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Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on November 6, 2024 at 11:10am

The scientists found that only one protein controlled the color difference in the lories, a type of aldehyde dehydrogenase (or ALDH), essential "tools" for detoxification in complex organisms—for example, they contribute to elimination of alcohol in the liver of humans.
Parrot feathers found a way to 'borrow' this protein, using it to transform red to yellow psittacofulvins." According to the scientists, "This functions like a dial, in which higher activity of the protein translates to less intense red colour."
To understand the general role of this protein in controlling the plumage color in other parrot species, scientists studied another parrot, the rosy-faced lovebirds, a species that displays both green (i.e., yellow psittacofulvin-containing) and red plumage patches.

The rosy-faced lovebird is a familiar parrot that provides an excellent system to study the genes determining the color difference between red and yellow psittacofulvin-containing plumage patches.
They found that the same aldehyde dehydrogenase gene in the lovebirds is expressed at high levels in yellow psittacofulvin-containing feathers, but not in red feathers. When this gene expresses at a high level, the psittacofulvins turn from red to yellow.
To demonstrate this simple dial mechanism, scientists turned to an even more familiar parrot, the budgerigar and, in a world-first, explored how individual cells turn different genes on or off throughout feather growth, pinpointing a small number of cells that use this detox protein for controlling pigment conversion.

The final validation came when the scientists genetically engineered yeasts with the parrot color gene, Incredibly, their modified yeast produced parrot colours, demonstrating that this gene is sufficient to explain how parrots control the amount of yellow and red in their feathers.
This study showcases how cutting-edge developments in biotechnology are increasingly used to unravel nature's mysteries.
Scientists now understand how these stunning colours can evolve in wild animals through a simple dial-like "molecular switch" that "borrows" a detoxifying protein to serve a new function.

These findings help scientists paint a new colorful picture of evolution as a process in which complexity can be achieved through simple innovations.

 Roberto Arbore et al, A molecular mechanism for bright color variation in parrots, Science (2024). DOI: 10.1126/science.adp7710

Part 2

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on November 6, 2024 at 11:06am

Biologists reveal the genetic 'switch' behind parrot color diversity

Parrots are synonymous with colour for people across the world. In a study published in the journal Science, scientists  have uncovered for the first time a "switch" in the DNA of parrots that controls their wide gamut of colours.

Parrots are unique birds in many ways, including how they produce their vibrant colour diversity.

Although other birds also produce yellow and red feathers, parrots evolved unique pigments, called psittacofulvins. Parrots combine these with other pigments to create vibrant yellows, reds, and greens, making these animals among nature's most colourful.

To understand this unique colouration the scientists started by demonstrating that, across all major parrot lineages, yellow and red in feathers correspond to two specific pigments that do not occur in other birds.

The scientists focused on a species with naturally occurring red or yellow forms, a phenomenon that is extremely rare in nature.

Part 1

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on November 6, 2024 at 10:47am

Prodrug: Researchers discover localized pain relief using known chemical reaction

A team of international researchers have taken a well-known chemical reaction as the basis of a new generation of targeted pain relief medication.

The team has created a targeted prodrug (a compound which metabolizes inside the body into a pharmacologically active drug), and found it to be capable of relieving chronic pain during preclinical trials.

The mechanism of action for the targeted prodrug involves activation of the active drug by a chemical reaction with reactive oxygen species such as hydrogen peroxide, which are present in much higher amounts at sites of pain than the rest of the body.

This means that the prodrug is distributed around the body as an inactive chemical until it reaches a site of pain where it is then converted into the active drug.

The prodrug was tested in both chemical and preclinical models and found to provide localized relief of sciatic nerve injuries, as well as other models of chronic pain featuring oxidative stress like osteoarthritis, chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy and diabetic neuropathy.

Testing found multi-day oral administration of the compound six months after the injury reversed hypersensitivity to touch and cold stimuli; while further tests demonstrated the effects of the drug were dose dependent, with maintained pain relief upon repeated dosing. This showed us that the compound did not induce a tolerance, which is a major limiting factor to powerful painkillers like morphine.

