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Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on September 23, 2022 at 6:48am

More than one-tenth of the world's terrestrial genetic diversity may already be lost, study says

Climate change and habitat destruction may have already caused the loss of more than one-tenth of the world's terrestrial genetic diversity, according to new research published in Science. This means that it may already be too late to meet the United Nations' proposed target, announced last year, of protecting 90 percent of genetic diversity for every species by 2030, and that we have to act fast to prevent further losses.

Several hundred species of animals and plants have gone extinct in the industrialized age and human activity has impacted or shrunk half of Earth's ecosystems, affecting millions of species. The partial loss of geographic range diminishes population size and can geographically prevent populations of the same species from interacting with each other. This has serious implications for an animal or plant's genetic richness and their ability to meet the coming challenges of climate change.

When you take away or fundamentally alter swaths of a species' habitat, you restrict the genetic richness available to help those plants and animals adapt to shifting conditions. Until recently, this important component has been overlooked when setting goals for preserving biodiversity, but without a diverse pool of natural genetic mutations on which to draw, species will be limited in their ability to survive alterations to their geographic range.

In popular culture, mutations convey super powers that defy the laws of physics. But in reality, mutations represent small, random natural variations in the genetic code that could positively or negatively affect an individual organism's ability to survive and reproduce, passing down the positive traits down to future generations.

As a result, the greater the pool of mutations upon which a species is able to draw, the greater the chances of stumbling upon that lucky blend that will help a species thrive despite the pressures created by habitat loss, as well as shifting temperature and precipitation patterns.

Moises Exposito-Alonso, Genetic diversity loss in the Anthropocene, Science (2022). DOI: 10.1126/science.abn5642. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abn5642

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on September 23, 2022 at 6:25am

Charging cars at home at night is not the way to go: study 

The vast majority of electric vehicle owners charge their cars at home in the evening or overnight. We're doing it wrong, according to a new  study.

This  stresses any region's electric grid and this will become a tremendous problem by 2035 from growing EV ownership. In a little over a decade, researchers found, rapid EV growth alone could increase peak electricity demand by up to 25 percent, assuming a continued dominance of residential, nighttime charging.

To limit the high costs of all that new capacity for generating and storing electricity, the researchers say, drivers should move to daytime charging at work or public charging stations, which would also reduce greenhouse gas emissions. This finding has policy and investment implications for the region and its utilities.

 Siobhan Powell, Charging infrastructure access and operation to reduce the grid impacts of deep electric vehicle adoption, Nature Energy (2022). DOI: 10.1038/s41560-022-01105-7. www.nature.com/articles/s41560-022-01105-7

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on September 22, 2022 at 9:55am

A New Treatment Shown to Have a 'Dramatic' Effect on Kids With Eczema

Eczema (or atopic dermatitis) affects millions of people, particularly children under the age of six.

The chronic inflammatory skin disorder causes the skin to go red and dry and to start oozing and itching, making life very uncomfortable.

There's currently no cure for the condition, just ways of managing it – but an existing drug is incredibly effective at reducing the signs and symptoms of eczema in kids under six with moderate to severe cases of the disorder. It's the first time a complex biologic drug like this has been tested on this age group. The drug in question is dupilumab. In a new study, 162 North American and European kids between the ages of 6 months and 6 years with moderate-to-severe eczema were given dupilumab or a placebo across the course of 16 weeks. More than half of the kids given the drug showed a 75 percent reduction in symptom severity. Itchiness was significantly reduced, and the kids could sleep much better.

Dupilumab targets an important immune inflammation pathway in allergies and is already used to treat eczema in older children and adults, as well as asthma, nasal polyps, and other allergy-mediated problems.

https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(22)01539-2/fulltext

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Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on September 22, 2022 at 9:21am

Chemical cocktail in skin summons disease-spreading mosquitoes

Mosquitoes that spread Zika, dengue and yellow fever are guided toward their victims by a scent from human skin. The exact composition of that scent has not been identified until now.

A research team discovered that the combination of carbon dioxide plus two chemicals, 2-ketoglutaric and lactic acids, elicits a scent that causes a mosquito to locate and land on its victim. This chemical cocktail also encourages probing, the use of piercing mouthparts to find blood. This chemical mixture appears to specifically attract female Aedes aegypti mosquitoes, vectors of Zika as well as chikungunya, dengue, and yellow fever viruses. This mosquito originated in Africa, but has spread to tropical and subtropical regions worldwide, including the U.S. This new research finding, and how the team discovered it, is detailed in the journal Scientific Reports. Though others have identified compounds that attract mosquitoes, many of them don't elicit a strong, rapid effect. This one does.

