New Curtin-led research discovers the heart of our evolution

Peer-Reviewed Publication

CURTIN UNIVERSITY

 

IMAGE: THE GOGO FISH FOSSIL WHERE THE 380-MILLION-YEAR-OLD, 3D PRESERVED HEART WAS DISCOVERED BY RESEARCHERS. PICTURED AT THE WA MUSEUM. view more 

CREDIT: YASMINE PHILLIPS, CURTIN UNIVERSITY

Researchers have discovered a 380-million-year-old heart – the oldest ever found – alongside a separate fossilised stomach, intestine and liver in an ancient jawed fish, shedding new light on the evolution of our own bodies.

The new research, published today in Science, found that the position of the organs in the body of arthrodires - an extinct class of armoured fishes that flourished through the Devonian period from 419.2 million years ago to 358.9 million years ago - is similar to modern shark anatomy, offering vital new evolutionary clues.

Lead researcher John Curtin Distinguished Professor Kate Trinajstic, from Curtin’s School of Molecular and Life Sciences and the Western Australian Museum, said the discovery was remarkable given that soft tissues of ancient species were rarely preserved and it was even rarer to find 3D preservation.

“As a palaeontologist who has studied fossils for more than 20 years, I was truly amazed to find a 3D and beautifully preserved heart in a 380-million-year-old ancestor,” Professor Trinajstic said.

“Evolution is often thought of as a series of small steps, but these ancient fossils suggest there was a larger leap between jawless and jawed vertebrates. These fish literally have their hearts in their mouths and under their gills - just like sharks today.”

This research presents – for the first time – the 3D model of a complex s-shaped heart in an arthrodire that is made up of two chambers with the smaller chamber sitting on top.

Professor Trinajstic said these features were advanced in such early vertebrates, offering a unique window into how the head and neck region began to change to accommodate jaws, a critical stage in the evolution of our own bodies.

“For the first time, we can see all the organs together in a primitive jawed fish, and we were especially surprised to learn that they were not so different from us,” Professor Trinajstic said.

“However, there was one critical difference – the liver was large and enabled the fish to remain buoyant, just like sharks today. Some of today’s bony fish such as lungfish and birchers have lungs that evolved from swim bladders but it was significant that we found no evidence of lungs in any of the extinct armoured fishes we examined, which suggests that they evolved independently in the bony fishes at a later date.”  

The Gogo Formation, in the Kimberley region of Western Australia where the fossils were collected, was originally a large reef.

Enlisting the help of scientists at the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation in Sydney and the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility in France, researchers used neutron beams and synchrotron x-rays to scan the specimens, still embedded in the limestone concretions, and constructed three-dimensional images of the soft tissues inside them based on the different densities of minerals deposited by the bacteria and the surrounding rock matrix.

This new discovery of mineralised organs, in addition to previous finds of muscles and embryos, makes the Gogo arthrodires the most fully understood of all jawed stem vertebrates and clarifies an evolutionary transition on the line to living jawed vertebrates, which includes the mammals and humans.

Co-author Professor John Long, from Flinders University, said: “These new discoveries of soft organs in these ancient fishes are truly the stuff of palaeontologists’ dreams, for without doubt these fossils are the best preserved in the world for this age. They show the value of the Gogo fossils for understanding the big steps in our distant evolution. Gogo has given us world firsts, from the origins of sex to the oldest vertebrate heart, and is now one of the most significant fossil sites in the world. It’s time the site was seriously considered for world heritage status.”

Co-author Professor Per Ahlberg, from Uppsala University, said: “What's really exceptional about the Gogo fishes is that their soft tissues are preserved in three dimensions. Most cases of soft-tissue preservation are found in flattened fossils, where the soft anatomy is little more than a stain on the rock. We are also very fortunate in that modern scanning techniques allow us to study these fragile soft tissues without destroying them. A couple of decades ago, the project would have been impossible.”

The Curtin-led research was a collaboration with Flinders University, the Western Australian Museum, the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility in France, the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation’s nuclear reactor, Uppsala University, Monash University’s Australian Regenerative Medicine Institute and the South Australian Museum.

The full paper, titled ‘Exceptional preservation of organs in Devonian placoderms from the Gogo lagerstätte’, can be found online here.

The preserved stomach of a Gogo fish fossil under the microscope. Pictured at the WA Museum.

