News from Latin America

Updates every hour. Last Updated: 31-Jul-2025 04:11 ET (31-Jul-2025 08:11 GMT/UTC)

18-Sep-2017

Scientists edit butterfly wing spots and stripes

Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute
Peer-Reviewed Publication

An international research team working at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama knocked-out a single control gene in the DNA of seven different butterfly species. In the Sept. 18 Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences early online edition, they reveal the surprising results of rewiring the WntA gene: a single gene influences the exuberant diversity of butterfly wing patterns in nature.

Journal

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

Funder

Pew Charitable Trust, Oxford Brookes University, Smithsonian Institution, National Science Foundation, Leverhulme Trust, Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute

15-Sep-2017

Kit will identify genetic variations without need for lab analysis

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo
Business Announcement

Tests will identify genetic alterations that can be used to measure meat quality, characteristics of seedlings and plants, or pesticide resistance of disease-transmitting mosquitoes. In developing a simple and portable kit, Brazilian startup Scheme Lab is making companies from multiple market areas less reliable on clinical laboratories and their rather expensive brand of expertise.

Funder

São Paulo State Research Support Foundation (Brazil). Geochronologic research at the MIT Isotope Lab

14-Sep-2017

Cost of not adapting to climate change would be at least five times higher

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo
Peer-Reviewed Publication

A study on damage to coastal considered only real estate loss. If nothing is done, researchers say, losses might be up to ten times higher if the predicament includes the spreading of flood- and global warming -related diseases.

Funder

São Paulo State Research Support Foundation (Brazil). Geochronologic research at the MIT Isotope Lab

13-Sep-2017

Startup develops animal detection system to prevent roadkill

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo
Business Announcement

Through means of sensors e transmitters, an animal detection system aims to feed message boards for drivers hundreds of meters before wild specimen can cross the road.

Funder

São Paulo State Research Support Foundation (Brazil). Geochronologic research at the MIT Isotope Lab

12-Sep-2017

Queens control worker reproduction without castration in stingless bee species

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Study contradicts the view that worker bees are forcibly castrated by the queen among the 600-odd species of stingless bees widely distributed in tropical and subtropical regions of the world.

Journal

Nature Ecology & Evolution

Funder

São Paulo State Research Support Foundation (Brazil). Geochronologic research at the MIT Isotope Lab

11-Sep-2017

Biotech hormone reduces cost of inducing ovulation in livestock

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo
Business Announcement

In addition to estrus synchronization, the hormone is also used to hasten puberty and induce superovulation in females.

Funder

São Paulo State Research Support Foundation (Brazil). Geochronologic research at the MIT Isotope Lab

11-Sep-2017

Coffee and bees: New model of climate change effects

Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Areas in Latin America suitable for growing coffee face predicted declines of 73-88 percent by 2050. But bee species diversity may save the day, even if many species in cool highland regions are lost as the climate warms.

Journal

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

Funder

German Federal Ministry for the Environment/International Climate Protection Initiative, Agriculture and Food Security, CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, International Climate Initiative

7-Sep-2017

New porcelain crab species from Colombia named

Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute
Peer-Reviewed Publication

New, hairy-clawed porcelain crab species discovered in the southern Caribbean.

Journal

Crustaceana

Funder

Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Centre of Excellence in Marine Sciences (CEMARIN)

6-Sep-2017

Genetic alterations that make a type of brain cancer more aggressive were identified

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo
Peer-Reviewed Publication

The study set out to identify the mechanisms that make astrocytomas so aggressive and to find ways to customize treatment to patient needs.

Journal

Tumor Biology

Funder

São Paulo State Research Support Foundation (Brazil). Geochronologic research at the MIT Isotope Lab

4-Sep-2017

Study associates schizophrenia with defective processing of messenger RNA in cells

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo
Peer-Reviewed Publication

An alteration impairing the expression of certain proteins might hide the genesis of part of brain dysfunctions observed in schizophrenia patients.

Journal

Molecular Neuropsychiatry

Funder

São Paulo State Research Support Foundation (Brazil). Geochronologic research at the MIT Isotope Lab