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Brain Biobank

March 29, 2016 by larryhbern

Brain Biobank and studies of disease structure correlates

Larry H. Bernstein, MD, FCAP, Curator

LPBI

 

Unveiling Psychiatric Diseases

Researchers create neuropsychiatric cellular biobank

By DAVID CAMERON   November 12, 2015   http://hms.harvard.edu/news/unveiling-psychiatric-diseases

Image: iStock/mstroz

Researchers from Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital have completed the first stage of an important collaboration aimed at understanding the intricate variables of neuropsychiatric disease—something that currently eludes clinicians and scientists.

The research team, led by Isaac Kohane at HMS and Roy Perlis at Mass General, has created a neuropsychiatric cellular biobank—one of the largest in the world.

It contains induced pluripotent stem cells, or iPSCs, derived from skin cells taken from 100 people with neuropsychiatric diseases such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and major depression, and from 50 people without neuropsychiatric illness.

In addition, a detailed profile of each patient, obtained from hours of in-person assessment as well as from electronic medical records, is matched to each cell sample.

As a result, the scientific community can now for the first time access cells representing a broad swath of neuropsychiatric illness. This enables researchers to correlate molecular data with clinical information in areas such as variability of drug reactions between patients. The ultimate goal is to help treat, with greater precision, conditions that often elude effective management.

The cell collection and generation was led by investigators at Mass General, who in collaboration with Kohane and his team are working to characterize the cell lines at a molecular level. The cell repository, funded by the National Institutes of Health, is housed at Rutgers University.

“This biobank, in its current form, is only the beginning,” said Perlis, director of the MGH Psychiatry Center for Experimental Drugs and Diagnostics and HMS associate professor of psychiatry. “By next year we’ll have cells from a total of four hundred patients, with additional clinical detail and additional cell types that we will share with investigators.”

A current major limitation to understanding brain diseases is the inability to access brain biopsies on living patients. As a result, researchers typically study blood cells from patients or examine post-mortem tissue. This is in stark contrast with diseases such as cancer, for which there are many existing repositories of highly characterized cells from patients.

The new biobank offers a way to push beyond this limitation.

 

A Big Step Forward

While the biobank is already a boon to the scientific community, researchers at MGH and the HMS Department of Biomedical Informatics will be adding additional layers of molecular data to all of the cell samples. This information will include whole genome sequencing and transcriptomic and epigenetic profiling of brain cells made from the stem cell lines.

Collaborators in the HMS Department of Neurobiology, led by Michael Greenberg, department chair and Nathan Marsh Pusey Professor of Neurobiology,  will also work to examine characteristics of other types of neurons derived from these stem cells.

“This can potentially alter the entire way we look at and diagnose many neuropsychiatric conditions,” said Perlis.

One example may be to understand how the cellular responses to medication correspond to the patient’s documented responses, comparing in vitro with in vivo. “This would be a big step forward in bringing precision medicine to psychiatry,” Perlis said.

“It’s important to recall that in the field of genomics, we didn’t find interesting connections to disease until we had large enough samples to really investigate these complex conditions,” said Kohane, chair of the HMS Department of Biomedical Informatics.

“Our hypothesis is that here we will require far fewer patients,” he said. “By measuring the molecular functioning of the cells of each patient rather than only their genetic risk, and combining that all that’s known of these people in terms of treatment response and cognitive function, we will discover a great deal of valuable information about these conditions.”

Added Perlis, “In the early days of genetics, there were frequent false positives because we were studying so few people. We’re hoping to avoid the same problem in making cellular models, by ensuring that we have a sufficient number of cell lines to be confident in reporting differences between patient groups.”

The generation of stem cell lines and characterization of patients and brain cell lines is funded jointly by the the National Institute of Mental Health, the National Human Genome Research Institute and a grant from the Centers of Excellence in Genomic Science program.

 

On C.T.E. and Athletes, Science Remains in Its Infancy

by BENEDICT CAREY  MARCH 27, 2016   http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/28/health/cte-brain-disease-nfl-football-research.html

$16 Million for Brain Research, but $0 from N.F.L.

