The study, published in Frontiers in Soil Science, compared Joniškis in northern Lithuania with Molėtai in the east. Joniškis is a 1,151.6-square-kilometre lowland district with a mean slope of about 1 degree, fertile loamy soils and extensive mechanized production. Arable land covered 71.9% of the district, and within the agricultural areas represented in the crop-declaration data, arable land accounted for 96.1%. Molėtai, by contrast, is a 1,366.8-square-kilometre moraine upland with a mean slope of about 3.3 degrees. Forests covered 38.6% of it, arable land 33.5%, and grasslands 9.6%. Among its declared agricultural areas, perennial grasslands and pastures were the largest category at 51.4%, compared with 26.4% arable land.

The differing terrain produced markedly different spatial structures. The Nature Frame occupied 610.9 square kilometres, or 53.0%, of Joniškis and 785.3 square kilometres, or 57.5%, of Molėtai. In Joniškis, geoecological divides represented 37.5% of the framework, migration corridors 37.6% and internal stabilization areas 24.8%, producing a comparatively balanced arrangement associated with broad watersheds and developed river valleys. In Molėtai, geoecological divides dominated at 63.0%, compared with 23.3% for migration corridors and 13.7% for internal stabilization areas. The hillier landscape contained extensive watershed and ridge systems dissected by valleys, lake basins and other hydrologically active forms.

Spatial overlay showed that 348.0 square kilometres of declared agricultural land in Joniškis fell within the Nature Frame, equivalent to 44.3% of the district’s declared agricultural area. Almost half of the arable land inside the framework lay in migration corridors, while 31.0% lay in geoecological divides and 20.8% in internal stabilization areas. This distribution raised a potential mismatch: the lowland setting favours intensive cultivation, but its corridors and divides also participate in the movement, accumulation and stabilization of water, sediment, nutrients and organic matter. The study did not directly measure degradation caused by this arrangement, but it identified where land-use intensity and geoecological role could be in tension.

Molėtai’s declared agricultural land within the framework covered 180.3 square kilometres, or 41.7% of its declared agricultural area. Its land-use pattern was substantially more diversified. Perennial grasslands and pastures occupied 97.8 square kilometres, natural grasslands 21.8, arable land 40.2, landscape elements 10.5 and temporary grasslands 10.0. The first three perennial and natural categories were concentrated in geoecological divides, where they accounted for 54.8%, 53.9% and 76.2%, respectively. Arable land was distributed among divides, corridors and stabilization areas at 35.9%, 40.3% and 23.8%. The contrast indicates that environmental heterogeneity in the upland district had already shaped a land-use structure more closely differentiated by landscape position than that of Joniškis.

To interpret the patterns, the authors developed a conceptual matrix linking agricultural categories with four soil-related criteria: tillage intensity, erosion potential, soil organic carbon accumulation potential and biodiversity conservation. The criteria were scored on the same ordinal scale and added without differential weighting. For arable land, scores for each criterion could be −1 or 1, producing a possible total from −4 to 4. Natural grasslands and landscape elements received the highest overall compatibility scores, followed by perennial grasslands, while temporary grasslands were intermediate and arable land received the lowest score. The assessment was expert-based and conceptual: the resulting map expressed the matrix spatially rather than independently validating soil-function compatibility.

The conceptual results nevertheless point to distinct management roles for the three types of Nature Frame zone. Geoecological divides, commonly positioned on elevated terrain where runoff is generated, were assigned priorities of reducing erosion risk, increasing soil organic carbon accumulation and maintaining soil stability. Migration corridors, including valleys and drainage systems that transmit water, sediments, nutrients and organisms, were linked to water regulation, reduced nutrient leaching, ecological connectivity and biodiversity. Internal stabilization areas were presented as potentially better suited to balanced agriculture that preserves soil fertility, landscape structure and long-term agroecosystem stability. Agricultural land outside the framework was not excluded from farming, but the model suggested that conventional management might be more compatible there while retaining general soil-conservation principles.

The authors say this is a decision-support concept rather than a territorial plan or a mandatory set of measures. Its central proposition is that management intensity should correspond not only to productivity conditions but also to a location’s role in the wider landscape. In intensively farmed, relatively homogeneous lowlands, the framework may reveal mismatches that are hidden by district-wide land-use statistics and provide a basis for targeted differentiation. The authors further propose that its value may be greater where agricultural intensification has simplified natural heterogeneity, while already diversified upland landscapes may require less additional spatial differentiation. That proposition remains a hypothesis requiring validation in other agricultural settings.

Several limitations constrain the findings. The study did not quantify erosion rates, soil organic carbon stocks or nutrient fluxes, and it did not test whether a particular field practice improved a measured soil function. Its conclusions depend on generalized expert scores and on the scale and resolution of the soil, cadastral, crop-declaration and landscape datasets, which can smooth local variation. The analysis was also limited to two Lithuanian districts and therefore cannot establish that the same pattern or management response will occur elsewhere. Future work would need direct soil measurements, quantitative spatial analysis, process-based modelling, remote sensing and testing in additional geomorphological settings, as well as more reproducible methods for delineating Nature Frame territories.

Within those bounds, the study offers a way to connect soil management with the larger organization of agricultural landscapes. Its contribution is not a finding that one crop or land-use category always protects the soil, nor a demonstration of improved yields or environmental outcomes. It is a spatial framework for asking where agricultural intensity may conflict with the functions assigned to a landscape position and where those functions may already be supported. The clearest mismatch occurred in Joniškis, where arable land frequently occupied migration corridors and other sensitive zones in an otherwise favourable landscape for intensive farming. Further field validation will determine whether applying the framework can translate that mapped mismatch into measurable gains in soil conservation, carbon retention, water regulation and landscape resilience.

Subject of Research: A conceptual GIS framework for aligning agricultural intensity with soil functions across contrasting Lithuanian landscapes.

Article Title: The Nature Frame as a landscape-based framework for integrating soil functions into agroecosystem management

Article References: Mačiulaitis, J., & Volungevičius, J. (2026). The Nature Frame as a landscape-based framework for integrating soil functions into agroecosystem management. Frontiers in Soil Science, 6, Article 1946432. https://doi.org/10.3389/fsoil.2026.1946432

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.3389/fsoil.2026.1946432

Keywords: soil functions, agroecosystems, landscape ecology, Nature Frame, soil organic carbon, soil erosion, agricultural land use, spatial planning, land management, Lithuania, Nature, Frame

CD8-positive T cells are the immune system’s specialized assassins, programmed to recognize and destroy cells that display foreign or abnormal signals on their surfaces, whether those signals come from viruses or from cancerous mutations. Under normal circumstances, these cells mount a vigorous response, proliferating rapidly and releasing toxic molecules that kill infected or malignant targets. But when the stimulation persists for weeks or months, as it does in chronic viral infections and in solid tumors that continuously present antigens, the T cells receive a prolonged barrage of activation signals that pushes them into an overstimulated state. Rather than becoming stronger, they become exhausted: they lose their ability to proliferate, secrete fewer of the cytokines needed to coordinate an attack, and effectively stand down while the tumor or virus continues to progress.

One of the critical signals in this process is interleukin-2, or IL-2, a cytokine that normally fuels T-cell activation and expansion. The St. Jude researchers discovered that exhausted T cells receive suboptimal activation through IL-2 signaling, and that this deficiency is not an accident of the tumor environment but the result of an active genetic program. Their search for the molecular link between chronic overstimulation and exhaustion led them directly to ZMYND8, a protein that normally functions as a transcriptional brake, repressing the expression of certain genes. Among the genes it suppresses is Il2ra, which encodes the IL-2 receptor, the very molecular antenna T cells need to respond to IL-2. In other words, chronic stimulation co-opts ZMYND8 to silence the receptor that would otherwise keep the T cells fighting.

Chi described the significance of the finding in stark terms. “Now we may have a way to overcome CD8-positive T-cell exhaustion and improve their function,” he said in the announcement accompanying the study. “When we deleted Zmynd8, we saw improved CD8-positive T-cell function against tumors and chronic infections, suggesting we may have a new therapeutic target to explore to improve these therapies.” The experiments showed that removing the gene from CD8-positive T cells in mice led to significantly better control of both chronic viral infection and melanoma compared with control animals, demonstrating that the effect holds across two distinct disease contexts that share the same underlying problem of persistent antigen stimulation.

To identify ZMYND8 in the first place, the team employed single-cell CRISPR screening, a technique that allows researchers to systematically knock out individual genes across large populations of cells and observe the consequences in each cell individually. By removing genes involved in regulating gene expression and tracking how T-cell states changed, the scientists could pinpoint which regulators were driving the transition into exhaustion. ZMYND8 stood out from the crowd. “We found that ZMYND8 is a ‘master’ regulator of CD8-positive T-cell exhaustion,” said co-first author Yan Wang, PhD, of the St. Jude Department of Immunology. “Its deletion enhanced effector cell formation, leading to the improved anti-tumor and anti-viral effects we observed.” The term master regulator reflects the gene’s position at a control point that shapes the entire fate of the cell, rather than merely tweaking one downstream pathway.

