Art with DNA – Digitally creating 16 million colors by chemistry

Previous limitation to 256 colors far exceeded

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF VIENNA

 

IMAGE: 

FIG. 1: THE ORIGINAL DIGITAL IMAGE (IN STANDARD 24-BIT COLOR DEPTH). 

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CREDIT: C: CBLEE, TREY RATCLIFF, STEWARTBAIRD AND NOAA OCEAN EXPLORATION & RESEARCH

The DNA double helix is composed of two DNA molecules whose sequences are complementary to each other. The stability of the duplex can be fine-tuned in the lab by controlling the amount and location of imperfect complementary sequences. Fluorescent markers bound to one of the matching DNA strands make the duplex visible, and fluorescence intensity increases with increasing duplex stability. Now, researchers at the University of Vienna succeeded in creating fluorescent duplexes that can generate any of 16 million colors – a work that surpasses the previous 256 colors limitation. This very large palette can be used to "paint" with DNA and to accurately reproduce any digital image on a miniature 2D surface with 24-bit color depth. This research was published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society.

The unique ability of complementary DNA sequences to recognize and assemble as duplexes is the biochemical mechanism for how genes are read and copied. The rules of duplex formation (also called hybridization) are simple and invariable, making them predictable and programmable too. Programming DNA hybridization allows for synthetic genes to be assembled and large-scale nanostructures to be built. This process always relies on perfect sequence complementarity. Programming instability vastly expands our ability to manipulate molecular structure and has applications in the field of DNA and RNA therapeutics. In this novel study, researchers at the Institute of Inorganic Chemistry at the University of Vienna showed that controlled hybridization can result in the creation of 16 million colors and can accurately reproduce any digital image in DNA format.

A canvas the size of a fingernail

To create color, different small DNA strands linked to fluorescent molecules (markers) that can emit either red, green or blue color are hybridized to a long complementary DNA strand on the surface. To vary the intensity of each color, the stability of the duplex is lowered by carefully removing bases of the DNA strand at pre-defined positions along the sequence. With lower stability comes a darker shade of color, and fine-tuning this stability results in the creation of 256 shades for all color channels. All shades can be mixed and matched within a single DNA duplex, thus generating 16 million combinations and matching the color complexity of modern digital images. To achieve this level of precision in DNA-to-color conversion, >45 000 unique DNA sequences had to be synthesized.

To do so, the research team used a method for parallel DNA synthesis called maskless array synthesis (MAS). With MAS, hundreds of thousands of unique DNA sequences can be synthesized at the same time and on the same surface, a miniature rectangle the size of a fingernail. Since the approach allows the experimenter to control the location of any DNA sequence on that surface, the corresponding color can also be selectively assigned to a chosen location. By automating the process using dedicated computer scripts, the authors were able to transform any digital image into a DNA photocopy with accurate color rendition. "Essentially, our synthesis surface becomes a canvas for painting with DNA molecules at the micrometer scale", says Jory Lietard, PI in the Institute of Inorganic Chemistry.

Resolution is currently limited to XGA, but the reproduction process is applicable to 1080p, as well as potentially 4K image resolution. "Beyond imaging, a DNA color code could have very useful applications in data storage on DNA", says Tadija Kekić, PhD candidate in the group of Jory Lietard. As evidenced by the 2023 Nobel Prize attributed to the development of quantum dots, the chemistry of color has a bright future ahead.

This work was financially supported by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF projects I4923, P34284, P36203 and TAI687).

Fig. 2: The picture "photocopied" in DNA format by the authors. 

CREDIT

C: Tadija Kekic and Jory Lietard

Left: C: cblee, Trey Ratcliff, stewartbaird and NOAA Ocean Exploration & Research Right: C: Tadija Kekic and Jory Lietard

CREDIT

Left: C: cblee, Trey Ratcliff, stewartbaird and NOAA Ocean Exploration & Research Right: C: Tadija Kekic and Jory Lietard

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JOURNAL

Journal of the American Chemical Society

DOI

10.1021/jacs.3c06500 

ARTICLE TITLE

A Canvas of Spatially Arranged DNA Strands that Can Produce 24-bit Color Depth.

