CHILDREN OF THE NIGHT

Bat diversity and abundance are highest in old deciduous forest stands on the river banks in Eastern Ukraine

Peer-Reviewed Publication

LEIBNIZ INSTITUTE FOR ZOO AND WILDLIFE RESEARCH (IZW)

 

IMAGE: OLD FORESTS AND RIVERINE HABITATS IN EASTERN UKRAINE view more 

CREDIT: PHOTO BY YEHOR YATSIUK

European forest-dwelling bats require complex woodland structures at both the micro-habitat and the landscape level for successful breeding in summer. Particularly, the results from Kharkiv region (Eastern Ukraine) demonstrate that large stands of mature forests older than 90 years improved the breeding activity of bats, their abundance and overall species richness. Abundance and species richness increased from upland plots surrounded by agricultural lands to riverine or waterside plots with high forest cover. These are the results of a newly published paper in the scientific journal “Forests” by an international team of authors from the Ukrainian Bat Rehabilitation Center (UBRC) and the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research (Leibniz-IZW).

Mature deciduous forests are the most targeted forest type for logging because of the high potential revenues from selling timber on international markets. Biodiversity associated with these forest stands is therefore threatened worldwide. One group of species that is a key conservation target are bats. In their investigation the scientific team around first author Dr Anton Vlaschenko from UBRC and Dr Viktoriia Radchuk from Leibniz-IZW asked how bat diversity is affected by land cover types and the age of forest stands in the Kharkiv region in northeastern Ukraine, in an area on the border between forest-steppe and the steppe zone. The fragmented broadleaved forests typical for this region are common for temperate regions, but the relationships between bat diversity, land cover and forest structure remain largely understudied. Yet, understanding such relationships is of key importance for designing efficient conservation measures.

The results showed that logging intensity in the study region differed between districts and was not related to the amount of mature forests. This allowed the scientists to study how bat assemblages were influenced by the share of clear-cuts and mature forests in the landscape. “The most conspicuous result was a clear increase of bat diversity close to riverine habitats, further enhanced by the presence of mature forests with a mean age more than 90 years”, says co-author Dr Yehor Yatsiuk from the University of Tartu (Estonia). “Although old forests represent 22% of all forests in the Kharkiv region, the combination of mature oak forests and riverine habitats covers much smaller areas, considerably limiting areas suitable for bats.”

First author Anton Vlaschenko, Co-Head of UBRC, says: “The field data used in this study were collected over a long period, in more than ten years of summer field expeditions. It was a continuous effort and hard job. We camped in tents and spent hundreds of sleepless nights near mist-nets. Later on, we also had some challenges when analysing these data. We were close to wrapping up the manuscript at the end of 2021. The collaboration with Leibniz-IZW scientists and, after February 24, 2022, the three-months scholarship for me and our team members offered by Leibniz-IZW meant that we could finish this paper.”

“The first time I participated to the field research studying bats in 2009, as an undergraduate student. The data collected back then contributed to the current paper. Since then, bats have become my big passion and focus group for my current research. By investigating the ecological requirements of such enigmatic animals, we better understand ecological leverages of the natural world”, adds co-author Dr Kseniia Kravchenko from UBRC and Leibniz-IZW. Dr Yehor Yatsiuk continues: “My research is focused on associations between historical distribution of forests and management of animal species in eastern Ukraine. Over recent decades we observed an increase in clear-cutting intensity in this region. Our aim is to ensure protection of forest biodiversity here. Ten years ago, we initiated a series of projects aimed to survey the oldest and the largest forests here with the main focus on several groups of vulnerable species from land snails to birds of prey and bats.”

 “Our study shows that old forests and riverine habitats are beneficial for breeding activity of bats, for abundance of single bat species and for the overall community composition. The fact that we see the same response to landscape structure across levels of ecological organisation underlines the importance of preserving mature oak stands and riverine habitats for conservation of bat diversity in the region. I enjoyed working with Kharkiv bat researchers a lot, their enthusiasm and group spirit inspired me”, adds senior author Dr Viktoriia Radchuk, scientist at the Leibniz-IZW Department of Ecological Dynamics.

