This press release contains:
Summaries of newsworthy papers:
Genetics: That’s not my cup of tea
Evolution: How spiders make all-weather ‘superglue’
• Geographical listing of authors
Warning: This document, and the Scientific Reports paper to which it refers, may contain information that is price sensitive (as legally defined, for example, in the UK Criminal Justice Act 1993 Part V) with respect to publicly quoted companies. Anyone dealing in securities using information contained in this document or in advanced copies of Scientific Reports’ content may be guilty of insider trading under the US Securities Exchange Act of 1934.
A PDF of the papers mentioned on this release can be found in the Scientific Reports section of http://press.nature.com. Press contacts are listed at the end of this release.
PICTURES: While we are happy for images from Scientific Reports to be reproduced for the purposes of contemporaneous news reporting, you must also seek permission from the copyright holder (if named) or author of the research paper in question (if not).
HYPE: We take great care not to hype the papers mentioned on our press releases, but are sometimes accused of doing so. If you ever consider that a story has been hyped, please do not hesitate to contact us at [email protected], citing the specific example.
PLEASE CITE SCientific Reports AND THE scientific reports WEBSITE AS THE SOURCE OF THE FOLLOWING ITEM. IF PUBLISHING ONLINE, PLEASE CARRY A HYPERLINK TO www.nature.com/scientificreports
[1] Genetics: That’s not my cup of tea
A study that used DNA barcoding to genetically identify the ingredients of 146 tea products suggests that about one third of herbal teas may contain plants or plant parts not listed on the label. The findings, which are reported online in Scientific Reports, highlight the potential of DNA barcoding for providing more accurate ingredient labels to consumers, thereby improving the safety of food and botanical products.
In its strictest definition, tea refers to infusions prepared from the leaves of the tea plant, Camellia sinensis, but infusions prepared using other plants or plant parts are also commonly referred to as tea. Accurate labelling of commercial tea products is important for consumers, marketers and regulators because it is difficult to identify particular plant ingredients to different species based on visual appearance alone.
Mark Stoeckle and colleagues describe the use of DNA barcoding to identify the ingredients of 146 tea products. This technique involves using a short genetic marker in an organism's DNA to identify it as belonging to a particular species. 90% of the teas contained one or both of the standard plant barcodes rbcL and matK (96% of Camellia sinensis teas and 84% of herbal teas). The authors also found that 35% of herbal teas contained one or more barcode that indicated an ingredient not listed on the label. This could have been an inadvertent introduction, during harvesting or in the factory, or involve the adding or substitution of ingredients — to improve the taste or appearance or for economic reasons, perhaps.
CONTACT
Mark Stoeckle (The Rockefeller University, New York, NY, USA)
Tel: +1 646 385 3395; E-mail: [email protected]
Please link to the freely available scientific paper in online versions of your report (the URL will go live after the embargo ends):
www.nature.com/srep/2011/110721/srep00042/full/srep00042
[2] Evolution: How spiders make all-weather ‘superglue’
The prey-capture glues produced by orb-weaving spiders and their evolutionary descendents, cobweb-weaving spiders, respond differently to humidity because of different ‘tackifiers’ used in the two types of glue. These findings, published in Scientific Reports, could help future efforts to make smart materials that are resistant or sensitive to certain stimuli.
Orb-weaving spiders and cobweb-weaving spiders capture prey using adhesive silk threads coated in glue but although the two types of glue are produced in homologous glands, they differ greatly. Viscid glue, produced by orb-weaving spiders, is adapted for capturing flying insects and is humidity-sensitive, its adhesion maximized at intermediate humidity. The gumfoot glue produced by cobweb-weaving spiders is adapted for catching walking insects and is mainly resistant to humidity, maintaining its stickiness at extreme humidity levels.
Ali Dhinojwala and colleagues examined individual droplets of glue produced by the two spider lineages. Despite their close evolutionary homology, the two bio-adhesives proved to be remarkably different, particularly with respect to their interactions with water. Cobweb weavers use a cocktail of short peptides and long adhesive polymers (probably glycoproteins), which means the glue is resistant to variations in humidity. Viscid glue, on the other hand, is highly responsive to water thanks to the hygroscopic salts it contains, and the glue is stickiest at intermediate humidity.
CONTACT
Ali Dhinojwala (University of Akron, OH, USA)
Tel: +1 330 972 6246; E-mail: [email protected]
Please link to the freely available scientific paper in online versions of your report (the URL will go live after the embargo ends):
www.nature.com/srep/2011/110721/srep00041/full/srep00041
GEOGRAPHICAL LISTING OF AUTHORS…
The following list of places refers to the whereabouts of authors on the papers numbered in this release. For example, London: 4 - this means that on paper number four, there will be at least one author affiliated to an institute or company in London. The listing may be for an author's main affiliation, or for a place where they are working temporarily. Please see the PDF of the paper for full details.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
Massachusetts
Medford: 1
New York
Bronx: 1
New York: 1
Ohio
Akron: 2
PRESS CONTACTS…
From North America and Canada
Neda Afsarmanesh, Nature New York
Tel: +1 212 726 9231; E-mail: [email protected]
From Japan, Korea, China, Singapore and Taiwan
Mika Nakano, Nature Tokyo
Tel: +81 3 3267 8751; E-mail: [email protected]
From the UK
Rebecca Walton, Nature, London
Tel: +44 20 7843 4502; E-mail: [email protected]
About Nature Publishing Group (NPG):
Nature Publishing Group (NPG) is a publisher of high impact scientific and medical information in print and online. NPG publishes journals, online databases and services across the life, physical, chemical and applied sciences and clinical medicine.
Focusing on the needs of scientists, Nature (founded in 1869) is the leading weekly, international scientific journal. In addition, for this audience, NPG publishes a range of Nature research journals and Nature Reviews journals, plus a range of prestigious academic journals including society-owned publications. Online, nature.com provides over 5 million visitors per month with access to NPG publications and online databases and services, including Nature News and NatureJobs plus access to Nature Network and Nature Education’s Scitable.com.
Scientific American is at the heart of NPG’s newly-formed consumer media division, meeting the needs of the general public. Founded in 1845, Scientific American is the oldest continuously published magazine in the US and the leading authoritative publication for science in the general media. Together with scientificamerican.com and 15 local language editions around the world it reaches over 3 million consumers and scientists. Other titles include Scientific American Mind and Spektrum der Wissenschaft in Germany.
Throughout all its businesses NPG is dedicated to serving the scientific and medical communities and the wider scientifically interested general public. Part of Macmillan Publishers Limited, NPG is a global company with principal offices in London, New York and Tokyo, and offices in cities worldwide including Boston, Buenos Aires, Delhi, Hong Kong, Madrid, Barcelona, Munich, Heidelberg, Basingstoke, Melbourne, Paris, San Francisco, Seoul and Washington DC. For more information, please go to www.nature.com.