 

Surprising discovery about coral’s resilience could help reefs survive climate change

USC Dornsife researchers studying a common Caribbean coral’s ability to adapt to rising temperatures turn up an unexpected result

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA

 

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ADULT ORBICELLA FAVEOLATA CORAL AT THE NEAR SHORE REEF SITE, CHEECA ROCKS, WHICH EXPERIENCES HIGHER TEMPERATURES ANNUALLY THAN OFFSHORE REEFS. THIS STUDY ASKED WHETHER LARVAL OFFSPRING OF THIS PARENT POPULATION WERE MORE HEAT TOLERANT BASED ON THIS HISTORY.

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CREDIT: CREDIT TO DUSTIN KEMP, ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF BIOLOGY, UNIVERSITY OF ALABAMA AT BIRMINGHAM.

The factors affecting coral’s resilience — its ability to adapt to and survive environmental changes — seem to be more nuanced than scientists believed.

In a study published Oct. 18 in the journal Global Change Biology, researchers reveal surprising findings about a species common to Caribbean waters. The discovery may help improve efforts to save corals from bleaching and other consequences of climate change.

A team led by Assistant Professor of Biological Sciences Carly Kenkel at the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences studied the mountainous star coral, Orbicella faveolata, to determine whether coral populations that have survived higher temperatures can pass their heat tolerance on to their offspring. 

To the scientists’ surprise, the results showed the opposite: The offspring from a population that is less heat-tolerant performed better when exposed to high temperatures than their counterparts from a heat-tolerant population.

The findings counter the commonly held notion among scientists that if coral parents can handle the heat, so should their offspring. 

Climate change threatens the survival of coral reefs globally. Rising ocean temperatures have led to coral bleaching, which weakens the coral, leaving them more susceptible to disease. 

“The study findings have significant implications for how we think about saving coral reefs,” said Kenkel, who holds the Wilford and Daris Zinsmeyer Early Career Chair in Marine Studies at USC Dornsife. “It’s not as simple as just breeding more heat-tolerant corals.”

To assess which corals could more readily handle higher temperatures, the scientists collected coral reproductive cells, known as gametes, from two different coral reef sites in the Florida Keys. One site sits close to the shore and the other farther out to sea. 

The researchers carefully bred the corals in a controlled environment and exposed the coral larvae to heat stress conditions in the lab. The researchers then measured how the corals survived. They also examined the activity of the coral genes to see whether they could detect signs of stress at higher temperatures.

The unexpected finding that coral larvae from the less heat-tolerant population survived better and showed fewer signs of stress suggests that the ability of coral offspring to handle heat might be influenced by various factors, including whether and how often their parents have bleached in the past or suffered other environmental pressures.

The researchers acknowledge that more research is needed to confirm their findings. The study focuses on one specific coral species, and different species may behave differently. Also, the research took place in a controlled lab setting, and many factors beyond temperature affect coral reefs in the wild.

The scientists hope to dig deeper into how corals adapt to environmental changes and pass on resilience, examining the impact of corals’ history and relationships with other organisms as well as the overall health of the reef. 

Kenkel, who also conducts research as part of USC Dornsife’s Wrigley Institute for Environment and Sustainability, said coral rescue may require a more comprehensive approach. 

“Instead of focusing solely on breeding more heat-tolerant corals,” she said, “we might need to consider other factors affecting coral survival and more diverse interventions.” This includes their genetic diversity and external stressors affecting their overall well-being.

By unlocking the secrets of corals’ ability to withstand rising temperatures, scientists might find new ways to help these essential ecosystems thrive in a changing world.

First author on the study Yingqi Zhang contributed to the research while a PhD student in Kenkel’s USC Dornsife lab. Now at the University of Utah, she sees the work as an important step toward saving reefs.

“We believe that this study opens up promising avenues for future research, which is critical to the success of reef management and restoration practices for this charismatic Caribbean coral species,” she said.

About the study

In addition to Kenkel and Zhang, authors on the study include Shelby Gantt, Elise Keister and Dustin Kemp of  University of Alabama at Birmingham; Holland Elder, formerly at USC Dornsife and now at The Australian Institute of Marine Science; Graham Kolodziej, Catalina Aguilar, Michael Studivan of the University of Miami and the National Oceanic and Atomospheric Administration (NOAA) Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory (AOML); Derek Manzello at NOAA’s Center for Weather and Climate Prediction; and Ian Enochs of the NOAA AOML.  

