Cavalier King Charles spaniels carry more harmful genetic variants than other breeds

Genomic study also identified genetic variants linked to a common heart condition in the breed

Peer-Reviewed Publication

PLOS

 

IMAGE: COMPARISONS OF DACHSHUNDS WITH AND WITHOUT SIGNS OF HEART DISEASE WERE USED TO HELP IDENTIFY MUTATIONS THAT POTENTIALLY PREDISPOSE CAVALIER KING CHARLES SPANIELS TO DEVELOP MMVD view more 

CREDIT: MÅNS ENGELBREKTSSON, SWEDISH KENNEL CLUB, CC-BY 4.0 (HTTPS://CREATIVECOMMONS.ORG/LICENSES/BY/4.0/)

Recent dog breeding practices have loaded up cavalier King Charles spaniels with disease-causing mutations, including variants linked to the common heart condition, myxomatous mitral valve disease (MMVD). Erik Axelsson of Uppsala University and colleagues published these new findings September 2nd in the journal PLOS Genetics.

The past 300 years of dog breeding have created an incredible diversity of breeds with various sizes, shapes, and abilities. Unfortunately, this process has also caused many breeds to become more inbred and more likely to inherit genetic diseases. The study's researchers wanted to know whether recent breeding practices had increased the number of disease-causing variants in dogs. They sequenced entire genomes from 20 dogs from eight common breeds, such as beagles, German shepherds, and golden retrievers. They found that the cavalier King Charles spaniel, which experienced the most intense breeding, carried more harmful genetic variants than the other breeds they examined.

The researchers also looked for genetic variants in the cavalier King Charles spaniel genomes linked to MMVD. In this condition, the mitral valve in the heart degenerates, allowing blood to leak from the left ventricle back into the left atrium. They identified two genetic variants linked to the disease, which appear to regulate a gene that codes for a common protein in heart muscle. The findings offer a potential explanation for why the cavalier King Charles spaniel is predisposed to develop the disease.

The especially large number of potentially harmful genes in the genomes of cavalier King Charles spaniels, compared to other dogs, likely resulted from its breeding history. Records suggest that small spaniel-type dogs have existed for at least 1,000 years and were popular at royal courts for several hundred years throughout Asia and Europe, including at the court of King Charles II (1630-1685).  These spaniels experienced several "bottlenecks" where only a small percentage of the population passed on their genes to the next generation. The bottlenecks may have made the harmful genes more common in the cavalier King Charles spaniel genome before the dog achieved recognition as a breed in 1945.

Axelsson adds, “We find that recent breeding may have led to an accelerated accumulation of harmful mutations in certain dog breeds. In the Cavalier King Charles spaniel specifically, one or several of these mutations affect heart muscle protein NEBL and may predispose this breed to devastating heart disease.”

 

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In your coverage please use this URL to provide access to the freely available article in PLOS Genetics:

http://journals.plos.org/plosgenetics/article?id=10.1371/journal.pgen.1009726

Citation: Axelsson E, Ljungvall I, Bhoumik P, Conn LB, Muren E, Ohlsson Å, et al. (2021) The genetic consequences of dog breed formation—Accumulation of deleterious genetic variation and fixation of mutations associated with myxomatous mitral valve disease in cavalier King Charles spaniels. PLoS Genet 17(9): e1009726. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgen.1009726

Funding: Funding from Elanco (previously Novartis Animal Health) to KLT covered the generation of WGS data and parts of EA’s salary. Elanco (previously Novartis Animal Health) influenced the choice of dog breeds sequenced in this study, participated in data analysis and edited and reviewed the manuscript. Two grants from the Agria and SKK Research Foundation, one to IL (19969) and one to RH (P2011-0021), provided funding for sampling of dogs. EA was funded by a grant from the Swedish Research council (2016-03826) and a grant from FORMAS (2016-01312), both of which contributed to EA’s salary. KLT is a Distinguished Professor at the Swedish Research Council (D0816101). PB’s salary was funded by a Novartis postdoctoral fellowship (https://www.novartis.com/our-science/postdoc-program). With the exception of Elanco (see above) the funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.

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JOURNAL

PLoS Genetics

DOI

10.1371/journal.pgen.1009726 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Experimental study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Animals

COI STATEMENT

Competing interests: I have read the journal’s policy and the authors of this manuscript have the following competing interests: Elanco (previously Novartis Animal Health) funded the generation of WGS data.