Mosquitoes use a variety of cues to locate their victims, including carbon dioxide, sight, temperature, and humidity. However, recent research shows skin odors are even more important for pinpointing a biting site.

Scientific Reports (2022). DOI: 10.1038/s41598-022-19254-w

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on September 22, 2022 at 8:17am

Scientists unveil new system for naming majority of the world's microorganisms

What's in a name? For microorganisms, apparently a lot.

Prokaryotes are single-celled microorganisms—bacteria are an example—that are abundant the world over. They exist in the oceans, in soils, in extreme environments like hot springs, and even alongside and inside other organisms including humans. In short, they're everywhere, and scientists worldwide are working to both categorize and communicate about them. But here's the rub: Most don't have a name. Less than 0.2% of known prokaryotes have been formally named because current regulations—described in the International Code of Nomenclature of Prokaryotes (ICNP)—require new species to be grown in a lab and freely distributed as pure and viable cultures in collections. Essentially, to name it you have to have multiple physical specimens to prove it.

In an article published Sept. 19 in the journal Nature Microbiology, a team of scientists present a new system, the SeqCode, and a corresponding registration portal that could help microbiologists effectively categorize and communicate about the massive number of identified yet uncultivated prokaryotes.

Nearly 850 scientists representing multiple disciplines from more than 40 countries participated in a series of NSF-funded online workshops in 2021 to develop the new SeqCode, which uses genome sequence data for both cultivated and uncultivated prokaryotes as the basis for naming them.

Brian P. Hedlund et al, SeqCode: a nomenclatural code for prokaryotes described from sequence data, Nature Microbiology (2022). DOI: 10.1038/s41564-022-01214-9

Learn more about the SeqCode at https://seqco.de/

The SeqCode , the scientists think, serve the community by promoting high genome quality standards, good naming practice, and a well-ordered database.

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on September 21, 2022 at 12:31pm

Immune System for Your Mind Against Disinformation 

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on September 21, 2022 at 12:16pm

Plastic degradation in the ocean contributes to its acidification

A new study led by the Institut de Ciències del Mar (ICM-CSIC) in Barcelona has revealed that plastic degradation contributes to ocean acidification via the release of dissolved organic carbon compounds from both the plastic itself and its additives.

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Here's the real reason to turn on airplane mode when you fly

We all know the routine by heart: "Please ensure your seats are in the upright position, tray tables stowed, window shades are up, laptops are stored in the overhead bins and electronic devices are set to flight mode."

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New chemistry happens when dust meets pollution It is a new chemistry found to take place in a cloud droplet, a wet aerosol, or on the surface of a dust particle. All that it takes to get started is natural events like dust storms, ocean wave action, volcanic eruptions, and wildfires, which increase the amount of aerosols in the atmosphere.

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on September 21, 2022 at 12:02pm

'Night owls' could have greater risk of type 2 diabetes and heart disease than those who are 'early birds'

Are you an early bird or a night owl? Our activity patterns and sleep cycles could influence our risk of diseases, such as type 2 diabetes and heart disease. New research published in Experimental Physiology has found that wake/sleep cycles cause metabolic differences and alter our body's preference for energy sources. The researchers found that those who stay up later have a reduced ability to use fat for energy, meaning fats may build up in the body and increase risk for type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease.

The metabolic differences relate to how well each group can use insulin to promote glucose uptake by the cells for storage and energy use. People who are "early birds" (individuals who prefer to be active in the morning) rely more on fat as an energy source and are more active during the day with higher levels of aerobic fitness than "night owls" (people who prefer to be active later in the day and night). On the other hand, night owls use less fat for energy at rest and during exercise.

Researchers found that early birds use more fat for energy at both rest and during exercise than night owls. Early birds were also more insulin-sensitive. Night owls, on the other hand, are insulin resistant, meaning their bodies require more insulin to lower blood glucose levels, and their bodies favored carbohydrates as an energy source over fats. This group's impaired ability to respond to insulin to promote fuel use can be harmful as it indicates a greater risk of type2diabetes and/or heart disease. The cause for this shift in metabolic preference between early birds and night owls is yet unknown and needs further investigation.

Researchers also found that early birds are more physically active and have higher fitness levels than night owls who are more sedentary throughout the day.

