The scapula is the primary bone supporting the body in typical quadrupedal mammals. However, in mole species living underground, the clavicle may play a more important role, as shown by an analysis of the internal bone structure led by a researcher at the University of Tsukuba. This analysis suggests that the bones around the shoulder have adapted to the moles' unique posture, which involves holding the forelimbs widely out from the sides of the body.

A researcher at University of Tsukuba analyzed mutation patterns in the spike protein of the SARS-CoV-2 Delta variant. Two of the seven amino acid substitutions that emerged with the Delta variant resulted from cytosine-to-guanine (C-to-G) nucleotide substitutions, a mutation type that is among the rarest observed during SARS-CoV-2 evolution. A comparison with other major variants and within-lineage viral evolution revealed that the frequency was significantly higher than expected, indicating an unusual mutational pattern in the Delta spike protein. These findings offer new insight into the evolutionary processes associated with the emergence of highly transmissible SARS-CoV-2 variants.

University of Missouri researchers discovered that bullfrogs can produce ketone bodies directly in their brains when glucose levels are low, creating a built-in backup fuel source that helps keep critical neural functions running during energy shortages. The finding not only explains how bullfrogs survive the extreme conditions of winter dormancy but could also provide new insights into human neurological disorders such as Alzheimer's disease, ALS and schizophrenia, which are linked to impaired brain energy metabolism.

In acute, life-threatening infections, rapidly characterizing the microorganisms in a patient sample can help guide diagnosis and treatment. This is possible by using computational methods known as taxonomic profilers, which can analyze metagenome sequencing data generated from the genomic information of these microorganisms, and compare it with reference genomes of individual microorganisms. However, taxonomic profilers are a technology still under development and not yet in common use. Current methods can produce false-positive results or inaccurate abundance estimates. Researchers at the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (HZI) have now developed a new taxonomic profiler called Metax. By using information about how sequencing reads are distributed across microbial reference genomes, Metax can distinguish true microbial signals from artifacts more reliably and improve both taxonomic identification and abundance estimation. The study has been published in the journal Cell.