 

Indian wolf among world’s most endangered and distinct wolves

Scientists sequence Indian wolf genome for 1st time

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA - DAVIS

 

IMAGE: THIS ILLUSTRATION INDICATES THE RANGES OF HOLARCTIC, TIBETAN AND INDIAN WOLF POPULATIONS ACROSS THE NORTHERN HEMISPHERE. view more 

CREDIT: LLLUSTRATION BY LAUREN HENNELLY, UC DAVIS

The Indian wolf could be far more endangered than previously recognized, according to a study from the University of California, Davis, and the scientists who sequenced the Indian wolf’s genome for the first time. 

The findings, published in the journal Molecular Ecology, reveal the Indian wolf to be one of the world’s most endangered and evolutionarily distinct gray wolf populations. The study indicates that Indian wolves could represent the most ancient surviving lineage of wolves.

The Indian wolf is restricted to lowland India and Pakistan, where its grassland habitat is threatened primarily by human encroachment and land conversion.

“Wolves are one of the last remaining large carnivores in Pakistan, and many of India’s large carnivores are endangered,” said lead author Lauren Hennelly, a doctoral student with the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine’s Mammalian Ecology Conservation Unit. “I hope that knowing they are so unique and found only there will inspire local people and scientists to learn more about conserving these wolves and grassland habitats.” 

CAPTION

Stemming from an ancient lineage, Indian wolves are one of the most evolutionarily distinct and endangered gray wolf populations.

CREDIT

Mihir Godbole/The Grasslands Trust

‘A game-changer’

The authors sequenced genomes of four Indian and two Tibetan wolves and included 31 additional canid genomes to resolve their evolutionary and phylogenomic history. They found that Tibetan and Indian wolves are distinct from each other and from other wolf populations.

The study recommends that Indian and Tibetan wolf populations be recognized as evolutionarily significant units, an interim designation that would help prioritize their conservation while their taxonomic classification is reevaluated.

“This paper may be a game-changer for the species to persist in these landscapes,” said co-author Bilal Habib, a conservation biologist with the Wildlife Institute of India. “People may realize that the species with whom we have been sharing the landscape is the most distantly divergent wolf alive today.”

Indian and western Asian wolf populations are currently considered as one population. The study’s finding that Indian wolves are distinct from western Asian wolves indicates their distribution is much smaller than previously thought.

An ancient lineage

Gray wolves are one of the most widely distributed land mammals in the world, found in snow, forests, deserts and grasslands of the Northern Hemisphere. Wolves may have survived the ice ages in isolated regions called refugia, potentially diverging into distinct evolutionarily lineages.

Recent genomic studies confirmed that the Tibetan wolf is an ancient and distinct evolutionary lineage. However, until this study, what was known about the evolutionary history of Indian wolves was based on mitochondrial DNA evidence, which is inherited only from the mother. That evidence suggested that the Indian wolf diverged more recently than the Tibetan wolf.

In contrast, this study used the entire genome — the nuclear DNA containing nearly all of the genes reflecting the wolf’s evolutionary history. It showed that the Indian wolf was likely even more divergent than the Tibetan wolf.

“Mitochondrial sequencing alone was not sufficient to make a case,” said senior author Ben Sacks, director of the Mammalian and Ecology Conservation Unit at UC Davis. “Nuclear DNA is the big picture, and it changes the picture. You might assume most genetic diversity of gray wolves is in the northern region, where most wolves are found today. But these southern populations harbor most of the evolutionary diversity and are also the most endangered.”

Both Tibetan and Indian wolves stem from an ancient lineage that predates the rise of Holarctic wolves, found in North America and Eurasia. Sacks said this study indicates Indian wolves could represent the most ancient surviving lineage.

Indian wolf map (IMAGE)

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA - DAVIS

CAPTION

This illustration of an Indian wolf indicates its currently recognized distribution compared with its evolutionarily distinct clade, highlighting how its population is likely smaller than thought.

CREDIT

Illustration by Lauren Hennelly/UC Davis

Charismatic competition

Attention for gray wolves in India is often eclipsed by animals considered more charismatic, such as tigers, lions and leopards. Hennelly, who dreamed of being a wolf biologist in fifth grade, was not aware there were wolves in the region until she conducted field work on birds in the Himalayas. When the opportunity to study wolf howls and behavior in India arose as a Fulbright scholar, she jumped at the chance and began the work and collaborations that led to her team becoming the first to sequence the Indian wolf’s genome. 

