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Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on September 3, 2025 at 12:44pm

When the germ-free mice were just a handful of days old, the researchers found fewer neurons in their PVN, even when microbes were introduced after birth. That suggests the changes caused by these microorganisms happen in the uterus during development.

These neural modifications last, too: the researchers also found that the PVN was neuron-light even in adult mice, if they'd been raised to be germ-free. However, the cross-fostering experiment was not continued into adulthood (around eight weeks).

The details of this relationship still need to be worked out and researched in greater detail, but the takeaway is that microbes – specifically the mix of microbes in the mother's gut – can play a notable role in the brain development of their offspring.
Rather than shunning our microbes, we should recognize them as partners in early life development. They're helping build our brains from the very beginning, say the researchers.
While this has only been shown in mouse models so far, there are enough biological similarities between mice and humans that there's a chance we're also shaped by our mother's microbes before we're born.

One of the reasons this matters is because practices like Cesarean sections and the use of antibiotics around birth are known to disrupt certain types of microbe activity – which may in turn be affecting the health of newborns.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0018506X25000686...

Part 2

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Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on September 3, 2025 at 12:42pm

Mother's Germs May  Influence Her Child's Brain Development

Our bodies are colonized by a teeming, ever-changing mass of microbes that help power countless biological processes. Now, a new study has identified how these microorganisms get to work shaping the brain before birth.
Researchers at Georgia State University studied newborn mice specifically bred in a germ-free environment to prevent any microbe colonization. Some of these mice were immediately placed with mothers with normal microbiota, which leads to microbes being transferred rapidly.

That gave the study authors a way to pinpoint just how early microbes begin influencing the developing brain. Their focus was on the paraventricular nucleus (PVN), a region of the hypothalamus tied to stress and social behavior, already known to be partly influenced by microbe activity in mice later in life.
At birth, a newborn body is colonized by microbes as it travels through the birth canal.
Birth also coincides with important developmental events that shape the brain.
Part 1

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on September 3, 2025 at 11:23am

Scientists develop the world's first 6G chip, capable of 100 Gbps speeds

Sixth generation, or 6G, wireless technology is one step closer to reality with news that  researchers have unveiled the world's first "all-frequency" 6G chip. The chip is capable of delivering mobile internet speeds exceeding 100 gigabits per second (Gbps).

6G technology is the successor to 5G and promises to bring about a massive leap in how we communicate. It will offer benefits such as ultra-high-speed connectivity, ultra-low latency and AI integration that can manage and optimize networks in real-time. To achieve this, 6G networks will need to operate across a range of frequencies, from standard microwaves to much higher frequency terahertz waves. Current 5G technology utilizes a limited set of radio frequencies, similar to those used in previous generations of wireless technologies.

The new chip is no bigger than a thumbnail, measuring 11 millimeters by 1.7 millimeters. It operates across a wide frequency range, from 0.5 GHz to 115 GHz, which traditionally takes nine separate radio systems to cover this spectrum. While the development of a single all-frequency chip is a significant breakthrough, the technology is still in its early stages of development. Many experts expect that commercial 6G networks will begin to roll out around 2030.

Zihan Tao et al, Ultrabroadband on-chip photonics for full-spectrum wireless communications, Nature (2025). DOI: 10.1038/s41586-025-09451-8

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on September 3, 2025 at 10:07am

Removing yellow stains from fabric with blue light

Sweat and food stains can ruin your favorite clothes. But bleaching agents such as hydrogen peroxide or dry-cleaning solvents that remove stains aren't options for all fabrics, especially delicate ones. Now, researchers in ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering report a simple way to remove yellow stains using a high-intensity blue LED light. They demonstrate the method's effectiveness at removing stains from orange juice, tomato juice and sweat-like substances on multiple fabrics, including silk.

The method utilizes visible blue light in combination with ambient oxygen, which acts as the oxidizing agent to drive the photobleaching process.This approach avoids the use of harsh chemical oxidants typically required in conventional bleaching methods, making it inherently more sustainable.

Yellow clothing stains are caused by squalene and oleic acid from skin oils and sweat, as well as natural pigments like beta carotene and lycopene, present in oranges, tomatoes and other foods. UV light is a potential stain-removing alternative to chemical oxidizers like bleach and hydrogen peroxide, but it can damage delicate fabrics.