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JOURNAL

Forests

DOI

10.3390/f13101732 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Case study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Animals

ARTICLE TITLE

Bat Assemblages Are Shaped by Land Cover Types and Forest Age: A Case Study from Eastern Ukraine

Evolution of bat wings and calls through 'foraging syndromes' allows diversity to flourish

Study shows that echolocation frequency and wing shape of bats evolve in unison, which leads to distinct ‘foraging syndromes’ adapted to different environments

Peer-Reviewed Publication

FRONTIERS

Bats are an evolutionary success story. With approximately 1,400 species living today, they thrive in every environment except the polar regions. They come in a remarkable range of sizes, from the golden-crowned flying fox with a mass of 1.2 kg and a wingspan of 171 cm, to Kitti's hog-nosed ‘bumblebee’ bat with a mass of 2 g and a wingspan of 33 cm. The frequencies that all bats emit during echolocation  are also highly variable, ranging from 11 kHz to 212 kHz. But what has driven the evolution of this extraordinary diversity?

“Here we show with that among bat species, there is a close correspondence between wing shape and the frequency of their echolocation vocalizations. This pattern wasn’t found in earlier studies because it’s hidden among the variation due to family,” said Dr Bo Luo, a researcher at China West Normal University and a corresponding author on the study, which is published in Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution.

“And importantly, both are tightly linked to foraging ecology – the preferred habitat type of a species and how it catches prey there.”

Evolutionary trade-offs

Scientists already knew that different wing shapes are optimal for bats in certain environments: for example, short, round wings are more maneuverable in confined spaces, while long, pointed wings are best for fast flight over long distances. Echolocation also requires trade-offs: calls with long duration or high frequency are more costly to produce, but are more effective at detecting tiny prey among environmental clutter. So how are these competing demands balanced?

Luo and colleagues gathered published data on 152 species of bats in 15 families: each species’ body mass, the duration and peak frequency of its echolocation calls, the body mass divided by the wing area (‘wing loading’) and the wing ‘aspect ratio’ – the square of the wingspan divided by wing area. As a proxy for ecology, they assigned each species to one of five ‘foraging guilds’. For example, edge-space trawling foragers scoop up insects or small fish from water surfaces with their tail membrane and feet, while open-space aerial foragers catch insects on the wing in the open air.

Strong effect of family

The authors found that echolocation peak frequency and wing morphology are strongly dependent on bat family. This means that any other evolutionary patterns are likely to remain hidden, unless the range of families and species in the sample is large. And it’s the large sample of the present study which revealed that after differences between families are taken into account, peak frequency in echolocation and wing shape tend to be positively associated with each other.

Corresponding author Dr Jiang Feng, a professor at Northeast Normal University, said: “Our results show that peak frequency and wing shape are linked: for example, bat species that hunt in open spaces tend to have long, pointed wings, and to produce long echolocation calls of low frequency.”

“In contrast, species that hunt in edge spaces tend to have short, round wings, and to emit short calls of intermediate frequency. And species that forage in narrow spaces tend to have short, round wings and high-frequency calls.”

Distinct foraging syndromes

The authors concluded that echolocation parameters and wing shape haven’t evolved independently from each other. Rather, they both evolved as dictated by each species’ foraging ecology. For each type of habitat, there is a unique optimal evolutionary solution – a foraging syndrome – that matches wing shape and echolocation traits to foraging mode. These syndromes have evolved repeatedly in each family.

“We demonstrate that foraging ecology drives the correlated evolution of wing morphology and echolocation calls in extant bats. This doesn’t necessarily mean that flight and echolocation evolved simultaneously. To answer the question of which came first, we need research that explores similarities in forelimb shape, the auditory system, and associated traits between extant bats and fossils of bat progenitors,” said Luo.