Having identified the master regulator, the researchers then dissected the mechanism by which it exerts its influence. They found that ZMYND8 physically binds to and suppresses the activity of p300, a well-known transcriptional coactivator that controls the activation of the IL-2 receptor gene. When ZMYND8 is present during chronic stimulation, it clamps down on p300’s ability to drive Il2ra expression, starving the T cell of the IL-2 signaling it needs to maintain its effector identity. “ZMYND8 can transform the chronic antigen stimulation signal that occurs in chronic viral infections and cancer into suppression of IL-2 receptor signaling, leading to an exhausted cell state,” explained co-first author Hao Shi, PhD, also of the St. Jude Department of Immunology. This mechanistic clarity is what elevates the finding beyond a simple correlation: the researchers can now trace a complete pathway from persistent antigen exposure through ZMYND8 recruitment, p300 suppression, IL-2 receptor silencing, and finally the exhausted state itself.

The most clinically exciting results came when the researchers combined Zmynd8 deletion with established immunotherapy approaches. Immune checkpoint blockade, the class of drugs that includes agents targeting PD-1 and CTLA-4, works by releasing a different kind of brake, one that cancers exploit to hide from immune attack. The St. Jude team tested Zmynd8 deletion in CD8-positive T cells alongside checkpoint blockade and separately alongside IL-2 supplementation. In both combinations, they observed an increase in functional effector cells, a corresponding decrease in exhausted cells, and a more profound increase in survival among mice receiving the combined treatments than in mice receiving either intervention alone. “What we’re really excited about is how the combination with immunotherapy enhanced treatment efficacy,” Chi noted, underscoring that the gene deletion did not merely add to the effects of immunotherapy but appeared to multiply them.

The synergy makes biological sense in light of the mechanism. Checkpoint blockade reinvigorates T cells that have already become partially dysfunctional, but if those cells remain unable to respond to IL-2 because ZMYND8 has silenced their receptors, the reinvigoration is incomplete. By removing the ZMYND8 brake, the T cells regain the capacity to receive IL-2 signals, and the checkpoint drugs or IL-2 therapy can then act on cells that are actually equipped to respond. This dual approach addresses both the external brakes that tumors impose and the internal brake that T cells impose on themselves, a combination that may prove essential for solid tumors, which have proven far more resistant to immunotherapy than blood cancers.

The implications for pediatric oncology are particularly significant. Immunotherapy has increased survival for some adults and children with cancer, but its success against many pediatric solid tumors has been limited, in part because T cells in those patients become exhausted before they can clear the disease. A strategy that prevents or reverses exhaustion at the genetic level could expand the population of children who benefit from these treatments. Chi emphasized this translational potential: “We have a new approach that could synergize with immunotherapy. One day, a combination treatment approach could improve survival for patients with solid tumors.”

The study, published in Nature on September 23, 2026, was supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health, including CA253188, AI105887, AI131703, AI140761, AI150241 and AI150514, along with the Cancer Center Support Grant P30 CA021765 and funding from the American Lebanese Syrian Associated Charities, the fundraising and awareness organization of St. Jude. In addition to Chi, Wang and Shi, the research team included Nicole Chapman, Anil KC, Renqiang Sun and Hao Song of St. Jude, and Xiaoxi Meng and Xiang Sun, formerly of the institution. The work represents a growing trend in immunology research: rather than simply boosting immune activation with cytokines or checkpoint inhibitors, scientists are now mapping the intrinsic gene programs that determine whether T cells sustain or surrender their function, and using that map to design interventions that reprogram the cells themselves. If the mouse findings translate to humans, targeting ZMYND8 or the p300-IL-2 receptor axis it controls could become a cornerstone of next-generation cancer immunotherapy.

Subject of Research: The role of the ZMYND8 gene in regulating CD8-positive T-cell exhaustion and its potential as an immunotherapy target

Article Title: Targeting ZMYND8 improves T-cell function and may boost immunotherapy

Article References: Targeting ZMYND8 improves T-cell function and may boost immunotherapy. Original publication (Bibliographic details unavailable.)

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: Not provided

Keywords: ZMYND8, T-cell exhaustion, CD8-positive T cells, immunotherapy, interleukin-2, p300, checkpoint blockade, St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, solid tumors, chronic viral infection, CRISPR screening, Nature

The scale of the undertaking sets it apart from earlier attempts to resolve bat origins. An international team of 137 researchers from 64 countries contributed to the work, drawing on samples collected over decades from bats across the world. The genomic dataset covered 103 species and included representatives of every one of the 21 bat families currently recognised by science. Crucially, the sampling captured some of the rarest and most unusual bat lineages, animals collected from some of the most remote habitats on the planet. Alongside the genomes, the researchers integrated 44 fossil bats drawn from deposits across the globe, allowing living and extinct species to be analysed within a single analytical framework.

Technically, the study relied on state-of-the-art DNA sequencing paired with sophisticated computational methods to generate, compare, and annotate the genomes, identifying the genes each species carried. Rather than treating genetic data and palaeontological evidence as separate streams of information, the team modelled the evolution of fossil and living species together. Senior author Professor Liliana M Dávalos of Stony Brook University explained the distinctive power of this approach, noting that it can identify the oldest group of fossil bats while taking the genomic data into account, and uncover when and where bats originated. This joint modelling is what allowed the team to place both the timing and the geography of the bat origin with unprecedented confidence.

The results point to a two-stage expansion that shaped the modern global distribution of bats. After arising in Europe roughly 65 million years ago, the earliest descendants of the founding population dispersed into Africa, establishing a Europe-Africa hub. From that hub, bats subsequently expanded into Asia, the Americas, and Australia, producing the near-worldwide distribution seen today. This biogeographic narrative replaces a patchwork of regionally based origin stories and suggests that the deep history of mammalian flight is anchored to a single continental cradle rather than to multiple independent centres of emergence.

Beyond geography, the study also revised the shape of the bat evolutionary tree itself, resolving several long-running debates about how the major bat groups are related to one another. Scientists have struggled for decades with the most basic questions of bat phylogeny: how the families are connected, which lineages branched off first, and how the extraordinary traits of bats fit into that branching history. The new tree, grounded in whole genomes and tested against fossils, provides a revised framework that the authors say will serve as the reference point for future work on bat diversification.

One of the most consequential findings concerns echolocation, the biosonar system that allows most bats to orient and hunt in complete darkness using sound alone. The placement of the fossil bat Vielasia within the oldest branch of the bat family tree indicates that echolocation predates the diversification of modern bats. In other words, the ability to perceive the world through returning sound waves was already present in the ancestors of all living bat families. The finding suggests that two of the defining characteristics of bat biology, echolocation and powered flight, were established near the origin of the group itself, a combination that likely helps explain the extraordinary evolutionary success bats have enjoyed over the subsequent 65 million years.

To anchor these evolutionary inferences, the team also reconstructed the genome of the bat ancestor, producing a picture of what the first genome of a flight-capable mammal would have looked like. This ancestral genome now serves as a genomic map for how one lineage of mammals evolved powered flight, advanced biosonar, exceptional longevity, and unusual resistance to disease. Because the ancestor’s gene set can be compared systematically with those of living species, researchers can begin tracing which genetic changes accompanied each of these hallmark traits, and in what order they arose during the deep history of the lineage.

The implications of that map extend well beyond bats. Many bat species show remarkable resistance to disease and live exceptionally long lives for animals of their size, traits that have long fascinated biologists and medical researchers alike. The genomic resource built for this study gives scientists the first robust evolutionary framework for investigating the genes behind these characteristics. Understanding how bats manage ageing, immunity, and viral tolerance, within a properly resolved evolutionary context, could eventually inform human research into the same processes, from healthy ageing to disease resistance.

Senior author and Bat1K Director Professor Sonja Vernes of the University of St Andrews emphasised the significance of the collaborative achievement. Bats, she said, constantly surprise us and are one of evolution’s greatest experiments, and the extraordinary genomic resource, the culmination of years of international cooperation within Bat1K, is finally allowing researchers to understand how their remarkable biology evolved. Her remarks underscore a central theme of the project: that questions which resisted answer for generations became tractable only once genome-scale data from every bat family could be examined together.

