Study finds alcohol-related liver disease soared in nearly all states during the pandemic, with one race particularly affected

Peer-Reviewed Publication

MASSACHUSETTS GENERAL HOSPITAL

BOSTON – Alcohol consumption increased substantially across the United States during the COVID-19 pandemic, but the impact was greatest among American Indian and Alaska Native (AIAN) populations, where deaths from alcohol-associated liver disease were six times those of white people, according to a study by Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), a founding member of Mass General Brigham (MGB). The disproportionately high mortality rate reflects not just the pandemic, but a systemic failure of supportive health care and lack of critical resources for AIAN populations which demand urgent action by public policy leaders, the researchers reported in a study published in JAMA Health Forum.

“Even before the pandemic we saw a steady increase in alcohol consumption in this country, and continue to experience high levels of alcohol-associated liver disease exacerbated by COVID-19,” says senior author Jagpreet Chhatwal, PhD, associate professor of Radiology, Harvard Medical School and director of the Institute for Technology Assessment at MGH. “Our examination of all racial or ethnic groups showed that none are more vulnerable than American Indian and Alaska Native. While alcohol consumption is known to be lower among these groups compared to others, studies have shown that people who engage in any level of drinking are more likely to become excessive in their habit.”

Alcohol-associated liver disease (ALD) is characterized by progressive deterioration of the liver and loss of function, and is now the leading indication for liver transplant in the United States. The rate of ALD grew nationally by 43 percent from 2009 to 2015, accounting for more than $5 billion in direct healthcare costs in 2015 alone. At the height of the pandemic, deaths from ALD increased by 23 percent in just one year. Drawing on the CDC’s WONDER Multiple Cause of Death database, Mass General researchers learned that ALD mortality rose in nearly every state from 2019 to 2020, with the greatest mortality rates occurring in Wyoming, South Dakota and New Mexico – states with some of the highest concentrations of AIAN populations.

As for actionable measures, the study cites the need for significantly higher levels of preventive healthcare and resource allocation to agencies like the Indian Health Service (IHS), the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services agency charged with providing comprehensive health services to the approximately 2.6 million American Indians and Alaska Natives in 574 federally recognized tribes in 37 states.

“Based on our findings, strong action needs to be taken at the public policy level to increase awareness among American Indians and Alaska Natives of the alarming mortality rates from alcohol-associated liver disease, and to implement universal alcohol screening and preventive health programs,” says Neeti Kulkarni, a research analyst at the MGH Institute for Technology Assessment, and lead author of the study. “It’s critical for the states and federal government to recognize and responsibly address this problem before it spirals into a major health crisis for our country.”

Chhatwal points out that alcohol consumption hasn’t shown any signs of decline even as the pandemic has receded. “It’s no coincidence that in 2021, life expectancy in this country dropped to its lowest level since 1996, with ALD being the top reason after COVID-19 and unintentional injuries,” he says. “Alcohol-associated liver disease among all ethnicities continues to represent a serous burden on our nation’s healthcare system, and the problem will only intensify if we don’t take meaningful steps to address it now.”

Co-authors of the study include Divneet Wadhwa, MD research analyst at MGH, and Fasiha Kanwal, MD, professor and section chief of Medicine and Gastroenterology at Baylor College of Medicine.

 

About the Massachusetts General Hospital

Massachusetts General Hospital, founded in 1811, is the original and largest teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School. The Mass General Research Institute conducts the largest hospital-based research program in the nation, with annual research operations of more than $1 billion and comprises more than 9,500 researchers working across more than 30 institutes, centers and departments. In August 2021, Mass General was named #5 in the U.S. News & World Report list of "America’s Best Hospitals." MGH is a founding member of the Mass General Brigham healthcare system

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JOURNAL

JAMA Health Forum

DOI

10.1001/jamahealthforum.2023.0527 

ARTICLE TITLE

Alcohol-Associated Liver Disease Mortality Rates by Race Before and During the COVID-19 Pandemic in the US

Reinforcement learning: From board games to protein design

Protein design software developers have adapted an artificial intelligence strategy proven adept at chess and Go

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON SCHOOL OF MEDICINE/UW MEDICINE

 

IMAGE: EXAMPLES OF PROTEIN ARCHITECTURES DESIGNED THROUGH A SOFTWARE PROGRAM THAT USES REINFORCEMENT LEARNING. view more 

CREDIT: IAN HAYDON/ UW MEDICINE INSTITUTE FOR PROTEIN DESIGN

Scientists have successfully applied reinforcement learning to a challenge in molecular biology.

