Monday, June 22, 2026

Urban rodents may be evolving against common poisons

Rutgers researchers find signs that rats and mice are adapting to decades of rodenticide use

Rutgers University

Rat Steals Bait — video:
A rat steals bait from a trap without getting caught, illustrating the kind of behavior Rutgers researchers Changlu Wang and Jin-Jia Yu are studying as they investigate why some urban rodent populations are becoming more difficult to control.
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Credit: Wang Lab/Rutgers University

For years, pest control professionals throughout the Northeast have reported a troubling pattern. In some neighborhoods, rodents seemed increasingly more difficult to eliminate, even when standard control methods were used.

Now researchers at Rutgers University believe they may know one reason why.

A study found that 84% of house mice sampled from urban areas in the Northeast carried at least one genetic mutation linked to rodenticide resistance, suggesting many mouse populations may be evolving ways to survive the poisons commonly used to control them. The research was published in the international journal Pest Management Science.

“Pest management professionals often told us that rodent control was becoming more difficult in some areas, even though they applied the effective rodenticides,” said Jin-Jia Yu, a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Entomology at the Rutgers School of Environmental and Biological Sciences and the first author of the study. “I wanted to find out whether this was occurring in the northeastern United States, especially the metropolitan areas, and how widespread the problem might be.”

Yu works in the laboratory of Changlu Wang, an extension specialist in the Department of Entomology and one of the nation's leading experts on the management of urban pests, including cockroaches, bed bugs and rodents.

The researchers analyzed DNA from 147 house mice and 143 Norway rats collected from urban areas in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Washington, D.C. They focused on a gene called Vkorc1, where certain mutations have been associated with resistance to anticoagulant rodenticides, the most widely used rodent-control chemicals in the U.S.

The results were striking.

Among the house mice examined, 84% carried at least one mutation in the Vkorc1 gene, and nearly 70% carried mutations already known to help mice survive common rodenticides. About 35% of the Norway rats also carried mutations in the same gene.

“We found that resistance appears to be much more widespread in house mice than many people realized,” Yu said. “Norway rats also carried genetic mutations, but scientists do not yet know whether most of those mutations affect Norway rats' susceptibility to rodenticides.”

The team also identified several genetic variants that had never before been reported in house mice or Norway rats. Scientists don’t yet know whether those newly discovered mutations contribute to rodenticide resistance.

The study emerged from several years of conversations between Rutgers researchers and pest-management professionals, many of whom reported persistent rodent problems despite repeated treatments.

The findings point to a long-running evolutionary contest between humans and one of their oldest urban adversaries. Anticoagulant rodenticides have been used for decades to suppress rat and mouse populations. Over time, rodents carrying mutations that help them survive exposure to those chemicals may gain an advantage, allowing resistance traits to spread through populations.

Researchers found that house mice appear to be adapting more rapidly than rats. One possible explanation involves behavior. Mice are naturally curious and more likely to investigate and consume unfamiliar food sources, including poison baits, Yu said. Rats, by contrast, tend to be cautious and suspicious of new objects.

“Rats are very clever," Yu said. "They will approach the novel food many times before they really take the food or the bait.”

The findings have important implications for public health. Rodents, which contaminate food, damage buildings and infrastructure, can spread diseases and parasites. If commonly used rodenticides become less effective, communities may face greater challenges controlling infestations.

“This research provides some of the first information on rodenticide resistance in the northeastern United States,” Yu said. “By understanding how prevalent the mutations are and where resistance exists, pest management professionals and public health agencies can make better decisions about how to control rodents.”

Wang, a coauthor of the study, said the findings underscore the need for a broader approach to rodent management.

“Rodents are more than a nuisance,” Wang said. “As resistance becomes more common, it becomes even more important to use science-based management strategies that protect both public health and the environment.”

The scientists’ goal is to help communities manage rodent populations effectively while reducing environmental risks. “Studies like this help us understand how rodent populations are changing and how our management strategies need to evolve with them,” he added.

Rather than relying exclusively on chemical controls, researchers recommend combining multiple strategies, including sealing entry points, improving sanitation, modifying habitat and using traps when appropriate.

“Ultimately, we want to help communities maintain effective rodent control, reduce unnecessary pesticide use and protect public health,” Yu said.

