tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-62178172287640596492024-03-10T20:23:11.400-07:00Science in the cloudsIsabel Torreshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00724636726605405730noreply@blogger.comBlogger45125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6217817228764059649.post-8160287664350332292018-01-16T06:11:00.001-08:002018-01-17T05:26:51.454-08:00Ants have an(other) unexpected superpower<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">In 2013, Gabriele
Berberich’s seminar on earthquake prediction at the European Geosciences Union
annual meeting, in Vienna, caused shock waves among the audience. Berberich, a
geologist at University Duisburg-Essen, in Germany, presented tantalizing
results from her fieldwork showing that red wood ants (</span><i style="font-family: "helvetica neue", arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Formica rufa</i><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">-group) change their behaviour hours before an earthquake.
Shortly after Berberich gave her presentation, headlines in the mainstream
media were boldly claiming that ants sense earthquakes several hours before
they strike. This was huge. Despite decades of research, geologists continue
struggling to predict earthquakes more than a few minutes in advance, which is
obviously not long enough to evacuate people from affected areas. Could these ants
come to save the day?</span></span></div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtSu9UPajWjcs4TLcOBc4voYURuG39bwwK1U0RaAQsR0VPXLL2qTOlrEhKEoD0VcIlzh7GeG7XmT33z5qTw_9JvO0PqnZTv8gMWc7q74m87o0Sgxw904mD6TeGDibyZMWHXtwGdLA8bdEZ/s1600/1280px-A_Formica_rufa_sideview.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-size: large;"><img border="0" height="384" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtSu9UPajWjcs4TLcOBc4voYURuG39bwwK1U0RaAQsR0VPXLL2qTOlrEhKEoD0VcIlzh7GeG7XmT33z5qTw_9JvO0PqnZTv8gMWc7q74m87o0Sgxw904mD6TeGDibyZMWHXtwGdLA8bdEZ/s640/1280px-A_Formica_rufa_sideview.jpg" width="640" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Red wood ant (<i>Formica rufa</i>)</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: medium;">Schreiber discovered
that red wood ants make their nests along a particular type of faults, called
strike-slip faults. These are vertical cracks in the rock that can act as a
chimney for liquids or gases ascending from the Earth’s crust or mantle. These
faults don’t usually occur as a single, clean fracture, but are rather found in
complex networks of cracks and deformations in the rock. For this reason,
geologists can struggle to accurately map them. Typically laborious soil gas measurements
and structural geological mappings are necessary, which are time-consuming and
costly. And this is why Schreiber’s discovery was so exciting.</span></div>
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<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: medium;">Tales of abnormal
animal behaviours before an earthquake have been around for centuries. In 373
B.C., Diodorus, a Greek historian, reported that rats, snakes, weasels,
centipedes, worms, and beetles, migrated in droves a few days before a violent
earthquake hit the city of Helice, in Greece. Accounts of animals in panic
seconds to hours before an earthquake are the most common, for example, dogs
barking or whining, nervous cats (sometimes jumping out of windows), bees
leaving their hives, cows producing less milk, to name a few.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: medium;">China and Japan are by
far the countries that have invested more resources into studying a connection
between animal behaviour and earthquakes. In 1975, an earthquake of magnitude
7.3 was predicted months in advance in China based on accounts of weird animal
behaviours, including snakes coming out of hibernation and freezing on the ground
surface and rats leaving their holes <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">en
masse</i>. The city of Haicheng, with a population of a million people, was
evacuated days before the earthquake, saving thousands of lives. However, this
earthquake was preceded by many smaller temblors (called foreshocks) over
several months, which was probably what really convinced Chinese officials to
order the evacuation. So, despite nearly four decades of research, there is
still no evidence that abnormal animal behaviour can be predictive of
earthquakes, well, at least not reliably. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: medium;">Scientists remain
skeptical because reports of this kind are typically collected after the quake,
so people are biased to recall behaviours that might have always been there—they
just didn’t notice them. The other reason is that while it is easy to explain
why animals sense earthquakes seconds before they start (they can feel a type
of weak seismic wave that reaches the Earth’s surface seconds before stronger,
more noticeable waves), it’s more difficult to understand how they may do this days
or weeks in advance. Some scientists have suggested these animals detect electromagnetic
changes or gases released from the ground before earthquakes, but most animals
definitely can’t do this. For ants though, it’s a different story.<o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: medium;"><b>Can ant behaviour predict earthquakes?</b></span></span><br />
<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: medium;">Red wood ants are remarkably sensitive to their environment. Besides detecting the tiniest changes in temperature, ants can respond to electromagnetic fields and have protein receptors that sense changes in carbon dioxide (CO</span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">2</span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: medium;">) concentrations. So could these ants sense earthquakes long before they start? Berberich and Ulrich Schreiber, her then PhD supervisor at University Duisburg-Essen, thought it was worth having a look. </span></span><br />
<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: medium;">During a 3-year survey, from 2009 to 2012, Berberich, Schreiber and colleagues filmed</span></span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: medium;"> two red wood ant mounds
that were on top of a seismically active tectonic fault. They used high-resolution
cameras in colour and infrared to monitor the ants’ activity 24/7. After
processing over 45,000 hours of video streams with an automated software that
tracked the tireless ants, the team discovered that these hard-working insects
have a daily routine that resembles our own: during the day they are franticly
busy at work, and during the night they rest inside their nests. Initially the
researchers thought this activity pattern was only perturbed when unwelcomed
guests visited their nest, such as birds or badgers looking for a snack. But
gradually it became clear that something else was occasionally upsetting the
ants: earthquakes.</span></div>
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<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: medium;">Berberich, Schreiber
and colleagues found that hours before an earthquake, the ants stopped their
daily routine and just hung out outside the nests until the next day. They
observed these behavioural changes only before earthquake events with
magnitudes between 2 and 3 (smaller temblors didn’t seem to bother the ants),
but they still don’t know how the ants would react to stronger earthquakes. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: medium;">“Our observations […] took place in a
region with low seismic activity,” says Schreiber. “It would be better to make
this research in Italy or other regions with higher seismic activity but we got
no funding for this type of research.”</span></span></div>
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<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: medium;">Another problem was
that during the winter the ants remained mostly inside the nests, and it’s more
difficult, if not impossible, to detect their activity over the cold months. So,
whether red wood ants can be used to predict earthquakes remains an open
question, though at present that seems rather unlikely. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: medium;">“[…] Red wood ants
cannot predict earthquakes. We never stated that in our publication” said
Berberich in an email to LabTimes. “Earthquake prediction would mean providing
information on the exact date, time, location and magnitude. That is definitely
not possible.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: medium;">Nonetheless, these tiny
creatures turned out to have yet another superpower that could be incredibly
useful for humans. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: medium;"></span><br />
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: medium;">Nesting on active tectonic faults<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: medium;">Shortly before Berberich
started her research on red wood ants and earthquake prediction, Schreiber had discovered
that these insects have a strange preference for building their nests on top of
active tectonic faults.</span></div>
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<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: medium;">Faults are fractures
in the rock that can extend into the Earth’s crust or mantle. Because the rocks
on either side of these cracks cannot slide against each other easily, tension
gradually builds up until the rocks suddenly break (and slide). The energy
released propagates to the Earth’s surface in seismic waves—and this is what
causes earthquakes. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: medium;">Schreiber first noticed
that the ant mounds lined up along tectonic faults back in 2003 during fieldwork
in the Rhenish Massif, in Germany, but because this was so unusual, he spend a
few more years collecting data in different sites in Germany, Austria and
Southern Scandinavia. And yet, despite counting over 1000 ant mounds, “it
needed a long time to convince biologists, reviewers and colleagues,” Schreiber
says. <o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0GtyOrkHBOXTaBuXu0Y8h5gkKq_qmTOkK9Mw4OTcfNk7xUOXJn3L6EX7w8RvT72anK3_u6Eszg67p1OYVZqKcI49NxK4oQz1PZvpiUxbpiuw6qRK7g1lJJz3yY03kelSGvt9aPHdjSW-6/s1600/1024px-Formica_rufa_nest_2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-size: large;"><img border="0" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0GtyOrkHBOXTaBuXu0Y8h5gkKq_qmTOkK9Mw4OTcfNk7xUOXJn3L6EX7w8RvT72anK3_u6Eszg67p1OYVZqKcI49NxK4oQz1PZvpiUxbpiuw6qRK7g1lJJz3yY03kelSGvt9aPHdjSW-6/s640/1024px-Formica_rufa_nest_2.jpg" width="640" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Nest of red wood ant</span></td></tr>
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<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: medium;">After these findings
were finally published in 2009, Schreiber and Berberich, who in the meantime
had joined his lab, continued collecting data in other sites in Germany. But even
after mapping more than 3000 ant nests and consistently finding a clear
statistical correlation between nest position and the active faults, the
scientific community remained unconvinced.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: medium;">“One of the challenges
of this work has been convincing ecologists and myrmecologists [people who
study ants] that there actually is a spatial relationship between ants and
fault lines,” says Aaron Ellison, an ecologist from Harvard University, USA,
who has collaborated with Berberich for a number of years. “The major critique
is that we don’t really have a good biological mechanism for why ants should be
related to faults.” <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: medium;">“Ants are easier to
sample and identify than geological features,” Ellison says. “Ants may also be
more sensitive at identifying very small or newly opened fault systems, and
more quickly, than we might get with a geological survey.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: medium;">Reliable bioindicators <o:p></o:p></span></span></b><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: medium;">Red wood ants are well-known bioindicators (organisms used to monitor changes in the environment). In Australia, these ants have been used successfully to check pesticide contamination in cotton wool-producing areas, for example, and to measure the environmental impact of mining, deforestation and logging, and urbanisation.</span><br />
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<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: medium;">To convince their
colleagues that red wood ants can be used as reliable bioindicators for active
faults, Berberich and colleagues decided to carry out a double-blind study. This
idea was suggested by Ellison, who at first was one of Berberich’s strongest
critics. When they met at the annual meeting of the Entomological Society of
America in 2012, Ellison pointed out that not enough sampling had been done in
localities where there wasn’t tectonic activity, so the sampling could have
been biased.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: medium;">“It’s easy to say
that, there’s a fault here and there are ants here, so they’re related to one
another, but to actually do a very careful and intensive spatial sampling and
see if the samples are not biased is harder to do,” says Ellison. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: medium;">Berberich and Ellison began
their collaboration and applied for funding to do the double-blind study. They
finally started the fieldwork in 2016 with a grant from the Volkswagen
Foundation. Ellison recruited several students, who hadn’t previously been
involved in the research, to sample ant mounds over an area of about 1400 km<sup>2</sup>
in Denmark. But there was a twist. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: medium;">“[…] We didn’t tell
them what they were sampling, or why they were sampling it,” says Ellison. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: medium;">And not only were the
students not aware of the study’s purpose, but also none of the researchers
knew where the active faults were located. After mapping nearly 300 ant mounds,
the team got hold of the detailed geological maps of the region. A careful
statistical analysis confirmed that the <a href="https://peerj.com/articles/3903/" target="_blank">ant mounds really are closer to active faults than what you would expect by chance alone</a>, and these results were recently
published in the journal <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">PeerJ</i>.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: medium;">Double-blind
experiments are designed to avoid conscious and unconscious biases in research.
Although this robust method is widespread in psychology and clinical research, it
is virtually absent from ecological studies. Recent alarming numbers in retractions
and fraud cases resulting from the ‘publish-or-perish’ culture, however, are
raising awareness for the need to improve (and test) reproducibility in science.
<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: medium;"><a href="http://www.nature.com/news/1-500-scientists-lift-the-lid-on-reproducibility-1.19970" target="_blank">A recent survey </a>in the journal <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Nature</i> showed that over 70% of researchers failed to
reproduce someone else’s experiments. Perhaps even more worrying, more than
half of the 1576 researchers who took part in the survey said they
couldn’t reproduce their <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">own</i>
experiments. Two notorious studies tackling this problem showed that the
scientific literature in psychology and cancer research is, respectively, only
40% and 10% reproducible. But despite this bleak picture, studies reproducing
or failing to reproduce experiments are rare and often difficult to publish.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: medium;">“We keep talking in
science about how reproducibility and replication is so important, so here was an
opportunity to really put that to the test,” Ellison remarks. “By doing a
double-blind experiment, we were able to show that there really is a
relationship here in need of an explanation and further work.” <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: medium;">A brilli(ant) gas sensor<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: medium;">The million-dollar question
now is why red wood ants fancy building their nests on active strike-slip faults.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: medium;">“I think that it’s a
combination of different aspects: metabolism, defence against enemies due to
increase the CO<sub>2</sub> concentration in nests, CO<sub>2</sub> content
necessary for beneficial bacteria, or others,” says Schreiber. “We don’t know
exactly and need more time for research.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: medium;">Red wood ant nests
release large amounts of CO<sub>2</sub> and are warmer than the surrounding
ground, but it’s not known why. Berberich and Schreiber’s findings open the
possibility that these ants choose to build their nests where there’s more CO<sub>2</sub>
available in the ground, like on top of strike-slip gas-permeable faults, for
example. Schreiber is currently following up preliminary observations that
support this hypothesis, while Ellison and Berberich, who is now working at the
Technical University of Dortmund, are applying for funding to study whether red
wood ants sense temperature and gases (radon, methane, helium…) released from faults.
<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: medium;">“We really don’t know
why [ants build their nests on active faults] but we’re working on promising
hypotheses, and all of them will be improved by doing double-blind
experiments,” Ellison concludes.<o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-indent: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="text-indent: -22px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>Reference:</b> Toro, Israel Del, et al. “Nests of red wood ants (Formica rufa-Group) are positively associated with tectonic faults: a double-Blind test.” </span></span><i style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: large; text-indent: -22px;">PeerJ</i><span style="font-size: medium; text-indent: -22px;">, PeerJ Inc., 12 Oct. 2017, peerj.com/articles/3903/.</span></span></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="text-indent: -22px;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="text-indent: -22px;">This article was published in the printed issue of Lab Times on the 29th November 2017.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
Isabel Torreshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00724636726605405730noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6217817228764059649.post-73870660927192013202017-09-22T01:37:00.000-07:002017-09-22T02:23:17.340-07:00How kangaroos avoid dehydration with their nose<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Red kangaroos are
the Conor McGregor of kangaroos, and it’s not because of their hair colour. They
are tough, really tough. Unlike grey kangaroos, which typically seek shade in woodlands
and mostly depend on human-built water holes, red kangaroos don’t shy away from
living in the driest, hottest deserts. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">To cool down
their bodies and avoid overheating (and death), kangaroos may pant, sweat and
even lick themselves. But all these strategies to lower body temperature come
with a price: they use up body water. And when you’re living in a place where
water is a rare commodity, licking yourself profusely might not always be the best
idea… </span>So how do red
kangaroos manage to avoid overheating and save body water at the same time?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">To answer this
question, Dale Nelson, Gavin Prideaux, and Natalie Warburton from Flinders and Murdoch
Universities decided to take a close look at the red kangaroo’s nose. Yes, the nose.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="683" data-original-width="1024" height="425" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimjehE9FOMhTFbn3vDhr8N5Zb66Ojd1CW2Yu-4xPNJKM6_U3NFu2h_UPxlKRy3yL97ji1h0pPfOM1OERkD4tugbsheuvP3STINqEfssFW9nDIiuBMXJandsFvwAX6LlcnskBAiRQyeIpYQ/s640/1024px-Red_kangaroo_-_melbourne_zoo.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="640" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><style type="text/css">
p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 9.0px Times}
</style>
<br />
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Red Kangaroo (<i>Macropus rufus</i>).</span></div>
</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Mammals have
complex noses with narrow, curled spongy bones that work as an air conditioning
system. These so-called <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">turbinate bones</i>
are lined with thin blood vessels that <span lang="EN-AU">make a temperature gradient along the nasal
cavity—from cooler near the exterior to warmer internally. As we inhale, the incoming
air is </span>quickly warmed as it travels down the nasal passages, and when we
exhale, warm air coming from the lungs is cooled, which saves body heat. Turbinate bones have another function though, and this is where red kangaroos come
back into the story. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">In the late
1970s, a few research teams noticed that desert mammals have extravagantly long
turbinate bones. Camels, for example, have very long, convoluted turbinate
bones that swirl round and round like a corkscrew. This scrolled shape
increases the nasal surface area to about 1000 cm<sup>2</sup>, which is over
six times the nasal surface area of humans. But what’s the advantage of having
such extreme noses in the desert?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Scientists back
then suspected it must have something to do with saving body water, and they
were right. It turns out that in these animals the water vapour in exhaled air
condenses as it contacts the cooler nasal surface, turning into liquid water. <span lang="EN-AU">For example, giraffes may save
up to 3 liters of water a day by condensation in the nose. But as impressive as this may sound, how this water
is reabsorbed into the body has remained a mystery for over three decades.</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Now, <span lang="EN-AU">Nelson, Warburton,</span><span lang="EN-AU"> </span><span lang="EN-AU">and Prideaux </span>add the first piece to this puzzle
in a new study published in the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Journal
of Zoology</i>.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-AU">During work on fossil
kangaroos</span><span lang="EN-AU"> </span>at Flinders University<span lang="EN-AU">, the team started wondering how the many
shapes of noses in different species of kangaroos and wallabies might be
related to their environment and behaviour. They were especially intrigued by the
bulging noses of red kangaroos. </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span lang="EN-AU"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">“Red kangaroos are the most
adapted to the very hot, arid conditions of the Australian outback”, says
Warburton. “Previous studies had described some aspects of nasal morphology in
kangaroos, but we still didn’t really understand how these related to the
biology of the animals in the wild.”<span style="color: black;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-AU">They set off to examine </span>the internal
bones and tissues of these animals expecting to find very long, coiled
turbinate bones, like in other desert mammals, but they discovered something that
“has never been found before”, Warburton says. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Digital images from
CT-scans, the same technology used in hospitals to image internal body
structures, revealed a pocket of bone within the floor of the nasal cavity. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This small hole in the bone was unusual,
so the researchers used histological techniques to look carefully at the tissues
lining it. To their surprise, they found that the bone pocket was filled with
lymphatic vessels. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span lang="EN-AU"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Lymph vessels are responsible
for returning fluid from tissues into the circulating blood, so this pocket
could be used to reabsorb the water condensed in the nose into the body. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span lang="EN-AU"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">“The condensation of water
vapour from air as animals breathe out is known to […] conserve water in arid
environments, but this is the first time that a possible mechanism for the
reabsorption of that condensed water has been found in the nose of any mammal”,
says Warburton.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span lang="EN-AU"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Kidneys are the main site of
water reabsorption in the body, and this is why in hot days we need to visit
the WC less often. Desert mammals including kangaroos have special kidneys that
produce very concentrated urine, which helps to save body water.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span lang="EN-AU"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Nelson and colleagues may have
discovered a new mechanism of water reabsorption in the nose that helps explain
how desert mammals cope with the harsh conditions of their environment,
but “further physiological testing is necessary to see if this is what is
really going on”, Warburton claims.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span lang="EN-AU"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">In the future the team also plans
to look at fossils of kangaroos to try and understand how extinct species
adapted to changes in their environment.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">“Through understanding how
animals interacted with the environment in the past, we are able to better
predict how they might adapt to environmental changes in the future”, Warburton
concludes.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span lang="EN-AU"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span lang="EN-AU"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; text-align: start;">Reference: </span></span></span><br />
<span lang="EN-AU"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; text-align: start;">Nelson, D. P., N. M. Warburton, and G. J. Prideaux. "The anterior nasal region in the Red Kangaroo (Macropus rufus) suggests adaptation for thermoregulation and water conservation." </span><i style="background-color: white; text-align: start;">Journal of Zoology</i><span style="background-color: white; text-align: start;"> (2017).</span></span></span><br />
<span lang="EN-AU"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><br /></span></span></span>
<span lang="EN-AU"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><br /></span></span></span></div>
</div>
Isabel Torreshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00724636726605405730noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6217817228764059649.post-88750180541572689402017-07-18T00:07:00.002-07:002018-01-17T05:30:00.785-08:00Why life got so big<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">About 570 million
years ago, large, frond-like creatures suddenly invaded the ocean floors. For
over a billion years, the Earth’s oceans were filled with bacteria and
microscopic algae, but during the Ediacaran period, from 635 to 541 million
years ago, larger multicellular organisms began crowding the seas.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Fossil imprints from
the Ediacaran derive from soft-bodied organisms resembling modern-day sea
anemones (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyclomedusa" target="_blank">Cyclomedusa)</a></i>, annelid worms
(<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dickinsonia" target="_blank">Dickinsonia</a>)</i> and sea pens (rangeomorphs
such as <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charnia" target="_blank">Charnia</a></i>). Among these bizarre
creatures, the rangeomorphs are the most abundant in the fossil record—and also
some of the largest.</span><span style="font-family: helvetica neue, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span><br />
<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEictCyrxVd0sDJhWX1sYwEie95KB7tut0h_UHJ5cwPzOONiQa9RkLVgYZcidTWxuarjtDuZREXDTstaEWUcqzGYr7Tm1cFQ7YyhCocKPE0J9uRksOKvjRxHN7AIejDmVUbbuSTrB7l2If1p/s1600/Artist_Impression_J_Hoyal_Cuthill_Landscape.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1066" data-original-width="1600" height="425" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEictCyrxVd0sDJhWX1sYwEie95KB7tut0h_UHJ5cwPzOONiQa9RkLVgYZcidTWxuarjtDuZREXDTstaEWUcqzGYr7Tm1cFQ7YyhCocKPE0J9uRksOKvjRxHN7AIejDmVUbbuSTrB7l2If1p/s640/Artist_Impression_J_Hoyal_Cuthill_Landscape.jpg" width="640" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Artist impression of rengeomorphs (credit: Jennifer Hoyal Cuthill)</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Rangeomorphs were unlike
any creature on Earth today. Some were as small as a coin, while others could
grow up to 2 meters high. They looked like ferns, with branches spreading out
from a central stem, but they likely fed by filtering nutrients from the water,
similar to corals. Because rangeomorphs were so different from any known life
form, paleontologists still don’t agree whether they were primitive animals related
to soft corals, some sort of weird fungus or even a new (now extinct) kingdom
of life, the Vendobiota. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">These ocean dwellers eventually
disappeared after the Cambrian explosion, some 541 million years ago, when
fast-moving predators emerged (and probably ate them). <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">Changes in ocean chemistry<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Based on the chemical signature
of ancient seawater left on rocks, geochemists think there was a sharp rise in ocean
oxygen levels soon after the end of the Gaskiers glaciation, about 580 million
years ago. These changes in the ocean chemistry could explain the appearance of
larger and more complex marine organisms—more food, bigger bodies. However, even
though this may seem quite obvious, it’s actually quite difficult to
demonstrate.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">Jennifer Hoyal Cuthill
and Simon Conway Morris, from the University of Cambridge (UK) and Tokyo
Institute of Technology (Japan), used an original approach to tackle this problem.