The study also arrives at a moment when the wider importance of bats to ecosystems is increasingly recognised. With more than 1,500 species distributed across the globe, bats account for roughly one fifth of all living mammals and play vital roles in maintaining healthy ecosystems by pollinating plants, dispersing seeds, and consuming vast numbers of insect pests. A reliable evolutionary tree for such a large and ecologically consequential order of mammals is therefore more than an academic curiosity; it is a foundation for comparative biology, conservation planning, and biomedical research. By locating the cradle of bat evolution in Europe, dating the dawn of flight and echolocation to the group’s very beginning, and delivering an ancestral genome as a research template, the Bat1K consortium has transformed some of the oldest mysteries in mammalian evolution into solvable scientific questions, and it has done so with the largest combined genome and fossil dataset ever assembled for any comparable group.

Subject of Research: Evolutionary origins and phylogeny of bats based on combined genomic and fossil evidence

Article Title: New study reveals bats originated in Europe and rewrites the bat family tree

Article References: New study reveals bats originated in Europe and rewrites the bat family tree. (n.d.). Original publication

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: Not provided

Keywords: bats, Bat1K, evolution, phylogenetics, genomics, echolocation, powered flight, fossils, Europe, biogeography, Nature, ancestral genome

The scale of the undertaking is unprecedented. The research represents the largest combined bat genome and fossil study ever attempted, drawing on samples collected over decades from bats around the world, including some of the rarest and most unusual species found only in the most remote locations. An international team of 137 researchers from 64 countries, working as part of the Bat1K consortium — a global initiative dedicated to sequencing the genomes of all living bat species, co-founded by UCD’s Professor Emma Teeling — combined genomic data from every living bat family with the ancient fossil record to reconstruct the evolutionary history of this extraordinary lineage.

The technical achievement behind the study is considerable. The team analysed 103 bat genomes, including 42 newly generated chromosome-level assemblies, representing all 21 recognised bat families. These genomic data were then integrated with evidence from 44 fossil bats, using computational approaches capable of modelling the evolution of living and extinct species together. By placing fossils within a genomic framework rather than treating them as separate lines of evidence, the researchers were able to identify the oldest branch of the bat family tree while accounting for the molecular data, and to pinpoint when and where bats first emerged.

The results paint a strikingly clear picture. Bats most likely first evolved in Europe during the late Palaeocene, and from there their descendants spread into Africa. As the animals diversified, different groups then expanded independently into the Americas, Asia and Australia, eventually giving rise to the major bat lineages found across the planet today. Alongside establishing this likely geographic cradle, the study resolves several long-running debates about the relationships between bat families, revealing unexpected connections between some of the world’s most unusual bats and overturning conflicting evolutionary trees that had persisted for decades.

Among the study’s most significant findings is new light on how bats developed the two defining characteristics that set them apart: powered flight and echolocation. Because bats are the only mammals known to have evolved true powered flight, the findings point to Europe as the most likely place where mammalian flight first took to the air. Meanwhile, analysis of the fossil bat Vielasia, which sits on the oldest branch of the bat family tree, indicates that echolocation had already evolved near the very beginning of bat evolution. Together, these results suggest that both powered flight and echolocation predate the diversification of modern bats — a combination that may help explain the group’s extraordinary evolutionary success.

Reaching that conclusion was far from straightforward. Different parts of the bat genome can tell different stories about their evolutionary history, because early bat lineages appear to have exchanged genes as they diversified. This means that while some genomic regions suggest one set of relationships among bat families, others point to another, muddying the signal that phylogeneticists rely upon. The breakthrough came when the researchers discovered that a region of the X chromosome retained a particularly clear signal of the underlying relationships between bat groups, allowing them to cut through the conflicting evidence and resolve the family tree with new confidence.

The team also computationally reconstructed the genome of the ancient ancestor from which all living bats descended, offering a glimpse into the genetic make-up of one of the earliest flying mammals. This ancestral genomic resource now gives scientists a powerful new tool for investigating the genetic changes behind bats’ remarkable diversity and adaptations, including flight, echolocation, exceptional longevity and resistance to disease. Because many bat species show remarkable resistance to pathogens and live far longer than their body size would predict, the resource could eventually inform human research into ageing, immunity and disease resistance.

The significance of the work is not lost on the scientists behind it. “It is extraordinary, after decades of research and conflicting findings, we finally have a robust phylogenetic tree that we can now use to properly understand how and where bats’ unique traits evolved,” said senior author and co-founding Director of Bat1K Professor Emma Teeling of the UCD School of Biology and Environmental Science. “We also have the genomes to uncover the molecular basis of these spectacular mammalian adaptations and know where the fossil bats fall in this tree.” Contributing to the project from UCD were Assistant Professors Graham Hughes and Zixia Huang, both of the School of Biology and Environmental Science.

Other senior authors emphasised the methodological and collaborative milestones. “The approach we used to model the evolution of fossil and living species together can do what other methods cannot — identify the oldest group of fossil bats while taking the genomic data into account, and uncover when and where bats originated,” said Professor Liliana M. Dávalos of Stony Brook University. “We combined state-of-the-art DNA sequencing and computational methods to generate and compare these genomes and identify the genes they contain,” added Professor Michael Hiller of the Senckenberg Research Institute in Frankfurt. Professor David Ray of Texas Tech University noted that the dataset allows scientists to investigate genomic variation ranging from single base changes to hundreds or thousands of bases missing from one lineage but present in another — variation that has given rise to the huge diversity of bats sharing the planet, and to the origins of their unique characteristics.

“Bats constantly surprise us. They are one of evolution’s greatest experiments,” said senior author Professor Sonja Vernes of the University of St Andrews, and Bat1K co-founding Director. “This extraordinary genomic resource, the culmination of years of international cooperation of Bat1K, is finally allowing us to understand how their remarkable biology evolved.” The achievement rests on decades of fieldwork: “This dataset represents decades of work by field researchers from around the world, collecting samples from some of the most remote places, from New Zealand to Madagascar,” said Professor Teeling. “None of this would have been possible without the dedication and collaboration of these researchers, working together through the Bat1K consortium to bring these samples together, allowing us to tell the evolutionary history of these extraordinary flying mammals.” The study was supported in part by the European Research Council, Science Foundation Ireland and the Irish Research Council, alongside international partners.

Bats are among the most extraordinary mammals on Earth. They account for one fifth of all living mammal species, playing a vital role in maintaining healthy ecosystems across the globe as pollinators, seed dispersers and controllers of insect populations. Most bats orient and hunt in complete darkness using sound alone, a sensory feat few other animals can match. Yet despite their unique biology and ecological importance, scientists have struggled for decades to answer some of the most fundamental questions about their evolution. With a robust phylogenetic tree now in hand, anchored by the fossil record and built from genomes spanning every living bat family, researchers finally have the framework they need to trace how — and where — one of evolution’s most remarkable experiments first took flight.

Subject of Research: Evolutionary origins and phylogeny of bats based on combined genomic and fossil analysis

Article Title: Bats originated and took first flight in Europe, new UCD-led research suggests

Article References: Bats originated and took first flight in Europe, new UCD-led research suggests. (n.d.). Original publication

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: Not provided

Keywords: bats, evolution, genomics, phylogenetics, fossils, Palaeocene, echolocation, powered flight, Bat1K, Nature, Europe, University College Dublin

While the fundamental function of centromeres is highly conserved, their DNA sequences are not: centromeres can differ dramatically between species and even between individuals of the same species. This apparent contradiction is known in biology as the centromere paradox, and it raises the question of how a structure that has retained such an ancient function can contain DNA that changes so rapidly. The research team used the model plant thale cress (Arabidopsis thaliana) to directly investigate the mutations that occur within centromeres from one generation to the next. The study showed that centromeres exhibit a characteristic pattern of mutation: point mutations, changes affecting just a single nucleotide, essentially one letter of the genome, occur at an almost tenfold higher rate than in the chromosome arms. Insertions and deletions also occur frequently, typically involving hundreds to several thousand DNA letters.

These mutations are not random disruptions of the centromere. In Arabidopsis, centromeres consist largely of a basic DNA sequence approximately 178 letters in length that is repeated thousands of times. The newly identified insertions and deletions almost always added or removed complete copies of these repeat units, thereby maintaining the centromere’s repetitive architecture. Xiao Dong, a doctoral researcher at the MPIPZ and first author of the study, explains that centromeres are far more dynamic than one might expect for a region of the genome with such an essential function. At the same time, the mutations are remarkably structured: they alter the centromere while preserving its basic repetitive organisation.

The researchers were particularly interested in one of the most striking features of centromeres: their repetitive DNA is organised into vast blocks, which are sometimes millions of DNA letters in length, with repeats that are highly similar. These blocks can differ drastically between individuals. Professor Schneeberger, senior author of the study, notes that it was previously thought that structures of this size required large mutations or long-range rearrangements to form. The study shows that this is not the case. The researchers demonstrated this through simulations in which they modelled the evolution of centromeres over many thousands of generations, using experimentally measured mutation rates and types. In the simulations, relatively small mutations, mostly affecting only a few thousand DNA letters, gradually generated large blocks comprising hundreds of thousands to millions of DNA letters that closely resembled the structures found in natural centromeres.