By KEN BELSON   DEC. 22, 2015    http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/23/sports/football/grant-of-nearly-16-million-for-cte-researchers.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/13/science/researchers-replicate-alzheimers-brain-cells-in-a-petri-dish.html

https://static01.nyt.com/images/2014/10/13/us/ALZHEIMERS/ALZHEIMERS-master675.jpg

A three-dimensional human neural cell culture model of Alzheimer’s disease

Se Hoon Choi, Young Hye Kim, Matthias Hebisch, et al.

http://www.nature.com/articles/nature13800.epdf

Alzheimer’s disease is the most common form of dementia, characterized by two pathological hallmarks: amyloid-β plaques and neurofibrillary tangles¹. The amyloid hypothesis of Alzheimer’s disease posits that the excessive accumulation of amyloid-β peptide leads to neurofibrillary tangles composed of aggregated hyperphosphorylated tau^{2, 3}. However, to date, no single disease model has serially linked these two pathological events using human neuronal cells. Mouse models with familial Alzheimer’s disease (FAD) mutations exhibit amyloid-β-induced synaptic and memory deficits but they do not fully recapitulate other key pathological events of Alzheimer’s disease, including distinct neurofibrillary tangle pathology^{4, 5}. Human neurons derived from Alzheimer’s disease patients have shown elevated levels of toxic amyloid-β species and phosphorylated tau but did not demonstrate amyloid-β plaques or neurofibrillary tangles^{6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11}. Here we report that FAD mutations in β-amyloid precursor protein and presenilin 1 are able to induce robust extracellular deposition of amyloid-β, including amyloid-β plaques, in a human neural stem-cell-derived three-dimensional (3D) culture system. More importantly, the 3D-differentiated neuronal cells expressing FAD mutations exhibited high levels of detergent-resistant, silver-positive aggregates of phosphorylated tau in the soma and neurites, as well as filamentous tau, as detected by immunoelectron microscopy. Inhibition of amyloid-β generation with β- or γ-secretase inhibitors not only decreased amyloid-β pathology, but also attenuated tauopathy. We also found that glycogen synthase kinase 3 (GSK3) regulated amyloid-β-mediated tau phosphorylation. We have successfully recapitulated amyloid-β and tau pathology in a single 3D human neural cell culture system. Our unique strategy for recapitulating Alzheimer’s disease pathology in a 3D neural cell culture model should also serve to facilitate the development of more precise human neural cell models of other neurodegenerative disorders.

 

 

Figure 2: Robust increases of extracellular amyloid-β deposits in 3D-differentiated hNPCs with FAD mutations.close

a, Thin-layer 3D culture protocol. HC, histochemistry; IF, immunofluorescence; IHC, immunohistochemistry. b, Amyloid-β deposits in 6-week differentiated control and FAD ReN cells in 3D Matrigel (green, GFP; blue, 3D6; scale bar, …

 

Stem Cell-Based Spinal Cord Repair Enables Robust Corticospinal Regeneration

March 29, 2016 by mburatov  

In the March 28th, 2016 issue of the journal Nature Medicine, Mark Tuszynski and his colleagues from the University of California, San Diego, in collaboration with colleagues from Japan and Wisconsin, report that they were able to successfully coax stem cell-derived neurons to regenerate damaged corticospinal tracts in rats. Furthermore, this regeneration produced observable, functional benefits.

What is the “corticospinal tract” you ask? The corticospinal tracts are part of the “pyramidal tracts” that include the corticospinal and corticobulbar tracts. The pyramidal tracts are the main controllers of voluntary movement and connect their nerve fibers eventually to cells that serve voluntary muscles and allow them to contract. We call such nerves “motor nerves,” and the corticospinal nerve tracts are among the most important of the motor nerve tracts.

These neural tracts are collectively called “pyramidal tracts” because they pass through a small area of the brain stem known as the pyramids, which lie on the ventral side of the medulla oblongata. Both pyramidal tracts originate in the forebrain; specifically from the so-called “motor cortex” of the forebrain. The motor cortex lies just in front of the central sulcus of the forebrain. In the motor cortex, lies thousands of “upper motor neurons” that extend their axons down to the brain stem and spinal cord.

In the brain stem, the majority of these corticospinal tracts crossover (or decussate) to the other side of the brain stem and travel down the opposite side of the spinal cord. The corticospinal axons extend all the way down the spinal cord, until they make a connection (synapse) with a “lower motor neuron” that extends its axon to the skeletal muscles that it will direct to contract. The corticobulbar tract contains nerves that conduct nerve impulses from cranial nerves and these help the muscles of the face and neck contract, and are involved in facial expressions, swallowing, chewing, and so on.

Damage to the upper motor neurons as a result of a stroke can rob a person of the ability to move, since the muscles that are attached to the upper motor neurons cannot receive any signals to contract. Likewise, damage to the axonal tracts (also known as nerve fibers) can paralyze a patient and rob them of their ability to move.