<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">“We wanted to see
whether the increase in body size could point to a rise in oxygen, since the
type of growth can tells us whether the animals have nutrients available or not”,
says Hoyal Cuthill.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">They suspected that
Ediacaran organisms were large because they had a ‘nutrient-dependent’ type of growth,
rather than an evolutionarily new genetic makeup.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">‘Seeing’ extinct creatures grow<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Many organisms can’t
grow beyond a certain size, regardless of how much they eat. Humans for
example, will (unfortunately) just get fatter, not taller, because they are
genetically programmed to reach a specific maximum height. But for some
organisms nutrient availability can affect body size. This type of </span><i style="font-family: "helvetica neue", arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">nutrient-dependent growth </i><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">is quite
common in invertebrates and plants. Some plants will grow almost indefinitely,
as long as there are nutrients (and light) available in the environment.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">But how do you measure
growth in organisms that lived nearly 600 million years ago?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">This is where
rangeomorph fossils come in handy. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">Hoyal Cuthill and Conway
Morris had previously worked with several rangeomorph specimens to study the
unusual body plan of these animals. During this research it dawned on them that
the rangeomorphs’ complex fractal branching shape, with larger older branches
at the bottom and smaller younger branches on top, was the key for testing the nutrient-dependent
growth hypothesis.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">“It’s like looking
back at your childhood photographs and comparing your height through your old
photos up to the present day”, says Hoyal Cuthill. “We were inferring the
history of growth of a rangeomorph by looking at parts of the structure of
different ages”. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">The researchers could
basically “see” in a single fossil specimen how the animals were growing during
their lifetime, by comparing the relative size and shape of younger and older
branches.<o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></b>
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">A unique rangeomorph fossil</span></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgitfjO-pWbiQz6zZnOMEfPynmJjVH1INo6NPRJUs711my67X5NmjbCiFLWQxGhSOhEdAlZcwe-eCI5CWXqfod9VeZaNsPOlCRxGkeY7ilHYGDckiL4eWGoc6FAZtZhDzjjH4XQ2KdN3stc/s1600/Charnia_masoni_England_J_Hoyal_Cuthill.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="775" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgitfjO-pWbiQz6zZnOMEfPynmJjVH1INo6NPRJUs711my67X5NmjbCiFLWQxGhSOhEdAlZcwe-eCI5CWXqfod9VeZaNsPOlCRxGkeY7ilHYGDckiL4eWGoc6FAZtZhDzjjH4XQ2KdN3stc/s400/Charnia_masoni_England_J_Hoyal_Cuthill.jpg" width="193" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Fossil of Charnia (Jennifer Hoyal Cuthill)</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">The <a href="http://rdcu.be/t5hX" target="_blank">new study </a>focuses
on an exquisitely preserved specimen of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Avalofractus
abaculus</i>, one of the last fossils removed from the Trepassey Formation, in
Newfoundland (Canada), before strict restrictions were imposed to protect the
site (currently called Mistaken Point Ecological Reserve). Hoyal Cuthill
obtained a high-resolution cast from the Royal Ontario Museum and scanned it by
CT- microtomography, a technique which uses x-rays to make detailed digital 3D
reconstructions. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">Two other specimens (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Charnia masoni</i> and an undescribed specimen
from the South Australian Museum) were also analysed based on digital
photographs.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">Mathematical and
computer models comparing the surface area and the volume of younger and older
branches showed that growth gradually slowed down as rangeomorphs got bigger,
which is exactly what happens in modern organisms with nutrient-dependent
growth.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“… You’re getting less nutrients as you
get larger, so you cannot sustain the same rate of growth, and it slows down”, Hoyal
Cuthill explains.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">But there was more. Nutrient
availability can also affect body shape, which is technically called
ecophenotypic plasticity. Hoyal Cuthill and Conway Morris also found that
rangeomorphs could rapidly change shape to access higher levels of oxygen in
the seawater above them, by growing into a long, tapered shape. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">Nutrient-dependent
growth provides a mechanism to explain why changes in ocean chemistry caused
the appearance of these large organisms in the Ediacaran, some 30 million years
before the Cambrian explosion.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">Hoyal Cuthill next
wants to investigate whether rangeomorphs really are animals, and to which modern
groups are they related to.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">“Rangeomorphs are quite mysterious and
were only relatively recently discovered and identified as Precambrian
organisms”, she says. “This is an exciting time and many researchers are
looking at the biota of the Ediacaran and finding new fascinating things”.</span></span></span><br />
<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></span>
<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><b>Reference: </b>Hoyal Cuthill, Jennifer F., and Simon Conway Morris. "Nutrient-dependent growth underpinned the Ediacaran transition to large body size." Nature Ecology and Evolution (2017). DOI:</span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span></span></span><span style="background-color: white; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">10.1038/s41559-017-0222-7</span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></span>
</span><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">This article was published originally as a guest post in the PLOS Paleo Community blog with the title "Why Precambrian life got so big" on the 18-07-2017. You can read it <a href="http://blogs.plos.org/paleocomm/2017/07/17/guest-post-why-precambrian-life-suddenly-got-big/" target="_blank">here</a>.</span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: medium;"> </span></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
Isabel Torreshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00724636726605405730noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6217817228764059649.post-25875365469319178522015-04-20T11:23:00.000-07:002015-04-20T11:23:46.803-07:00Miracle fat-burning hormone doesn't exist after all<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Scientists are humans, and as such, they can sometimes
get carried away when they make a breakthrough discovery. Because of this
premature excitement, they may lose attention to detail, over-interpret results,
or cut corners to speed up that much-desired </span><i style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Nature</i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> publication. The discovery of irisin, or ‘exercise hormone’,
is one such example. Once thought to be a promising exercise-free solution for
obesity and diabetes, irisin has now been shown to be no more than a random blood
protein detected by flawed reagents.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHaHbDD2XZhQ2OkaoRikGakQPp5ofb7ZriTnSWlYDClXD_pxS57wEjybndRoDCIqyZ3le13YwOIbIrUZg3s5TG1E6A2vC_bEzUYJhSoSgMKYzcs3iDmpt07oNpBVJDcU5XplTk5oXAICLE/s1600/Fotolia_58718038_XS.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHaHbDD2XZhQ2OkaoRikGakQPp5ofb7ZriTnSWlYDClXD_pxS57wEjybndRoDCIqyZ3le13YwOIbIrUZg3s5TG1E6A2vC_bEzUYJhSoSgMKYzcs3iDmpt07oNpBVJDcU5XplTk5oXAICLE/s1600/Fotolia_58718038_XS.jpg" height="427" width="640" /></a></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v481/n7382/full/nature10777.html" target="_blank">Irisin was first discovered in 2012 </a>by Bruce
Spiegelman and colleagues at Harvard Medical School (US). In a <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Nature </i>article, the researchers reported
that after exercise muscle cells release a fragment of a pre-hormone-like
protein called FNDC5 into the bloodstream, where it travels to adipose cells to
trigger the conversion of white fat into calorie-burning brown fat. They
concluded that this small molecule is a “newly identified hormone”, which they
named irisin, after the Greek messenger goddess Iris. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Whereas white fat stores energy, brown fat is converted
to heat—that’s how hibernating animals and newborn babies stay warm. So, unless
you starve or exercise a lot, your white fat will remain stubbornly lodged on
your hips, while brown fat burns calories. Unfortunately for most of us though,
only about 10% of our adipose tissue consists of brown fat-producing cells. And
this is why the discovery of irisin was so exciting. What if we could take an
irisin pill to turn our white fat into brown fat? Could we burn calories while lying
comfortably on the couch eating ice cream?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It is no surprise then that in just three years over
170 studies were published on irisin. It didn’t take that long though for
someone to question the Spiegelman study. Harold Erickson from Duke University
(US) <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.4161/adip.26082#.VS-jrmb8VMh" target="_blank">first voiced his concerns about irisin in 2013</a>, and recently he showed that the <a href="http://www.nature.com/srep/2015/150309/srep08889/full/srep08889.html" target="_blank">commercial antibodies most widely used to detect irisin are unspecific</a>—instead of irisin, they detect
cross-reaction blood proteins, basically unknown random proteins. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Antibodies are proteins produced by immune cells that
stick to specific bits of other proteins, and they’re used by scientists to
detect their proteins of interest. In the original irisin paper, Spiegelman’s
team identified irisin with a polyclonal antibody produced by Abcam that should
in theory attach to the tail of FNDC5. But irisin is a fragment of FNDC5 that
is chopped from the other end of the protein, so this antibody couldn’t possibly
detect it, Erickson argued back in 2013. Spiegelman replied to this by saying
that Abcam had not correctly annotated the antibody in their catalogue. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Erickson also noticed that none of the commercially
available irisin antibodies had been properly tested by the companies that made
them. But despite this worrying observation, several research groups continued
to use them, and what’s worse, without attempting to verify their specificity
for irisin. And there was more.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A few months after Erickson published these findings,
Juergen Eckel and colleagues at the German Diabetes Centre (Dusseldorf,
German) found that the human <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">FNDC5</i> gene
has an unusual START codon (the bit of DNA that is translated into the first
‘letter’ of a protein). This weird (and rare) codon is associated with very inefficient
protein production. In the case of FNDC5, only about 1% of normal FNDC5 protein
levels are produced by human cells, Eckel showed. At such low amounts, it would
be highly unlikely that irisin had a physiological role in humans. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Over the years contradictory data from dozens of
studies that relied on dodgy reagents cast doubts on whether irisin really exists or is a miracle fat-burning hormone, but that wasn’t enough to dissuade most
researchers from working on it. Could this be about to change?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In their new study, Erickson's team and colleagues from three other research groups tested four
commercial irisin antibodies used in over 80 studies. They employed a technique
called ‘western blotting’, which separates proteins by size. To be sure they
were looking at the right thing, the researchers synthesised irisin molecules and
then compared them side-by-side with the proteins detected by the commercial
antibodies. They tested several tissue samples from humans and other animals,
including blood serum from horses after strenuous exercise. None of the
antibodies detected a protein with the predicted size for irisin,
and even more worrying, they didn’t detect synthesised irisin. However, the
antibodies reacted with many other proteins of the wrong size. This shows that
all previously published studies based on assays using these antibodies “were
reporting unknown cross-reacting proteins”, the authors claim in the study. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The question now was… does irisin exist at all? <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">To answer this question, the team looked for irisin in
human blood serum using a sensitive technique that detects tiny amounts of
molecules without the use of antibodies, called mass spectrometry. They were
able to identify a molecule corresponding to FNDC5 or irisin, which is the
“first mass spectrometry identification of an irisin peptide at the correct
size, and might be considered as supporting the existence of irisin in human
serum”, the authors say in the study. However, the very low amounts of
irisin detected “makes a physiological role for irisin very unlikely”, they
add. According to Erickson and colleagues, the exercise hormone is a myth.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">These new findings are bad news for irisin researchers
and food lovers, but they’re very good news for science. They show than even
though human nature might at times corrupt scientific discoveries (voluntarily
or involuntarily), science infallibly corrects itself, and we can therefore
trust the scientific process.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Reference:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Z3988" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;" title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Ajournal&rft_id=info%3Adoi%2Fhttp%3A%2F%2Fdx.doi.org%2F10.1038%2Fsrep08889&rft.atitle=Irisin+%E2%80%93+a+myth+rather+than+an+exercise-inducible+myokine&rft.jtitle=Scientific+Reports&rft.volume=5&rft.spage=8889&rft.date=2015&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fscienceseeker.org&rft.au=Albrecht+Elke&rft.aulast=Albrecht&rft.aufirst=Elke&rft.au=+Bernd+Thiede&rft.au=+Torgeir+Holen&rft.au=+Tomoo+Ohashi&rft.au=+Lisa+Schering&rft.au=+Sindre+Lee&rft.au=+Julia+Brenmoehl&rft.au=+Selina+Thomas&rft.au=+Christian+A.+Drevon&rft.au=+Harold+P.+Erickson&rfs_dat=ss.included=1&rfe_dat=bpr3.included=1;bpr3.tags=Biology%2CHealth">Albrecht E., Bernd Thiede, Torgeir Holen, Tomoo Ohashi, Lisa Schering, Sindre Lee, Julia Brenmoehl, Selina Thomas, Christian A. Drevon & Harold P. Erickson & (2015). Irisin – a myth rather than an exercise-inducible myokine, <span style="font-style: italic;">Scientific Reports, 5</span> 8889. DOI: <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/srep08889" rev="review">http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/srep08889</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">An edited version of this article was published in Lab Times on the 17-04-2015. You can read it <a href="http://www.labtimes.org/editorial/e_601.lasso" target="_blank">here</a>. </span><br />
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<br />Isabel Torreshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00724636726605405730noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6217817228764059649.post-15954358301264987112015-03-27T09:16:00.000-07:002015-03-27T09:30:57.332-07:00The genetics of musical talent: an interview with Irma Järvelä<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US">Would Mozart have become a great composer had his
family not encouraged his musical career? Irma Järvelä is a clinical geneticist
at the University of Helsinki, Finland, who investigates the molecular genetics of
musical traits. After devoting 25 years of her career to the identification of
genes and mutations involved in human diseases, she now works in close
collaboration with </span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">bioinformaticians and music educators to study
the influence of genes and the cultural environment in music perception and
production. </span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>What got you interested in studying the genetics of
musical talent?</i><o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US"><b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US">Järvelä: </span></span></b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We were studying
a lot of things that affect human diseases and I found that it’s also important
to understand how the human normal brain functions. This could be helpful to
understand the diseases in more detail. In genetics we have genes and then we
have environmental effects. […] Our genes do not always tolerate our environment—when
you think of carcinogenics, for example—and this kind of crosstalk between genes
and the environment is also present in music. […] I was interested in this interaction
between the environment and studying music, or listening to music. </span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US"><i>Your research shows that </i></span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><i>several
genes involved in inner-ear development and auditory neurocognitive processes
are linked to musical aptitude. Does this mean musical talent is innate? </i><o:p></o:p></span></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US">Järvelä: </span></span></b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Yes, our </span><span lang="EN-US"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><a href="http://www.nature.com/mp/journal/v20/n2/full/mp20148a.html" target="_blank">recent study</a></span></span><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"> points to the genes that are associated
strongly with an innate, or inborn, musical aptitude. It was already known
before that newborns are interested in very complex musical patterns already at
the age of a couple of days, and from research studying human brain function in
musicians and non musicians, there is evidence that music is a biological trait.
In our study we identify the regions in the human genome that are strongly
associated with the ability to perceive and listen to sounds and structures in music.
<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>So do ‘musical geniuses’ really exist? Would Mozart
have become a great composer if his family hadn’t encouraged his musical
training?</i><o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US"><b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US">Järvelä: </span></span></b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Mozart is a
typical example of a talented composer whose family was musical. There are a
lot of families in our days that have several professional musicians, so part
of the musical talent is explained by the genes but of course also to exposure
to music. It’s like an allergy; the risk for an allergy is only expressed when
the pollen is coming, so you need this environmental trigger. And music is an
excellent environmental trigger. Children who have an ability for music have to
be exposed to music, otherwise we don’t know whether they can become musicians.
So a rich musical environment is of course needed.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i><br /></i></span></span></b></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjg6286E5ny_DRSUQa6Fb0tzh_Sudp5j_S5ZG0SM82M6LOXBd1QKZ4qTCPvMaDBHxQvFzS1r9goH5eYgeTOT4jE5H60lWuvQpO2szPFuEtRalO-_aeE6-5J4bJSkGoPago_o7euf3o0pdMg/s1600/Ruthin_School_Uploads_19.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjg6286E5ny_DRSUQa6Fb0tzh_Sudp5j_S5ZG0SM82M6LOXBd1QKZ4qTCPvMaDBHxQvFzS1r9goH5eYgeTOT4jE5H60lWuvQpO2szPFuEtRalO-_aeE6-5J4bJSkGoPago_o7euf3o0pdMg/s1600/Ruthin_School_Uploads_19.jpg" height="320" width="212" /></a></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>Is it possible to compensate for
the lack of genetic musical ability with musical training?</i><o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US"><b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US">Järvelä: </span></span></b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I think it can
be compensated to some extended but never fully. […] Some researchers have
claimed (and I agree) that children first of all inherit the ability to
perceive music and hear music. And if the parents are also very musical and
good teachers, that is the ideal setting for the transmission of both the genes
and the perfect environment. </span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>Are there also examples of musically talented people
that don’t come from a family of musicians?</i></span></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US"><b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US">Järvelä: </span></span></b></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We have a couple
of cases in our family collection, which consists of 800 people in Finland,
where the parents are not very interested in music but the child is very
talented. Also vice versa, we also have cases where the parents are
professional musicians, but the children are not at all interested, or their
musical scores are moderate or low.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>How do you explain these exceptions?</i></span></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US"><b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US">Järvelä: </span></span></b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I think it’s
possible that these cases are explained by a novel mutation, because the human
genome is supposed to have <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">de novo</i>
mutations quite frequently. But we cannot say anything concerning just a couple
of cases, this kind of studies are not reliable. We would need more cases.</span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US">In a </span></b><span lang="EN-US"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><a href="https://peerj.com/articles/830/" target="_blank">recent
study</a></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><a href="https://peerj.com/articles/830/" target="_blank"> </a>you show that </b></span></i><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><i>listening
to classical music affects gene expression in musically experienced, but not
inexperienced, individuals. How do you explain this?</i><o:p></o:p></span></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US">Järvelä: </span></span></b><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Yes, this is true. We had a group of participants who were professional
musicians or experienced listeners [of classical music], and in the other group
the participants told us they were not so interested in music. The participants
were not informed which music they came to listen […]. Some people would come
out and say “yeah, I know this music, this was nice”, and of course those who
had no musical experience didn’t know what was played. […] If you think about
it people always choose what they like. We saw an effect in people who knew the
music, or who were used to listening to classical music. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>Do you see this effect on gene
expression with any type of music? </i><o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US">Järvelä: </span></span></b><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I don’t know because this is the first study and you have to start
somewhere. This was with classical music but I agree that we should study other
genres like jazz or hip hop, or whatever other type of music. I would suggest
that jazz would be the next one because imagination, improvisation and
creativity in jazz are more prominent and we might get some different effect. I
think there might be shared effects and non-shared effects.</span></span><br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i><br /></i></span></span></b>
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>Have you thought of studying other ethnicities, maybe semi-isolated tribes, which have a completely different type of music and culture?</i></span></span></b><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US">Järvelä: </span></span></b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It would be nice but it’s easier said than done. I suspect they
would have different genetic profiles because of the long distance in genetics, and also the cultural effects are different. It would be extremely interesting to
compare these different natural surroundings and it might be that that is the most true
effect of music. I think the basic similarities are there, because the human inner ear is very well conserved in evolution. </span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>What other questions would you
like to address in the future?</i></span></span></b><br />
<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US">Järvelä: </span></span></b><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We are currently studying the genes for creativity in music, and this
will hopefully be published this year. This week we have just published a paper
on the <a href="http://www.nature.com/srep/2015/150325/srep09506/full/srep09506.html" target="_blank">genetic profiles of professional musicians</a>, just before and after they
played a fabulous symphonette at a concert. […] Then we want to look at the
different musical genres, and gene regulation and evolution<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="_GoBack"></a>
of music.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">
<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">References:</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="text-align: start;">Oikkonen J., P Onkamo, L Ukkola-Vuoti, P Raijas, K Karma, V J Vieland & I Järvelä (2014). A genome-wide linkage and association study of musical aptitude identifies loci containing genes related to inner ear development and neurocognitive functions, </span><span style="font-style: italic; text-align: start;">Molecular Psychiatry, 20</span><span style="text-align: start;"> (2) 275-282. DOI: </span><a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/mp.2014.8" rev="review" style="text-align: start;">http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/mp.2014.8</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Z3988" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align: start;" title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Ajournal&rft_id=info%3Adoi%2Fhttp%3A%2F%2Fdx.doi.org%2F10.7717%2Fpeerj.830&rft.atitle=The+effect+of+listening+to+music+on+human+transcriptome&rft.jtitle=PeerJ&rft.volume=3&rft.spage=e830&rft.date=2015&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fscienceseeker.org&rft.au=Kanduri+Chakravarthi&rft.aulast=Kanduri&rft.aufirst=Chakravarthi&rft.au=+Minna+Ahvenainen&rft.au=+Anju+K.+Philips&rft.au=+Liisa+Ukkola-Vuoti&rft.au=+Harri+L%C3%A4hdesm%C3%A4ki&rft.au=+Irma+J%C3%A4rvel%C3%A4&rfs_dat=ss.included=1&rfe_dat=bpr3.included=1;bpr3.tags=Biology%2CNeuroscience">Kanduri C., Minna Ahvenainen, Anju K. Philips, Liisa Ukkola-Vuoti, Harri Lähdesmäki & Irma Järvelä (2015). The effect of listening to music on human transcriptome, <span style="font-style: italic;">PeerJ, 3</span> e830. DOI: <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.830" rev="review">http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.830</a></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align: start;"> </span></span></div>
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<div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
<span class="Z3988" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;" title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Ajournal&rft_id=info%3Adoi%2Fhttp%3A%2F%2Fdx.doi.org%2F10.1038%2Fsrep09506&rft.atitle=The+effect+of+music+performance+on+the+transcriptome+of+professional+musicians&rft.jtitle=Scientific+Reports&rft.volume=5&rft.spage=9506&rft.date=2015&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fscienceseeker.org&rft.au=Kanduri+Chakravarthi&rft.aulast=Kanduri&rft.aufirst=Chakravarthi&rft.au=+Minna+Ahvenainen&rft.au=+Anju+K.+Philips&rft.au=+Harri+L%C3%A4hdesm%C3%A4ki&rft.au=+Irma+J%C3%A4rvel%C3%A4&rfs_dat=ss.included=1&rfe_dat=bpr3.included=1;bpr3.tags=Biology%2CNeuroscience">Kanduri C., Minna Ahvenainen, Anju K. Philips, Harri Lähdesmäki & Irma Järvelä (2015). The effect of music performance on the transcriptome of professional musicians, <span style="font-style: italic;">Scientific Reports, 5</span> 9506. DOI: <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/srep09506" rev="review">http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/srep09506</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
An edited version of this interview was published in Lab Times on the 27-03-2015. You can read it <a href="http://www.labtimes.org/editorial/e_595.lasso" target="_blank">here</a>.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
Isabel Torreshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00724636726605405730noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6217817228764059649.post-59185307833352100432015-03-17T16:25:00.000-07:002015-03-17T16:59:19.697-07:00Hippos are (almost) definitely whales, not pigs<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Hippos are strange mammals. They lack hairs and sweat
glands, and have an unusually thick skin. The only other mammals that share
these features with hippos are whales, but they look nothing alike, except
they’re also huge and live in water. Coincidence? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Traditionally hippos were included in the Suidae (pigs)
branch of the mammalian evolutionary tree, but molecular data unambiguously shows
that they're closely related to cetaceans (whales, dolphins and porpoises). This not only sounds unlikely (hippos look much more like pigs than whales), but it's also quite difficult to </span><span style="font-family: Arial;">test</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">—</span><span style="font-family: Arial;">there </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">is simply not enough fossil evidence</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So the origin of hippos has remained
something of a mystery. Now, a <a href="http://www.nature.com/ncomms/2015/150224/ncomms7264/full/ncomms7264.html" target="_blank">new fossil discovery </a>by a team of French and
Kenyan palaeontologists may have tipped the balance of the hippo evolutionary
history.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEij5n_9jfx4E1aXRm-xCWWyqfJ5ucsUOsr7C8g1oC_He20nxalnfxcYtb7Zt2CJFlRDxPjkHE61t2gaxiItdCUHqto4b9vP1qFmsRnOaBRZjXSNLr2gYkp5q7iRo2N0qz4mM6c3WxE1bcAi/s1600/1024px-Hippo_mouth_opening.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEij5n_9jfx4E1aXRm-xCWWyqfJ5ucsUOsr7C8g1oC_He20nxalnfxcYtb7Zt2CJFlRDxPjkHE61t2gaxiItdCUHqto4b9vP1qFmsRnOaBRZjXSNLr2gYkp5q7iRo2N0qz4mM6c3WxE1bcAi/s1600/1024px-Hippo_mouth_opening.jpg" height="475" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Common hippo showing off its mandibles.</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Fossils of hippo are rare. Every now and then a tooth
pops up, but bones are nearly impossible to find. “To make a comparison between
whales and hippos we need to find their ancestors. We had the whale ancestor
but until now the hippo ancestor was unknown,” says Fabrice Lihoreau, a
palaeontologist at the University of Montpellier, in France.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In 2005, Lihoreau and colleagues discovered a
mandible with teeth of unusual morphology in the paleontological collection of
the National Museum of Kenya, in Nairobi. Lihoreau is an expert on
anthracotheres, a diverse group of semi-aquatic herbivorous mammals that lived
in Africa from around two to 40 million years ago. For some time palaeontologists
had suspected that anthracotheres could be the ancestor of hippos. “We published many studies suggesting hippo is related to
anthracotheres, and not to pigs. This new discovery not only supports that, but
it tells us precisely to which lineage of anthracotheres hippos originated
from,” Lihoreau explains.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The newly found teeth have morphological features of
both anthracotheres and hippos. They belonged to a large herbivorous mammal
that thrived in Lokona, Kenya, around 28 million years ago. The discovery of
this new hippo-like anthracothere, named <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Epirigenys
lokonensis</i> for ‘hippo’ (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Epiri)</i>
and ‘origin’ (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">genys</i>), shows that
hippos are definitely not pigs—they originated from an old lineage of
antrachotheres, the bothriodontines. And not only that, Lihoreau says, “we
added a bit more to the history of mammals in saying that hippos are African,
they were born in Africa.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwEQbqmYI-yuhQ4pA8oACrq0DDxHLmFB8K3rMubtNcGWXfxE_ZsvGwISkF67AoWCy5OcRwAqVnm61BmFeDeFdfRY1gtYztwa2z8OiFyuICLxchrdfyU97R5cQzqKTnmmGCqrANO404D2QM/s1600/LihoreauNCpress5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwEQbqmYI-yuhQ4pA8oACrq0DDxHLmFB8K3rMubtNcGWXfxE_ZsvGwISkF67AoWCy5OcRwAqVnm61BmFeDeFdfRY1gtYztwa2z8OiFyuICLxchrdfyU97R5cQzqKTnmmGCqrANO404D2QM/s1600/LihoreauNCpress5.jpg" height="400" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Evolutionary transition of the upper molar from an anthracothere (left),<br />Epirigenys (middle) and a primitive hippo (right). </span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Many African mammals (rhinos, elephants, giraffes…)
originated in Eurasia and then migrated to Africa in two large waves of
migration, around 35 and 20 million years ago. Because the oldest fossils of a
‘true’ hippo are about 16 millions years old, palaeontologists have assumed
they crossed into Africa on a land bridge during the second wave of migration.
But <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Epirigenys</i> lived 28 million years
ago, so hippos must have originated from their anthracotheres ancestor <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">in</i> Africa. This also explains why
fossils of hippo ancestors hadn’t been found before: palaeontologists were
looking in the wrong place. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But are hippos whales? The discovery of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Epirigenys</i> doesn’t prove that hippos and
whales came from the same ancestor, but it makes any different scenario rather
unlikely. “This study is very important because now we have a hippo ancestor.
And we know that the ancestors of hippos are from South-East Asia, and the
ancestors of whales are also from South-East Asia, from the same period”,
Lihoreau says.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdvDh5C2uWo-R1zbVhCbvvvtmWtuYZ1flxJ9fwZ74D3CoRI3dQESAHQUn5-U8Mloarzuce5vea3JVl0uoKKfH4sgJln8IAZACfiITrXFilm0vaEgYzt5CbF_pu2t9ZN4od18_jJ-_MxVBZ/s1600/LihoreauNCpress6.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdvDh5C2uWo-R1zbVhCbvvvtmWtuYZ1flxJ9fwZ74D3CoRI3dQESAHQUn5-U8Mloarzuce5vea3JVl0uoKKfH4sgJln8IAZACfiITrXFilm0vaEgYzt5CbF_pu2t9ZN4od18_jJ-_MxVBZ/s1600/LihoreauNCpress6.jpg" height="640" width="595" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Phylogenetic relationships between hippos, anthracotheres and cetaceans.</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Lihoreau and colleagues are now going to focus on
searching for the ancestor of anthracotheres in South-East Asia, to then
compare it with the ancestor of whales, which is well known. If the team gets lucky,
they might find their </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">‘</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">holy grail</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">’</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">—</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">the common ancestor of hippos and whales.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Jonathan Geisler, a palaeontologist at the New York Institute of
Technology who studies the evolution of dolphins and whales says “About 15
years ago there was a big gap between the age of the earliest hippos and the
oldest whales. These authors, and their collaborators, have been steadily
filling in this gap through the discovery of new fossils, as well as detailed
studies that have moved known fossil species into this gap.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Many questions remain unresolved. Lihoreau suspects that
hippo ancestors hopped into Africa around 30 million years ago alone and…
swimming. <span lang="EN-US">“This is somewhat speculative but
certainly seems possible,” says Geisler. “There is evidence to suggest some
anthracotheres were semi-aquatic, and were able to make this crossing.”</span> This hypothesis implies that
the hippo-whale ancestor already lacked hairs and sweat glands, which would
have “constrained the evolution of the hippo group to get into water”, Lihoreau
says. His team is going to collaborate with geologists and geochemists to try
and figure out in what sort of environment hippo ancestors were living. This
should help us understand what shaped the evolution of hippos towards their
semi-aquatic lifestyle, which is very rarely seen for herbivorous mammals
(capivaras and beavers are the only other exceptions). <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Reference:</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Z3988" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;" title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Ajournal&rft_id=info%3Adoi%2Fhttp%3A%2F%2Fdx.doi.org%2F10.1038%2Fncomms7264&rft.atitle=Hippos+stem+from+the+longest+sequence+of+terrestrial+cetartiodactyl+evolution+in+Africa&rft.jtitle=Nature+Communications&rft.volume=6&rft.spage=6264&rft.date=2015&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fscienceseeker.org&rft.au=Lihoreau+Fabrice&rft.aulast=Lihoreau&rft.aufirst=Fabrice&rft.au=+Fredrick+Kyalo+Manthi&rft.au=+St%C3%A9phane+Ducrocq&rfs_dat=ss.included=1&rfe_dat=bpr3.included=1;bpr3.tags=Biology%2CGeosciences">Lihoreau F., Fredrick Kyalo Manthi & Stéphane Ducrocq (2015). Hippos stem from the longest sequence of terrestrial cetartiodactyl evolution in Africa, <span style="font-style: italic;">Nature Communications, 6</span> 6264. DOI: <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/ncomms7264" rev="review">http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/ncomms7264</a></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">An edited version of this article was published in Lab Times on the 17-03-2015. You can read it <a href="http://www.labtimes.org/editorial/e_592.lasso" target="_blank">here</a>.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
Isabel Torreshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00724636726605405730noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6217817228764059649.post-19197878136426913872015-02-25T05:37:00.000-08:002015-03-27T03:24:29.705-07:00Should mice be used to study the human gut microbiome?<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In recent years, the trillions of bacteria living in
our guts have risen from obscurity to stardom. Hyped press releases claim that probiotics and faecal transplants might one day treat almost everything, from bowel inflictions to obesity. These studies often involve mice, but are these rodents really a suitable model for microbiome research?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The gut microbiome has been associated with an
ever-growing list of diseases, including obesity, diabetes and even mental
disorders such as anxiety and autism. Much like the Human Genome Project around
15 years ago, the booming microbiome research field has promised to deliver new
revolutionary treatments, some as simple as eating a yogurt. Perhaps inevitably
though, history repeats itself. After a few years of frantic microbiome sequencing and many new biotech start-ups,
microbiome researchers are now having to face the hard questions: are the
changes in the gut microbiome associated with certain diseases a cause, or a
consequence, of the disease? How on earth can bacteria in the gut affect other
parts of the body, such as the brain? What are the molecular mechanisms behind all
this?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span></o:p></div>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVwr6QNyA5ALoolx8KV1XwemQqunpIBCT9mDRi2owrs89sZFoEXqjnzGk8AuuZLnkxIHFb5iv0BdabnTaVFG6AtnDO4ywj1Tw2_o_wUHmeH9EMMcO4KhlIhonD9sgqSVMZbG9sEtKAxpgi/s1600/EscherichiaColi_NIAID-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVwr6QNyA5ALoolx8KV1XwemQqunpIBCT9mDRi2owrs89sZFoEXqjnzGk8AuuZLnkxIHFb5iv0BdabnTaVFG6AtnDO4ywj1Tw2_o_wUHmeH9EMMcO4KhlIhonD9sgqSVMZbG9sEtKAxpgi/s1600/EscherichiaColi_NIAID-1.jpg" height="291" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">E. coli bacteria thrive in the gut.</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Studies in humans can at most reveal correlations
between the microbiome composition and a given disease. For example: Bob is obese
and happens to have a microbiome with lots of bacteria X, but John, who is
slim, doesn’t. This suggests that bacteria X cause obesity, yet, there’s also a
good chance that in fact it’s the other way round: obesity might somehow
promote growth of bacteria X. Or maybe this type of bacteria thrives on Bob’s
diet, or it simply prefers the unique environment of his gut.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It is virtually impossible, and unethical, to perform
experiments in humans to explore causal hypotheses (does bacteria X cause
obesity?) and control for confounding factors like diet and genetic background.
Microbiome researchers have to use the next best thing: mice. There are,
however, growing concerns within the scientific community that more often than
not, data from mouse can’t be extrapolated to humans for clinical purposes. Or
at least, not easily. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="http://dmm.biologists.org/content/8/1/1.long" target="_blank">In a new study</a>, Jeroen Raes and colleagues at the KULeuven
University, in Belgium, carefully compared the human and mouse gut microbiomes to
assess the strengths and pitfalls of this model system for studying microbiome-related
diseases.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“Microbiome research, notably its association to
inflammatory diseases, relies heavily on mouse models […]. It is essential to
know the qualities and limitations of each model to choose the correct one to
test specific hypotheses”, says Sara Vieira-Silva, one of the authors conducting
the study.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Can mice recapitulate the human gut microbiome?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Mice are great for biomedical research. They share most
of our genes, and have similar anatomy and physiology. With the many available
genetic tools, scientists can easily and quickly discover the function of
literally any gene in the mouse genome, and recapitulate human disease in a
controlled experimental set up. So where’s the catch? The problem is that although
mice and humans share many similarities, there are also many differences.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p><a href="http://www.vib.be/en/research/scientists/Pages/Jeroen-Raes-Lab.aspx">Rae’s
team </a>performed comprehensive statistical analyses for all gut
microbiomes from mice and humans published to date. These new data tell us what
types of bacteria live in the gut in various scenarios (disease, diet, genetic
background…), as well as their relative abundance. The team first compared the
gut microbiomes of healthy humans and mice. And the differences start here.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Human and mouse guts
have predominantly two ‘families’ of bacteria—Bacteroidetes and Firmicutes—but
within these groups, 85% of bacteria species found in mice are not present in
humans. And the bacteria found in both? It appears their abundance in the gut
also varies between mice and humans; when you’ve got a lot of a certain
bacteria in mouse, you may find very little of it in humans, and vice versa.
