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Category: biological – Page 8

New research reveals that centromeres, which are responsible for proper cell division, can rapidly reorganize over short time scales. Biologists at the University of Rochester are calling a discovery they made in a mysterious region of the chromosome known as the centromere a potential game-changer in the field of chromosome biology.

“We’re really excited about this work,” says Amanda Larracuente, the Nathaniel and Helen Wisch Professor of Biology, whose lab oversaw the research that led to the findings, which appear in PLOS Biology.

The discovery involves an intricate and seemingly carefully choreographed genetic tug-of-war between elements in the centromere, which is responsible for proper cell division. Instead of storing genes, centromeres anchor proteins that move chromosomes around the cell as it splits. If a centromere fails to function, cells may divide with too few or too many chromosomes.

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Cyanobacteria use an AM radio-like principle to coordinate cell division with circadian rhythms, encoding information through pulse amplitude modulation.

Cyanobacteria, an ancient group of photosynthetic bacteria, have been discovered to regulate their genes using the same physics principle used in AM radio transmission.

New research published in Current Biology has found that cyanobacteria use variations in the amplitude (strength) of a pulse to convey information in single cells. The finding sheds light on how biological rhythms work together to regulate cellular processes.

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Professor Carlos Duarte, Ph.D. is Distinguished Professor, Marine Science, and Executive Director, Coral Research \& Development Accelerator Platform (CORDAP — https://cordap.org/), Biological and Environmental Science and Engineering Division, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST — https://www.kaust.edu.sa/en/study/fac…), in Saudi Arabia, as well as Chief Scientist of Oceans2050, OceanUS, and E1Series.

Prior to these roles Professor Duarte was Research Professor with the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) and Director of the Oceans Institute at The University of Western Australia. He also holds honorary positions at the Arctic Research Center in Aarhus University, Denmark and the Oceans Institute at The University of Western Australia.

Professor Duarte’s research focuses on understanding the effects of global change in marine ecosystems and developing nature-based solutions to global challenges, including climate change, and developing evidence-based strategies to rebuild the abundance of marine life by 2050.

Building on his research showing mangroves, seagrasses and salt-marshes to be globally-relevant carbon sinks, Professor Duarte developed, working with different UN agencies, the concept of Blue Carbon, as a nature-based solution to climate change, which has catalyzed their global conservation and restoration.

Continue reading “Prof. Carlos Duarte, Ph.D. — Executive Director, Coral Research & Development Accelerator Platform” | >

When the brain is observed through imaging, there is a lot of “noise,” which is spontaneous electrical activity that comes from a resting brain. This appears to be different from brain activity that comes from sensory inputs, but just how similar—or different—the noise is from the signal has been a matter of debate.

New research led by a team at the University of Tokyo further untangles the relationship between internally generated noise and stimulus-related patterns in the brain, and finds that the patterns of spontaneous activity and stimulus-evoked response are similar in lower visual areas of the cerebral cortex, but gradually become independent, or “orthogonal,” as one moves from lower to higher visual areas.

The findings not only enhance our understanding of the mechanism that enables the brain to distinguish between signal and noise, but could also provide clues for developing noise-resistant incorporating a mechanism similar to that found in the biological brain. The study is published in the journal Nature Communications.

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A trio of archaeologists at the University of Cambridge, in the U.K. conducted a study of hundreds of papers outlining research into hunter–gatherer societies, finding that people in such groups engage in a variety of physical activities. George Brill, Marta Mirazon-Lahr and Mark Dyble published their paper in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences.

For much of history, male physical and athletic prowess has been considered to be important, while female physical prowess has been mostly overlooked. In this new study, the research team wondered if female physical prowess has also been overlooked in a hunter–gatherer context.

To find out, they conducted a study focusing on research efforts into hunter–gatherer societies—both those in the past and those still in existence today. In all, they looked at more than 900 papers, focusing most specifically on physical or athletic activities of people of both genders.

