How human activity has shaped Brazil Nut forests’ past and future

Genomic analyses reveal the vital role of human activity in the Amazonian species’ genetic makeup.

Peer-Reviewed Publication

Max Planck Institute of Geoanthropology

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An example of a Brazil nut tree in the Amazon Basin

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Credit: © Max Planck Institute of Geoanthropology/ Victor Caetano-Andrade

The significant decline in genetic diversity in the Amazon Basin, following historical events such as European colonisation, deforestation and the extinction of megafauna such as the sloth – the main seed dispersal agents, is of particular concern for the genetic health of Brazil Nut trees (Bertholletia excelsa). As one of the most impacted keystone species in rainforests, Brazil Nut trees are essential for biodiversity and a vital income source for local economies.

A crucial study led by researchers from the Max Planck Institute of Geoanthropology and the Max Planck Institute for Biology Tübingen unveils critical insights into the species' genetic diversity and population dynamics, providing valuable anthropocentric and biological information for this threatened forest ecosystem.

“This research provides an amazing opportunity to study see how human actions, even in the distant past, have affected genetic makeup in a wild species over short time scales,” stated Detlef Weigel, Director of the Department of Molecular Biology at the Max Planck Institute for Biology Tübingen.

Genomic analyses reveal the importance of Indigenous management practices

Using advanced genomic techniques, the researchers comprehensively analysed total sequence variants of 270 Brazil Nut tree samples with known archaeological evidence at different locations to reveal insights into genetic structure and gene flow. The study provides detailed genomic data, including identifying over 126,000 genetic variants in Brazil Nut, providing valuable insights into the genetic health and adaptability of the species in the face of environmental changes.

The findings indicate that while the genetic diversity of Brazil Nut has drastically declined compared to other species over the last 20,000 years, while areas with a history of Indigenous management show more complex genetic backgrounds. This study reveals the connection between the plants and Indigenous land stewardship. In particular, younger trees in the protected Tefé National Forest (TEF), estimated to be under 200 years old, exhibit complex genetic backgrounds compared to other studied groups, likely due to natural disturbances and local communities’ management. This genetic diversity is crucial for the species’ resilience and adaptability in the face of environmental changes. Traditional ecological practices may promote the species’ genetic diversity and health, providing a model for sustainable management.

Victor Caetano-Andrade, Postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Coevolution of Land Use and Urbanisation at the Max Planck Institute of Geoanthropology, explains, “We aimed to bridge gaps in our understanding of the long-term anthropogenic influences on forest ecosystems. Our findings demonstrate how Indigenous land management practices play a significant role in maintaining the genetic diversity of Brazil nut populations.”

Promoting collaboration between scientists and local Indigenous land stewards and their historical ecological knowledge has the potential to create more effective and inclusive conservation policies.

Looking ahead, the researchers plan to expand their studies to include more regions and additional species within the Amazon rainforest. The goal is to develop comprehensive conservation frameworks that protect Brazil Nut trees and enhance the ecosystem's resilience.

Sale of Brazil nuts at a local market

Opened Brazil nut

Credit

© Max Planck Institute of Geoanthropology/ Victor Caetano-Andrade

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Journal

Current Biology

DOI

10.1016/j.cub.2024.12.023 

Article Title

Long-term human influence on the demography and genetic diversity of the hyperdominant Bertholletia excelsa in the Amazon Basin

Article Publication Date

24-Jan-2025

 

New study unveils career impact of attractiveness: Higher salaries and prestigious roles over time

Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences

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New INFORMS Information Systems Research Study Key Takeaways:

• Over 15 years, attractive MBA graduates earn a 2.4% “beauty premium,” equating to an annual salary increase of $2,508 on average, rising to $5,528 for the top 10% most attractive individuals.
• Attractive individuals are 52.4% more likely to hold prestigious job positions 15 years post-graduation, underscoring the long-term influence of appearance on career success.
• The beauty premium is most pronounced in socially interactive fields such as management and consulting, whereas its impact is significantly smaller in technical sectors such as IT and engineering.

BALTIMORE, MD, January 23, 2025 – A new study published in the INFORMS journal Information Systems Research reveals a striking link between physical attractiveness and career success. According to the findings, attractive MBA graduates not only earn higher salaries but are also significantly more likely to secure prestigious job roles, highlighting how appearance influences professional trajectories over decades.

Researchers found that attractive MBA graduates enjoy a 2.4% “beauty premium” over 15 years, earning an average of $2,508 more annually than their less-attractive peers. For the top 10% most attractive individuals, this premium increases to $5,528 per year, amounting to tens of thousands of dollars in cumulative career earnings. For context, the gender wage gap within the same group of MBA graduates is approximately $10,000.