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JOURNAL

Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution

DOI

10.3389/fevo.2022.1031548 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Data/statistical analysis

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Animals

ARTICLE TITLE

Correlated evolution of wing morphology and echolocation calls in bats

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

9-Dec-2022

How livestock systems act as a reservoir for antimicrobial-resistant bacteria

Study highlights the importance of ecosystem-wide surveillance of AMR

Peer-Reviewed Publication

INTERNATIONAL LIVESTOCK RESEARCH INSTITUTE

Scientists from the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), the University of Liverpool, the University of Edinburgh and elsewhere have traced how livestock systems act as a reservoir for antimicrobial-resistant (AMR) bacteria and AMR genetic determinants that may infect or colonize people.  This sheds light on the factors influencing AMR at the intersection of multiple species and the One-Health sector. The study, undertaken in Nairobi, Kenya, appears in this week’s BMC Medicine, and helps detail how to avoid and manage the development of drug resistance in bacteria.

Alexander Fleming, who discovered the world's first antibiotic, penicillin, warned that misusing antibiotics could lead to AMR.  He showed that bacteria, viruses, fungi and parasites evolve when exposed to antibiotic drugs and eventually no longer respond to those medicines. As a result of drug resistance, antibiotics and other antimicrobial medicines become ineffective and infections become increasingly difficult or impossible to treat.

Today AMR can be found worldwide and is a serious problem. It has been estimated that unless the issue is tackled now, by 2050 one person will die every three seconds because of AMR.

‘High-income countries can apply resources and large investments against AMR in ways which low-income countries can't’ explained study lead scientist Dishon Muloi, a Research Fellow at the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) and former PhD student at the University of Edinburgh. ‘But AMR isn't just a high-income problem or a low-income country problem. With the ease at which it can spread around the world, it's everybody's problem. So resistance in a community in Nairobi could actually mean clinical failures in a clinic in Hong Kong in two days or three days. We are not yet treating the problem with the urgency it needs, considering our connected world.’

One path by which AMR is hypothesized to develop is through the large amount of antibiotics used in the livestock industry, where bacteria develop resistance and then spread to people. Quantifiable information addressing this has thus far been insufficient. Today’s study used genomics, epidemiology, and ecology to look into the patterns of AMR gene carriage in an exemplar organism, E. coli.

As part of a controlled epidemiological assessment of 99 households in Nairobi, Kenya, scientists sequenced the whole genomes of bacteria isolated from 311 human, 606 cattle, and 399 wildlife excrement samples. Using statistical models, they looked at the prevalence of AMR carriage and described the diversity and structure of the AMR genes in distinct host populations around the city. They also investigated conditions that could lead to the spread of AMR genes from humans to sympatric animals at the household level.

In animal and human isolates, the team found 13-point mutations and 56 acquired genes that are known to confer resistance to nine different antibiotic classes. They discovered that the makeup of the AMR gene community is not related to the host species, but that AMR genes were frequently co-located, possibly on plasmids, suggesting that multi-drug resistance could be acquired and spread in a single step. The risk for AMR transmission across human-livestock interfaces is greatest when manure is improperly disposed of, and in larger households.

Two policy implications flow from the study. The first is to highlight the importance of ecosystem-wide surveillance of AMR. ‘Doctors should not just be thinking about the rise of AMR in humans, but in livestock and the broader environment, because what we’re seeing is that wildlife collect and move around with what they acquire from the environment’, said Muloi. The study’s findings of widespread carriage of clinically relevant AMR mechanisms in human and animal populations, especially in wildlife that move long-distances, underline the importance of evidence-based surveillance to combat antimicrobial resistance on a worldwide scale.

‘This study shows how easily antimicrobial resistance genes move between humans and livestock in a crowded urban environment, underlining that if we are to beat the resistance problem we will need a coordinated response across the medical and veterinary sectors’ says Mark Woolhouse, professor and Chair of Infectious Disease Epidemiology, University of Edinburgh.