“I knew that if we sequenced the wolves and the results indicated a divergent lineage, answering that question could really help their conservation at a policy scale that could trickle down and bolster local efforts to help protect these wolves,” Hennelly said.

A separate study led by Sacks about endangered red wolves appears on the cover of the same Molecular Ecology issue in September. Addressing a 30-year-long controversy, that study shows that red wolves are not a colonial-era hybrid between gray wolves and coyotes, as some have argued, but the descendant of a pre-historic North American wolf that diverged from coyotes over 20,000 years ago. Both studies have substantial implications for wolf conservation.

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The Indian wolf study was funded by the Ministry of Science and Technology of India, the Wildlife Institute of India, UK Wolf Conservation Trust and UC Davis. Hennelly was also supported by fellowship grants from National Science Foundation and UC Davis.​​ The red wolf study was funded by a variety of sources, including the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

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JOURNAL

Molecular Ecology

DOI

10.1111/mec.16127 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Meta-analysis

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Animals

ARTICLE TITLE

Ancient divergence of Indian and Tibetan wolves revealed by recombination-aware phylogenomics

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

16-Aug-2021

 

Natural exposure to wildfire smoke increased pregnancy loss in rhesus macaques

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA - DAVIS

 

IMAGE: RHESUS MACAQUE MOTHERS WITH INFANTS AT THE CALIFORNIA NATIONAL PRIMATE RESEARCH CENTER. THE 2018 BREEDING SEASON COINCIDED WITH THE PEAK OF WILDFIRE SMOKE FROM THE CAMP FIRE, WITH A REDUCED RATE OF LIVE BIRTHS THE FOLLOWING SPRING. view more 

CREDIT: CALIFORNIA NATIONAL PRIMATE RESEARCH CENTER

Rhesus macaques naturally exposed to wildfire smoke early in pregnancy had an increased rate of miscarriage, according to new research from the California National Primate Research Center at the University of California, Davis. The work is published online in the journal Reproductive Toxicology.

In November 2018, smoke from the Camp Fire in Paradise, California, about 100 miles away blanketed the Davis area. Air quality exceeded national limits and reached unhealthy levels. 

The disaster coincided with the peak of breeding season for the center’s colony of rhesus macaques. Hundreds of animals at the center live in outdoor corrals in large family groups. Breeding typically takes place in the fall, with offspring born in spring after an average gestation of 166 days. 

Bryn Willson, an OB/GYN resident at UC Davis Health, began the research project in collaboration with Professor Kent Pinkerton, UC Davis Center for Health and Environment, and Bill Lasley, professor emeritus at the Center for Health and Environment and School of Veterinary Medicine, and colleagues. 

The researchers randomly selected 66 female animals of reproductive age from the colony to follow for pregnancy outcomes. They were compared to pregnancies from nine previous years. 

Of the 66, 45 became pregnant while levels of smoke pollution were high, based on measurements of small particles (PM2.5). Twenty animals conceived after air quality had returned to normal levels in December. One animal did not become pregnant. 

There were 37 live births among the 45 animals exposed to wildfire smoke during early pregnancy, a rate of 82%. The average rate of live births in the previous nine years, with normal air quality, varied from 86% to 93%. The 20 animals not exposed to smoke during pregnancy all had successful live births. 

“There was an increase in miscarriage among the primates exposed to wildfire smoke during the 2018-2019 breeding season compared to primates from the nine preceding breeding seasons,” Willson said. Most pregnancies did result in a successful birth, she noted. 

Although there are some important differences, rhesus macaques are considered a useful animal model for human pregnancy. Previous studies have associated poor air quality with reduced birth weight in human babies but not with increased risk of miscarriage. 

Pregnant women a sensitive group for air quality

Pregnant women should consider themselves as being a “sensitive group” for poor air quality, she said, similar to people with asthma or other lung conditions. Willson recommended minimizing time spent outdoors when the air is unhealthy for sensitive groups, and wearing a mask that can filter fine particles. 

The study did not establish a cause for the increased rate of miscarriage, but air sampling showed that Camp Fire smoke contained both oxidized organic material — probably from burning vegetation — and phthalates, likely from burning plastic in houses or other human-made structures. Phthalates are known to be endocrine disruptors, Willson said. 

High levels of small particles (PM2.5) are known to increase morbidity overall. Previous work from the California National Primate Research Center, led by Professor Lisa Miller, UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine, has shown that natural exposure of infant macaques to wildfire smoke has long-term effects on their lungs comparable to chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, or COPD, in humans.