This difference in scale is remarkable. In natural centromeres, vast patterns extend over millions of DNA letters. They did not emerge as a result of similarly enormous changes, though, but rather through the accumulation of many relatively small mutations. The study thus connects two very different evolutionary scales: local mutations that occur from one generation to the next and the enormous differences between centromeres that have emerged over thousands of generations of evolution. Since researchers began studying spontaneous mutation rates in plants almost 20 years ago, they have wondered whether different parts of the genome mutate in different ways. This study shows that centromeres are indeed different. Their unusual mutational dynamics help explain why centromeres stand out so strikingly when the genomes of different individuals and populations are compared.

The study was carried out by researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research in Cologne, the Max Planck Institute for Biology Tübingen, the Joseph Gottlieb Kölreuter Institute for Plant Sciences at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, LMU Munich, the University of Sheffield and Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf through its CEPLAS Cluster of Excellence. The work illuminates how a genomic structure performing one of the most ancient and essential functions in eukaryotic biology can simultaneously be among the most rapidly evolving regions of the genome, resolving a long-standing puzzle in evolutionary genomics through direct measurement of mutation and computational modelling of centromere evolution across thousands of generations.

Centromeres occupy a peculiar position in the genome. They are the one region that every chromosome absolutely requires for faithful inheritance, yet they are also among the least conserved stretches of DNA known. Evolutionary biologists have long noted that the proteins which bind centromeric DNA are far more similar across distantly related species than the DNA sequences themselves, a pattern that has fuelled decades of debate about what drives centromere change. The new findings from Arabidopsis thaliana speak directly to this debate by showing that the raw material of centromere evolution, the spontaneous mutations arising in each generation, is itself unusual in both quantity and kind.

The roughly tenfold elevated rate of point mutations in centromeres is notable because mutation rates elsewhere in the genome are generally assumed to be relatively uniform, shaped by shared repair machinery and similar chromatin environments. Centromeres, however, sit in a distinctive chromatin context marked by specialised histone variants, and their repetitive structure may itself complicate DNA replication and repair. Whether the elevated mutation rate reflects the intrinsic difficulty of accurately copying long arrays of tandem repeats, or a reduced efficiency of repair pathways in this region, remains an open question that the study’s data can now help address.

Equally significant is the finding that insertions and deletions in centromeres tend to add or remove whole repeat units rather than arbitrary fragments of sequence. This constraint means that mutation does not erode the repetitive architecture that centromeres depend on; instead, it reshuffles and resizes the repeat array while leaving its fundamental organisation intact. In effect, the mutational process behaves like a stochastic expansion and contraction of a template library, generating diversity in copy number and arrangement without destroying the underlying repeat. This provides a mechanistic explanation for why centromeres from different individuals can look radically different at the sequence level while still performing an identical cellular role.

The simulation work carries particular weight because it bridges measurement and prediction. Rather than merely cataloguing mutation rates, the researchers fed experimentally observed rates and mutation types into models running over many thousands of generations and asked whether the resulting structures resembled real centromeres. The fact that small-scale mutations, each affecting only a few thousand DNA letters, could accumulate into blocks spanning hundreds of thousands to millions of letters suggests that no special large-scale rearrangement mechanism is needed to explain centromere architecture. Gradual accumulation, given enough generations and the right mutational biases, is sufficient.

This conclusion has implications beyond plant biology. Centromeres in animals and fungi share the same general features: essential function, repetitive sequence composition, and rapid evolution. If the mutational dynamics observed in Arabidopsis prove general, they may explain a broader pattern of genome organisation across eukaryotes. They may also bear on practical questions, since centromere defects underlie chromosome missegregation events that contribute to infertility, developmental disorders and cancer, and centromere repeat variation has been implicated in hybrid incompatibilities between species.

The study also illustrates the value of long-term experimental programmes in genetics. The observation that different genomic regions mutate in different ways emerged from decades of work measuring spontaneous mutation in plants, work that initially seemed unlikely to resolve questions about structures as large and complex as centromeres. Combining those direct measurements with modern genome assembly methods, which have only recently made the repetitive centromeric regions of individual genomes readable, allowed the researchers to connect generation-by-generation mutation to evolutionary outcomes at the scale of millions of DNA letters.

For evolutionary theory, the work reframes the centromere paradox. The paradox dissolves if one accepts that the function of a centromere resides not in its precise DNA sequence but in its repetitive organisation and the chromatin it recruits. Sequence can drift rapidly, copy numbers can expand and contract, and blocks can turn over between generations, all without compromising the role the centromere plays in cell division. What the study demonstrates is that the pace of this drift is not an anomaly but a direct consequence of mutational processes that are measurably different in centromeres than in the rest of the genome, and that these processes, operating over thousands of generations, are sufficient to produce the extraordinary diversity observed among natural centromeres today.

Subject of Research: Mutational dynamics of centromeres in Arabidopsis thaliana

Article Title: Ancient genome function persists despite frequent mutations

Article References: Ancient genome function persists despite frequent mutations. (n.d.). Original publication

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: Not provided

Keywords: centromeres, cell division, Arabidopsis thaliana, mutation rates, genome evolution, Nature, repeat units, eukaryotic evolution, chromosome segregation, genomics, Ancient, genome

The pericopine moths belong to the tribe Arctiini, one of four groupings currently recognized within Arctiinae, alongside Lithosiini, Syntomini and Amerilini. The subfamily as a whole encompasses more than 11,000 species, roughly six percent of the world’s lepidopteran diversity, and the Neotropics are estimated to harbor at least thirty percent of all lepidopteran species. Yet the taxonomic history of these moths remained obscured for centuries, mainly because distinct lineages with high morphological resemblance were squeezed into classification systems that produced unnatural groupings. Several authors even erected artificial groups to accommodate species that did not fit pre-existing categories, compounding the confusion. Modern analyses have cleaned up the higher classification, but at the species level the pericopines remain a focal group for revisionary work, precisely because their collections rarely yield large specimen counts and most species are poorly represented in museums.

One of the most striking biological themes running through the catalogue is chemistry. Tiger moth caterpillars carry primary and secondary setae that provide physical and chemical protection against predation, and their strong association with larval host plants is mediated by plant secondary compounds. Larvae of Arctiini forage on host plants that include members of the families Asteraceae, Boraginaceae, Apocynaceae and Fabaceae, all known for the presence of pyrrolizidine alkaloids. These alkaloids are sequestered by the insects and retained through metamorphosis, appearing in the chorion of eggs, the integument of adults, the hemolymph, the larvae and the larval setae, or released as secretions through thoracic glands. The compounds are transferred from immature stages to adults, biparentally to eggs, and from males to females during courtship. This chemical armor confers unpalatability, which synergistically complements visual color signals in a display of aposematism, and even ultrasonic sound, as deterrents against predation.

The catalogue’s species accounts reveal how this chemical ecology intertwines with mimicry. Calodesma maculifrons, for instance, has highly distinctive wing patterns with an orange background, yellow post-discal maculae and parallel yellow stripes on black, and moths from other families share the same patterns, including species of Pyralidae, Tortricidae, Geometridae, Zygaenidae, Crambidae and Notodontidae, as well as some Central American butterflies in the genus Mesene, suggesting a mimicry ring. Chetone phaeba, known from a Peruvian female, carries a coloration resembling the Heliconius butterflies Heliconius erato emma, Heliconius melpomene aglaope, Heliconius demeter demeter and Heliconius xanthocles melittus, together with the nymphalid Castilia perilla. Netoche histrio exhibits tiger-pattern imitation coloring resembling Heliconius and Eresia butterflies, tiger-patterned Ithomiini and the riodinid Stalachtis calliope, all occurring in the Amazon. These convergent wing patterns are the visible face of a shared chemical defense, warning predators of a bad taste that the moths themselves may have borrowed from their host plants.

Sexual dimorphism emerges as the second great source of taxonomic chaos in the group. Many pericopine species show extreme differences between males and females, and the catalogue documents case after case in which the two sexes were described as different species. In Dysschema amphissa, males have a white wing pattern with brown obscured regions while females display an orange pattern similar to other Dysschema species involved in mimetic rings with Heliconiinae and Ithomiini butterflies. For some species, such as Dysschema amphissa and Euchlaenidia trancisa, males are sampled with light traps during the night while the females have a diurnal habit and are apparently rare or difficult to find. This variation in flight period between the sexes, associated with their sexual dimorphism, resulted in descriptions based on only one sex, and not rarely females and males were described as different species, contributing to the taxonomic disorder that the new catalogue helps to untangle.