CREDIT

Yasmine Phillips, Curtin University

Gogo fish diorama at WA Museum Boola Bardip

CREDIT

Professor Kate Trinajstic, Curtin University

JOURNAL

Science

DOI

10.1126/science.abf3289 

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Animal tissue samples

ARTICLE TITLE

Exceptional preservation of organs in Devonian placoderms from the Gogo lagerstätte’

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

16-Sep-2022

Marching with a message: Lethbridge event highlights challenges for those with disabilities

Eloise Therien - Yesterday 

Dozens of southern Albertans converged on Lethbridge city hall Friday morning, equipped with hand-written posters and a desire to spread a message.


Participants of the 2022 Citizen Walk About walking along 3rd Ave. S, 

Lethbridge on their way to Galt Gardens.© Eloise Therien / Global News

The annual Citizen Walk About looks to showcase the success of people with different abilities, with the theme, "How We Got Here."

The South Region Self-Advocacy Network (SRSAN) hosted the walk in partnership with Southern Alberta Individualized Planning Association (SAIPA).

"It is an awareness event meant to highlight issues in the disability sector," said SAIPA executive director Mark Davids.

"Both the accomplishments--where we are today, the great strides the people have managed to complete--as well as the work that still needs to be done."

Video: Osoyoos family fundraising to outfit their home for disabled son

The event saw participants move from city hall to Galt Gardens for entertainment, speakers and a barbecue lunch.

Organizers hoped along with spreading awareness, it would be a chance to build connections.

"It's showing that we are here too, so just showing our ability and what we can do," said Melodie Scout, who has been taking part for several years.

She said despite hardships and discrimination she has faced, she keeps a positive attitude.

"We're part of this community as well."

When asked what challenges are currently facing people living with disabilities, Davids said there are three main concerns.

"The effect of transportation, communication, as well as finances," he explained. "AISH (Assured Income for the Severely Handicapped) is not indexed at the moment, so as inflation continues to rise, it pushes people closer to poverty."

Ben Rowley, self-advocate and one of the organizers, said more can also be done to assist those with different mobility needs.

"There's a lot of issues for people with disabilities that you might not understand," Rowley said. "Like getting into older buildings and not having that accessibility."

According to it's website, SAIPA was formed in 1986 as a charitable non-profit "which supports people with disabilities to drive change in their communities as engaged and empowered citizens."

Davids said many of its services are free and encourages community members to reach out for more information.

AISH IS JOINTLY FUNDED BY FEDERAL TRANSFER PAYMENTS AS WELL SUPPOSEDLY BY ALBERTA MATCHING IT.

IN FACT THE AB GOV ONLY ISSUES THE FEDERAL PORTION TO AISH RECIPIENTS, NOT ADDING ADDITIONAL AB FUNDING. 

JUST AS IT CHEATS PARENTS OUT OF PROVINCIAL FUNDING FOR DAYCARE RELYING ON GIVING THEM ONLY THE FEDERAL PAYMENT.

How songbirds’ striking colors put them at risk

Peer-Reviewed Publication

CELL PRESS

 

IMAGE: COMMON HILL MYNA (GRACULA-RELIGIOSA); LEAST CONCERN; COLOR UNIQUENESS SCORE OF 66.9 view more 

CREDIT: RICK STANLEY AND GABBY SALAZAR

Bright, uniquely colored songbirds are at higher risk of extinction and more likely to be traded as pets, according to researchers reporting in Current Biology on September 15. The researchers also predict that almost 500 additional bird species, most of them living in the tropics, are at risk of future trade based on their unique and desirable coloration.

“Aesthetic value is an important part of how people value nature,” said Rebecca Senior (@RebeccaASenior) of Durham University, U.K. “However, there is potential for conflict when what motivates some people to protect certain species is the same thing that makes other people want to own them. Songbirds are highly sought after in the pet trade, particularly for their beautiful songs. However, songbirds can also be remarkably colorful—a highly desirable trait in other commonly traded species, such as parrots.”

In their new study, Senior and colleagues including Brett Scheffers (@BrettScheffers) of University of Florida, Gainesville explored the antagonistic roles of aesthetic value in biodiversity conservation. They used novel metrics of color to evaluate the aesthetics of groups of birds, across the world and the avian tree of life.