Second is the issue of manure disposal, which may seem mundane, but is essential. ‘If you drive around Nairobi, you see heaps of manure by the road’, said Muloi. ‘We haven’t traditionally thought of manure as a problem and even if we look at our policies, which are similar to those in many other countries, manure is not seen as a risk. But it’s clear we need to do a much better job of cleaning up the environment, for the sake of good public health.

The study is part of an overall project called the Urban Zoo, or more formally known as the “Epidemiology, ecology and socio-economics of disease emergence in Nairobi.” It is funded by the Medical Research Council (UK)-coordinated programme on the Environmental and Social Ecology of Human Infectious Diseases, itself funded through the UK Government’s Living With Environmental Change Initiative. The objective, says study lead Eric Fèvre, professor of veterinary infectious diseases, Institute of Infection, Veterinary and Ecological Sciences, University of Liverpool and jointly appointed principal scientist, ILRI, is to understand the mechanisms leading to the introduction and spread of pathogens into urban populations. “Here, we see that we need to take a holistic approach, which includes humans, animals, their waste and the shared environment” says Fèvre.

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JOURNAL

BMC Medicine

DOI

10.5061/dryad.qnk98sfkf 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Randomized controlled/clinical trial

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

Genomic epidemiology of Escherichia coli: antimicrobial resistance through a One Health lens in sympatric humans, livestock and peri-domestic wildlife in Nairobi, Kenya

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

8-Dec-2022

First-ever social responsibility report of Chinese enterprises in Saudi Arabia incorporates BGI Genomics projects

Chinese gene test company BGI Genomics fulfils corporate social responsibilities while advancing the Kingdom’s industry development

Reports and Proceedings

BGI GENOMICS

 

IMAGE: BGI GENOMICS’ CSR CONTRIBUTIONS IN SAUDI ARABIA BEING INTRODUCED view more 

CREDIT: BGI GENOMICS

On December 1, 2022, the Social Responsibility Report of Chinese Companies in Saudi Arabia was officially launched, which is the first such report released by the Contact Office of Chinese Companies in Saudi Arabia. BGI Genomics projects in the Kingdom have been incorporated into this report.

This event was attended by around 150 representatives of Chinese and Saudi enterprises, Saudi government officials, experts in the field of sustainable development, CCTV, Xinhua News Agency, Saudi Press Agency, Arab News and other media professionals. This Report presents the key projects and best practices of Chinese enterprises to fulfil their social and environmental responsibilities while advancing the Kingdom's industry development.

Chen Weiqing, the Chinese ambassador to Saudi Arabia, said in his video speech that the Report highlighted Chinese enterprises' best practices in serving the local community, safe production, green and low-carbon development and promoting local employment. The release of the Report helps Chinese enterprises in the Kingdom to strengthen communication with the local community, laying a stronger foundation for future collaboration.

Epidemic control and accelerating post-COVID 19 recovery

BGI Genomics has been fulfilling its corporate social responsibilities and worked with the Saudi people to fight the COVID-19 epidemic.

In March 2020, Saudi Arabia was hit by the pandemic. The Saudi government decided to adopt BGI Genomics' Huo-Yan laboratory solution in April 2020. At the forefront of the fight against the epidemic, the company has built six laboratories in Riyadh, Makkah, Madinah, Dammam and Asir within two months, with a total area of nearly 5,000 square meters and a maximum daily testing throughput of 50,000 samples.

By the end of December 2021, BGI Genomics had sent 14 groups of experts, engineers and laboratory technicians to Saudi Arabia, amounting to over 700 people, and tested more than 16 million virus samples, accounting for more than half of the tests conducted during this period. The company has successfully trained over 400 qualified Saudi technicians, and all laboratories have been transferred to local authorities for the operation.

In the post-epidemic era, the Huo-Yan laboratories can continue to make positive contributions to public health, working with local medical institutions and the public health system to make breakthroughs in areas such as reproductive health, tumour prevention and control, and prevention.

Enhancing genomic technology localization and testing capabilities

In July 2022, BGI Almanahil and Tibbiyah Holdings, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Saudi Faisaliah Group, announced a joint venture (JV) to establish an integrated, trans-omics medical testing company specializing in genetic testing.

