Periodical cicadas have a clever hack to help them figure out when to emerge after more than a decade underground
  • Yer Ma@lemm.ee
    1·
    6 months ago

    Epigenetic signalling… Cycles of cold and heat trigger methylation or demethylation of genes that control their metabolism… I am guessing as a plant geneticist, but that is probably it

    • booly
      1·
      6 months ago

      The article says that they count the annual cyclical changes in the composition of xylem sap that they consume underground, and that manipulating the trees in that way can trick the cicadas into coming out early.