New York – The survival of the Marsican bear, a small group of just a few dozen animals isolated in the heart of the Apennines, is now facing an even greater threat. Using cutting-edge techniques in molecular and cellular biology, a research team from the Universities of Ferrara and Marche Polytechnic has documented a malfunction in a fundamental biological process within the cells of these bears, highlighting the detrimental effects of a genetic mutation previously identified. The study was published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) under the title: “A fixed mutation in the respiratory complex I impairs mitochondrial bioenergetics in the endangered Apennine brown bear.”