Other Rutgers researchers who contributed to the study included: Alvaro Toledo, an assistant professor; Xiaodan Pang, a postdoctoral associate, and Babatunji Daramola, a graduate student, all in the Department of Entomology in the School of Environmental and Biological Sciences.

Explore more of the ways Rutgers research is shaping the future.

Rutgers University researchers Changlu Wang, right, and Jin-Jia Yu found that many urban rats and house mice in the Northeast carry genetic mutations associated with resistance to commonly used rodenticides.

Credit

Rutgers University

Journal

Pest Management Science

DOI

10.1002/ps.70833

Method of Research

Data/statistical analysis

Subject of Research

Animal tissue samples

Article Title

Distribution and frequency of Vkorc1 polymorphisms in house mice and Norway rats in the northeastern United States

Article Publication Date

21-Apr-2026

COI Statement

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships influencing the results reported in this study.

Building a clean energy future with molecular sponges

A comprehensive review assesses metal-organic frameworks for simultaneous carbon capture, methane utilization, and hydrogen storage

Biochar Editorial Office, Shenyang Agricultural University

image:
Next-generation metal–organic frameworks for CO₂ capture, CH₄ utilization, and H₂ integration: toward a circular and clean energy future
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Credit: Mohssine Ghazoui, Otmane Boudouch, Aboubacar Sidigh Sylla & Reda Elkacmi

The world faces an urgent challenge to achieve carbon neutrality, demanding innovative solutions for managing strategic gases like carbon dioxide (CO₂), methane (CH₄), and hydrogen (H2). CO₂ capture is vital for emissions reduction, CH₄ requires careful valorization and control due to its potent global warming impact, and H2 is rapidly emerging as a cornerstone of future energy systems. Metal–organic frameworks (MOFs), a class of porous materials recognized by the 2025 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, are rapidly changing possibilities for strategic gas management due to their exceptional tunability.

A new review in Carbon Research provides a critical and integrated assessment of MOFs' potential across these three domains. Led by Reda Elkacmi from Sultan Moulay Slimane University, the authors detail how MOFs’ unique attributes—including surface areas exceeding 6000 m² g⁻¹, tunable pore environments, and modular coordination chemistry—enable significant CO₂ uptakes, high methane storage capacities, and impressive hydrogen volumetric densities. These properties empower MOFs to address multiple environmental and energy challenges simultaneously.

A Unified Strategy for Strategic Gases

The review’s core contribution is its unified analysis of MOFs for all three strategic gases. Rather than treating CO₂ capture, CH₄ storage, and H2 adsorption in isolation, the authors identify common performance drivers, shared bottlenecks, and potential synergies. This integrated approach clarifies actionable insights for carbon mitigation, methane utilization, and hydrogen storage, revealing how optimal material design principles can be applied and adapted across different applications for a cohesive clean energy strategy.

From Lab Bench to Industrial Scale

Despite impressive laboratory performance, the path to industrial deployment for MOFs contains significant hurdles. The review details challenges concerning stability and durability in real-world conditions, particularly when exposed to moisture and other impurities in gas streams. Production costs remain high compared to conventional adsorbents, and scaling up synthesis while maintaining quality, consistency, and mechanical robustness continues to be a major obstacle. The review emphasizes that overcoming these limitations requires more than just high adsorption capacity; it demands reliability and economic viability.

Charting the Path to a Circular Future

The authors emphasize that translating MOFs from promising academic materials to operational technologies requires an integrated strategy. Innovations in green chemistry, such as aqueous or mechanochemical synthesis, aim to reduce the environmental footprint and production costs associated with MOFs. The development of robust, shaped MOF architectures and hybrid composites is also essential for improving durability and facilitating integration into existing industrial processes, guiding the scientific community toward practical, scalable solutions.

Looking ahead, the review posits that MOFs possess the potential to become key enablers of the clean energy transition. Their continued development, when aligned with industrial and policy frameworks, can advance them from promising research prototypes to operational components in a circular and low-carbon energy economy. This includes combining their adsorption capabilities with catalytic functions for converting CO₂ into valuable chemicals or supporting hydrogen conversion in fuel cells, paving the way for truly multifunctional systems.