The team of researchers developed powerful new protein design software adapted from a strategy proven adept at board games like Chess and Go. In one experiment, proteins made with the new approach were found to be more effective at generating useful antibodies in mice.

The findings, reported April 21 in Science, suggest that this breakthrough may soon lead to more potent vaccines. More broadly, the approach could lead to a new era in protein design.

"Our results show that reinforcement learning can do more than master board games. When trained to solve long-standing puzzles in protein science, the software excelled at creating useful molecules," said senior author David Baker, professor of biochemistry at the UW School of Medicine in Seattle and a recipient of the 2021 Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences.

"If this method is applied to the right research problems,” he said, “it could accelerate progress in a variety of scientific fields."

The research is a milestone in tapping artificial intelligence to conduct protein science research. The potential applications are vast, from developing more effective cancer treatments to creating new biodegradable textiles.

Reinforcement learning is a type of machine learning in which a computer program learns to make decisions by trying different actions and receiving feedback. Such an algorithm can learn to play chess, for example, by testing millions of different moves that lead to victory or defeat on the board. The program is designed to learn from these experiences and become better at making decisions over time.

To make a reinforcement learning program for protein design, the scientists gave the computer millions of simple starting molecules. The software then made ten thousand attempts at randomly improving each toward a predefined goal. The computer lengthened the proteins or bent them in specific ways until it learned how to contort them into desired shapes.

Isaac D. Lutz, Shunzhi Wang, and Christoffer Norn, all members of the Baker Lab, led the research. Their team’s Science manuscript is titled "Top-down design of protein architectures with reinforcement learning."

"Our approach is unique because we use reinforcement learning to solve the problem of creating protein shapes that fit together like pieces of a puzzle," explained co-lead author Lutz, a doctoral student at the UW Medicine Institute for Protein Design. "This simply was not possible using prior approaches and has the potential to transform the types of molecules we can build."

As part of this study, the scientists manufactured hundreds of AI-designed proteins in the lab. Using electron microscopes and other instruments, they confirmed that many of the protein shapes created by the computer were indeed realized in the lab.

“This approach proved not only accurate but also highly customizable. For example, we asked the software to make spherical structures with no holes, small holes, or large holes. Its potential to make all kinds of architectures has yet to be fully explored,” said co-lead author Shunzhi Wang, a postdoctoral scholar at the UW Medicine Institute for Protein Design.

The team concentrated on designing new nano-scale structures composed of many protein molecules. This required designing both the protein components themselves and the chemical interfaces that allow the nano-structures to self-assemble.

Electron microscopy confirmed that numerous AI-designed nano-structures were able to form in the lab. As a measure of how accurate the design software had become, the scientists observed many unique nano-structures in which every atom was found to be in the intended place. In other words, the deviation between the intended and realized nano-structure was on average less than the width of a single atom. This is called atomically accurate design.

The authors foresee a future in which this approach could enable them and others to create therapeutic proteins, vaccines, and other molecules that could not have been made using prior methods.

Researchers from the UW Medicine Institute for Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine used primary cell models of blood vessel cells to show that the designed protein scaffolds outperformed previous versions of the technology. For example, because the receptors that help cells receive and interpret signals were clustered more densely on the more compact scaffolds, they were more effective at promoting blood vessel stability.

Hannele Ruohola-Baker, a UW School of Medicine professor of biochemistry and one of the study’s authors, spoke to the implications of the investigation for regenerative medicine: “The more accurate the technology becomes, the more it opens up potential applications, including vascular treatments for diabetes, brain injuries, strokes, and other cases where blood vessels are at risk. We can also imagine more precise delivery of factors that we use to differentiate stem cells into various cell types, giving us new ways to regulate the processes of cell development and aging.”

This work was funded by the National Institutes of Health (P30 GM124169, S10OD018483, 1U19AG065156-01, T90 DE021984, 1P01AI167966); Open Philanthropy Project and The Audacious Project at the Institute for Protein Design; Novo Nordisk Foundation (NNF170C0030446); Microsoft; and Amgen. Research was in part conducted at the Advanced Light Source, a national user facility operated by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory on behalf of the Department of Energy

News release written by Ian Haydon, UW Medicine Institute for Protein Design. 

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JOURNAL

Science

DOI

10.1126/science.adf6591 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Computational simulation/modeling

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Not applicable

ARTICLE TITLE

Top-down design of protein architectures with reinforcement learning

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

21-Apr-2023

COI STATEMENT

David Baker, Shunzhi Wang, Isaac D. Lutz, Christoffer Norn, Annie Dosey, Neil P. King, and Andrew J. Borst are inventors on a provisional patent application (63/383,700) submitted by the University of Washington for the design, composition, and applications of the protein assemblies described in this work. The remaining authors declare no competing interests.

