The Famous Colorful Coral Reefs

If you have ever seen the movie "Finding Nemo," then you will know about the famous and colorful coral reefs that line very small sections of the ocean floor. The coral reefs are home to about 25% of marine life world wide. But why are these coral reefs so famous and colorful? 

In a recent study conducted by scientists at the University of Southampton, the genetics of the colorful coral reefs have been studied. The study revels that the individual sections of living coral use one single gene to control pigment production to produce their colors. However, the corals do not just use one copy of the gene, the coral instead uses multiple copies of the same gene. The pigments act as sunscreen for the living organism and will create more or less depending on how much sun is on the reef. Another factor that affects the reefs are the many living organisms surrounding the coral. Most algae protect the coral from the sun through a symbiotic relationship.

This article was very interesting because I have always been fascinated with marine life and the coral reefs. The article does touch on why the coral reefs are dying out which I also thought was very interesting since part of it was related with the pigmentation.




found at: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/01/150129094216.htm 

Altering Mosquito's Sense of Smell

On a hot summer day, hiking through a wet area, you find yourself being a plate of food for mosquitoes. By the end of the trip, you are covered in bug bites and the all you can think about it is cursing those damn mosquitoes. In a ScienceDaily article, it was reported that researchers have developed a way to alter an insect's sense of smell. Ocro was identified to be a gene that contributed to odor sensing in mosquitoes. When this gene was silenced, mosquitoes had difficulty sensing odors. Furthermore, the study showed that mosquitoes did not hold a preference toward a certain species (including humans). However, mosquitoes were shown to land on DEET (main component in bug repellent) covered subjects, but quickly fly away. Therefore, this indicates that there are multiple mechanism involved with sensing odors. All in all, orco was shown to interfere with an insect's receptors on sensing smells. As a result, future studies will dive deeper into understanding the other mechanisms involved with certain repellents and why mosquitoes prefer humans.

The Genetically Engineered Mosquito

The sense of smell is such an important way to retrieve information from our surroundings. It only took one gene to confuse a mosquito from its normal behavior. I believe that even though there is a genetically modified version of the mosquitoes that has no preference to humans, it would not survive in the wild due to the fact that humans are the most accessible type of nutrient for mosquitoes. Mosquitoes continue to favor Human for a reason. That is why the genes for this specific affinity were passed down. It was favorable to them, and those that could better sense Human odor better, survived more easily.