The study, “When Does Beauty Pay? A Large-Scale Image-Based Appearance Analysis on Career Transitions,” also highlights how these advantages amplify over time. Attractive individuals are 52.4% more likely to hold prestigious job positions 15 years post-graduation, demonstrating that the impact of appearance extends far beyond the early career stages. However, the benefits of attractiveness vary significantly by industry. Fields that require frequent social interaction, such as management and consulting, showed the highest beauty premiums, with attractiveness perceived as an advantage. In contrast, technical fields such as IT and engineering displayed significantly smaller rewards for attractiveness.

“This study shows how appearance shapes not just the start of a career, but its trajectory over decades,” says Nikhil Malik, the study’s lead author and professor from the University of Southern California. “These findings reveal a persistent and compounding effect of beauty in professional settings.”

To arrive at these findings, the researchers analyzed data from more than 43,000 MBA graduates, leveraging advanced artificial intelligence and machine learning tools to track how attractiveness and career success evolved over a 15-year period. This large-scale study provides one of the most comprehensive examinations into the long-term impact of appearance on career outcomes and emphasizes the need for organizations to recognize and address biases in hiring and promotions.

“This research underscores how biases tied to physical appearance persist in shaping career outcomes, even for highly educated professionals,” says Param Vir Singh, co-author and professor at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU).

“It’s a stark reminder that success is influenced not just by skills and qualifications but also by societal perceptions of beauty,” concludes Kannan Srinivasan a co-author also from CMU.

 

Link to full study.

About INFORMS and Information Systems Research
INFORMS is the world’s largest association for professionals and students in operations research, AI, analytics, data science and related disciplines, serving as a global authority in advancing cutting-edge practices and fostering an interdisciplinary community of innovation. Information Systems Research, an INFORMS journal, focuses on the utilization of information technology to enhance organizational efficiency. INFORMS helps its members advance research and practice through cutting-edge journals, conferences and resources. Learn more at www.informs.org or @informs.

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Journal

Information Systems Research

Method of Research

Observational study

Subject of Research

People

Article Title

When Does Beauty Pay? A Large-Scale Image-Based Appearance Analysis on Career Transitions

 

Study points to South America – not Mexico – as birthplace of Irish potato famine pathogen

North Carolina State University

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A plant in Ireland with late blight disease. 

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Credit: Photo courtesy of Jean Ristaino, NC State University.

Call it a mystery solved.

North Carolina State University researchers firmly point the finger at the South American Andes Mountains as the place where the Irish potato famine pathogen, Phtytophthora infestans, originated. 

In a wide-ranging study of the genetic material found in P. infestans and other members of the Phytophthora species, the NC State researchers provide more evidence that P. infestans spread from South America to North America before wreaking havoc in Ireland in the 1840s. The pathogen still causes late-blight disease on potato and tomato plants around the world.

Much of the study’s evidence compares whole genomes of P. infestans with those of close relative pathogens – Phytophthora andina and Phytophthora betacei – which are only found in South America. The results show that these three species are very similar.

“It's one of the largest whole-genome studies of not only P. infestans, but also the sister lineages,” said Jean Ristaino, William Neal Reynolds Distinguished Professor of Plant Pathology at North Carolina State University and corresponding author of a paper in PLOS One that describes the study. “By sequencing these genomes and accounting for evolutionary relationships and migration patterns, we show that the whole Andean region is a hot spot for speciation, or where a species splits into two or more distinct species.”

In recent decades, scientists have been split in their theories about the point of origin for P. infestans, with some hypothesizing a Mexico origin rather than a South American origin. Yet, the paper shows distinct differences between P. infestans and the two Mexican pathogen species, P. mirabilis and P. ipomoea.

“A lot of the search for resistance to this disease has focused on a wild potato species in Mexico – Solanum demissum – which was used to breed resistant potato lines that were used for the past 100 years,” Ristaino said. 

“It points out the importance of looking at the center of origin where a host and pathogen have evolved together over thousands of years,” she said. “Climate change is bringing more drought to higher Andean elevations, so we could be losing some of these potatoes before we learn if they could provide resistance to late-blight disease.” Ristaino added that more research is needed to examine wild potato species from the Andes to learn more about host resistance to P. infestans. 

“Our data show that there have been more migrations of the pathogen into and out of South America, and the migrations into and out of Mexico are small in comparison,” said Allison Coomber, a former NC State graduate student researcher and lead author of the paper. “We did find there was gene flow from the Andes to Mexico, and also in reverse, because there's a big Mexican potato breeding program and potatoes have gone into the Andean region in more recent times. But in historic times it was the other way around.”

“Historic P. infestans – the samples collected from 1845-1889 – were the first to diverge from all other P. infestans populations, with modern South American and Mexican populations both showing shared ancestry derived from historic P. infestans,” Ristaino said. “Modern global trade appears to contribute to mixing together the pathogen populations in South America and Mexico.”