Cheaper method for making woven displays and smart fabrics – of any size or shape

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE

 

VIDEO: RESEARCHERS HAVE DEVELOPED NEXT-GENERATION SMART TEXTILES – INCORPORATING LEDS, SENSORS, ENERGY HARVESTING, AND STORAGE – THAT CAN BE PRODUCED INEXPENSIVELY, IN ANY SHAPE OR SIZE, USING THE SAME MACHINES USED TO MAKE THE CLOTHING WE WEAR EVERY DAY. view more 

CREDIT: SANGHYO LEE

Researchers have developed next-generation smart textiles – incorporating LEDs, sensors, energy harvesting, and storage – that can be produced inexpensively, in any shape or size, using the same machines used to make the clothing we wear every day.

The international team, led by the University of Cambridge, have previously demonstrated that woven displays can be made at large sizes, but these earlier examples were made using specialised manual laboratory equipment. Other smart textiles can be manufactured in specialised microelectronic fabrication facilities, but these are highly expensive and produce large volumes of waste.

However, the team found that flexible displays and smart fabrics can be made much more cheaply, and more sustainably, by weaving electronic, optoelectronic, sensing and energy fibre components on the same industrial looms used to make conventional textiles. Their results, reported in the journal Science Advances, demonstrate how smart textiles could be an alternative to larger electronics in sectors including automotive, electronics, fashion and construction.

Despite recent progress in the development of smart textiles, their functionality, dimensions and shapes have been limited by current manufacturing processes.

“We could make these textiles in specialised microelectronics facilities, but these require billions of pounds of investment,” said Dr Sanghyo Lee from Cambridge’s Department of Engineering, the paper’s first author. “In addition, manufacturing smart textiles in this way is highly limited, since everything has to be made on the same rigid wafers used to make integrated circuits, so the maximum size we can get is about 30 centimetres in diameter.”

“Smart textiles have also been limited by their lack of practicality,” said Dr Luigi Occhipinti, also from the Department of Engineering, who co-led the research. “You think of the sort of bending, stretching and folding that normal fabrics have to withstand, and it’s been a challenge to incorporate that same durability into smart textiles.”

Last year, some of the same researchers showed that if the fibres used in smart textiles were coated with materials that can withstand stretching, they could be compatible with conventional weaving processes. Using this technique, they produced a 46-inch woven demonstrator display.

Now, the researchers have shown that smart textiles can be made using automated processes, with no limits on their size or shape. Multiple types of fibre devices, including energy storage devices, light-emitting diodes, and transistors were fabricated, encapsulated, and mixed with conventional fibres, either synthetic or natural, to build smart textiles by automated weaving. The fibre devices were interconnected by an automated laser welding method with electrically conductive adhesive.

The processes were all optimised to minimise damage to the electronic components, which in turn made the smart textiles durable enough to withstand the stretching of an industrial weaving machine. The encapsulation method was developed to consider the functionality of the fibre devices, and the mechanical force and thermal energy were investigated systematically to achieve the automated weaving and laser-based interconnection, respectively.

The research team, working in partnership with textile manufacturers, were able to produce test patches of smart textiles of roughly 50x50 centimetres, although this can be scaled up to larger dimensions and produced in large volumes.

“These companies have well-established manufacturing lines with high throughput fibre extruders and large weaving machines that can weave a metre square of textiles automatically,” said Lee. “So when we introduce the smart fibres to the process, the result is basically an electronic system that is manufactured exactly the same way other textiles are manufactured.”

The researchers say it could be possible for large, flexible displays and monitors to be made on industrial looms, rather than in specialised electronics manufacturing facilities, which would make them far cheaper to produce. Further optimisation of the process is needed, however.

“The flexibility of these textiles is absolutely amazing,” said Occhipinti. “Not just in terms of their mechanical flexibility, but the flexibility of the approach, and to deploy sustainable and eco-friendly electronics manufacturing platforms that contribute to the reduction of carbon emissions and enable real applications of smart textiles in buildings, car interiors and clothing. Our approach is quite unique in that way.”

The research was supported in part by the European Union and UK Research and Innovation.

Researchers have developed next-generation smart textiles – incorporating LEDs, sensors, energy harvesting, and storage – that can be produced inexpensively, in any shape or size, using the same machines used to make the clothing we wear every day.