The director of this research project, Mark Tuszynski, MD, PhD, professor in the UC San Diego School of Medicine Department of Neurosciences and director of the UC San Diego Translational Neuroscience Institute, said: “The corticospinal projection is the most important motor system in humans. It has not been successfully regenerated before. Many have tried, many have failed – including us, in previous efforts.”

“We humans use corticospinal axons for voluntary movement,” said Tuszynski. “In the absence of regeneration of this system in previous studies, I was doubtful that most therapies taken to humans would improve function. Now that we can regenerate the most important motor system for humans, I think that the potential for translation is more promising.”

 

Novel use of EPR spectroscopy to study in vivo protein structure

http://www.news-medical.net/whitepaper/20160315/Novel-use-of-EPR-spectroscopy-to-study-in-vivo-protein-structure.aspx

α-synuclein

α-synuclein is a protein found abundantly throughout the brain. It is present mainly at the neuron ends where it is thought to play a role in ensuring the supply of synaptic vesicles in presynaptic terminals, which are required for the release of neurotransmitters to relay signals between neurons. It is critical for normal brain function.

However, α-synuclein is also the primary protein component of the cerebral amyloid deposits characteristic of Parkinson’s disease and its precursor is found in the amyloid plaques of Alzheimer’s disease. Although α-synuclein is present in all areas of the brain, these disease-state amyloid plaques only arise in distinct areas.

Alpha-synuclein protein. May play role in Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s disease.  © molekuul.be / Shutterstock.com

Imaging of isolated samples of α-synuclein in vitro indicate that it does not have the precise 3D folded structure usually associated with proteins. It is therefore classed as an intrinsically disordered protein. However, it was not known whether the protein also lacked a precise structure in vivo.

There have been reports that it can form helical tetramers. Since the 3D structure of a biological protein is usually precisely matched to the specific function it performs, knowing the structure of α-synuclein within a living cell will help elucidate its role and may also improve understanding of the disease states with which it is associated.

If α-synuclein remains disordered in vivo, it may be possible for the protein to achieve different structures, and have different properties, depending on its surroundings.

Techniques for determining protein structure

It has long been known that elucidating the structure of a protein at an atomic level is fundamental for understanding its normal function and behavior. Furthermore, such knowledge can also facilitate the development of targeted drug treatments. Unfortunately, observing the atomic structure of a protein in vivo is not straightforward.

X-ray diffraction is the technique usually adopted for visualizing structures at atomic resolution, but this requires crystals of the molecule to be produced and this cannot be done without separating the molecules of interest from their natural environment. Such processes can modify the protein from its usual state and, particularly with complex structures, such effects are difficult to predict.

The development of nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy improved the situation by making it possible for molecules to be analyzed under in vivo conditions, i.e. same pH, temperature and ionic concentration.

More recently, increases in the sensitivity of NMR and the use of isotope labelling have enabled determinations of the atomic level structure and dynamics of proteins to be determined within living cells¹. NMR has been used to determine the structure of a bacterial protein within living cells² but it is difficult to achieve sufficient quantities of the required protein within mammalian cells and to keep the cells alive for NMR imaging to be conducted.

Electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spectroscopy for determining protein structure

Recently, researchers have managed to overcome these obstacles by using in-cell NMR and electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spectroscopy. EPR spectroscopy is a technique that is similar to NMR spectroscopy in that it is based on the measurement and interpretation of the energy differences between excited and relaxed molecular states.

In EPR spectroscopy it is electrons that are excited, whereas in NMR signals are created through the spinning of atomic nuclei. EPR was developed to measure radicals and metal complexes, but has also been utilized to study the dynamic organization of lipids in biological membranes³.

EPR has now been used for the first time in protein structure investigations and has provided atomic-resolution information on the structure of α-synuclein in living mammalians^4,5.

Bacterial forms of the α-synuclein protein labelled with 15N isotopes were introduced into five types of mammalian cell using electroporation. Concentrations of α-synuclein close to those found in vivo were achieved and the 15N isotopes allowed the protein to be clearly defined from other cellular components by NMR. The conformation of the protein was then determined using electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR).

The results showed that within living mammalian cells α-synuclein remains as a disordered and highly dynamic monomer. Different intracellular environments did not induce major conformational changes.