The same researchers previously determined that a high-intensity blue LED light could remove yellow color from aged resin polymers, and they wanted to see whether blue light could also break down yellow stains on fabric without causing damage.

Initially, they exposed vials of beta carotene, lycopene and squalene to high-intensity blue LED light for three hours. All the samples lost color, and spectroscopic analyses indicated that oxygen in the air helped the photobleaching process by breaking bonds to produce colorless compounds.

Next, the team applied squalene onto cotton fabric swatches. After heating the swatches to simulate aging, they treated the samples for 10 minutes, by soaking them in a hydrogen peroxide solution or exposing them to the blue LED or UV light. The blue light reduced the yellow stain substantially more than hydrogen peroxide or UV exposure. In fact, UV exposure generated some new yellow-colored compounds.
Additional tests showed that the blue LED treatment lightened squalene stains on silk and polyester without damaging the fabrics. The method also reduced the color of other stain-causing substances, including aged oleic acid, orange juice and tomato juice, on cotton swatches.

High-intensity blue LED light is a promising way to remove clothing stains, but the researchers say they want to do additional colorfastness and safety testing before commercializing a light system for home and industrial use.

Tomohiro Sugahara et al, Environmentally Friendly Photobleaching Method Using Visible Light for Removing Natural Stains from Clothing, ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering (2025). DOI: 10.1021/acssuschemeng.5c03907

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on September 3, 2025 at 7:26am

Magnetic fields in infant universe may have been billions of times weaker than a fridge magnet

The magnetic fields that formed in the very early stages of the universe may have been billions of times weaker than a small fridge magnet, with strengths comparable to magnetism generated by neurons in the human brain. Yet, despite such weakness, quantifiable traces of their existence still remain in the cosmic web, the visible cosmic structures connected throughout the universe.

These conclusions emerge from a study using around a quarter of a million computer simulations.

The research, recently published in Physical Review Letters, specifies both possible and maximum values for the strengths of primordial magnetic fields. It also offers the possibility of refining our knowledge of the early universe and the formation of the first stars and galaxies.

 Mak Pavičević et al, Constraints on Primordial Magnetic Fields from the Lyman- α Forest, Physical Review Letters (2025). DOI: 10.1103/77rd-vkpz. On arXiv: DOI: 10.48550/arxiv.2501.06299

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on September 3, 2025 at 7:24am

Deforestation reduces rainfall by 74% and increases temperatures by 16% in Amazon during dry season, study found

Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon is responsible for approximately 74.5% of the reduction in rainfall and 16.5% of the temperature increase in the biome during the dry season. For the first time, researchers have quantified the impact of vegetation loss and global climate change on the forest.

The study provides fundamental results to guide effective mitigation and adaptation strategies.

How climate change and deforestation interact in the transformation of the Amazon rainforest, Nature Communications (2025). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-025-63156-0

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on September 3, 2025 at 7:21am

How bacteria bounce back after antibiotics

A study by researchers has uncovered how Escherichia coli (E. coli) persister bacteria survive antibiotics by protecting their genetic instructions.

The work, published in Nature Microbiology, offers new hope for tackling chronic, recurring infections.

Persister bacteria, which enter a dormant state to survive antibiotics that target active cells, are linked to over 20% of chronic infections and resist current treatments.

Understanding their survival mechanisms could lead to new ways to combat recurring infections. This study utilized E. coli bacteria as a model and found that prolonged stress leads to the increased formation of aggresomes (membraneless droplets) and the enrichment of mRNA (molecules that carry instructions for making proteins) within them, which enhances the ability of E. coli to survive and recover from stress.

Researchers used multiple approaches, including imaging, modeling, and transcriptomics, to show that prolonged stress leading to ATP (fuel for all living cells) depletion in Escherichia coli results in increased aggresome formation, their compaction, and enrichment of mRNA within aggresomes compared to the cytosol (the liquid inside of cells).

Transcript length was longer in aggresomes compared to the cytosol. Mass spectrometry showed exclusion of mRNA ribonuclease (an enzyme that breaks down RNA) from aggresomes, which was due to negative charge repulsion.

Experiments with fluorescent reporters and disruption of aggresome formation showed that mRNA storage within aggresomes promoted translation and was associated with reduced lag phases during growth after stress removal. These findings suggest that mRNA storage within aggresomes confers an advantage for bacterial survival and recovery from stress.