Their analysis shows that the tropics are the epicenter of bird color, with 91% and 65% of the world’s most diverse and uniquely colored assemblages of songbirds, respectively. They report that the pet trade, which affects 30% of all bird species, targets clusters of related and uniquely colored birds. They went on to identify 478 species of birds that may be at risk of future trade based on their appealing colors.

“We were surprised to see the strength of the latitudinal gradient in color; even when you account for the greater number of species in the tropics, the diversity of color in the tropics dwarfs all other regions,” Senior said.

While one might expect brilliant blues, oranges, and yellows to put species at risk, the researchers were also surprised to discover that pure white is a unique color found in many sought-after species, such as the endangered Bali myna. The findings overall highlight that the same color features that make some people willing to travel around the world for a mere glimpse of a bird through binoculars also potentially puts them at risk for pet trading. The findings have important implications for conservation.

“Understanding what motivates trade is essential to identify at-risk species potentially requiring more proactive protection from trapping,” Senior said. “Trade has the capacity to be regulated and managed sustainably with a better understanding of what is traded as well as where and why trade occurs. Loss of colorful species also directly erodes aesthetic value, which is problematic because, for better or worse, it is this value that often fundamentally motivates and funds conservation efforts.”

In future studies, they hope to disentangle even more factors that play into regional variation in patterns of trade among birds. They’d also like to explore the role of color in the trade of other groups of animals and plants.

###

This work was supported by a Royal Society of New Zealand Marsden grant and the Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowship.

Current Biology, Senior et al. “Wildlife trade targets colorful birds and threatens the aesthetic value of nature” https://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(22)01215-5

Current Biology (@CurrentBiology), published by Cell Press, is a bimonthly journal that features papers across all areas of biology. Current Biology strives to foster communication across fields of biology, both by publishing important findings of general interest and through highly accessible front matter for non-specialists. Visit http://www.cell.com/current-biology. To receive Cell Press media alerts, contact press@cell.com.

Bornean green magpie (Cissa thalassina); Critically Endangered; color uniqueness score of 42.5

CREDIT

Zhikai Liao

Black-winged myna (Acridotheres-melanopterus); Endangered

CREDIT

Rick Stanley and Gabby Salazar

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JOURNAL

Current Biology

DOI

10.1016/j.cub.2022.07.066 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Computational simulation/modeling

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Animals

ARTICLE TITLE

Wildlife trade targets colourful birds and threatens the aesthetic value of nature

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

15-Sep-2022

Byzantine solar eclipse records illuminate obscure history of Earth's rotation

Japanese researchers investigated ancient texts from the 4th to 7th centuries CE to identify five total solar eclipses near the Eastern Mediterranean and improve the model of the Earth's rotation over time

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF TSUKUBA

Tsukuba, Japan—Witnessing a total solar eclipse is an unforgettable experience and may have been even more impressive throughout history before we were able to understand and accurately predict their occurrence. But the historical records of these remarkable astronomical spectacles are more than mere curiosities—they provide invaluable information on changes in the Earth's movement.

In a new study in Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, Japanese researchers combed through records from the Byzantine Empire to identify and locate total solar eclipses observed around the Eastern Mediterranean in the 4th-7th centuries CE, a period for which previously identified solar eclipse records are particularly scarce.

These records are crucial for understanding the variability of the Earth's rotation throughout history. However, because the people who recorded these events in antiquity often left out key information of interest to modern astronomers, identifying the correct times, locations, and extents of historical eclipses is painstaking work.

"Although original eyewitness accounts from this period have mostly been lost, quotations, translations, etc., recorded by later generations provide valuable information," co-author Assistant Professor Koji Murata of the University of Tsukuba explains. "In addition to reliable location and timing information, we needed confirmation of eclipse totality: daytime darkness to the extent that stars appeared in the sky. We were able to identify the probable times and locations of five total solar eclipses from the 4th to 7th centuries in the Eastern Mediterranean region, in 346, 418, 484, 601, and 693 CE."

The key variable that this new information sheds light on is ΔT, the difference between time measured according to the Earth's rotation and time independent of the Earth's rotation. Thus, variations in ΔT represent variations in the actual length of a day on Earth.

Taking the eclipse of July 19, 418 CE as an example, an ancient text reported a solar eclipse so complete that stars appeared in the sky, and the site of observation was identified as Constantinople. The previous ΔT model for this time would have placed Constantinople outside the path of totality for this eclipse. Therefore, ΔT for the 5th century CE can be adjusted based on this new information.

