SPLASH! milk science update: May 2013 issue

SPLASH! milk science update

  MAY 2013 Issue

     This month's newsletter tells the story of DNA-protein nets found in cow's milk that trap and kill bacteria, the immense task of cataloging all bacterial species found in milk, how milk letdown evolved and the hormones responsible for this critical physiological response, and a review of Mary Roach's new book. 

We hope you enjoy this action-packed issue of SPLASH! milk science update!

Milk Cells Cast NETs to Snare Pathogens

The list of proteins in cow’s milk just keeps getting longer. Tim Reinhardt and colleagues have now discovered nearly 3000 unique proteins in cow’s milk (1). While that would be a story by itself, they also reveal evidence for web-like nets that immune cells secrete into milk when pathogens are present. Yes, milk is cooler than fiction. To learn about these bacteria-trapping nets, read this!

Bacterial Count

Milk enthusiasts probably all share a favorite bacterium: Bifidobacterium infantis, the species that coevolved with humans and promotes a healthy infant gut. Breast milk contains many other kinds of bacteria, but recording the full species register is a surprisingly tricky task. Recently, a team of Swiss researchers did the most complete job yet. Read this to find out more about this massive undertaking.

The Evolutionary Origins of Milk Letdown

The production of milk by the mammary gland is a key adaptation of mammals. But simply producing the milk is not enough; that milk needs to get from the mammary gland to the nipple to be ingested by the infant. But how is this movement of milk accomplished? An amazing hormone called oxytocin. How did oxytocin, and therefore milk letdown, it evolve? Find out here.

A Delectable Gobble

The last time I read Mary Roach was on holiday, in the evenings that followed long hikes up, along, and down tabletop mountains in southern Venezuela. I read aloud from Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers because my tent buddy was too careful a packer to have allowed himself the additional mass of a book. As he sensibly tended to sore blisters and swollen bites, I enriched the moment by, for example, loudly vocalizing Roach’s prose about the precise details of how and when death occurs in people who are unlucky enough find themselves inside planes that explode in the sky. This time I’m digesting Gulp: Adventures on the Alimentary Canal in the tearoom of the University Library in Cambridge, England. Read more about Roach's new book here.

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 Editorial Staff of "SPLASH! milk science update"

Executive Editor 
   Dr. Danielle Lemay, University of California, Davis, USA

Associate Editors 
   Anna Petherick, writer for Nature Publishing Group, United Kingdom 
   Prof. Foteini Hassiotou, University of Western Australia, Australia 
   Dr. Jeroen Heck, FrieslandCampina, The Netherlands 
   Prof. Katie Hinde, Harvard University, USA 
   Prof. Kevin Nicholas, Deakin University, Australia 
   Dr. Lauren Milligan, Smithsonian Institute, USA 
   Prof. Peter Williamson, University of Sydney, Australia

Contributing Editors 
   Prof. Daniela Barile, University of California, Davis, USA 
   Dr. Ross Tellam, CSIRO, Australia
   Prof. Johan van Arendonk, Wageningen University, The Netherlands

Copy Editor
   Caitlin Kiley, University of California, Davis, USA