Chronic pain remains a large unmet medical need and nonaddictive treatments like this would revolutionize the field, which is currently dominated by addictive opioids.

The project will now undergo more pre-clinical trials to determine effectiveness and safety.

Thomas D. Avery et al, Site-specific drug release of monomethyl fumarate to treat oxidative stress disorders, Nature Biotechnology (2024). DOI: 10.1038/s41587-024-02460-4

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on November 6, 2024 at 9:49am

Study disproves idea that weather-dependent renewable energy systems are more prone to blackouts

Wind turbines and photovoltaics (PVs) are becoming increasingly widespread worldwide, which could contribute to reducing air pollution caused by fossil fuel emissions. To produce energy, however, these renewable energy solutions rely on specific weather conditions (e.g., the presence of wind and sufficient hours of sunlight).

As the use of these technologies grows, some energy system operators have expressed concerns about the weather-dependency of these systems, suggesting that an overreliance on these technologies could increase the risk of blackouts. In some instances, renewable energy systems were even blamed for blackouts experienced during adverse weather events.

Researchers at the University of Tennessee recently carried out a study exploring the vulnerability of renewable energy systems to adverse weather and the extent to which these systems could be responsible for severe blackouts. Their findings, published in Nature Energy, suggest that solar panels and wind turbines are less likely to cause severe blackouts than traditional power systems.

In this study, researchers find that although WD-RESs are non-dispatchable and weather sensitive, blackout intensities and extreme weather vulnerability are mitigated in high-penetration WD-RES grids.

Overall, the results of this recent study suggest that weather-dependent renewable energy systems, particularly solar panels and wind turbines, are not as prone to causing severe bulk power system blackouts during extreme weather as some people have assumed them to be. In fact, blackouts that occurred in regions with a high penetration of WD-RES power grids were often less severe than those occurring in places that only relied on the traditional power grid.

Jin Zhao et al, Impacts of renewable energy resources on the weather vulnerability of power systems, Nature Energy (2024). DOI: 10.1038/s41560-024-01652-1

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on November 6, 2024 at 9:17am

Spraying rice with zinc oxide nanoparticles protects yields during heat waves

A small team of horticulturists has found that spraying rice plants with a zinc oxide nanoparticle solution helps them better handle the stress of a heat wave. In their study, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the group conducted experiments involving spraying rice plants in a heated greenhouse.

Prior research has shown that heat waves can reduce rice yields or kill plants altogether, depending on the severity of the heat wave. Because of that, plant scientists have been looking for ways to help plants survive the likely increase in number and severity of heat waves expected due to global warming. The research team found that zinc oxide nanoparticles may be one such tool.

Prior research has also shown that zinc oxide is a natural part of plant metabolism—rice farmers have used it as a form of fertilizer for many years.

More recently, researchers have found that applying zinc nanoparticles is a much more efficient approach—it allows the particles to pass through the pores in leaves.

The team wondered if zinc oxide might also help rice plants maintain their yields during heat waves. To find out, the researchers planted rice in a climate-controlled greenhouse. Once the plants were grown, the team raised the temperature to 37°C for six consecutive days. During the induced heat wave, they sprayed some of the plants with a zinc oxide nanoparticle solution, while the other plants were only watered. Upon harvesting the rice, the research team found that those plants that had been sprayed with zinc oxide nanoparticles had yields that were 22.1% greater than the plants that had been sprayed with water alone.

In taking a closer look at the rice grains, the research team also found that they contained more nutrients, as well. In conducting another similar experiment, the researchers found that spraying rice plants with zinc oxide nanoparticles also led to increased yields compared to those not sprayed even when there was no heat wave.

Shuqing Guo et al, Zinc oxide nanoparticles cooperate with the phyllosphere to promote grain yield and nutritional quality of rice under heatwave stress, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2024). DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2414822121

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on November 5, 2024 at 9:51am

Why do flowers wilt? 