###

Additional co-authors on the study were: Nancy Gee at the Center for Health and Environment and California National Primate Research Center; Lijuan Li and Qi Zhang, UC Davis Department of Environmental Toxicology; and Neil Willits, Department of Statistics. Willson is currently a fellow at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles. 

Funding was provided by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health and the National Institute for Environmental Health Sciences.

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JOURNAL

Reproductive Toxicology

DOI

10.1016/j.reprotox.2021.08.005 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Observational study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Animals

ARTICLE TITLE

Effects of the 2018 Camp Fire on Birth Outcomes in Non-human Primates: Case-Control Study

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

25-Aug-2021

COI STATEMENT

None declared.

 AS IF WE DID NOT HAVE ENOUGH TO WORRY ABOUT DEPT.

Study reveals threat of catastrophic supervolcano eruptions ever-present

Peer-Reviewed Publication

CURTIN UNIVERSITY

 

Curtin scientists are part of an international research team that studied an ancient supervolcano in Indonesia and found such volcanoes remain active and hazardous for thousands of years after a super-eruption, prompting the need for a rethink of how these potentially catastrophic events are predicted.

Associate Professor Martin Danišík, lead Australian author from the John de Laeter Centre based at Curtin University, said supervolcanoes often erupted several times with intervals of tens of thousands of years between the big eruptions but it was not known what happened during the dormant periods.

“Gaining an understanding of those lengthy dormant periods will determine what we look for in young active supervolcanoes to help us predict future eruptions,” Associate Professor Danišík said.

“Super-eruptions are among the most catastrophic events in Earth’s history, venting tremendous amounts of magma almost instantaneously. They can impact global climate to the point of tipping the Earth into a ‘volcanic winter’, which is an abnormally cold period that may result in widespread famine and population disruption.

“Learning how supervolcanoes work is important for understanding the future threat of an inevitable super-eruption, which happen about once every 17,000 years.”

Associate Professor Danišík said the team investigated the fate of magma left behind after the Toba super-eruption 75,000 years ago, using the minerals feldspar and zircon, which contain independent records of time based on the accumulation of gasses argon and helium as time capsules in the volcanic rocks.

“Using these geochronological data, statistical inference and thermal modelling, we showed that magma continued to ooze out within the caldera, or deep depression created by the eruption of magma, for 5000 to 13,000 years after the super-eruption, and then the carapace of solidified left-over magma was pushed upward like a giant turtle shell,” Associate Professor Danišík said.

“The findings challenged existing knowledge and studying of eruptions, which normally involves looking for liquid magma under a volcano to assess future hazard. We must now consider that eruptions can occur even if no liquid magma is found underneath a volcano - the concept of what is ‘eruptible’ needs to be re-evaluated.

 “While a super-eruption can be regionally and globally impactful and recovery may take decades or even centuries, our results show the hazard is not over with the super-eruption and the threat of further hazards exists for many thousands of years after.

“Learning when and how eruptible magma accumulates, and in what state the magma is in before and after such eruptions, is critical for understanding supervolcanoes.”

The study was led by researchers from Oregon State University, and co-authored by researchers from Heidelberg University, the Geological Agency of Indonesia, and by Dr Jack Gillespie from Curtin’s School of Earth and Planetary Sciences and The Institute for Geoscience Research (TIGeR), Curtin’s flagship earth sciences research institute.

The paper, ‘Resurgence initiation and subsolidus eruption of cold carapace of warm magma at Toba Caldera, Sumatra’, was published in journal Nature - Earth and Environmental Sciences.

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JOURNAL

Communications Earth & Environment

DOI

10.1038/s43247-021-00260-1 

ARTICLE TITLE

Resurgence initiation and subsolidus eruption of cold carapace of warm magma at Toba Caldera, Sumatra’

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

2-Sep-2021

 

Cost, bleeding cited as major reasons for not taking newer anti-coagulant as prescribed

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA - LOS ANGELES HEALTH SCIENCES

BACKGROUND

Direct-acting oral anticoagulants such as apixaban are the most widely used medications of this type in people with atrial fibrillation, yet 26% to 45% of people fail to properly adhere to them.

 

METHOD

The researchers interviewed 42 UCLA and UCSF adults with atrial fibrillation who had been prescribed apixaban between August 2019 and July 2020 but had reported nonadherence to the medication. Of those people, 83% stopped, skipped or decreased dosing and 17% percent never took the medication.