The study was supported in part by NOAA funds.

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JOURNAL

Global Change Biology

DOI

10.1111/gcb.16977 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Experimental study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Animals

ARTICLE TITLE

Performance of Orbicella faveolata larval cohorts does not align with previously 2 observed thermal tolerance of adult source populations

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

17-Oct-2023

 

How to help save plants from extinction

Predicting their demise could keep them alive

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA - RIVERSIDE

 

IMAGE: 

CALIFORNIA LILAC IS ONE OF THE SPECIES FOR WHOM THE CRITICAL LIMITS ARE KNOWN.

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CREDIT: CHANGKU88

Now is the time to identify the conditions that cause plants to die. Doing so will allow us to better protect plants by choosing conservation targets more strategically, UC Riverside botanists argue in a new paper. 

Published in the Oxford Academic journal Conservation Physiology, the paper demonstrates how scientists can learn the limits past which plants’ vital functions shut down, and makes the case that not doing so is a mistake in this era of increasing drought and wildfires.

“We can measure the amount of water loss plants can tolerate before they start to wilt, and we can learn the temperature at which photosynthesis stops for different kinds of plants,” said Louis Santiago, UCR botany professor and corresponding author of the paper. 

“It is so important to measure the critical limits of when things will fail, and not just how they’re doing now,” he said.

The UCR team believes understanding the current physiological status of a plant species during stress — which so many are experiencing more often with hotter, drier temperatures in many places — can be very useful for showing how close some plants are to local extinction already. Combined with critical limit data, limited conservation funds could be even more wisely spent, revealing plants’ warning signs before they become visible.

However, these critical stress limits are not often considered when assessing the health of plant populations, in part because they do not yet exist for most species. There are roughly 700,000 plant species on Earth, but only about 1,000 for whom the limits are known.

Plants can, in some cases, push past their limits for a short time and bounce back. For example, houseplants will wilt when they don’t get enough water, and bounce back when they finally receive it. However, if they stay wilted too long, they will likely die. 

“Wilting, what we refer to as losing turgor pressure, is not always fatal but it’s one step toward death,” Santiago said. “Just like people with extremely high blood pressure might die if they don’t get it to come down.”

Santiago’s laboratory is focused on plant physiology, the chemical and physical processes associated with plant life. However, much of the activity in his lab has shifted in recent years to studying critical limits. 

“It started after the last drought when we saw species suffering. We wanted to do these measurements to see if we could have predicted the die-offs that we saw,” Santiago said.  

For this paper, he and his students measured the leaf wilting points for six species of Southern California chapparal shrubs, including California lilac and two types of sage. Their work demonstrates that there are multiple means to obtaining the critical limits and shows how the information could help conservation outcomes. 

“Generally, we have the capacity to find the most vulnerable, rare species and focus on them. We have the ability to find which plants are most at risk from climate changes, but it’s going to take a collaboration of plant physiologists, conservation biologists, and land managers,” Santiago said. 

Most plant species are going to face a climate in the coming decades that does not place them under the same kinds of stress they evolved to live in. For plant enthusiasts wanting to assist their survival, Santiago recommends getting involved with native plant societies. 

“You can join them in pulling out invasive species, or count numbers of rare organisms, and there are countless volunteer projects,” Santiago said. “Let’s work smarter, and work together.”

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JOURNAL

Conservation Physiology

DOI

10.1093/conphys/coad073 

ARTICLE TITLE

Plant physiological indicators for optimizing conservation outcomes

 

B12 deficiency: a hidden trigger of inflammation?

Peer-Reviewed Publication

SOCIETY OF CHEMICAL INDUSTRY

A new study has identified a compelling link between vitamin B12 deficiency and chronic inflammation, which is associated with a range of health problems including cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and neurodegenerative disorders. 

Published in the Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture, the research examined the effects of circulating B12 concentration on the levels of two key inflammatory markers in both humans and mice.

