Author: Michele Arduengo

Does a White Nose Belie a Wing Load of Problems? More on WNS

Posted on by Michele Arduengo
Affected bats in a cave in MA. Image courtesy of the U.S. Geological Survey.
Affected bats in a cave in MA. Image courtesy of the U.S. Geological Survey.

In a previous post, I wrote about White-Nose Syndrome (WNS) in hibernating bats in North America. WNS was first documented on February 2006, by a recreational caver exploring Howes Cave in New York, who photographed a bat with an unusual white growth on its muzzle. In the few years since that picture was snapped, hundreds of thousands of bats in North America have died from White-Nose Syndrome (1,2).

Suffering bats are emaciated with little or no body fat and have a characteristic white fungal growth on their wing membranes, ears and muzzles. Instead of hibernating all winter, these bats can be seen active in the snow, when there is virtually no food available for them (1,2).

The white fungal growth observed on the bats is the result of infection with a cold-loving fungus, which has been identified as a new species within the Geomyces genus, Geomyces destructans  (note added in 2016: this fungus is now called Pseudogymnoascus destructans) (1,3). Analysis of G. destructans samples suggests that the bats have been infected with G. destructans originating from a single source (3).

So far, according to Dr. David Blehert at the United States Geological Survey (USGS) – National Wildlife Health Center, no data indicate that there is any other etiologic agent at play here. G. destructans is the primary suspect. G. destructans has been found on hibernating bats in caves in Germany, France, Hungary, and Switzerland. However the affected bats in Europe are not emaciated, and those affected bats that were tracked after the initial isolation remained healthy (4). As far as scientists can tell, the European and North American isolates of G. destructans are the same.

In a new opinion paper published in BMC Biology, Cryan and colleagues put forth several hypotheses about how infection with G. destructans could cause the mortality observed in the North American bat populations (5).

Continue reading “Does a White Nose Belie a Wing Load of Problems? More on WNS”

When a Cold, Wet, White Nose Isn’t a Good Thing

Posted on by Michele Arduengo
Affected bats in a cave in MA. Image courtesy of the U.S. Geological Survey.
Affected bats in a cave in MA. Image courtesy of the U.S. Geological Survey.

On February 16, 2006, a recreational caver exploring Howes Cave in Albany, New York, photographed a bat with an unusual white growth on its muzzle. In the few years since that picture was snapped, hundreds of thousands of bats in North America have died from White-Nose Syndrome (WNS; 1,2).

The disease affects hibernating populations of bats, and has been found in the northeastern and eastern United States, as far south as Tennessee, as well as in the Canadian provinces of Quebec and Ontario (2).

Some suffering bats are emaciated with little or no body fat and have a characteristic white fungal growth on their wing membranes, ears and muzzles, hence the name “White-Nose Syndrome.” Instead of hibernating all winter, these bats can be seen active in the snow, when there is virtually no food available for them (1,2).

The white fungal growth observed on the bats is the result of infection with a previously undescribed cold-loving fungus,

Continue reading “When a Cold, Wet, White Nose Isn’t a Good Thing”

Head Shots

Posted on by Michele Arduengo

When the 1996 Olympics were being held in Atlanta, I remember Muhammad Ali lighting the torch at the opening ceremonies, and how he shook from the Parkinson disease that devastated his body.

Since the 1920s, repetitive head trauma has been recognized as a cause of loss of neurological function in boxers, a condition originally called “dementia pugilistica”.

I confess; I am a fan of the gladiator sport that is American football. I enjoy cheering for “my” Green Bay Packers, and I have even been to a game at historic Lambeau field. But I was astounded (and disappointed) when the big concussion brouhaha started in the NFL a couple of years ago, and the NFL seemed surprised that head injuries were linked to long-term neurological issues (1).

The concussion discussion continues in the NFL this year with the recent decision by the NFL to enforce, more strictly, the existing rules against illegal hits that are “devastating blows” or “head shots” because of a bad weekend when multiple players were sidelined with injuries resulting from helmet-to-helmet or “devastating” hits (2).

It’s an important discussion, not because it affects the NFL and how the game of football is played, but because it gets attention and resources placed toward understanding repeat head injuries and their long-term consequences.

A recent study published in the Journal of Neuropathology and Experimental Neurology (3), takes a first step to understanding the long-term consequences of repetitive head injuries.

Continue reading “Head Shots”

Ovarian Clear Cell Carcinoma: Frequently Occuring Mutations

Posted on by Michele Arduengo
A carcinoma resembling clear cell carcinoma. Source: NIH
A clear cell carcinoma.

In a 2010 study of ovarian clear cell carcinoma , Jones and colleagues report a discovery of a gene that is mutated in high frequency and is involved in epigenetic regulation of gene expression.

Continue reading “Ovarian Clear Cell Carcinoma: Frequently Occuring Mutations”

Cell-Free Artificial Photosynthesis with Frog Foam

Posted on by Michele Arduengo

We owe a lot to frogs and toads. They help us welcome in spring and summer with their peeps, croaks and snores in the evenings. They serve as bioindicator species that alert us to damaged or toxic environments. And, now, they may even help us kick the fossil fuel habit through an artificial photosynthesis matrix.