 

FINDINGS

People with atrial fibrillation, or irregular heartbeat, who were prescribed the direct-acting oral anticoagulant apixaban cited six reasons for failing to adhere to their prescriptions:

 

• Cost - some felt that the out-of-pocket cost was too high, physicians were not helpful in addressing their cost concerns, or physician-provided coupons did not work
• Bleeding - some people worried about major or minor bleeding, including during activities such as hiking or construction work
• Lack of Symptoms – some believed that they did not need to take the medication if they did not experience symptoms or the symptoms were periodic, with some believing their stroke risk was small.
• Safe to skip doses – some believed the medication was still effective when they reduced doses from twice daily to once, and others believed that their physician gave tacit approval to occasional nonadherence when told to stop taking the medication a few days before surgery or if they experienced excess bleeding.
• Confusion about effects - some believed that the medication was intended to reduce atrial fibrillation symptoms and were puzzled when they continued experiencing them, or felt few effects from it and wanted measurable lab results.
• Incomplete or discordant communication – some did not tell their physician about their nonadherence, or said they were not asked about it, and others were confused by differing physician opinions.

 

IMPACT

The findings are useful in devising strategies to increase adherence to the medication.

 

AUTHORS

Dr. Derjung Tarn and Kevin Shih of UCLA, and Dr. Janice Schwartz of UCSF.

 

JOURNAL

The peer-reviewed Journal of the American Geriatrics Society published this study.

 

FUNDING

Bristol-Myers Squibb and Pfizer funded this study.

 

Media Contact

Enrique Rivero

erivero@mednet.ucla.edu

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JOURNAL

Journal of the American Geriatrics Society

DOI

10.1111/jgs.17423 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Survey

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

Reasons for nonadherence to the direct oral anticoagulant apixaban for atrial fibrillation

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

27-Aug-2021

 

NTU Singapore and Hyundai Motor Group to develop advanced solutions for electric vehicle manufacturing

Business Announcement

NANYANG TECHNOLOGICAL UNIVERSITY

 

IMAGE: (L-R) HYUNDAI MOTOR GROUP SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT HONG BUM JUNG, PRESIDENT & CHIEF INNOVATION OFFICER OF HYUNDAI MOTOR GROUP, YOUNGCHO CHI, NTU PRESIDENT PROFESSOR SUBRA SURESH AND PRESIDENT & NTU SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT (RESEARCH) PROFESSOR LAM KHIN YONG WERE IN ATTENDANCE AT THE SIGNING CEREMONY HELD AT NTU ON 1 SEP 2021. view more 

CREDIT: NTU SINGAPORE

Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore) and Hyundai Motor Group (the Group) have entered into an agreement to conduct a series of joint research projects focusing on advanced solutions for the manufacturing of electric vehicles (EVs) and to develop future mobility solutions.

Focusing on Industry 4.0 technologies, these projects aim to develop solutions that can transform conventional car manufacturing facilities into state-of-the-art factories of the future.

Four pilot projects on artificial intelligence (AI) and additive manufacturing (3D printing) will be explored in the initial stage which starts this month.

To ensure the quality of Battery Electric Vehicles (vehicles powered entirely by batteries), one of the projects aims to develop machine learning algorithms for vehicle image processing. The application of an AI-based image processing sensor in the plant will help detect defects and anomalies during the manufacturing process, ensuring high levels of safety and reliability of the final product.

Another project will look at integrating 3D printing in EV manufacturing. Researchers will explore how 3D printers can be effectively used in the customisation of automotive components, and how they may be implemented in a smart factory operation. This will support the smart manufacturing vision, where customers can order and customise a car model to their taste.

NTU Senior Vice President (Research) Professor Lam Khin Yong and Hyundai Motor Group Senior Vice President Hong Bum Jung signed the collaboration agreement at a ceremony held at NTU on Wednesday (1 Sep). It was witnessed by NTU President Professor Subra Suresh and President & Chief Innovation Officer of Hyundai Motor Group, Youngcho Chi.

NTU President Professor Subra Suresh said, “The partnership between NTU and Hyundai Motor Group provides one more example of how our close collaboration with industry plays an important role in developing relevant solutions to address real world issues. This is in line with the NTU 2025 strategic plan, which aims to address some of the grand challenges facing humanity. This collaboration with Hyundai Motor Group will build on NTU’s core strengths, in areas such as additive manufacturing, AI, autonomous and electric vehicles, and big data to bring about benefits to the automotive industry, Singapore and the global society.”

