  starting to understand the chemical conversation they're having with cancer cells.

They found that one of these bacterial chemicals can act as a powerful partner for chemotherapy, disrupting the metabolism of cancer cells and making them more vulnerable to the drug.

The study revealed that 2-MiCit works by inhibiting a key enzyme in the mitochondria (structures inside cells that generate energy for cellular functions) of cancer cells. This leads to DNA damage and activates pathways known to reduce the progression of cancer. This multi-pronged attack weakens the cancer cells and works in synergy with 5-FU. The combination was significantly more effective at killing cancer cells than either compound alone.

These exciting discoveries highlight how the cancer-associated microbiome can impact tumor progression, and how metabolites produced by these bacteria could be harnessed to improve cancer treatments.

These findings are also important in the context of personalized medicine, emphasizing the importance of considering not only the patient, but also their microbes.

Daniel Martinez-Martinez et al, Chemotherapy modulation by a cancer-associated microbiota metabolite, Cell Systems (2025). DOI: 10.1016/j.cels.2025.101397

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