Skipper sitting on a foam nest of the meadow frog. A protein in the foam nest may provide a matrix for a cell-free artificial photosynthesis system.
A foam nest on a plant. Proteins from the foam could be useful in cell-free photosynthesis.

Biofuels, based on harvesting and converting plant biomass to fuel have been touted as an alternative to nonrenewable fossil fuels. The argument for them goes something like this:  Nature has a means for converting sunlight energy to chemical energy (photosynthesis). Why not just let Nature do the work for us, and harness that power?

Continue reading “Cell-Free Artificial Photosynthesis with Frog Foam”

Kudzu: “As Close to a ‘Polluting Plant’ As One Can Find”

Posted on by Michele Arduengo

Far Eastern vines
Run from the clay banks they are
Supposed to keep from eroding.
Up telephone poles,
Which rear, half out of leafage
As though they would shriek,
Like things smothered by their own
Green, mindless, unkillable ghosts.
In Georgia, the legend says
That you must close your windows
At night to keep it out of the house.
–from Kudzu by James Dickey

I grew up in rural Georgia, so I saw first hand how kudzu climbs up telephone poles, invades and conquers fields and strangles giant oaks. When I was in graduate school, ecology graduate students on the first floor of our building were searching madly for something, some bug, that would eat kudzu, in hopes that they might some day graduate.

So it was with great interest that I read the recently published paper by Hickman and colleagues describing in greater detail just how noxious a noxious weed Pueraria montana (kudzu) is.

Continue reading “Kudzu: “As Close to a ‘Polluting Plant’ As One Can Find””

Shining Light on the Walking Pathway

Posted on by Michele Arduengo

ResearchBlogging.orgCentral pattern generators (CPGs) are neural networks in the spinal cord that generate the rhythmic patterns observed in many complex movements like chewing, breathing and walking. Within CPGs excitatory glutamatergic neurons have been implicated in generating these rhythmic patterns, and glutamatergic neurons in the hindbrain region that extend into the spinal cord are thought to be important in initiating locomotion. However, direct evidence of the involvement of these neurons in such activities has been hard to obtain.

In a Nature Neuroscience paper, Hägglund et al. present evidence using a transgenic mouse model that these excitatory neurons are indeed involved in rhythmic pattern generation and initiating locomotion. Continue reading “Shining Light on the Walking Pathway”

Mate Selection at Frog Cocktail Parties: Keep it Short, Low, Loud, and Stand Out from the Crowd (Oh, and have a colorful vocal sac, too)

Posted on by Michele Arduengo
Hyla versicolor (Copes grey treefrog) Photo credit: LA Dawson wikipedia
Hyla versicolor (Copes grey treefrog) Photo credit: LA Dawson wikipedia

When I lived in Sioux City, IA, I had the opportunity of hanging out with a zoologist who studied the Plains Spadefoot Toad (Spea bombifrons). I would go out with her on nighttime listening surveys, and we would slowly drive the gravel farm roads in the middle of nowhere, weaving from one side to the other as we dodged hopping frogs and toads, and I would be amazed as the clamor of these calling anurans rattled my eardrums.

Just last week in Madison, as I took my lunchtime walk, I passed by a roadside wetland, and my ears filled with the calls of Chorus frogs, singing with all their one-inch might in hopes of attracting a mate. And, later that evening, as my daughter and I weeded our garden at home, I heard the crisp bell trill of two American toads carrying over the chorus frogs in the neighborhood.

Congresses of snoring Spadefoot Toads. In-your-face Copes Gray Tree Frogs. Peepers, Chorus Frogs and and Leopard Frogs. The evenings are noisy when the temperatures moderate and these frogs and toads come out to call. The din of the local roadside wetland begins to resemble the din of the local roadside bar, in more ways than one as it turns out.

Continue reading “Mate Selection at Frog Cocktail Parties: Keep it Short, Low, Loud, and Stand Out from the Crowd (Oh, and have a colorful vocal sac, too)”

Use Parallel Structure to Guide the Reader

Posted on by Michele Arduengo

Getting What You Want from Your Science Writing Part X

computer_keyboardParallel construction signals to the reader that two ideas are of equal importance. If two or more ideas or items are connected by a coordinating conjunction such as “and”, “but” or “or”, then those ideas should be expressed in parallel or equivalent grammatical constructs. Items and ideas of equal importance should be presented using equivalent grammatical structures. Items in a list should be parallel: all verbal phrases, all nouns, etc. Parallel construction guides your reader and helps your reader organize concepts on a first read of your text. Continue reading “Use Parallel Structure to Guide the Reader”

Sloppy Technicians and the Progress of Science

Posted on by Michele Arduengo

Then, in 1953, a geneticist in Texas accidentally mixed the wrong liquid with HeLa and a few other cells, and it turned out to be a fortunate mistake. The chromosomes inside the cells swelled and spread out, and for the first time, scientists could see each of them clearly. —Rebecca Skloot, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

Okay, Ms. Skloot, no fair teasing a geneticist reader like that. Who was the scientist in Texas? What was the wrong liquid? How long did it take for the scientist to realize he had launched the entire field of cytogenetics with his mistake? This inquiring mind wants to know. Continue reading “Sloppy Technicians and the Progress of Science”