Vitamin B12, an essential nutrient with roles in various physiological processes, is known to be critical for overall health. Its deficiency can be the result of dietary insufficiency, particularly in vegetarian and vegan populations, or inefficient absorption in the body. This can lead to a range of complications, including neurological disorders. While previous research has hinted at the potential anti-inflammatory properties of vitamin B12, the precise relationship is not fully understood.

Now, a team of researchers in Spain have investigated the effects of vitamin B12 on the levels of two molecules in the body which promote inflammation, specifically interleukin (IL)-6 and C-reactive protein (CRP).

Rosa M. Lamuela-Raventós, co-corresponding author of the study and Professor of Nutrition, Food Sciences and Gastronomy at INSA-University of Barcelona and Inés Domínguez López, a predoctoral researcher at the University of Barcelona and co-first author of the study explained the motivations behind the study.

‘Since chronic inflammation is associated with a wide range of diseases, understanding how vitamin B12 status influences inflammation could have significant implications for disease prevention and management. IL-6 and CRP are widely recognised as key markers of inflammation in clinical practice, as elevated levels of these markers are associated with various inflammatory conditions and chronic diseases. Establishing the relationship between inflammatory markers like IL-6 and CRP [and vitamin B12 levels] could have direct clinical relevance and open doors to novel therapeutic strategies.’

The study utilised samples from a randomised subsection of participants in PREDIMED, a large clinical trial based in Spain, designed to assess the effect of the Mediterranean diet on the primary prevention of cardiovascular disease. An assessment of the serum levels of vitamin B12 and the concentrations of the inflammatory markers revealed a correlation between the two.

‘Our study found that in general, the more vitamin B12 an individual has, the lower their inflammatory markers are -- we call this an inverse relationship’, explained Marta Kovatcheva, a postdoctoral researcher at the Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB Barcelona) and co-first author of the study. ‘With regards to vitamin B12 deficiency, we must point out that we did not specifically look at deficient individuals in this study. Nevertheless, our results raise some important questions. We already know that vitamin B12 deficiency can be harmful in many ways, but what we have reported here is a novel relationship. This might help us better understand why some unexplained symptoms of human B12 deficiency, like neurologic defects, occur.’

To validate the findings of the research within the general population, Domínguez López noted, ‘It will be important to expand the cohorts, to look at sex-specific differences (as males and females often have different biology) and also to investigate the specific situations such as B12 deficiency, infection, or ageing in humans.’

The study also observed the same relationship between vitamin B12 and inflammatory markers in naturally aged mice, offering a valuable avenue of using mouse models to delve deeper into the underlying mechanisms of the inverse correlation. Lamuela-Raventós explained, ‘This will help us understand the biology of this relationship we've observed, and will help us to ascertain any dietary and/or clinical recommendations that could be made in the future’.

Surprisingly, the researchers noted that unlike humans, mice do not become B12 deficient with age. ‘We didn't know this before, and it poses the possibility that studying mice could potentially help us understand how we could prevent B12 deficiency in older humans,’ said Kovatcheva.

The team now hopes to explore the link between vitamin B12 and inflammation, within the context of specific high-inflammation conditions, such as infection, obesity, and irritable bowel syndrome. ‘We already know that vitamin B12 deficiency is not good for an individual, and that dietary measures should be taken to correct it. It will be interesting to understand if vitamin B12 supplementation can play a role in disease management,’ noted Lamuela-Raventós.

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JOURNAL

Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture

DOI

10.1002/jsfa.12976 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Observational study

ARTICLE TITLE

Higher circulating vitamin B12 is associated with lower levels of inflammatory markers in individuals at high cardiovascular risk and in naturally aged mice

COI STATEMENT

ER reports grants, personal fees, non-financial support and other from the California Walnut Commission when the study was carried out; and grants, personal fees, non-financial support and other from Alexion, outside the submitted work. RML-R reports personal fees from Cerveceros de España, personal fees and others from Adventia, Wine in Moderation, Ecoveritas S.A., outside the submitted work. RE reports grants from the Fundación Dieta Mediterránea (Spain), and Cerveza y Salud (Spain) and personal fees for given lectures from Brewers of Europe (Belgium), the Fundación Cerveza y Salud (Spain), Pernaud-Ricard (Mexico), Instituto Cervantes (Alburquerque, USA), Instituto Cervantes (Milan, Italy), Instituto Cervantes (Tokyo, Japan), Lilly Laboratories (Spain) and the Wine and Culinary International Forum (Spain), as well as non-financial support for the organization of a National Congress on Nutrition and feeding trials with products from Grand Fountain and Uriach Laboratories (Spain).

