“Giant” predator worms more than half a billion years old discovered in North Greenland

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF BRISTOL

 

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FOSSIL OF TIMOREBESTIA KOPRII. THE SCIENTISTS USED A TECHNIQUE CALLED AN ELECTRON MICROPROBE TO MAP THE CARBON IN THE FOSSIL OUT, WHICH REVEALS ANATOMICAL FEATURES WITH IMMENSE CLARITY INCLUDING ITS FIN RAYS AND MUSCLE SYSTEMS.

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CREDIT: DR JAKOB VINTHER

Fossils of a new group of animal predators have been located in the Early Cambrian Sirius Passet fossil locality in North Greenland. These large worms may be some of the earliest carnivorous animals to have colonised the water column more than 518 million years ago, revealing a past dynasty of predators that scientists didn’t know existed.

The new fossil animals have been named Timorebestia, meaning ‘terror beasts’ in Latin. Adorned with fins down the sides of their body, a distinct head with long antennae, massive jaw structures inside their mouth and growing to more than 30cm in length, these were some of the largest swimming animals in the Early Cambrian times.

“We have previously known that primitive arthropods were the dominant predators during the Cambrian, such as the bizarre-looking anomalocaridids,” said Dr Jakob Vinther from the University of Bristol’s Schools of Earth Sciences and Biological Sciences, a senior author on the study. “However, Timorebestia is a distant, but close, relative of living arrow worms, or chaetognaths. These are much smaller ocean predators today that feed on tiny zooplankton.

“Our research shows that these ancient ocean ecosystems were fairly complex with a food chain that allowed for several tiers of predators.

“Timorebestia were giants of their day and would have been close to the top of the food chain. That makes it equivalent in importance to some of the top carnivores in modern oceans, such as sharks and seals back in the Cambrian period.”

Inside the fossilised digestive system of Timorebestia, the researchers found remains of a common, swimming arthropod called Isoxys. “We can see these arthropods was a food source many other animals,” said Morten Lunde Nielsen, a former PhD student at Bristol and part of the current study. “They are very common at Sirius Passet and had long protective spines, pointing both forwards and backwards. However, they clearly didn’t completely succeed in avoiding that fate, because Timorebestia munched on them in great quantities.”

Arrow worms are one of the oldest animal fossils from the Cambrian. While arthropods appear in the fossil record about 521 to 529 million years ago, arrow worms can be traced back at least 538 million years back in time. Dr Vinther explained: “Both arrow worms, and the more primitive Timorebestia, were swimming predators. We can therefore surmise that in all likelihood they were the predators that dominated the oceans before arthropods took off. Perhaps they had a dynasty of about 10-15 million years before they got superseded by other, and more successful, groups.”

Luke Parry from Oxford University, who was part of the study, added “Timorebestia is a really significant find for understanding where these jawed predators came from. Today, arrow worms have menacing bristles on the outside of their heads for catching prey, whereas Timorebestia has jaws inside its head. This is what we see in microscopic jaw worms today—organisms that arrow worms shared an ancestor with over half a billion years ago. Timorebestia and other fossils like it provide links between closely related organisms that today look very different.”

“Our discovery firms up how arrow worms evolved,” added Tae Yoon Park from the Korean Polar Research Institute, the other senior author and field expedition leader. “Living arrow worms have a distinct nervous centre on their belly, called a ventral ganglion. It is entirely unique to these animals.

“We have found this preserved in Timorebestia and another fossil called Amiskwia. People have debated whether or not Amiskwia was closely related to arrow worms, as part of their evolutionary stem lineage. The preservation of these unique ventral ganglia gives us a great deal more confidence in this hypothesis.

“We are very excited to have discovered such unique predators in Sirius Passet. Over a series of expeditions to the very remote Sirius Passet in the furthest reaches of North Greenland more than 82,5˚ north, we have collected a great diversity of exciting new organisms. Thanks to the remarkable, exceptional preservation in Sirius Passet we can also reveal exciting anatomical details including their digestive system, muscle anatomy, and nervous systems.

“We have many more exciting findings to share in the coming years that will help show how the earliest animal ecosystems looked like and evolved.” Dr Park concludes.

 

Paper:

‘A giant stem-group chaetognath’ by Tae-Yoon Park, Jakob Vinther et al in Science Advances.

  

Fossil of Timorebestia koprii—the largest known specimen, almost 30 cm or 12 inches long.