The genus Dysschema dominates the Hamburg collection, and its species accounts illustrate both the problems and the solutions of modern revisionary work. Dysschema sacrifica, a relatively common and widespread South American species extending from the Cerrado and open Atlantic Forest into Bolivia, Uruguay, Paraguay and north-central Argentina, turns out to be highly polyphagous, with larval records in Amarantaceae, Asteraceae, Myrtaceae, Nyctaginaceae and Urticaceae. Remarkably, it was introduced in South Africa as a biological control agent against the invasive weed Chromolaena odorata. Dysschema picta shows males with a wing pattern similar to glasswing butterflies while females have wing polychromatism and a black, yellow and orange tiger pattern; immatures were reared in Mikania hirsutissima, Senecio brasiliensis and Vernonia polyanthes, all Asteraceae, and the documented female polychromatism resulted in the establishment of synonyms. Dysschema terminata, whose pairing of sexes was confirmed by collections at the Boracéia Biological Station in São Paulo, has males that are polychromatic on the hindwings, with a red submarginal band that is quite evident or gradually reduced until its complete absence.

Genitalia and other anatomical details provide the technical backbone for separating such lookalike species. Dysschema boisduvalii males are distinguished from related species such as D. centenaria and D. inominatum by spiniform projections at the base of the valva, whereas females are distinguished by having the opening of the ostium in the middle of the seventh sternite and an enlarged ductus bursae. Dysschema centenaria, whose immatures were reared in Eryngium paniculatum and E. eburneum, allowing the association between males and females, is externally distinguished from D. boisduvalii by white or yellow scales dorsally on the apex of the forewings, yellow spots on the hindwing base and a brown abdomen ventrally, with differences in the morphology of female and male genitalia corroborating the status of distinct species. Dysschema marginalis, by contrast, has genitalia that do not exhibit discernible distinctions across species, indicating that it constitutes a cryptic species complex with D. lycaste. Dysschema tricolora even possesses asymmetric structures in both male and female genitalia, which is unusual for the genus.

The catalogue also engages directly with molecular systematics and its pitfalls. Eucyane dejanira was previously allocated in the genus Hypocrita and subsequently moved to Eucyane based on a maximum likelihood analysis using the CO1 gene. The authors caution that this taxonomic decision shall be taken with care, because while CO1 is effective for species-level identification, its high mutation rate can make it challenging to compare sequences across very diverse taxa, since similar nucleotide changes may occur independently in different lineages, leading to misleading phylogenetic relationships. Moreover, the taxonomic coverage of that analysis was narrow. Recent phylogenetic work has shown that the genus Hypocrita is polyphyletic, consisting of two unrelated groups, one phylogenetically close to Netoche and the other close to the genera Ephestris and Thirgis. A wider taxonomic sampling and the use of nuclear genes are needed to clarify the relationships and taxonomic validity of the genera Eucyane, Hypocrita, Chetone and Netoche, mainly because the evolution of color pattern within these genera was driven by mimicry relationships.

Not every species in the collection is a showstopper, and the catalogue is candid about the knowledge gaps that remain. Hyalurga fenestra, Hyalurga fenestrata, Hypocrita fenestraria and Hypocrita plagifera are species for which available information is limited to the original description and inclusion in faunal survey lists, despite their prevalence in collections and broad distributions spanning the Amazon and Atlantic Forest biomes. Composia credula, distributed mainly in Central America with records on the islands of Puerto Rico, Jamaica, Cuba and the Dominican Republic, is another species about which scant information can be found in the literature. By contrast, Gnophaela vermiculata, a North American species without sexual dimorphism, has well-documented immature stages reared in Mertensia virginica, and adults are recorded to contain pyrrolizidine alkaloids, a chemical signature that ties this northern moth into the same defensive syndrome as its tropical relatives.

The broader significance of the Hamburg catalogue lies in what taxonomic catalogues do for biodiversity knowledge as a whole. By offering updated and standardized use of scientific names, together with data on geographic distribution, ecological relationships, host plant use and participation in mimetic rings, such inventories assist in closing knowledge gaps and enable a biological system to be convincingly described in detail and with clear nomenclature. The pericopines, with their incredible diversity of wing patterns that attract butterfly collectors, are a focal group for museomics studies, particularly for the rare or under-sampled species whose low representation in collections makes them nearly invisible to conventional research. Every photographed specimen, every synonym resolved and every host plant record added brings the hidden diversity of the Neotropics a step closer to being discovered, named and understood before it disappears.

Subject of Research: Illustrated catalogue of Pericopina (Lepidoptera, Erebidae, Arctiinae) in the Museum of Nature Hamburg – Zoology

Article Title: Illustrated catalogue of Pericopina ( Lepidoptera , Erebidae , Arctiinae ) in the Museum of Nature Hamburg – Zoology

Article References: Moraes, S. D. S., Freitas, A. V. L., & Silva-Brandão, K. L. (2025). Illustrated catalogue of Pericopina (Lepidoptera, Erebidae, Arctiinae) in the Museum of Nature Hamburg – Zoology. Evolutionary Systematics, 9(1), 123-134. https://doi.org/10.3897/evolsyst.9.150930

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.3897/evolsyst.9.150930

Keywords: Illustrated, catalogue, Pericopina, Lepidoptera, Erebidae, Arctiinae, Museum, Nature, Hamburg, Zoology, scientific research

Entomopathogenic fungi are among the most remarkable organisms in nature. They infect arthropods, consume them from within, and then erupt through the body wall to disperse their spores. Beyond their macabre life cycles, these fungi play crucial ecological roles in regulating insect and spider populations, and they hold significant economic importance as biological control agents and sources of bioactive compounds. Some, such as Ophiocordyceps sinensis and Cordyceps militaris, are renowned medicinal taxa, while anamorphic genera like Beauveria and Metarizium have been confirmed as vital biocontrol agents of pest insects. In China, their use stretches back centuries, with the earliest recorded application of “white stiff silkworm” (Bái Jiāng Cán) documented in Shen Nong’s Materia Medica during the Qin and Han dynasties.

The Fodingshan Nature Reserve, located at the junction of Shiqian, Yuqing, Shibing, and Zhenyuan counties in Guizhou Province, is an underexplored region for entomopathogenic fungal diversity. With an elevation of 1,869 meters, Fodingshan is the second-highest peak in the Wuling Mountains. The reserve experiences a warm, humid mid-subtropical monsoon climate with abundant rainfall, creating favorable conditions for diverse organisms. Previous studies have documented rich insect resources in this area, but the fungi that parasitize those insects remained an understudied group — until now.

During a survey on 11 July 2025, the researchers collected dead insects and spiders by random sampling from leaf litter and from under rocks near a roadside within the reserve. The specimens were placed in sterile bags, kept separately in an ice box, and transported to the laboratory, where they were preserved at 4 °C until processing. Mycelium or conidia were picked from the specimens and placed onto plates of potato dextrose agar, some modified with peptone and antibiotics, and cultured at 25 °C for 14 days under alternating light and dark conditions. The holotype and ex-type cultures were deposited at the Institute of Fungus Resources, Guizhou University.

Preliminary identification of the isolated strains was conducted using BLASTn searches of the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) locus, followed by multigene phylogenetic analyses, morphological characterization, and a recombination test. The team extracted fungal genomic DNA and amplified five target loci: ITS, the 28S large subunit ribosomal gene (LSU), the RNA polymerase II largest and second largest subunit genes (rpb1 and rpb2), and the translation elongation factor 1-alpha gene (tef-1α). The resulting sequences were aligned and edited, and two concatenated datasets were assembled — one including all five loci to infer relationships within Arachnidicola, and the second employing four loci to ascertain the position within Simplicillium. Both datasets were subjected to identical phylogenetic analyses using Bayesian inference and maximum likelihood methods.

The phylogenetic results were striking. The new species Arachnidicola fodingshanensis, isolated from a dead spider, was recovered as a distinct lineage forming a sister relationship with the clade comprising A. kanyawimiae and A. sinensis. Meanwhile, Simplicillium fodingshanense, isolated from a lepidopteran cocoon, and S. shiqianense, isolated from another dead spider, both cluster with S. subtropicum but form distinct, well-supported independent lineages with 100 percent maximum likelihood support and 1.00 posterior probability. These statistical values indicate that the two new Simplicillium species are clearly separated from each other and from all other known species in the genus.

Morphologically, the three species are readily distinguishable from their relatives. Arachnidicola fodingshanensis differs from A. kanyawimiae and A. sinensis by having longer phialides — the flask-shaped cells that produce conidia — and ovoid to ellipsoidal conidia in culture. Simplicillium fodingshanense is characterized by longer phialides than S. shiqianense and differs further in host association, being readily distinguished from S. subtropicum by the absence of octahedral crystals and by producing cylindrical to ellipsoidal conidia. In contrast, S. shiqianense is distinguished from S. subtropicum by its shorter phialides, the absence of both octahedral crystals and conidial slime head in culture, and its distinct host and substrate.