Summary

The novel use of EPR spectroscopy has resolved the mystery surrounding the in vivo conformation of α-synuclein. It showed that α-synuclein maintains its disordered monomeric form under physiological cell conditions. It has been demonstrated for the first time that even in crowded intracellular environments α-synuclein does not form oligomers, showing that intrinsic structural disorder can be sustained within mammalian cells.

References

1. Freedberg DI and Selenko P. Live cell NMR Annu. Rev. Biophys. 2014;43:171–192.
2. Sakakibara D, et al. Protein structure determination in living cells by in-cell NMR spectroscopy. Nature 2009;458:102–105.
3. Yashroy RC. Magnetic resonance studies of dynamic organisation of lipids in chloroplast membranes. Journal of Biosciences 1990;15(4):281.
4. Alderson TA and Bax AD. Parkinson’s Disease. Disorder in the court. Nature 2016; doi:10.1038/nature16871.
5. Theillet FX, et al. Structural disorder of monomeric α-synuclein persists in mammalian cells. Nature 2016; doi:10.1038/nature16531.

 

Spinal cord reconstitution with homologous neural grafts enables robust corticospinal regeneration

Ken Kadoya, Paul Lu, Kenny Nguyen, Corinne Lee-Kubli, Hiromi Kumamaru, Lin Yao, et al.

Nature Medicine(2016)          http://dx.doi.org:/10.1038/nm.4066

The corticospinal tract (CST) is the most important motor system in humans, yet robust regeneration of this projection after spinal cord injury (SCI) has not been accomplished. In murine models of SCI, we report robust corticospinal axon regeneration, functional synapse formation and improved skilled forelimb function after grafting multipotent neural progenitor cells into sites of SCI. Corticospinal regeneration requires grafts to be driven toward caudalized (spinal cord), rather than rostralized, fates. Fully mature caudalized neural grafts also support corticospinal regeneration. Moreover, corticospinal axons can emerge from neural grafts and regenerate beyond the lesion, a process that is potentially related to the attenuation of the glial scar. Rat corticospinal axons also regenerate into human donor grafts of caudal spinal cord identity. Collectively, these findings indicate that spinal cord ‘replacement’ with homologous neural stem cells enables robust regeneration of the corticospinal projection within and beyond spinal cord lesion sites, achieving a major unmet goal of SCI research and offering new possibilities for clinical translation.

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Posted in Human neural progenitor cells, Neurohumoral Transmission, Neurological Diseases, Neuroscience, Organ-on-a-Chip & 3D Printing in Life Sciences, Proteins, Proteomics, Regenerative Biology and Medicine, Signaling, Signaling & Cell Circuits, Stem Cells for Regenerative Medicine, Translational Science | Tagged biobank, BioP3 device, cell function correlation, EPR spectroscopy, genetics & genomics, α-synuclein, magnetic resonance, monomeric, Neurological treatments, neuropsychiatry, Neuroscience, NMR spectroscopy, protein structure, regenerative medicine, Spinal Cord Injury, spinal cord repair, stem cells, Translational Research | Leave a Comment »

Brain and behavior

March 28, 2016 by larryhbern

Brain and behavior

Larry H. Bernstein, MD, FCAP, Curator

LPBI

 

Behavior Brief

A round-up of recent discoveries in behavior research

By Catherine Offord | March 25, 2016

http://www.the-scientist.com/?articles.view/articleNo/45665/title/Behavior-Brief

Manta in the mirror

http://www.the-scientist.com/images/News/March2016/mantamain.jpg

The mirror self-recognition (MSR) test is commonly used to evaluate nonhuman animals’ self-awareness, and has been reportedly passed by several mammals and birds including apes, elephants, dolphins, and magpies. According to a study published earlier this month (March 11) in The Journal of Ethology, there’s now evidence to add manta rays to that list.

Contingency checking and self-directed behaviors in giant manta rays: Do elasmobranchs have self-awareness?

Csilla Ari  , Dominic P. D’Agostino     Journal of Ethology   11 March 2016: 1-8    http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs10164-016-0462-z    doi:10.​1007/​s10164-016-0462-z

Elaborate cognitive skills arose independently in different taxonomic groups. Self-recognition is conventionally identified by the understanding that one’s own mirror reflection does not represent another individual but oneself, which has never been proven in any elasmobranch species to date. Manta rays have a high encephalization quotient, similar to those species that have passed the mirror self-recognition test, and possess the largest brain of all fish species. In this study, mirror exposure experiments were conducted on two captive giant manta rays to document their response to their mirror image. The manta rays did not show signs of social interaction with their mirror image. However, frequent unusual and repetitive movements in front of the mirror suggested contingency checking; in addition, unusual self-directed behaviors could be identified when the manta rays were exposed to the mirror. The present study shows evidence for behavioral responses to a mirror that are prerequisite of self-awareness and which has been used to confirm self-recognition in apes.