Suggested author quote for approval

"To truly contribute to a carbon-neutral, hydrogen-centered future, MOFs must bridge the gap between their remarkable laboratory performance and the robust demands of industrial scale," states Reda Elkacmi, a corresponding author from Sultan Moulay Slimane University. "Our review aims to provide a clear roadmap for this transition, emphasizing the need for integrated design, scalable synthesis, and sustained durability across all strategic gas applications."

Corresponding Author: Reda Elkacmi

Original Source: https://doi.org/10.1007/s44246-026-00268-2

Contributions: All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Mohssine Ghazoui and Reda Elkacmi performed the literature search, data collection, data analysis, and wrote the first draft of the manuscript. Otmane Boudouch, Aboubacar Sidigh Sylla, and Nadia Anter contributed to the literature analysis and visualization. Safa Aharrouy, Siham Dabali, and Abderrafia Hafid contributed to writing—review and editing. Reda Elkacmi supervised the project. All authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript and read and approved the final manuscript.

Journal

Carbon Research

DOI

10.1007/s44246-026-00268-2

Method of Research

Literature review

Subject of Research

Not applicable

Article Title

Next-generation metal–organic frameworks for CO₂ capture, CH₄ utilization, and H2 integration: toward a circular and clean energy future

Article Publication Date

22-Jun-2026

Freshwater sediments may play a bigger role in slowing methane emissions than previously thought

University of Southern Denmark

Ørnsø BT 1 — image:
Lake Ørn in Denmark, where the study was done
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Credit: Professor Bo Thamdrup/University of Southern Denmakr

Methane is one of the most powerful greenhouse gases in Earth’s atmosphere, and wetlands together with inland waters are among its largest natural sources. But in the freshwater sediments, specialized microorganisms consume part of this methane before it can escape into the air.

A new study sheds light on the environmental controls governing this natural methane consumption. The study was published in Limnology and Oceanography and is available here: https://aslopubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1002/lno.70373

The study was performed in the group of Bo Thamdrup, who is a Professor of geomicrobiology at the Department of Biology, University of Southern Denmark (SDU). The experimental efforts were led by postdoc Alina Mostovaya and PhD student Michael Wind-Hansen, who are now both at Aarhus University but were at SDU when the work was conducted.

The researchers investigated sediments from Lake Ørn in Denmark and managed to quantify, for the first time, how the availability of sulfate and iron controls anaerobic oxidation of methane in freshwater sediments.

Their findings provide new insight into the microbial processes that regulate methane emissions from lakes, wetlands, and other aquatic environments.

Freshwater environments like lakes are often considered important natural contributors to climate change, because methane is released from the water surface. Often, one can see the methane leave the water as bubbles that burst once they reach the surface, releasing methane directly into the air.

But according to the researchers, a considerable amount of methane could very well be consumed in the sediment.

“If this mechanism was not at play, more methane would leave the lakes”, says corresponding author Alina Mostovaya.

The researchers describe the mechanism as an underappreciated methane sink that should be considered when making models for balancing production and consumption of methane in freshwater environments.

The driver of the investigated methane consumption in the studied Lake Ørn is microbial activity. Certain microbes use sulfate and iron in the sediment to consume methane under oxygen-free conditions.

Neither sulfate nor iron are rare elements in freshwater sediments. Sulfate may, for example, enter with rain and runoff from soils, nearby fertilized fields, wastewater or seawater intrusion. Iron is one of the most abundant elements on Earth and may come from weathering of rocks and soil or is carried by rivers and groundwater.

The methane-consuming microbes at play belong to the archaeal group ‘Candidatus Methanoperedenaceae’, and they appear to be quite efficient even in low-resource freshwater environments:

“Our work in Lake Ørn shows that even relatively low concentrations of sulfate can support efficient methane removal in freshwater sediments,” says co-author Michael Wind-Hansen.

The researchers found that sulfate-dependent methane oxidation in Lake Ørn operates efficiently at sulfate concentrations in the low micromolar range — far lower than typical values reported from marine systems. This suggests freshwater microbial communities have evolved high-affinity strategies for scavenging scarce resources.

The team also showed that iron-dependent methane oxidation requires relatively high concentrations of reactive iron minerals, but nevertheless represents an important pathway for methane removal in the lake.

