In this episode we hear about drug resistance, severe brain damage, sugar versus sweetener, public goods dilemmas, and the evolution of the machinary that makes proteins in cells.
New experiments and theory reveal how the ability to see image details depends upon photoreceptor function and eye movements, and how fruit flies (Drosophila) see spatial details beyond the optical limit of their compound eyes.
The first genomic view of beetle luciferase evolution indicates evolutionary independence of luciferase between fireflies and click-beetles, and provide valuable datasets which will accelerate the discovery of new biotechnological tools.
Plexin controls the spatial distribution of synapses by locally inhibiting Rap2 small GTPase activity along the axon, and a Rap2 effector, TNIK, which also plays a key role in inhibiting synapse number.
A new system for tagging activated neuronal population offers multiple advantages over existing systems based on immediate early genes, including greater sensitivity and specificity, and suitability for easy application in species other than mice.
Dopamine, a reward signal in the brain, can retroactively convert hippocampal synaptic depression into potentiation, suggesting an elegant biological solution to the distal reward problem.
Lab-evolved 'super Spy' chaperones show enhanced flexibility, which allows them to bind to and stabilize proteins more effectively than natural chaperones.