X-RAY MAG: How did you become interested in studying the behavior of manta rays?

CA: I knew that I wanted to dedicate my life to study and protect marine life since I was 13 years old. It was during a family vacation in Croatia when I first had the chance to try scuba diving. I was so mesmerized by the experience that when I surfaced I decided to try to find out more about this magical world. I became especially fascinated by the majestic and mysterious manta rays after watching a nature documentary, soon after this first dive. It described how little we know about them and how vulnerable they are.

But growing up in Hungary, a landlocked country, I did not have much option to pursue my dream as a marine biologist, so I got my master’s degree in zoology and my doctorate in neurobiology, while volunteering at oceanography institutes in different countries during the summers. During my PhD studies, I worked on the neuroanatomy and neurohistology of several shark and ray species, including mobulids (mantas and mobulas). During these years, I had the chance to explore the brain structures of mantas and mobulas, which reflected some very unique and surprising features. It was the unusual enlargement of some of their brain parts that got me interested in focusing on their behavior.

“Manta rays are likely the first fish species found to exhibit self-awareness, which implies higher order brain function, as well as sophisticated cognitive and social skills,” study coauthor Csilla Ari told X-Ray Mag.

COGNITION AND SELF AWARENESS IN MANTA RAYS   

ECOLOGY & SCIENCE  ARTICLE FROM X-RAY MAG     http://www.xray-mag.com/sites/default/files/manta.1.csilla.ari_b.jpg

Observing two rays in a tank at the Atlantis Aquarium in the Bahamas, the researchers noticed that the animals changed their behavior when a mirror was placed on one of the walls. New behaviors included apparently checking out their fins (see this video) and blowing bubbles at their reflections.     https://youtu.be/LQ1KErB_2oU

X-RAY MAG: What were the findings that caused you to conclude that these animals are using cognition?

CA: Animal cognition, often referred to as animal intelligence, is an exciting scientific field that attempts to describe the mental capacity of an animal. It developed from the field of comparative psychology and it includes exciting research questions, such as perception, attention, selective learning, memory, spatial cognition, tool use, problem solving or consciousness.

There are no easy ways to test these on manta rays, but I found a widely-used and well-established test that can give us insight on their cognitive abilities. The mirror self-recognition (MSR) test is considered to be a reliable behavioral index to show the animal’s ability for self-recognition/self-awareness. Recognizing oneself in a mirror is a very rare capacity among animals. Only a few, large-brained species have passed this test so far, including Asian elephants, bottlenose dolphins and great apes, but no fish species so far.

So, employing a protocol adapted from primates and bottlenose dolphin MSR studies, I exposed captive manta rays to a large mirror and recorded their behavior. The manta rays showed significantly higher frequency of repetitive behavior, such as circling at the mirror or high frequency cephalic fin movements when the mirror was placed in the tank. Contingency checking and self-directed behavior included body turns into a vertical direction, exposing the ventral side of the body to the mirror while staying visually oriented to the mirror. Most surprisingly, such self-directed behaviors were sometimes accompanied with bubble blowing front of the mirror and sharp downward swims.

“This new discovery is incredibly important,” Marc Bekoff of the University of Colorado in Boulder who was not involved in the study told New Scientist. “It shows that we really need to expand the range of animals we study.”

But the MSR test’s developer, Gordon Gallup of the State University of New York at Albany, told New Scientist that the observed movements might reflect curious, rather than self-aware, behavior. “Humans, chimpanzees, and orangutans are the only species for which there is compelling, reproducible evidence for mirror self-recognition,” he said.

Manta rays are first fish to recognise themselves in a mirror  https://www.newscientist.com/article/2081640-manta-rays-are-first-fish-to-recognise-themselves-in-a-mirror

Manta ray hears the dinner bell    Norbert Wu/Minden Pictures/FLPA

Giant manta rays have been filmed checking out their reflections in a way that suggests they are self-aware.

Harmless but zippy

Rattlesnakes and other vipers are well-known for their lightning-quick bites, but nonvenomous snakes may be just as speedy, according to a study published this month (March 15) in Biology Letters.