Their experiments further revealed that dissolved organic compounds resembling natural humic substances can shuttle electrons between microbes and iron minerals, significantly stimulating methane oxidation under certain conditions.

“These electron-shuttling compounds may help microorganisms take advantage of iron minerals that would otherwise be difficult to use,” Alina Mostovaya says, “That means natural organic matter may play a dual role in many freshwater environments, both as a source of methane and as a regulator of methane consumption and emissions.”

The findings have broader implications beyond a single Danish lake.

“We expect that the same pattern can be found in many other lakes and freshwater environments in other parts of the world, so this is a factor that should be considered when making global models of methane production, consumption, and emissions in these environments”, says Professor Bo Thamdrup.

Journal Limnology and Oceanography, April 23, 2026: Kinetics of sulfate- and iron-dependent anaerobic methane oxidation in freshwater lake sediment. doi: 10.1002/lno.70373. Authors: Alina Mostovaya, Michael Wind-Hansen, Bo Thamdrup.

The study was financed by the European Research Council (project NOVAMOX) and the Independent Research Fund Denmark.

Lake Ørn in Denmark, where the study was done

Credit

Professor Bo Thamdrup/University of Southern Denmark

Journal

Limnology and Oceanography

DOI

10.1002/lno.70373

Method of Research

Experimental study

Subject of Research

Not applicable

Article Title

Kinetics of sulfate- and iron-dependent anaerobic methane oxidation in freshwater lake sediment

Fungi help lock carbon into Arctic fjord sediments

Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München

LMU-Researchers show that fungi play an important role in the marine carbon cycle.

Arctic fjords are among the most efficient natural systems for absorbing and long-term storage of carbon. However, as the Arctic is warming around four times faster than the global average, fjord ecosystems are changing rapidly. Against this backdrop, understanding the biological processes that regulate carbon storage is becoming increasingly important. Yet the microbial mechanisms that control whether carbon is stored in sediments or returned to the environment are still not fully understood.
A new study led by Professor William Orsi of the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences now shows that fungi may play a surprisingly important role in keeping carbon locked into the seafloor. Working in Kongsfjorden, Svalbard, an international team of researchers found that marine fungi living in sediments efficiently assimilate dissolved organic matter and retain it as microbial biomass, rather than allowing it to be rapidly remineralised.

A poorly understood part of the marine carbon cycle

Fungi are known to play important roles in how carbon is processed, retained, and stored in terrestrial soils, yet their contribution to carbon cycling in marine sediments has remained largely unknown. Understanding this role is particularly important in Arctic fjords, where microbial activity at the sediment surface influences whether dissolved organic matter (DOM) is converted into microbial biomass, remineralized to CO₂, or ultimately buried and sequestered as organic carbon in the sediments.

To investigate this, the researchers sampled sediments, seawater, soils, and glacial environments across Kongsfjorden, a high Arctic fjord on the west coast of Svalbard. They then used isotope-tracing techniques to follow how fungi and bacteria consumed DOM and contributed to carbon cycling across these interconnected habitats.

The results showed that fungi in fjord sediments assimilated dissolved organic matter (DOM) with relatively high efficiency. As a result, more carbon was retained in microbial biomass rather than being remineralized to CO₂. Higher fungal assimilation was associated with increased fungal-to-bacterial biomass ratios, suggesting that fungal metabolism promotes carbon retention at the seafloor and may enhance long-term carbon sequestration in fjord sediments.

A distinct fungal community in the fjord

The study also showed that the fungal communities in Arctic fjord sediments are distinct from those in nearby soils and overlying seawater. Using quantitative stable isotope probing, the researchers linked amino acid assimilation – free amino acids are an essential component of DOM - to more than 80 fungal taxa in fjord sediments.

These findings suggest that free-living marine fungi are not just present in Arctic fjords, but are active participants in carbon cycling, helping stabilise labile organic matter in sediments that are important carbon sinks.

„Our study shows that fungi in the Arctic ocean can contribute significantly to carbon storage in sediments via their highly efficient metabolism. This is important because it is a previously unknown mechanism of microbial carbon storage in fjords, key geological settings that store more than ten percent of all the carbon buried below the seafloor”, resumes Orsi.