This JV company will help improve Saudi Arabia's local clinical and public health testing and manufacturing capabilities, promote the localization of strategic products that have long been imported, contribute to the implementation and realization of the Kingdom's Vision 2030 roadmap, and significantly enhance local capacity for third-party medical testing services as well as local production of critical medical supplies.

BGI Genomics attaches great importance to fulfilling its corporate social responsibility and has released its social responsibility report for four consecutive years since 2017. Since its establishment, the company has always been guided by the goal of enhancing health outcomes for all, relying on its autonomous multi-omics platform to accelerate technological innovation, promote reproductive health, strengthen tumour prevention and control, and accurately cure infections, and is committed to becoming a global leader in precision medicine and covering the entire public health industry chain.

The company will continue to work together with all stakeholders to contribute to the Kingdom's Vision 2030 and the Belt and Road Initiative and looks forward to growing with our partners.

  

Chen Weiqing, the Chinese ambassador to Saudi Arabia, makes a video speech at this event

CEO of Al Faisaliah Group Mr. Ziad Al Tunisi (left) and Tibbiyah’s CEO Mr. Alaa Ahmed Amee (right) attending the JV signing ceremony

CREDIT

BGI Genomics

About BGI Genomics

BGI Genomics, headquartered in Shenzhen China, is the world’s leading integrated solutions provider of precision medicine. Our services cover over 100 countries and regions, involving more than 2,300 medical institutions. In July 2017, as a subsidiary of BGI Group, BGI Genomics (300676.SZ) was officially listed on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange.

Bending the curve of biodiversity: Research-based policy brief available at COP15

On the occasion of the 15th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity, the EU project SHOWCASE issued its first policy brief providing research-based policy recommendations

Meeting Announcement

PENSOFT PUBLISHERS

 

IMAGE: SHOWCASE POLICY BRIEF: KEY MESSAGES view more 

CREDIT: SHOWCASE PROJECT

SHOWCASE’s first policy brief will be distributed at a side event of the 15th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (COP15). The side event – titled “Pollinator protection: strengthening policies, knowledge exchange and engagement” – will take place on 10 December, Saturday, and will discuss a number of topics, among which agricultural biodiversity.

With mounting evidence of the negative impacts of modern agriculture on biodiversity, an increasing number of countries are taking steps to induce farmers to enhance biodiversity on their lands. However, recent studies conducted by participants of the H2020 research project SHOWCASE indicate that “the costs of managing for more biodiversity on farms are generally higher than the ecosystem service benefits this provides to farmers.”

In an attempt to improve the status quo, SHOWCASE issued its first policy brief providing policymakers with concrete research-based recommendations on how “Bending the curve of biodiversity loss requires rewarding farmers economically for conservation management”. Created under the leadership of project coordinator Prof. David Kleijn with the valuable input of several SHOWCASE partners, the policy brief identifies five specific actions policymakers can take to trigger an uptake of nature-positive farming systems that reinforce biodiversity. For example, to support agricultural products issued from biodiversity-enhancing farming systems with subsidies going beyond compensating the loss of income.

“Currently, world trade regulations force farmers to produce at the lowest costs. Society should acknowledge that we cannot expect farmers to manage their land in a more biodiversity-friendly way if they bear most of the costs but society reaps most of the benefits such as more wildlife, clean water and reduced greenhouse gas emissions. If we want to change the way they farm, we should make it economically interesting for them.”

– Prof. David Kleijn, coordinator of the SHOWCASE project 

Read the full policy brief here.

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This project receives funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 862480.

Views and opinions expressed are those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Commission. Neither the EU nor the EC can be held responsible for them.

Uncanny valley for interactive social agents: an experimental study

Peer-Reviewed Publication

BEIJING ZHONGKE JOURNAL PUBLISING CO. LTD.

 

IMAGE: THE FIGURE SHOWS THESE HUMAN-LIKE AGENTS/ENTITIES. ALL ROBOTS SHARE THE SAME ARCHITECTURE. view more 

CREDIT: BEIJING ZHONGKE JOURNAL PUBLISING CO. LTD.