Debunking the viper’s strike: harmless snakes kill a common assumption

David A. Penning, Baxter Sawvel, Brad R. Moon

 Biol Letters 15 March 2016.      http://dx.doi.org:/10.1098/rsbl.2016.0011

To survive, organisms must avoid predation and acquire nutrients and energy. Sensory systems must correctly differentiate between potential predators and prey, and elicit behaviours that adjust distances accordingly. For snakes, strikes can serve both purposes. Vipers are thought to have the fastest strikes among snakes. However, strike performance has been measured in very few species, especially non-vipers. We measured defensive strike performance in harmless Texas ratsnakes and two species of vipers, western cottonmouths and western diamond-backed rattlesnakes, using high-speed video recordings. We show that ratsnake strike performance matches or exceeds that of vipers. In contrast with the literature over the past century, vipers do not represent the pinnacle of strike performance in snakes. Both harmless and venomous snakes can strike with very high accelerations that have two key consequences: the accelerations exceed values that can cause loss of consciousness in other animals, such as the accelerations experienced by jet pilots during extreme manoeuvres, and they make the strikes faster than the sensory and motor responses of mammalian prey and predators. Both harmless and venomous snakes can strike faster than the blink of an eye and often reach a target before it can move.

“There’s this kind of pre-emptive discussion that [vipers] are faster,” study coauthor David Penning of the University of Louisiana, Lafayette, told Smithsonian. But, he added, “as sexy as the topic sounds, there’s not that much research on it.”

To Scientists’ Surprise, Even Nonvenomous Snakes Can Strike at Ridiculous Speeds  By Marcus Woo

The Texas rat snake was just as much of a speed demon as deadly vipers, challenging long-held notions about snake adaptations

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/scientists-surprise-even-nonvenomous-snakes-can-strike-ridiculous-speeds-180958452

Read more: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/scientists-surprise-even-nonvenomous-snakes-can-strike-ridiculous-speeds-180958452/#XCyQyDlTqj1JWi14.99

To put the assumption to the test, Penning and his colleagues used a high-speed camera to film strikes from three snake species—the western cottonmouth and the western diamond-backed rattlesnake (both vipers), and a relatively harmless Texas rat snake that kills its prey using constriction.

When a snake strikes, it literally moves faster than the blink of an eye, whipping its head forward so quickly that it can experience accelerations of more than 20 Gs. “It’s the lynchpin of their strategy as predators,” says Rulon Clark at San Diego State University. “Natural selection has optimized a series of adaptations around striking and using venom that really helps them be effective predators.”

When Penning and his colleagues compared strike speeds in three types of snakes, they found that at least one nonvenomous species was just as quick as the vipers. The results hint that serpents’ need for speed may be much more widespread than thought, which raises questions about snake evolution and physiology.  They compared the western cottonmouth and the western diamond-backed rattlesnake, which are both vipers, and the nonvenomous Texas rat snake. They put each snake inside a container and inserted a stuffed glove on the end of a stick. They waved the glove around until the animal struck, recording the whole thing with a high-speed camera. The team tested 14 rat snakes, 6 cottonmouths and 12 rattlesnakes, recording several strikes for each individual.

The recordings revealed that although the highest head acceleration—279 meters per second squared, or nearly 29 g—did indeed come from a rattlesnake, one of the rat snakes followed close behind, accelerating its head at 274 meters per second squared.   All the snakes turned out to be speed demons, the team reports this week in Biology Letters. The rattlesnake scored the highest measured acceleration, at 279 meters per second squared. But to their surprise, the nonvenomous rat snake came in a close second at 274 meters per second squared. That’s lightning-quick, considering that a Formula One race car accelerates at less than 27 meters per second squared to go from 0 to 60 in just one second.

“I was really surprised, because this comparison hadn’t been made before,” Rulon Clark of San Diego Statue University who was not involved in the work told Smithsonian. “It’s not that the vipers are slow, it’s that this very high-speed striking ability is something that seems common to a lot of snake species—or a wider array than people might’ve expected.”

Penning told Discover Magazine that the results make sense, since even nonvenomous snakes have to catch their food. “Prey are not passively waiting to be eaten by snakes,” he said.