The signing ceremony follows an earlier announcement made in October 2020 during the virtual groundbreaking ceremony for Hyundai Motor Group Innovation Centre in Singapore (HMGICS). During the ceremony, NTU was announced as the first academic research partner for the Group’s HMGICS initiative.

President & Chief Innovation Officer of Hyundai Motor Group, Youngcho Chi said, “HMGICS aims to build an ecosystem for the future mobility industry based on open innovation. We are going to strengthen collaboration with NTU and develop advanced solutions to revolutionise future mobility value chain going forward.”

The HMGICS is an open research facility for the Group’s future mobility research and development. Located at Singapore’s Jurong Innovation District, the construction of HMGICS is expected to be completed at the end of 2022. The facility will only be five- minute drive from the NTU Smart Campus, which is a living testbed of innovative digital and tech-enabled solutions.

Future initiatives to nurture talent

Aside from research and development projects, the latest agreement between NTU and Hyundai Motor Group also paves the way for future collaborations aimed at nurturing talent in the automotive sector.

For example, the partners will launch 3D printing competitions, focusing on the innovative use of the technology in automotive engineering. The aim is to drive interest in EV manufacturing and to encourage undergraduates to imagine what future mobility could look like. At the same time, the competition will be an opportunity for people to gain insights into the benefits of 3D printing technology in EVs.

NTU students and researchers will also benefit from joint educational seminars, which will provide a platform for industrial experts from the Group and NTU academics to exchange ideas and build their skills.
 

***END***

 

Improving buyer-freelancer communications in the gig economy

News from the Journal of Marketing

Peer-Reviewed Publication

AMERICAN MARKETING ASSOCIATION

Researchers from University of Melbourne, Vrije Universiteit, Babson College, and University of Surrey published a new paper in the Journal of Marketing that provides generalized communication principles, and examples of how to apply them, for successful bid writing in the gig economy.

The study, forthcoming in the Journal of Marketing, is titled “Communication in the Gig Economy: Buying and Selling in Online Freelance Marketplaces” and is authored by Stephan Ludwig, Dennis Herhausen, Dhruv Grewal, Liliana Bove, Sabine Benoit, Ko de Ruyter, and Peter Urwin.

The gig economy is global and growing exponentially. In the US alone, millions of buyers and freelancers in freelance marketplaces contribute $1.2 trillion in value to the economy. Online freelance marketplaces, such as Upwork, Fiverr, PeoplePerHour, and Toptal have prompted massive transformations of work. In relatively anonymous interactions via text-based messages, buyers first post call-for-bids for their gigs. In turn, interested freelancers submit bids to offer their services.

Yet, while 59% of U.S. companies use a flexible workforce to some degree, more than one-third of their gigs are never filled or completed. The research team explains that “Uncertainty during these text-based interactions leads to high rates of gigs that go unfulfilled, reduced freelancers’ bid success, or less-than-optimal pricing for freelancers. Our investigation uncovers principles for writing call-for-bids and bids that manage that uncertainty and lead to greater success filling gigs and finding work.”

How Buyers Can Write a Good Call-for-Bids

Freelancers choose whether to offer their services in response to a buyer’s call for bids. The number of freelancers who respond is consequential for the buyer because attracting more bids implies a greater likelihood of finding a suitable freelancer. Here are key principles buyers can use to entice freelancers to bid: 
 
• Moderate length: While buyers may be inclined to supply as much information as possible, successful buyers keep their calls for bids moderately succinct. 

• Enough task information: Buyers should focus on providing information about the task and the required skills. Importantly, providing excessive task information is ineffective, even if it might reduce freelancers’ uncertainty. Excessive details can make the gig appear too overwhelming, restrictive, or prescriptive and thus not appealing to freelancers. 

• Limit personal information: Buyers may want to provide a lot of personal information in their call for bids. Yet, this research finds that the less buyers describe themselves (and instead focus on describing the task), the more freelancers apply. Extensive personal information provision by buyers is unusual, potentially even inappropriate, in initial online exchanges. 

• Enough concreteness: Buyers can vary the concreteness of the gig description. Greater concreteness can be more efficient because freelancers can process the information with less time and effort. Concrete terms help by making information more perceptible, precise, and specific. Only a moderate to high level of concreteness is attractive to freelancers, though. Notably, if buyers are too concrete in their calls for bids, the task might appear narrow, which reduces the gig’s appeal.

