New Insights into the Evolution of the Human Diet from Faecal Biomarker Analysis in Wild Chimpanzee and Gorilla Faeces

Synanthropic Flies-A Review Including How They Obtain Nutrients, along with Pathogens, Store Them in the Crop and Mechanisms of Transmission

An attempt has been made to provide a broad review of synanthropic flies and, not just a survey of their involvement in human pathogen transmission. It also emphasizes that the crop organ of calliphorids, sarcophagids, and muscids was an evolutionary development and has served and assisted non-blood feeding flies in obtaining food, as well as pathogens, prior to the origin of humans. Insects are believed to be present on earth about 400 million years ago (MYA). Thus, prior to the origin of primates, there was adequate time for these flies to become associated with various animals and to serve as important transmitters of pathogens associated with them prior to the advent of early hominids and modern humans. Through the process of fly crop regurgitation, numerous pathogens are still readily being made available to primates and other animals. Several studies using invertebrate-derived DNA = iDNA meta-techniques have been able to identify, not only the source the fly had fed on, but also if it had fed on their feces or the animal's body fluids. Since these flies are known to feed on both vertebrate fluids (i.e., from wounds, saliva, mucus, or tears), as well as those of other animals, and their feces, identification of the reservoir host, amplification hosts, and associated pathogens is essential in identifying emerging infectious diseases. New molecular tools, along with a focus on the crop, and what is in it, should provide a better understanding and development of whether these flies are involved in emerging infectious diseases. If so, epidemiological models in the future might be better at predicting future epidemics or pandemics.

Sterol Evolution: Cholesterol Synthesis in Animals Is Less a Required Trait Than an Acquired Taste

Although cholesterol is considered a vital lipid for animals, not all animals can make cholesterol. A new study employing that celebrated elegant worm, Caenorhabditis elegans, investigates mechanisms that evolved in a sterol auxotroph to enable survival without sterol synthesis.

Characterization of ancient lipids in prehistoric organic residues: Chemical evidence of livestock-pens in rock-shelters since early neolithic to bronze age

The characterization of ancient lipids from prehistoric sediments (fumiers) located in a rock-selter has been possible after the optimization of an analytical method based on the microwave-assisted extraction and solid-phase extraction clean-up step and a final derivatization step followed by gas chromatography with mass spectrometry. Eight sterols and two bile acids were detected just in the partially burned and unburned layers of the fumiers (animal organic residues deriving from manure/dung). The relationship between some of these compounds can be used to distinguish the biogenic origin of the samples, concluding that these strata (from Early Neolithic to Late Chalcolithic/Early Bronze Age) can be classified as ruminant residues. Three main periods of activity are observed over a period of 2000 years: one from 3990 ± 40 before present (4530-4410 calibrated before present) to 4100 ± 40 before present (4820-4750/4730-4510/4470-4450 calibrated before present), the second from 4470 ± 40 before present (5300-4970 calibrated before present) to 5490 ± 30 before present (6310-6275/6230-6220 calibrated before present) and the third from 5880 ± 30 before present (6775-6765/6750-6645 calibrated before present) to 6010 ± 30 before present (6940-6780/6765-6755 calibrated before present). Chemical data obtained are in concordance with the previous results obtained in the area.