Even Harmless Snakes Strike at Deadly Speed

By Elizabeth Preston | March 18, 2016 10:34 am      http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/inkfish/2016/03/18/even-harmless-snakes-strike-at-deadly-speed/#.VvlIEPkrIhd 

Rather than offering the snakes some sacrificial prey animals, the researchers baited the snakes into striking in self-defense. They used a stuffed glove on a stick. The glove would move around the snake until the animal realized the glove was “clearly not going away,” Penning says, and struck at it. High-speed cameras and mirrors captured these attacks, which happened in the blink of an eye.

https://youtu.be/EA0xiyefM9o

Early learning

Emerging evidence suggests that both humans and superb fairywrens begin learning the vocal patterns of their mothers even before birth. Now, a study published this month (March 16) in The Auk: Ornithological Advances indicates that the same is true of the red-backed fairywren, offering the possibility of studying the phenomenon across related species.

“Fairywrens have become a new model system in which to test new dimensions in the ontogeny of parent-offspring communication in vertebrates,” study coauthor Mark Hauber of New York City’s Hunter College said in a statement.

Following on their previous discovery of prenatal learning in superb fairywrens, the researchers compared the structure of nestling calls in the red-backed fairywren to the calls of the birds’ mothers. The team found that the more calls per hour that nestlings received when in the egg, the higher the similarity to maternal calls after hatching. (The number of calls received during the nestling period had no effect on call similarity.)

“Prenatal vocal learning has rarely been described in any animal, with the exception of humans and Australian superb fairywrens,” William Feeney of the University of Queensland, Australia, who was not involved in the work said in the statement. “This result is exciting as it opens the door to investigating the taxonomic diversity of this ability, which could provide insights into why it evolves.”

Diane Colombelli-Négrel, Michael S. Webster, Jenélle L. Dowling, Mark E. Hauber, andSonia Kleindorfer (2016) Vocal imitation of mother’s calls by begging Red-backed Fairywren nestlings increases parental provisioning. The Auk: April 2016, Vol. 133, No. 2, pp. 273-285.

doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1642/AUK-15-162.1

Vocal imitation of mother’s calls by begging Red-backed Fairywren nestlings increases parental provisioning

Red-backed fairywren (Malurus melanocephalus)  J WELKIN

 

Prenatal imitative learning is an emerging research area in both human and non-human animals. Previous studies in Superb Fairywrens (Malurus cyaneus) showed that mothers are vocal tutors to their embryos and that better imitation of maternal calls yields more parental provisions after hatching. To begin to test if such adaptive behavior is widespread amongst Australasian wrens in Maluridae, we investigated maternal in-nest calling patterns in Red-backed Fairywrens (Malurus melanocephalus). We first compared the structure of maternal and nestling call elements. Next, we examined how in-nest calling behavior varied with parental behaviors and ecological contexts (i.e. prevalence of brood parasitism and nest predation). All Red-backed Fairywren females called to their eggs during incubation and they continued to do so for several days after hatching at a lower rate. Embryos that received more calls per hour during the incubation period (but not the nestling period) developed into hatchlings with higher call element similarity between mother and young. Female call rate was mostly independent of nest predation but in years with more interspecific brood parasitism, nestling element similarity was greater and female call rates tended to be higher. Playback experiments showed that broods with higher element similarity to their mother received more successful feeds. The potential for prenatal tutoring and imitative begging calls in 2 related fairywren taxa sets the stage for a full-scale comparative analysis of the evolution and function of these behaviors across Maluridae and in other vocal-learning lineages.

 

Traveling junk-foodies

White storks may be addicted to junk food, in some cases making migratory trips of tens of kilometers to landfill sites during the breeding season, according to a study published earlier this month (March 15) in Movement Ecology.

“We found that the continuous availability of junk food from landfill has influenced nest use, daily travel distances, and foraging ranges,” study coauthor Aldina Franco of the University of East Anglia said in a statement. “Storks now rely on landfill sites for food—especially during the non-breeding season when other food sources are more scarce.”

Using GPS tracking, the researchers focused on 17 storks traveling between nesting and feeding areas over the course of a year. They found that most long-distance trips were made to landfill sites, and that “having a nest close to a guaranteed food supply also means that the storks are less inclined to leave for the winter,” Franco explained in the statement. “They instead spend their non-breeding season defending their highly desirable nest locations.”

“It’s clear migratory behaviors are quite plastic, in that the [storks] are adaptable and can change quickly,” Andrew Farnsworth of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology who was not involved in the work told National Geographic. He added that the new, detailed dataset will help scientists “consider how such changes in behavior may affect the future population of these birds.”