"Our new ΔT data fill a considerable gap and indicate that the ΔT margin for the 5th century should be revised upward, whereas those for the 6th and 7th centuries should be revised downward" says Dr. Murata.

These new data shed light on variation of the Earth's rotation on a centennial timescale, and thus help refine the study of other global phenomena throughout history, such as sea-level and ice-volume variability.

###
This work was financially supported in part by JSPS Grant-inAids JP15K05038, JP19K13389, JP20K22367, JP20K20918, JP20H05643, and JP21K13957, JSPS Overseas Challenge Program for Young Researchers, the ISEE director's leadership fund for FY2021, Young Leader Cultivation (YLC) program, and YLC collaboration project of Nagoya University, and Tokai Pathways to Global Excellence (Nagoya University) of the Strategic Professional Development Program for Young Researchers (MEXT). We thank the Bibliothèque Nationale de France and the British Library for letting us access and reproduce MS Coislin 249 and MS Or 818.

Original Paper

The article, "The Variable Earth's Rotation in the 4th-7th Centuries: New ΔT Constraints from Byzantine Eclipse Records," was published in Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific at DOI: 10.1088/1538-3873/ac6b56

Correspondence

Assistant Professor MURATA Koji
Faculty of Library, Information and Media Science, University of Tsukuba

Related Link

Faculty of Library, Information and Media Science

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JOURNAL

Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific

DOI

10.1088/1538-3873/ac6b56 

ARTICLE TITLE

The Variable Earth's Rotation in the 4th-7th Centuries: New ΔT Constraints from Byzantine Eclipse Records

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

13-Sep-2022

Machine learning gives glimpse of how a dog's brain represents what it sees

Results suggest dogs are more attuned to actions rather than to who or what is doing the action

Peer-Reviewed Publication

EMORY UNIVERSITY

 

IMAGE: DAISY TAKES HER PLACE IN THE FMRI SCANNER. HER EARS ARE TAPED TO HOLD IN EAR PLUGS THAT MUFFLE THE NOISE. view more 

CREDIT: EMORY CANINE COGNITIVE NEUROSCIENCE LAB

Scientists have decoded visual images from a dog’s brain, offering a first look at how the canine mind reconstructs what it sees. The Journal of Visualized Experiments published the research done at Emory University. 

The results suggest that dogs are more attuned to actions in their environment rather than to who or what is doing the action.

The researchers recorded the fMRI neural data for two awake, unrestrained dogs as they watched videos in three 30-minute sessions, for a total of 90 minutes. They then used a machine-learning algorithm to analyze the patterns in the neural data.

“We showed that we can monitor the activity in a dog’s brain while it is watching a video and, to at least a limited degree, reconstruct what it is looking at,” says Gregory Berns, Emory professor of psychology and corresponding author of the paper. “The fact that we are able to do that is remarkable.”

The project was inspired by recent advancements in machine learning and fMRI to decode visual stimuli from the human brain, providing new insights into the nature of perception. Beyond humans, the technique has been applied to only a handful of other species, including some primates.

“While our work is based on just two dogs it offers proof of concept that these methods work on canines,” says Erin Phillips, first author of the paper, who did the work as a research specialist in Berns’ Canine Cognitive Neuroscience Lab. “I hope this paper helps pave the way for other researchers to apply these methods on dogs, as well as on other species, so we can get more data and bigger insights into how the minds of different animals work.”

Phillips, a native of Scotland, came to Emory as a Bobby Jones Scholar, an exchange program between Emory and the University of St Andrews. She is currently a graduate student in ecology and evolutionary biology at Princeton University.

Berns and colleagues pioneered training techniques for getting dogs to walk into an fMRI scanner and hold completely still and unrestrained while their neural activity is measured. A decade ago, his team published the first fMRI brain images of a fully awake, unrestrained dog. That opened the door to what Berns calls The Dog Project — a series of experiments exploring the mind of the oldest domesticated species.

Over the years, his lab has published research into how the canine brain processes vision, words, smells and rewards such as receiving praise or food. 

Meanwhile, the technology behind machine-learning computer algorithms kept improving. The technology has allowed scientists to decode some human brain-activity patterns. The technology “reads minds” by detecting within brain-data patterns the different objects or actions that an individual is seeing while watching a video.

“I began to wonder, ‘Can we apply similar techniques to dogs?’” Berns recalls.