• Limit affective intensity: Affective intensity reflects the proportion of emotive terms included in a message. Greater intensity tends to be more persuasive, memorable, and accessible than communication that is unemotional. However, calls for bids are more effective if they are formulated relatively impassively. Overly enthusiastic project descriptions, for example, might raise freelancers’ suspicion that the project is too good to be true.

How Freelancers Can Write Good Bids

Buyers also face uncertainty when deciding whom to hire and how much to pay. By managing these uncertainties through their bids, freelancers can affect their chances of winning bids and their price premiums. Freelancers are not necessarily natural marketers, but here is what they can do in their bid formulations to increase their marketability:
 
• Stars matter, communication too: Existing online reputation systems provide some assistance, but they also create entry barriers to new freelancers who first must earn good ratings. Fortunately, winning gigs and achieving price premiums also depend on freelancers’ communication. 

• Mimicking the buyer: In line with the mantra of adaptive selling, the call for bids provides a starting point, such that mimicking the buyer’s task information and affective intensity increases freelancers’ success—even if the buyer provides few task details or seems very impassive. 

• Personal information and concreteness: Freelancers should always offer personal information and be concrete. Even if a buyer does not provide personal information or the call is relatively abstract, freelancers’ chances of success and price premiums increase if their bids contain more personal information and are at least somewhat concrete.

• Build relationships: The strongest predictor of bid success is a preexisting buyer relationship. Thus, freelancers should focus on developing buyer relationships. 
  
This research shows that buyers and freelancers in online freelance marketplaces should carefully manage uncertainty in their communications to improve their chances of achieving success in the gig economy.

Full article and author contact information available at: https://doi.org/10.1177/00222429211030841

About the Journal of Marketing 

The Journal of Marketing develops and disseminates knowledge about real-world marketing questions useful to scholars, educators, managers, policy makers, consumers, and other societal stakeholders around the world. Published by the American Marketing Association since its founding in 1936, JM has played a significant role in shaping the content and boundaries of the marketing discipline. Christine Moorman (T. Austin Finch, Sr. Professor of Business Administration at the Fuqua School of Business, Duke University) serves as the current Editor in Chief.
https://www.ama.org/jm

About the American Marketing Association (AMA) 

As the largest chapter-based marketing association in the world, the AMA is trusted by marketing and sales professionals to help them discover what is coming next in the industry. The AMA has a community of local chapters in more than 70 cities and 350 college campuses throughout North America. The AMA is home to award-winning content, PCM® professional certification, premiere academic journals, and industry-leading training events and conferences.
https://www.ama.org

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JOURNAL

Journal of Marketing

DOI

10.1177/00222429211030841 

ARTICLE TITLE

Communication in the Gig Economy: Buying and Selling in Online Freelance Marketplaces

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

22-Jun-2021

Master’s degrees lead to better employment prospects and higher salaries

Work and study experience are more valuable than top marks

Peer-Reviewed Publication

NATIONAL RESEARCH UNIVERSITY HIGHER SCHOOL OF ECONOMICS

New research from HSE University has established the link between obtaining a master’s degree and success in the labour market. The research used a large quantity of data from across Russia. According to the researchers — Ksenia Rozhkova, Sergey Roshchin, Sergey Solntsev, and Pavel Travkin — people with master’s degrees generally have better chances of employment and higher salaries than those with undergraduate degrees only. The results were published in the journal Voprosy Ekonomiki.

What Is It About?

The influence of a master’s-level education on employment success has been confirmed in various countries. For example, those with master’s degrees in the US and the UK earn an average of 5.5–30% more than those with undergraduate degrees. In Japan, this figure rises to 30–40%.

The increase in earnings can vary by gender and subject area. In the UK, men with master’s degrees earn an average of 12% more, while women earn 17% more. Graduates with degrees in the humanities benefit less than those from more sought-after technical and engineering disciplines, while teachers benefit less than administrators and managers. In the US, people with business-related master’s degrees earn 19–23% more, while those with education-related degrees lose out.

The HSE University researchers confirm that the situation in Russia is similar. Gender also has an influence in Russia, as do subject area, changing subject during study, working while studying, region, and type of higher education institution.

 

How Was It Researched?

