New Migration Route Could Lead to New Species
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EVOLUTION ScienceScope New Migration Route Could Lead South Korea Rolls Out To New Species of Bird Stem Cell Hub The cliché “birds of a feather flock together” taken up by migrating birds, provide a signa- South Korea, whose scientists last year doesn’t hold for European blackcaps that breed ture to reveal where they have traveled. became the first to produce stem cells in southern Germany and Austria. At one time, In 2002 and 2003, Bearhop and Wolfgang from cloned human embryos (Science, these birds migrated back and forth together, Fiedler, an ornithologist at the Max Planck 13 February 2004, p. 937), is hoping to spending summers in northern Europe and Institute for Ornithology in Radolfzell, Ger- score more firsts in efforts to turn human winters in Portugal, Spain, and North Africa. many, used this technique to determine the embryonic stem (ES) cell research into But in the past 50 years, there’s been a split in winter origins of blackcaps landing in eight treatments for disease.This week, Seoul the avian ranks, with more and more heading mating places in southern Germany and Aus- National University was scheduled to announce the creation of a World Stem northwest for the winter, not south. tria. With these data, Bearhop, Fiedler, and Cell Hub centered at the school’s hospital, On page 502, Stuart Bearhop, an animal Jason Newton of the Scottish Universities spearheaded by cloning pioneer Woo Suk ecologist at Queen’s University Belfast, U.K., Environmental Research Centre in Glasgow Hwang and funded by the Korean govern- and his colleagues report that even though all found that blackcaps from the same winter ment. Hwang and University of Pittsburgh the blackcaps gather each year at the same home were 2.5 times more likely to mate with stem cell researcher Gerald Schatten have mating sites, they tend to reproduce with each other than with blackcaps from else- collaborated on the plan, which will those from their particular wintering where. The findings “strongly indicate that include facilities in Europe and the United ground—a phenomenon called assortative this is assortative mating due to the different States, as well as a stem cell bank and a mating. Moreover, the birds that stay north are wintering areas,” notes Darren Irwin, an program allowing Korean technicians to evolutionary biologist at the teach cloning and the cultivation of University of British Columbia human ES cell lines. in Vancouver, Canada. –CONSTANCE HOLDEN Assortative mating is a matter on March 12, 2012 of timing, Bearhop says. The birds Station Plans Buoyed from Britain and Ireland have NASA is informally promising its foreign shorter migrations to their summer partners that there will be 18 more flights mating grounds in Germany and to the still-incomplete international Austria and, prompted by the more space station, sources at NASA and industry dramatic changes in day length at say.The news should assuage many who their home locations as winter feared that the agency would leave key becomes spring, those more north- components of the station earthbound. ern migrants leave about 2 weeks Agency officials had considered slashing www.sciencemag.org earlier than those wintering in the number of shuttle flights before it Iberia. “Because [these birds] mate retires the fleet from a planned 24 to as with whoever arrives first, they few as 12.The higher number means the Gone astray. European blackcaps that moved to new wintering have tended to remain isolated European Columbus and the Japanese grounds outdo blackcaps taking the traditional route. from the later-arriving historical experiment modules can be orbited, but population,” say Keith Hobson, an the Japanese centrifuge and a Russian reproducing more than those taking the ecologist with the Canadian Wildlife Service power module likely will be left behind, southern route, which may improve the in Saskatoon, Canada. along with a host of U.S. research-related Downloaded from chances of the birds forming two species. The recent shift in migratory pattern is a equipment. NASA plans to release more details on the station later this month. Researchers considering how new boon to the northern blackcaps. These front- –ANDREW LAWLER species develop have speculated that differ- runners grab the prime real estate and ences in migration patterns could produce seduce early-arriving females. They tend to assortative mating, but “this is the first lay about one more egg per season than the Gene Hunters, Heal Ourselves empirical demonstration that it actually late arrivals from the south, says Bearhop. Currently deciphering genomes of species occurs,” says Michael Webster, a behavioral “[These data] may help explain why there from macaques to zebra finches, the high- ecologist at Washington State University in has been such an increase in blackcaps throughput sequencing centers funded by Pullman. Moreover, he adds, the blackcap wintering in Britain,” Irwin notes. the National