The first challenge was to come up with video content that a dog might find interesting enough to watch for an extended period. The Emory research team affixed a video recorder to a gimbal and selfie stick that allowed them to shoot steady footage from a dog’s perspective, at about waist high to a human or a little bit lower. 

They used the device to create a half-hour video of scenes relating to the lives of most dogs. Activities included dogs being petted by people and receiving treats from people. Scenes with dogs also showed them sniffing, playing, eating or walking on a leash. Activity scenes showed cars, bikes or a scooter going by on a road; a cat walking in a house; a deer crossing a path; people sitting; people hugging or kissing; people offering a rubber bone or a ball to the camera; and people eating. 

The video data was segmented by time stamps into various classifiers, including object-based classifiers (such as dog, car, human, cat) and action-based classifiers (such as sniffing, playing or eating).

Only two of the dogs that had been trained for experiments in an fMRI had the focus and temperament to lie perfectly still and watch the 30-minute video without a break, including three sessions for a total of 90 minutes. These two “super star” canines were Daisy, a mixed breed who may be part Boston terrier, and Bhubo, a mixed breed who may be part boxer.

“They didn’t even need treats,” says Phillips, who monitored the animals during the fMRI sessions and watched their eyes tracking on the video. “It was amusing because it’s serious science, and a lot of time and effort went into it, but it came down to these dogs watching videos of other dogs and humans acting kind of silly.”

Two humans also underwent the same experiment, watching the same 30-minute video in three separate sessions, while lying in an fMRI.

The brain data could be mapped onto the video classifiers using time stamps. 

A machine-learning algorithm, a neural net known as Ivis, was applied to the data. A neural net is a method of doing machine learning by having a computer analyze training examples. In this case, the neural net was trained to classify the brain-data content. 

The results for the two human subjects found that the model developed using the neural net showed 99% accuracy in mapping the brain data onto both the object- and action-based classifiers. 

In the case of decoding video content from the dogs, the model did not work for the object classifiers. It was 75% to 88% accurate, however, at decoding the action classifications for the dogs.

The results suggest major differences in how the brains of humans and dogs work.

“We humans are very object oriented,” Berns says. “There are 10 times as many nouns as there are verbs in the English language because we have a particular obsession with naming objects. Dogs appear to be less concerned with who or what they are seeing and more concerned with the action itself.”

Dogs and humans also have major differences in their visual systems, Berns notes. Dogs see only in shades of blue and yellow but have a slightly higher density of vision receptors designed to detect motion.

“It makes perfect sense that dogs’ brains are going to be highly attuned to actions first and foremost,” he says. “Animals have to be very concerned with things happening in their environment to avoid being eaten or to monitor animals they might want to hunt. Action and movement are paramount.”

For Philips, understanding how different animals perceive the world is important to her current field research into how predator reintroduction in Mozambique may impact ecosystems. “Historically, there hasn’t been much overlap in computer science and ecology,” she says. “But machine learning is a growing field that is starting to find broader applications, including in ecology.”

Additional authors of the paper include Daniel Dilks, Emory associate professor of psychology, and Kirsten Gillette, who worked on the project as an Emory undergraduate neuroscience and behavioral biology major. Gilette has since graduated and is now in a postbaccalaureate program at the University of North Carolina. 

Daisy is owned by Rebecca Beasley and Bhubo is owned by Ashwin Sakhardande. The human experiments in the study were supported by a grant from the National Eye Institute.

Bhubo, shown with his owner Ashwin Sakhardande, prepares for his video-watching session in an fMRI scanner. The dog's ears are taped to hold in ear plugs that muffle the noise of the fMRI scanner.

CREDIT

Emory Canine Cognitive Neuroscience Lab.

Clip of video used in project (VIDEO)

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JOURNAL

Journal of Visualized Experiments

DOI

10.3791/64442 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Computational simulation/modeling

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Animals

ARTICLE TITLE

Through a Dog's Eyes: fMRI Decoding of Naturalistic Videos from the Dog Cortex

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

13-Sep-2022

BEING A FRUIT FLY IS DEPRESSING

Towards a better understanding of depression

Researchers at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz examine ways of alleviating depressive states using the Drosophila fruit fly as a model

Peer-Reviewed Publication

JOHANNES GUTENBERG UNIVERSITAET MAINZ

 

IMAGE: EXPOSURE TO SUGAR AND ACTIVATION OF THE REWARD PATHWAY CAN RELIEVE DEPRESSION-LIKE STATES IN THE DROSOPHILA FRUIT FLY. view more 

CREDIT: PHOTO/©: TIM HERMANNS

Human beings and fruit flies have very little in common – at first sight. However, studying these flies it is in fact possible to find out more about human nature, particularly when it comes to depressive disorders. It is on this basis that scientists at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU) are attempting to gain a better understanding of depression-like states and thus improve means of treating them. The results were published recently in the renowned journal Current Biology.

