Ladibugs Inc., Author at Ladibugs Inc.
February 28, 2014 by Ladibugs Inc.
It doesn't matter your age, gender or income– head lice can still get you.
Rachel Knutson, from Ladibugs Inc. stopped by KSTP to talk about this new head lice trend: selfies.
As teens join their head to take their photo for Snapchat, Instagram, Facebook, among other social media channels, they are capturing more than a photo, they are passing along head lice and causing an increase in head lice cases in Minnesota.
February 10, 2014 by Ladibugs Inc.
January 7, 2014 by Ladibugs Inc.
When humans and chimpanzees parted ways about 5 million to 7 million years ago, they took their head lice with them. But since that mutual divergence, those lice have evolved far more rapidly than their primate hosts, according to a new study.
The head-scratching study, published Tuesday in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B, was the first to compare genomes of these primates and their blood-sucking parasites, and offers a window into how the pace of evolution can vary considerably, even between co-evolving species.
A closer comparison of the DNA that is changing most rapidly also suggests that the same genes may have been crucial to both host and parasite over those millions of years of cohabitation, according to the study.
Geneticists sleuthing out the traces of evolution at the molecular level focus on substitutions among the lettered base pairs (A, C, G, T) that make up the rungs of nuclear DNA. In this case, they scrutinized such substitutions in 1,534 actively coding genes common to all four genomes.
Because different combinations of base pairs can code the same protein, though, not all swaps are created equal. For the lice, a lot of swaps didn't change the protein, in fact.
But across their genomes, the primates and their irritating guest had an important phenomenon in common, the study found.
"The genes that are evolving faster in the lice are also the ones that are evolving faster in the primates, and those involve changes that actually affect the protein – changes that could make a difference in how the protein functions," Allen said. That correlation, Allen noted, strongly suggests there was selective pressure applied to both host and parasite at those gene locations.
"So, some genes that are really, really important in lice are likely many of the same ones that are really, really important in primates," Allen said.
What all these genetic changes have meant to either host or parasite is not well known. Even for "priority" species such as humans and our chimp relatives, scientists don't fully understand what every gene does and how they interact. Not surprisingly, the genome of lice has not been a high scientific priority, either. No one had even sequenced the chimp lice genome before this study.
And how does one get the chimp lice, exactly? They must be picked off the chimps, a task delegated to veterinarians at the Ngamba Island Chimpanzee Sanctuary in Uganda.
December 19, 2013 by Ladibugs Inc.
This year was Ladibugs first year joining Kare 11's Toys for Tots campaign. It was very cold outside, but we had a blast. We collected 150 toys to be able to make a child smile this Christmas. Thank you for all of your support!