The nucleotide base comparison demonstrates that the species differ from related taxa by measurable margins. Arachnidicola fodingshanensis differs slightly from A. kanyawimiae, whereas greater divergence is observed from A. sinensis — 1.56 percent in ITS, 0.79 percent in LSU, 3.87 percent in rpb2, and 0.91 percent in tef-1α. The two new Simplicillium species differ from related taxa by 1.03 to 1.54 percent in ITS, 0.25 to 0.90 percent in LSU, and 1.40 to 1.89 percent in tef-1α. The pairwise homoplasy index (PHI) test further supports genetic distinctness for Arachnidicola (Φw = 0.6876) and Simplicillium (Φw = 0.1587), values well above the 0.05 threshold that would indicate significant recombination and therefore no clear species boundary.

The genus Arachnidicola, established only recently to accommodate spider-associated lineages previously placed in other genera, currently comprises 16 species, almost all of which have been isolated from arachnid hosts. This strong host fidelity raises critical questions regarding the degree of host specialization within the genus. While the combined analysis supports the delineation of A. fodingshanensis as a distinct taxon, the available data do not reveal an obvious pattern of strict co-evolution with specific spider families. Instead, the host association appears to be ecologically driven — spiders as a group may provide a consistent microhabitat, such as cuticular chemistry, humidity, or nutrient profile, that favors the proliferation of this fungal lineage. In China, nine species have been reported, five of which originated from Guizhou Province, and all five Guizhou collections were derived from forest habitats.

In contrast, the genus Simplicillium exhibits a broader ecological amplitude. Established with S. lanosoniveum as the type species, it currently encompasses 36 species, with only five previously reported from spider hosts. The two novel Simplicillium species described here — one associated with a spider and the other with a lepidopteran cocoon — provide a unique opportunity to explore the dynamics of host divergence within this genus. Previous research has demonstrated that host jumping is a widespread phenomenon within Simplicillium, suggesting that some spider-associated species likely originated from insect hosts and underwent an interkingdom jump to spiders. The discovery of S. fodingshanense from a lepidopteran cocoon — a nutrient-rich, protected microhabitat functionally distinct from a spider host — raises new questions about the ecological plasticity of this genus. The isolate could be a true pathogen of the pupa, a saprobe colonizing the cocoon after host death, or even a mycoparasite.

The co-occurrence of two novel Simplicillium species in the same reserve, albeit from different hosts and microhabitats, highlights the potential role of resource partitioning and host availability in driving speciation events. The addition of three new species from a single study, alongside previously reported soil fungi such as Akanthomyces muscarius and Beauveria bassiana, underscores that the documented fungal diversity in this protected area is merely a fraction of the actual species richness. Karst habitats, with their complex microclimates and isolated niches, are biodiversity hotspots that warrant significantly greater attention from mycologists. Future research should prioritize systematic surveys across different seasons, altitudes, and microhabitats — forest floor, valley, and cavernous niches — to fully assess the species richness of entomopathogenic fungi in this reserve. In-depth genomic and ecological studies are urgently needed to unravel the molecular mechanisms underlying host specificity and the adaptive advantages conferring host jumping in Simplicillium, as well as to elucidate the precise ecological role of these fungi in their respective host life cycles. Overall, these findings underscore the Fodingshan Reserve as a significant hotspot for fungal diversity and highlight the value of continued exploration in this underexplored karst region.

Subject of Research: Three new entomopathogenic fungi (Hypocreales, Cordycipitaceae) in Fodingshan Nature Reserve, Guizhou, China

Article Title: Three new entomopathogenic fungi ( Hypocreales , Cordycipitaceae ) in Fodingshan Nature Reserve, Guizhou, China

Article References: Chen, W.-H., Shu, H.-L., Li, D., Liang, J.-D., Wijayawardene, N. N., Feng, X., Lei, H.-M., Zhao, J.-H., Han, Y.-F., & Chen, X.-S. (2026). Three new entomopathogenic fungi (Hypocreales, Cordycipitaceae) in Fodingshan Nature Reserve, Guizhou, China. MycoKeys, 138, 281-307. https://doi.org/10.3897/mycokeys.138.198399

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.3897/mycokeys.138.198399

Keywords: Three, entomopathogenic, fungi, Hypocreales, Cordycipitaceae, Fodingshan, Nature, Reserve, Guizhou, China, scientific research

The demand for ever smaller and sharper displays is easy to see in the marketplace. Augmented reality glasses and the electronic viewfinders of professional cameras now rely on screens with diagonals of less than one centimetre, where thousands of pixels must fit into a space smaller than a grain of rice. As pixels shrink, conventional light-emitting diodes run into a fundamental limitation: they are built from crystalline semiconductors, and the smaller such crystals are cut, the dimmer they become. Organic light-emitting materials, which consist of carbon-based compounds rather than crystals, do not suffer from this penalty, which makes them ideal candidates for tiny yet bright pixels.

The obstacle has always been chemistry. Photolithography, the workhorse process of the chip industry, uses solvents and other aggressive chemicals to define structures with nanometre-scale accuracy. Organic light-emitting molecules are delicate, and exposure to these conditions chemically attacks and degrades them. Until now, that incompatibility has kept OLED fabrication separate from the high-precision patterning workflows that semiconductor manufacturers have refined over decades.

The ETH Zurich team, led by Yinyin Bao, now a professor at the University of Helsinki, together with ETH Professor Chih-Jen Shih, solved the problem by designing a new class of long-chain molecules that can be manufactured directly into OLED pixels using light exposure. The key insight was to make the light-emitting polymers themselves serve as photoresists, the light-sensitive materials that form the basis of photolithographic patterning. When exposed to ultraviolet light, the polymers cross-link and become insoluble, allowing fine-scale geometric structures to be created while withstanding the harsh chemical conditions of the process.

The molecular architecture follows a core-shell principle that elegantly separates two conflicting functions. At the centre of each molecular complex sits the colour-emitting molecule, the component that must be protected at all costs. Surrounding it are arms arranged in a star-like pattern whose outer ends react to ultraviolet light and cross-link with the arms of neighbouring stars, rendering the material insoluble wherever the light strikes. The inner portion of each arm plays an equally important role: it keeps the reactive cross-linking groups at a distance from the luminescent core, shielding the sensitive emitter from the chemistry happening at the periphery.

We separate the two functions spatially, Shih explains. The light-emitting molecule is protected inside, whilst the reactive cross-linking groups are on the outside. This allows the photoresist to react during lithography without causing significant damage to the light-emitting core. A co-author from RMIT University in Melbourne further examined this protective effect using computer simulations, confirming how the molecular design preserves the emitter during processing.

To demonstrate the precision achievable with the new materials, the researchers produced a test image of a macaw parrot measuring 300 by 430 micrometres and consisting of 250 by 350 pixels. The image was rendered in fluorescent colours and represents the highest-resolution multicolour fluorescent image produced by photolithography to date. In this demonstration the pixels were not driven electrically but were excited by external light, causing them to fluoresce, meaning the parrot is a static image rather than a functioning display. Even so, it establishes a benchmark for how finely different coloured luminescent materials can be patterned with the method.

The team also showed that the approach can produce electrically powered light-emitting diodes. Working in collaboration with the group of Hua Wang, a professor of electronics at ETH Zurich, they fabricated a glowing ETH logo measuring 1 by 2.4 millimetres, built from tiny light-emitting diodes patterned with the new photoresist polymers. This demonstration bridges the gap between passive fluorescent patterning and the active, electrically driven pixels needed for real screens, proving that the materials survive not only lithography but also the demands of device operation.

Significant engineering challenges remain before the technology can deliver a commercial display. The researchers aim to further reduce the pixel size of the light-emitting diodes, and a functioning screen will also require backplane electronics that allow each pixel to be controlled independently of its neighbours. Those circuit requirements are familiar territory for the semiconductor industry, which is precisely the point: by making OLED materials compatible with chip manufacturing processes, the new polymers allow display fabrication to piggyback on decades of accumulated lithographic expertise rather than requiring entirely new production infrastructure.

Shih sees applications extending well beyond small screens. Tiny, precisely patterned light sources could serve medical technology and devices for biological and neuroscientific research, where light must be delivered with high precision exactly where it is needed. Possible uses include research equipment that examines individual biological cells in a targeted manner or stimulates nerve cells in a Petri dish with light. Very small and precisely controllable light sources produced directly on microchips could also benefit microscopy and sensor systems, giving the new luminescent photoresists a role that reaches from the display industry to the laboratory bench.