The authors stress that many of these differences could simply be a result of
technical limitations, like methodology or interference from external factors
(diet, age, etc).</span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_4Vujpc9bl5R1DwMEHg8NzGp2lupqMvKJ4RFwX1tG9wLm2mHh3hRhdwLkX684g-Zc315Y4JK7TzL_FQ0wOYDI6xBvQ-Tz8ZvZ4lZrBSxxHAkfnuehgysrvQOUWFWbPBKzs4g6SjjOgcUa/s1600/640px-Wistar_rat.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_4Vujpc9bl5R1DwMEHg8NzGp2lupqMvKJ4RFwX1tG9wLm2mHh3hRhdwLkX684g-Zc315Y4JK7TzL_FQ0wOYDI6xBvQ-Tz8ZvZ4lZrBSxxHAkfnuehgysrvQOUWFWbPBKzs4g6SjjOgcUa/s1600/640px-Wistar_rat.jpg" height="266" width="400" /></a></span></div>
<br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Mouse models of disease</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">There are over 60 mouse models of Inflammatory Bowel
Disease (IBD), but none fully recapitulates the disease. Even so, the changes
in the gut microbiome of patients with IBD (when compared to healthy people)
are similar to those observed in IBD mouse models. For example, there is a significant
reduction in bacterial diversity in both IBD patients and IBD mouse models. However,
some specific bacteria species will be more (or less) abundant in mouse but not
in IBD patients. The same goes for obesity models. Overall, mice fed on
high-fat diet, and also leptin-deficient mice, which cannot control their appetite,
recapitulate the microbiome changes observed in obese people. But there are
many discrepancies in the data, again likely due to external factors that are
difficult to control, at least in human studies.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The conclusion? Well, mice are not people. Raes and
colleagues warn microbiome researchers that extreme care should be taken when
trying to extrapolate findings in mouse to humans. They should also make bigger
efforts to standardise their protocols for animal handling and data analysis, and
to share mouse models to eliminate any genetic variability that might skew the
data. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“Most limitations of murine [mouse] models for
fundamental microbiome research can be overcome by methodical study design and
statistical testing: either eliminating or keeping track of possible
confounders (e.g. diet variation, genetic background) and testing for their
influence on the results”, says Vieira-Silva.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Nevertheless, the authors conclude, when it comes to
understanding the causes and molecular mechanisms behind human disease, mouse
models seem to fit the bill. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“Although the mouse microbiota composition is not
identical to the human's, most mechanisms of microbiota-host interaction will
be shared between mice and humans” concludes Vieira-Silva. “Mice models allow
us to study these mechanisms with direct controlled experiments, towards the
ultimate aim of providing therapeutic solutions.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Reference:</span></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
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<span class="Z3988" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;" title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Ajournal&rft_id=info%3Adoi%2Fhttp%3A%2F%2Fdx.doi.org%2F10.1242%2Fdmm.017400&rft.atitle=How+informative+is+the+mouse+for+human+gut+microbiota+research%3F&rft.jtitle=Disease+Models+&rft.volume=8&rft.issue=1&rft.spage=1&rft.epage=16&rft.date=2015&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fscienceseeker.org&rft.au=Nguyen+T.+L.+A.&rft.aulast=Nguyen&rft.aufirst=T.+L.+A.&rft.au=+A.+Liston&rft.au=+J.+Raes&rfs_dat=ss.included=1&rfe_dat=bpr3.included=1;bpr3.tags=Biology%2CHealth">Nguyen T.L.A., A. Liston & J. Raes (2015). How informative is the mouse for human gut microbiota research?, <span style="font-style: italic;">Disease Models , 8</span> (1) 1-16. DOI: <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1242/dmm.017400" rev="review">http://dx.doi.org/10.1242/dmm.017400</a></span></div>
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<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And edited version of this article was published in Lab Times on the 24-02-2015. You can read it <a href="http://www.labtimes.org/editorial/e_586.lasso" target="_blank">here</a>.</span></div>
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Isabel Torreshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00724636726605405730noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6217817228764059649.post-41906794514698987592015-02-05T02:04:00.000-08:002015-02-05T03:36:12.196-08:00'One fossil can overturn anything' Interview with Jenny Clack<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><i>Now happily living on land, our Devonian ancestors tried many ways to get out of the murky waters. Jenny Clack has been studying the water-to-land transition of vertebrates for many decades. Her discoveries broke dogmas and rewrote textbooks. </i></span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwZ4LYK3xRruevASkmfd5F6kh5Weh4Tb3TdNAGLpQaWU3Cp-4r5SP7Nkwqd8ncJBzKh05U1qRQ1xcPJAqq6M1EL4g_G7AsJhI_JgDpMtRI5aA1WKrZC_LQ7cPyyW5osuLAi9x08iZlkLmz/s1600/Clack+Prof+Jenny+(HRes)%2Bcopy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwZ4LYK3xRruevASkmfd5F6kh5Weh4Tb3TdNAGLpQaWU3Cp-4r5SP7Nkwqd8ncJBzKh05U1qRQ1xcPJAqq6M1EL4g_G7AsJhI_JgDpMtRI5aA1WKrZC_LQ7cPyyW5osuLAi9x08iZlkLmz/s1600/Clack+Prof+Jenny+(HRes)%2Bcopy.jpg" height="320" width="254" /></span></a><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><b><a href="http://www.theclacks.org.uk/jac/" target="_blank">Jenny Clack</a>'s passion for palaeontology began at a young age, but unlike most children, Clack
found dinosaurs “rather boring” and was instead fascinated with weird older
creatures from the Devonian era, over 360 million years ago. After completing an
undergraduate degree in vertebrate palaeontology, Clack worked for about seven
years as a display technician at the Birmingham
City Museum, until she finally had the opportunity to do a PhD with Alec Panchen at
the University of Newcastle upon Tyne (UK). Clack’s talent quickly got noticed,
and during her PhD she was offered a position as an assistant curator at the
Museum of Zoology of the University of Cambridge (UK). At Cambridge, Clack had
an insight that would transform her career and her life. During an arduous field trip to Greenland in 1987, she found spectacular remains of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Acanthostega, </i>a tetrapode (four-legged vertebrate) that would overturn decades-old theories. Clack was the first woman in her field to
become a fellow of the Royal Society, won numerous distinguished awards and is
currently a professor and curator of vertebrate palaeontology at the <a href="http://www.museum.zoo.cam.ac.uk/" target="_blank">Museum of Zoology of the University of Cambridge</a>. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><o:p></o:p></i></b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i><b>When did you know you wanted to be a palaeontologist? </b></i><b><o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><b>Clack: </b>I was always interested in natural
history generally, and as quite a young child, from the age of seven or so, I
collected plants and fossils. And certainly by the age of ten I was interested in palaeontology and
rocks, and I used to borrow books from the library. I would read geology books
and books on fossils and natural history instead of what my teachers would want
me to do, which was to read novels, of course. Throughout school, I was
always interested in natural history and decided that I wanted to do zoology
degree, and went to the University of Newcastle upon Tyne. One of the reasons
for choosing Newcastle was because it had a programme in palaeontology as
part of the zoology degree. It was just the idea of these ancient creatures... I was always interested in the earliest stuff, rather than dinosaurs. I had
a series of volumes of a children encyclopaedia that had sections on various
periods from the Palaeozoic, and they were really my inspiration. I wanted to
know about the very old fishes and early animals, like the amphibians that were
described in those days. When I got the opportunity to study at university then
obviously I decided that’s where I wanted to go. But it wasn’t straightforward
by any means. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i>What was it like for
a little girl back in the 1960s to pursue an academic career? </i><o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Clack: </b><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">It was more that the teachers
obviously knew that I was interested in that kind of thing. I remember one
of the teachers in junior school identifying me as an “academic type”, even
though I had no idea what that meant at the time. Certainly, my parents always
encouraged me to do whatever it was I wanted to do. They took me on holidays to
places where I mind find fossils and other elements of natural history. […] My
career has been a bit of a complicated path because I didn’t go into
palaeontology professionally after my degree. I did a Museums Study course, and
then worked seven years in the City Museum in Birmingham. And it was only when
I had the opportunity to do a PhD that my career really started. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><i>How did you eventually get into academia?</i><o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Clack: </b><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">It was partly encouraged by the
museum itself because they allowed people to do three weeks of private studies
per year and my mentor-boss at the time was very supportive of this. So, I got
back in touch with my old mentor, Alec Panchen, in Newcastle and asked him
whether he had any projects I could work on, and in fact he did. He
directed me to a specimen in a museum in Bradford that was a Carboniferous
tetrapode. To cut the long story short, I took that specimen to his lab and
worked on it for the three weeks, during which time I found that there was
quite a lot more to the specimen than anybody had realised. And then Panchen
said I could probably get a PhD from that material; he applied for grants and
got it.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><i>Was it at this time that you decided to focus your career on the
fish-to-tetrapode transition?</i><o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Clack: </b><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">I was interested in the
same sort of field that Panchen was, which was Carboniferous tetrapodes, so it
was a natural expectation that I would study something of that nature. And
indeed, the PhD started that ball rolling. While I was still doing my
PhD, I applied for a job as an assistant curator at the Museum of Zoology of
the University of Cambridge and much to my surprise they offered it to me. This
would not happen today. There is no way someone who hasn’t finished their PhD,
has got no published papers and has no reputation would get that kind of job. Now, you would have to have a postdoc, at least. I had the museum qualifications and
the research background that they were interested in. I fit the bill I guess
[laughs]. And it wasn’t until some years later that the opportunity to look at
the Devonian material came about. </span></span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">After
I had finished my PhD in 1984, I wondered what on earth am I going to do next?
I didn’t have any very clear ideas. My colleague Andrew Miller said something
will come up and indeed it did! It turned up in a drawer in the Earth Science
Department across the road. This was a drawer full of Devonian material from Greenland
that a former student there had collected without realising what it was, or its
potential importance. And from there we got the expedition to go to Greenland
in 1987 and collected more of this material, which turned out to be extremely
important. A very lucky break indeed.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">Fossil remains of <i>Acanthostega</i>.</span></div>
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><i>What exactly did we learn about the water-to-land transition from
your discoveries of Acanthostega?</i><o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Clack: </b><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">There were two major discoveries.
The first one was about the story we had been told that, as
soon as these creatures came onto land, they developed the capacity to hear
air-born sound. And it became clear from the work I had done in my PhD, and the
work on <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Acanthostega,</i> that
this couldn’t possibly be the case. The story of the
origin of terrestrial hearing became much more complicated and it was
corroborated by people from other palaeontology groups. </span></span><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But probably the most
widely known discovery was that </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Acanthostega</i><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> had eight digits in each limb. That was a real
surprise. </span><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It took a little while for people to believe that this was the
case because the dogma was that there were five digits in primitive tetrapods.
And here we had an animal with eight digits on each limb! </span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We then discovered
that a Devonian tetrapod that had been known for decades called</span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> Icthyostega</i><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> had in fact seven digits on
its hind limb, and this complemented what we had known about a Russian animal
from the Devonian, which has got six digits. All of a sudden it became a
pattern of multiple digits in the earliest tetrapods with limbs. This changed
the idea of how limbs evolved and what they evolved for. If you look at the old
books from the 1940s, for instance, you get an idea of what they thought a
proto-tetrapode looked like, and basically it looked like a fish that has got
legs with five digits on, and it’s making forays onto the land. But actually
our work suggests that the animals already had limbs with digits before they
ever came out of the water. So, it kind of turns the story upside down.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><i>Is it the number of digits alone that tells us that, or some other
features as well?</i><o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Clack: </b><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Acanthostega</span></i><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> had a number of primitive features. One of those was
the proportion of [the bones in] the forearm, of the radius to ulna to each
other. In most tetrapods, the ulna is longer than the radius, and that’s true
to almost all tetrapods, and most fossil ones as well. But in the fish, from
what tetrapods were supposed to evolve, it’s the other way round: the radius is
much longer than the ulna. And that was the condition in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Acanthostega</i>. It seemed to us
that the limb elements of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Acanthostega</i>
were showing us what the primitive condition was like for limbs in general. Also, the fact that the digits were variable in number through these early
tetratpods, suggested that the function of the digits in the limbs was quite
different from what we assumed. It’s a paddle basically.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><i>You also discovered new features in </i>Icthyostega<i>…</i><o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Clack: </b><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">We discovered that <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Icthyostega</i> is a really enigmatic
animal. We’ve known this more or less since it was discovered, and the more we
found out about it, the weirder it looked. It’s got some features in which some
limbs elements, like the humerus, are more primitive than that of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Acanthostega,</i> and yet other aspects of
the anatomy of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Icthyosthega</i> suggest
it was more terrestrial than <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Acanthostega</i>.
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Acanthostega</i> seems to be almost
certainly entirely aquatic, but <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Icthyostega
</i>has a really robust front limb that looks as though it could at least raise
the front body off the ground, whereas the hind limb is a paddle and points
backwards towards the animal’s tail. </span></span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We worked out how this animal could
move using information from synchroton CT scans of the limbs and
reconstruction software that can help you find out how the limbs actually
worked in 3D. It turns out that </span><a href="http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v486/n7404/abs/nature11124.html" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;" target="_blank"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Icthyostega</i> didn’t walk in a conventional manner</a><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">. It looks as
though one of the possible modes that it used would be a source of crunching
motion, with the two front limbs together and the hind limbs acting as breaks
or supports, but not actually producing any power on land. They were used to
propel the animal in water, so for walking or for moving on land it used its
front limbs, sort of pulling it along. And in the water it used its hind limbs
as paddles for propulsion.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><i>How did the first terrestrial animal walked? </i><o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Clack: </b><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">We don’t really have enough
information to be sure about that, but people now have been using the same sort
of software and techniques to look at <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Acanthostega</i>
in the same way. But being very much aquatic, it’s obviously not going to be
comparable in terms of what it was doing. The implication is that there were
lots of different experiments going on in locomotion and we have only looked at
the tip of the iceberg, in terms of the information that we’ve got, which is so
limited. For example, in 2011, scientists published some track ways that were found in
Poland that pre-date the Devonian tetrapods we had found by about 15 millions
years. We don’t know what made those track ways, but we know it was made by an
animal walking supported by water and using its limbs in an alternated fashion
[…]. So there were some animals around at this early stage that were using this
pattern of locomotion, but we don’t know what they looked like because we don’t
have any body fossils for them. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><i>What does it take for a palaeontologist to take on an ambitious
expedition like your expedition to Greenland? </i><o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Clack: </b><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Again it was a series of lucky
breaks. The material from Greenland at the time belonged to the Danish
government. The material from<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> Icthyostega</i>,<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> </i>for example, was all in Copenhagen. I
got in touch with the then curator of the Geological Museum in Copenhagen and
told him about the material I had found in the Earth Sciences Department. And
the quality and amount of that material convinced him that there was a lot more
to be found. So he got in touch with the authorities in Denmark and the
Greenland Geological Survey (as it was called then) and they happened that year
to be setting up a 3-year project in the very area that we wanted to go. We
managed to jump on the bandwagon, their expedition, using their facilities and
transport arrangements, to get our expedition together. And the funding came to
a large extent from our museum in Cambridge, and a certain amount also from
Copenhagen and the Karlsberg Foundation. That’s how it was funded. We did try
the Research Council in the UK but they weren’t interested. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggC6J67ZlYsUfV1XxenjsW9paNEuYZ9joOeLWLJKXujlPRu51CWfs5CajvZhqOCum8AY4QKNmvNoDArM0fa3yGXTLaMF9yfkNg1AOqB4hAP9y6ymGJaeQFkZkw36ghlmSJi0FqHU2U1rK_/s1600/070509_0629.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggC6J67ZlYsUfV1XxenjsW9paNEuYZ9joOeLWLJKXujlPRu51CWfs5CajvZhqOCum8AY4QKNmvNoDArM0fa3yGXTLaMF9yfkNg1AOqB4hAP9y6ymGJaeQFkZkw36ghlmSJi0FqHU2U1rK_/s1600/070509_0629.JPG" height="400" width="265" /></span></a><span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i><b>Have there been other findings throughout your </b></i></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b style="font-style: italic;">career that got you
as excited as when you found </b><b>Acanthostega<i>?</i></b></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Clack: </b><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Well actually, the project that
I’m working on now which is now half way through. The <a href="http://www.tetrapods.org/" target="_blank">Tw:eed Project</a> is a consortium looking at what happened at the end of the Devonian. As the
story goes… Devonian was the age of fishes, and at the end of the Devonian, quite
a lot of them got wiped out, there was a mass extinction. The cause of it isn’t
clear, but it seems to have been something climatic. The period after that, for
15 to 20 million years, was an almost complete blank in the fossil record,
certainly for tetrapods but also for almost everything else as well. [...] The problem was that after that period of 20 million years, when we begin
to pick up fossils of tetrapods again, they were extremely diverse. There was a huge variety of tetrapod forms, from
small ones the size of a mouse, to other ones that were three or four meters
long. So how did they get there? What happened after the end of the Devonian
that allowed them to do that? We knew nothing about how these things became
properly terrestrial. And it all happened in that gap. </span></span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This
gap was first identified by an American palaeontologist called Al Romer, so
it’s called Romer’s gap. There were a few specimens from the period of this
gap known from Nova Scotia, although nothing formal had been published on
those. And I published a paper in the early 2000s on a <a href="http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v418/n6893/full/nature00824.html" target="_blank">complete specimen of a tetrapod from the middle of this gap</a> that had been found in Dumbarton, in
Scotland. In subsequent years, some of my colleagues have been looking at the
appropriate sorts of sediments in the borders region in Northumberland, in
Scotland, for the rocks of this age. They found some material, and it’s that
material that we are beginning to work on, and we’re also finding a lot more.
We have found numerous fossils of tetrapods, several new sharks, new
lungfishes, all sorts of things. We’re beginning to get a handle on how
terrestrial features or adaptations in tetrapods could have arisen.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><i>So it is possible to find fossils from the Romer’s gap...</i><o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Clack: </b><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Yes, that’s right. Our idea is
that this particular formation called the Ballagan Formation, which has been
known for many years and was described as the Scottish cement stone series, is
not commercially viable. There’s no coal and no decent limestone. In the 19<sup>th</sup> century
a lot of the carboniferous fossils were found by miners, and that’s how we knew
they were there. But because nobody has been looking for commercially viable
rocks, nobody has found anything, and because nobody has found anything, nobody
has looked. It’s a sort of self-fulfilling prophecy until you get somebody with
the determination to say, well they got to be there. And indeed, it turns out
that they were. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><i>Do you think that a multidisciplinary approach is important for palaeontology, or is it just a trend?</i><o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Clack: </b><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">This seems to be increasingly the
case, yes. […] In the 1970s and 1980s or earlier, palaeontologists tended to
work by themselves, just looking and describing the animals. They were doing
some fieldwork to find new stuff too, but definitely that was “one person,
one fossil” kind of thing. But now collaboration is the key word because
different people have different skills, and with all the new techniques that
are coming forward you need collaborations to get all those skills together.
And certainly I’ve collaborated with people from the Royal Veterinary College
for example, and people from the synchroton facility in Grenoble. You just
can’t work by yourself anymore, and this particular project was really perfect
for this kind of collaborative effort. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><i>How has the development of modern instrumentation (isotope analysis,
computer modelling, X-ray computed tomography) changed the field? </i><o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Clack: </b><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Now we can think of asking and
answering questions that would have seemed impossible 10 or 15 years ago. We
can ask new questions about how things work, what that might mean,
and how the animals developed. And, of course, you’ve got geologists on one side,
and then you’ve got technicians, and people doing developmental biology on
modern creatures to look at how things could relate to what the fossil record
is finding. These collaborations are increasingly common. Developmental
biologists and Evo-Devo people are constantly coming to us and asking what we
see in the fossil record, and how could this fit with what they’re finding.
It’s really encouraging. […] Quite a few people are interested
in compiling large databases and then interrogating them; what fossils came from
this region, how many species are there in these various time slots and what
does the phylogeny tells us. That’s all very well but one fossil can overturn
any of that. You still need the data and that’s why it’s so encouraging also
that more people are going out and finding new stuff all the time, finding new localities and new areas of the world to explore. And at some of the
localities people thought were wiped out, they go back and find new
material there, so there’s a wealth of stuff. And of course, communication is so
much easier than it used to be. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><i>What is the palaeontology of the future?</i><o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Clack: </b><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Oh, who knows? If you look at the
<a href="http://vertpaleo.org/)" target="_blank">Society of Vertebrate Palaeontology</a> website, they have their programme for their annual meeting which was in Berlin this year, and the diversity of talks is just stunning, where do we go from here?
Well, I think we still need to be fuelled by new material, but that new
material can overturn anything that I said! 50 years ago we thought we knew
everything about fossils and Palaeozoic vertebrates… no we don’t know, it has
been completely overturned since then and there’s no doubt it will be
overturned again in the next 50 years.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><i>How can we change the way scientists are perceived by the
public?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></i><o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Clack: </b><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">The media like to portrait science
as rather esoteric, let's say. BBC tries to do a good job, but I think they have
very stereotyped ideas about science and they think the public can’t cope with
uncertainties. The message needs to get across that science is about questions and not about answers, and that’s hard to communicate. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><i>What do you love the most about being a palaeontologist?</i></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Clack: </b><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Solving the puzzle, interpreting
difficult material, and I think it’s probably one of the things I’m best at. I also quite enjoy writing the papers. I don’t find writing difficult, as I
know some people do. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="background: white; color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 8.5pt;"><i>What big exciting questions remain
out there for palaeontology, and which ones would you really like to see
answered? </i><o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 8.5pt;"><b style="background-color: transparent;">Clack: </b>In
terms of vertebrates, some of the big questions now are: what’s the origin of
vertebrates? How do we get limbs from fins? How do you get fins in the first
place? How do you get jaws and teeth, where are they coming form? That’s the
sort of thing we can relate to modern developmental genetics as well. Where we
can find links with other disciplines it’s really important. If
you look at the limb bones of the carboniferous animals, in many cases they’re
quite different from those of modern forms. How do we get terrestrially capable
limbs? Which bits have to be modified so that you can bear weight? What muscles
do you attach and how do they develop?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i><br /></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="background: white; color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 8.5pt;"><i>How would you explain to someone in
one sentence that it is important to fund and encourage more palaeontology
research?</i><o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Clack: </b><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">It’s a bit like learning History,
you know what use is History? What use is the Arts? People don’t seem to ask
those questions, but what use is Palaeontology? Oh, that’s no use is it? Well
it’s a cultural exercise, it expands the mind, it tells us where we came from and it puts us in our place. It’s all part of the evolutionary story. It’s not
like a biomedical science where you want to help people, or invent some kid of
drug or something, it’s mind expanding blue skies, learning about the world. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="background: white; color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 8.5pt;"><i>What is the fossil of your dreams? </i><o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 8.5pt;"><b style="background-color: transparent;">Clack: </b>I
would like a sequence of strata with exceptionally well-preserved soft tissue
representations of Devonian forms so that we could find out what sort of
reproductive strategy they used. It’s what we call a <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Lagerstätten,</i> like the Burgess Shale where we can
actually see soft tissue preservation of early tetrapods.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="background: white; color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 8.5pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background: white; color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 8.5pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="background: white; color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 8.5pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">References:</span></span></span><br />
<span style="background: white; color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 8.5pt;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; mso-spacerun: yes;"><span style="text-align: start;">Pierce S.E. & John R. Hutchinson (2012). Three-dimensional limb joint mobility in the early tetrapod Ichthyostega, </span><span style="font-style: italic; text-align: start;">Nature, </span><span style="text-align: start;">DOI: </span><a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nature11124" rev="review" style="text-align: start;">http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nature11124</a></span></span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span class="Z3988" style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;" title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Ajournal&rft_id=info%3Adoi%2Fhttp%3A%2F%2Fdx.doi.org%2F10.1038%2Fnature00824&rft.atitle=An+early+tetrapod+from+%E2%80%98Romer%27s+Gap%E2%80%99&rft.jtitle=Nature&rft.volume=418&rft.issue=6893&rft.spage=72&rft.epage=76&rft.date=2002&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fscienceseeker.org&rft.au=Clack+J.+A.&rft.aulast=Clack&rft.aufirst=J.+A.&rfs_dat=ss.included=1&rfe_dat=bpr3.included=1;bpr3.tags=Biology%2CGeosciences">Clack J.A. (2002). An early tetrapod from ‘Romer's Gap’, <span style="font-style: italic;">Nature, 418</span> (6893) 72-76. DOI: <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nature00824" rev="review">http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nature00824</a></span><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Image credits: Museum of Zoology, University of Cambridge. Portrait, Chris Green, Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge.</span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
An edited version of this interview was published in Lab Times in print on the 24-11-2014.</span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="background: white; color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 8.5pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><br /></span></span></div>
Isabel Torreshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00724636726605405730noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6217817228764059649.post-31142770820122017562015-01-26T13:32:00.000-08:002015-03-18T02:06:22.284-07:00The secret for a longer life? Kill your unfit cells<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">If you had the choice, would you like to live until you’re 130
years old? New research in fruit flies shows that manipulating a single gene can
extend their lifespan up to 60%, suggesting that living well into your hundreds
might become a reality in the foreseeable future.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Dying of old age is a strange thing. Why does our
health decline just because we’re old? Although the answer might at first seem
obvious or simple, it really isn’t. There are countless theories of ageing, a
few popular even outside the scientific community. Take ‘superfoods’, for
example. The miracle properties credited to these antioxidant-rich foods stem
from the free radical theory of ageing—older
cells produce more of a toxic form of oxygen that gradually poisons them. Antioxidants
like vitamin C or D counteract this deleterious effect and prevent ageing (and
the appearance of wrinkles), superfood advocates claim.<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A common denominator in these theories is that we age—and
ultimately die—because our cells deteriorate with time (for whatever reason). As
tissues and organs mount up more and more of these damaged cells, they begin to
malfunction and eventually stop working. This raises an interesting assumption.
What if we could get rid of these unfit cells and keep only the healthy ones?
Would we live longer? <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHrWrOF77pyIty-iKd1wGsARI-PG5Gm2TXKOcMssph6566x3G2I3h7Ve2P9JkDrOJ8VnrF__CPOpAOR_-4u9yTnQkUr2cvhj2DwAPJKOyYBxTNqcwbcV_68gmOa3MTaEYx3YGbcwKlu0Rr/s1600/Jeanne-Calment-1996.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHrWrOF77pyIty-iKd1wGsARI-PG5Gm2TXKOcMssph6566x3G2I3h7Ve2P9JkDrOJ8VnrF__CPOpAOR_-4u9yTnQkUr2cvhj2DwAPJKOyYBxTNqcwbcV_68gmOa3MTaEYx3YGbcwKlu0Rr/s1600/Jeanne-Calment-1996.jpg" height="400" width="276" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Jeanne Louise Calment had the longest confirmed human lifespan<br />on record (122 years and 164 days).</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It’s well known that sick cells such as cancerous cells, are eliminated by our bodies, either by immune cells or by committing suicide. However,
our ‘old’ unfit cells are still healthy enough to bypass this quality-control checkpoint.
Or so it was thought. A few years ago, Eduardo Moreno and colleagues at the
University of Bern, Switzerland, <a href="http://www.cell.com/current-biology/abstract/S0960-9822%2813%2900678-7" target="_blank">showed that healthy but less fit cells are also culled from tissues</a>, by a mechanism they called “fitness fingerprints”. Each
cell has a molecular fingerprint on its surface that tells its neighbours how
healthy it is. When a given cell has a fingerprint that is worse than its
neighbours', it kills itself. But the researchers didn’t know the importance of this cell elimination process for the organism. For example, would
we age faster if those cells could not kill themselves? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">To answer these questions, Moreno’s team genetically
engineered fruit flies to control a newly found gene essential for marking
unfit cells for culling. “If you put an extra copy of this gene you have better
selection of the [unfit] cells, they are eliminated faster and therefore the
animals can live longer”, says Moreno.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">When the gene, which Moreno named <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">azot</i>, was removed from flies, they became sick and died prematurely.