CREDIT

Sanghyo Lee

JOURNAL

Science Advances

DOI

10.1126/sciadv.adf4049 

ARTICLE TITLE

Truly form-factor–free industrially scalable system integration for electronic textile architectures with multifunctional fiber devices

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

21-Apr-2023

Synthetic biology meets fashion in engineered silk

Engineers developed a method to create synthetic spider silk at high yields while retaining strength and toughness using mussel foot proteins

Peer-Reviewed Publication

WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY IN ST. LOUIS

Scientists have long been intrigued by the remarkable properties of spider silk, which is stronger than steel yet incredibly lightweight and flexible. Now, Fuzhong Zhang, a professor of energy, environmental and chemical engineering at the McKelvey School of Engineering at Washington University in St. Louis, has made a significant breakthrough in the fabrication of synthetic spider silk, paving the way for a new era of sustainable clothing production.

Since engineering recombinant spider silk in 2018 using bacteria, Zhang has been working to increase the yield of silk threads produced from microbes while maintaining its desirable properties of enhanced strength and toughness.

Higher yields will be critical if synthetic silk is to be used in everyday applications, particularly in the fashion industry where renewable materials are much in demand to stem the environmental impacts that come from producing an estimated 100 billion garments and 92 million tons of waste each year.

With the help of an engineered mussel foot protein, Zhang has created new spider silk fusion proteins, called bi-terminal Mfp fused silks (btMSilks). Microbial production of btMSilks have eightfold higher yields than recombinant silk proteins, and the btMSilk fibers have substantially improved strength and toughness while being lightweight. This could revolutionize clothing manufacturing by providing a more eco-friendly alternative to traditional textiles. The findings were published April 14 in Nature Communications.

“The outstanding mechanical properties of natural spider silk come from its very large and repetitive protein sequence,” Zhang said. “However, it is extremely challenging to ask fast-growing bacteria to produce a lot of repetitive proteins.

“To solve this problem, we needed a different strategy,” he said. “We went looking for disordered proteins that can be genetically fused to silk fragments to promote molecular interaction, so that strong fibers can be made without using large repetitive proteins. And we actually found them right here in work we’ve already been doing on mussel foot proteins.”

Mussels secrete these specialized proteins on their feet to stick to things. Zhang and his collaborators have engineered bacteria to produce them and engineer them as adhesives for biomedical applications. As it turns out, mussel foot proteins are also cohesive, which enables them to stick to each other well, too. By placing mussel foot protein fragments at the ends of his synthetic silk protein sequences, Zhang created a less repetitive, lightweight material that’s at least twice as strong as recombinant spider silk.

The yields on Zhang’s material increased eightfold compared with past studies, reaching 8 grams of fiber material from 1 liter of bacterial culture. This output constitutes enough fabric to test for use in real products.

“The beauty of synthetic biology is that we have lots of space to explore,” Zhang said. “We can cut and paste sequences from various natural proteins and test these designs in the lab for new properties and functions. This makes synthetic biology materials much more versatile than traditional petroleum-based materials.”

In coming work, Zhang and his team will expand the tunable properties of their synthetic silk fibers to meet the exact needs of each specialized market.

“Because our synthetic silk is made from cheap feedstock using engineered bacteria, it presents a renewable and biodegradable replacement for petroleum-derived fiber materials like nylon and polyester,” Zhang said.

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Li J, Jiang B, Chang X, Yu H, Han Y, Zhang F. Bi-terminal fusion of intrinsically-disordered mussel foot protein fragments boosts mechanical strength for protein fibers. Nature Communications, April 14, 2023. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-37563-0

This research was supported by the United States Department of Agriculture (20196702129943) and National Science Foundation (DMR-2207879 and OIA-2219142).

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JOURNAL

Nature Communications

DOI

10.1038/s41467-023-37563-0 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Experimental study

ARTICLE TITLE

Bi-terminal fusion of intrinsically-disordered mussel foot protein fragments boosts mechanical strength for protein fibers

Sugar rush: scientists discover key role of glucose in brain activity

New details on how healthy neurons metabolize glucose have implications for understanding neurodegenerative diseases

Peer-Reviewed Publication

GLADSTONE INSTITUTES

 

IMAGE: SCIENTISTS FROM GLADSTONE AND UCSF HAVE SHED LIGHT ON EXACTLY HOW NEURONS CONSUME AND METABOLIZE GLUCOSE, WHICH COULD HAVE IMPLICATIONS FOR UNDERSTANDING NEURODEGENERATIVE DISEASES. SEEN HERE ARE KEN NAKAMURA (LEFT), YOSHI SEI (CENTER), AND MYRIAM CHAUMEIL (RIGHT). view more 

CREDIT: PHOTO: MICHAEL SHORT/GLADSTONE INSTITUTES

SAN FRANCISCO, CA—April 18, 2023—The human brain has a sweet tooth, burning through nearly one quarter of the body’s sugar energy, or glucose, each day. Now, researchers at Gladstone Institutes and UC San Francisco (UCSF) have shed new light on exactly how neurons—the cells that send electrical signals through the brain—consume and metabolize glucose, as well as how these cells adapt to glucose shortages.