The research utilized Russia-wide administrative data collected as part of the Graduate Employment Monitoring project established by the Ministry of Labour and Social Protection and the Federal Service for Labour and Employment. The database contains information on almost every higher education institution in Russia, particularly about the 2017 graduates of bachelor’s programmes who were the focus of the study. The final sample included around 400,000 people aged 30 and under. Almost 116,000 people from this group enrolled in master’s degrees immediately after obtaining their undergraduate degrees, and went on to graduate in 2019.

Three criteria were measured to assess the quality of the education obtained:

              Whether the graduate was awarded a red diploma (signifying honours)

              Whether the graduate had combined work with their studies

The type of institution: federal universities, universities created through mergers of other institutions, 5-100 Project members, and universities that do not fall under the other categories.

The researchers also examined social and demographic factors (gender, age, disabilities) and factors related to changing university, region of study, type of university and subject area. The data was analyzed using econometric models, and the results were calculated separately for men and for women.

 

What Are the Findings?

Successful students are more likely to apply to master’s programmes. Almost one third (30%) of master’s students graduated from their bachelor’s degrees with honours, a number that rises to 45% for master’s graduates. Having an ‘excellent’ academic record has an impact in the labour market, as does having a master’s degree in itself.

Compared to undergraduate degrees, master’s degrees improve employment prospects by an average of 12% for women and 3% for men. Women and men with honours degrees gain a 3% and 4% boost respectively.

‘This disproves the common view that Russian employers only care about work experience and not the quality of candidates’ education,’ conclude the researchers.
 

People with master’s degrees have higher salaries, although this primarily affects women, who gain an extra 10%. Men gain a more modest 2.5%.

Women experience a greater benefit because a master’s degree is an investment in their career, the researchers explain. It provides access to better workplaces and compensates for the gender pay gap.

 

Conversely, possession of a red diploma has a negligible or negative effect. The ability to gain work experience is an important factor for master's students, and achieving academic success is too time-consuming to allow for this.
 

A total of 87% of master’s students combined their studies with work. After graduating, these students had improved chances of employment (10% better for women, 5% for men) and higher salaries (8% for women, 6% for men).

Most applicants to master’s programmes do so to learn more about their field, rather than branch out into a new one. The latter group comprises only 22% according to the research, and this group has greater difficulty finding employment.
 

Changing subject area at the master’s level reduces the chances of finding employment by 2% in women and 3% in men.

Those with bachelor’s degrees in the natural sciences and humanities are somewhat more likely to join master’s programmes, but the end result is not the same for everyone. People with master’s degrees in economics and management find work 5% faster, while those with agricultural degrees are 2% less likely to find employment.

 

A master’s-level education has no effect on salaries for workers in culture, art, the humanities and the social sciences. The largest gains were observed in those with specializations in digital technologies and management.
 

Possession of a master’s degree in mathematics or computer science boosts salaries by 15% for women and 6% for men. Master’s degrees in economics and management provide 20% and 12% gains for women and men respectively.

Graduates’ chosen universities for master’s programmes have an even bigger impact, with national research universities and 5-100 Project members at the forefront. There are 29 research universities in Russia (the researchers studied graduates of 25) and 21 members of the 5-100 Project (of which the researchers examined 20).

 

Employment prospects for master’s graduates of national research universities and 5-100 project members are improved by 12.5–13.5% for women and 7–8% for men. Salaries benefit from increases of 15–16% and 4–7% respectively.

There are two reasons for these results in special-status higher education institutions. The first is the high demand for such universities among talented candidates. The second is the high quality of education, which ‘translates into reputation among employers.’

Also important are regional factors such as the location of the university and the state of the local job market. For example, 5-100 member universities are largely located in major cities and developed regions, while merged universities are oriented towards economies with lower potential.

Why Is It Important?

This is the first full-scale assessment of the return on master’s degrees in the Russian labour market. The research confirms the advantages of master’s degrees and allows HSE University researchers to disprove a range of existing myths. Master’s students’ increased chances of finding employment cast doubt on the widespread perception that employers ‘have not adapted to the bachelor’s–master’s system’ and do not differentiate between different levels of higher education.

It is also incorrect to view a master’s education as an obligatory continuation of an academic career. Postgraduate education is valuable not just as the next step towards a doctoral degree, but as a stepping stone into working life. As such, master’s programmes must also be designed to impart the required knowledge and skills.
 

 

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JOURNAL

Voprosy Ekonomiki

DOI

10.32609/0042-8736-2021-8-69-92 

ARTICLE TITLE

The return to master’s degree in the Russian labor market