On the other hand, flies with an extra copy of the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">azot</i> gene <a href="http://www.cell.com/cell/abstract/S0092-8674%2814%2901587-6" target="_blank">lived up to 60% longer</a>. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Previously, only caloric restriction had been shown to
prolong lifespan to such an extent in flies. In fact, reducing the amount of
daily calorie input increases longevity in flies, nematodes, fish, mice and
rats (data from studies with primates remain controversial). Could it be then,
that starved flies with an extra copy of the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">azot</i> gene live even longer? Indeed, these flies lived about
80% longer, Moreno’s team showed. In human time this would be equivalent to
living up to 150 years! <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The question remains whether these findings could be
relevant for our species. Humans have the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">azot</i>
gene, in fact most organisms do, so potentially it should be possible to
increase life expectancy in people by altering azot protein levels.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“You could start thinking of how to manipulate these
mechanisms with drugs, for example, to treat ageing or diseases like neurodegeneration
or myocardial infarction,” says Moreno, “I’m totally convinced it
will be possible to delay aging and prolong lifespan in humans.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Would we want to live longer though, if we spend most
of our life old and sick? “Our long-term challenge will be to understand the
biology of aging to address problems associated with steadily increasing life
expectancy, such as metabolic disease and neurodegeneration”, says Martin
Denzel, a researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Biology of Ageing in
Cologne, Germany. With this in mind, Moreno’s team tested whether the long-living
<i>azot </i>flies remained healthy as they aged. When the researchers looked in these
flies’ brains, they found that their neurons accumulated fewer ageing cellular
markers. Azot not only prolongs lifespan, but it also delays ageing. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In the future the team wants to understand what <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">azot </i>is actually doing. This gene
encodes for a protein of unknown function, but the researchers know that when “the
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">azot</i> gene is activated, it triggers
the normal cell death apoptosis pathway”, Moreno concludes. The team will also investigate
the function of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">azot</i> in mice, and
collaborate with medical doctors to see if the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">azot</i>-dependent cell elimination pathways are present in
ageing-related diseases like Alzheimers. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“I have high hopes that eventually basic research into
the aging process will yield treatments that extend the span of healthy living
and that improve the quality of life in advanced age”, Denzel explains. “However,
it will take a lot of additional work to investigate if this mechanism might be
beneficial in mammals.”</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Reference:</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Z3988" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;" title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Ajournal&rft_id=info%3Adoi%2Fhttp%3A%2F%2Fdx.doi.org%2F10.1016%2Fj.cell.2014.12.017&rft.atitle=Elimination+of+Unfit+Cells+Maintains+Tissue+Health+and+Prolongs+Lifespan&rft.jtitle=Cell&rft.date=2015&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fscienceseeker.org&rft.au=Merino+Marisa%C2%A0M.&rft.aulast=Merino&rft.aufirst=Marisa%C2%A0M.&rft.au=+Jesus%C2%A0M.+Lopez-Gay&rft.au=+David+Buechel&rft.au=+Barbara+Hauert&rft.au=+Eduardo+Moreno&rfs_dat=ss.included=1&rfe_dat=bpr3.included=1;bpr3.tags=Biology%2CHealth">Merino M., Jesus M. Lopez-Gay, David Buechel, Barbara Hauert & Eduardo Moreno (2015). Elimination of Unfit Cells Maintains Tissue Health and Prolongs Lifespan, <span style="font-style: italic;">Cell, </span> DOI: <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2014.12.017" rev="review">http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2014.12.017</a></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This article was published in Lab Times on the 23-01-2015. You can read it <a href="http://www.labtimes.org/editorial/e_577.lasso" target="_blank">here</a>. </span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
Isabel Torreshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00724636726605405730noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6217817228764059649.post-28644006256088857422015-01-12T02:14:00.000-08:002015-03-18T02:12:07.769-07:00Why do some people see ghosts?<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">For most people ghosts and spirits are part of the
imaginary, but a few are truly convinced they can sometimes feel a strange presence
near them. These individuals are not experiencing a paranormal phenomenon—they’re
having an illusion. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Schizophrenics, for instance, consistently report hearing voices or feeling someone—a ‘shadow’ or a ‘man’—close to them. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Scientists have long known that illusions have a
neurological cause, but they haven’t managed to pinpoint exactly how they are
triggered by the brain.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Now, <a href="http://lnco.epfl.ch/olaf.blanke" target="_blank">Olaf Blanke</a> and colleagues have not only mapped the brain regions responsible
for the ‘feeling of a presence’ illusion in neurological patients, but they have also developed a robot that tricks healthy people into sensing a ‘ghostly’
apparition. This work may shed light into what causes hallucinations in
schizophrenia, and help design new therapeutic approaches to treat this
psychosis. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOAespgyK64F7D5a00olI6QX-v3Xi_oMKNF7iv-rD2P29oZloLardTW3P-QchC6tlmv18uzt270566lkXEmG9NrKdQXRMDLUAv2bDkW20v9AcqElB56T-GPEq4I8OMEWWwf9OgzciX-A_T/s1600/81998.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOAespgyK64F7D5a00olI6QX-v3Xi_oMKNF7iv-rD2P29oZloLardTW3P-QchC6tlmv18uzt270566lkXEmG9NrKdQXRMDLUAv2bDkW20v9AcqElB56T-GPEq4I8OMEWWwf9OgzciX-A_T/s1600/81998.jpg" height="425" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Credit: Alain Herzog, EPFL.</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</span></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In 2006, <a href="http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v443/n7109/full/443287a.html" target="_blank">Blanke showed that he could induce</a> the
feeling of a presence in an epileptic patient by electrically stimulating a
particular brain area—the temporoparietal junction. This region
is involved in integrating body-related information from our senses and
movements, and is often overactive in schizophrenic patients. But he found something even more interesting: the presence always mirrored the patient’s
body position and movements; if the patient was sitting, the presence was also sitting
and so on. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“The presence was a duplicate of the patient, as if
the patient’s body was recognised as another agent”, says Giulio Rognini, a
collaborator at the </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Ecole
Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">. “The body sensory information, which is not well
integrated by the brain, is attributed to someone else.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The researchers suspected that electrical stimulation
of the temporoparietal region somehow disturbed integration of the patient’s
sensory and motor information—her brain got confused and misplaced the bodily
signals to the presence. To test this hypothesis, the team needed to be
creative. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“<span lang="EN-US">The
patient studies show that when there is no appropriate integration of the body
sensory signals, then the feeling of a presence can occur, so we tried to do
the reverse process: we perturbed the sensory motor system to see whether we could
induce the presence”, says Rognini. </span>And what better way to do this than with… a robot. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.cell.com/current-biology/abstract/S0960-9822%2814%2901212-3" target="_blank">In their new study</a>, Blanke and
colleagues asked 12 blindfolded healthy participants to stick their finger into
a ‘master’ robot and then move it around. The ‘slave’ robot, which was touching
the participants’ back, mimicked the movements of the master robot either
simultaneously, or with a slight delay. In the first condition (simultaneous touch), the
participants felt as though they were touching their own back. This is already a
strange illusion, but what happened when the slave robot poked them with a slight
delay relative to the master robot is even weirder. About a third of the
participants felt like someone else was touching them. Not the robot, but just
‘someone’, a presence. This illusion was short lived, but according to the
participants’ description, it was very vivid and also a bit creepy. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“30% [of the participants] reported without asking
them that they had a feeling of a presence. This is already very strong because
in this field of body illusions, it’s very rare to find somebody that reports
the illusion without being asked” says Rognini, who is senior author in the
study.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The team also mapped the brain regions that trigger
the illusions in several neurological patients. As expected, electrical stimulation
of the temporoparietal, but especially the frontoparietal brain regions,
induced the illusion. And again, most patients reported that the presence mimicked
their movements.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhS4ZNkvYf-M71GAKyQAfvWSaW6z7X9Wxjf6qcapAzEaqef18eb7kKMUlkYxLotNG7pQ_aLBI3XJD3nXYohYILAMDGRHVA6Po5f6tnXK5qbqwEoa69K7tprDw5JNCs994IFt8WrOtp5yVgR/s1600/Blanke_fig1.tif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhS4ZNkvYf-M71GAKyQAfvWSaW6z7X9Wxjf6qcapAzEaqef18eb7kKMUlkYxLotNG7pQ_aLBI3XJD3nXYohYILAMDGRHVA6Po5f6tnXK5qbqwEoa69K7tprDw5JNCs994IFt8WrOtp5yVgR/s1600/Blanke_fig1.tif" height="313" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Lesion overlap analyses revealed three brain regions involved in the feeling of a presence </span><span style="font-size: xx-small;">illusion: temporo-parietal </span><br />
<span style="font-size: xx-small;">and fronto-parietal cortex (© Current Biology)</span><br />
<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><br /></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</span></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span></o:p></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The feeling of a presence is mostly associated with
epilepsy and schizophrenia, but healthy people can also feel ‘ghosts’,
especially during periods of extreme stress or physical exhaustion. Many mountaineers
report they sometimes feel someone climbing with them, even though there was no
one around. “If you’re walking and doing repetitive movements over
and over again, your brain loses control over your movements because they’re
not informative anymore”, says Rognini. “Your actions and the consequences of
your actions can be misinterpreted, and together with low oxygen conditions in
high altitude, this could give rise to feeling of a presence. But this is
completely speculative.” The researchers are planning to test this hypothesis
by trying to exhaust people in treadmills, and then check whether they are more
prone to experiencing the illusion. They are also developing an fMRI-compatible
robot to induce the illusion while the participants are being scanned.</span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“The next steps are about understanding the brain
mechanisms by putting the subjects in the scanner, and then try to investigate
how this phenomenon is perceived in schizophrenic patients to try to set out a
therapeutic strategy or a way to better understand this psychosis,” says
Rognini.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Herta Flor, director of the Institute of Cognitive
and Clinical Neuroscience of the University of Heidelberg (Germany) says “Disturbed
body perception is a core feature in several mental disorders, such as
schizophrenia or borderline-personality disorder. To be aware of the underlying
neural mechanisms might not only help to understand clinically altered behaviour
in patients, but may lead to innovative treatment approaches.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Reference:</span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Z3988" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;" title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Ajournal&rft_id=info%3Adoi%2Fhttp%3A%2F%2Fdx.doi.org%2F10.1016%2Fj.cub.2014.09.049&rft.atitle=Neurological+and+Robot-Controlled+Induction+of+an+Apparition&rft.jtitle=Current+Biology&rft.volume=24&rft.issue=22&rft.spage=2681&rft.epage=2686&rft.date=2014&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fscienceseeker.org&rft.au=Blanke+Olaf&rft.aulast=Blanke&rft.aufirst=Olaf&rft.au=+Masayuki+Hara&rft.au=+Lukas+Heydrich&rft.au=+Andrea+Serino&rft.au=+Akio+Yamamoto&rft.au=+Toshiro+Higuchi&rft.au=+Roy+Salomon&rft.au=+Margitta+Seeck&rft.au=+Theodor+Landis&rft.au=+Shahar+Arzy&rfs_dat=ss.included=1&rfe_dat=bpr3.included=1;bpr3.tags=Biology%2CComputer+Science+%2F+Engineering%2CHealth%2CNeuroscience%2CPsychology">Blanke O., Masayuki Hara, Lukas Heydrich, Andrea Serino, Akio Yamamoto, Toshiro Higuchi, Roy Salomon, Margitta Seeck, Theodor Landis & Shahar Arzy & (2014). Neurological and Robot-Controlled Induction of an Apparition, <span style="font-style: italic;">Current Biology, 24</span> (22) 2681-2686. DOI: <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2014.09.049" rev="review">http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2014.09.049</a></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">An edited version of this article was published in <i>Lab Times </i>on the 19-12-2014. You can red it <a href="http://www.labtimes.org/editorial/e_570.lasso" target="_blank">here</a>.</span><br />
<br />Isabel Torreshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00724636726605405730noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6217817228764059649.post-16591124635643847932014-12-10T01:46:00.001-08:002014-12-10T04:31:18.429-08:00Seeds of change?<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Plant science is probably one of the least appreciated
fields of life sciences, and yet, perhaps no other research area has produced
as many technological advances beneficial for society. In an <a href="http://www.umu.se/digitalAssets/151/151958_open-letter-to-decision-makers-in-europe.pdf" target="_blank">open letter</a>
released last month, 21 out of the 27 <a href="http://www.labtimes.org/labtimes/ranking/2013_04/index.lasso" target="_blank">most cited plant scientists in Europe</a> pledged decision makers to back plant research, which they feel is currently
threatened by lack of funding and global public and political opposition to genetically
modified organisms (GMOs). <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“In comparison for instance with biomedicine and
fields with technical applications, plant science is not well funded, and
that’s particularly true when it comes to funding from Horizon 2020”, says <a href="http://www.upsc.se/jobs/167-research-groups/researchers/3764-light-senescence-and-natural-variation-stefan-jansson.html" target="_blank">Stefan Jansson</a> of Umea University (Sweden), who coordinated the
letter. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-svVEYWbSBp3Qg11fzXLg9T_S1ts4k3igBHLVIBaoXTq6pcX2BznrUflFrlzSazubYjgoCXrjSyboJs-yXn8FKqOMAOXb9L9vjlH4fa_PczkjW7F2YdV_V16-nKcw_2y52Awi4yNj5AT7/s1600/Fotolia_57818757_XS.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-svVEYWbSBp3Qg11fzXLg9T_S1ts4k3igBHLVIBaoXTq6pcX2BznrUflFrlzSazubYjgoCXrjSyboJs-yXn8FKqOMAOXb9L9vjlH4fa_PczkjW7F2YdV_V16-nKcw_2y52Awi4yNj5AT7/s1600/Fotolia_57818757_XS.jpg" height="266" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">Credit: © chaiyon021 - Fotolia.com</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In the open letter the scientists recall the
fundamental role of curiosity-driven plant research for a sustainable society
and to “deepen our understanding of nature”, and they warn decision makers that
without their support—financial and political—the Horizon2020 goals to “tackle
societal challenges” and “to ensure Europe produces world-class science” will
not be met. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Besides asking for funding to be maintained or, if
possible, increased, they demand that plant scientists must be allowed to
perform field experiments with GM plant varieties, and that Europe must “promptly”
authorise new GM crops that have been found safe by the European Food Safe
Authority (EFSA). <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">They claim that in most European countries, “permits
to perform field experiments with transgenic plants are blocked, not on
scientific but on political grounds”. And the few field experiments that do go
ahead are often vandalised, wasting years of work and public funding. To
make matters worse, the scientists say in the letter, the ongoing de facto ban
on approvals for new GM plant varieties in Europe has not only been damaging
for applied plant science, but it has also increased the competitive advantage of
agrochemical corporation giants like Monsanto; publicly funded scientists and
small companies just don’t have the means to go through expensive, and
sometimes decade-long, approval procedures. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“Every
approval of a [GM plant] variety is enormously expensive, complicated and
unpredictable, so no one ever tries nowadays”, says Jansson.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">GMOs in Europe<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This opposition to GMOs can safely be called epidemic.
Lobbying by environmentalists and widespread popular resistance to GMOs has held
back the use of GM plants in agriculture globally, but only in Europe the
situation seems hopeless. A single GM plant is currently commercially
cultivated in the EU— the MON810 maze produced by Monsanto that carries
resistance to European corn borer, and which is cultivated in Spain, Portugal,
Czech Republic, Romania and Slovakia. A de facto ban on GMO approvals has kept GM plants
off the fields and out of our fridges for over 10 years. Environmental activists often
associate GM crops with the ‘big bad wolf’ agrochemical companies, but in fact
Monsanto and Syngenta have pulled out from the European market all together, so
effectively the only people affected by this ban are farmers and plant
scientists. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjT39WP8nMO_waV4Eh_E5pwaRgoVRJo4L1j-rAatnFplV4pYUN2FTpkO3SFlq6N2Geb8rfqzb1oB2MdG4z67YgCh9aKYVWWkf06fH_FQ7Nbj0QWCVdgYiVenvTRJ0h3LIQ5xUFqc6J9C1MK/s1600/1024px-March_Against_Monsanto_Vancouver.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjT39WP8nMO_waV4Eh_E5pwaRgoVRJo4L1j-rAatnFplV4pYUN2FTpkO3SFlq6N2Geb8rfqzb1oB2MdG4z67YgCh9aKYVWWkf06fH_FQ7Nbj0QWCVdgYiVenvTRJ0h3LIQ5xUFqc6J9C1MK/s1600/1024px-March_Against_Monsanto_Vancouver.jpg" height="265" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">(March agains Monsanto, Vancouver, Canada, 2013. Credit: wikipedia)</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“European agriculture is lagging behind when it comes
to development, yields and so on. So every year the rest of the world is improving
more than we’re doing here”, Jansson says “Unfortunately it’s because we’re not
allowed to use the right technologies”.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The extreme
position of France<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This anti-GMO fever has changed the face of plant
research in some European countries. France is an extreme example. It’s a
national joke in France to say that all political parties, from far left to far
right, agree on one thing: they’re religiously against GMOs. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The radical resistance
to GMOs in France began in the late 1990s amidst a growing anti-GMO mood that was
quickly spreading worldwide. Ironically, back in those days France was at the
forefront of the plant biotechnology field, and large consortium initiatives
such as<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"> </b><a href="http://www.genius-project.fr/" target="_blank">GENIUS</a> and <a href="http://www.gisbiotechnologiesvertes.com/" target="_blank">GISBiotechnologiesVertes</a>
(formerly known as
Génoplante) received generous public funding. In fact, the first ever field
experiment with a GM plant variety was performed in France in 1986, and for a
decade, France ranked second only to the United States in the number of these
experiments with GM crops, and they triggered no public protests. However, in
just a few years the number of field trials in France plunged from over a
thousand (in 1998) to only 48 (in 2004), and over half of these were eventually
destroyed by activists. So what happened?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As the mad-cow disease and beef hormones scandals
shocked the world in the mid 1990s, people began to become very sensitive about
what was in their food. And exactly around this time, the Monsanto’s Roundup
Ready soybeans controversy exploded. Not surprisingly, this promising new GM
technology didn’t go down that well with the public. As Greenpeace promptly launched
its first campaign against GMOs in 1996, a very influential French
environmental activist named José Bové started a strong anti-GMO movement that
conquered the French public opinion: from Parisian “bobos”, to journalists and
even scientists, everyone seemed to hate GMOs, and politicians just followed
the trend. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The French Environmental Minister at the time, Corinne Lepage, began
introducing laws to ban cultivation of GM plant varieties, and all subsequent
governments, regardless of their political views, continued this anti-GMO
policy. Activists that destroyed GM crops and research labs were prosecuted but
got away with light sentences or amnesties. For instance, in 1999 protesters
led by Bové completely destroyed a greenhouse for experiments with GM plants at
CIRAD, a research centre for agriculture and sustained development in
Montpellier. After a long and highly publicised trial, Bové was prosecuted to
6-months in jail, but the then president Jacques Chirac eventually “pardoned”
four months of that sentence.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“They [the activists] are protected by the justice,
they’re not really condemned. The laws were relaxed by the courts. It’s easier
for these persons to get a meeting with the Minister of Research than for
scientists,” says <a href="http://jobs.inra.fr/en/Career-opportunities/Portraits/Georges-Pelletier" target="_blank">Georges Pelletier</a>, president of the Scientific Committee of
the French Association of Plant Biotechnology and former head of the Department
of Plant Physiology of INRA (French National Institute for Agricultural
Research). <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Because of this strong public aversion to GMOs, and of
the heavy administrative burden and expensive greenhouses required for testing
GM varieties for agriculture, plant scientists in France have dropped their
arms and simply “lost hope”, says Pelletier. Now, they use GM technologies only
for basic research, and then adopt classical breeding methods to obtain the
desired plant variety, or otherwise they perform field experiments with GM
plants abroad. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“Nobody is growing GM crops outside anymore, after a
while you understand the message”, says <a href="http://agents.cirad.fr/index.php/Brigitte+COURTOIS" target="_blank">Brigitte Courtois</a>, a researcher at
CIRAD who is trying to obtain rice plants resistant to flooding by classical
breeding, and who got some of her plants destroyed by Bové. “My main worry is
that one day we’ll not be able to do any breeding because of this narrow vision.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">CIRAD and INRA, the largest public agricultural
research institutions in France, have reduced the use of GM technologies in applied
plant research to nearly zero. Once a leading country in plant biotechnology,
France plant scientists in public institutions are now forced to work almost
exclusively on fundamental research.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“The pressure on the scientists continues […] so in a
way these people are also more or less destroying the science. They put
pressure on the scientists hoping they will change their research”, Pelletier
says.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Communication
breakdown<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWI_KZX4IyDADL4wJf6_LcDjZ7_p1GrpMvmOdqx2JqxcEYofyGnzsY4EPBr2RzHvVE1MsUqwqxkvxvI0HmJXx23CxxPVX-n5MYyPM7m1qgETwzhDd6fznACSFxE5ZD2m8TNt1x28Zpt5qu/s1600/file8921286230110.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWI_KZX4IyDADL4wJf6_LcDjZ7_p1GrpMvmOdqx2JqxcEYofyGnzsY4EPBr2RzHvVE1MsUqwqxkvxvI0HmJXx23CxxPVX-n5MYyPM7m1qgETwzhDd6fznACSFxE5ZD2m8TNt1x28Zpt5qu/s1600/file8921286230110.jpg" height="320" width="280" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">(Credit: Acrylic Artist/Morguefile.com)</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Since Monsanto’s Roundup Ready soybean scandal,
activists don’t seem to be able to distinguish the agro-industry sharks from
applied plant research, or in fact any plant research, so public and political
resistance to plant biotechnology and innovation persists, and plant scientists
suffer the collateral damage. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“I have stopped talking about [my work] with my
friends. Even educated friends with the same background in agronomy, they all
feel that there are other options, like organic farming […]. For me this is
associated with the fact that people have no contact with agriculture anymore,
they’re urban people who know nothing about how to grow a plant”, says
Courtois.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But in other countries, there are some signs that if
the public does listen to the researchers, they are more positive about the use
of GM technology to tackle societal problems. At Rothamsted Research (UK), one
of the world’s oldest agricultural research institutions, extensive information
about their field experiments with GMOs is available online, and researchers make
an effort to engage with the public to explain their research. The results
start to show: while a couple of years ago protesters attacked (but not
destroyed) a GM field trial at Rothamsted, the ongoing field experiment with Camina
plants that produce omega-3 oils hasn’t been at all targeted.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“When we discuss our work with the public the general
feedback is that the people are interested in what we are doing and more
positive towards the use of GM technology in trying to address research
questions and provide potential solutions to agriculture and food production
challenges”, said Rothamsted’s researchers in a statement to <i>Lab Times</i>.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It is difficult though for plant scientists to get the
message across to the public; if they’re not allowed to cultivate GM plants,
how can they show their benefits for agriculture and society? And if the public
doesn’t see those advantages, the lobbyists continue to put pressure on
politicians to ban GMOs. It’s a vicious circle.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“All the new environment-friendly varieties that
actually have been produced over the years, if they’re just in the drawers of
the scientists and never been used in practical agriculture, then its much
harder to convince society about the value of what we’re doing,” says Jansson. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Politics vs
science <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The date for the release of the open letter, at the
end of October, was chosen carefully. The new European Commissioner for Public
Heath and Food Safety, Vytenis Andriukaitis, took office on the 1<sup>st</sup>
of November, and just a few days later the European Parliament voted on a Commission’s
proposal to give power to individual member states (MS) to ban GMOs in their
territory.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This proposal was initially meant to be a compromise
to unblock the over 10-year-long gridlock on GMO authorisations. Currently, any
GMO approval in the European Union (EU) first needs to go through a thorough science-based
evaluation by EFSA, and then the Commission drafts a proposal to either ban or
authorise the new GMO according to EFSA’s recommendation. The proposal finally
goes to the Standing Commission—made of politicians representing EU governments
and public authorities—and they have the final say. If nine or more countries
are against the Commission’s proposal, the approval is blocked. This has
happened systematically for over a decade. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“When it comes to pharmaceutical industries, for
instance, it’s not the politicians that make the evaluations whether the drug
is dangerous or has side-effects or not, it’s the scientific body that does
that”, says Jansson. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Anti-GMO countries like France have stalled the system
by using spurious scientific arguments to ban GMO approvals, and applicants are
either forced to spend years on end doing more and more safety tests, or they
have to go into long and expensive legal battles to overturn the Commission’s
decision (or lack of thereof). Inevitably, companies trying to commercialise
their GM plant variety in Europe give up, while publicly funded researchers
don’t even try. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This de facto ban has worked well for anti-GMO
countries so far, but ironically, because of the countless scientific studies
they’ve imposed, a huge amount of scientific evidence has accumulated showing that
GMOs don’t pose any risk for human health or the environment. Anti-GMO
countries are running out of arguments. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As a result, in an unprecedented move, thirteen
countries formally asked the Commission to give MS the “flexibility” to ban EU-authorised
GMO crops in their territory. Even though this would in theory go against the
single market principle, in June 2014 the Commission approved a compromise proposal
granting that request, but preventing MS from banning EU-authorised crops based
on health or environmental grounds. This was a painful and much-negotiated compromise
that could have worked. However, amendments introduced to the proposal by
lobbyists will effectively give countries legal grounds to ban GMOs on reasons
such as “environmental policy, town and country planning, land use,
agricultural policy, public policy, or possible socio-economic impacts, GMO
contamination of other products, persistent scientific uncertainty, development
of pesticide resistance amongst weeds and pests, invasiveness, the persistence
of a GMO variety in the environment or a lack of data on the potential negative
impacts of a variety”, MEPs say in a press release. So pretty much any reason
will do. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The Commission’s amended proposal was approved by the
European Parliament in November. The decision is not final yet, but the future
for GMOs in Europe seems bleak. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“The amendments that give MS the ability to challenge
cultivation on grounds of safety are worrying because they undermine the risk
assessment performed by EFSA” Rothamsted researchers voice their concern in a statement to <i>Lab
Times</i>. “Potentially, it will also make it harder for MS who do not want to
opt-out to justify to their consumers when neighbouring MS are using safety as
a reason to ban”.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The worry is that pro-GMO countries won’t be able to
cultivate EU-authorised GM crops in their country because activists can now say
“If that country banned this crop on safety grounds, it must mean it’s unsafe”,
and this will put even more pressure on politicians to ban GMOs. EFSA’s
science-based evaluation will lose weight on GMO approvals; the power will lie merely
on politicians, and science will have little impact on future decisions to
authorise or ban GM crops in Europe.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Seeds for the
future<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The open letter has so far not received any response
from the European Commissioner, but it got extensive media coverage and
excellent feedback from the research community, except in France, where
researchers seem to prefer to remain quiet. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“The letter was addressed to two French scientists
amongst the best in Europe and they didn’t want to sign. One of them because of
the question of GMOs and application was inserted in the letter, so he didn’t
want to sign. The other never replied”, reveals Pelletier.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So what’s the future for plant science in Europe?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Jansson says “It won’t disappear but it won’t
flourish either. Maybe, in 10 years, there will be fewer plant scientists and
they will be a little less useful for society.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Reference:</span></div>
<span class="Z3988" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;" title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Ajournal&rft_id=info%3Adoi%2Fhttp%3A%2F%2Fdx.doi.org%2F10.1177%2F0162243907311263&rft.atitle=Disentrenching+Experiment%3A+The+Construction+of+GM--Crop+Field+Trials+As+a+Social+Problem&rft.jtitle=Science%2C+Technology+&rft.volume=33&rft.issue=2&rft.spage=201&rft.epage=229&rft.date=2007&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fscienceseeker.org&rft.au=Bonneuil+C.&rft.aulast=Bonneuil&rft.aufirst=C.&rft.au=+C.+Marris&rfs_dat=ss.included=1&rfe_dat=bpr3.included=1;bpr3.tags=Biology%2CEcology+%2F+Conservation">Bonneuil C. & C. Marris (2007). Disentrenching Experiment: The Construction of GM--Crop Field Trials As a Social Problem, <span style="font-style: italic;">Science, Technology , 33</span> (2) 201-229. DOI: <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0162243907311263" rev="review">http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0162243907311263</a></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This article was published in Lab Times on the 9-12-2014. You can read it <a href="http://www.labtimes.org/editorial/e_567.lasso" target="_blank">here</a>.</span><br />
<br />
<br />Isabel Torreshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00724636726605405730noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6217817228764059649.post-38546374574319961612014-10-28T08:38:00.000-07:002015-03-18T02:15:26.367-07:00Turning on proteins with light <div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Just like for married couples, communication is
fundamental for cells. When an embryo is developing, its cells need to tell one
another who and where they are, so every tissue and organ grows in
the right place and at the right time. Our neurons are constantly talking to
each other to control our thoughts, feelings and behaviours. Even single-cell
organisms like bacteria can exchange information to decide, for example, how
many times they should multiply.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But how do cells communicate? Scientists have a
good understanding of the key proteins involved in cell communication, or cell
signalling. Typically, a cell sends out a chemical signal (or electrical, in
the case of neurons) that sticks to a specific receptor protein on the surface
of the neighbouring cells. We then say the receptor is ‘activated’, because it
can trigger a cascade of molecular events that ultimately leads to a cellular
response. For instance, the cell might start moving in a particular direction, or a specific
gene gets translated into protein.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">There is, however, quite a lot we still don’t know
about cell signalling. What would happen if we could activate a receptor only at
the tip of a moving cell? Would the cell change the direction of migration? And
what if we could activate a receptor repeatedly, or at different time intervals?
