Ecology: 'Devil's gardens' bedevilled by ants

'Devil's gardens' are large stands of trees in the Amazonian rainforest that consist almost entirely of a single species, Duroia hirsuta, and, according to local legend, are cultivated by an evil forest spirit. Here we show that the ant Myrmelachista schumanni, which nests in D. hirsuta stems, creates devil's gardens by poisoning all plants except its host plants with formic acid. By killing these other plants, M. schumanni provides its colonies with abundant nest sites--a long-lasting benefit as colonies can live for 800 years.     

On phosphorylation in brain tissue in the chick

Zusammenfassung Der Austausch von P³² zwischen anorganischem Phosphat und ATP war grösser in der Leber als im Gehirn des Hühnchens. Dieser Unterschied in den zwei Geweben ist jedoch nach dem Ausbrüten des Embryos grösser.     

Response to erythropoietin in germfree mice

Zusammenfassung Unsere gegenwärtigen Ergebnisse zeigen, dass keimfreie Mäuse dem Erythropoietin (ESF) gegenüber einen verstärkten erythrocytenerzeugenden Faktor aufweisen als normale Mäuse.     

De novo mutations revealed by whole-exome sequencing are strongly associated with autism

Multiple studies have confirmed the contribution of rare de novo copy number variations to the risk for autism spectrum disorders. But whereas de novo single nucleotide variants have been identified in affected individuals, their contribution to risk has yet to be clarified. Specifically, the frequency and distribution of these mutations have not been well characterized in matched unaffected controls, and such data are vital to the interpretation of de novo coding mutations observed in probands. Here we show, using whole-exome sequencing of 928 individuals, including 200 phenotypically discordant sibling pairs, that highly disruptive (nonsense and splice-site) de novo mutations in brain-expressed genes are associated with autism spectrum disorders and carry large effects. On the basis of mutation rates in unaffected individuals, we demonstrate that multiple independent de novo single nucleotide variants in the same gene among unrelated probands reliably identifies risk alleles, providing a clear path forward for gene discovery. Among a total of 279 identified de novo coding mutations, there is a single instance in probands, and none in siblings, in which two independent nonsense variants disrupt the same gene, SCN2A (sodium channel, voltage-gated, type II, α subunit), a result that is highly unlikely by chance.