Juan Carlos Trejos-Espeleta, PhD student at LMU and first author of the study, adds: "The Arctic is changing before our eyes at unprecedented rates and the efforts to understand its ecosystems functioning remain insufficient. Only recently we are looking at marine fungi as important participants in the marine carbon cycle, having a potential role in carbon sequestration, just as it is known for terrestrial environments. Future research should not ignore fungi anymore as key agents of carbon cycling."

James Bradley, CNRS researcher at the Mediterranean Institute of Oceanography and co-author of the study, says: “Sampling and developing experiments in the High Arctic is still a challenging task, just like understanding fragile, dynamic ecosystems such as a glaciated fjord. This is why studies in these parts of the planet are rare but paradoxically have a high level of urgency."

Journal

PLOS Biology

DOI

10.1371/journal.pbio.3003783

Article Title

Fungi enhance microbial carbon retention in high Arctic fjord sediment

Article Publication Date

16-Jun-2026

Nanoplastics: new method provides clearer picture of the risks

Universiteit van Amsterdam

Micro- and nanoplastics are now popping up everywhere: in seawater, snow, food, and even in our bodies. The very smallest particles, in particular, are difficult to measure, meaning we still know too little about their spread and associated risks. UvA chemist Maria Hayder and her colleagues have developed a new measurement method that maps nanoplastics in water and the environment much more accurately. On Wednesday, 24 June, she will defend her PhD dissertation on this research at the University of Amsterdam.

Much plastic waste, of which millions of tons are produced annually, breaks down into increasingly smaller particles: microplastics and ultimately nanoplastics. Microplastics are particles between 1 micrometer and 5 millimeters; nanoplastics are even smaller, from 1 nanometer to 1 micrometer.

It is these minuscule particles that are a cause for concern, because they end up in water and food, and thus eventually in our bodies as well.

Combining two techniques

It is particularly difficult to accurately determine the amount of nanoplastics in the environment because they are so tiny and also behave differently from microplastics. ‘Many techniques are already used for microplastics, but they usually don’t work for nanoplastics,’ says Hayder.

To achieve a more reliable measurement, Hayder combined two complementary techniques: one for separating the plastic particles by size and one for chemically recognising and measuring the different types of plastic.

This new method proved capable of identifying and quantifying specific nanoplastics in wastewater.

No simple pattern

The new method was immediately deployed to discover how everyday plastics, which the researchers had exposed to fresh and seawater for years, break down into increasingly smaller particles.

‘We found the nanoplastics in both fresh and seawater,’ says Hayder. Remarkably, the plastic particles did not break down according to a simple "increasingly smaller" pattern but were present in all sorts of different sizes and also appeared at all depths regardless of their density.

Especially common in food

Hayder also examined what is currently known about plastic particles in our food and drinks. ‘Quite a bit of research has been done on seafood, while other important components of our diet – such as fruit, vegetables and grains – have received less attention.’ Yet the researchers estimate the highest daily intake for precisely those food types.

‘We mainly see the commonly used plastics, such as packaging plastic,’ says Hayder. ‘But how you measure largely determines what you find – and that makes studies difficult to compare.’

What happens in our gastrointestinal tract?

And what actually happens if we swallow the plastic particles via water and food and they enter our gastrointestinal tract? To find out, the researchers recreated the digestive process in the lab and subjected plastic particles of various sizes and with diverse properties to it.

‘In the gastrointestinal tract, small particles clump together into larger lumps, mainly due to the action of digestive enzymes. As a result, they become larger and the chance of them passing through the intestinal wall and entering the body is reduced, although this research shows that we still have much to learn about that,’ says Hayder.

Better measurements desperately needed

Better measurements to properly assess the health risks of plastic pollution are sorely needed. ‘Currently, measurement methods vary widely between laboratories, making results difficult to compare. This hinders not only scientific research but also policy regarding plastic use and pollution,’ says Hayder.

‘Our approach is not yet perfect, but it is a good step towards much more precise measurements of nanoplastics in the future. This will be crucial in helping us estimate their spread and potential health risks.’

Thesis details

Maria Hayder, 2026, 'Analytical approaches for studying occurrence and fate of environmental micro- and nanoplastics'. Supervisors: Prof. G.J.M. Gruter and Prof. A.P. van Wezel. Co-supervisors: Dr A. Astefanei and Dr C. Angelici.