
-
PSG eye becoming France's first 'Invincibles'
-
Late birdie burst lifts Ryder to Texas Open lead
-
Five potential Grand National fairytale endings
-
Trump purges national security team after meeting conspiracist
-
More work for McIlroy even with two wins before Masters
-
Trump hopeful of 'great' PGA-LIV golf merger
-
No.1 Scheffler goes for third Masters crown in four years
-
Where Trump's tariffs could hurt Americans' wallets
-
Trump says 'very close to a deal' on TikTok
-
Trump tariffs on Mexico: the good, the bad, the unknown
-
Postecoglou denies taunting Spurs fans in Chelsea defeat
-
Oscar-winning Palestinian director speaks at UN on Israeli settlements
-
With tariff war, Trump also reshapes how US treats allies
-
Fernandez fires Chelsea into fourth as pressure mounts on Postecoglou
-
South Korea court to decide impeached president's fate
-
Penguin memes take flight after Trump tariffs remote island
-
E.T., no home: Original model of movie alien doesn't sell at auction
-
Italy's Brignone has surgery on broken leg with Winter Olympics looming
-
Trump defiant as tariffs send world markets into panic
-
City officials vote to repair roof on home of MLB Rays
-
Rockets forward Brooks gets one-game NBA ban for technicals
-
Pentagon watchdog to probe defense chief over Signal chat row
-
US tariffs could push up inflation, slow growth: Fed official
-
New Bruce Springsteen music set for June 27 release
-
Tom Cruise pays tribute to Val Kilmer
-
Mexico president welcomes being left off Trump's tariffs list
-
Zuckerberg repeats Trump visits in bid to settle antitrust case
-
US fencer disqualified for not facing transgender rival
-
'Everyone worried' by Trump tariffs in France's champagne region
-
Italy's Brignone suffers broken leg with Winter Olympics looming
-
Iyer blitz powers Kolkata to big IPL win over Hyderabad
-
Russian soprano Netrebko to return to London's Royal Opera House
-
French creche worker gets 25 years for killing baby with drain cleaner
-
UK avoids worst US tariffs post-Brexit, but no celebrations
-
Canada imposing 25% tariff on some US auto imports
-
Ruud wants 'fair share' of Grand Slam revenue for players
-
Lesotho, Africa's 'kingdom in the sky' jolted by Trump
-
Trump's trade math baffles economists
-
Gaza heritage and destruction on display in Paris
-
'Unprecedented crisis' in Africa healthcare: report
-
Pogacar gunning for blood and thunder in Tour of Flanders
-
Macron calls for suspension of investment in US until tariffs clarified
-
Wall St leads rout as world reels from Trump tariffs
-
Mullins gets perfect National boost with remarkable four-timer
-
Trump tariffs hammer global stocks, dollar and oil
-
Authors hold London protest against Meta for 'stealing' work to train AI
-
Tate Modern gifted 'extraordinary' work by US artist Joan Mitchell
-
Mexico president welcomes being left off Trump's new tariffs list
-
Tonali eager to lead Newcastle back into Champions League
-
Lesotho hardest hit as new US tariffs rattle Africa

Discovery of tsetse fly mating behavior may help curb sleeping sickness
Researchers have identified chemicals in tsetse flies that control their mating behavior, a discovery that may well aid the fight against the disease-causing insects in sub-Saharan Africa.
"It could be used in traps to make them more effective in trapping tsetse flies," said John Carlson, a biology professor at Yale University and one of the authors of a study published Thursday in the journal Science.
Trypanosomiasis, also known as sleeping sickness, is caused by parasites transmitted by the tsetse fly. It affects humans and domestic animals.
The disease threatens millions of people in dozens of countries in sub-Saharan Africa.
Animal trypanosomiasis, known as Nagana, kills some three million cattle each year, an annual cost of $1.2 billion, according to a companion article in Science.
It is considered a major cause of rural poverty and the authors warned that the geographic range of the tsetse fly is expected to grow as a result of climate change.
For the study, the researchers focused on pheromones, chemical compounds an animal releases that affect the behavior of others of the same species.
Pheromones allow insects to identify each other in an environment where there are potentially thousands of other species.
The Yale researchers identified volatile sex pheromones that had not previously been isolated in tsetse flies despite more than a century of study.
Pheromones are currently used to control a wide variety of other insect pests such as moths.
Pantry moths, for example, can be caught using sticky traps baited with a plastic disc soaked with an attractive pheromone.
- 'The flies stop moving' -
For the study, the researchers soaked tsetse flies in liquid and then used a gas chromatograph-mass spectrometer to identify specific chemicals.
One of them, methyl palmitoleate (MPO), acted as an aphrodisiac, attracting male tsetse flies.
In tests, male tsetse flies were attracted to decoys -- knots in yarn doused with MPO -- and, unusually, to females of another tsetse fly species.
Olfactory neurons on the antennae of the flies were found to increase their firing rates in response to MPO.
"Not only is MPO an attractant, but it causes tsetse flies to freeze -- the flies stop moving," Carlson said.
Current traps for tsetse flies use animal odors but MPO tends to last longer and could "enhance the effectiveness of traps," he said.
Carlson said field tests using MPO were getting underway in Kenya.
The type of pheromone identified in the study may not be effective against all types of tsetse flies, however.
The study focused on the species Glossina morsitans, a major vector of the disease in cattle, not on Glossina fuscipes, which causes the most human cases of the disease.
But Carlson said he was optimistic that the research methods used could lead to identifying pheromones from other tsetse species.
L.Miller--AMWN