🧬 biology

Reproductive strategies and reliance on pollinators in three highly invasive plant species

This study reveals that while the invasive species *Ageratum conyzoides* and *Chromolaena odorata* achieve reproductive success through pollinator-independent strategies, *Mikania micrantha* relies more heavily on pollinator-mediated reproduction alongside vegetative propagation for its invasion success in the Eastern Himalaya.

Anisha Mandal, Aman Biswakarma, Dambar K. Pradhan, Rohit Rai, Shambu Rai, Umesh Srinivasan2026-07-02
🧬 biology

Forgotten reservoirs: an attempt to revive field research on rodent malaria parasites in their main natural host, the thicket rat Grammomys poensis (formerly Thamnomys rutilans)

Despite an intensive 18-month field study in southeastern Gabon involving over 12,000 trap-nights, researchers failed to capture or detect *Plasmodium* infections in the thicket rat *Grammomys poensis*, suggesting that local transmission may be absent or severely constrained compared to historical reports and highlighting the urgent need for contemporary field isolates to improve rodent malaria research models.

Larson Boundenga, Boris Kevin Makanga, Neil Longo-Pendy, Clark Mbou-Boutambe, Celine Arnathau, Ana Rivero, Virginie Roug (…)2026-07-02
🧬 biology

Context-dependent selection sculpts mutational landscapes in the normal lung

This study utilizes deep mutational profiling of normal lung tissue to demonstrate that aging, smoking, and anti-cancer therapies drive context-dependent clonal selection, revealing distinct mutational landscapes and convergent evolution that differ significantly from those observed in lung cancers.

Edward Evans, Ferriol Calvet, Fabio Marongiu, Faiz Jabbar, Elan Eisenmesser, William Hill, Clare Weeden, Oriol Pich, Mou (…)2026-07-02
🧬 biology

Causes of variation in problem-solving performance in wild Western Australian Magpies (Gymnorhina tibicen dorsalis)

This study on wild Western Australian magpies demonstrates that problem-solving performance requires testing beyond chance levels to be meaningful and reveals no correlation between an individual's ability to solve novel puzzles and their associative learning scores, challenging the assumed link between these two cognitive traits.

Scout O Vos, Elizabeth M Speechley, Edward C Galluccio, Amanda R Ridley2026-07-02
🧬 biology

A stimulation-orthogonal neural biomarker of therapeutic response in deep brain stimulation

This paper introduces a generative causal representation learning method that successfully separates stimulation artifacts from therapeutic signals in Parkinson's disease deep brain stimulation, enabling the identification of a stimulation-orthogonal neural biomarker that accurately tracks motor improvement without supervision of clinical outcomes.

Tanmoy Sil, Pavel Navratil, Ghadir Abbas, Florian Lange, Jens Volkmann, Muthuraman Muthuraman, Martin Reich, Robert Peac (…)2026-07-02
🧬 biology

Expanding BRCA1/BRCA2 genomic diversity in the Caribbean: insights from the first national cohort in the Dominican Republic

This study presents the first national cohort analysis of 648 individuals in the Dominican Republic, characterizing a distinct spectrum of 15 pathogenic BRCA1/BRCA2 variants to improve genomic representation, variant interpretation, and precision medicine for Caribbean populations.

Noelia Parra, Isabel C. Lucero, Elizabeth Castell, Marianna Figueroa, Thais E. Reyes, Eileen Riego2026-07-02
🧬 biology

Evolution and Regulatory Roles of the KNOX Gene Family in Eucommia ulmoides in Response to Phytohormones and Abiotic Stresses

This study systematically identifies and characterizes the eight KNOX genes in *Eucommia ulmoides*, revealing their phylogenetic classification, tissue-specific expression patterns, and distinct regulatory roles in development and responses to various phytohormones and abiotic stresses.

Jun LIU, Lili WANG, Tingting CHENG, Pei Lixin, DU Qingxin, LIAN Conglong, LAN Jinxu, FENG Weimeng, YANG Jingfan, Jiefeng (…)2026-07-02
🧬 biology

Computational Characterization of a Hypothetical Protein from the Jumbo Phage vB_Pae3705-KEN49 Targeting Multidrug-Resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa

This study employs a comprehensive computational workflow to characterize WWV93726.1, a conserved hypothetical protein from the jumbo phage vB_Pae3705-KEN49, identifying it as a non-canonical, bimodular DNA-binding regulatory protein that likely governs the transition from phage transcription to assembly through an electrostatically driven interaction with viral promoter sequences.

Meshack Tweya Omwega, Moses Gachoya, Justin Nyasinga, Martin Georges, James Wachira, Collins Kigen, Eric Omori Omwenga (…)2026-07-02