CREDIT

Dr Jakob Vinther

A reconstruction of the pelagic ecosystem and the organisms fossilised in Sirius Passet, revealing how Timorebestia was one of the largest predators in the water column more than 518 million years ago

CREDIT

Artwork by Bob Nicholls/@BobNichollsArt

JOURNAL

Science Advances

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Observational study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Animals

ARTICLE TITLE

A giant stem-group chaetognath

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

3-Jan-2024

 

The choreography connecting kelp forests to the beach

Uncovering synchrony’s role in the beach food web

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA - DAVIS

 

IMAGE: 

SHOREBIRDS FORAGE IN KELP WRACK ON A BEACH IN CALIFORNIA. 

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CREDIT: JENNY DUGAN, UC SANTA BARBARA

The Santa Barbara Channel’s kelp forests and its sandy beaches are intimately connected. Giant kelp, the foundation species of rocky reefs, serves as a major part of the beach food web as fronds of the giant seaweed break away from the forest and are transported to the beach. But the relationship goes deeper.

In a paper published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, a team of scientists demonstrated that kelp forests can do more than supply food to tiny, hungry crustaceans living in the sand. They can also influence the dynamics of the sandy beach food web.

“The amount of kelp on the reef changes through time in a way where the peaks and low points in abundance across several kelp forests are matched together,” said lead author Jonathan Walter, a senior researcher at the University of California, Davis, and its Center for Watershed Sciences. “That’s what we refer to as synchrony. It is related to the ability of systems to persist in the face of changing environmental conditions. A little asynchrony allows systems to be resistant to fluctuations and therefore more stable.”

The study uncovers the role of synchrony in the beach food web, with broader implications as the climate shifts in ways that might change how linked ecosystems perform their functions.

Revealing synchrony’s role in these ecosystems fills a key knowledge gap in our understanding of the connection of reef and beach.

“The kelp forest and the beach are both highly dynamic ecosystems,” said co-author Jenny Dugan, a coastal marine ecologist at UC Santa Barbara. "How the dynamics of those two ecosystems interact and behave is the key question here, especially with the beach system so dependent on the kelp forest.”

In sync

Though a natural and ubiquitous phenomenon, synchrony and its implications are not yet fully understood.

The research team sought to understand whether and how kelp wrack (detritus) could affect the beach ecosystem’s dynamics. For instance, how might species respond to the changing environment, and how resilient is the beach ecosystem to disturbances?

To address these questions, the study used long-term data from UCSB’s Santa Barbara Coastal Long Term Ecological Research site, which is supported by the National Science Foundation. The team’s model was built on a time series of wind, wave, wrack, and beach-width data at five sandy beaches over 11 years.

It revealed patterns of synchrony — where the abundance of kelp wrack on beaches could be explained by kelp abundance in the forest, wave action, and beach width fluctuating together. At the longest timescales, kelp forest biomass and beach width were the biggest drivers of kelp wrack on the beaches.

Beach melodies

“We found time lags in this synchrony that were important,” Dugan said. “It wasn’t as simple as everything changing at the same time — it was like separate songs or melodies that came together in different ways. This made the patterns more complex, which is why it required the type of analyses we used.”

Importantly, the researchers found this synchrony crossed from ocean to shore. The abundance of predatory shorebirds, like sandpipers and plovers, lagged behind the deposition of wrack on beaches.

“Once on the beach, kelp wrack feeds a highly productive community of small invertebrates — crustaceans and insects — that are in turn a favorite food of shorebirds,” Dugan explained. The cross-system synchrony is particularly notable  because the beach ecosystem relies so heavily on kelp subsidies, she added.

Dynamic nature

“The dynamic nature of kelp forests, in terms of their high productivity and turnover, is unique for ecosystems structured around foundation species,” said co-author and coastal ecologist Kyle Emery, a researcher in the UCSB Marine Science Institute. “It allows us to observe change many times over compared to other foundation species and gives us the ability to observe many different system states, processes and functions. This enabled us to more rapidly analyze these questions of cross-ecosystem synchrony.”

The study was funded by the Santa Barbara Coastal Long Term Ecological Research, National Science Foundation, McDonnell Foundation and Humboldt Foundation.

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JOURNAL

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

DOI

10.1073/pnas.2310052120 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Meta-analysis

ARTICLE TITLE

Spatial synchrony cascades across ecosystem boundaries and up food webs via resource subsidies

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

2-Jan-2024

OUTSOURCING

US Department of Energy issues request for proposals for contractor to manage and operate Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory

FNAL is a single-purpose laboratory that leads the nation in the construction and operation of world-leading accelerator and detector facilities and in the development of the underlying technology for particle physics research.