This breakthrough illuminates how persister cells survive and revive after antibiotic treatment. 

By targeting aggresomes, new drugs could disrupt this protective mechanism, preventing bacteria from storing mRNA and making them more vulnerable to elimination, thus reducing the risk of infection relapse.

Linsen Pei et al, Aggresomes protect mRNA under stress in Escherichia coli, Nature Microbiology (2025). DOI: 10.1038/s41564-025-02086-5

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on September 3, 2025 at 7:09am

 Generative AI designs molecules that kill drug-resistant bacteria

What if generative AI could design life-saving antibiotics, not just art and text? In a new Cell Biomaterials paper, researchers introduce AMP-Diffusion, a generative AI tool used to create tens of thousands of new antimicrobial peptides (AMPs)—short strings of amino acids, the building blocks of proteins—with bacteria-killing potential. In animal models, the most potent AMPs performed as well as FDA-approved drugs, without detectable adverse effects.

While past work has shown that AI can successfully sort through mountains of data to identify promising antibiotic candidates, this study adds to a small but growing number of demonstrations that AI can invent antibiotic candidates from scratch.

Using AMP-Diffusion, the researchers generated the amino-acid sequences for about 50,000 candidates. They used   AI to filter the results. 

After synthesizing the 46 most promising candidates, the researchers tested them in human cells and animal models. Treating skin infections in mice, two AMPs demonstrated efficacy on par with levofloxacin and polymyxin B, FDA-approved drugs used to treat antibiotic-resistant bacteria, without adverse effects.

In the future, the researchers hope to refine AMP-Diffusion, giving it the capability to denoise with a more specific goal in mind, like treating a particular type of bacterial infection, among other features.

Generative latent diffusion language modeling yields anti-infective synthetic peptides, Cell Biomaterials (2025). DOI: 10.1016/j.celbio.2025.100183. www.cell.com/cell-biomaterials … 3050-5623(25)00174-6

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on September 3, 2025 at 6:54am

Genetic mechanism reveals how plants coordinate flowering with light and temperature conditions

Plants may be stuck in one place, but the world around them is constantly changing. In order to grow and flower at the right time, plants must constantly collect information about their surroundings, measuring things like temperature, brightness, and length of day. Still, it's unclear how all this information gets combined to trigger specific behaviors.

Scientists have discovered a genetic mechanism for how plants integrate light and temperature information to control their flowering.

In a study published in Nature Communications, the researchers found an interaction between two genetic pathways that signals the presence of both blue light and low temperature. This genetic module helps plants fine-tune their flowering to the optimal environmental conditions.

In one pathway, blue light activates the PHOT2 blue light receptor, with help from partner protein NPH3. In another pathway, low ambient temperature allows a transcription factor called CAMTA2 to boost the expression of a gene called EHB1. Importantly, EHB1 is known to interact with NPH3, placing NPH3 at the convergence point of the blue light and low temperature signals. This this genetic architecture effectively works as a coincidence detector, linking the presence of blue light and low temperature to guide the switch to flowering.

The study describes an important component of plant growth, reproduction, and information processing. The newly discovered genetic module allows plants to have fine control over their flowering in low temperatures. Understanding this system will now help scientists optimize crop growth under changing environmental conditions.  

Adam Seluzicki et al, Genetic architecture of a light-temperature coincidence detector, Nature Communications (2025). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-025-62194-y

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on September 3, 2025 at 6:49am

World's oldest host-associated bacterial DNA found

An international team led by researchers at the Center for Paleogenetics, has uncovered microbial DNA preserved in woolly and steppe mammoth remains dating back more than one million years. The analyses reveal some of the world's oldest microbial DNA ever recovered, as well as the identification of bacteria that possibly caused disease in mammoths. The findings are published in Cell.

Researchers analyzed microbial DNA from 483 mammoth specimens, of which 440 were sequenced for the first time. Among them was a steppe mammoth that lived about 1.1 million years ago. Using advanced genomic and bioinformatic techniques, the team distinguished microbes that once lived alongside the mammoths from those that invaded their remains after death.

 Ancient Host-Associated Microbes obtained from Mammoth Remains, Cell (2025). DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2025.08.003. www.cell.com/cell/fulltext/S0092-8674(25)00917-1

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