Natural substances used in traditional Asian medicine could prove beneficial

"We have been looking at the effects of natural substances used in traditional Asian medicine, such as in Ayurveda, in our Drosophila fly model," explained Professor Roland Strauss of the JGU Institute of Developmental Biology and Neurobiology (IDN). "Some of these could have an anti-depressive potential or prophylactically strengthen resilience to chronic stress, so that a depression-like state might not even develop." The researchers intend, among other things, to demonstrate the efficacy of these substances, to identify their optimal formulations, and to isolate the actual active substances in pure form from the original plant material. In the long run, these might be marketed as drugs. But there is still a long way to go – after all, this is basic research.

"In the Drosophila model we can pinpoint exactly where these substances are active because we are able to analyze the entire signaling chain," Strauss pointed out. "Furthermore, every stage in the signaling pathway can also be proven." The researchers subject the flies to a mild form of recurrent stress, such as irregular phases of vibration of the substrate. This treatment results in the development of a depression-like state (DLS) in the flies, i.e., they move more slowly, do not stop to examine unexpectedly encountered sugar, and – unlike their more relaxed counterparts – are less willing to climb wide gaps. How does their behavior change when the flies receive the various natural substances? The results depend decisively on the preparation of each natural substance – for example, whether it has been extracted with water or alcohol.

Evening rewards can ameliorate depression

The research team has also discovered that if they reward the flies for 30 minutes on the evening of a stressful day, by offering them food with a higher sugar content than usual, or by activating the reward signaling pathway, this can prevent the development of a DLS. But what happens when the flies get a sugar reward? It was already known that the flies have sugar receptors on their tarsi, i.e., the lower part of their legs, and their proboscis, while the end of the signaling pathway at which serotonin is released onto the mushroom body had also been located. The mushroom body is a center for associative learning in flies, equivalent to the human hippocampus.

The researchers' investigations showed that the pathway was considerably more complex than anticipated. Three different neurotransmitter systems have to be activated until the serotonin deficiency at the mushroom body, which is present in flies in a DLS, is compensated for by reward. One of these three systems is the dopaminergic system, which also signals reward in humans. In view of these findings, however, human beings should not assume that it would be a good idea to consume foods with a high sugar content accordingly. Flies perceive sweetness as a reward, whereas humans can achieve the same effect by other and more healthy means.

Boosting resilience by preventing depression

In addition, the researchers decided to look for resilience factors in the fly genome. Just like humans, Drosophila flies have an individual genetic make-up – no two flies are identical in this respect. For this reason, the team intends to find out whether and how the genomes of flies that are able to better cope with stress differ from those that develop a DLS in response to exposure to recurrent mild stress. The hope is that in the future it will be possible to diagnose genetic susceptibility to depression in humans – and then treat this with the natural substances that are also being investigated during the project.

 

Related links:
https://idn.biologie.uni-mainz.de/ – Institute of Developmental Biology and Neurobiology (IDN) at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz

Read more:
https://www.uni-mainz.de/presse/aktuell/9199_ENG_HTML.php – press release "Memory research: Fruit flies learn their body size once for an entire lifetime" (21 Aug. 2019) ;
https://www.uni-mainz.de/presse/aktuell/4349_ENG_HTML.php – press release "Short-term memory in fruit flies shows age-related decline" (14 March 2018) ;
https://www.uni-mainz.de/presse/aktuell/562_ENG_HTML.php – press release "A backup copy in the central brain: How fruit flies form orientation memory" (7 March 2017)

JOURNAL

Current Biology

DOI

10.1016/j.cub.2022.07.016 

ARTICLE TITLE

Octopamine mediates sugar relief from a chronic-stress-induced depression-like state in Drosophila

  

Differential impacts of adult trees on offspring and non-offspring recruits in a subtropical forest

Peer-Reviewed Publication

SCIENCE CHINA PRESS

 