 

Bacteria found in desert pave the way for paint that produces oxygen whilst capturing carbon

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF SURREY

Biocoatings are a type of water-based paint that encase live bacteria within layers. Besides capturing carbon, they can also serve as bioreactors or as biosensors. 
Surrey's creation, named ‘Green Living Paint,’ features Chroococcidiopsis cubana, a bacterium that undergoes photosynthesis to produce oxygen while capturing CO2. This species is usually found in the desert and requires little water for survival. Classified as an extremophile, it can survive these extreme conditions.  
Dr Suzie Hingley-Wilson, a Senior Lecturer in Bacteriology at the University of Surrey said:   

"With the increase in greenhouse gases, particularly CO2, in the atmosphere and concerns about water shortages due to rising global temperatures, we need innovative, environmentally friendly, and sustainable materials. Mechanically robust, ready-to-use biocoatings, or 'living paints,' could help meet these challenges by reducing water consumption in typically water-intensive bioreactor-based processes." 

To investigate the suitability of Chroococcidiopsis cubana as a biocoating, researchers immobilised the bacteria in a mechanically robust biocoating made from polymer particles and natural clay nanotubes in water, which was fully dried before rehydrating. They observed that the bacteria within the biocoating produced up to 0.4 g of oxygen per gram of biomass per day and captured CO2. Continuous measurements of oxygen showed no signs of decreasing activity over a month. 
 

In contrast, researchers conducted similar experiments with the bacterium Synechocystis sp., another cyanobacterium usually found in freshwater. Unlike its desert counterpart, it was unable to produce oxygen within the biocoating. 

 
Simone Krings, the lead author and a former Postgraduate Researcher in the Department of Microbial Sciences at the University of Surrey, said:  

"The photosynthetic Chroococcidiopsis have an extraordinary ability to survive in extreme environments, like droughts and after high levels of UV radiation exposure. This makes them potential candidates for Mars colonisation." 

 Professor Joseph Keddie, Professor of Soft Matter Physics in the School of Mathematics and Physics at the University of Surrey, said:  

"Our research grant from the Leverhulme Trust enabled this interdisciplinary project. We envision our biocoatings contributing to a more sustainable future, aligning perfectly with the vision of our Institute for Sustainability, where both Dr Hingley-Wilson and I are fellows." 

This study was published in the journal Microbiology Spectrum.  

Notes to Editors: 

• Dr Suzie Hingley-Wilson, Simone Krings, and Professor Joseph Keddie are available for interviews upon request. 

• Contact the University press office via mediarelations@surrey.ac.uk

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JOURNAL

Microbiology Spectrum

DOI

10.1128/spectrum.01870-23 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Experimental study

ARTICLE TITLE

Oxygen evolution from extremophilic cyanobacteria confined in hard biocoatings

 

First genetic causes of Raynaud’s phenomenon discovered

Peer-Reviewed Publication

BIH AT CHARITÉ

Two to five percent of all people are affected by Raynaud's phenomenon: In cold or stressful conditions, the small blood vessels that supply the skin constrict and the fingers or toes turn white. First described by Maurice Raynaud in 1862, scientists from the Berlin Institute of Health at the Charité (BIH), together with colleagues from the United Kingdom, have only now discovered a common genetic causes of the disease and published it in the journal Nature Communications.

Maurice Raynaud had studied people reporting that the fingers turn frequently white during the day in his doctoral thesis in Paris in 1862: 25 affected people, 20 women and five men, showed the conspicuous changes in fingers and toes in cold weather, which sometimes led to the death of the limbs.