Amanda C. Saville, a research and laboratory specialist in Ristaino’s lab, and Ignazio Carbone, a professor of plant pathology at NC State, also co-authored the paper, along with Michael Martin and Vanessa Bieker from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology. Funding was provided by a National Science Foundation National Research Training Grant (award number 1828820), and by two USDA APHIS Plant Protection Act 7721 grants: AP21PPQ&ST000020 and AP21PPQ&ST000062.

- kulikowski -

Note to editors: The abstract of the paper follows.

“A pangenome analysis reveals the center of origin and evolutionary history of Phytophthora infestans and 1c clade species”

Authors: Allison Coomber, Amanda Saville, Ignazio Carbone and Jean B Ristaino, NC State University; Michael Martin and Vanessa C. Bieker, Norwegian University of Science and Technology

Published: Jan. 24, 2025 in PLOS One

DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0314509

Abstract: We examined the evolutionary history of Phytophthora infestans and its close relatives in the 1c clade. We used whole genome sequence data from 69 isolates of Phytophthora species in the 1c clade and conducted a range of genomic analyses including nucleotide diversity evaluation, maximum likelihood trees, network assessment, time to most recent common ancestor and migration analysis. We consistently identified distinct and later divergence of the two Mexican Phytophthora species, P. mirabilis and P. ipomoeae, from P. infestans and other 1c clade species. Phytophthora infestans exhibited more recent divergence from other 1c clade species of Phytophthora from South America, P. andina and P. betacei. Speciation in the 1c clade and evolution of P. infestans occurred in the Andes. P. andina – P. betacei – P. infestans formed a species complex with indistinct species boundaries, hybridizations between the species, and short times to common ancestry. Furthermore, the distinction between modern Mexican and South American P. infestans proved less discrete, suggesting gene flow between populations over time. Admixture analysis indicated a complex relationship among these populations, hinting at potential gene flow across these regions. Historic P. infestans, collected from 1845-1889, were the first to diverge from all other P. infestans populations. Modern South American populations diverged next followed by Mexican populations which showed later ancestry. Both populations were derived from historic P. infestans. Based on the time of divergence of P. infestans from its closest relatives, P. andina and P. betacei in the Andean region, we consider the Andes to be the center of origin of P. infestans, with modern globalization contributing to admixture between P. infestans populations today from Mexico, the Andes and Europe.

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Journal

PLOS One

DOI

10.1371/journal.pone.0314509 

Method of Research

Meta-analysis

Subject of Research

Cells

Article Title

A pangenome analysis reveals the center of origin and evolutionary history of Phytophthora infestans and 1c clade species

Article Publication Date

24-Jan-2025

 

Evolution without sex: How mites have survived for millions of years

University of Cologne

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The asexual oribatid mite Platynothrus peltifer reproduces parthenogenetically: Mothers produce daughters from unfertilized eggs, resulting in a population consisting entirely of females.

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Credit: Dr Mark Maraun und Dr Katja Wehner

In collaboration with colleagues from international partner institutions, researchers at the University of Cologne have investigated the asexual reproduction of oribatid mites using genome sequencing techniques. They show that the key to evolution without sex in oribatid mites may lie in the independent evolution of their two chromosome copies – a phenomenon known as the ‘Meselson effect’. The research team identified various mechanisms that may contribute to the genetic diversity of the chromosome sets, potentially enabling the long-term persistence of the mite.

Like humans, oribatid mites possess two sets of chromosomes. However, the asexual oribatid mite Platynothrus peltifer reproduces parthenogenetically: Mothers produce daughters from unfertilized eggs, resulting in a population consisting entirely of females. Using single-individual sequencing, the researchers analysed the accumulated differences between the chromosome copies for the first time and evaluated their significance for the mite’s survival. The study titled ‘Chromosome-scale genome dynamics reveal signatures of independent haplotype evolution in the ancient asexual mite Platynothrus peltifer’, funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG), was published in Science Advances.

Sex is the driving force of evolution: It promotes genetic diversity and helps organisms to adapt more quickly to changing environmental conditions. Without sex, however, organisms risk genetic stagnation and extinction – at least according to prevailing evolutionary theory. Yet, the oribatid mite Platynothrus peltifer challenges this paradigm: It has existed for over 20 million years – entirely without sex. The asexual oribatid mites produce their female offspring from unfertilized eggs without males. Males are absent or extremely rare and do not contribute to the gene pool. Depending on the mechanism restoring the diploid set of chromosomes, offspring can inherit either all or some of the mother’s gene variants (alleles). They can therefore be ‘full clones’ of the mother.