Wilting flowers might not signal poor flower or plant health, but rather the effects of a sophisticated resource management strategy in plants, millions of years in the making.

A study in the journal Plant Biology by researchers from Macquarie University and international collaborators has shown for the first time that plants reuse resources from wilting flowers to support future reproduction.

It turns out the plants were playing a longer game than we anticipated, not using their reclaimed resources immediately, but saving them for the next flowering season.

Plants have evolved diverse strategies for managing their flowers after they've served their primary reproductive function, with wilting just one of several possible approaches.

Not all plants follow the flower wilt pattern; flowers will still bloom on some plants long after they can be fertilized and after they stop producing nectar.

Flowers make the whole plant more attractive to pollinators even when they are just there as part of the overall display.

Some plants will even drop their blooms well before they wilt. For example, jacaranda flowers that seem perfectly good will just drop to the ground; frangipani trees will also shed intact flowers rather than have them wilt.

The study tested resource reuse in different ways.

Results showed plants with wilting flowers were more likely to reflower the next season than those where wilting was prevented. The study also considered other factors that might influence seed production, such as flowering stem height, number of flowers per stem, and flower position. Taller flowering stems, for example, produced more seeds and heavier seeds, as did stems with more flowers. But flowers positioned lower down on the plant tended to have fewer seeds, and seeds that weighed less.

 G. H. Pyke et al, Why do flowers wilt?, Plant Biology (2024). DOI: 10.1111/plb.13720

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on November 5, 2024 at 9:16am

Deep sea rocks suggest oxygen can be made without photosynthesis, deepening the mystery of life

Oxygen, the molecule that supports intelligent life as we know it, is largely made by plants. Whether underwater or on land, they do this by photosynthesizing carbon dioxide. However, a recent study demonstrates that oxygen may be produced without the need for life at depths where light cannot reach.

The authors of a recent publication in Nature Geoscience were collecting samples from deep ocean sediments to determine the rate of oxygen consumption at the seafloor through things like organisms or sediments that can react with oxygen. But in several of their experiments, they actually found oxygen was increasing as opposed to decreasing as they would have expected. This left them questioning how this oxygen was being produced.

They found that this "dark" oxygen production at the seafloor seems to only happen in the presence of mineral concentrates called polymetallic nodules and deposits of metals called metalliferous sediments. The authors think the nodules have the right mixture of metals and are densely packed enough for an electrical current to pass through for electrolysis, creating enough energy to separate the hydrogen (H) and oxygen (O) from water (H₂O).

The authors also suggested that the amount of oxygen created may fluctuate depending on the number and mixture of nodules on the ocean floor.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41561-024-01480-8

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on November 5, 2024 at 9:11am

They found that cooling efficiency follows a power law across scales—from as small as 120 by 120 meters to as large as regions covering the entire city. The relationship holds across all four of the studied cities, which are in very different climates. This suggests that it could be used to predict the amount of additional tree cover needed to achieve specific heat mitigation and climate adaptation goals in cities worldwide.
While the paper provides essential information for decision-making at the municipal level, the researchers caution that urban planners may also need to work at smaller scales to ensure that urban trees—and their potential benefits—are distributed equitably across the city, and with community buy-in.

Jia Wang et al, A scaling law for predicting urban trees canopy cooling efficiency, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2024). DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2401210121

Part 2

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on November 5, 2024 at 9:09am

How many trees does it take to cool a city? Researchers develop tool to set urban tree canopy goals

Cities around the globe are increasingly experiencing dangerous heat as urban concrete and asphalt amplify rising temperatures. Tree-planting programs are a popular, nature-based way to cool cities, but these initiatives have been largely based on guesswork and extrapolation. A study published recently in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences offers a new tool for urban planners and decision makers to set more specific and science-based city-wide greening goals.

Trees are good at cooling because they pump a lot of water from the ground into the air, and when that water evaporates at the leaf surface, it absorbs a vast amount of heat. That's just the physics of evaporation. The shade provided by trees also helps with cooling.

