A discovery in fruit flies may be able to tell us more about how animals, including humans, sense potentially dangerous discomforts.

Endoscopes — small cameras or optic fibres that are usually attached to flexible tubing designed to investigate the interior of the body — can be dangerously invasive. Procedures often require sedative medications and some recovery time. Now a researcher at Tel Aviv University is developing a "capsule endoscope" that can move through the digestive tract to detect problems independent of any attachments.

WHAT: UCR entomologists will release Tamarixia radiata, a tiny parasitic wasp that lays eggs in Asian citrus psyllid (ACP) nymphs. The larvae eat the ACP nymphs, killing them, and emerge as adults about 12 days later. Adult female Tamarixia also eat other ACP nymphs, thus killing them.

This is a phylogenomic reconstruction of the evolutionary diversification of seed plants. Scientists at the American Museum of Natural History, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, The New York Botanical Garden, and New York University have created the largest genome-based tree of life for seed plants to date. Their findings, published today in the journal PLoS Genetics, plot the evolutionary relationships of 150 different species of plants based on advanced genome-wide analysis of gene structure and function. This new approach, called "functional phylogenomics," allows scientists to reconstruct the pattern of events that led to the vast number of plant species and could help identify genes used to improve seed quality for agriculture.

Scientists have found a gene that causes Weaver syndrome, a rare genetic disorder that typically causes large size at birth, tall stature, developmental delay during childhood, and intellectual disability. Published today in the American Journal of Human Genetics, the discovery means that testing the EZH2 gene for mutations could help families who are seeking a diagnosis for their child.