Research in The New England Journal of Medicine and Human and Molecular Genetics journals finds that mutation in the STAG3 gene is the major cause of human fertility disorders, as it provokes a loss of function of the protein it encodes. 

STAG3 encodes a meiosis-specific subunit of the cohesin ring, the biological process through which, from a diploid somatic cell, a haploid cell or gamete is produced.

Cohesins are protein complexes that bind two straps of DNA and are implicated in its repair, replication and recombination, as well as in its chromosomal stability, transcription regulation, stem-cell pluripotency, and cell differentiation.

Genetic study in a family

Soybeans are a tremendously successful crop and a new study that traced the genetic changes in varieties over the last 80 years of soybean breeding found that increases in yield gains and an increased rate of gains over the years are largely due to the continual release of greater-yielding cultivars.  

Some are concerned that converging on optimal crops for each region might be a bad thing but plentiful food tells a different story.

University of Arizona researchers snapped images of a planet outside our solar system with an Earth-based telescope using essentially the same type of imaging sensor found in digital cameras instead of an infrared detector. Although the technology still has a very long way to go, the accomplishment takes astronomers a small step closer to what will be needed to image earth-like planets around other stars

NASA has successfully concluded a remotely controlled test of new technologies that would empower future space robots to transfer hazardous oxidizer – a type of propellant – into the tanks of satellites in space today.

Concurrently on the ground, NASA is incorporating results from this test and the Robotic Refueling Mission on the International Space Station to prepare for an upcoming ground-based test of a full-sized robotic servicer system that will perform tasks on a mock satellite client.

Collectively, these efforts are part of an ongoing and aggressive technology development campaign to equip robots and humans with the tools and capabilities needed for spacecraft maintenance and repair, the assembly of large space telescopes, and extended human exploration.

Evolutionary biologists have long considered bird song to be an exclusively male trait, resulting from sexual selection. A new paper says that's not the whole story.

The results of their analysis, now published in Nature Communications, showed that the common ancestor of modern songbirds had female song.

It doesn't turn Darwin's theory of sexual selection on its head, but it does mean there is more to the story than what Darwin proposed. Sexual selection has played a major role in the evolution of elaborate bird song but other selection pressures or processes have also probably played a role, especially at the initial stages of its evolution, the authors note.

Frequent Facebook users also share a greater risk of eating disorders, according to a new psychology paper.

The small sample used 960 college students (naturally) and determined that more time on Facebook was associated with higher levels of disordered eating. Females who placed greater importance on receiving comments and "likes" on their status updates and were more likely to un-tag photos of themselves and compare their own photos to friends' posted photos reported the highest levels of disordered eating.