In this study, we evaluate the uncanny valley theory through live human interactions with four human-like entities:

1. Maya: simple voice assistant (only a human voice).

2. : child-sized programmable humanoid robot with articulated limbs but without skin or hair.

3. Nicole: virtual human with a complete virtual human-like embodiment.

4. Nadine: complete life-sized humanoid robot with skin, articulated hands, and other human-like features.

Our study intends to answer the following research questions.

· Uncanny valley for Interactive Humanoid Robots: Exploring this theory to provide an in-depth look into how people's emotions and perceptions vary for different types of human-like interactive robots. Examining how the Uncanny valley affects the current human generation, which is more accustomed to advanced technologies and may be more open to human-like entities.

·Using AI for Uncanny valley quantification: Quantifying the emotional responses of participants using surveys and multimodal emotion and sentiment analyses (using visual, audio, and text).

The results show that all four robots were perceived in various manners and that the emotions expressed varied in their regard. Nadinewas chosen as the “favorite” robot. The only characteristic that she failed to top was likeability, where she tied with Nao. Furthermore, Maya was seen as the least anthropomorphic and animate, which is predictable given that she is only a voice assistant. Nao and Nicole scored the same on anthropomorphism and animacy. However, Nao was significantly more likeable, which indicated that a physical body may elicit a higher degree of likeability. Nadine, the most humanoid robot, was seen as the most likable robot, with similar findings obtained through the sentiment and facial expression analyses. Nao, the humanoid-but-toyish robot, was also seen as likable and provoked the highest positive surprise. However, it incurred high disgust, as determined through the analyses of audio data, without evoking many emotions. However, while being the most likable, Nadine generated the most sadness and was the second most feared. This fear is possibly indicative of the “uncanny valley” effect. Nonetheless, with the “uncanny valley,” eeriness would be expected to increase with the increasing degree of anthropomorphism, which was not the case. The highest fear was expressed towards Maya, the voice assistant without visual characteristics. Furthermore, owing to the human-like appearance of Nadine, most participants were tentative and fearful as they wanted to impress her. This fear can be considered good, as it indicates that people want to connect with her. Extending our multimodal analysis to other cues such as pose estimation, body language cues could be considered for detecting the evidence of an “uncanny valley”. While Nao had a toy-like, childish appeal, Nadine had a human-resembling body, which was clearly sufficient for increasing her likability compared to a bodyless or virtual agent. However, all robots were wellliked. The lowest-ranked robot scored above 60/100, which indicated that no “uncanny valley” effect was determined in this study. Furthermore, the lack of a correlation between being more anthropomorphic and less likeable and provoking more negative emotions provides evidence against the hypothesis. Compared to previous research, the robots used in this investigation might not have provoked the uncanny valley effect, as they have been carefully and coherently designed and constructed.

The results showed that the robots incited different emotions, but the most anthropomorphic robots were the most liked. Furthermore, all robots were well-liked, and there was no correlation between the anthropomorphism of the robots and the negative emotions they provoked. Therefore, this study, like previous studies, did not observe or substantiate the uncanny valley hypothesis. This could be because of the characteristics of these specific robots or the specifics of today's world in which both humanoid and nonhumanoid robots are becoming increasingly prevalent and people are accustomed to them. Regardless, the future design of interactive robots should be open to creating anthropomorphic robots, while ensuring a coherent design.

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JOURNAL

Virtual Reality & Intelligent Hardware

DOI

10.1016/j.vrih.2022.08.003 

ARTICLE TITLE

Uncanny valley for interactive social agents: An experimental study

Symbiotic CO2 sequestration

Bioengineered microbial community working together to store carbon

Peer-Reviewed Publication

WILEY

Photosynthesis is a valuable natural system for sequestering carbon dioxide. However, simply forming biomass does not fully exploit this system. A Chinese team of researchers, whose study is published in the journal Angewandte Chemie, has now genetically engineered a microbial community which could serve as a living carbon sink. In this community, carbon dioxide is first converted into sugar by photosynthesis, then the sugar is converted into useful chemicals.