To date, most studies measuring the cooling effects of urban trees focus on the hyperlocal level, such as on a particular street or neighborhood. When the urban tree canopy expands by 1%, for example, nearby temperatures may decrease by 0.04 to 0.57 degrees Celsius.

But how much tree canopy do we actually need for the whole city?

Researchers set out to determine how trees' cooling efficiency—the temperature reduction associated with a 1% increase urban tree canopy—changes across larger areas.

The team analyzed satellite imagery and temperature data from four cities with very different climates: Beijing and Shenzhen in China, and Baltimore and Sacramento in the US. Baltimore and Beijing are temperate, Shenzhen is subtropical, and Sacramento is in a Mediterranean climate zone.

First, they divided each city into pixels approximately the size of a city block. For each pixel, they measured the land surface temperature and how much of the ground was covered by trees. Then they ran the same analyses across larger and larger sections of each city, spanning the neighborhood level, city level, and beyond. Finally, they calculated how the mathematical relationship between greenery and temperature—the cooling efficiency—changed at different scales.

Overall, the team discovered that the cooling efficiency of urban trees increased at larger scales. But it did so at a slower rate at larger unit sizes. In Beijing, for example, a 1% increase in canopy at the block level decreases temperature by about 0.06 degrees, whereas a 1% increase in canopy at the city level could decrease temperature by about 0.18 degrees.
The additional benefit at larger scales seems to come from being able to include large groups of trees, which have a larger cooling capacity.

With greater clarity about the relationships between area, tree canopy cover, and cooling effects, the paper makes it possible to predict cooling effects at the whole-city scale, offering a valuable tool for managers to set urban tree canopy goals to reduce extreme heat.

Part 1

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on November 5, 2024 at 9:02am

Rainwater samples reveals it's literally raining 'forever chemicals'

PFAS are in rainwater. And it is the latest evidence the synthetic "forever chemicals"—that have raised health concerns for people and wildlife—hitch a ride on the water cycle, using the complex system to circulate over greater distances.

For more than a year, FIU researchers collected and analyzed 42 rainwater samples across three different sites in Miami-Dade County. A total of 21 perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, were detected, including PFOS and PFOA (since phased out of production over cancer concerns), as well as the newer varieties used in manufacturing today.

While profiles of several PFAS matched back to local sources, others did not. According to the study, published in Atmospheric Pollution Research, this suggests Earth's atmosphere acts as a pathway to transport these chemicals far and wide—contributing to the worldwide pollution problem.

PFAS are practically everywhere. Now scientists are able to show the role air masses play in potentially bringing these pollutants to other places where they can impact surface water and groundwater.

Widely used in consumer products—non-stick cookware, clothing, cosmetics, food packaging, detergents and firefighting foams, to name a few—PFAS were purposefully created to be almost indestructible. They don't break down easily or simply go away.

Once in the environment, they accumulate over time. People can ingest or inhale them, and exposure has been linked to liver and kidney damage, fertility issues, cancer and other diseases. The EPA warned even low levels of exposure can be dangerous, setting strict near-zero limits for some PFAS in drinking water.

It's still not very clear, though, how exactly these long-lived chemicals journey through the environment.

Scientists  have been trying to piece this picture together. They've detected PFAS in drinking water and surface water.

And, subsequently, also found PFAS in animals that live in those areas, including oysters and economically important recreational fish and lobsters. Rain was the natural next place they found it!

PFAS can infiltrate the atmosphere by either evaporation or getting absorbed into microscopic particles and dust. Wind and shifting air currents shuttle them along. Eventually, it rains. As each drop falls to earth, it brings along some of the pollutants. The cycle begins and ends and begins again.

This played out in the team's data.

Maria Guerra de Navarro et al, It's raining PFAS in South Florida: Occurrence of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in wet atmospheric deposition from Miami-Dade, South Florida, Atmospheric Pollution Research (2024). DOI: 10.1016/j.apr.2024.102302

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