IMAGE: THE FIGURES ARE THE OBSERVED AND EXPECTED SAPLING RECRUITMENT DISTRIBUTION ESTIMATED FROM THE SEEDLING DISTRIBUTION (A) AND JUVENILE RECRUITMENT DISTRIBUTION ESTIMATED FROM THE SAPLING DISTRIBUTION (B). THESE SHOW THAT THE PEAK RECRUITMENT DISTANCES OF OFFSPRING SHIFT AWAY FROM MOTHER TREES OVER LIFE STAGES, IMPLYING A HIGHER MORTALITY RATE FOR SEEDLINGS RECRUITING NEAR THEIR MOTHER TREES. view more 

CREDIT: ©SCIENCE CHINA PRESS

This study is led by Dr. Keping Ma and Dr. Yu Liang (Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences). An important mechanism promoting species coexistence is conspecific negative density dependence (CNDD), which inhibits conspecific neighbors by accumulating host-specific enemies near adult trees and thus promoting species coexistence by freeing up space for heterospecific species. Natural enemies may be genotype-specific. Whether within-species genetic relatedness between seedlings and adult neighbours regulates the strength of CNDD is one of the keys explaining the mechanism of species coexistence. However, this remains largely unexplored in natural forests due to the difficulty in assessing the parent-offspring relationship between individuals within natural populations.

Recently, a study from Dr. Keping Ma group, Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences was conducted in a 24-ha subtropical evergreen broad-leaved forest dynamics plot. Totally 3002 individuals of the most dominant tree species Castanopsis eyrei were sampled and 12 microsatellite markers were used to identify the parent-offspring relationship to estimate the effects of adult-seedling genetic relatedness on seedling recruitment.

The results show that 1) peak recruitment distances of offspring shift away from mother trees over life stages. Offspring have significantly lower recruitment efficiencies in the vicinity of mother trees. 2) Recruitment efficiency (proxy of survival probability) of offspring compared with non-offspring near adult trees during the seedling-sapling transition, suggesting genotype-dependent interactions drive tree demographic dynamics. 3) The genetic similarity between individuals of same cohort decreased in late life history stages, indicating genetic-relatedness-dependent tree mortality throughout ontogeny.

Overall, the results indicate that the strength of CNDD and population dynamics depend on both genetic relatedness and spatial distance to conspecific adults, implying genotype-specific natural enemies may be a key driver. Further research on the interaction between genotype-specific enemies and their host plants is essential to fully understand the underlying mechanisms of CNDD.

See the article:

Differential impacts of adult trees on offspring and non-offspring recruits in a subtropical forest

http://engine.scichina.com/doi/10.1007/s11427-021-2148-7

The figures show the recruitment efficiencies (RE, the recruit ratio of early life stage to the later) of offspring and nonoffspring during seedling–sapling (A) and sapling–juvenile (B) transitions along the distance from the focal trees for Castanopsis eyrei. These suggest higher survival chances for offspring when recruit far from their mother trees during seedling–sapling transition.

CREDIT

©Science China Press

JOURNAL

Science China Life Sciences

DOI

10.1007/s11427-021-2148-7 

Diet could play a role in cognitive function across diverse races and ethnicities

New research in a diverse study population finds that blood metabolites related to sugars were associated with older adults’ global cognitive health

Peer-Reviewed Publication

BRIGHAM AND WOMEN'S HOSPITAL

Dietary choices and their consequences may certainly influence cognitive function. A new study led by investigators at Brigham and Women's Hospital, a founding member of the Mass General Brigham healthcare system, along with outside collaborators expands on previously published work (focused on Puerto Rican individuals in the U.S.) by including additional races and ethnicities. The team found that certain plasma metabolites—substances created when the body breaks down food—were associated with global cognitive function scores across the diverse set of races and ethnicities. Their results are published in Alzheimer's & Dementia: The Journal of the Alzheimer's Association.

“Our study has huge strengths in expanding the sample size and in adding demographics compared to what previous research has done,” said Tamar Sofer, PhD, and director of the Biostatistics Core Program in Sleep Medicine Epidemiology and a member of the Division of Sleep and Circadian Disorders at the Brigham. “It also illustrates that studies that begin by focusing on minorities can give rise to insights that may be beneficial to other populations. We hope our findings will help people in making specific nutritional choices and in improving their cognitive health.”