"Fortunately, this only happens very rarely today," says Dr Maik Pietzner, co-lead of the Computational Medicine group at BIH. "But the four-to-one ratio between women and men and the symptoms described are still hold true, but the disease is understudied and there is still no really effective treatment. We therefore aimed to find genetic causes of Raynaud's phenomenon."

Data from >5,000 patients in UK biobank

In their search for the genetic causes of the disease, the scientists led by Maik Pietzner and Professor Claudia Langenberg, who heads the Computational Medicine Unit at BIH and is also Director of the newly founded Institute for Precision Medicine at Queen Mary University in London, UK, turned to the UK Biobank study. "The study uniquely combines genetic information on more than 500,000 participants that have also been linked to their electronic health records," Claudia Langenberg describes the great treasure trove of data. "In this way, we were able to identify more than 5,000 people affected by Raynaud’s and could study how common variation in the genome predisposes to the disease, when did Raynaud's phenomenon first occur, and what concomitant diseases do the people suffer from?"

Blood vessels constrict quickly and only slowly dilated

In their analyses, the scientists discovered variation in two genes that predisposed participants to Raynaud's phenomenon: One was the alpha-2A-adrenergic receptor for adrenaline, ADRA2A, a classic stress receptor that causes the small vessels to contract. "This makes sense when it's cold or dangerous, because the body has to supply the inside of the body with blood," explains Maik Pietzner. "In Raynaud's patients, however, this receptor seemed to be particularly active, which could explain the vasospasms, especially in combination with the second gene that we found: This gene is the transcription factor IRX1, which may regulate the ability of blood vessels to dilate." If its production is increased, the constricted vessels cannot relax as they would normaly do. Together with the overactive adrenaline receptor, this may then lead to the vessels not suppling enough blood for a longer period of time, which leads to the observed white fingers and toes.

The scientists' findings also help to understand for the first time why the small vessels react so strongly in patients, even apparently without external stimuli, especially cold. Pragmatic recommendations for patients could also be derived from their findings. For example, the scientists were able to show that people with a genetic predisposition to low blood sugar levels have an increased risk of Raynaud's phenomenon and therefore patients should possibly avoid longer episodes of low blood sugar. Pietzner and colleagues were also able to replicate parts of their findings in the independent Genes & Health study, thus also showing the relevance for ethnic minorities, especially British Bangladeshi and Pakistani.

From Genes to Drugs

"Our results neatly align with what we observe in patients," says Claudia Langenberg. "They can explain well why the blood vessels of patients with Raynaud's quickly become narrow and only slowly widen again." Maik Pietzner adds: "They also explain why many drugs used so far do not work: they are directed against mechanisms that often dilate the large vessels, but apparently not the very small vessels in our hands and feet that are affected in patients with Raynaud's." But the scientists also offer hope. For example, already approved drugs that more or less specifically inhibit the function of ADRA2A could be an alternative, such as the antidepressant mirtazapine. "I am convinced that our findings provide a path to novel effective medications," says Claudia Langenberg and adds: "Our study demonstrates how valuable information from electronic health records is for patient-oriented research and that more needs to be done, especially in Germany, in order to achieve better care more quickly.

Original publication: Sylvia Hartmann,….Maik Pietzner, Claudia Langenberg: "ADRA2A and IRX1 are putative risk genes for Raynaud’s phenomenon", Nature Communications. DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-41876-5

About the Berlin Institute of Health at Charité (BIH)
The mission of the Berlin Institute of Health at Charité (BIH) is medical translation: transferring biomedical research findings into novel approaches to personalized prediction, prevention, diagnostics and therapies and, conversely, using clinical observations to develop new research ideas. The aim is to deliver relevant medical benefits to patients and the population at large. As the translational research unit within Charité, the BIH is also committed to establishing a comprehensive translational ecosystem – one that places emphasis on a system-wide understanding of health and disease and that promotes change in the biomedical translational research culture. The BIH was founded in 2013 and is funded 90 percent by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) and 10 percent by the State of Berlin. The founding institutions, Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin and Max Delbrück Center, were independent member entities within the BIH until 2020. Since 2021 the BIH has been integrated into Charité as its so-called third pillar. The Max Delbrück Center is now the Privileged Partner of the BIH.