Would the cell responses be different? Questions like these have been bugging
scientists for decades, but they simply lacked the tools to address them. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Now, a research team led by Harald Janovjak at the
Institute of Science and Technology (Austria) has developed a new method to
study the fine temporal and spatial regulation of cell signalling using
proteins activated by light. This work opens the way for the development of
powerful approaches to manipulate cell behaviour in health and disease.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5L4IelZnpvdIisvqLqxf9D1lslz1gUwwFT27SAVLhPrh0uFuHwv6QkP9wJtvKsju7FJLCIqGZhgw6JCoqtNrjxcbVEuXndchmt_-lfnuFKDM3SpXXYj0Yy4VnC1RwcPxwNZ_ypRbPlyQe/s1600/140701101357-large.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5L4IelZnpvdIisvqLqxf9D1lslz1gUwwFT27SAVLhPrh0uFuHwv6QkP9wJtvKsju7FJLCIqGZhgw6JCoqtNrjxcbVEuXndchmt_-lfnuFKDM3SpXXYj0Yy4VnC1RwcPxwNZ_ypRbPlyQe/s1600/140701101357-large.jpg" height="344" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">Human cells illuminated in a pattern depicting the letters IST. The cells carry a reporter gene that 'glows' when it is triggered </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small; line-height: 12.4800004959106px;">with light-activated receptor tyrosine kinases (</span><span style="line-height: 12.4800004959106px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">Credit: Medical University of Vienna).</span></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The
optogenetics revolution<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Scientists have been using engineered light-activated
proteins to manipulate cell activity for about a decade or so, a technique that
has been named ‘optogenetics’. The first light-activated proteins, or photoreceptors,
applied in optogenetics belonged to the microbial opsin family. These opsin
photoreceptors are useful because they can move ions across cell membranes in
response to light, a process similar to what triggers neuron activation. In
these initial studies, channelrhodopsins (a type of opsin photoreceptor) were removed from algae and inserted
into particular neuronal cell types in mice. Upon exposure to light, the
neurons containing these proteins started to fire, and depending on which
neurons were activated in this way, a different behaviour was observed in the
mice; in one study, the mice’s levels of anxiety increased, and in another they
started going round in circles. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The reason why optogenetics has been coined a ‘revolutionary
technique’ (and why it is tipped for a Nobel prize) is that it allows scientists
to control the activity of particular cell types or proteins with an
unprecedented level of precision, both in a temporal and spatial manner. And
this, sure enough, comes very handy for cell signalling research. It is a bit
complicated though, to build optogenetic tools for that purpose.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p>“The main challenges are the same as for many
engineering problems. For example, you want the signalling receptor to be
completely inactive in the “OFF” condition (no light), and to be as much active
as if the natural chemical signal is added in the “ON” condition (light),” says Janovjak.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This fine level of receptor manipulation is very hard
to achieve with conventional optogenetics tools, so Janovjak and
colleagues decided to build signalling receptors activated by light from
scratch, by taking bits and pieces from several proteins and then sticking them
together.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">They focused on cell-surface receptors of the receptor
tyrosine kinase (RTK) family, which sense growth factors and hormones and have
been involved in a variety of cellular processes. When an RTK receptor is
activated by a chemical signal, let’s say a growth factor, it attaches to
another receptor in what is called ‘dimerisation’. It is this contact between
two RTK receptor molecules that triggers the molecular events leading to a cell
response, or in other words, that activates RTK signalling. Janovjak and
colleagues knew this, so they looked in bacteria, fungi and plants for proteins
that dimerise in response to light, and then fused them to an RTK receptor
skeleton. In theory, these engineered RTK receptors should dimerise—and
therefore become activated—upon light exposure.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“We were quite beautifully able to do this. In our
study cancer cells with RTKs under optical control quantitatively respond to
light and the growth factor! This is nothing short of amazing and the basis for
all future work by us and others,” says Janovjak.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Manipulating
cell signalling with light</b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The team showed that when engineered RTKs are inserted
into several cell types, including cancer cells, they can be efficiently
activated by light and induce the predicted cell response very quickly and
within a tiny spatial range.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Morgan Huse, an expert on cell signalling at the Sloan
Kettering Institute (US) says “This study represents the first time that
homodimerising [light-activated] protein domains have been used to activate RTK
signalling. The results are quite significant.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">These new optogenetic tools will be invaluable for
understanding cell signalling, and could also be adapted to study other
cellular processes. In the future, Janovjak’s team will use these tools to
investigate regeneration.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“Our research will focus on regeneration. In essence,
growth factors are known to be efficacious in disease animal models, including
diabetes and Parkinson’s disease. However, delivery of these growth factors is
a real issue because they can induce side effects like (but not limited to)
cancer, and growth factors often can’t reach the desired cells (for example in
the brain). Maybe optogenetics can help”.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Reference:</span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Grusch M., R. Riedler, E. Reichhart, C. Differ, W. Berger, A. Ingles-Prieto; H. Janovjak (2014). Spatio-temporally precise activation of engineered receptor tyrosine kinases by light, </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: italic;">The EMBO Journal, 33</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> (15) 1713-1726. DOI: </span><a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.15252/embj.201387695" rev="review" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">http://dx.doi.org/10.15252/embj.201387695</a></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This article was published in Lab Times on the 22-08-2014. You can read it <a href="http://www.labtimes.org/editorial/e_537.lasso" target="_blank">here</a>. </span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<br /></div>
Isabel Torreshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00724636726605405730noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6217817228764059649.post-90818736329933964022014-09-22T07:58:00.000-07:002014-09-22T07:58:58.959-07:00Interview with Nobel laureate Sir Tim Hunt<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>I recently spoke with Nobel laureate Sir Tim Hunt about the current research scene in Europe in an interview for Lab Times. We discussed topics such as research funding, gender inequality in academia and the publishing system. Below is a summary of his career and the full interview.</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Sir Tim Hunt started his research career
in 1964 at the University of Cambridge (UK) working on haemoglobulin synthesis
under the supervision of Asher Korner. After obtaining his PhD in 1968, he
spent a few years at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York (US)
working with Irving London, until he returned to Cambridge to teach and establish
his independent research career studying translational control. In the late
1970s, he began teaching a summer course at the Marine Biological Laboratory,
Woods Hole (US), where he began working with sea urchin and clam eggs. These experiments
eventually led to the discovery of cyclins, a family of regulatory proteins
that partner with cyclin-depent kinases (CDKs) to control the transition
between cell cycle phases. For this breakthrough Hunt was awarded the Nobel
Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2001, together with Lee Hartwell and Paul
Nurse for their work on CDKs in yeast. In 1990, Hunt moved his laboratory
to the Clare Hall Laboratories at Imperial Cancer Research Fund (now London
Research Institute/Cancer Research UK) where he carried out pioneering research
on cyclins and cell cycle control until his recent retirement. He is a former Chair
of the European Molecular Biology Organisation (EMBO) council, and currently
member of the Scientific Council of the European Research Council (ERC), the
Advisory Council for the Campaign for Science and Engineering (CaSE) and of
the Selection Committee for the Shaw Prize in Life Science and Medicine.</b></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>You have recently
retired from a long and prolific research career. How different is it to pursue
a research career now, compared to when you started, or even just a couple of
decades ago? </i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Hunt: </b>I always like to joke that I am glad
that I am not 20 something years old today, because I think it is much harder
than when we started. When I started as a PhD student in 1964 our department
didn’t have a Xerox machine, there were no calculators, you had to go to the
library to read things and it was virtually impossible to analyse individual
proteins because the SDS gel had not yet been invented. The tools were very
blunt and the questions you could ask were corresponding limited; now the two
are exceedingly sharp and the analytical procedures are absolutely awesome. […]
When you look back at the papers of that era they were pretty simple, easier to
understand in many cases. There was only so much you could do. I am appalled
sometimes at some papers today; they are so data heavy, and I don’t think that
makes them better papers. […] In terms of publication there is just much more
competition these days, because the biosciences have been so successful; they
consume about 2% of the growth national product in the US and the result is
that there are thousands of competing young scientists. My generation is just
on the point of retirement, and in the meantime we have all trained dozens of
doctoral students and postdocs, each of which has trained their own students
and postdocs, so this exponential growth is what caused all the problems, I
would say. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>And where do you think all this is heading?</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Hunt: </b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I really don’t know… Somewhere between
1990 and 2000 many of the outstanding problems of cellular, molecular and
developmental biology were effectively solved. You do kind of wonder: how many
really important problems are there in biology that remain? Of course there are
hundreds of details but the last great frontier is how the brain works, there
you have a very primitive partial understand of most of it. […] It is a pretty
difficult problem.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>Is the European Union currently taking the right measures to move European
science forward?</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Hunt: </b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The old investigator-led grants are
excellent and much better that top-down collaborative network grants, which are
quite good fun but I don’t think it is a terribly good mechanism to hunt for
the best science because the people aren’t really working together. When you
really work with somebody you see them everyday, and here the idea is that you
see one another once a year, or perhaps four times a year, it just doesn’t
work. There are projects that might work, like these huge projects to sequence
the human genome, the big science, but mostly I think that biology is still
pretty small science that has to be carried out by committed individuals
focusing on particular problems. I don’t know very many things that require
that kind of effort.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>What are the strengths and pitfalls of the European research community, when
compared, for example, with research in the US?</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Hunt: </b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> think things have improved
tremendously in Europe in the last few years. For example, in my field, the
European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) has trained lots of people, not
only in how to do science, but also on how to manage science and how to choose
scientists. […] I believe very much in giving power to the young and not
putting them under. I was given full autonomy and authority at a very young
age, at 27 years old. I wasn’t running my own lab, I had friends around to help
and I liked that. There is much more internationalization in Europe, good
practice [of science] is much more diffused throughout. In the former communist
countries, Poland, Bulgaria and places like that, they still have a long way to
go but it is difficult to feed because any new talent that arises, very quickly
migrates abroad. At the ERC we think about that a lot but we haven’t really
taken steps to deal with it because it is against our principles. We say
excellence only and that rules most of those people out, and it is
understandable, they don’t have a good science base, and it is hard to see how
they can build one. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>What do you think of big science
prizes like the Breakthrough Prize? Some people claim that junior scientists should receive this type of prize instead of established scientists.</i> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white;"><b style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Hunt: </b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I
don’t know to be honest. You have to find a compromise. If you are a granting
agency, you really do need to try to identify people who are successful and
clever, and that will make good use of the money. There are a lot of funding
agencies and in the past you feel that every person had to get a little piece
of the cake, and in general, that meant that the food is spread too thinly. So
I think that a bit of concentration is a good idea, but that then raises the
question: how do you identify the good people? That is when the problems begin,
because now we start talking about impact factor and things like that and
everybody knows there are problems with that but nobody has found a
satisfactory solution. We are good at judging science retrospectively but we
are not good at judging science prospectively, because the future is always
very hard to predict. The ERC does the best it can. We like to keep things very
simple and in judging grant applications you give half the marks to track
record of the applicant and half the marks to the project they propose. I think
that is a pretty good ratio. You can’t just give money to people who have been
successful in the past and say ‘do whatever you’d like’, I don’t think that
sort of view is responsible although in some cases it will be fine. And
likewise people can propose very fancy and clever research projects but when
you look at their productivity you see that they are much better at writing
grants than actually carrying out research. Somewhere between those two
extremes lies the compromise. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>How can we change the way scientists
(and science) are perceived by the public? </i><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Hunt: </b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I
don’t know, I think that is a very difficult question to answer. People always
say that scientists must be encouraged to go out and explain what they are
doing. I’m all for that, I try to do a little bit, I go and talk in schools and
so forth. But nothing never really comes close to the experience of actually
doing science, which is usually a rather peculiar random walk, mostly failure
and the occasional few successes. But it doesn’t really explain why it is so
wonderful and such good fun to do because in order to understand it you have to
usually have first done a PhD in the subject and most people haven’t. I would
find it difficult to explain to a quantum mechanics expert what I was doing and
why I thought it was interesting. […] Science is really just a way of finding
things out. You pursue a lot of false clues, you get misled and misinterpret
things. And that is very hard to convey and unfortunately I think the teaching
of science in school is very delusive…. They make it sound that there are some
geniuses out there that figured everything out and then wrote it down in textbooks.
And all you have to do is learn what it says in the textbooks and you will be a
brilliant scientist, but we all know that textbooks are actually wrong in lots
of places. And the alternative to that of course is: ok we won’t teach the kids
what is known, we will let them find it all out for themselves. But if you have
to find everything out for yourself it takes an awfully long time to discover
anything. It is really important to have practical experience, but it is very
difficult to give people practical experience of what it is really like to be
pursuing a real live problem.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>Do you think scientists are
pressured to focus their research on ‘hot’ topics, like cancer or neuroscience?
</i><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white;"><b style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Hunt: </b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I
think they are. It is the money issue; people tend to migrate in that direction
because they have no choice. I don’t think it is a very sensible way to spend
the money. I am a tremendous believer in fundamental research. When I look at
the great breakthroughs, like the discovery of penicillin, that wasn’t produced
by doctors wanting to make antibiotics, none of them realised it was possible.
It was a tiny handful of basic researchers who were curious and figured out how
to do it. I think this emphasis on translation research is very foolish,
because it implies that we know everything that we need to know, and that is
not true obviously. A good example is the case of gene therapy, which is much
needed to treat genetic diseases and it doesn’t work very well because much
more biological engineering is required. I think most biological fields are
well populated, and if a breakthrough occurs they won’t fail to exploit them. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>How would you explain to someone
in one sentence that it is important to fund and encourage more basic research?</i><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white;"><b style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Hunt: </b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I
wouldn’t know how to begin! I think it is extremely difficult to justify
because what you are really saying is ‘just pay me to have more fun’ and that
works much better than paying me to do something I have no clue how to do. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>In your opinion, why are women
still under-represented in senior positions in academia and funding bodies? </i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white;"><b style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Hunt: </b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I’m
not sure there is really a problem actually. People just look at the
statistics. I dare myself think there is any discrimination, either for or
against men or women. I think people are really good at selecting good
scientists but I must admit the inequalities in the outcomes, especially at the
higher end, are quite staggering. And I have no idea what the reasons are. One
should start asking why women being underrepresented in senior positions is
such a big problem. Is this actually a bad thing? It is not immediately obvious
for me that… is this bad for women? Or bad for science? Or bad for society? I
don’t know, it clearly upsets people a lot. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background: white;"><i>What
research area excites you at the moment?</i><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white;"><b style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Hunt: </b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I
am very excited by stem cell biology. I think the advances that have been made
are just fantastic and I really hope that is something that will lead to people
growing pancreas in a test tube and use them to cure diabetes, for example. I
think that those advances have been absolutely spectacular, very, very
interesting.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>Interview by Isabel Torres</i></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This interview was published in Lab Times on 4-07-2014 (print issue). </span></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></o:p></span></div>
Isabel Torreshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00724636726605405730noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6217817228764059649.post-76233373596513291392014-05-16T08:08:00.000-07:002015-03-18T02:18:27.109-07:00Tun-ing in on water bears' superpowers<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Water bears, or tardigrades, are harmless microscopic
animals. Yet, despite their endearing bear-like appearance, tardigrades are the
hardest animals to kill on Earth. And boy, many have tried.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Tardigrades are chubby eight-legged animals, no longer than the head of a pin, related to velvet worms and also arthropodes, a large family including insects, spiders and crustaceans. They can be found anywhere where there’s water, but they prefer to live in damp moss and lichens. These tough creatures can survive boiling temperatures up to
125˚C* and freezing temperatures so extreme (-272˚C!) they can only be
artificially created in a laboratory. They can also survive astonishing amounts
of radiation with no apparent damage to their DNA, extremely high pressures,
and, unlike any other earthly creature, tardigrades can hang out for a few
minutes in the vacuum of space and come back alive to tell the story.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTgSEMwN1Xvtt6QPw0PdOE4jW2fH3DjuJS1zvRrLmXTufqigvFDZ7BpIeQ-LwkKdRvJHW-9_RtUshszei8RbpypbGPuNtLcCLnlbykKN2To3mlospH9AWce_n900bz5JgGnsO6DETpl3C7/s1600/Hypsibiusdujardini.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTgSEMwN1Xvtt6QPw0PdOE4jW2fH3DjuJS1zvRrLmXTufqigvFDZ7BpIeQ-LwkKdRvJHW-9_RtUshszei8RbpypbGPuNtLcCLnlbykKN2To3mlospH9AWce_n900bz5JgGnsO6DETpl3C7/s1600/Hypsibiusdujardini.jpg" height="327" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">Tardigrades (<i>Hypsibius dujardini)</i> imaged with a scanning electron microscope.</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So what’s their secret? Tardigrades have the amazing
ability to reversibly slow down their metabolism to nearly a halt (less than
0,01% of their normal metabolic rate) in response to a change in their
environment—a process called cryptobiosis. Other organisms can do it—nematodes,
rotifers, brine shrimp—but not nearly as spectacularly as tardigrades. It is estimated that they can lose up to 99% of their water content, and enter a so-called
‘tun’ stage that protects them against harsh environmental conditions. Yet, if
you rehydrate these tuns, the animals will quickly return to their normal
selves—moving about, growing and having babies, as you do when you’re a
tardigrade (watch movie below).</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dz9DtB9L2_5wjVCMSJD8X5SQpLgEZq00QXCADFtIs15vyU4ei9okiy9bNh1iQ3hOFmFcIEQDMTGR7d2fvkzNw' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Scientists grow tardigrades in the lab (and sometimes in space) to
study cryptobiosis. Understanding how tardigrades survive extreme dehydration during
the tun stage could help developing better techniques for dry
preservation of biological material, for example.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In a recent study, Marcus Frohme and colleagues from the Technical
University of Applied Sciences in Wildau (Germany) <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0092663" target="_blank">compared differences in gene expression between happy, dehydrating, tun stage and rehydrated tardigrades</a>.
The idea was to search for the genes that are more, or less active in each of
these metabolic states, which could give some clues as to how the tardigrades’
cells cope with severe dehydration. The researchers grew four groups of animals in the lab under different conditions (from moist to dry) and then smashed them up to chemically extract mRNA molecules (copies of DNA that will be
translated into proteins) from their cells. They then sequenced and quantified these molecules, and finally analysed the huge amount of data
using a powerful computer software.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The team found that in
the dehydration stages, genes involved in cell division and growth were less
active, but genes encoding for proteins that protect or repair cellular
components, such as heat-shock proteins, were highly expressed. These results confirm previous research, but some preliminary
data in Frohme's study also suggest that several genes involved in DNA repair are more active
in the rehydration stage than in the dehydration stage. The authors propose
that tardigrades adopt a dual strategy combining mechanisms of protection (</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">during dehydrating stages) and recovery</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> (during rehydration stages) to survive desiccation.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">* In the original article it was written 151˚C, this has been corrected to 125˚C (reference: Doyère P.L.N. Memoires sur les Tardigrades. Sur le facilité possedent les tardigardes, les rotifers, les anguilleles des toit et quelques autres animacules, de renvenir à la vie après été complement désesschées. <i>Ann. Sci. Nat.</i> 18: 5, 1842.)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Reference:</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Z3988" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;" title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Ajournal&rft_id=info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0092663.s006&rft.atitle=Towards+Decrypting+Cryptobiosis%E2%80%94Analyzing+Anhydrobiosis+in+the+Tardigrade+Milnesium+tardigradum+Using+Transcriptome+Sequencing&rft.jtitle=PLoS+ONE&rft.artnum=http%3A%2F%2Fdx.plos.org%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0092663&rft.volume=9&rft.issue=3&rft.issn=1932-6203&rft.spage=e92663&rft.date=2014&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fscienceseeker.org&rft.au=Wang+Chong&rft.aulast=Wang&rft.aufirst=Chong&rft.au=Grohme+Markus+A.&rft.aulast=Grohme&rft.aufirst=Markus+A.&rft.au=Mali+Brahim&rft.aulast=Mali&rft.aufirst=Brahim&rft.au=Schill+Ralph+O.&rft.aulast=Schill&rft.aufirst=Ralph+O.&rft.au=Frohme+Marcus&rft.aulast=Frohme&rft.aufirst=Marcus&rft.au=Gibas+Cynthia&rft.aulast=Gibas&rft.aufirst=Cynthia&rfs_dat=ss.included=1&rfe_dat=bpr3.included=1;bpr3.tags=Biology">Wang C., Grohme M.A., Mali B., Schill R.O., Frohme M. & Gibas C. (2014). Towards Decrypting Cryptobiosis—Analyzing Anhydrobiosis in the Tardigrade Milnesium tardigradum Using Transcriptome Sequencing, <span style="font-style: italic;">PLoS ONE, 9</span> (3) e92663. DOI: <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0092663.s006" rel="author">10.1371/journal.pone.0092663.s006</a></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A shorter version of this article was published in the print issue of Lab Times on the 13-05-2014.</span></div>
<br />
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">3D printing is in fashion. Clothes, prosthetic limbs, guns
and even pizza, you name it—just about anything can be printed these days. Even
living cells.</span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Bioprinting is an emerging technology that promises to
revolutionise the field of regenerative medicine. The idea is simple: you load
a printer cartridge with cells removed from a patient or grown in the lab, and
then print a brand new tissue or organ ready for transplantation.
Alternatively, you could print healthy tissue directly onto a patient’s wound
in the operating room. For now, scientists and biotech companies have managed to
print several cell types, and there has been some progress in making cartilage,
skin and heart muscle tissue. Printed tissues like these could be invaluable
for drug testing in preclinical studies and for regenerative medicine. Imagine
if we could replace damaged brain tissue in people suffering from
neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimers, or treat blindness with transplanted
eye tissue. But how does bioprinting work?<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">By a lucky coincidence, the size of the nozzles of
inkjet printers is roughly the same of an average animal cell, so scientists
can use or adapt commercial printers for bioprinting. Just like a conventional
3D printer, which creates objects by laying down liquefied material (like
plastic, metal or even <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-25647918" target="_blank">chocolate</a>) in layers, bioprinters work by spitting out
cell after cell onto a surface to, in theory, build a 3D-shaped living tissue. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But
there is a caveat. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Some cells are not happy to be squeezed through a printhead,
like neural cells for example, which have a limited ability to survive and grow
in culture. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Now, researchers from the University of Cambridge (UK) report that
they <a href="http://iopscience.iop.org/1758-5090/6/1/015001/" target="_blank">have successfully printed two types of rat neural cells from the retina</a>, the light-sensitive tissue at the back of the eye: <i>ganglion cells</i>, which transmit visual information to the brain, and <i>glial cells</i>, which
insulate, support, protect and feed neurons.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Barbara Lorber and colleagues pushed a gel containing the cells
through a piezoelectric inkjet printer and then tried to grow them in culture
to test their survival rate. Piezoelectric printers are not commonly used for
bioprinting because they use an electrical pulse to eject the ink drops, and
this was thought to break cell membranes. But this is not what the team found. The
large majority of printed ganglion and glial cells were able to survive and
grow in culture. They also seemed to retain their function—glial cells released
growth-promoting molecules, and in turn ganglion cells responded to these
signals by growing more of the tiny processes that carry messages to neurons. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In recent years, stem cells transplants and electronic
retina implants were shown to partially restore sight in patients with retinal
degeneration, but these improvements were modest. Although preliminary, the new
results by the Cambridge team provide the proof-of-principle that the
production of functional retinal tissue by bioprinting could one day become a
reality.</span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Reference:</span></div>
<span class="Z3988" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;" title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Ajournal&rft_id=info%3Adoi%2F10.1088%2F1758-5082%2F6%2F1%2F015001&rft.atitle=Adult+rat+retinal+ganglion+cells+and+glia+can+be+printed+by+piezoelectric+inkjet+printing&rft.jtitle=Biofabrication&rft.artnum=http%3A%2F%2Fstacks.iop.org%2F1758-5090%2F6%2Fi%3D1%2Fa%3D015001%3Fkey%3Dcrossref.57c498ecdd2a816b22a663d7432a3a3f&rft.volume=6&rft.issue=1&rft.issn=1758-5082&rft.spage=015001&rft.date=2014&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fscienceseeker.org&rft.au=Lorber+Barbara&rft.aulast=Lorber&rft.aufirst=Barbara&rft.au=Hsiao+Wen-Kai&rft.aulast=Hsiao&rft.aufirst=Wen-Kai&rft.au=Hutchings+Ian+M&rft.aulast=Hutchings&rft.aufirst=Ian+M&rft.au=Martin+Keith+R&rft.aulast=Martin&rft.aufirst=Keith+R&rfs_dat=ss.included=1&rfe_dat=bpr3.included=1;bpr3.tags=Biology%2CHealth%2CMedicine%2CNeuroscience">Lorber B., Hsiao W.K., Hutchings I.M. & Martin K.R. (2014). Adult rat retinal ganglion cells and glia can be printed by piezoelectric inkjet printing, <span style="font-style: italic;">Biofabrication, 6</span> (1) 015001. DOI: <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1088%2F1758-5082%2F6%2F1%2F015001" rel="author">10.1088/1758-5082/6/1/015001</a></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This article was published in Lab Times on the 10-02-2014 (print). </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Image credit: namida K/Everystockphoto</span><br />
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<br />Isabel Torreshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00724636726605405730noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6217817228764059649.post-17437386768537402222013-12-20T14:48:00.000-08:002015-03-18T02:21:35.243-07:00Salamanders have different ways of regenerating lost limbs<div style="border: 0px; display: inline !important; margin-bottom: 14px; padding: 0px; text-indent: 20px;">
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Regenerating complex tissues is an enviable ability. Salamanders have mastered this skill to perfection, but <span style="text-indent: 20px;">a recent study shows that two closely related species use different molecular strategies to regenerate their lost limbs.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The remarkable ability to regenerate body parts is fairly common
amongst invertebrates. If you chop up a flat worm (planarian) in several bits,
they will each grow into a tiny worm (scientists have even been able to grow flat
worms from single cells!). </span><a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/24756662" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;" target="_blank">When spiders (and some insects) amputate their own limbs</a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> because of an injury or as a defence against predators, a new limb identical to the
original one will grow back. But for vertebrates like us, it’s a whole
different story.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It’s well known that lizards and some other reptiles can regrow broken (or accidently
squashed) tails. But the new tail isn’t a perfect replica (it doesn’t have bones
or nerves), and lizards can’t regenerate limbs. In vertebrates, this kind of regeneration is unique to salamanders, and to some extent to fish and frog tadpoles
(but not adults).</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhl-fTvRyq-X1LgfBlJ7tI1hvrayE1BU56Q2aeDgu7_kIaxQB-8gYpGqQ2EMFbPVnF1V-i4cevyDGXAdez3zBEOyfuPeXv02OZUX-UfoZJ78uBybcdXitb8H5apeuuO8HLpKNiEnGf3bnA5/s1600/White-headed_dwarf_gecko.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhl-fTvRyq-X1LgfBlJ7tI1hvrayE1BU56Q2aeDgu7_kIaxQB-8gYpGqQ2EMFbPVnF1V-i4cevyDGXAdez3zBEOyfuPeXv02OZUX-UfoZJ78uBybcdXitb8H5apeuuO8HLpKNiEnGf3bnA5/s400/White-headed_dwarf_gecko.jpg" height="266" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Lizards and geckos can regrow their tails, but the new tail </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">isn't a perfect replica, and they can't regenerate limbs.</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Salamanders are amphibians that live near lakes or in wetlands, but you
may sometimes find them in your house or garden. They can regenerate any limb in
all its complexity—with bones, nerves, muscle and skin—and no matter where the
limb is amputated it will grow back exactly like the original one. And what’s
even more amazing: salamanders can regenerate their limbs (and some organs) over
and over again.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It’s not surprising then that salamanders are scientists’ favourite
model system to study regeneration. But they come with a heavy baggage. Their
genome is huge—about 10 times bigger than the human genome—and it has only
recently been sequenced, and not completely. On top of this, genetic tools that
insert or remove genes in salamanders are still scarce, especially when
compared to other model organisms like fruit flies or mouse. Nonetheless,
scientists have come a long way and we now have a good understanding of the
basic steps of limb regeneration.</span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">How to grow a new leg<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Limb regeneration in salamanders (and frog tadpoles and fish) occurs in
three main steps. Let’s say a salamander's leg is amputated. First, a thin layer
of skin quickly covers the wound, and this is a crucial difference between
salamanders and most other vertebrates, which develop thick scars. Second,
this skin sends chemical signals to the cells underneath to instruct them to reverse
their identity (bone, muscle, nerve…) to a stem cell-like undifferentiated
state. Finally, these 'dedifferentiated' cells multiply and form the blastema—a pool of cells capable