Grant and Award Announcement

DOE/US DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY

Today, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced the issuance of a Request for Proposals (RFPs) for the competitive selection of a management and operating contractor for Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (FNAL).

FNAL is a single-purpose laboratory that leads the nation in the construction and operation of world-leading accelerator and detector facilities and in the development of the underlying technology for particle physics research. Its mission is centered on delivering breakthrough science and technology in the area of high energy particle physics. 

The RFP includes a maximum annual performance fee of $5.56 million. DOE expects to award the contract before the current agreement with Fermi Research Alliance, LLC expires on December 31, 2024, allowing for an anticipated three-month transition. DOE expects the selected contractor to assume full responsibility for the operation of FNAL on January 1, 2025.

Interested parties have until March 4, 2024, to submit proposals. DOE will host a virtual pre-proposal conference on January 11, 2024 to discuss the salient elements of the RFP. DOE will also host a site tour for those interested on January 18, 2024. Registration information for both of these events is available on the competition website.  

DOE’s Office of Science is responsible for the stewardship of FNAL. The Office of Science is the largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States and is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, visit the Office of Science’s website. 

The RFP is available on the FNAL competition website. 

 

US study offers a different explanation why only 36% of psychology studies replicate

Peer-Reviewed Publication

THE POLISH ASSOCIATION OF SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY

 

IMAGE: 

STATISTICS MACHINE ROOM, 1964. RESEARCH STUDENTS MR BUTTON AND MR KERNER. PHOTOGRAPH TAKEN DURING THE MAKING OF A BBC DOCUMENTARY.

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CREDIT: LONDON SCHOOL OF ECONOMICS (LSE LIBRARY)

In light of an estimated replication rate of only 36% out of 100 replication attempts conducted by the Open Science Collaboration in 2015 (OSC2015), many believe that experimental psychology suffers from a severe replicability problem. 

In their own study, recently published in the open-access peer-reviewed scientific journal Social Psychological Bulletin, Drs Brent M. Wilson and John T. Wixted at the University of California San Diego (USA) suggest that what has since been referred to as a “replication crisis” might not be as bad as it seems. 

“No one asks a critical question,” the scientists argue, “if all were well with psychological science, what replication rate should have been observed? Intuition suggests that it should have been ~90-95%, but a figure in this range is wildly off the mark. If so, then the perception of a replication crisis rests largely on an implicit comparison between the observed replication rate of 36% vs. a never-specified expected replication rate that is entirely unrealistic.”

In their recent paper, the scientists note that many replication failures might be due to the replication studies not having sufficient power to detect the true effects associated with the original experimental protocols. The replication studies were very well-powered to detect the originally reported effects, but those effects were inflated, as statistically significant effects must be. How much power did the replication studies have to detect the true (i.e., non-inflated) effects associated with the original studies? That is a key question, and intuition alone cannot provide the answer. The team therefore concludes that it is crucial to use a formal model, rather than relying on the current purely intuitive approach.

“Estimating the expected replication rate requires a consideration of statistical power, which is the probability that an experiment (e.g. a replication experiment) will again detect a true effect at p < .05. Obviously, a single replication experiment with low power can easily fail even if the original experiment reported a true effect,”

explain the scientists.

Similarly, 100 replication experiments with low power will yield a low replication rate even if the original experiments all reported true positives.

At one extreme, with low enough power, the observed 36% replication rate in OSC2015 could mean that 64% of the replication experiments failed to detect the true positives reported in the original studies (in which case the original-science literature would be in good shape). Alternatively, if the replication experiments had high enough power, then the observed 36% replication rate would mean that 64% of the replication experiments reported false positives (in which case the original-science literature would be in bad shape).

“With few exceptions, scientists have enthusiastically embraced the latter interpretation, thereby implicitly assuming that the OSC2015 replication experiments had high power. However, this assumption must be supported by a formal model because intuition is simply not up to the task,”

say Wilson and Wixted.

According to one simple formal model, the OSC2015 replication experiments had low power, in which case the 36% replication rate would not be particularly informative, the researchers conclude.

Although the original-science literature may be in better shape than intuition suggests, Wilson and Wixted nevertheless argue that there is a serious replication problem that needs to be addressed.