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JOURNAL

Nature Communications

DOI

10.1038/s41467-023-41876-5 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Data/statistical analysis

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Not applicable

ARTICLE TITLE

ADRA2A and IRX1 are putative risk genes for Raynaud’s phenomenon

 

The earthworm effect: unraveling soil weathering dynamics

New research presented at GSA Connects 2023

Meeting Announcement

GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA

 

IMAGE: 

PUERTO RICAN SOILS WITH UPPER ~30CM HIGHLY BIOTURBATED FROM EARTHWORMS.

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CREDIT: CREDIT: ADRIAN WACKETT

17 October 2023
The Geological Society of America
Release No. 23-42
Contact: Justin Samuel
+1-303-357-1026
jsamuel@geosociety.org

For Immediate Release

Contributed by Sarah Derouin

Pittsburgh, Pa., USA: Earthworms, the hardworking invertebrates that grace the upper layers of soil, have long been considered helpful in our home gardens. Earthworms are prolific munchers, grinding up organic material and sediment grains that make up soils. Although they are very different animals, worms, like many poultry, have gizzards. “Worms will ingest some larger soil grains, and then they use the strongest and largest of those grains, retaining them in their gizzard,” explains Adrian Wackett, a soil science doctoral student at Stanford University. These gizzards are great for breaking down soil to release nutrients.

While earthworms may benefit your garden or compost pile, they can be invasive and potentially cause damage to natural ecosystems. Physical weathering (or breaking down rocks or sediment into smaller pieces of the same material) of soils by worms has implications for soil processes, including how much organic matter and nutrients a soil can hold. By breaking down sediment, worms also create new soil textures which can impact how water soaks into soil and affect chemical processes.

Weathering is also a big factor in carbon dioxide cycling. “Geologists often think about weathering rates being one of the major factors that controls Earth’s ‘thermostat,’” says Wackett. Chemical activities, including the sequestration of carbon into new minerals, are aided by the worms grinding up minerals. But earthworms also break down organic material, releasing carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

Wackett wondered how much mineral weathering earthworms could produce. In new research presented Wednesday at the Geological Society of America’s GSA Connects 2023 meeting, Wackett and his colleagues will demonstrate the invasive expansion of earthworms—or “global w’o’rming”—triggers a significant amount of silicate breakdown.

To better understand how worms break down sediment, the team examined soils in the El Yunque National Forest in Puerto Rico. They found significant changes in sediment sizes within the soil column, with smaller median particle sizes in areas where earthworm burrowing occurred. In fact, quartz grains in the worm-bioturbation zone were nearly 50% smaller than those grains without worm activity.

While other shorter-term laboratory experiments have been done on worm weathering, this is the first study on worm-induced silica breakdown of in situ soils. The team found that worms cause roughly 2% of the total weathering in El Yunque soils. Wackett adds that this is a conservative estimate for worm-weathering and points out that worms could be an even more forceful weathering mechanism than these initial estimates show.

Weathering rates could proliferate by the spread of earthworms into new territories. Wackett notes that earthworms are making their way into northern latitude forests that didn’t have worms in the past.

The team assessed grain size changes across a series of soil profiles spanning earthworm invasion gradients in Alaska, Minnesota, Finland, and Sweden where the timing of earthworm arrival––and hence worm weathering––is more tightly constrained. They noted appreciable shifts in median particle size in these historically worm-free sites.

Wackett concludes although each worm produces “small changes, once you scale up, you actually come up with pretty sizable [weathering contributions].”

 

Worm castings left on surface.

CREDIT

Credit: Adrian Wackett

Exploring whether worms weather silicates in soils
Contact: Adrian Wackett, Stanford University, awackett@stanford.edu
207: D1. Advances in Geomorphology and Quaternary Geology
Wednesday, 18 Oct. 2023, 11:40 a.m. EDT

The Geological Society of America (https://www.geosociety.org) unites a diverse community of geoscientists in a common purpose to study the mysteries of our planet (and beyond) and share scientific findings. Members and friends around the world, from academia, government, and industry, participate in GSA meetings, publications, and programs at all career levels, to foster professional excellence. GSA values and supports inclusion through cooperative research, public dialogue on earth issues, science education, and the application of geoscience in the service of humankind.

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