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Abstract. To gain insight into how researchers of aging perceive the process they study, we conducted a survey among experts in the field. While highlighting some common features of aging, the survey exposed broad disagreement on the foundational issues. What is aging? What causes it? When does it begin? What constitutes rejuvenation? Not only was there no consensus on these and other core questions, but none of the questions received a majority opinion—even regarding the need for consensus itself. Despite many researchers believing they understand aging, their understanding diverges considerably. Importantly, as different processes are labeled as “aging” by researchers, different experimental approaches are prioritized. The survey shed light on the need to better define which aging processes this field should target and what its goals are. It also allowed us to categorize contemporary views on aging and rejuvenation, revealing critical, yet largely unanswered, questions that appear disconnected from the current research focus. Finally, we discuss ways to address the disagreement, which we hope will ultimately aid progress in the field.

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These scenarios pose several new challenges, since the environmental and operational conditions of the mission will strongly differ than those on the International Space Station (ISS). One critical parameter will be the increased mission duration and further distance from Earth, requiring a Life Support System (LSS) as independent as possible from Earth’s resources. Current LSS physico-chemical technologies at the ISS can recycle 90% of water and regain 42% of O2 from the astronaut’s exhaled CO2, but they are not able to produce food, which can currently only be achieved using biology. A future LSS will most likely include some of these technologies currently in use, but will also need to include biological components. A potential biological candidate are microalgae, which compared to higher plants, offer a higher harvest index, higher biomass productivity and require less water. Several algal species have already been investigated for space applications in the last decades, being Chlorella vulgaris a promising and widely researched species. C. vulgaris is a spherical single cell organism, with a mean diameter of 6 µm. It can grow in a wide range of pH and temperature levels and CO2 concentrations and it shows a high resistance to cross contamination and to mechanical shear stress, making it an ideal organism for long-term LSS. In order to continuously and efficiently produce the oxygen and food required for the LSS, the microalgae need to grow in a well-controlled and stable environment. Therefore, besides the biological aspects, the design of the cultivation system, the Photobioreactor (PBR), is also crucial. Even if research both on C. vulgaris and in general about PBRs has been carried out for decades, several challenges both in the biological and technological aspects need to be solved, before a PBR can be used as part of the LSS in a Moon base. Those include: radiation effects on algae, operation under partial gravity, selection of the required hardware for cultivation and food processing, system automation and long-term performance and stability.

The International Space Station (ISS) has been continuously inhabited for over twenty years. The Life Support System (LSS) on board the station is in charge of providing the astronauts with oxygen, water and food. For that, Physico-Chemical (PC) technologies are used, recycling 90% of the water and recovering 42% of the oxygen (O2) from the carbon dioxide (CO2) that astronauts produce (Crusan and Gatens, 2017), while food is supplied from Earth.

Space agencies currently plan missions beyond Low Earth Orbit, with a Moon base or a mission to Mars as potential future scenarios (ESA Blog 2016; ISEGC 2018; NASA 2020). The higher distance from Earth of a lunar base, compared to the ISS, might require the production of food in-situ, to reduce the amount of resources required from Earth. PC technologies are not able to produce food, which can only be achieved using biological organisms. Several candidates are currently being investigated, with a main focus on higher plants (Kittang et al., 2014; Hamilton et al., 2020) and microalgae (Detrell et al., 2020b; Poughon et al., 2020).

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Researchers at TU Delft have discovered that E. coli bacteria can synchronize their movements, creating order in seemingly random biological systems. By trapping individual bacteria in micro-engineered circular cavities and coupling these cavities through narrow channels, the team observed coordinated bacterial motion. Their findings, which have potential applications in engineering controllable biological oscillator networks, were recently published in Small.

An audience clapping in rhythm, fireflies flashing in unison, or flocks of starlings moving as one—synchronization is a natural phenomenon observed across diverse systems and scales. First described by Christiaan Huygens in the 17th century, synchronization was famously illustrated by the aligned swinging of his pendulum clocks. Now, TU Delft researchers have shown that even E. coli bacteria—single-celled organisms only a few micrometers long—can display this same phenomenon.

“This was a remarkable moment for our team,” said Farbod Alijani, associate professor at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering. “Seeing bacteria ‘dance in sync’ not only showcases the beauty of nature but also deepens our understanding of the microscopic origins of self-organization among the smallest living organisms.”

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