Previously, scientists had suspected that much of the glucose used by the brain was metabolized by other brain cells called glia, which support the activity of neurons.

“We already knew that the brain requires a lot of glucose, but it had been unclear how much neurons themselves rely on glucose and what methods they use to break the sugar down,” says Ken Nakamura, MD, PhD, associate investigator at Gladstone and senior author of the new study published in the journal Cell Reports. “Now, we have a much better understanding of the basic fuel that makes neurons run.”

Past studies have established that the brain’s uptake of glucose is decreased in the early stages of neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. The new findings could lead to the discovery of new therapeutic approaches for those diseases and contribute to a better understanding of how to keep the brain healthy as it ages.

Simple Sugar

Many foods we eat are broken down into glucose, which is stored in the liver and muscles, shuttled throughout the body, and metabolized by cells to power the chemical reactions that keep us alive.

Scientists have long debated what happens to glucose in the brain, and many have suggested that neurons themselves don’t metabolize the sugar. They instead proposed that glial cells consume most of the glucose and then fuel neurons indirectly by passing them a metabolic product of glucose called lactate. However, the evidence to support this theory has been scant—in part because of how hard it is for scientists to generate cultures of neurons in the lab that do not also contain glial cells.

Nakamura’s group solved this problem using induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS cells) to generate pure human neurons. IPS cell technology allows scientists to transform adult cells collected from blood or skin samples into any cell type in the body.

Then, the researchers mixed the neurons with a labeled form of glucose that they could track, even as it was broken down. This experiment revealed that neurons themselves were capable of taking up the glucose and of processing it into smaller metabolites.

To determine exactly how neurons were using the products of metabolized glucose, the team removed two key proteins from the cells using CRISPR gene editing. One of the proteins enables neurons to import glucose, and the other is required for glycolysis, the main pathway by which cells typically metabolize glucose. Removing either of these proteins stopped the breakdown of glucose in the isolated human neurons.

“This is the most direct and clearest evidence yet that neurons are metabolizing glucose through glycolysis and that they need this fuel to maintain normal energy levels,” says Nakamura, who is also an associate professor in the Department of neurology at UCSF.

Fueling Learning and Memory

Nakamura’s group next turned to mice to study the importance of neuronal glucose metabolism in living animals. They engineered the animals’ neurons— but not other brain cell types—to lack the proteins required for glucose import and glycolysis. As a result, the mice developed severe learning and memory problems as they aged.

This suggests that neurons are not only capable of metabolizing glucose, but also rely on glycolysis for normal functioning, Nakamura explains.

“Interestingly, some of the deficits we saw in mice with impaired glycolysis varied between males and females,” he adds. “More research is needed to understand exactly why that is.”

Myriam M. Chaumeil, PhD, associate professor at UCSF and co-corresponding author of the new work, has been developing specialized neuroimaging approaches, based on a new technology called hyperpolarized carbon-13, that reveal the levels of certain molecular products. Her group’s imaging showed how the metabolism of the mice’s brains changed when glycolysis was blocked in neurons.

“Such neuroimaging methods provide unprecedented information on brain metabolism,” says Chaumeil. “The promise of metabolic imaging to inform fundamental biology and improve clinical care is immense; a lot remains to be explored.”

The imaging results helped prove that neurons metabolize glucose through glycolysis in living animals. They also showed the potential of Chaumeil’s imaging approach for studying how glucose metabolism changes in humans with diseases like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.

Finally, Nakamura and his collaborators probed how neurons adapt when they are not able to get energy through glycolysis—as might be the case in certain brain diseases.

It turned out neurons use other energy sources, such as the related sugar molecule galactose. However, the researchers found that galactose was not as efficient a source of energy as glucose and that it could not fully compensate for the loss of glucose metabolism.

“The studies we have carried out set the stage for better understanding how glucose metabolism changes and contributes to disease,” says Nakamura.

His lab is planning future studies on how neuronal glucose metabolism changes with neurodegenerative diseases in collaboration with Chaumeil’s team, and how energy-based therapies could target the brain to boost neuronal function.