“The replication problem may not lie so much with everyday psychological science but may instead lie primarily with a small percentage of sensational findings,” say Wilson and Wixted. “Sensational findings are likely to be false positives because they are based on theories or ideas that have low prior odds of being true.”

In conclusion, the authors of the present paper argue that less focus should be placed on everyday research, which may be in better shape than intuition suggests, and more focus should be placed on conducting independent, large-N, pre-registered replications of unlikely findings that differentially attract attention. Such findings are not ready for non-scientists to consider until they have been independently replicated.

 

Original source:

Wilson, B. M., & Wixted, J. T. (2023). On the Importance of Modeling the Invisible World of Underlying Effect Sizes. Social Psychological Bulletin, 18, 1-16. https://doi.org/10.32872/spb.9981

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JOURNAL

Social Psychological Bulletin

DOI

10.32872/spb.9981 

ARTICLE TITLE

On the Importance of Modeling the Invisible World of Underlying Effect Sizes

 

Chiba University is pleased to announce the International Conference: “Humanities In The Age Of Space Exploration”

Humanities in the Age of Space Exploration Conference

Meeting Announcement

CHIBA UNIVERSITY

 

IMAGE: 

THE HUMANITIES IN THE AGE OF SPACE EXPLORATION CONFERENCE IS SET TO TAKE PLACE ON JANUARY 19, 2024, AT CHIBA UNIVERSITY’S NISHI-CHIBA CAMPUS, JAPAN.

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CREDIT: SOYUZ APPROACHING INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION BY ASTRO_ALEX (HTTPS://OPENVERSE.ORG/EN-GB/IMAGE/76DCD072-7F92-4B40-B644-8CFE8F78BC54?Q=SPACE)

Introduction to the Event: As the world witnesses rapid technological advancements and the increasing reality of space travel and habitation, Chiba University is taking the lead in shaping the dialogue on the future of space development and humanity. The upcoming conference will feature distinguished speakers from Chiba University and international institutions, converging to facilitate interdisciplinary discussions. Through diverse lenses encompassing philosophy, ethics, law, political science, and horticulture, the conference aims to gain profound insights, welcoming active participation to collectively influence the course of space exploration.

 

Keynote Speakers:

1. Takayuki Kobayashi (Member of the House of Representatives, Japan)
2. Anthony Milligan (King’s College London, UK)
3. Hideyuki Takahashi (Chiba University, Japan)
4. Konrad Szocik (University of Information Technology and Management in Rzeszow, Poland)
5. Tetsuji Iseda (Kyoto University, Japan)
6. Oskari Sivula (University of Turku, Finland)
7. Yu Takeuchi (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency: JAXA)
8. Mikko Puumala (University of Turku, Finland)
9. Jasmin della Guardia (Chiba University, Japan)

Organizer: Koji Tachibana (Chiba University, Japan)

 

Program Overview:

Title: Humanities in the Age of Space

Date: January 19, 2024 (Friday)

Time: 12:50-18:20 (JST)

Venue: Chiba University Nishi-Chiba Campus (1-33 Yayoi-cho, Inage-ku, Chiba-shi, Chiba 263-8522 JAPAN)

Multimedia Conference Room, 2nd Floor, Building for Integrated Research in the Humanities and Social Sciences

Campus Map: Link to Campus Map

Target Audience: Open to anyone interested in space development

Language: English

Capacity: 80 participants

Registration Fee: Free

Application: Please register via the form

Application Deadline: January 18, 2024 (Thursday)

Important Notes: For detailed information, please refer to the PDF.

Contact: Koji Tachibana, Associate Professor of Philosophy, Chiba University
Email: koji.tachibana@chiba-u.jp

 

About Chiba University

Chiba University boasts 10 faculties and 17 graduate schools on 5 campuses and a rich academic environment where students can acquire a broad-based interdisciplinary education as well as an advanced level of expertise. While respecting diversity in learning, Chiba University promotes innovative research through collaboration and researcher support programs, leading to the development of new fields of research, which will continue to make a wide range of social contributions both locally and internationally.

https://www.chiba-u.ac.jp/e/index.html

ZOMBIEFICATION

Scientists use high-tech brain stimulation to make people more hypnotizable

Stanford Medicine scientists used transcranial magnetic stimulation to temporarily enhance hypnotizability in patients with chronic pain, making them better candidates for hypnotherapy.