In the oribatid mite, the two copies of the chromosome sets evolve independently of each other, allowing new genetic variants to emerge while also retaining important information. The team observed notable differences in gene expression – in other words, which copies of the genes are active and to what extent. These differences enable rapid responses to environmental changes and provide a selective advantage.

Another mechanism contributing to genetic diversity is horizontal gene transfer (HGT), i.e. the movement of genetic material outside of the confined barriers of sexual reproduction. “Horizontal gene transfer can be thought of as adding new tools to an existing toolbox. Some of these genes seem to help the mite to digest cell walls, thus expanding its food spectrum,” explained the study’s first author, Dr Hüsna Öztoprak from the University of Cologne’s Institute of Zoology.

Additionally, transposable elements (TE) or ‘jumping genes’, play an important role. TEs move within the genome like chapters in a book that are rearranged to change the course of the plot. The fact that the activity of these TEs differs between the two chromosome copies is particularly exciting. While they are active on one copy and thus can cause dynamic changes, they tend to remain rather inactive on the other.

The study provides new insights into the survival strategies of asexual organisms. Asexual evolution is supported by various sources of genetic diversity, to which the research team draws attention in the study. “In future research projects, we would like to find out whether there are additional mechanisms that might be important for evolution without sex,” said Dr Jens Bast, Emmy Noether group leader at the University of Cologne.

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Journal

Science Advances

DOI

10.1126/sciadv.adn0817 

Method of Research

Observational study

Subject of Research

Animals

Article Title

Chromosome-scale genome dynamics reveal signatures of independent haplotype evolution in the ancient asexual mite Platynothrus peltifer’

Article Publication Date

24-Jan-2025

 

What to do with aging solar panels?

Texas A&M University

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The National Science Foundation Convergence Accelerator Program has granted $5 million dollars to Phase 2 of the project “Securing critical material supply chains by enabling phOtovoltaic circuLARity (SOLAR).” 

SOLAR’s goal is to proactively ensure circularity of solar panels by providing solutions to barriers throughout the end-to-end supply chain. The intent is to make solar panels recyclable and find a solution to remanufacturing them at a competitive cost. Achieving this will help promote a clean and resilient energy system in the United States.

The three-year project is led by Battelle Memorial Institute with partner organizations including Texas A&M University’s Energy Institute. The interdisciplinary team provides the expertise needed to address muti-faceted issues related to solar manufacturing supply chain resilience. 

Texas A&M’s participation will be led by Texas A&M Energy Institute’s associate director of Supply Chain Resilience and Sustainability and the Harvey Hubbell Professor of Industrial Distribution, Dr. Eleftherios Iakovou, with the director of the Texas A&M Energy Institute and distinguished professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering, Dr. Stratos Pistikopoulos.

The Energy Institute’s role in SOLAR is focused on advancing reverse logistics models and next-generation data-driven supply chains specifically for recycling solar panels and reusing their critical materials, such as silicon and silver. 

“We are enhancing the competitiveness of the U.S. solar manufacturing supply chain by retrieving rare earth minerals from solar panels that are decommissioned, either because they break or have reached end of life,” Iakovou said. “These precious rare earth minerals have the potential to be used in other critical and increasingly reshored supply chains, developing a circular economy for solar panels, while further enhancing the overall resilience and sustainability of the nation’s energy and manufacturing supply chains within the new geopolitical landscape.”

According to Pistikopoulos, transitioning the solar industry towards a circular economy by establishing sustainable recycling pathways for solar panels involves three core areas: sorting, upcycling, and logistics. 

• Sorting focuses on creating field guides, developing workforce skills and deploying sensors for panel damage detection. 
• Upcycling is the recovery and purification of critical materials such as silicon. 
• Logistics is the component responsible for creating user-friendly modeling tools to streamline supply chain management for recyclable materials. 

Together, these three core areas form a comprehensive approach to address the complex challenges in the solar panel ecosystem. 

“Our contribution emphasizes the development of reverse supply chain logistics and decision-making frameworks, facilitating a more sustainable end-of-life management,” Pistikopoulos said. “By addressing complex logistics and recycling challenges, we aim to enable efficient pathways for re-integrating critical materials into the economy.” 

During the next three years, the SOLAR team will conduct yearly evaluations to assess progress. They will also integrate new insights to ensure they build on previous findings from Phase 1 while adapting to technological advances and market conditions.

“The knowledge, tools, and technologies we are developing here will play a crucial role in shaping a future where solar energy can be both renewable and circular, ultimately contributing to a resilient and secure materials supply chain for the U.S.,” Pistikopoulos said. “As solar panel deployment continues to accelerate, establishing a sustainable and economically viable end-of-life management in terms of reducing waste and regaining important materials is essential.” 

By Jennifer Nichols and Raven Wuebker, Texas A&M Engineering

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