Subject of Research: Luminescent polymers compatible with photolithography for manufacturing tiny OLED pixels

Article Title: Tiny OLED pixels can be manufactured like microchips

Article References: Tiny OLED pixels can be manufactured like microchips. (n.d.). Original publication

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: Not provided

Keywords: OLED, photolithography, photoresist, ETH Zurich, University of Helsinki, luminescent polymers, microdisplays, semiconductor manufacturing, core-shell molecules, Nature, augmented reality, medical technology

The study, published in BMC Psychology by FeiYan He of Nanyang Normal University in China, draws on Self-Determination Theory, a influential framework in motivational psychology that holds that human behavior flourishes when it grows from internalized values rather than external pressure. Using this lens, He asked whether encounters with natural beauty could activate the motivational machinery that eventually transforms environmental concern into everyday sustainable practice.

To answer the question, He designed a four-wave time-lagged survey, collecting data from 478 adults who reported regular exposure to natural environments. Rather than measuring everything at once, the study tracked participants across four separate time points, creating a temporal sequence that allowed each psychological step to be observed before the next one unfolded. This design matters because cross-sectional surveys, which measure all variables simultaneously, cannot establish whether a proposed cause actually precedes its supposed effect.

The results reveal a clear sequential pathway. At the first time point, participants rated how strongly they appreciated natural beauty. One wave later, the study measured environmental inspiration, the feeling of being moved or energized toward nature-related ideas and actions. A third measurement captured green self-identity, the degree to which a person sees environmental concern as part of who they are. Finally, at the fourth wave, the study assessed green lifestyle, the actual adoption of environmentally responsible habits in daily living.

Statistical analysis showed that natural beauty appreciation was positively associated with environmental inspiration, which in turn predicted stronger green self-identity, which ultimately forecast a greener lifestyle. Environmental inspiration and green self-identity each served as significant indirect links in the relationship between beauty appreciation and sustainable behavior, and the temporally ordered pattern was also consistent with a sequential indirect pathway, meaning the psychological transformation appeared to unfold in stages rather than all at once.

This staged progression carries important theoretical weight. According to Self-Determination Theory, motivation becomes durable when it moves from external regulation toward integrated self-endorsement. The findings suggest that aesthetic valuation, the appreciation of natural beauty, functions as the initial spark, motivational activation follows as inspiration takes hold, and self-integration completes the process as environmental concern becomes woven into personal identity. Only after this internalization does the motivation reliably translate into consistent everyday practice.

The study also identified a boundary condition that shapes the strength of this pathway. Nature connectedness, the subjective sense of belonging to and relationship with the natural world, moderated the association between beauty appreciation and green lifestyle. The positive link was significantly stronger at higher levels of nature connectedness, suggesting that people who already feel relationally tied to nature are more receptive to the motivational pull of its beauty, while those with weaker connections may need additional support to translate aesthetic appreciation into action.

He describes this relational receptivity as a key element of the framework, organizing aesthetic valuation, motivational activation, self-integration, and relational receptivity within a unified Self-Determination Theory-informed account. By extending research on nature-related experience and sustainable living, the study offers a more integrated explanation of the temporally ordered psychological associations that link appreciation of natural beauty with environmentally responsible everyday practices and a greener way of living.

The practical implications reach beyond the laboratory. If moments of genuine aesthetic encounter with nature can initiate a motivational sequence that culminates in sustainable behavior, then urban planning, education, and public health initiatives that increase access to beautiful natural settings may serve as subtle but powerful tools for environmental change. The research also suggests that cultivating nature connectedness could amplify the effect, making the combination of natural beauty exposure and relational belonging a potentially potent recipe for building greener societies.

Ethical approval for the study was obtained from the Institutional Review Board of Nanyang Normal University prior to data collection, and the research was conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki. All participants provided written informed consent, and only adults aged eighteen or older took part. The study received no external funding, and the author declares no competing interests. The article is published open access under a Creative Commons licence.

The distinction between feeling inspired and acting on that inspiration has long occupied environmental psychologists, and the present findings speak directly to a puzzle often described as the value-action gap. Surveys across many countries have repeatedly shown that people express strong pro-environmental attitudes while their daily behaviors lag behind, a discrepancy that has motivated decades of research into the psychological bridges between what people value and what they do. The sequential pathway identified in this study offers one candidate bridge: rather than treating attitudes as direct predictors of behavior, it positions inspiration and identity as intermediate psychological states that must form before values can stabilize into habits.

Environmental inspiration, the second step in the sequence, belongs to a broader family of motivational states studied in creativity and aesthetics research. Inspiration is typically characterized as a transient but potent experience in which a person feels energized, elevated, and oriented toward something perceived as valuable or beautiful. Its placement in this study between beauty appreciation and identity formation is theoretically meaningful, because inspiration is understood as a state that orients people toward possibility rather than obligation. In the language of Self-Determination Theory, this matters because motivation that begins with a felt attraction, such as being moved by natural beauty, is more likely to be experienced as autonomous, and autonomous motivation is the form most reliably associated with persistence.

The third step, green self-identity, reflects a well-established principle in social psychology: behavior is most stable when it is anchored in the self-concept. People tend to act in ways that confirm who they believe themselves to be, and when environmental concern shifts from an external expectation to a component of personal identity, sustainable actions no longer require constant justification or effortful self-control. The finding that green self-identity followed environmental inspiration in the temporal sequence suggests a possible route by which fleeting aesthetic experiences are converted into durable self-definitions, with inspiration serving as the emotional raw material from which identity is gradually assembled.

The moderating role of nature connectedness adds a relational dimension that complements this motivational account. Nature connectedness research has grown substantially in recent years, with studies linking the subjective sense of belonging to nature with wellbeing, pro-environmental attitudes, and self-reported sustainable behavior. The present study’s contribution is to show that this sense of relatedness does not merely predict green behavior on its own; it conditions how responsive a person is to the motivational pull of natural beauty. This pattern is consistent with the idea that aesthetic appreciation functions most powerfully within an existing relationship, much as a piece of music may move a trained listener more deeply than an unprepared one.

The four-wave design deserves particular attention when weighing the strength of these conclusions. By spacing measurements across time, the study satisfies a basic requirement for inferring directional influence, namely that a proposed antecedent be observed before its proposed consequence. The temporally ordered pattern, in which beauty appreciation preceded inspiration, inspiration preceded identity, and identity preceded lifestyle, is consistent with a causal chain, although survey designs of this kind still rely on self-report and cannot rule out every alternative explanation. Unmeasured factors that change slowly over time, or that influence adjacent waves differently, could in principle contribute to the observed ordering. Replication with experimental manipulation of nature exposure, or with objectively measured behavior such as consumption records, would strengthen the causal interpretation.

The sample also shapes the scope of the findings. All 478 participants reported regular exposure to natural environments, which was a deliberate choice given the study’s focus on aesthetic encounters with nature, but it means the results may not generalize to people whose lives offer little contact with natural settings. Whether the same sequential pathway operates for urban residents whose exposure to nature is limited to parks, balconies, or incidental greenery remains an open question, and one with considerable practical significance given ongoing global urbanization.

It is also worth noting the publication context. The article was released as an accepted manuscript under Springer Nature’s open access policy, meaning it is citable and carries a permanent DOI while remaining subject to further editorial production before the final Version of Record replaces it. The study received no external funding, and the author reports no competing interests, details that are relevant when considering the independence of the research. Ethical oversight was provided by the Institutional Review Board of Nanyang Normal University, with approval granted in September 2025, and the manuscript was received in August 2026 and accepted in October 2026.

Taken together, the study contributes to a growing movement in environmental psychology that treats contact with nature not as a luxury or a source of relaxation alone, but as a formative psychological experience with consequences for how people understand themselves and organize their lives. By tracing a complete arc from aesthetic valuation through motivational activation and self-integration to everyday practice, and by identifying relational receptivity as a condition that strengthens that arc, the research provides a framework that future studies can test across cultures, age groups, and levels of nature access. If the pathway holds, the implications extend from individual wellbeing to environmental policy, suggesting that the experience of beauty in the natural world is not merely pleasant but potentially transformative.

Subject of Research: From natural beauty appreciation to green lifestyle: the roles of environmental inspiration, green self-identity, and nature connectedness

Article Title: From natural beauty appreciation to green lifestyle: the roles of environmental inspiration, green self-identity, and nature connectedness

Article References: He, F. (2026). From natural beauty appreciation to green lifestyle: the roles of environmental inspiration, green self-identity, and nature connectedness. BMC Psychology. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40359-026-05785-8

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.1186/s40359-026-05785-8

Keywords: natural, beauty, appreciation, green, lifestyle, roles, environmental, inspiration, self-identity, nature, connectedness, scientific research

The study area is the Saladas of Sástago-Bujaraloz, a complex of nearly 150 closed depressions hosting temporary saline wetlands — the saladas — scattered across three municipalities in the Central Ebro Basin (CEB). These playa-lakes belong to the European Natura 2000 network of protected areas and to the Ramsar list of wetlands of international importance. Some of their bottoms hold water ten times saltier than seawater, fed by groundwater reaching an extraordinary 175 dS m−1. The wetlands support a unique vegetation, unparalleled in Europe, sustained by alternating inundation and drying episodes under one of the driest climates in the continent. Yet this ecological treasure sits at the heart of an agricultural landscape undergoing radical transformation, and the researchers wanted to know precisely where the salt lies — in the wetland bottoms, in the fringes of natural vegetation, and in the fields where machinery now plows ever closer to the protected enclaves.