of turning into any cell type that will build a new, fully functional leg.</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqNXQJsI5EszeIfC_xdADK6HU37dF25jAlBap_C16CUJ4H2YA8k6c3xARoc3-rprOqE7v3V5-ug8BfPAdJ49a98dEfKlrfPr0-KDPhI52ap9U5YgZmq7Fvw2GWQrZOjBGN046F9lrnh-8p/s1600/jbiol105-1-l.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqNXQJsI5EszeIfC_xdADK6HU37dF25jAlBap_C16CUJ4H2YA8k6c3xARoc3-rprOqE7v3V5-ug8BfPAdJ49a98dEfKlrfPr0-KDPhI52ap9U5YgZmq7Fvw2GWQrZOjBGN046F9lrnh-8p/s640/jbiol105-1-l.jpg" height="246" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Diagram showing the steps in limb regeneration (credit: Whited and Tabin, Journal of Biology 2009)</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The blastema is key for regeneration: if a blastema is grafted anywhere
on the salamander’s body, on its back for example, it will grow a leg there. About a decade ago scientists discovered that blastema cells can also originate
from ‘resident’ stem cells that hang around in tissues—satellite cells. Since
then a question lingers: where do blastema cells come from? From dedifferentiated
cells, satellite stem cells or both?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">To answer this complex question, one would need to somehow track
specific cells (like muscle satellite cells, for example) during blastema
formation, which is a challenging thing to do in salamanders. But a collaborative
research team from the Max Planck Institute in Dresden, Germany, and the Karolinska
Institute in Sweden has now succeeded in doing just that, and what they found
was quite unexpected.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"We show that in one of the salamander species, muscle tissue is
regenerated from specialised muscle cells that dedifferentiate and forget
what type of cell they've been, […] as opposed to the other species, in which
the new muscles are created from existing [satellite] stem cells," said
senior author of the new <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Cell Stem Cell</i>
study András Simon in a press release.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">An ever so cute axolotl posing for the camera.</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Simon and colleagues used genetic tricks to label muscle cells with a
fluorescent marker in two closely related salamander species (newts and
axolotls) and then tracked them under the microscope at different time points
during limb regeneration. They showed that<a href="http://www.cell.com/cell-stem-cell/abstract/S1934-5909(13)00498-0?switch=standard" target="_blank"> in newt, all blastema cells that form muscle tissue come from dedifferentiated muscle cells</a>, while in axolotl
they originate exclusively from satellite cells. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“It has always been assumed that in these animals muscle is derived
from two sources during limb regeneration: satellite cells and
dedifferentiation of myofibers [muscle cells]. The authors are making a radical
departure from this idea,” says David Stocum, director of the Indiana
University Centre for Regenerative Biology and Medicine and an expert in
amphibian regenerative biology.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Limb regeneration in humans: fiction or reality?</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The new findings imply that different species, even closely related
ones, may have evolved slightly different ways to regenerate limbs “even though the
process at an anatomical and histological level may look the same”, notes Stocum. But it remains
to be understood why, and also whether this is the case for other vertebrate
species. “It would be interesting to explore how similar are the mechanisms of
muscle cell formation, overall blastema formation, and mechanisms of blastema
development in different species” Stocum says “We might find some surprises
there.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So
will it ever be possible to regenerate limbs in humans?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Frog tadpoles can regrow their limb buds but they lose this regenerative
ability in adulthood, which means that the genes controlling regeneration must
be shut down sometime during metamorphosis. So in theory it should be possible
to trigger regeneration in frog adult limbs if we knew what’s blocking it (and
we could then block that), and the same could be true for humans. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“I’m optimistic that it will eventually be possible, but how long it
will take is anyone’s guess. […] Clearly, if species on this planet that have
the capacity for appendage regeneration exist, understanding how they do it is
a huge step forward in determining what is needed to make it happen in mammals,
including humans,” Stocum says.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But keep in mind: you're not a salamander. If you were to cut your own leg off (don’t!), a thick layer of skin
would close the wound and form a scar, and this would prevent regeneration
(your leg would NOT grow back). Interestingly, when scientists grafted extra skin to a
salamander wound after limb amputation, or when scaring was induced with
genetic tricks, the limb didn’t grow back. Just as in humans.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Reference:</span></div>
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<span class="Z3988" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;" title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Ajournal&rft_id=info%3Adoi%2F10.1016%2Fj.stem.2013.11.007&rft.atitle=Fundamental+Differences+in+Dedifferentiation+and+Stem+Cell+Recruitment+during+Skeletal+Muscle+Regeneration+in+Two+Salamander+Species&rft.jtitle=Cell+Stem+Cell&rft.artnum=http%3A%2F%2Flinkinghub.elsevier.com%2Fretrieve%2Fpii%2FS1934590913004980&rft.issn=19345909&rft.date=2013&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fscienceseeker.org&rft.au=Sandoval-Guzm%C3%A1n+Tatiana&rft.aulast=Sandoval-Guzm%C3%A1n&rft.aufirst=Tatiana&rft.au=Wang+Heng&rft.aulast=Wang&rft.aufirst=Heng&rft.au=Khattak+Shahryar&rft.aulast=Khattak&rft.aufirst=Shahryar&rft.au=Schuez+Maritta&rft.aulast=Schuez&rft.aufirst=Maritta&rft.au=Roensch+Kathleen&rft.aulast=Roensch&rft.aufirst=Kathleen&rft.au=Nacu+Eugeniu&rft.aulast=Nacu&rft.aufirst=Eugeniu&rft.au=Tazaki+Akira&rft.aulast=Tazaki&rft.aufirst=Akira&rft.au=Joven+Alberto&rft.aulast=Joven&rft.aufirst=Alberto&rft.au=Tanaka+Elly%C2%A0M.&rft.aulast=Tanaka&rft.aufirst=Elly%C2%A0M.&rft.au=Simon+Andr%C3%A1s&rft.aulast=Simon&rft.aufirst=Andr%C3%A1s&rfs_dat=ss.included=1&rfe_dat=bpr3.included=1;bpr3.tags=Biology%2CHealth">Sandoval-Guzmán T., Wang H., Khattak S., Schuez M., Roensch K., Nacu E., Tazaki A., Joven A., Tanaka E. & Simon A. & (2013). Fundamental Differences in Dedifferentiation and Stem Cell Recruitment during Skeletal Muscle Regeneration in Two Salamander Species, <span style="font-style: italic;">Cell Stem Cell, </span> DOI: <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1016%2Fj.stem.2013.11.007" rel="author">10.1016/j.stem.2013.11.007</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A shorter version of this article was originally published in Lab Times on the 10-12-2013. You can read it <a href="http://www.labtimes.org/editorial/e_473.lasso" target="_blank">here</a>.</span><br />
<br />Isabel Torreshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00724636726605405730noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6217817228764059649.post-83407822745637599722013-12-05T13:04:00.000-08:002013-12-05T13:19:22.176-08:00Promiscuous female chickens choose who fathers their children... after sex<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Sex is not much fun for female chickens. Even though they are likely to have many
partners, female chickens have little choice over with whom they mate. On top of
this, male chickens are anything but picky and will copulate with whoever comes
their way, including their sisters. But female chickens can still have the last squawk—instead of choosing a partner, they select the sperm that fertilises their
eggs.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiFOpeCOaFsimnvU-32tIh14mYkQQIoEETKObV-wLOzhifGHvoxzE8zgsNMCueSRovjlWr_p1B_lG40EV-4w3VqIMLvd13mKhH66UjYWEAS1YxwnlJjMDaPJb-ZbrLjZ4zG243Nb_7ypkR/s1600/750px-Gallus_gallus_-Kaziranga_National_Park,_Assam,_India-8.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiFOpeCOaFsimnvU-32tIh14mYkQQIoEETKObV-wLOzhifGHvoxzE8zgsNMCueSRovjlWr_p1B_lG40EV-4w3VqIMLvd13mKhH66UjYWEAS1YxwnlJjMDaPJb-ZbrLjZ4zG243Nb_7ypkR/s400/750px-Gallus_gallus_-Kaziranga_National_Park,_Assam,_India-8.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Male and female red jungle fows (<i>Gallus gallus</i>)</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It’s easy to understand why being promiscuous is advantageous for males:
the more females they mate with, the more offspring they will produce. But
female promiscuity (voluntary or forced) has long confused scientists. Mating
is usually a dangerous affair for females; males are often so aggressive during
sex that they seriously injure their partner. Besides, females (and ultimately their
offspring) should in theory gain more from mating only with a champion male
that carries the best genes—why bother with the others? In evolutionary terms, female
promiscuity just doesn’t make sense. So why is it so widespread in nature? <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It appears that promiscuous females can pick who fathers their children <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">after</i> copulation. This so-called
‘cryptic female choice’ has been described in insects, reptiles, snails,
spiders and birds. Which takes us back to chickens. After forced mating with
several males, female red jungle fowl—the ancestor of the domestic chicken—can squeeze
out unwanted sperm and keep only the sperm from their favourite mate in their
reproductive track. Fowls use cryptic female choice to avoid inbreeding, for
example, by selecting against sperm from their brothers. But it’s also possible
that sperm is selected based on genetic compatibility of particular sets of
genes.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Domestic chickens.</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Researchers from the Universities of East Anglia and Oxford (UK) recently tested this
hypothesis in fowls by looking at major histocompatibility complex (MHC) genes,
which encode for key proteins involved in immunity. MHC genes come in a lot of ‘flavours’
that are linked to an effective immune response—individuals with a diverse mix
of MHC genes are less likely to get sick and die from disease. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Hanne L<span style="font-size: x-small;">Ø</span>vlie and colleagues asked whether fowls use cryptic
female choice to make sure their offspring inherits a mixed MHC gene pool. They
singly mated females with related or unrelated males after sequencing the MHC
genes in all animals. They then calculated the fertilisation rate of each
mating by scoring the number of holes made by sperm cells in egg yolk membranes.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The researchers found that <a href="http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/280/1769/20131296.full" target="_blank">more sperm reached the eggs when males were unrelated to the females</a>, and this effect was even stronger when these males
had a very different MHC gene mix from their partner. However, when the females
were inseminated artificially, the fertilisation bias disappeared—eggs were
fertilised at a similar rate by all sperm. These results suggest that female
fowls somehow pick the male with the best set of MHC genes during mating, and then get
rid of the sperm from other males by cryptic female choice. Evolutionary
speaking, girl power wins.</span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">References:</span></div>
<span class="Z3988" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;" title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Ajournal&rft_id=info%3Adoi%2F10.1098%2Frspb.2013.1296&rft.atitle=Cryptic+female+choice+favours+sperm+from+major+histocompatibility+complex-dissimilar+males&rft.jtitle=Proceedings+of+the+Royal+Society+B%3A+Biological+Sciences&rft.artnum=http%3A%2F%2Frspb.royalsocietypublishing.org%2Fcgi%2Fdoi%2F10.1098%2Frspb.2013.1296&rft.volume=280&rft.issue=1769&rft.issn=0962-8452&rft.spage=20131296&rft.epage=20131296&rft.date=2013&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fscienceseeker.org&rft.au=Lovlie+H.&rft.aulast=Lovlie&rft.aufirst=H.&rft.au=Gillingham+M.+A.+F.&rft.aulast=Gillingham&rft.aufirst=M.+A.+F.&rft.au=Worley+K.&rft.aulast=Worley&rft.aufirst=K.&rft.au=Pizzari+T.&rft.aulast=Pizzari&rft.aufirst=T.&rft.au=Richardson+D.+S.&rft.aulast=Richardson&rft.aufirst=D.+S.&rfs_dat=ss.included=1&rfe_dat=bpr3.included=1;bpr3.tags=Biology%2CEcology+%2F+Conservation">Lovlie H., Gillingham M.A.F., Worley K., Pizzari T. & Richardson D.S. (2013). Cryptic female choice favours sperm from major histocompatibility complex-dissimilar males, <span style="font-style: italic;">Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 280</span> (1769) 20131296-20131296. DOI: <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1098%2Frspb.2013.1296" rel="author">10.1098/rspb.2013.1296</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Images from Wikipedia Commons.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This article was originally published in Lab Times on the 19-11-2013 (print).</span><br />
<br />Isabel Torreshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00724636726605405730noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6217817228764059649.post-20078301777700663012013-11-06T02:08:00.000-08:002015-03-18T02:22:53.440-07:00Cocoons protect ants from disease – and from nest eviction<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">For ant larvae and pupae, getting sick is a death sentence—when adult ants spot an infirm individual in their spotlessly clean nest, they simply chuck it out and leave it to die. But some pupae have worked out a way to avoid nest eviction. Scientists have discovered that in some ant species the pupae spin bug-proof cocoons that help them dodge disease.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXQuL08ybPP4MQKw8bH4kKtJwWbHWCwj2KMH0q_3Stj6NkypKYSJ09g0ay-zgkOxJPT1f08e5144ZiUBdkp6FPYiCLlK7F9yMqBBzi-zA5B1wnwl2NhgG_I1hMQLf7fGyGHEFfUk0VNp1L/s1600/49604238-mendax5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXQuL08ybPP4MQKw8bH4kKtJwWbHWCwj2KMH0q_3Stj6NkypKYSJ09g0ay-zgkOxJPT1f08e5144ZiUBdkp6FPYiCLlK7F9yMqBBzi-zA5B1wnwl2NhgG_I1hMQLf7fGyGHEFfUk0VNp1L/s400/49604238-mendax5.jpg" height="266" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">Credit: Alexander Wild (www.alexanderwild.com)</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Ants are tormented by all sorts of nasty bugs, from bacteria to fungi and parasites. Because larvae and pupae lead a sedentary lifestyle inside jam-packed nests, they’re particularly vulnerable to disease. To make matters worse, unlike the adults, larvae and pupae have thin cuticles (outer skin) that can be easily pierced through by some deadly fungi.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So adult ants have come up with a complex sanitary behaviour to protect the brood from disease. Besides keeping the nest immaculate, adult ants obsessively groom eggs, larvae and pupae to remove any trace of rubbish or microbe. In some species, they even spread disinfectant (an anti-fungal poison produced by special glands) on themselves and on the brood.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">When infection can’t be avoided, adult ants take a more radical approach: they get rid of the sick, no questions asked. This extreme “hygienic behaviour,” as it’s technically called, is an effective way of containing disease outbreaks in crowded insect colonies. It was first described for honeybee colonies in the 1960s, and <a href="http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/early/2010/04/29/rspb.2010.0644.abstract" target="_blank">only recently observed in one ant species </a>by Sylvia Cremer’s research team at the Institute of Science and Technology, in Austria.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Now, Cremer’s team reports in<a href="http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2148/13/225/abstract" target="_blank"> a new study published in <i>BMC Evolutionary Biology</i></a> that for some ant pupae, being sick is not always grounds for eviction.<i><o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Scientists have long wondered why in some ant species the pupae spin silk cocoons around their bodies, whereas in others the pupae are “naked”. In a few odd cases, ants can even swing both ways: in the same species, some pupae build cocoons but others seem to live happily without one.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Other insects, such as fleas, moths or wasps, use cocoons mostly as camouflage or for protection from predators, though some studies suggest cocoons may also work like an air conditioning system, to control the temperature and humidity around the pupae. But ant pupae are well secluded from predators and atmospheric changes inside their nests. So why do some of them bother weaving cocoons?<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">Credit: Alexander Wild (www.alexanderwild.com)</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Cremer and colleagues suspected that ant cocoons act as shields against fungal invasion.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“The fungal infectious stages require contact with the insect cuticle […]. We therefore suspected that the cocoon silk protein would not be a good target for fungal penetration, and would represent a mechanical barrier that stops the fungus from reaching the pupal cuticle, therefore preventing or delaying fungal infection,” says Cremer.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">To test this, her research team exposed larvae and pupae from five ant species (with naked, cocooned or indecisive pupae) to a highly infectious fungus—the kind that can penetrate thin cuticles— and then watched how the adults managed the outbreak.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In all species, the adults seemed to detect the fungus within a couple of days, and then quickly removed the contaminated brood from the nest. This finding shows that this type of hygienic behaviour “is actually a widespread behaviour in ants”, Cremer says.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But there was an unexpected result. Even though the contaminated brood was taken out of the nests, the cocooned pupae were often left behind.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">To work out why, the researchers looked at how far the disease spread in the colonies. They found that the brood removal strategy was so efficient that in all species, only about 4% of larvae and pupae left inside the nest got sick. In contrast, most of the brood that was tossed out of the nest died from the fungal infection—except cocooned pupae.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“Ant cocoons can form a protective barrier against fungal infection,” Cremer explains. And what is even more remarkable, the adult ants seem to be aware of this, as “fungus exposure only leads to a fast and effective removal of the susceptible naked brood from the brood chamber, but not the non-susceptible cocooned pupae.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It’s a win-win situation for the ants: the pupae don’t get sacrificed, the adults don’t waste energy carrying them around, and the colony stays safe from an epidemic.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It remains unclear though “by which mechanism the cocoon protects the pupae from infection”, Cremer notes, and this is what her team plans to investigate next.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Reference:</span></div>
<span class="Z3988" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;" title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Ajournal&rft_id=info%3Adoi%2F10.1186%2F1471-2148-13-225&rft.atitle=Pupal+cocoons+affect+sanitary+brood+care+and+limit+fungal+infections+in+ant+colonies&rft.jtitle=BMC+Evolutionary+Biology&rft.artnum=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.biomedcentral.com%2F1471-2148%2F13%2F225&rft.volume=13&rft.issue=1&rft.issn=1471-2148&rft.spage=225&rft.date=2013&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fscienceseeker.org&rft.au=Tragust+Simon&rft.aulast=Tragust&rft.aufirst=Simon&rft.au=Ugelvig+Line+V&rft.aulast=Ugelvig&rft.aufirst=Line+V&rft.au=Chapuisat+Michel&rft.aulast=Chapuisat&rft.aufirst=Michel&rft.au=Heinze+J%C3%BCrgen&rft.aulast=Heinze&rft.aufirst=J%C3%BCrgen&rft.au=Cremer+Sylvia&rft.aulast=Cremer&rft.aufirst=Sylvia&rfs_dat=ss.included=1&rfe_dat=bpr3.included=1;bpr3.tags=Biology%2CEcology+%2F+Conservation">Tragust S., Ugelvig L.V., Chapuisat M., Heinze J. & Cremer S. (2013). Pupal cocoons affect sanitary brood care and limit fungal infections in ant colonies, <span style="font-style: italic;">BMC Evolutionary Biology, 13</span> (1) 225. DOI: <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1186%2F1471-2148-13-225" rel="author">10.1186/1471-2148-13-225</a></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A shorter version of this article was published in ScienceNow on 18-10-2013. You can read it <a href="http://news.sciencemag.org/biology/2013/10/scienceshot-how-ants-avoid-eviction" target="_blank">here</a>.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>Isabel Torreshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00724636726605405730noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6217817228764059649.post-85723550096235230262013-10-04T06:14:00.000-07:002015-03-18T02:25:35.264-07:00Seeing is believing? An optical illusion that challenges decades-old assumptions<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Our brains are wired to make things up.
To make sense of the physical world around us, the brain takes bits of
information received from the senses and, like an artist painting a landscape,
creates a unique mental picture shaped by its experiences. Without this ability
to process sensory information (called perception) we wouldn’t be able to see
in three dimensions, understand someone speaking in a noisy room, or even watch
a film at the cinema. But there is a caveat: the brain can sometimes make
mistakes, and optical illusions are one example.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Optical illusions are not only
entertaining but they can also help scientists learn more about how our brains
work. Researchers from the University Paris Descartes, in France, have now discovered
an optical illusion that challenges decades-old assumptions about how the brain
perceives movement.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">You see it, but it isn’t there</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Long before Walt Disney brought cartoons
to the wider public in the late 1920s, motion pictures and animations were
being made by quickly running a series of images in some sort of projector
device. This rapid display of still images creates an illusion of movement, or
as it’s technically called, ‘apparent motion’. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US"><o:p><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghQnfBM1WQ9r2FXrB5SM2cvIwyi7z8U9V67Zx7scZohRQCTIGfD9gWTd0bNFo-YzRObWnlDg3FOynw5N1O_rKj6DFYEOMnXobcwJez_i7fo0HOaU-lutC8UaNrIf_tv93Zj0089dbmiGeh/s1600/Phenakistoscope_3g07690b.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghQnfBM1WQ9r2FXrB5SM2cvIwyi7z8U9V67Zx7scZohRQCTIGfD9gWTd0bNFo-YzRObWnlDg3FOynw5N1O_rKj6DFYEOMnXobcwJez_i7fo0HOaU-lutC8UaNrIf_tv93Zj0089dbmiGeh/s400/Phenakistoscope_3g07690b.gif" height="400" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"A couple walzing" by Eadweard Muybridge (1830-1904) projected with a phenakistoscope.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</span></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Several decades of research on how people
perceive apparent motion have established a few solid principles on the
way our brains process movement. However, an optical illusion discovered serendipitously
as a bug in a computer program recently challenged a couple of these
principles.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: .1pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: .1pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“The minimal-motion
principle has extensive support not only in psychology but also in
neurophysiology, and underlies nearly every computer motion-detection and
motion-perception algorithm. What
we have found is a blatant violation of this principle,” <span lang="EN-US">says Mark Wexler, an experimental
psychologist at the University Paris Descartes who first reported the so-called
‘high-phi’ illusion a couple of years ago. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: .1pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In this strange illusion, when a moving scene on
a screen is interrupted by a random image, the observer sees an illusory fast backwards
‘jump’, as though the image has a hiccup (you can see the illusion <a href="http://lpp.psycho.univ-paris5.fr/highphi/basic1.html" target="_blank">here</a>).
Somehow, although our eyes detect the still random image, our brain turns that visual
cue into fast motion (high-phi jump). But how does the high-phi illusion challenge
the minimal-motion principle? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: .1pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: .1pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This principle states that when we look at many different
motions simultaneously (which happens pretty much all the time), our conflicted
brains will ‘choose’ to see the slowest one. We can spot this effect in the
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barberpole_illusion" target="_blank">barber pole illusion</a>- the pole’s movement is horizontal and quite fast, but
what we see is a vertical slow movement.
In the high-phi illusion, the brain always perceives the fast jump, even though
it has the choice of perceiving slow motion, or even no motion at all.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: .1pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: .1pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The best way to understand what’s going on is to <a href="http://lpp.psycho.univ-paris5.fr/highphi/basic1.html" target="_blank">watch the illusion in slow motion</a> (by pressing the button on the right), which reveals what we should <i>really</i> be seeing. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: .1pt; text-align: justify;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQP9F2ZYrlZSf6Q1nvAuw2VD7iiRW8OZVW5xjl4IO39qLkhsFJfYYaMtodoUk8oBtfYam3p2OCqx7SyUxEj-PEMdDMUo2y9xkirQ0jrNswSxqKq8VYVVaB3IDg2ZQn2J0aYIjm7aphESju/s1600/article-wexler.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQP9F2ZYrlZSf6Q1nvAuw2VD7iiRW8OZVW5xjl4IO39qLkhsFJfYYaMtodoUk8oBtfYam3p2OCqx7SyUxEj-PEMdDMUo2y9xkirQ0jrNswSxqKq8VYVVaB3IDg2ZQn2J0aYIjm7aphESju/s400/article-wexler.gif" height="400" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">High-phi illusion. The fast jumps are an illusion, in slow motion you see<br />the real image (Credit: Mark Wexler et al. PNAS 2013)</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</span></o:p></div>
<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: .1pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Breaking
the limit</b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: .1pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">To better understand the high-phi illusion,
Wexler and colleagues asked volunteers to watch blob patterns rotating on a
computer screen and then measure the size of the high-phi jumps they saw by
using a visual probe. <a href="http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2013/04/08/1213997110" target="_blank">The results of these experiments were published in March</a>
in the journal <i>Proceedings of the National
Academy of Sciences</i>.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: .1pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: .1pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The team found that <a href="http://lpp.psycho.univ-paris5.fr/highphi/transtype.html" target="_blank">high-phi jumps could be triggered using different tricks</a>, for example, by reverting the contrast of the
blob pattern, or by rotating it in large steps, rather than continuously. And
this is where the high-phi illusion breaks yet another paradigm.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: .1pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: .1pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The theory predicted that the observers wouldn’t
be able to detect any movement when the patterns were shifted in large steps,
above a certain cut off distance- the <i>upper
displacement limit</i> or <i>d<sub>max</sub></i>.
However, this is not what Wexler’s team found. “Below <i>d<sub>max</sub></i>, the steps should be seen as what they are, more or
less. Above <i>d<sub>max</sub></i>, on the
other hand, you're supposed to not perceive motion, just noise. This is not
what happens, though: you perceive the high-phi jump,” Wexler explains.
Strangely enough, the high-phi jumps have a maximum size that is “very closely
correlated with the <i>d<sub>max</sub></i>
limit: people who have higher <i>d<sub>max</sub></i>
limits, also see a larger high-phi jump.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: .1pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: .1pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">John Perrone, an experimental psychologist from
The University of Waikato, in New Zealand, who was not involved in the study says
“The study describes a really interesting motion phenomenon that
helps constrain theories and models of motion processing in humans. […]
The authors have spent a lot of time also carefully testing the various
parameters that influence the [high-phi] effect. These results will be useful
to theoreticians and modellers and will help provide clues as to what
mechanisms underlie the effect.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: .1pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: .1pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So what are the neural mechanisms behind this
optical illusion? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: .1pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“Good question: if we only knew! We can
only describe what’s happening: the brain seems to have a default of very fast
motion. I wish that a physiologist would find a neural correlate to this
effect,” Wexler says.</span></span><br />
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: .1pt; text-align: justify;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Reference:</span></o:p></div>
</div>
<span class="Z3988" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;" title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Ajournal&rft_id=info%3Adoi%2F10.1073%2Fpnas.1213997110&rft.atitle=Default+perception+of+high-speed+motion&rft.jtitle=Proceedings+of+the+National+Academy+of+Sciences&rft.artnum=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pnas.org%2Fcgi%2Fdoi%2F10.1073%2Fpnas.1213997110&rft.volume=110&rft.issue=17&rft.issn=0027-8424&rft.spage=7080&rft.epage=7085&rft.date=2013&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fscienceseeker.org&rft.au=Wexler+M.&rft.aulast=Wexler&rft.aufirst=M.&rft.au=Glennerster+A.&rft.aulast=Glennerster&rft.aufirst=A.&rft.au=Cavanagh+P.&rft.aulast=Cavanagh&rft.aufirst=P.&rft.au=Ito+H.&rft.aulast=Ito&rft.aufirst=H.&rft.au=Seno+T.&rft.aulast=Seno&rft.aufirst=T.&rfs_dat=ss.included=1&rfe_dat=bpr3.included=1;bpr3.tags=Biology%2CNeuroscience%2CPsychology">Wexler M., Glennerster A., Cavanagh P., Ito H. & Seno T. (2013). Default perception of high-speed motion, <span style="font-style: italic;">Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 110</span> (17) 7080-7085. DOI: <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1073%2Fpnas.1213997110" rel="author">10.1073/pnas.1213997110</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This article was published in<i> Lab Times</i> on 4-10-2013. You can read it<a href="http://www.labtimes.org/editorial/e_454.lasso" target="_blank"> here.</a> </span><br />
<br />Isabel Torreshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00724636726605405730noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6217817228764059649.post-30743087312839882662013-09-19T14:56:00.000-07:002015-03-18T02:30:46.196-07:00Baby zebras can suckle for psychological needs, not just for feeding<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">All mammals are born with a sucking reflex - an instinct on which
their lives depend - but human babies are unique in that they also need to suck
for comfort. Or so it was thought. A new study now shows evidence
suggesting that baby zebras can suckle for psychological needs, rather than
just for feeding.</span><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
</div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhog8Alf7UIbHm2xhReQ5Q2lVqqp37NfNWX33JxLVr2qx96kkDOBNcYRydGiaR7RTf-V9sPCa3nzBKdkRxYoWvDd9u009-Hxq4ZlkdZK6gPL3Hsw0cOPOV5gfkOEREKM7_YfhjQfcM_gAw0/s1600/800px-Grevy_Zebra.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhog8Alf7UIbHm2xhReQ5Q2lVqqp37NfNWX33JxLVr2qx96kkDOBNcYRydGiaR7RTf-V9sPCa3nzBKdkRxYoWvDd9u009-Hxq4ZlkdZK6gPL3Hsw0cOPOV5gfkOEREKM7_YfhjQfcM_gAw0/s400/800px-Grevy_Zebra.jpg" height="267" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Grévy's zebra foal</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">
The use of soothers is a sensitive
topic amongst parents. Soothers (also known as pacifiers or dummies) comfort babies
and help them sleeping, but many parents go through great lengths (and many sleepless
nights) to avoid using a soother. These concerned parents may fear their baby
will develop crooked teeth, or have problems breastfeeding, or they may simply
find soothers unnatural. Regardless of their individual choices, all parents will agree that their baby has a need to suck-
whether it’s a soother, a thumb or an old rag. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
T<span lang="EN-US">here are
many studies showing that so-called 'non-nutritive sucking' can</span><span lang="EN-US"> </span>comfort babies, help them to settle,
reduce the risk of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) and even increase
tolerance to pain. <a href="http://www.cuh.org.uk/rosie/services/neonatal/nicu/developmental_care/support_comforting_baby.html#sucking" target="_blank">The use of soothers is therefore often recommended in intensive care units </a>for premature babies and sick newborns who sadly may need painful medical procedures. But is ‘comfort sucking’ widespread amongst mammals or a
specific evolutionary adaptation of our species?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: .1pt; mso-para-margin-bottom: .01gd; mso-para-margin-left: 0cm; mso-para-margin-right: 0cm; mso-para-margin-top: .01gd; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: .1pt; mso-para-margin-bottom: .01gd; mso-para-margin-left: 0cm; mso-para-margin-right: 0cm; mso-para-margin-top: .01gd; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Scientists previously assumed that the
duration and frequency of suckling reflected the energetic needs of the young –
the longer an infant spent suckling, the more milk it drank. But studies in mammals directly
measuring infant weight gain and time spent suckling have shown no correlation
between the two. So why do babies and mums across
so many species invest so much time and energy nursing? One of the reasons is
bonding, but there is more to it.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span></div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg78AoJ4yojRoDMbiuKvcsA6O1T2quNVi731cwLoSyIa_MK3rXQqs6hlE7rIvXRhrd1HjhFMF37r5rLli0dUZ3Rvaj_r71Dcu6cX3A7Rx1ahD1F7VIeRrZiexu-4vGKMzMdXLVOG41kvKI5/s1600/Zebre_grevy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg78AoJ4yojRoDMbiuKvcsA6O1T2quNVi731cwLoSyIa_MK3rXQqs6hlE7rIvXRhrd1HjhFMF37r5rLli0dUZ3Rvaj_r71Dcu6cX3A7Rx1ahD1F7VIeRrZiexu-4vGKMzMdXLVOG41kvKI5/s400/Zebre_grevy.jpg" height="266" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Grévy's zebra mare with her foals</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jzo.12077/abstract" target="_blank">In a new study published in the September issue of the <i>Journal of Zoology</i></a>, a research team from the
Institute of Animal Science and Czech University of Life Sciences, in Prague, Czech
Republic, compared suckling behaviour in three zebra species - mountain, plains and Grévy's zebras. These species are
closely related but have very different social organisations, so the
researchers could ask whether time spent suckling might reflect the social needs of the young.<o:p></o:p> </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
Mountain and plains zebras live in stable
groups, or ‘harems’, of several females, their babies (or foals) and only one
male, while Grévy’s zebras prefer to graze on their own and form loose social
bonds. Zebras are far from being docile creatures - to defend their position in
the harem social hierarchy, mountain and plains zebra females (called mares) take
their gloves off and become very aggressive. Mountain zebra mares are
especially hostile, and can sometimes even harass unrelated foals. Grévy’s
zebras are the least aggressive of the three species, perhaps because of their
more solitary nature.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The researchers observed the suckling
behaviour of 30 foals of mountain, plains and Grévy’s zebras at the Dvůr
Králové Zoo throughout several years. After watching the zebra herds for an
impressive total of about 1,500 hours, the results were clear: mountain zebra foals
suckled for longer and more frequently, followed by plains and Grévy’s zebras.
