Science Notebook - The Antbird...

THE ANSWER TO A PHILANDERING ANTBIRD

The Encyclopaedia Britannica notes that antbirds -- tropical birds often found in the Amazon chasing columns of swarming ants --

"have loud, usually unmusical voices that may be heard in echo duets."

Research to be published in the journal Current Biology in April suggests a possible explanation for the cacophonous duets: Female antbirds, researchers have found, "jam" the calls of their mates to other females by singing over the male voices. In response to being jammed, the males then change their tune.

Researchers Joseph A. Tobias and Nathalie Seddon of the University of Oxford said this was the first example of behavior involving jamming, and jamming avoidance, ever seen in nature.
"In human terms, signal jamming is most commonly associated with attempts to scramble information in radio, radar, or cell phone signals," Tobias said in a statement. "The females in our study try to do a similar thing with the songs of their partner, but the overall situation is more analogous to a wife continually interrupting her husband to stop him from flirting with a single woman."

Bird duets, the researchers conclude, can tell complex stories about conflict and cooperation within a species. By recording the birds and playing back their duets, the researchers found that there were times when male and female birds would sing in harmony -- often when they were fending off common rivals. But when the bond between the birds was threatened by a single female, the birds resorted to cacophonous jamming and jamming defense calls.

If such techniques were part of the evolutionary history of humans, the researchers noted, "our results may help to explain the first steps towards complex, coordinated group signals in humans, which themselves are the likely forerunners to modern music."

Source: The Washington Post

New type of fuel found in Patagonia fungus

My love affair with fungus continues... and another "myco" term is coined!

A team led by a Montana State University professor has found a fungus that produces a new type of diesel fuel, which they say holds great promise.

Calling the fungus' output "myco-diesel," Gary Strobel and his collaborators describe their initial observations in the November issue of Microbiology.

The discovery may offer an alternative to fossil fuels, said Strobel, MSU professor of plant sciences and plant pathology. The find is even bigger, he said, than his 1993 discovery of fungus that contained the anticancer drug taxol.

Strobel, who travels the world looking for exotic plants that may contain beneficial microbes, found the diesel-producing fungus in a Patagonia rainforest. Strobel visited the rainforest in 2002 and collected a variety of specimens, including the branches from an ancient family of trees known as "ulmo." When he and his collaborators examined the branches, they found fungus growing inside. They continued to investigate and discovered that the fungus, called "Gliocladium roseum," was producing gases. Further testing showed that the fungus -- under limited oxygen -- was producing a number of compounds normally associated with diesel fuel, which is obtained from crude oil.

"These are the first organisms that have been found that make many of the ingredients of diesel," Strobel said. "This is a major discovery."

Strobel is the lead author of the paper published in Microbiology. His MSU co-authors are Berk Knighton and Tom Livinghouse in the Department of Chemistry/Biochemistry, and Katreena Kluck and Yuhao Ren in the Department of Plant Sciences and Plant Pathology. Other co-authors are Meghan Griffin and Daniel Spakowicz from Yale University and Joe Sears from the Center for Lab Services in Pasco, Wash.

Strobel doesn't know when drivers will fill their gas tanks with fungi fuel or if processors can make enough to fill the demand. The road to commercialization is filled with potential glitches, he said. It's also a major endeavor that will be left to others who specialize in those areas.

Myco-diesel could be an option for those who want alternatives even to ethanol, however, Strobel said. Some car manufacturers who shun ethanol might consider myco-diesel or fuels produced by other microbes.

"The question is, are there other microbes out there that can do for us?" he asked.

Researchers in government agencies and private industry have already shown interest in the fungi. A team to conduct further research has been established between MSU's College of Engineering and researchers at Yale University. One member of the team is Strobel's son, Scott, who is chairman of molecular biophysics and biochemistry at Yale and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Professor. The MSU-Yale team will investigate a variety of questions, including the genetic makeup of "Gliocladium roseum."

"The main value of this discovery may not be the organism itself, but may be the genes responsible for the production of these gases," Gary Strobel said."There are certain enzymes that are responsible for the conversion of substrates such as cellulose to myco-diesel."

Scott Strobel said his team is already screening the fungus' genome. Besides determining the complete genetic makeup of the fungus, they will run a series of genetic and biochemical tests to identify the genes responsible for its diesel-making properties.

"The broader question is, what is responsible for the production of these compounds," Scott Strobel said. "If you can identify that, you can hopefully scale it up so you end up with better efficiency of production."

Scott Strobel said he agrees with his father that the discovery is exciting.

There's nothing in the scientific literature about a microbe that produces the diversity of medium-chain hydrocarbons found in the "Gliocladium roseum," he said. Longer hydrocarbon chains are common, but "that's not what you put in your gas tank or jet engine."

Another promising aspect is that the fungus can grow in cellulose.

"That's the most common organic molecule on earth," Scott Strobel said. "It's all around us, everywhere."

Scientists in a variety of disciplines should be able to work together to optimize production and find a way to turn what is essentially a vapor into a burnable, liquid fuel, he added.

LINK: http://www.biologynews.net/archives/2008/11/04/new_type_of_fuel_found_in_patagonia_fungus.html
Source : Montana State University