The technical challenge was considerable. The team combined two complementary survey strategies. First, they sampled soils along transects crossing the wetland-crop interface in three representative saladas — Guallar, Rollico, and Gramenosa — capturing the gradient from hypersaline bare bottoms through fringes of salt-tolerant halophytes into dry-farmed cereal plots. Second, in the salada Agustín, they surveyed three agricultural plots officially declared as arable land in the Land Parcel Identification System (LPIS), the EU-wide registry that serves as a key control mechanism under the CAP. Soil samples were extracted with a hand auger at 20 or 25 cm intervals, reaching depths from 50 to 260 cm, yielding 319 samples in total. Electrical conductivity was determined in 1:5 and 1:10 soil:water extracts in the laboratory, and the EC of the saturation extract (ECe) — the worldwide standard for expressing soil salinity — was measured or estimated for every sample. The relationship between the two fixed-ratio extracts proved remarkably robust, with determination coefficients of 0.98 and 0.97, confirming that the 1:5 extract can reliably substitute for the more laborious saturation extract even in gypsum-rich soils.

The spatial pattern that emerged is consistent and geomorphologically coherent. The highest salinity occurs in the bare soil bottoms of the playa-lakes, with mean EC1:5 values of about 15 dS m−1; intermediate values characterize the fringes of natural vegetation, ranging from 6.5 to 10.2 dS m−1; and the lowest values correspond to crop soils, from 3 to 4.6 dS m−1. The transects along Guallar and Rollico collected the widest salinity range, up to 27.7 dS m−1, while the vegetated saladas Gramenosa and Agustín showed narrower ranges of about 9 dS m−1. Even the cereal area contains every salinity phase except non-saline: 5 percent of crop samples were slightly saline, 14 percent moderately, 23 percent strongly, and 58 percent very strongly saline. In other words, there are no soils free of salinity in the agricultural zone — a fact that the CAP’s current subsidy framework, which treats these parcels as ordinary arable land, simply does not register.

The vertical distribution of salt adds another layer of complexity. In the natural areas, the salinity range is maximum at the surface horizons and decreases with depth, a pattern driven by the high evapotranspiration of the semiarid climate: capillary rise carries saline groundwater upward through the bare soil, and evaporation concentrates the salts in the upper layers, generating hypersaline crusts. In the agricultural plots of Agustín, by contrast, the profiles are more heterogeneous and the salinity range similar at surface and subsurface horizons — very likely a homogenizing effect of continuous tillage, which CAP compliance requires even under long fallow practices of 16 to 18 months. Deep plowing that breaks and removes limestone and gypsum strata gives crop roots access to saline materials that were previously buried. When the researchers compared integrated salinity over the top 50 cm (ECe50) and the top 100 cm (ECe100), they found that ECe100 was generally higher, and that the ECe50 of the playa-lake bottoms could be twelve times that of the crops in Guallar and more than twenty times in Rollico.

Groundwater adds its own signature. The water table was reached at depths from 31 to 195 cm along the transects, with one site flooded in the Rollico bottom. Once stabilized, the shallow groundwater showed mean electrical conductivities of 82.6 dS m−1 in Gramenosa, 133 dS m−1 in Guallar, and 144.3 dS m−1 in Rollico. Its chemistry is dominated by chloride (54 g L−1) followed by sulfate (27 g L−1), with sodium (21 g L−1) and magnesium (8 g L−1) as the main cations. The researchers also identified unexpected local hotspots of high salinity outside the wetland bottoms, in the leeward low-lying areas of aeolian deposits — spots where the water table was never reached during sampling or during visits over the following three months. Previous work has documented that geological materials and groundwater characteristics can change at distances of just a few meters in this area, and that tectonic joints and preferential flows contribute to salinity differences over similarly tiny distances.

The second pillar of the study is the electromagnetic sensor (EMS), a portable instrument whose advent since the late twentieth century has made field assessment and mapping of soil salinity affordable in cost and time. The team used a hand-held Geonics EM38 along the wetland-crop transects, taking readings in horizontal (EMH) and vertical (EMV) coil positions nine days after a 32.2 mm rain, in trafficable soil conditions. In Agustín, a DualEm 1S sensor mounted on a plastic sled towed by a tractor acquired georeferenced readings automatically, connected to a GPS and a field computer where the data were recorded in real time. A preliminary map of readings was created in the field using kriging in ArcGIS to decide the soil sampling points — a strategy that dramatically reduces the number of samples needed. The calibration between sensor readings and laboratory EC varied between saladas, between horizontal and vertical readings, and between integrated soil depths. Rollico showed no difference between EMH and EMV, with maximum determination coefficients of 94 and 96 percent at 100 cm depth; Guallar’s fit was acceptable down to 80 cm before dropping sharply; and Gramenosa yielded very low values, likely because the dense, nitrophilous vegetation cover made it impossible to precisely distinguish soil cover changes when selecting sites.

The best overall relationship was found with a soil depth of 0–100 cm and with horizontal EMS readings, and the resulting calibrated salinity maps provided estimates at unsampled sites across the Agustín plots. Almost the complete fringe of Agustín depicted ECe above 4 dS m−1, with salinity decreasing toward the crops at higher topographic positions where the water table deepens. A concentric distribution was observed, with ECe above 10 dS m−1 at the center and the rest of the area between 2 and 10 dS m−1. The highest values occurred at the leeward depression of an aeolian deposit currently cultivated but with limited production. The identified salinity patterns, the authors conclude, are consistent and applicable across the whole area of about 150 saladas, and can be extrapolated with the help of digital mapping techniques and soil salinity proxies.

Why does this matter for policy? Spain contains the largest surface of saline land in the European Union, and the CAP currently ignores salinity when distributing monetary aid to farmers — a gap the researchers describe as generating economic suffocation in rural areas of the region. Their proposal is concrete: a new agri-environment-climate measure could classify plots with ECe above 10 dS m−1 in more than 50 percent of their surface as unsuitable for cultivation. The threshold draws on established yield-response science: previous studies established that an EC50 of 11.3 dS m−1 reduces durum wheat and barley yields by half, while barley alone tolerates much higher levels, with an EC50 of 18 dS m−1. Plots of limited agricultural potential could form part of a new category of eligible areas within the LPIS as non-productive areas prone to natural variable salinity, ensuring farmers do not lose their subsidies while protecting the sensitive wetland-crop interface. The European Court of Auditors has recommended that targeted on-the-spot data may be required to accurately identify this type of land as eligible — a requirement well suited to soil salinity, given its intrinsic temporal variability.

The stakes are rising. Over recent decades, Monegros has undergone radical transformations: irrigation schemes in operation and in progress, intensive swine farms legally spreading slurry that causes an excess of 441 tonnes of nitrogen in the basin, and upcoming solar and wind installations whose effects on near-surface wind speed, ground temperature, and evaporation remain poorly known. Farmers have demanded conversion to irrigation for decades, and several studies indicate this would raise the shallow phreatic level due to perched groundwater and low-permeability geological materials, decreasing arable land through flooding and salinization. The detailed geomorphological maps, based on aerial photographs from 1956–1957, captured the landscape before homogenization by land consolidation — a baseline for interpreting salinity distribution and predicting where new irrigation will mobilize salt. The saladas of Monegros, the authors write, are only an example of the co-occurrence of inland saline environments sharing conservation and production criteria, a challenge repeated in semiarid regions worldwide. Their approach — manual sampling along topographic transects combined with calibrated EMS readings across flat areas — offers a replicable model for delimiting non-productive saline land within Natura 2000 sites, turning a hidden edaphic variable into a visible, quantifiable criterion for the future of European agriculture.

Subject of Research: Soil Salinity, Agriculture, and Nature Conservation in Monegros, NE Spain

Article Title: Soil Salinity, Agriculture, and Nature Conservation in Monegros, NE Spain

Article References: Tierra, M., Castañeda, C., Gracia, F. J., & Medina, E. T. (2026). Soil Salinity, Agriculture, and Nature Conservation in Monegros, NE Spain. Spanish Journal of Soil Science, 15, Article 15359. https://doi.org/10.3389/sjss.2025.15359

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.3389/sjss.2025.15359

Keywords: soil salinity, Common Agricultural Policy, saline wetlands, Natura 2000, electromagnetic sensor, Monegros, Spain, agriculture, Soil, Salinity, Nature, Conservation