The current loss of biodiversity has found its way into the media. Especially the loss of bees as pollinators has recently received much attention aiming to increase public awareness about the consequence of pollinator loss and strategies for protection. However, pollinating insects like bees often prompt considerable anxiety. Negative emotions such as fear and disgust often lead to lack of sup...

The law of excuses is a deeply entrenched concept in Anglo-American jurisprudence which has persisted since the Middle Ages.' The excusing conditions of necessity, mistake, duress and diminished mental capacity all embrace the unitary principle that a person is not culpable, and cannot be held criminally responsible, if he had no control over his behavior.~ All the excusing conditions, then, in...

Evidence of inter-species pathogen transmission from managed to wild bees has sparked concern that emerging diseases could be causing or exacerbating wild bee declines. While some pathogens, like RNA viruses, have been found in pollen and wild bees, the threat these viruses pose to wild bees is largely unknown. Here, we tested 169 bees, representing 4 families and 8 genera, for five common hone...

In countries containing a mega diversity of wildlife, such as Brazil, identifying and characterizing biological diversity is a continuous process for the scientific community, even in face of technological and scientific advances. This activity demands initiatives for the taxonomic identification of highly diverse groups, such as stingless bees, including molecular analysis strategies. This typ...

Both genetic and environmental factors are known to play a role in causing cancer (Iwasaki and Tsugane, 2011). For the last few decades the standard cancer treatments have involved surgery, radiation and chemotherapy. However, metastatic disease frequently redevelops even after surgery. In addition, the typical systemic treatment regime has often led to intolerable side-effects. Chemotherapeuti...

Plasticity in the honeybee brain has been studied using the appetitive olfactory conditioning of the proboscis extension reflex, in which a bee learns the association between an odor and a sucrose reward. In this framework, coupling behavioral measurements of proboscis extension and invasive recordings of neural activity has been difficult because proboscis movements usually introduce brain mov...

Stimulator of interferon genes (STING, also known as MITA and ERIS) is critical in protecting the host against DNA pathogen invasion. However, the molecular mechanism underlying the regulation of STING remains unclear. Here, we show that PPM1A negatively regulates antiviral signaling by targeting STING in its phosphatase activity-dependent manner, and in a line with this, PPM1A catalytically de...

Stimulator of interferon genes (STING) is essential for the type I interferon response against DNA pathogens. In response to the presence of DNA and/or cyclic dinucleotides, STING translocates from the endoplasmic reticulum to perinuclear compartments. However, the role of this subcellular translocation remains poorly defined. Here we show that palmitoylation of STING at the Golgi is essential ...