###

 

 

About the Study

The paper “Neurons Require Glucose Uptake and Glycolysis In Vivo” was published online in the journal Cell Reports on April 6, 2023.

The first authors are Huihui Li and Yoshitaka Sei of Gladstone and Caroline Guglielmetti of UCSF. Other authors are Misha Zilberter, Lauren Shields, Joyce Yang, Kevin Nguyen, Neal Bennett, Iris Lo, and Yadong Huang of Gladstone; Lydia M. Le Page, Brice Tiret, Xiao Gao, and Martin Kampmann of UCSF; Talya L. Dayton and Matthew Vander Heiden of Massachusetts Institute of Technology; and Jeffrey C. Rathmell of Vanderbilt University Medical Center.

The work was supported by the National Institutes of Health (RF1 AG064170, R01 AG065428, AG065428-03S1, R01 NS102156, R21 AI153749 and RR18928), National Institute on Aging (R01 AG061150, R01 AG071697, P01 AG073082, R01 CA168653, R35 CA242379, R01 DK105550), the UCSF Bakar Aging Research Institute, the Alzheimer’s Association, a Bright Focus Foundation Award, a Berkelhammer Award for Excellence in Neuroscience, and a Chan Zuckerberg Initiative Neurodegeneration Challenge Network Ben Barres Early Career Acceleration Award.

About Gladstone Institutes

Gladstone Institutes is an independent, nonprofit life science research organization that uses visionary science and technology to overcome disease. Established in 1979, it is located in the epicenter of biomedical and technological innovation, in the Mission Bay neighborhood of San Francisco. Gladstone has created a research model that disrupts how science is done, funds big ideas, and attracts the brightest minds.

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JOURNAL

Cell Reports

DOI

10.1016/j.celrep.2023.112335 

ARTICLE TITLE

Neurons require glucose uptake and glycolysis in vivo

Making better measurements of the composition of galaxies

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA - DAVIS

 

IMAGE: OBSERVATIONS OF THE DWARF GALAXY MARKARIAN 71 WITH INFRARED AND OPTICAL TELESCOPES RESOLVE A PROBLEM IN INFRARED ASTRONOMY AND ALLOW BETTER MEASUREMENTS OF THE COMPOSITION OF GALAXIES AND INTERSTELLAR DUST CLOUDS. COMPOSITE IMAGE OF MARKARIAN 71 FROM THE HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE. view more 

CREDIT: HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE/NASA

A study using data from telescopes on Earth and in the sky resolves a problem plaguing astronomers working in the infrared and could help make better observations of the composition of the universe with the James Webb Space Telescope and other instruments. The work is published April 20 in Nature Astronomy. 

“We’re trying to measure the composition of gases inside galaxies,” said Yuguang Chen, a postdoctoral researcher working with Professor Tucker Jones in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of California, Davis. 

Most elements other than hydrogen, helium and lithium are produced inside stars, so the composition and distribution of heavier elements — especially the ratio of oxygen to hydrogen — can help astronomers understand how many and what kinds of stars are being formed in a distant object. 

Astronomers use two methods to measure oxygen in a galaxy, but unfortunately, they give different results. One common method, collisionally excited lines, gives a strong signal, but the results are thought to be sensitive to temperature changes, Chen said. A second method uses a different set of lines, called recombination lines, which are fainter but not thought to be affected by temperature. 

The recombination line method consistently produces measurements about double those from collisionally excited lines. Scientists attribute the discrepancy to temperature fluctuations in gas clouds, but this has not been directly proven, Chen said. 

Chen, Jones and colleagues used optical and infrared astronomy to measure oxygen abundance in dwarf galaxy Markarian 71, about 11 million light years from Earth. They used archived data from the recently retired SOFIA flying telescope and the retired Herschel Space Observatory, as well as making observations with telescopes at the W.M. Keck Observatory in Mauna Kea, Hawaii. 

SOFIA (Stratospheric Observatory For Infrared Astronomy) was a telescope mounted in a Boeing 747 aircraft. By flying at 38,000 to 45,000 feet, the aircraft could get above 99% of the water vapor in Earth’s atmosphere, which effectively blocks infrared light from deep space from reaching ground level. A joint project of NASA and the German space agency, SOFIA made its last operational flight in September 2022 and is now headed for a museum display in Tucson. 

The Herschel Space Observatory, named after astronomers William and Caroline Herschel, was an infrared space telescope operated by the European Space Agency. It was active from 2009 to 2013.

