Features

Is a platypus five times sexier than a human? Well chromosomally-speaking it is: it has ten chromosomes that determine sex to our two. This is just one of the findings from a report in today's Nature.

Work by Chris Ponting from Oxford's MRC Functional Genomics Unit and colleagues has revealed that just as, to look at, the platypus is a pick 'n' mix of different animal attributes so its genome resembles an astonishing DNA cocktail: take sex chromosomes from birds, milk-production chromosomes from mammals, mix with reptilian chromsomes for a venomous bite, shake well and then add a twist unique to monotremes.

Of course, in a sense, it's not surprising that a creature that looks like a cryptozoologist's daydream has such a patchwork of genes. What is remarkable is just how different they are from mammal genes and how similar they are to those of other animal families - for instance proteins from platypus venom are the same as proteins in reptile venom even though the two evolved independently.

And then there's the twist: The platypus bill may look familiar and duck-like but it conceals a unique sensor system that enables this accomplished hunter to use electricity to detect its prey in the silty underwater gloom.

All of this might suggest that the platypus is some sort of zoological joke were it not for the fact that we share a common mammalian ancestor with them that lived around 170 million years ago. As Chris says this gives it a particular importance as a 'missing link' between the reptile-like, egg-laying mammals of the ancient past and the milk-rearing mammals we're all familiar with.

So, for all its idiosyncracies, maybe it's about time we celebrated the platypus as 'one of us'.

Watch a Nature video explaining the project, featuring Chris Ponting, here. 

A new simple and economical way of vaccinating against rabies could benefit patients in developing countries.

Receiving rapid and effective treatment - including vaccination and injection of anti-rabies antibodies - soon after a bite from a rabid animal is the key to surviving the disease. Yet current vaccines are very expensive (around $40) and difficult to administer so that people in developing countries often do not receive adequate treatment.

A new approach, developed by Mary Warrell and colleagues from Oxford's Centre for Clinical Vaccinology and Tropical Medicine, could offer a solution.

The technique involves injecting patients with a conventional vaccine in four places on their body on the same day. Tests with healthy patients have shown that this quicker and more economical method is just as effective at stimulating the production of anti-rabies antibodies as more expensive and more time-consuming existing methods.

The researchers believe that their approach could be suitable for use anywhere in the world where finances and resources are stretched and that it's likely to be more practical for where multiple patients need to be treated on the same day.

Hat tip to:  Medical News Today

It may be only the size of a grain of rice and harmless to humans but the mountain pine beetle is a woodsman's worst nightmare.

Why? Well according to Canadian reports it has infected over 700 million cubic metres of pine forest. Female beetles bore their way into trees eating as they go before laying their eggs; and secrete pheromones that result in mass attacks that can devastate huge swathes of forest [the image above shows the devastation they can cause - the red trees are dead or dying].

2008 has seen particularly damaging infestations, believed to be ten times larger than previous years. Cold weather is what usually keeps the beetles in check, and should bring a halt to this year's attacks, but the forests take decades to recover and a fresh worry is that climate change could limit these cold snaps.

The case of the mountain pine beetle is another example of the often-neglected impact that insect species have on our planet. It's what makes Oxford scientists helping to sequence the first beetle genome or examining butterflies as an 'early warning system' of habitat destruction so important: we'd be wise to pay more attention to the ecological impact of the most diverse group of animals on Earth.

When we do look more closely the results can be surprising. According to Canadian scientists the pine beetle infestation has meant that, due to enormous amount of rotting dead wood, affected forests are actually putting more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere than they are absorbing.

Global climate change is, they believe, at least partly responsible with warmer winters seeing more beetles survive and warmer summers enabling them to breed more successfully. The end result could be a trail of lonesome pine nobody will want to sing about.

The death rate from coronary heart disease could be levelling off or even rising amongst young women after over three decades of decline.

Steven Allender, from Oxford's Division of Public Health and Primary Care, and colleagues report that high levels of smoking, increased obesity and lack of exercise could be contributing to this trend seen in women under the age of 50.

Coronary heart disease (CHD) is the most common cause of death in the UK (100,000 each year) and includes disorders such as heart attacks and angina. It happens when arteries supplying blood to the heart narrow.

The researchers found that (CHD) mortality rates in England and Wales peaked in the 1970s and have been falling ever since: levels are now much lower than throughout most of the last Century

Steven comments: 'We observed that CHD mortality among younger age groups has increased in those born in the early 20th century compared to those born in the late 19th century. This requires further study as the public health implications of a decline in survival from CHD in younger age groups may be stark.'

Better treatment for cystic fibrosis (CF) could be on the cards after a gene therapy breakthrough by Oxford scientists.

The breakthrough involves plasmids, tiny circles of DNA that can carry healthy genes to where they can replace faulty CF genes in the lining of the lung.

Deborah Gill and Stephen Hyde from Oxford's Nuffield Department of Clinical Laboratory Sciences report in Nature Biotechnology that they have developed new versions of plasmids carrying the healthy CF gene that do not produce flu-like symptoms in recipients. They removed the side effect by 'editing out' markers (known as CpG motifs) that are recognised by the human body as 'danger signals', triggering an inflammatory response in the lung.

The team will now look to test the new plasmid as part of the CF Gene Therapy Consortium's clinical programme - which is funded by the Cystic Fibrosis Trust.