Nowadays, researchers can discover biomarkers associated with health changes and diseases by utilizing approaches like metabolomic profiling, which can survey thousands of metabolites within blood samples. An initial study in Boston looking at older adults of Puerto Rican descent found a series of metabolites that were associated with measured cognitive functions. Building off that work, Brigham researchers tested metabolite-cognitive function associations in 2,222 U.S. Hispanic/Latinx adults from the Hispanic Community Health Study/Study of Latinos (HCHS/SOL), and in 1,365 Europeans and 478 African Americans from the Atherosclerosis Risk In Communities (ARIC) Study. They then applied Mendelian Randomization (MR) analyses to determine causal associations between the metabolites and cognitive function, as well as between a Mediterranean diet and cognitive function.

The team discovered that six metabolites were consistently associated with a lower global cognitive function across all of the studies. Four of them were sugars or derivatives of sugars. Another metabolite, beta-cryptoxanthin, was associated with a higher global cognitive function in the HCHS/SOL and is also strongly correlated with fruit consumption.  

“It is possible that these metabolites are biomarkers of a more direct relationship between diet and cognitive function,” said lead author Einat Granot‐Hershkovitz, PhD, who worked on this study as a postdoctoral fellow in Sofer’s lab at the Brigham.

Diet itself can be an important source of many metabolites, including some with positive or negative associations with cognitive function. In this study, the Mediterranean diet score was associated with higher levels of beta-cryptoxanthin, which was positively associate with cognitive function. The Mediterranean diet was also negatively associated with the levels of other metabolites, which were associated with lower cognitive function. Previous research has also shown that adherence to the Mediterranean diet is associated with cognitive benefits.

While the study did have limitations like its cross-sectional, observational design which limited conclusions about the potential influence of modifying metabolite levels on cognitive function (causal inference), the researchers attempted to use MR analyses to account for unmeasured confounding and establish some level of causal inference. Their results showed weak causal effects between specific metabolites and global cognitive function. The researchers recommend that future studies assess metabolite associations with cognitive function and work to evaluate whether observed associations indeed indicate that changes in diet – manifesting in changing metabolite levels – can improve cognitive health.

“While the causal effect seen in our study may be weak, repeated research has shown that the Mediterranean diet is associated with better health outcomes, including cognitive health,” said Sofer. “Our study further supports the importance of a healthy diet towards safeguarding cognitive function, consistent across races and ethnicities.”

Disclosures: Co-author Bruce Kristal is the inventor of general metabolomics-related IP that has been licensed to Metabolon via Weill Medical College of Cornell University and for which he receives royalty payments via Weill Medical College of Cornell University. He also consults for and has a small equity interest in the company. Metabolon offers biochemical profiling services and is developing molecular diagnostic assays detecting and monitoring disease. Metabolon has no rights or proprietary access to the research results presented and/or new IP generated under these grants/studies.

Funding: The Hispanic Community Health Study/Study of Latinos is a collaborative study supported by contracts from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (HHSN268201300001I / N01-HC-65233, HHSN268201300004I / N01-HC-65234, HHSN268201300002I / N01-HC-65235, HHSN268201300003I / N01- HC-65236, HHSN268201300005I / N01-HC-65237). The following Institutes/Centers/Offices have contributed to the HCHS/SOL through a transfer of funds to the NHLBI: National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities, National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders, National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research, National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, NIH Institution-Office of Dietary Supplements. Additionally, this work was supported by the National Institute on Aging (R21AG070644, R01AG048642, RF1AG054548, RF1AG061022, and R21AG056952, P30AG062429 and P30AG059299). Support for metabolomics data was provided by the JLH Foundation (Houston, Texas). The Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities study has been funded in whole or in part with Federal funds from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, National Institutes of Health, Department of Health and Human Services under contract numbers (HHSN268201700001I, HHSN268201700002I, HHSN268201700003I, HHSN268201700004I, and HHSN268201700005I).
 

Paper Cited: Granot-Hershkovitz et al. “Plasma metabolites associated with cognitive function across race/ethnicities affirming the importance of healthy nutrition.” Alzheimer’s & Dementia DOI: 10.1002/alz.12786

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JOURNAL

Alzheimer s & Dementia

DOI

10.1002/alz.12786 

ARTICLE TITLE

Granot-Hershkovitz et al. “Plasma metabolites associated with cognitive function across race/ethnicities affirming the importance of healthy nutrition.”