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10 August 2013 | NewScientist | 17 Termite drumming warns of danger HUMANS aren’t the only ones to use drums to relay messages across large distances – some species of termite do too, by drumming their heads on the ground to signal danger. The African termite (Macrotermes natalensis) builds giant mounds in the savannah on top of networks of tunnels that radiate to their foraging sites. Soldier termites protect the mounds and produce a drumming noise to alert their mound-mates of an approaching aardvark or pangolin. To find out how they do this, Felix Hager and Wolfgang Kirchner of the University of Bochum in Germany pointed high-speed cameras at the central chamber of a termite mound before opening it. The soldier termites responded by bashing their heads into the ground 11 times per second, causing it to vibrate. The initial vibrations travelled just 40 centimetres, but a chain of soldier termites relayed them over much greater distances. The resulting wave of vibration travelled 1.3 metres per second (Journal of Experimental Biology, DOI: 10.1242/jeb.091512). Major brain disorders linked to one gene SCHIZOPHRENIA, autism and intellectual disability may all share a common genetic pathway. Nelson Freimer at the University of California, Los Angeles, and colleagues studied an isolated community in Finland where schizophrenia and other neurological disorders are unusually common, possibly due to unavoidable inbreeding. His team identified that 18 of 173 people from the community lacked a group of genes. Just one of 1586 samples from people throughout Finland were missing the same genes. Tests revealed that these deletions are more common in people with schizophrenia or cognitive impairments. Further investigation showed that the deleted region normally contains a gene that makes an enzyme called topoisomerase III beta (TOP3B). A separate team also discovered that this enzyme regulates the winding and unwinding of RNA. In addition, the second team found that TOP3B has a role in the mechanisms that lead to fragile X RUNNY nose, aching muscles, tickly cough? Many pilgrims know too well the symptoms of “Hajj cough”. Now, for the first time, the viruses that cause it have been tracked over an entire Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca. Around three million people from more than 180 countries make the trip to Mecca in Saudi Arabia each year, staying for up to a month. In 2012, Samir Benkouiten at the Aix-Marseille University in France and colleagues analysed the nasal swabs of 165 people aged between 21 and 80 who were about to make the pilgrimage. Five per cent tested positive for at least one virus. After two weeks of the Hajj, among the 70 pilgrims who showed symptoms, this rose to 40 per cent. After four weeks, as they prepared to return home, 11 per cent of 154 re-swabbed pilgrims carried at least one virus (Clinical Infectious Diseases, doi.org/ncc). The most common viruses were influenza, rhinovirus and adenovirus. No pilgrims carried MERS, the potentially deadly coronavirus that emerged in the Middle East last year, although it would circulate in a similar way, says Peter Openshaw of Imperial College London. Unveiling the Hajj cough HASSAN AL-QARBI/XINHUA/EYEVINE syndrome. Like schizophrenia fragile X is thought to result from abnormal brain development. Although the researchers do not yet know how disruptions in TOP3B affect brain development, they say the most likely explanation is that it changes the shape of the RNA, and thereby disturbs which RNA molecules get copied into proteins. This could cause neurons to grow and connect in a haphazard way – as is seen in several brain disorders (Nature Neuroscience, doi.org/ncq). Quail whip up sperm meringue ELECTRIC whisks, step aside. Male Japanese quail (Coturnix japonica) can use their sex organs to whip up a meringue-like foam. The frothy concoction helps fertilise the maximum number of eggs. The foam is secreted by a unique gland just above the cloaca, or sex organ, and starts out as a viscous liquid containing proteins also found in egg white. When a male is ready to mate, he starts pulsing a sphincter muscle in the gland to whip the liquid up into a frothy ball. When he sees a female, he whips faster, then secretes the stiff foam into her right after his semen. Females hold several eggs at any one time, and will often breed with multiple males. Findley Finseth and Elizabeth Adkins-Regan at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, and colleagues wondered whether the foam helps one male’s sperm outcompete his rivals’. They mated females with two males, one of which had its foam manually removed beforehand. Males that were allowed to use their foam fathered significantly more chicks in each clutch than foamless ones, suggesting it gives sperm a boost in the race to fertilise eggs (Journal of Experimental Biology, doi.org/nb6). Females can store sperm for over a week before letting it fertilise an egg, so the foam could help keep sperm alive for a long period of time. DANIEL HEUCLIN/ NHPA/PHOTOSHOT For new stories every day, visit newscientist.com/news