Peer-Reviewed Publication

STANFORD MEDICINE

How deeply someone can be hypnotized — known as hypnotizability — appears to be a stable trait that changes little throughout adulthood, much like personality and IQ. But now, for the first time, Stanford Medicine researchers have demonstrated a way to temporarily heighten hypnotizablity — potentially allowing more people to access the benefits of hypnosis-based therapy.

In the new study, to be published Jan. 4 in Nature Mental Health, the researchers found that less than two minutes of electrical stimulation targeting a precise area of the brain could boost participants’ hypnotizability for about one hour.

“We know hypnosis is an effective treatment for many different symptoms and disorders, in particular pain,” said Afik Faerman, PhD, a postdoctoral scholar in psychiatry and lead author of the study. “But we also know that not everyone benefits equally from hypnosis.”

Focused attention

Approximately two-thirds of adults are at least somewhat hypnotizable, and 15% are considered highly hypnotizable, meaning they score 9 or 10 on a standard 10-point measure of hypnotizability.

“Hypnosis is a state of highly focused attention, and higher hypnotizability improves the odds of your doing better with techniques using hypnosis,” said David Spiegel, MD, a professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences and a senior author of the study.

Spiegel, the Jack, Lulu, and Sam Willson Professor in Medicine, has devoted decades to studying hypnotherapy and using it to help patients control pain, lower stress, stop smoking and more. Several years ago, Spiegel led a team that used brain imaging to uncover the neurobiological basis of the practice. They found that highly hypnotizable people had stronger functional connectivity between the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, which is involved in information processing and decision making; and the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex, involved in detecting stimuli.

“It made sense that people who naturally coordinate activity between these two regions would be able to concentrate more intently,” Spiegel said. “It’s because you’re coordinating what you are focusing on with the system that distracts you.”

Shifting a stable trait

With these insights, Spiegel teamed up with Nolan Williams, MD, associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences, who has pioneered non-invasive neurostimulation techniques to treat conditions such as depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder and suicidal ideation.

The hope was that neurostimulation could alter even a stable trait like hypnotizability.

In the new study, the researchers recruited 80 participants with fibromyalgia, a chronic pain condition that can be treated with hypnotherapy. They excluded those who were already highly hypnotizable.

Half of the participants received transcranial magnetic stimulation, in which paddles applied to the scalp deliver electrical pulses to the brain. Specifically, they received two 46-second applications that delivered 800 pulses of electricity to a precise location in the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. The exact locations depended on the unique structure and activity of each person’s brain.

“A novel aspect of this trial is that we used the person’s own brain networks, based on brain imaging, to target the right spot,” said Williams, also a senior author of the study.

The other half of participants received a sham treatment with the same look and feel, but without electrical stimulation.

Hypnotizability was assessed by clinicians immediately before and after the treatments, with neither patients nor clinicians knowing who was in which group.

The researchers found that participants who received the neurostimulation showed a statistically significant increase in hypnotizability, scoring roughly one point higher. The sham group experienced no effect.

When the participants were assessed again one hour later, the effect had worn off and there was no longer a statistically significant difference between the two groups.

“We were pleasantly surprised that we were able to, with 92 seconds of stimulation, change a stable brain trait that people have been trying to change for 100 years,” Williams said. “We finally cracked the code on how to do it.”

The researchers plan to test whether different dosages of neurostimulation could enhance hypnotizability even more.

“It’s unusual to be able to change hypnotizability,” Spiegel said. A study of Stanford University students that began in the 1950s, for example, found that the trait remained relatively consistent when the students were tested 25 years later, as consistent as IQ over that time period. Recent research by Spiegel’s lab also suggests that hypnotizability may have a genetic basis.

Bigger implications

Clinically, a transient bump in hypnotizability may be enough to allow more people living with chronic pain to choose hypnosis as an alternative to long-term opioid use. Spiegel will follow up with the study participants to see how they fare in hypnotherapy.

The new results could have implications beyond hypnosis. Faerman noted that neurostimulation may be able to temporarily shift other stable traits or enhance people’s response to other forms of psychotherapy.

“As a clinical psychologist, my personal vision is that, in the future, patients come in, they go into a quick, non-invasive brain stimulation session, then they go in to see their psychologist,” he said. “Their benefit from treatment could be much higher.”

The study was supported by funding from the National Institute of Health (grant R33AT009305-03).