Human Genome Research research helps explain how alternative Still, Hobson and others question whether Institute (NHGRI) are shifting toward solv- migration patterns can evolve quickly. the north-based birds are becoming a new ing medical problems.The program, whose annual budget is $130 million, will eventu- Blackcaps were once typically seen in the species. They argue, for example, that there is ally devote half its output to disease gene United Kingdom only during the summer, but not yet enough information about the fate of searches, NHGRI says. Initial targets over the past 40 years, the number of them hybrids between the two bird populations. include seven rare, single-gene disorders wintering in the U.K. has soared, prompting Nonetheless, says Peter Marra of the National and X-linked diseases. Moreover, until researchers to wonder how the birds’ migra- Zoological Park in Washington, D.C., “this 4 November, NHGRI is soliciting more tion patterns were changing. Tracking migra- study provides us with a scenario of how [sep- disease gene targets.“We have the possi- tory birds has posed quite a challenge. In arate migratory] patterns may evolve and bility in one fell swoop of solving 50 or 1997, however, researchers began using the should stimulate some good discussion maybe 100 diseases,” says Nelson Freimer, ratio of hydrogen isotopes in bird tissue as a among students of migration ecology.” a geneticist at the University of California, CREDIT:TIM LOSEB tool. Distinctive isotope patterns in rainfall, –ELIZABETH PENNISI Los Angeles. –ELIZABETH PENNISI www.sciencemag.org SCIENCE VOL 310 21 OCTOBER 2005 419 Published by AAAS PLANETARY SCIENCE ScienceScope Titan Clouds Hint of Heavy Rains, Trials Target TB Methane Gurglings PARIS—The amount of time required to Astronomers monitoring Titan from Earth they report spotting 24 clouds over 82 nights treat tuberculosis (TB) could be halved if and planetary scientists watching it from the of observing. The abundance of examples a series of phase II clinical trials of a new drug regimen, announced at a meeting passing Cassini spacecraft are reporting some enabled them to confirm that Titan clouds here by Bayer HealthCare and the Global funny business on Saturn’s giant moon. outside the south polar region—at least the Alliance for TB Drug Development, bear Titan’s rare clouds pop up in midlatitudes like larger ones they could detect—form almost fruit.TB takes more than a million lives smoke from a chimney, they say, and then rain exclusively near 40°S latitude. annually, and curing it requires patients out their methane as they blow downwind. Griffith and her colleagues see the same lat- to take a four-drug cocktail for at least But these midlatitude clouds appear over just itudinal preference. That’s because the atmos- 6 months. Many patients don’t complete a few small spots. That suggests that there’s phere’s larger-scale circulation boosts rising the regimen, which can trigger anti- something special about the surface beneath plumes there, they say. Theory and modeling by biotic resistance. them, possibly the presence of erupting others suggest that the moon’s south-flowing Under the deal, researchers at the methane volcanoes or geysers. near-surface winds rise near 40°S in the current Centers for Disease Control and Preven- As they report on page 474, planetary southern-hemisphere summer. That would tion, Johns Hopkins University, and scientist Caitlin Griffith of the University encourage convection at that latitude, they note. University College London will test in of Arizona (UA), Tucson, and Roe and colleagues are 2500 patients in eight countries whether her teammates on Cassini’s more intrigued by another replacing one drug in the current cocktail Visual and Infrared Map- geographic preference of with a new Bayer antibiotic called moxi- ping Spectrometer (VIMS) Titan’s clouds. They found that floxacin can, as mouse studies suggest, watched the four clouds three-quarters of their clouds reduce treatment time by 2 to 3 months. visible last 15 January as appeared in one-quarter of the Bayer will make the drug available cheaply in developing countries if the Cassini approached Titan. circumference of the 40°S on March 12, 2012 Within a narrow range of latitudinal band. The cluster- studies—and subsequent phase III trials— prove the new cocktail’s value. wavelengths in the near- ing was centered at a longitude –MARTIN ENSERINK infrared, VIMS could make out of 350°W. The other quarter of small cores to the clouds where the observed clouds fell in a plumes rose as fast as 36 kilo- broader band just to the west, South Dakota Digs In meters per hour, like a summer and the rest of 40°S had no One state made a preemptive move this afternoon’s thunderhead. detectable clouds. Everyone week in the competition to host the pro- “They’re probably convective, assumes that there’s something posed $300 million national Deep Under- and vigorously so,” says Grif- different about the surface ground Science and Engineering Labora- www.sciencemag.org fith.