A surprising result

With data from these instruments, Chen and Jones examined oxygen abundance in Markarian 71 while correcting for temperature fluctuations. They found that the result from collisionally excited infrared lines was still 50% less than that from the recombination line method, even after eliminating the effect of temperature. 

“This result is very surprising to us,” Chen said. There is no consensus on an explanation for the discrepancy, he said. The team plans to look at additional objects to figure out what properties of galaxies correlate with this variation, Chen said. 

One of the goals of the James Webb Space Telescope, launched in 2022, is to make infrared observations of the composition of distant galaxies in the first billion years of the universe. The new results provide a framework for making these measurements with the JWST and the Atacama Large Millimeter Array in Chile. 

Additional co-authors on the paper are: Ryan Sanders and Erin Huntzinger, UC Davis; Dario Fadder, Jessica Sutter and Robert Minchin, SOFIA Science Center, NASA Ames Research Center; Peter Senchyna, Observatories of the Carnegie Institute for Science, Pasadena; Daniel Stark and Benjamin Weiner, Steward Observatory, University of Arizona; Justin Spilker, Texas A&M University; and Guido Roberts-Borsani, UCLA. The work was financially supported in part by NASA. SOFIA was jointly operated by the Universities Space Research Association, Inc., and the Deutsches SOFIA Institut. 

The W.M. Keck Observatory is operated as a scientific partnership among the California Institute of Technology, the University of California, and NASA, with financial support from the W.M. Keck Foundation. The researchers would like to thank the Hawaiian community for the privilege of allowing them to conduct observations on Mauna Kea, which plays a significant cultural and religious role.

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JOURNAL

Nature Astronomy

DOI

10.1038/s41550-023-01953-7 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Observational study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Not applicable

ARTICLE TITLE

Accurate oxygen abundance of interstellar gas in Mrk 71 from optical and infrared spectra

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

20-Apr-2023

Newly sequenced hornet genomes could help explain invasion success

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY COLLEGE LONDON

The genomes of two hornet species, the European hornet and the Asian hornet (or yellow-legged hornet) have been sequenced for the first time by a team led by UCL (University College London) scientists.

By comparing these decoded genomes with that of the giant northern hornet, which has recently been sequenced by another team, the researchers have revealed clues suggesting why hornets have been so successful as invasive species across the globe.

Hornets are the largest of the social wasps; they play important ecological roles as top predators of other insects. In their native regions, they are natural pest controllers, helping regulate the populations of insects such as flies, beetles, caterpillars and other types of wasps. These services are critical for healthy, functional ecosystems, as well as for agriculture.

But hornets also tend to be very successful as invasive species. They can become established in areas they are not native to and cause potentially huge ecological and economic damage by hunting important pollinators, such as honeybees, wild bees and hoverflies.

To better understand how these species have so successfully expanded their ranges, the international team of scientists investigated the genomes of three types of hornets.

A genome sequence is the set of instructions – a genetic code – that makes a species. Comparing the genomes of different species can give insights into their biology – their behaviour, evolution, and how they interact with the environment.

The researchers have newly sequenced the genomes of the native European hornet, Vespa crabro – an important top predator, which is protected in parts of Europe – and the invasive yellow-legged Asian hornet Vespa velutina, which has become established through much of Europe over the last 20 years threatening native ecosystems, and has occasionally been sighted in the UK. They compared these with the genome of the giant northern hornet, Vespa mandarinia – a species known for its role as pest controller, pollinator and food provider in its native Asian range, but is a recent arrival in North America, where it may threaten native fauna.

By analysing differences between the three related species, the researchers were able to identify genes that have been rapidly evolving since the species differentiated themselves from other wasps and from one another, and found some noteworthy genes that are rapidly evolving, particularly relating to communication and olfaction (smell).

The study’s first author, Dr Emeline Favreau (UCL Centre for Biodiversity & Environment), said: “We were excited to find evidence of rapid genome evolution in these hornet genomes, compared to other social insects. Lots of genes have been duplicated or mutated; these included genes that are likely to be involved in communication and in sensing the environment.”

Genome evolution allows organisms to adapt to their environment and make the most of their surroundings by developing new behaviours and physiology.

Co-author Dr Alessandro Cini, who began the work at UCL before moving to the University of Pisa, said: “These findings are exciting, as they may help explain why hornets have been so successful in establishing new populations in non-native regions.

“Hornets are carried to different parts of the world accidentally by humans. All that is needed is a small number of mated queens to be transported, hidden in cargo perhaps. The genomes suggest that hornets have lots of genes involved in detecting and responding to chemical cues – these may make them especially good at adapting to hunt different types of prey in non-native regions.”