# # #

 

About Stanford Medicine

Stanford Medicine is an integrated academic health system comprising the Stanford School of Medicine and adult and pediatric health care delivery systems. Together, they harness the full potential of biomedicine through collaborative research, education and clinical care for patients. For more information, please visit med.stanford.edu.

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JOURNAL

Nature Mental Health

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Randomized controlled/clinical trial

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

4-Jan-2024

 NEWS RELEASE 4-JAN-2024

Scientists engineer plant microbiome for the first time to protect crops against disease

Breakthrough could dramatically cut the use of pesticides and unlock other opportunities to bolster plant health

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHAMPTON

Breakthrough could dramatically cut the use of pesticides and unlock other opportunities to bolster plant health

Scientists have engineered the microbiome of plants for the first time, boosting the prevalence of ‘good’ bacteria that protect the plant from disease.

The findings published in Nature Communications by researchers from the University of Southampton, China and Austria, could substantially reduce the need for environmentally destructive pesticides.

There is growing public awareness about the significance of our microbiome – the myriad of microorganisms that live in and around our bodies, most notably in our guts. Our gut microbiomes influence our metabolism, our likelihood of getting ill, our immune system, and even our mood.

Plants too host a huge variety of bacteria, fungi, viruses, and other microorganisms that live in their roots, stems, and leaves. For the past decade, scientists have been intensively researching plant microbiomes to understand how they affect a plant’s health and its vulnerability to disease.

“For the first time, we’ve been able to change the makeup of a plant’s microbiome in a targeted way, boosting the numbers of beneficial bacteria that can protect the plant from other, harmful bacteria,” says Dr Tomislav Cernava, co-author of the paper and Associate Professor in Plant-Microbe Interactions at the University of Southampton.

“This breakthrough could reduce reliance on pesticides, which are harmful to the environment. We’ve achieved this in rice crops, but the framework we’ve created could be applied to other plants and unlock other opportunities to improve their microbiome. For example, microbes that increase nutrient provision to crops could reduce the need for synthetic fertilisers.”

The international research team discovered that one specific gene found in the lignin biosynthesis cluster of the rice plant is involved in shaping its microbiome. Lignin is a complex polymer found in the cell walls of plants – the biomass of some plant species consists of more than 30 per cent lignin.

First, the researchers observed that when this gene was deactivated, there was a decrease in the population of certain beneficial bacteria, confirming its importance in the makeup of the microbiome community.

The researchers then did the opposite, over-expressing the gene so it produced more of one specific type of metabolite – a small molecule produced by the host plant during its metabolic processes. This increased the proportion of beneficial bacteria in the plant microbiome.

When these engineered plants were exposed to Xanthomonas oryzae – a pathogen that causes bacterial blight in rice crops, they were substantially more resistant to it than wild-type rice.

Bacterial blight is common in Asia and can lead to substantial loss of rice yields. It’s usually controlled by deploying polluting pesticides, so producing a crop with a protective microbiome could help bolster food security and help the environment.

The research team are now exploring how they can influence the presence of other beneficial microbes to unlock various plant health benefits.

Microbiome homeostasis on rice leaves is regulated by a precursor molecule of lignin biosynthesis is published in Nature Communications and is available online.

Contact

Steve Williams, Media Relations, University of Southampton press@soton.ac.uk or 023 8059 3212.

Notes for editors

1. Microbiome homeostasis on rice leaves is regulated by a precursor molecule of lignin biosynthesis is published in Nature Communications and is available here: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-023-44335-3
2. For Interviews with Dr Tomislav Cernava please contact Steve Williams, Media Relations, University of Southampton press@soton.ac.uk or 023 8059 3212.
3. Image: Rice paddies in China. Credit: Houxiang Kang

Additional information

The University of Southampton drives original thinking, turns knowledge into action and impact, and creates solutions to the world’s challenges. We are among the top 100 institutions globally (QS World University Rankings 2023). Our academics are leaders in their fields, forging links with high-profile international businesses and organisations, and inspiring a 22,000-strong community of exceptional students, from over 135 countries worldwide. Through our high-quality education, the University helps students on a journey of discovery to realise their potential and join our global network of over 200,000 alumni. www.southampton.ac.uk

www.southampton.ac.uk/news/contact-press-team.page

Follow us on X: https://twitter.com/UoSMedi

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JOURNAL

Nature Communications

DOI

10.1038/s41467-023-44335-3 

ARTICLE TITLE

Microbiome homeostasis on rice leaves is regulated by a precursor molecule of lignin biosynthesis

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

2-Jan-2024