As mountain zebra herds have the highest aggression rates and Grévy’s zebra the
lowest, the team concluded that baby zebras spend more time suckling in species
where there is higher social tension.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioNmWIeQ_zK__EYEAxJvDxUJ4YkBbxg_bZ2zRYtoM47yUPr3FriNiuRvxOC1KzaF4Y52M7Sjv1VCXJOzv_ItE009wePdV90YUsR6lfPHtTqTH07uYUhDerPENlcb_Y5Mg8RsausC35XxFC/s1600/3228143998_dd4e424b87_o.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioNmWIeQ_zK__EYEAxJvDxUJ4YkBbxg_bZ2zRYtoM47yUPr3FriNiuRvxOC1KzaF4Y52M7Sjv1VCXJOzv_ItE009wePdV90YUsR6lfPHtTqTH07uYUhDerPENlcb_Y5Mg8RsausC35XxFC/s400/3228143998_dd4e424b87_o.jpg" height="275" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Plains zebra foal suckling (Credit: by Chadica/Flickr)</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">
Because the study was
performed on zebras held in captivity - and so all zebras were exposed to the same
living conditions - these differences in sucking behaviour can’t be explained
by water or food availability, or by a specific adaptation of each species to its unique
environment. But the authors of the study are nevertheless cautious about over-interpreting
their results:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
“I don’t think that
the foal initiated suckling to seek comfort and stress reduction. What I think
is that the suckling bout duration reflects the psychological needs of the foal
rather than the milk transfer. Thus, prolonged suckling can reflect social
tension”, says Jan Pluháček, an ethologist at the Institute of Animal Science
and leading author in the study.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
Previous studies in primates and rodents had
shown a link between maternal care and social organisation, but Pluháček and
colleagues provide new evidence suggesting that, at least in zebras, suckling
may not only be a means for the young to feed or to bond with mum- it could
also reflect their psychological needs.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
“We suppose that when
any tension in the herd occurs then the young try to stay for longer with the
mother, and longer suckling can strengthen the bond between young and mother in
all mammalian species” says Pluháček “[…] in zebras 98% of suckling is
initiated by the foal. So it’s the foal who seeks soothing via suckling.” </span></div>
<!--EndFragment--><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Reference:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Z3988" title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Ajournal&rft_id=info%3Adoi%2F10.1111%2Fjzo.12077&rft.atitle=Time+spent+suckling+is+affected+by+different+social+organization+in+three+zebra+species&rft.jtitle=Journal+of+Zoology&rft.artnum=http%3A%2F%2Fonlinelibrary.wiley.com%2Fdoi%2F10.1111%2Fjzo.12077%2Fabstract&rft.date=2013&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fscienceseeker.org&rft.au=Pluh%C3%A1%C4%8Dek+Jan&rft.aulast=Pluh%C3%A1%C4%8Dek&rft.aufirst=Jan&rfs_dat=ss.included=1&rfe_dat=bpr3.included=1;bpr3.tags=Biology%2CEcology+%2F+Conservation">Pluháček J. et al. (2013). Time spent suckling is affected by different social organization in three zebra species, <span style="font-style: italic;">Journal of Zoology, </span> DOI: <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1111%2Fjzo.12077" rel="author">10.1111/jzo.12077</a></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>Isabel Torreshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00724636726605405730noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6217817228764059649.post-74441499253346951992013-08-13T06:36:00.000-07:002015-03-18T02:34:30.024-07:00Rare embryo discovery gives hints on how dinosaurs reproduced<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Sometime in the Late Jurassic era, a dinosaur nest was
hit by a fatal tragedy and its eggs never hatched. Whatever killed the baby
dinos - perhaps a hungry predator or a flood - was a stroke of luck for the
team of paleontologists who, about 150 million years later, stumbled on the
crushed eggs and embryo remains in the Lourinhã geological formation, in
Portugal. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“Most of the time what happens is that you find eggs
without embryos, to find them together is really a matter of chance,” says
Ricardo Araújo, lead author in the recent <a href="http://www.nature.com/srep/2013/130530/srep01924/full/srep01924.html" target="_blank"><i>Scientific Reports</i> study describing the Lourinhã fossils</a>.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiDuRHhiGbAwBcfvCHQ5WZaJJqUBYQOa_3NlufH3JwYE0eh1F2ap6oD-5YOUdpvNcTzFM318kBPRdZRgN-8RQbbM_mMq-dyJCnc4jdnIUAsOLcZht_UxJnclnrcJjkRuz5386vJ6PoSwTl/s1600/800px-Lourinha%CC%83_Formation.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiDuRHhiGbAwBcfvCHQ5WZaJJqUBYQOa_3NlufH3JwYE0eh1F2ap6oD-5YOUdpvNcTzFM318kBPRdZRgN-8RQbbM_mMq-dyJCnc4jdnIUAsOLcZht_UxJnclnrcJjkRuz5386vJ6PoSwTl/s400/800px-Lourinha%CC%83_Formation.jpg" height="300" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Lourinhã geological formation </span><span style="font-size: x-small;">(Credit: wikipedia commons)</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</span></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Findings of fossilised eggs with embryos are extremely
rare - no more than a handful have ever been found. But without embryos it is virtually
impossible to link an egg to a specific dinosaur species. So although many dinosaur
eggs have been discovered all around the world, sadly we still know little
about how dinosaurs reproduced and looked after their babies.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Araújo and colleagues at the <a href="http://www.museulourinha.org/" target="_blank">Museum of Lourinhã</a> didn’t
immediately realise the importance of their fossil discovery; it wasn’t until
they prepared the specimens in the lab that they saw tiny teeth and bones
amongst the broken eggshells. “That’s when the good news really happened,”
Araújo says. <u><o:p></o:p></u></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The dinosaur baby teeth had nothing cute about them -
they were long, pointy and sharp. Together with other bone features, the shape
of the fossilised teeth gave away their identity: they belonged to <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Torvosaurus</i>, the top meat-eating predator
of the Late Jurassic era.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVS5FTqO9GhUXRqInizICcINK_JKCUWw2Ykkhg7aJf00h5bxYuAPasUUqs6irGt129fSRbeSZSBcYyWQ2_H13dGm_zHq1pGNhNBqvZSf78mF4A-vJsFgdxbwM2I6GIFFSUEYWuVtvarhAV/s1600/Araujo2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVS5FTqO9GhUXRqInizICcINK_JKCUWw2Ykkhg7aJf00h5bxYuAPasUUqs6irGt129fSRbeSZSBcYyWQ2_H13dGm_zHq1pGNhNBqvZSf78mF4A-vJsFgdxbwM2I6GIFFSUEYWuVtvarhAV/s400/Araujo2.jpg" height="391" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Sketch of the anterior part of the embryonic maxilla, showing the sharp teeth.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">(Credit: Museu da Lourinhã)</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Torvosaurus</i> is an older, or 'primitive', dinosaur
of the theropod family, which includes large carnivorous predators like the famous <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Tyrannosaurus</i> and also modern birds.
Even though <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Torvosaurus </i>lived (and
was extinct) well before <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Tyrannosaurus</i>
was around, it<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> </i>looked a lot like its
cousin- it had huge jaws and walked on two legs, but it had longer and stronger
arms. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Torvosaurus</i> was also nearly as
big as <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Tyrannosaurus</i>, measuring up to
11 meters and weighing about two tons. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Partial fossils of adult <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Torvosaurus </i>have been found in North America and in the Lourinhã
formation, but no embryos had ever been discovered. Up until now that is. The new
specimens are the oldest theropod embryos found to date.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"Before we had examples of eggs and embryos of
very advanced theropod dinosaurs, but we didn’t know anything at all of what
was happening at the base of the family tree," says Araújo “[…] this
finding is one of the oldest in the world, and it’s certainly the oldest for theropod dinosaurs,” he adds. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So what do these new fossils tell us about how primitive
theropods lived? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">By using a bunch of high tech methods, like high-power
electron microscopy, the Lourinhã researchers looked in extreme detail at the microstructure
of the eggshell pieces. They found that <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Torvosaurus</i>’
eggs had a single structural layer, in contrast to advanced theropods that have
more complex eggshells with two or even three layers (including modern birds, which
are technically living dinosaurs). <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It was known that primitive dinosaurs from other
families had single-layered eggs, but theropods were the missing piece in the
puzzle. “Now we have the evidence that eggshells of primitive dinosaurs only
have one structural layer,” Araújo says. It appears that eggshell complexity
increased throughout dinosaur egg evolution. But this isn’t all. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiG1BZ0O8Q5Zk5U-ctFkefQkTNLEPXiMv9Ml2sjZu1VAg9GAJvYRMlygMZMwUHQx7PK8T36z0jGttqG8ksldOEj1gM4B6eL1cSlSkBU2TzmlVPQKMbhxiLYJBacZJz2EXinIo2jKu9TdTGp/s1600/Araujo1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiG1BZ0O8Q5Zk5U-ctFkefQkTNLEPXiMv9Ml2sjZu1VAg9GAJvYRMlygMZMwUHQx7PK8T36z0jGttqG8ksldOEj1gM4B6eL1cSlSkBU2TzmlVPQKMbhxiLYJBacZJz2EXinIo2jKu9TdTGp/s400/Araujo1.jpg" height="348" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Torvosaurus </i>is a basal or 'primitive' member of the theropod dinosaur family (Credit: Vladimir Bondar <br />
& GEAL - CIID - Museu da Lourinhã)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Torvosaurus</i>’
eggshells have another interesting (and strange) feature- they have huge pores,
or holes. Bird, reptile and dinosaur eggshells have pores so gases can be
exchanged between the inside and the outside of the egg, so the embryos can
breath. As a rule of thumb, eggs with larger pores are laid in a moist
substrate, while eggs with smaller pores are incubated in nests exposed to air.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Torvosaurus </i>eggshells
have large pores that “interconnect in a network towards the top of the
eggshells,” explains Araújo “this is really different from what was found to
date”. The eggshell pore size suggests that <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Torvosaurus</i>
buried their eggs, just like most modern reptiles. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Another indication that <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Torvosaurus</i>’ eggs were buried is the fact that the fossilised eggshells
and embryos are exceptionally well preserved. "The eggshells are nearly
exactly the same as they were 150 million years ago," says Araújo<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">.</i> Being underground would have protected
the fossils from bacteria and atmospheric erosion. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“Dinosaur embryos are very rare and also challenging
to identify,” says David Varricchio, a paleontologist from Montana State
University “This study provides an important addition to our understanding on
dinosaur reproduction.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The Lourinhã formation is very rich in Late Jurassic
fossils; it has many dinosaur nests and footprints, and countless invertebrate
fossils. Araújo notes “There have been more discoveries and […] they will give
further insights into dinosaurs and other types of vertebrates from 150 million
years ago in Portugal. Finding other eggshells and embryo associations from
other groups of dinosaurs would be really helpful to complete the picture.”</span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Reference:</span></div>
<span class="Z3988" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;" title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Ajournal&rft_id=info%3Adoi%2F10.1038%2Fsrep01924&rft.atitle=Filling+the+gaps+of+dinosaur+eggshell+phylogeny%3A+Late+Jurassic+Theropod+clutch+with+embryos+from+Portugal&rft.jtitle=Scientific+Reports&rft.artnum=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.nature.com%2Fdoifinder%2F10.1038%2Fsrep01924&rft.volume=3&rft.issn=2045-2322&rft.date=2013&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fscienceseeker.org&rft.au=Ara%C3%BAjo+Ricardo&rft.aulast=Ara%C3%BAjo&rft.aufirst=Ricardo&rft.au=Castanhinha+Rui&rft.aulast=Castanhinha&rft.aufirst=Rui&rft.au=Martins+Rui+M.+S.&rft.aulast=Martins&rft.aufirst=Rui+M.+S.&rft.au=Mateus+Oct%C3%A1vio&rft.aulast=Mateus&rft.aufirst=Oct%C3%A1vio&rft.au=Hendrickx+Christophe&rft.aulast=Hendrickx&rft.aufirst=Christophe&rft.au=Beckmann+F.&rft.aulast=Beckmann&rft.aufirst=F.&rft.au=Schell+N.&rft.aulast=Schell&rft.aufirst=N.&rft.au=Alves+L.+C.&rft.aulast=Alves&rft.aufirst=L.+C.&rfs_dat=ss.included=1&rfe_dat=bpr3.included=1;bpr3.tags=Biology%2CGeosciences">Araújo R., Castanhinha R., Martins R.M.S., Mateus O., Hendrickx C., Beckmann F., Schell N. & Alves L.C. (2013). Filling the gaps of dinosaur eggshell phylogeny: Late Jurassic Theropod clutch with embryos from Portugal, <span style="font-style: italic;">Scientific Reports, 3</span> DOI: <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1038%2Fsrep01924" rel="author">10.1038/srep01924</a></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This article was publish in Lab Times on the 13-08-2013. You can read it <a href="http://www.labtimes.org/editorial/e_439.lasso" target="_blank">here</a>.</span><br />
<br />Isabel Torreshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00724636726605405730noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6217817228764059649.post-81631076456453327072013-07-08T11:21:00.001-07:002015-03-18T02:39:20.293-07:00The strange virus from the sewage<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Viruses can infect all types of organisms. Unable to
multiply on their own, viruses parasitise animals, plants, bacteria and even other
viruses, in order to propagate. Bacteria-killing viruses, called bacteriophages or simply phages, are the most abundant and diverse organisms on the planet. It
is estimated that there are over 100 million different phages, but only about 0.0002% of phage genomes
have been sequenced. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Sewage-polluted waters, like some lakes and ponds, are
a sample haven for virologists- they are filled with organic material on
which bacteria thrive; and where there are bacteria, there are bacteriophages.
It was in one of these bacteria broths, about 200km northwest of Vilnius, in Lithuania, that a research team led by Rolandas Meskys and Laura Kaliniene found Rak2, a phage
unlike any other.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlcnpNbFMxVBa9aElQt0Byc3a0wYi9GrHUEvZZTiBpERA7XtwqT3lGohnFmawWkTiXrCvmPaWR318xNtc9j6oSnhIAYwFoEfWCMGB8pZ17pxLVOoFwJZhReeRgWfa84Kz8zXPRGAEuHxfR/s1600/pipe-outlet-discharge-3358170-o.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlcnpNbFMxVBa9aElQt0Byc3a0wYi9GrHUEvZZTiBpERA7XtwqT3lGohnFmawWkTiXrCvmPaWR318xNtc9j6oSnhIAYwFoEfWCMGB8pZ17pxLVOoFwJZhReeRgWfa84Kz8zXPRGAEuHxfR/s400/pipe-outlet-discharge-3358170-o.jpg" height="400" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: start;"><div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;">Water contaminated with sewage is a sample-haven for virologists. </span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;">(Credit: Flickr/eutrophication&hypoxia)</span><br />
<br /></div>
</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</span></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Merciless lifestyle</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Bacteriophages latch on to bacteria and then transfer
their genetic material into them. In a matter of minutes, the
bacterial cellular machines replicate and translate the phage genes into
viral proteins, which assemble into hundreds of new viral particles. Merciless
to their host, the new phages burst the bacterium to free themselves and move
on to infect other victims. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Despite the phages' tiny size - about 100 times smaller
than bacteria - with the help of high-power electron microscopes (EM),
scientists can see them in quite some detail. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The most abundant types of phage are by far the </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Caudovirales</i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">, or tailed phages, which
have a maraca shape, with a head (containing the genetic information)
and, as the name suggests, a tail. The phage tail is a versatile lethal weapon.
First, it recognises the right bacteria host by protein matching, like a barcode
reading machine. Second, it works as an anchor, firmly attaching the phage to
the bacterial surface. And finally, the phage tail acts as a syringe, by
piercing the bacterial cell wall and pushing viral DNA through it.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It was the shape of the Rak2 phage that first intrigued Meskys and his colleagues at the University of Vilnius. "The morphology of this phage is amazing," he says.</span> <span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Detailed EM images revealed that Rak2 is a tailed
virus from the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Myoviridae</i> family, which typically have a contractile tail with six fibres at the end. But Rak2’s
tail is very special. “The EM shows that the tail fibres contain spikes, this is
only known in a few phages,” explains Meskys. Rak2’s tail structure, with its
spiky fibres, resembles the tails of some myoviruses, but other features, like
the absence of prongs and the intricate pattern of the spikes, set Rak2 aside
from any other known phages. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyvhbQxZMTkL7r6-8ww2dOhB0CGGuwzcmlivQ6FKvHJYg0UbO3hIPWni1Kbfx8mL6pSJ0szEe5c5x5jK-ETaBGq61LBbLn8_w9sTrAwqDI5Baj8hqXdmk4-wiCIgm6mkPrsLOx-hlP-lvu/s599/491px-PhageExterior.svg.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyvhbQxZMTkL7r6-8ww2dOhB0CGGuwzcmlivQ6FKvHJYg0UbO3hIPWni1Kbfx8mL6pSJ0szEe5c5x5jK-ETaBGq61LBbLn8_w9sTrAwqDI5Baj8hqXdmk4-wiCIgm6mkPrsLOx-hlP-lvu/s400/491px-PhageExterior.svg.png" height="400" width="327" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Typical myovirus bacteriophage (Credit: wikipedia)</span><br />
<br /></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</span></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A giant phage<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The other unusual thing about Rak2 is its genome- it’s
huge. With about 534 predicted genes, Rak2 is the fourth largest myovirus
sequenced to date, and the largest phage known to infect <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Klebsiella</i> sp. bacteria, Rak2’s only host. But size isn’t
everything; Rak2’s genome is truly unique. About half of its genes don’t have
any similarity to other viral genes, and a significant proportion of its
predicted proteins have an unknown function. The 117 genes that do encode for
well-described proteins, such as tail or DNA repair proteins, show similarities
to genes of different phage families, but also to some bacterial genes. Meskys says “Philogenetic analysis shows that this phage is quite mosaic, some parts
[of the genome] are more similar to the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Myoviridae</i>
group and other parts to the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Podoviridae</i>
group, maybe there was some horizontal transfer of genes.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Horizontal gene transfer occurs when genes ‘jump’ from
one species to another. For instance, different bacteria strains can exchange
antibiotic-resistance genes between them in a process called conjugation- the
closest thing bacteria have to sex. Viruses can exchange genes between them and
also with their host. Instead of killing their host cell, some viruses,
including phages, insert their DNA into the host’s genome so it replicates with its DNA. When the viral DNA leaves the host’s genome, it can carry along
some chunks of it, or, more often, it can leave some of its own DNA behind.
Because several viruses can invade the same host, genes from one virus might
end up in another virus’ genome. It is estimated that a whopping 8% of the
human genome is made of viral DNA, and it seems that most species, from
bacteria, to mammals and plants, carry viral genes in their genome.
Bacteriophages are experts in this kind of inter-species gene mixing, and Rak2
appears to have an extreme mishmash genome.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSuG4AonsLYNIQVVsKL046i8CbD2kr38ROFQQzntpFGlv3kOCqYzTGoNFZlO-ORe2HyAiDnq4lBGZ428HPwfhYHsYzbUx4by0I_O26ka7t-TopoqkpxwGe9ItSmzTSbOsGvCoa23hk21Md/s1276/rak2.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSuG4AonsLYNIQVVsKL046i8CbD2kr38ROFQQzntpFGlv3kOCqYzTGoNFZlO-ORe2HyAiDnq4lBGZ428HPwfhYHsYzbUx4by0I_O26ka7t-TopoqkpxwGe9ItSmzTSbOsGvCoa23hk21Md/s400/rak2.png" height="315" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">EM images of Rak2 phages (Credit: PLoS ONE/Rolandas Meskys)</span></td></tr>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">An alternative
to antibiotics?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Meskys plans to continue working on this phage. He
would like to understand the function of its unique proteins predicted by
sequence analysis. “We found a gene that predicts a huge protein with no
functional homology in any other phage. What is this protein doing?” he asks.
There are also potential applications for Rak2. Historically, phages have been
used in medicine to treat bacterial infections, such as dysentery and cholera,
but with the discovery of antibiotics this approach was mostly abandoned. Now,
with the dangerous rise in antibiotic-resistance bacteria strains, phage
therapy is coming back in vogue. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">There are many advantages for using phage therapy.
Unlike antibiotics, phages target specific bacteria strains, so the ‘friendly’
bacteria in our guts are left unharmed. If bacteria become resistant to a </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">phage, it can quickly change to overcome </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">the new resistance, while new antibiotics </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">take over ten years to be developed</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Besides, new phages targeting
multi-resistant bacteria can easily be identified in sewage samples. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Another key difference between using antibiotics and phage therapy is that, in contrast</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> to antibiotics, which normally just prevent bacteria from multiplying, phages actually destroy bacteria. And they do it with finesse- at low dosage (phage dose
is increased ‘naturally’ by replication in the bacteria) and with negligible
toxicity for the human patient. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A number of pharmaceutical companies are also developing phages for other
applications, such as veterinary, agriculture, food control and drug
delivery, just to name a few. “If we could identify which type of tail spikes
are involved in the recognition of a specific bacteria strain, […] maybe we
will be able to change the spike proteins so that the phage attacks other
bacteria that are more important for medicine or food,” Meskys says.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A productive
department<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Meskys currently runs a research department at the
Institute of Biochemistry of the University of Vilnius, the country’s capital.
With six research groups working on several aspects of bacteriophage diversity
and biocatalysis, the department operates as a huge lab. “If we have a
particular problem to solve, we can involve different members of the department
to solve it.” Meskys has a strong creative input in the department’s research
and plays an essential part in getting intra-departmental collaborations going.
“I am involved in all research groups […] I need someone to implement my crazy
ideas,” he jokes. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A biochemistry graduate, Meskys began his research career as
a PhD student in <span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Valdas Laurinavicius’s
lab</span> at the Institute of Biochemistry, where he later established himself
as an independent researcher and finally was promoted to head of department in
2002. Despite having spent his entire career in Lithuania, Meskys started
multiple international collaborations and has, in several instances, been
invited to teach or visit labs in other countries. There are fruitful relations
established in the department with local and foreign biotech companies. “We are
cooperating in the screening for new enzymes for chemical synthesis,
diagnostics, food processing etc. Our expertise is in development of new
screening technologies,” he says. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgL3iaIDQZLNsWYXBqDhWoh917hUnVrAQlFRVukH188jdHJUZ880Kz4HgpygPGLfxcuB30JDuUr0gkvMJl6LHXkSfn3hKN18fAz28cLePQOba55lJhFd-aJ1R1zTo7mWk7seRJC5F6Nlizr/s1600/Foto1.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgL3iaIDQZLNsWYXBqDhWoh917hUnVrAQlFRVukH188jdHJUZ880Kz4HgpygPGLfxcuB30JDuUr0gkvMJl6LHXkSfn3hKN18fAz28cLePQOba55lJhFd-aJ1R1zTo7mWk7seRJC5F6Nlizr/s400/Foto1.JPG" height="265" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">Laura Kaliniene, lead author of the Rak2 study, holding a phage plate.</span></td></tr>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Research in
Lithuania<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The main source of research funding in Lithuania is
the Lithuanian Research Council (LRC). Like many research institutions in
Europe, the LRC gives priority to applied research. Most research grants are allocated
to projects with potential industrial applications, or to groups with high
number of publications and patent submissions. “There is pressure to show that
you are achieving something,” says Meskys, but there are also smaller grants
for projects “where you can do what you want,” but the competition is high.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Despite Lithuania’s fast growing economy, rising
unemployment and low salaries continue pushing highly skilled Lithuanians
abroad. "We are losing the bright and
intelligent people, emigration is a huge problem for Lithuania.” Meskys adds
that there is a ‘narrow market’ in research in Lithuania, so students prefer to
do their PhDs in countries like the UK, Denmark or the USA. But there is some
world-leading research in Lithuania, especially in the fields of biochemistry
and laser technology (a certain type of laser produced in Lithuania accounts
for 80% of the world market), and the number of biotech start-ups is on the
rise; for example, Fermentas, which was bought by Thermo-Fisher in 2010, was
originally a Lithuanian company. “Some research fields are well established,
Vilnius University is more than 400 years old, […] in some specialities there
are long traditions.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Reference:</span></div>
<span class="Z3988" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;" title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Ajournal&rft_id=info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0060717.s003&rft.atitle=Klebsiella+Phage+vB_KleM-RaK2+%E2%80%94+A+Giant+Singleton+Virus+of+the+Family+Myoviridae&rft.jtitle=PLoS+ONE&rft.artnum=http%3A%2F%2Fdx.plos.org%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0060717&rft.volume=8&rft.issue=4&rft.issn=1932-6203&rft.spage=e60717&rft.date=2013&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fscienceseeker.org&rft.au=%C5%A0imoli%C5%ABnas+Eugenijus&rft.aulast=%C5%A0imoli%C5%ABnas&rft.aufirst=Eugenijus&rft.au=Kaliniene+Laura&rft.aulast=Kaliniene&rft.aufirst=Laura&rft.au=Truncait%C4%97+Lidija&rft.aulast=Truncait%C4%97&rft.aufirst=Lidija&rft.au=Zajan%C4%8Dkauskait%C4%97+Aurelija&rft.aulast=Zajan%C4%8Dkauskait%C4%97&rft.aufirst=Aurelija&rft.au=Staniulis+Juozas&rft.aulast=Staniulis&rft.aufirst=Juozas&rft.au=Kaupinis+Algirdas&rft.aulast=Kaupinis&rft.aufirst=Algirdas&rft.au=Ger+Marija&rft.aulast=Ger&rft.aufirst=Marija&rft.au=Valius+Mindaugas&rft.aulast=Valius&rft.aufirst=Mindaugas&rft.au=Me%C5%A1kys+Rolandas&rft.aulast=Me%C5%A1kys&rft.aufirst=Rolandas&rft.au=van+Raaij+Mark+J.&rft.aulast=van+Raaij&rft.aufirst=Mark+J.&rfs_dat=ss.included=1&rfe_dat=bpr3.included=1;bpr3.tags=Biology">Šimoliūnas E., Kaliniene L., Truncaitė L., Zajančkauskaitė A., Staniulis J., Kaupinis A., Ger M., Valius M., Meškys R. & van Raaij M.J. & (2013). Klebsiella Phage vB_KleM-RaK2 — A Giant Singleton Virus of the Family Myoviridae, <span style="font-style: italic;">PLoS ONE, 8</span> (4) e60717. DOI: <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0060717.s003" rel="author">10.1371/journal.pone.0060717.s003</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This is a modified version of my article published in Lab Times on 5-07-13. You can read it <a href="http://www.labtimes.org/labtimes/issues/lt2013/lt04/lt_2013_04_26_27.pdf" target="_blank">here</a>.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
Isabel Torreshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00724636726605405730noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6217817228764059649.post-12251264928202879232013-05-20T12:35:00.000-07:002013-05-20T12:35:18.049-07:00Why don't men understand women?<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Men might have found
themselves an excuse not to listen to women. New research suggests that men
have twice more difficulty reading emotions in women than in men. This may not
sound surprising, but evidence that men have trouble understanding women is, at best, scarce.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Being able to guess someone
else’s thoughts, feelings and intentions is an instinctive social skill that
develops in early childhood. We might take it for granted, but people who struggle
or are unable to read other people, like people with autism spectrum
disorders, have serious problems in communicating and interacting socially. This
important ‘mindreading’ trait, so far thought to be unique to our species,
recruits a complex brain network. Different, but partially
overlapping, brain regions are activated when we perceive mental states like
beliefs, intentions or desires (mentalizing) and when we ‘feel’ the emotions of
another person (empathy). <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0060278" target="_blank">In a new <i>PLoSONE</i> study</a>, Boris Schiffer’s research group at the University of
Duisburg-Essen, Germany, investigates whether there are differences in neural activation
when men recognise emotions in women when compared to men. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The researchers asked 22
healthy adult men to do a modified version of the ‘Reading the Mind in the Eyes’
(RME) test while their brain activity was measured using functional magnetic
resonance imaging (fMRI). The RME test has been used in countless studies to
measure mentalizing and empathy (you can take the test <a href="http://www.questionwritertracker.com/quiz/61/Z4MK3TKB.html" target="_blank">here</a>). In this study, each participant had to guess
what either a man or a woman in a photo was thinking or feeling from looking
only at his or her eyes. For each of the 36 pairs of eyes, there was a choice
of two mental states, for instance ‘terrified’ or ‘upset’. The participants
performed better in the test when the eyes belonged to men, suggesting that men
have greater difficulty in recognising mental states in women than in their own
gender. But the question is… why? The fMRI readings shed some light into this.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Schiffer and colleagues predicted
that recognising mental states in male or female eyes would activate brain
areas involved in mentalizing and empathy, and this is what they found. But
there was more. Some areas were more active when the participants were guessing
emotions in men, and others when they were recognising emotions in women. It isn't clear what these results mean though. As these differently activated brain
regions have in one way or another previously been involved in memory, the
authors speculate that they are recruited to retrieve either autobiographical
emotional memories (when the participants look at male eyes) or memories of
past encounters with women (when they look at female eyes). But this doesn’t
explain why men have more difficulty in perceiving women’s emotions. There was,
however, another clue in the fMRI readings. Just looking at male eyes, without
having to do any particular task, activated the amygdala, which is a brain region associated with processing of emotions and empathy. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The authors suggest that when
men respond to their own gender, emotion and empathy brain networks are