Are white storks addicted to junk food? Impacts of landfill use on the movement and behaviour of resident white storks (Ciconia ciconia) from a partially migratory population

Nathalie I. Gilbert Email author, Ricardo A. Correia, João Paulo Silva,…, Jenny A. Gill and Aldina M. A. Franco

Movement Ecology 2016; 4:7      http://dx.doi.org:/10.1186/s40462-016-0070-0

The migratory patterns of animals are changing in response to global environmental change with many species forming resident populations in areas where they were once migratory. The white stork (Ciconia ciconia) was wholly migratory in Europe but recently guaranteed, year-round food from landfill sites has facilitated the establishment of resident populations in Iberia. In this study 17 resident white storks were fitted with GPS/GSM data loggers (including accelerometer) and tracked for 9.1 ± 3.7 months to quantify the extent and consistency of landfill attendance by individuals during the non-breeding and breeding seasons and to assess the influence of landfill use on daily distances travelled, percentage of GPS fixes spent foraging and non-landfill foraging ranges.   Results   Resident white storks used landfill more during non-breeding (20.1 % ± 2.3 of foraging GPS fixes) than during breeding (14.9 % ± 2.2). Landfill attendance declined with increasing distance between nest and landfill in both seasons. During non-breeding a large percentage of GPS fixes occurred on the nest throughout the day (27 % ± 3.0 of fixes) in the majority of tagged storks. This study provides first confirmation of year-round nest use by resident white storks. The percentage of GPS fixes on the nest was not influenced by the distance between nest and the landfill site. Storks travelled up to 48.2 km to visit landfills during non-breeding and a maximum of 28.1 km during breeding, notably further than previous estimates. Storks nesting close to landfill sites used landfill more and had smaller foraging ranges in non-landfill habitat indicating higher reliance on landfill. The majority of non-landfill foraging occurred around the nest and long distance trips were made specifically to visit landfill.  Conclusions   The continuous availability of food resources on landfill has facilitated year-round nest use in white storks and is influencing their home ranges and movement behaviour. White storks rely on landfill sites for foraging especially during the non-breeding season when other food resources are scarcer and this artificial food supplementation probably facilitated the establishment of resident populations. The closure of landfills, as required by EU Landfill Directives, will likely cause dramatic impacts on white stork populations.

WEIRD & WILD   Junk Food-Loving Birds Diss Migration, Live on Landfill    By Brian Handwerk

Spain and Portugal’s white storks are forgoing their annual journeys to African wintering grounds, a new study says

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2016/03/060315-storks-food-animals-science-urban-food/

You’ve heard of the staycation. Some white storks in Europe are now opting for the staygration. 

The big birds are skipping their annual trip to African wintering grounds to remain year-round in Spain and Portugal, a new study shows.

Why? They’ve developed an addiction to junk food at landfills.

“White storks used to be wholly migratory. Before the 1980s, there were no white storks staying in” Spain and Portugal, says study leader Aldina Franco, a conservation ecologist at the University of East Anglia in the U.K.

“During the 1980s, the first individuals started staying, and now we see those numbers increasing exponentially.” (Related: “Beloved Storks, Emblems of Fertility, Rebounding in France.”)

 

Unlikely allies

Israel’s barren Negev desert is home to striped hyenas and gray wolves—two large scavenger species with considerably overlapping diets. But although such conditions might be expected to create fierce competition, researchers in Israel and the U.S. have now presented evidence that—at least in some cases—these animals form alliances and may even hunt collaboratively for food. The findings were published last month (February 10) in Zoology in the Middle East.

Wolves and hyenas in the desert might “just need each other to survive, because food is so, so limited,” study coauthor Vladimir Dinets of the University of Tennessee in Knoxville told The Washington Post.

Collating observations made over the past two decades (including reports of overlapping paw prints, and sightings of hyenas among packs of wolves), the researchers note that the findings could reflect the behavior of a few, oddly behaving hyenas, or a more widespread commensal, or even cooperative, relationship between the species.

“Animal behavior is often more flexible than described in textbooks,” Dinets said in a press release. “When necessary, animals can abandon their usual strategies and learn something completely new and unexpected. It’s a very useful skill for people, too.”

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Posted in Cognition, Curation, Neuroscience | Tagged adaptation, Birds, Cognition, commensal, comparative cognition, Foraging behavior, Foraging ecology, hyena, imitative begging, in-nest calling behavior, manta ray, migration plasticity, migratory behaviors, mirror test, mobulids, self recognition, stork, tracking | Leave a Comment »

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