 Early Chronotype with Metabolic Syndrome favors Resting and Exercise Fat Oxidation in Relation to Insulin-stimulated Non-Oxidative Glucose Disposal, Experimental Physiology (2022). DOI: 10.1113/EP090613

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on September 20, 2022 at 11:14am

Scientists Created 'Living' Synthetic Cells by Harvesting Bacteria For Parts

Researchers  have taken a major step forward in synthetic biology by designing a system that performs several key functions of a living cell, including generating energy and expressing genes.

Their artificially constructed cell even transformed from a sphere shape to a more natural amoeba-like shape over the first 48 hours of 'life', indicating that the proto-cytoskeletal filaments were working.

Building something that comes close to what we might think of as alive is no walk in the park, not least thanks to the fact even the simplest of organisms rely on countless biochemical operations involving mind-bendingly complex machinery to grow and replicate.

Scientists have previously focused on getting artificial cells to perform a single function, such as gene expression, enzyme catalysis, or ribozyme activity.

If scientists crack the secret to custom building and programming artificial cells capable of mimicking life more closely, it could create a wealth of possibilities in everything from manufacturing to medicine.

While some engineering efforts focus on redesigning the blueprints themselves, others are investigating ways to reduce existing cells to scraps that can then be reconstructed into something relatively novel.

To perform this latest bottom-up bioengineering feat, researchers used two bacterial colonies – Escherichia coli and Pseudomonas aeruginosa – for parts.

These two bacteria were mixed with empty microdroplets in a viscous liquid. One population was captured inside the droplets and the other was trapped at the droplet surface.

The scientists then burst open the bacteria membranes by bathing the colonies in lysozyme (an enzyme) and melittin (a polypeptide which comes from honeybee venom).

The bacteria spilled their contents, which were captured by the droplets to create membrane-coated protocells.

The scientists then demonstrated that the cells were capable of complex processing, such as the production of the energy storage molecule ATP through glycolysis, and the transcription and translation of genes.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-022-05223-w

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on September 20, 2022 at 8:46am

Researchers transplanted the RNA editing machine of moss into human cells and it worked!

If everything is to run smoothly in living cells, the genetic information must be correct. But unfortunately, errors in the DNA accumulate over time due to mutations. Land plants have developed a peculiar correction mode: They do not directly improve the errors in the genome, but rather elaborately in each individual transcript. Researchers  have transplanted this correction machinery from the moss Physcomitrium patens into human cells. Surprisingly, the corrector started working there too, but according to its own rules. The results have now been published in the journal Nucleic Acids Research.

In living cells, there is a lot of traffic, similar to a large construction site. In land plants, blueprints in the form of DNA are stored not only in the cell nucleus, but also in the cell's power plants (mitochondria) and the photosynthesis units (chloroplasts). These blueprints contain building instructions for proteins that enable metabolic processes. But how is the blueprint information passed on in mitochondria and chloroplasts? This is done by creating transcripts (RNA) of the desired parts of the blueprint. This information is then used to produce the required proteins.

However, this process does not run entirely smoothly. Over time, mutations cause within the DNA accumulating errors that must be corrected in order to obtain perfectly functioning proteins. Otherwise, the energy supply in plants would collapse. At first glance, the correction strategy seems rather bureaucratic: Instead of improving the slip-ups directly in the blueprint—the DNA—they are cleaned up in each of the many transcripts by so-called RNA editing processes.

Compared to letterpress printing, it would be like correcting each individual book by hand, rather than improving the printing plates. Why living cells make this effort we do not know yet. Presumably, these mutations increased as plants spread from water to land during evolution.

Now, researchers have gone one step further: They transferred the RNA editing machinery from the moss into standard human cell lines, including kidney and cancer cells. The results showed that the land plant correction mechanism also works in human cells   which was previously unknown.

But that's not all: the RNA editing machines PPR56 and PPR65, which only act in mitochondria in the moss, also introduce nucleotide changes in RNA transcripts of the cell nucleus in human cells.

Surprisingly for the research team, PPR56 makes changes at more than 900 points of attack in human cell targets. In the moss, on the other hand, this RNA corrector is only responsible for two correction sites.

Elena Lesch et al, Plant mitochondrial RNA editing factors can perform targeted C-to-U editing of nuclear transcripts in human cells, Nucleic Acids Research (2022). DOI: 10.1093/nar/gkac752

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