Lichen morphogenesis
A yellow lichen on bark has organized layers built by organisms with separate genomes. What makes its fungus and alga assemble that shared body?
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Outer membrane vesicle cargo selection
A bacterium releases membrane bubbles whose protein contents differ from its own envelope. What determines which proteins leave in those bubbles and which stay behind?
Periodical cicada timing
A cicada nymph can spend sixteen winters underground before preparing to emerge. What stores that history and opens the developmental gate in the right year?
Hibernation arousal
A hibernating ground squirrel repeatedly warms up in the middle of winter. What internal signal makes a long cold torpor bout end?
Neocalanus diapause termination
A female Neocalanus copepod waits hundreds of metres below the surface, then restarts egg production. What ends its months of dormancy?
Bogong moth stellar navigation
Rotate a projected Australian night sky and a migrating Bogong moth turns with it. Which celestial pattern does its small brain read?
Salmon olfactory imprinting
A salmon learns stream odors as a juvenile and uses them years later when returning to spawn. How does that memory survive the replacement of sensory cells?
Coral larval settlement
A swimming coral larva touches a microbial film and may attach and become a polyp. Which signals in a natural mixed biofilm make both steps happen?
Daphnia life-history kairomones
Water from roach fed Daphnia makes Daphnia reproduce at a smaller size. Which dissolved chemical carries that warning?
Aphid wing induction
A crowded wingless pea-aphid mother can produce daughters with wings. How does a touch on the mother become a developmental instruction to her embryos?
Sponge contraction coordination
A freshwater sponge expands and squeezes its water canals to flush out irritants. How does a body without conventional neurons organize the wave and bring it to an end?
Diatom silica pore morphogenesis
A diatom builds a glass-like shell pierced by patterned pores. How do proteins outside its silica-making compartment control the holes formed inside?
Agaricus somatic incompatibility
Two button-mushroom colonies can meet and form a zone of dead cells. Which recognition products make their shared cytoplasm incompatible?
Pyrocystis bioluminescence mechanosensing
A single Pyrocystis lunula cell can flash when pushed or deformed. Which molecular sensor turns that physical change into the first signal for light?
Cuttlefish camouflage feedback
A cuttlefish can adjust its skin pattern through a meandering series of changes. What tells it whether the current pattern is getting closer to the background?
RNA silencing inheritance duration
A worm can stop making a fluorescent protein, and its descendants can remain dark after the original trigger is gone. What determines when the inherited silencing ends?