recruited (because men can more easily relate to other men), and this might
enhance their ability to perceive mental states. A few studies support this
idea. For instance, <a href="http://www.cell.com/current-biology/retrieve/pii/S0960982206015582" target="_blank">one study </a>showed that men are better than women at
recognising angry faces in men. Schiffer and colleagues further speculate
that in evolutionary terms, ‘it makes more sense’, they claim, that we should be
better at mentalizing about people that are most similar to us. This would have
been particularly important for men in the ‘ancient times’, the authors add, as
men were hunting and fighting for territory and it was advantageous for them to predict
the intentions of their male rivals. But while this is an attractive
hypothesis, it remains rather speculative.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And what about women? The main
lingering question from this research is perhaps whether women are also better
at reading mental states in individuals of their own gender. According to the
authors, the prediction is that they should. So men should not be too quick to
blame their gender for not understanding the opposite sex- this may backfire. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Reference:</span></div>
<!--EndFragment--><span class="Z3988" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;" title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Ajournal&rft_id=info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0060278.g003&rft.atitle=Why+Don%27t+Men+Understand+Women%3F+Altered+Neural+Networks+for+Reading+the+Language+of+Male+and+Female+Eyes&rft.jtitle=PLoS+ONE&rft.artnum=http%3A%2F%2Fdx.plos.org%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0060278&rft.volume=8&rft.issue=4&rft.issn=1932-6203&rft.spage=e60278&rft.date=2013&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fscienceseeker.org&rft.au=Schiffer+Boris&rft.aulast=Schiffer&rft.aufirst=Boris&rft.au=Pawliczek+Christina&rft.aulast=Pawliczek&rft.aufirst=Christina&rft.au=M%C3%BCller+Bernhard+W.&rft.aulast=M%C3%BCller&rft.aufirst=Bernhard+W.&rft.au=Gizewski+Elke+R.&rft.aulast=Gizewski&rft.aufirst=Elke+R.&rft.au=Walter+Henrik&rft.aulast=Walter&rft.aufirst=Henrik&rft.au=Krueger+Frank&rft.aulast=Krueger&rft.aufirst=Frank&rfs_dat=ss.included=1&rfe_dat=bpr3.included=1;bpr3.tags=Biology%2CNeuroscience">Schiffer B., Pawliczek C., Müller B.W., Gizewski E.R., Walter H. & Krueger F. (2013). Why Don't Men Understand Women? Altered Neural Networks for Reading the Language of Male and Female Eyes, <span style="font-style: italic;">PLoS ONE, 8</span> (4) e60278. DOI: <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0060278.g003" rel="author">10.1371/journal.pone.0060278.g003</a></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This article was published in Lab Times on 15-05-2013. You can read it <a href="http://www.labtimes.org/editorial/e_414.lasso" target="_blank">here</a>.</span><br />
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<br />
<br />Isabel Torreshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00724636726605405730noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6217817228764059649.post-67777009877484097502013-05-13T03:41:00.000-07:002013-05-14T14:32:00.548-07:00Multi-tasking pigments<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<i><span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Carotenoids
are organic pigments that play contrasting roles during photosynthesis in
absorbing light energy and protecting plants from excess of light. Roberto
Bassi’s research group now reveals that carotenoids have yet a new trick up
their sleeve.<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Plants and other photosynthetic
organisms live in a catch-22 situation. “Plants produce oxygen but are also
poisoned by oxygen,” says Roberto Bassi, an Italian plant physiologist who has
been passionate about photosynthesis since his graduate degree at the Padua
University Botanical Garden. Bassi’s research group at Verona University played
a pivotal role in understanding the dual function of carotenoid pigments in
absorbing light energy and protecting the photosynthetic machinery against light-induced
damage by oxygen. Now his team has identified a new unexpected function for
carotenoids in controlling the production of photosynthetic proteins. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Carotenoids are organic
pigments made by plants, algae, fungi and cyanobacteria that are found in all
organisms (animals obtain them from food). Besides their fundamental roles in
photosynthesis, carotenoids can act as plant hormones, vitamins, odours, colours
(in fruits, flowers and bird feathers, for instance) and, in the eye retina, photo-protection. There are two types of carotenoids: carotenes, which give
carrots their orange colour, and their oxygenated offshoots, the yellow
xanthophylls. In plant leaves, carotenoids are normally masked by chlorophyll,
but they put on a show in autumn as chlorophyll gets degraded and their
striking orange and yellow colours are revealed. <o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgACtHjtPA4kYaW8FCBTjzGnp_8PIUD4LMnGRobbUKJYaWrm78e5ar1Y1nPZcUoWbJBzMRPzjzMzeFXl4duZONDWeJyU-2ekr7YU6dT9i80d8-IsAj2e-V9qWE4MxkZ7fh2_jSoio-mnn_N/s1600/Autumn-hill.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="280" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgACtHjtPA4kYaW8FCBTjzGnp_8PIUD4LMnGRobbUKJYaWrm78e5ar1Y1nPZcUoWbJBzMRPzjzMzeFXl4duZONDWeJyU-2ekr7YU6dT9i80d8-IsAj2e-V9qWE4MxkZ7fh2_jSoio-mnn_N/s400/Autumn-hill.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">In autumn, chlorophyll gets degraded and the yellow and orange colours of carotenoids are exposed.<br />
(Credit: wikipediacommons)</td></tr>
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<b><span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Poisoned
by light<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Over the past 20 years,
studies of plants and algae lacking each of the four main xanthophylls showed
they have specific functions in photo-protection. Photosynthesis generates a
waste product without which we couldn’t live: oxygen (O<sub>2</sub>). But in
the presence of excessive light, toxic forms of oxygen, called reactive oxygen
species (ROS), are produced. Photosynthetic organisms have come up with clever
ways of protecting themselves against photo-damage induced by ROS. Some plants
can simply turn their leaves to minimise light absorption, but most invest in
dissipating excess photons and getting rid of ROS. </span></span><br />
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Xanthophylls protect the
photosynthetic apparatus from photo-damage by scavenging ROS, by preventing its
formation or by converting the excess light energy into heat. They are mostly
found in the so-called ‘antenna’ protein-pigment structures, which absorb and
transfer light energy to the photosynthetic reaction centres. And this is where
the magic happens: light energy is converted into chemical energy, used to make
organic matter from carbon dioxide removed from the atmosphere. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Without each of the
xanthophylls, plants become photosensitive but are still able to grow. However, <a href="http://www.plantcell.org/content/25/2/591.long" target="_blank">a new </a></span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.plantcell.org/content/25/2/591.long" target="_blank">study</a> led by</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Bassi and his colleague Luca Dall'Osto shows that simultaneously removing all four xanthophylls,
but not carotenes, has dramatic effects for plants. “If you avoid the synthesis
of xanthophylls the plant is not viable anymore,” Bassi says “It’s something
really new and was completely unexpected.” The researchers blocked the
synthesis of all xanthophylls in </span><i style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Arabidopsis
thaliana</i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">, a weed widely used in research, by using a combination of genetic
mutations they called </span><i style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">nox</i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> (for </span><i style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">‘no xanthophylls’</i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">). They found that, in
addition to their role in light absorption and photo-protection, xanthophylls
are essential for plant development- the </span><i style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">nox</i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">
plants simply couldn’t grow. But this didn’t make sense. Previous studies
showed that removing each xanthophyll at the time, or removing the antenna proteins
to which they bind to, doesn’t affect plant growth. So why do these </span><i style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">nox</i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> plants have such severe
developmental defects?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkq2hZQhmqeHdjj-Gowh0P2SaHX2Y8iXWtuKP5WII4CgRsbY_863a5mo-ZNqD-5RVYCS7hZY5bZHelxQhiLSkDV-nZhSyfFVQOUukBhhnvrWBWTn6OfRSh2dIz4wxYh0VoPMh2GDMjf6r7/s1600/WTvsNoX.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="191" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkq2hZQhmqeHdjj-Gowh0P2SaHX2Y8iXWtuKP5WII4CgRsbY_863a5mo-ZNqD-5RVYCS7hZY5bZHelxQhiLSkDV-nZhSyfFVQOUukBhhnvrWBWTn6OfRSh2dIz4wxYh0VoPMh2GDMjf6r7/s400/WTvsNoX.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Plants without xanthophylls (right panel) can be 'forced' to grow on a suger-rich medium, but they have severe growth defects and white leaves because they lack photosynthetic complexes. Left: normal plants. (Credit: Luca Dall'Osto)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b><span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A
function at the core<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">To try and understand this,
the researchers rolled up their sleeves and plunged into some serious
biochemistry. When they analysed the proteins in the two photosynthetic
reaction centres - photosystems I (PSI) and II (PSII) - they faced yet another
surprise: the PSI core proteins had nearly completely vanished in the <i>nox</i> plants. This was strange because
xanthophylls bind mainly PSII antenna proteins, which were mostly unaffected,
but not PSI. “It was so surprising that we spent two years repeating the
experiments to be sure we didn’t make a mistake,” Bassi recalls. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Chloroplasts, the home of photosynthesis, contain about 120
genes encoding for proteins of the photosynthetic machinery. Bassi and
colleagues found that xanthophylls are important for the translation of some of
this genetic information into PSI core proteins, such as the PsaA/PsaB unit,
within chloroplasts. It was known that without the PsaA/PsaB central unit the PSI
super-structure can’t assemble properly and eventually gets degraded, and this is
exactly what the researchers see in the <i>nox</i>
plants.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The absence of a functional PSI
reaction centre in plants lacking xanthophylls explains their developmental
defects, but it remains unclear why this pigment acts specifically on the
synthesis of certain PSI core proteins. It is also difficult to imagine how
xanthophylls, which are embedded in the chloroplast membranes, can act on the
cell protein factories, the ribosomes, dispersed inside the chloroplast. Bassi
believes that xanthophylls are chopped into smaller molecules that leave the
membrane and interact with ribosomes to control the production of PSI core
proteins, and his team is currently searching for these molecules. “There is
some evidence that products from cleavage of other carotenoids are involved in
development, now we know that products of carotenoids are needed for
translation of genes,” he explains. <o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPg3y9w12xoQKmePBliyOimg6EG1GBY9TX5lRc3KQDRRbdqbORw9FlnZpXUbvPuzj_EHL4fUObmZJKoqPba-k3Jl2YRDffkH6YuuBog38hF0UgMevFhVCAc7XBRleCiE9azh5dksgvCbfl/s1600/foto+2B+(1).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="303" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPg3y9w12xoQKmePBliyOimg6EG1GBY9TX5lRc3KQDRRbdqbORw9FlnZpXUbvPuzj_EHL4fUObmZJKoqPba-k3Jl2YRDffkH6YuuBog38hF0UgMevFhVCAc7XBRleCiE9azh5dksgvCbfl/s400/foto+2B+(1).jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Roberto Bassi's research team. (Credit: Luca Dall'Osto)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br /></div>
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<b><span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">An
enlightened career <o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">While part of Bassi’s team
continues investigating carotenoids in <i>Arabidopsis</i>,
the rest studies photosynthesis using his favourite model system: <i>Chlamydomonas</i> <i>reinhardtii.</i> This single-cell green alga is used in photosynthesis
research because it grows faster than plants but their photosynthetic
machineries are nearly identical. After a first postdoc in Copenhagen isolating antenna proteins from barley, Bassi
reckoned that biochemistry would only take him so far in his research, so he
spent the next years learning biophysics with Pierre Joliot in Paris and then molecular
biology with Jean David Rochaix in Geneva, both experts and pioneers in <i>Chlamydomonas</i> photosynthesis research. Bassi
then returned to Italy to set up his own lab to study photosynthesis in algae at
Padua University, but finding little support there for his research he decided
to leave and finally settled at Verona University. The idea of working with
algae was not appreciated by the Italian research funding agencies, however, so
eventually he was forced to switch model system from algae to plants. <i><o:p></o:p></i></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b><span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Science
funding in Italy: a political tragedy<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“The funding situation for
science in Italy is extremely bad and we live with money from Europe,” Bassi
says. His team of 15 people currently runs on three European grants and some
funding from the private sector. For over a decade, under the government of
former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, public research funding and university
recruitments in Italy lacked transparency and a clear strategy. With the
election of a new government in 2011, Italian scientists were hopeful the
situation would improve, but because of the global economical crisis and the
country’s huge public debt, Italy’s modest science budget suffered further cuts
as part of the government’s austerity plan. As a result, despite recent reforms
in the public science funding system, Italian research continues to rely
considerably on European grants. Increasingly aware of this grim situation,
thousands of Italian researchers leave the country every year with little expectations
of going back. Did Bassi ever feel tempted to move abroad? In 2002 he took the
plunge and moved to France to set up a lab in Marseille, but after three years he
had to return to Verona for personal reasons. <o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHSZsB7Xor9k-lCK03qRy55PGqUMXZyouof_C4d-77ViqMZr8R8v38SlCvI4CsGCpGTMPiSudA_2wJp7VVw1aCL-uXGQKZjlLOpGoRDIUw_SN0TYm_B3lR7zJiVLadDfL0vi8NaSTXRfrz/s1600/bioreactor-fermenter-green-1236162-o.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHSZsB7Xor9k-lCK03qRy55PGqUMXZyouof_C4d-77ViqMZr8R8v38SlCvI4CsGCpGTMPiSudA_2wJp7VVw1aCL-uXGQKZjlLOpGoRDIUw_SN0TYm_B3lR7zJiVLadDfL0vi8NaSTXRfrz/s400/bioreactor-fermenter-green-1236162-o.jpg" width="266" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Algae photo-bioreactor <br />(Credit: kaibara87/everystockphoto)</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br /></div>
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<b><span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">From algae to biofuels<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In
recent years the Italian government began to show some interest in the
production of biofuels from algae, so after a hiatus of many years Bassi could work
with <i>Chlamydomonas</i> again. “</span></span><span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I like the field
of bioenergy because the applied research and the basic research are very much
the same thing,” he says. His team studies photosynthesis while trying to
improve the efficiency of biofuel production in algae. Biofuels made from plants, such as corn or soybean, while initially
regarded as a good alternative to fossil fuels like petrol, in reality cause
great damage to the economy. The problem is that these crops take up a lot of
land that would otherwise be used for agriculture, leading to food price
inflation in the long run. Bassi’s team is part of the <a href="http://www2.ulg.ac.be/genemic/sunbiopath/" target="_blank"><i>Sunbiopath</i> </a>international research
consortium funded by the European Union, which aims at optimising biofuel
production by photosynthetic algae for commercialisation. His team has already succeeded
in genetically engineering algae strains that use light energy more efficiently, making them grow faster and thus
generate more biofuel. The researchers are now trying to expand these
results to the industrial scale. “I think this is a promising accomplishment
and I’m very positive we could produce biofuels from algae.” </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br />
<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Reference:</span></div>
<!--EndFragment--><span class="Z3988" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;" title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Ajournal&rft_id=info%3Adoi%2F10.1105%2Ftpc.112.108621&rft.atitle=The+Arabidopsis+nox+Mutant+Lacking+Carotene+Hydroxylase+Activity+Reveals+a+Critical+Role+for+Xanthophylls+in+Photosystem+I+Biogenesis&rft.jtitle=The+Plant+Cell&rft.artnum=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.plantcell.org%2Fcgi%2Fdoi%2F10.1105%2Ftpc.112.108621&rft.volume=25&rft.issue=2&rft.issn=1040-4651&rft.spage=591&rft.epage=608&rft.date=2013&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fscienceseeker.org&rft.au=Dall%27Osto+L.&rft.aulast=Dall%27Osto&rft.aufirst=L.&rft.au=Piques+M.&rft.aulast=Piques&rft.aufirst=M.&rft.au=Ronzani+M.&rft.aulast=Ronzani&rft.aufirst=M.&rft.au=Molesini+B.&rft.aulast=Molesini&rft.aufirst=B.&rft.au=Alboresi+A.&rft.aulast=Alboresi&rft.aufirst=A.&rft.au=Cazzaniga+S.&rft.aulast=Cazzaniga&rft.aufirst=S.&rft.au=Bassi+R.&rft.aulast=Bassi&rft.aufirst=R.&rfs_dat=ss.included=1&rfe_dat=bpr3.included=1;bpr3.tags=Biology">Dall'Osto L., Piques M., Ronzani M., Molesini B., Alboresi A., Cazzaniga S. & Bassi R. (2013). The Arabidopsis nox Mutant Lacking Carotene Hydroxylase Activity Reveals a Critical Role for Xanthophylls in Photosystem I Biogenesis, <span style="font-style: italic;">The Plant Cell, 25</span> (2) 591-608. DOI: <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1105%2Ftpc.112.108621" rel="author">10.1105/tpc.112.108621</a> </span><br />
<span class="Z3988" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;" title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Ajournal&rft_id=info%3Adoi%2F10.1105%2Ftpc.112.108621&rft.atitle=The+Arabidopsis+nox+Mutant+Lacking+Carotene+Hydroxylase+Activity+Reveals+a+Critical+Role+for+Xanthophylls+in+Photosystem+I+Biogenesis&rft.jtitle=The+Plant+Cell&rft.artnum=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.plantcell.org%2Fcgi%2Fdoi%2F10.1105%2Ftpc.112.108621&rft.volume=25&rft.issue=2&rft.issn=1040-4651&rft.spage=591&rft.epage=608&rft.date=2013&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fscienceseeker.org&rft.au=Dall%27Osto+L.&rft.aulast=Dall%27Osto&rft.aufirst=L.&rft.au=Piques+M.&rft.aulast=Piques&rft.aufirst=M.&rft.au=Ronzani+M.&rft.aulast=Ronzani&rft.aufirst=M.&rft.au=Molesini+B.&rft.aulast=Molesini&rft.aufirst=B.&rft.au=Alboresi+A.&rft.aulast=Alboresi&rft.aufirst=A.&rft.au=Cazzaniga+S.&rft.aulast=Cazzaniga&rft.aufirst=S.&rft.au=Bassi+R.&rft.aulast=Bassi&rft.aufirst=R.&rfs_dat=ss.included=1&rfe_dat=bpr3.included=1;bpr3.tags=Biology"><br /></span><span class="Z3988" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;" title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Ajournal&rft_id=info%3Adoi%2F10.1105%2Ftpc.112.108621&rft.atitle=The+Arabidopsis+nox+Mutant+Lacking+Carotene+Hydroxylase+Activity+Reveals+a+Critical+Role+for+Xanthophylls+in+Photosystem+I+Biogenesis&rft.jtitle=The+Plant+Cell&rft.artnum=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.plantcell.org%2Fcgi%2Fdoi%2F10.1105%2Ftpc.112.108621&rft.volume=25&rft.issue=2&rft.issn=1040-4651&rft.spage=591&rft.epage=608&rft.date=2013&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fscienceseeker.org&rft.au=Dall%27Osto+L.&rft.aulast=Dall%27Osto&rft.aufirst=L.&rft.au=Piques+M.&rft.aulast=Piques&rft.aufirst=M.&rft.au=Ronzani+M.&rft.aulast=Ronzani&rft.aufirst=M.&rft.au=Molesini+B.&rft.aulast=Molesini&rft.aufirst=B.&rft.au=Alboresi+A.&rft.aulast=Alboresi&rft.aufirst=A.&rft.au=Cazzaniga+S.&rft.aulast=Cazzaniga&rft.aufirst=S.&rft.au=Bassi+R.&rft.aulast=Bassi&rft.aufirst=R.&rfs_dat=ss.included=1&rfe_dat=bpr3.included=1;bpr3.tags=Biology">This article was published in Lab Times on 3-05-13. You can read it <a href="http://www.labtimes.org/labtimes/issues/lt2013/lt03/lt_2013_03_30_31.pdf" target="_blank">here</a>.</span><br />
<span class="Z3988" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;" title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Ajournal&rft_id=info%3Adoi%2F10.1105%2Ftpc.112.108621&rft.atitle=The+Arabidopsis+nox+Mutant+Lacking+Carotene+Hydroxylase+Activity+Reveals+a+Critical+Role+for+Xanthophylls+in+Photosystem+I+Biogenesis&rft.jtitle=The+Plant+Cell&rft.artnum=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.plantcell.org%2Fcgi%2Fdoi%2F10.1105%2Ftpc.112.108621&rft.volume=25&rft.issue=2&rft.issn=1040-4651&rft.spage=591&rft.epage=608&rft.date=2013&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fscienceseeker.org&rft.au=Dall%27Osto+L.&rft.aulast=Dall%27Osto&rft.aufirst=L.&rft.au=Piques+M.&rft.aulast=Piques&rft.aufirst=M.&rft.au=Ronzani+M.&rft.aulast=Ronzani&rft.aufirst=M.&rft.au=Molesini+B.&rft.aulast=Molesini&rft.aufirst=B.&rft.au=Alboresi+A.&rft.aulast=Alboresi&rft.aufirst=A.&rft.au=Cazzaniga+S.&rft.aulast=Cazzaniga&rft.aufirst=S.&rft.au=Bassi+R.&rft.aulast=Bassi&rft.aufirst=R.&rfs_dat=ss.included=1&rfe_dat=bpr3.included=1;bpr3.tags=Biology"><br /></span>
<span class="Z3988" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;" title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Ajournal&rft_id=info%3Adoi%2F10.1105%2Ftpc.112.108621&rft.atitle=The+Arabidopsis+nox+Mutant+Lacking+Carotene+Hydroxylase+Activity+Reveals+a+Critical+Role+for+Xanthophylls+in+Photosystem+I+Biogenesis&rft.jtitle=The+Plant+Cell&rft.artnum=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.plantcell.org%2Fcgi%2Fdoi%2F10.1105%2Ftpc.112.108621&rft.volume=25&rft.issue=2&rft.issn=1040-4651&rft.spage=591&rft.epage=608&rft.date=2013&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fscienceseeker.org&rft.au=Dall%27Osto+L.&rft.aulast=Dall%27Osto&rft.aufirst=L.&rft.au=Piques+M.&rft.aulast=Piques&rft.aufirst=M.&rft.au=Ronzani+M.&rft.aulast=Ronzani&rft.aufirst=M.&rft.au=Molesini+B.&rft.aulast=Molesini&rft.aufirst=B.&rft.au=Alboresi+A.&rft.aulast=Alboresi&rft.aufirst=A.&rft.au=Cazzaniga+S.&rft.aulast=Cazzaniga&rft.aufirst=S.&rft.au=Bassi+R.&rft.aulast=Bassi&rft.aufirst=R.&rfs_dat=ss.included=1&rfe_dat=bpr3.included=1;bpr3.tags=Biology"><br /></span>Isabel Torreshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00724636726605405730noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6217817228764059649.post-10258824946215230782013-04-18T01:29:00.000-07:002015-03-18T02:41:58.483-07:00Kidneys grown in the lab work in animals<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Researchers from the
Massachusetts General Hospital in the US have grown rat kidneys in the laboratory that produced urine when transplanted into living animals. This is an important step
towards the production of customised organs for transplantation into people with kidney failure, which could replace donor organ transplants. </span><br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhW8y7wgMwdjN1Z9EYtO_49KZtniOKMTNqwJ-4Mun6G3OYCtNLyetXueFj3bbKMRRv0o0zW1L2dA_f2MClkME4yRi5zW1QcdtfSQIWf4bS3ALyOZ9iE4R9mCnJ6Gw8uwGZJ1JkEike2Q4Qm/s1600/1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhW8y7wgMwdjN1Z9EYtO_49KZtniOKMTNqwJ-4Mun6G3OYCtNLyetXueFj3bbKMRRv0o0zW1L2dA_f2MClkME4yRi5zW1QcdtfSQIWf4bS3ALyOZ9iE4R9mCnJ6Gw8uwGZJ1JkEike2Q4Qm/s400/1.jpg" height="292" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Bioengineered rat kidney.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">(Credit: Ott Lab, Massachusetts General Hospital) </span></td></tr>
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<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Patients with kidney failure
can be treated with dialysis, but can only be cured with a kidney transplant. About 15,000 people are waiting for a donor kidney in the <a href="http://www.eurotransplant.org/" target="_blank">Eurotransplant </a>region, but only 7,000
kidney transplants take place each year. Patients may wait up to five years for a donor kidney and many lose their lives during that time. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-GB">A few research groups have
attempted to make artificial kidneys, and some are trying to genetically modify
pigs so their kidneys can be used in human transplants, but Harald Ott and his
team take a different approach: they hope to grow kidneys in the laboratory using the patient’s own cells. This would put an end to donor
organ shortage and immune rejection problems. “If this works, there wouldn’t be any need
for immunosuppression or dialysis anymore, it would be a revolution,” says </span>Raymond Vanholder, a nephrologist at the Ghent
University Hospital in Belgium and president of the <a href="http://www.era-edta.org/" target="_blank">European Renal Association-European Dialysis and Transplant Association (ERA-EDTA)</a>. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">After a transplant
patients need to take immunosuppressant drugs throughout their entire lives.
And despite these treatments, which can have severe side-affects, many organ
recipients will have an acute rejection or lose kidney function within 10 years</span><i style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">.</i></div>
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<b><span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A
recipe to make kidneys<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.nature.com/nm/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nm.3154.html" target="_blank">In a new <i>Nature Medicine</i> study</a>, Ott and colleagues describe how they successfully 'bioengineered' and transplanted rat kidneys into living animals</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">.</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> They started by taking kidneys from dead rats and stripping
them of cells using a detergent commonly used in household cleaning products.
This leaves an intact kidney-shaped protein scaffold, complete with all the complex
microscopic vascular and tubular kidney structures.</span></div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9h5WU9cKBXcEWwv9kDMy5gTMZe_tvBntslOMEZkVqvlg58cBWwH74G2fdzaFIMv9ljrTwNcfHkg1kMCDB1aT3OJMMtbEaQ5IiqDCMLLY4rwkwPTZMT91jV_LDb3omXa-QTk2kr8_cVL_t/s1600/2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9h5WU9cKBXcEWwv9kDMy5gTMZe_tvBntslOMEZkVqvlg58cBWwH74G2fdzaFIMv9ljrTwNcfHkg1kMCDB1aT3OJMMtbEaQ5IiqDCMLLY4rwkwPTZMT91jV_LDb3omXa-QTk2kr8_cVL_t/s400/2.jpg" height="390" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Bioengineered rat kidney in bioreactor incubator. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">(Credit: Ott Lab, Massachusetts General Hospital)</span><br />
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<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Next the researchers coated
the kidney ‘skeletons’ with new cells by pushing them through the kidney main
artery and the ureter (a tube that takes urine to the bladder). In these rat kidney
prototypes, they used kidney cells from a newborn rat and human umbilical cord
cells to make blood vessels. Getting the cells to stick to the kidney scaffolds
was the trickiest step (if too much pressure was applied the scaffolds
exploded), but after a few days in an incubator the cells rearranged into
three-dimensional tissues that looked like kidney structures under the
microscope. The different rat kidney cell types seemed to be at the right
place. This was very promising, and indeed, after 12 days, when blood was
passed through the kidneys they started producing urine. Further tests showed
that these bioengineered kidneys partially restored most kidney functions, like
filtering the blood and producing urine. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Could
these kidneys work in living animals? <span lang="EN-GB">When the team transplanted the regenerated kidneys into living rats that had one of their kidneys removed, the new kidneys
immediately filled with the rats’ blood, without clot formation or bleeding,
and produced urine.</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Customised
organs on demand<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-GB">Bioengineered kidneys made ‘on
demand’ with the patient’s own cells would make organ waiting lists and immune rejections
a thing of the past, and this would completely change the lives of patients
with kidney failure. But unfortunately this scenario is still a long way down
the line. </span>Vanholder <span lang="EN-GB">says “I
think this is very beautiful research […] but it has to be confirmed
independently by other studies, and before it can be used in the human clinical
situation it will take many years.” <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></span></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyGDuAD4Cc5oa2oHLmKA94RnaKQ6VBcx6moZnc3gfjr5ObDFPAk0lzr4yFWh8F_LZb4qgmhL0N1zfQ_x_x9FCPvZu0Ii97-Snk9Mf_w4tjg-O1bm-vwABCFvQm10IbR8aPMEBSANRd8U2A/s1600/3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyGDuAD4Cc5oa2oHLmKA94RnaKQ6VBcx6moZnc3gfjr5ObDFPAk0lzr4yFWh8F_LZb4qgmhL0N1zfQ_x_x9FCPvZu0Ii97-Snk9Mf_w4tjg-O1bm-vwABCFvQm10IbR8aPMEBSANRd8U2A/s400/3.jpg" height="272" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Pig kidneys being stripped of cells. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">(Credit: Ott Lab, Massachusetts General Hospital)</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></td></tr>
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<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Many challenges remain ahead.
In Ott’s rat regenerated kidneys, a small percentage of kidney cells attached
to the wrong place in the kidney scaffold, and the kidneys functioned poorly
when compared to normal kidneys. Ott believes this is due to the immaturity of
the cells implanted on the scaffold, and that using other cell types and
letting them mature for longer may improve kidney function. Another challenge
will be to scale up the cell coating method to larger organs like human kidneys. The team has already
succeeded in making pig and human kidney scaffolds, but coating them with new
cells is a more complicated step.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-GB">Ott’s group previously used these
techniques to make hearts and lungs, and other groups are currently trying to
develop livers in similar ways. So could this technology replace donor organ
transplants in the future? </span>Vanholder<span lang="EN-GB"> answers “It’s
unlikely that this research will emanate in a real application very soon […]
but if it works it will be a fantastic thing, it may solve a lot of problems, like the need for dialysis and the shortage of donor organs for transplant.”</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Reference:</span></div>
<!--EndFragment--><span class="Z3988" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;" title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Ajournal&rft_id=info%3Adoi%2F10.1038%2Fnm.3154&rft.atitle=Regeneration+and+experimental+orthotopic+transplantation+of+a+bioengineered+kidney&rft.jtitle=Nature+Medicine&rft.artnum=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.nature.com%2Fdoifinder%2F10.1038%2Fnm.3154&rft.issn=1078-8956&rft.date=2013&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fscienceseeker.org&rft.au=Song+Jeremy+J&rft.aulast=Song&rft.aufirst=Jeremy+J&rft.au=Guyette+Jacques+P&rft.aulast=Guyette&rft.aufirst=Jacques+P&rft.au=Gilpin+Sarah+E&rft.aulast=Gilpin&rft.aufirst=Sarah+E&rft.au=Gonzalez+Gabriel&rft.aulast=Gonzalez&rft.aufirst=Gabriel&rft.au=Vacanti+Joseph+P&rft.aulast=Vacanti&rft.aufirst=Joseph+P&rft.au=Ott+Harald+C&rft.aulast=Ott&rft.aufirst=Harald+C&rfs_dat=ss.included=1&rfe_dat=bpr3.included=1;bpr3.tags=Biology%2CHealth">Song J.J., Guyette J.P., Gilpin S.E., Gonzalez G., Vacanti J.P. & Ott H.C. (2013). Regeneration and experimental orthotopic transplantation of a bioengineered kidney, <span style="font-style: italic;">Nature Medicine, </span> DOI: <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1038%2Fnm.3154" rel="author">10.1038/nm.3154</a></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This article was published in The Munich Eye on 18-04-13.</span><br />
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<br />Isabel Torreshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00724636726605405730noreply@blogger.com2