Senior author Professor Seirian Sumner (UCL Centre for Biodiversity & Environment) said: “These hornet genomes are just the beginning. The genomes of more than 3,000 insect species have now been sequenced by efforts around the world, but wasps are under-represented among these.

“Genomes tell us about aspects of the ecology and evolution that other methods cannot. Evolution has equipped these insects with an incredible genetic toolbox with which to exploit their environment and hunt their prey.”

Armed with these new genomes, the scientists hope to help improve the management of hornet populations, both for their ecosystem services as pest controllers in native zones, and as ecological threats in regions where they are invasive.

The study involved researchers in the UK, Italy, Spain, Israel, France, New Zealand, and Austria, and was primarily funded by the Natural Environment Research Council.

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JOURNAL

Scientific Reports

DOI

10.1038/s41598-023-31932-x 

ARTICLE TITLE

Putting hornets on the genomic map

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

21-Apr-2023

UC Irvine biologists discover bees to be brew masters of the insect world

New study sheds light on the subterranean microbreweries of ground-nesting bees

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA - IRVINE

Irvine, Calif., April 20, 2023 — Scientists at the University of California, Irvine have made a remarkable discovery about cellophane bees – their microbiomes are some of the most fermentative known from the insect world. These bees, which are named for their use of cellophane-like materials to line their subterranean nests, are known for their fascinating behaviors and their important ecological roles as pollinators. Now, researchers have uncovered another aspect of their biology that makes them even more intriguing.

According to a study published in Frontiers in Microbiology, cellophane bees “brew” a liquid food for their offspring, held in chambers called brood cells. The microbiome of these brood cells is dominated by lactobacilli bacteria, which are known for their role in fermenting foods like yogurt, sauerkraut and sourdough bread. The researchers found that these bacteria are highly active in the food provisions of cellophane bees, where they likely play an important role as a source of nutrients for developing larvae.

“This discovery is quite remarkable,” said Tobin Hammer, assistant professor of ecology & evolutionary biology and lead author. “We know that lactobacilli are important for fermentation of food, but finding wild bees that use them essentially the same way was really surprising. Most of the 20,000 species of bees get their nutrition from nectar and pollen, but for these cellophane bees, we suspect that lactobacilli are also really important. They have effectively evolved from herbivores into omnivores.”

The study also found that the food provisions of cellophane bees have much higher bacterial biomass compared to other bee species, matching the unusually fermentative smell that emanates from their brood cells. These uniquely rich, lactobacilli-dominated microbreweries of cellophane bees could have important implications for the health of the bees, as well as for the ecology of the ecosystems in which they live.

“It was intriguing to find that cellophane bees use a strategy called ‘spontaneous fermentation,’ which is how certain fermented foods like sauerkraut are made. Rather than passing on starter cultures from generation to generation, they use wild strains of lactobacilli that are ubiquitous in flowers,” said Hammer. “It suggests that fermentation-based symbioses like this one can evolve without domestication. What makes these bees special is that they’ve figured out how to create a favorable environment in which lactobacilli can grow really well.”

This study highlights the importance of studying the microbiomes of insects, which are often overlooked in favor of more familiar animals like birds and mammals, despite playing an enormous role in ecosystems the world over. By understanding the complex interactions between microbes and their insect hosts, scientists can gain new insights into the biology of these important animals and the ecosystems that they inhabit.

This study was a collaboration between researchers at Cornell University, the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, UC Riverside, Colorado State University and the University of Arizona. The National Science Foundation, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Simons Foundation provided support.

About the University of California, Irvine: Founded in 1965, UCI is a member of the prestigious Association of American Universities and is ranked among the nation’s top 10 public universities by U.S. News & World Report. The campus has produced five Nobel laureates and is known for its academic achievement, premier research, innovation and anteater mascot. Led by Chancellor Howard Gillman, UCI has more than 36,000 students and offers 224 degree programs. It’s located in one of the world’s safest and most economically vibrant communities and is Orange County’s second-largest employer, contributing $7 billion annually to the local economy and $8 billion statewide. For more on UCI, visit www.uci.edu.

Media access: Radio programs/stations may, for a fee, use an on-campus ISDN line to interview UCI faculty and experts, subject to availability and university approval. For more UCI news, visit news.uci.edu. Additional resources for journalists may be found at communications.uci.edu/for-journalists.

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JOURNAL

Frontiers in Microbiology

ARTICLE TITLE

Bee breweries: The unusually fermentative, lactobacilli-dominated brood cell microbiomes of cellophane bees