Recent comments in /f/science

marketrent OP t1_jdfb4ke wrote

Reply to Gene co-option in daisy creates petals that look like female flies, luring male flies — Males’ vain attempts to mate with petals rub off more pollen onto the flower by marketrent

Excerpt from the linked summary^1 by Kendra Leon, about a Current Biology paper:^2

>A daisy living in Namaqualand, a desert environment in northern South Africa where it rains only during the winter, has a few weeks to bloom, pollinate, and set seeds before the area becomes too dry for it to live.

>All the while, it must compete with other flowers to attract pollinator flies.

>According to a study by Beverley Glover, a professor at the University of Cambridge’s Department of Plant Sciences and the director of the University’s Botanic Garden, and her team, the daisy known as *Gorteria * combines at least three preexisting genes to "create" lifelike female flies.

>“The thing that’s clever here is that these flowers have 12 to 14 petals, and you only get the spots on two to four of them that look totally random in position. That’s what the fly is doing. They’re looking at it and going, ‘Oh, that’s random. That’s not part of the plant. It must be a lady fly,’” Glover said in a phone interview.

>The male fly then lands on top of the "lady fly" and wiggles around in a vain attempt to mate. Eventually he gives up and flies away, but all the wiggling gave the daisy what it needs to survive — pollen.

> 

>Glover and her team found the gene that moves iron in the daisy changes some of its normally reddish-purple petals to a “more fly-like blue-green.”

>Meanwhile, the gene that grows hairs on the daisy's root causes the the petal hairs to expand, giving its fake female flies texture.

>To further add realism to its fake female flies and draw in unwitting and mating-focused male flies, Glover said the daisy has its fake flies appear seemingly at random — thereby avoiding looking like a patterned, spotted flower.

>She also noted the daisy creates the flies in a spiral pattern which she compared to a clock, with a fake fly petal appearing at 12 o’clock, then another at 4 o’clock and so on to give it the “appearance of being random but it’s not random at all.”

^1 Kendra Leon for Courthouse News, 23 Mar. 2023, https://www.courthousenews.com/daisy-found-to-create-fake-female-flies-to-lure-pollen-bearing-males/

^2 Roman Kellenberger et al. Multiple gene co-options underlie the rapid evolution of sexually deceptive flowers in Gorteria diffusa. Current biology (23 Mar. 2023) https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2023.03.003

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Reply to Gene co-option in daisy creates petals that look like female flies, luring male flies — Males’ vain attempts to mate with petals rub off more pollen onto the flower by marketrent

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NotSockPuppet t1_jdf5cvu wrote

Reply to Study has shown evidence of a specific pathway of cells and nerves linking the gut to the brain that may be responsible for irritable bowel syndrome and anxiety by giuliomagnifico

Oh, a study! On the front page of reddit?

​

What percentage of the studies hold up over two years? Why do you think this may be related to more 'junk' science? What do you know about the link of eating chocolate and the rate of weight loss?

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ModlrMike t1_jdf15af wrote

Reply to comment by Dr_D-R-E in Emergency Department Co-testing for Human Immunodeficiency Virus When Testing for Gonorrhea and Chlamydia: A Readily Available, Missed Opportunity for Targeted HIV Testing in Emergency Departments | American Journal of Clinical Pathology by needt9379876

PA in EM

It is our standard of practice that anyone whom you might reasonably suspect may have an STI gets serology for HIV, Hep A/B/C, Syphilis, and urine NAAT for G&C. This on top of empiric oral treatment. Our outcomes may be skewed as I'm at an inner city ER with an over representation of folks who live on the margins.

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Former_Maybe_8437 t1_jdexkv4 wrote

Reply to comment by SaltZookeepergame691 in Study has shown evidence of a specific pathway of cells and nerves linking the gut to the brain that may be responsible for irritable bowel syndrome and anxiety by giuliomagnifico

>there really aren’t any major competing theories any more.

This is false. Food intolerances, medication side effects, SIBO and motility issues are all potential underlying causes of IBS other that neurochemical imbalances.

Where is your source of a major medical body declaring that DGBI is the sole cause of IBS to the exclusion of all others?

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DeathRebirth t1_jdexjvu wrote

Reply to comment by SaltZookeepergame691 in Study has shown evidence of a specific pathway of cells and nerves linking the gut to the brain that may be responsible for irritable bowel syndrome and anxiety by giuliomagnifico

Except that IBS is a big pot doctors throw people into when they don’t have any other easy answers. Some studies suggest a massive overlap with SIBO which really puts into question if this isn’t a mine field of misdiagnosis and lack of fundamental understanding of what’s going on in these patients.

I experienced exactly this first hand until now.

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guethlema t1_jdexgq2 wrote

Reply to comment by Narcan9 in By combing through genomic data of over 1 million people, scientists have identified genes commonly inherited across addiction disorders, regardless of the substance being used, the findings also reinforce the role of the dopamine system in addiction by giuliomagnifico

While it's a difficult hypothesis to examine in a controlled scientific setting, people acting on addiction has been evaluated in many studies to be linked to a sedentary lifestyle as well. So, it can be similarly hypothesized that active lifestyles hinder people with addictive genes from acting on them.

Anecdotally as someone who is personally genetically predisposed to addiction, I find myself to be much more focused when active, and as such have found a positive feedback loop on physical activity/often repetitive tasks with a level of thinking to be more focused than my peers while doing continuous focused work.

There is a viable link as well between ADHD and dopamine, and a similar link between ADHD and hyper focus while doing certain tasks.

As a result, perhaps additional research could focus on the benefits of dopamine on hunter/gatherer and agrarian tasks, and how ADHD and addiction are modern responses to changes in dopamine release from dietary change and changes in movement. There may be benefits to the mechanisms that modernly result in addiction, perhaps overeating and eating disorders, ADHD or other dopamine expressions that persisted through evolution, where those side effects were either null or mild compared to the benefits of dopamine release.

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roodeeMental t1_jdets9g wrote

Reply to comment by Lemonio in CBD Was Efficient In Preventing Chemotherapy-Induced Neuropathic Pain by Defiant_Race_7544

I live in the UK right now, and edibles are usually just homemade. The problem with them, is they're hard to regulate usage, effects take a while, and they can hit kinda hard all at once.

I smoke sativas because they're generally higher in THC, and I find it dampens the nerve problem very quickly. It seems degenerative this condition, if that's the right word, or progressive. After over a decade of usage for this condition, I've found personally 4 small paper spliffs (I mix lightly with tobacco), 2 in the morning and 2 at night is the minimum to keep me good - about 0.5g a day, even with progressive effects of this condition, dosage has remained fairly constant. May I ask what the condition is? THC is great for general neural on the brain, whereas CBD is better locally in my understanding

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