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Biologists create beetle with functional extra eye

On “Game of Thrones,” a three-eyed raven holds the secrets of the past, present and future in a vast fantasy kingdom. But for real-world biologists, a “three-eyed beetle” may offer a true glimpse into the future of studying evolutionary development.

Using a simple genetic tool, IU scientists have intentionally grown a fully functional extra eye in the center of the forehead of the common beetle. Unraveling the biological mechanisms behind this occurrence could help researchers understand how evolution draws upon pre-existing developmental and genetic “building blocks” to create novel complex traits, or “old” traits in novel places.

The study’s results appear in the journal of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The work also provides deeper insights into an earlier experiment that accidentally produced an extra eye as part of a study to understand how the insect head develops.

“Developmental biology is beautifully complex in part because there’s no single gene for an eye, a brain, a butterfly’s wing or a turtle’s shell,” said Armin P. Moczek, a professor in the IU Bloomington College of Arts and Sciences’ Department of Biology. “Instead, thousands of individual genes and dozens of developmental processes come together to enable the formation of each of these traits.

Eduardo E. Zattara, Anna L. M. Macagno, Hannah A. Busey, Armin P. Moczek. Development of functional ectopic compound eyes in scarabaeid beetles by knockdown oforthodenticle. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2017; 114 (45): 12021 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1714895114

The creation of three-eyed beetles through a new technique developed at IU provides scientists a new way to investigate the genetic mechanisms responsible for the evolutionary emergence of new physical traits.Credit: Photo by Eduardo Zattara

Dark ocean bacteria discovered to play large role in carbon capture

This study reveals that despite their relatively low abundance, nitrite-oxidizing bacteria capture more than 1.1 gigatons of carbon dioxide in the mesopelagic zone annually. This is comparable to prior estimates of the total carbon captured in the entire dark ocean.

Marine bacteria that live in the dark depths of the ocean play a newly discovered and significant role in the global carbon cycle, according to a new study published in Science.

The “dark ocean” - everything that lies below 200 meters - makes up 90 percent of the ocean. Very little is known about the microscopic life in this realm and its critical role in transforming carbon dioxide to cell material, proteins, carbohydrates and lipids. This freshly produced organic material can then be consumed by other marine organisms enhancing the productivity of the ocean.

Continue Reading.

Good News: Soil Could Be a Much Larger Carbon Sink Than We Hoped

Soil minerals just a little way underground could act as a huge carbon sink to help balance out the dangerous levels of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere, according to new research.

If we can tap into its potential to suck even more carbon pollution out of the air, it would be a massive advantage.

Recent Scientific Discoveries

‘It’s Global Warming, Stupid’: Five years after Sandy, we’ve learned nothing

Superstorm Sandy was a "wakeup call" but media, GOP, and Trump keep hitting the snooze button.

Take action: climatetruth.org

watercolour botany