Various bacterial strains are used in biotechnology to produce specific chemicals. For example, some genetically modified strains produce lactic acid, which in turn is used to produce the biodegradable plastic, polylactic acid (PLA). Other strains are used to enrich precursors for biofuels or pharmaceuticals. However, because the bacteria require energy and nutrients, bacterial production of chemicals is often inefficient.

In contrast, phototrophic organisms naturally produce sugar from carbon dioxide, water, and sunlight. In a symbiotic community, therefore, chemical-producing bacteria could theoretically use this sugar as food, thus making them a potential carbon sink and simultaneously producing useful chemicals. However, many photoautotrophic organisms produce sucrose as their stored sugar, the exact sugar which bioengineered bacteria struggle to consume and utilize.

With this in mind, the research group of Jun Ni at Shanghai Jiao Tong University in Shanghai (China) carried out a systematic search for candidate bacterial strains that could be bioengineered but which could also grow naturally on sucrose. They found what they were looking for in a marine bacterium known as Vibrio natriegens: “Luckily, V. natriegens naturally harbors the complete sucrose transport and metabolism pathway,” reveal the authors. In addition, V. natriegens can be genetically manipulated and tolerates salt stress. This is important because salt stimulates photosynthetic cyanobacteria to produce sucrose, thereby creating mutually reinforcing processes.

The research team then used this knowledge to produce an integrated modular system for CO2 sequestration from V. natriegens and the known cyanobacterium Synechococcus elongatus. They improved sugar production in the cyanobacteria using genetic engineering, as well as adding genes to V. natriegens, which increased sugar uptake and conversion into chemicals. In an unexpectedly efficient process, the team observed that the cyanobacteria may package up the nutrients in vesicles which were then excreted. The marine bacteria were then readily able to ingest these vesicles.

The team produced four variants of V. natriegens in order to produce either lactic acid, butanediol for biofuel synthesis, or coumarin and melanin as precursors for chemicals and pharmaceuticals. The bacteria, in symbiosis with the cyanobacteria, produced the chemicals with a negative carbon balance. “This system could absorb more than 20 tons of carbon dioxide per ton of product,” the team report. The authors consider their results to be proof that symbiotic microbial communities can be used as effective carbon sinks.

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About the Author

Jun Ni is a Professor at the State Key Laboratory of Microbial Metabolism, School of Life Sciences & Biotechnology, and Zhangjiang Institute for Advanced Study, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China. His group’s research interests focus on light-driven synthetic biology, carbon-negative biomanufacturing, biocatalysis, and synthetic microbial community.

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JOURNAL

Angewandte Chemie International Edition

DOI

10.1002/anie.202215013 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Experimental study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Cells

ARTICLE TITLE

A Highly Compatible Phototrophic Community for Carbon-Negative Biosynthesis

21ST CENTURY ALCHEMY

Recycled gold from SIM cards could help make drugs more sustainable

Peer-Reviewed Publication

IMPERIAL COLLEGE LONDON

 

IMAGE: SIM CARDS AND THE ELEMENTS THAT CAN BE EXTRACTED view more 

CREDIT: JAMES WILTON-ELY

Researchers have used gold extracted from electronic waste as catalysts for reactions that could be applied to making medicines.

Re-using gold from electronic waste prevents it from being lost to landfill, and using this reclaimed gold for drug manufacture reduces the need to mine new materials. Current catalysts are often made of rare metals, which are extracted using expensive, energy-intensive and damaging mining processes.

The method for extracting gold was developed by researchers at the University of Cagliari in Italy and the process for using the recovered gold was developed by researchers at Imperial College London. The study is published in ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering.

Waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) is typically sent to landfill, as separating and extracting the components requires a lot of energy and harsh chemicals, undermining its economic viability. However, WEEE contains a wealth of metals that could be used in a range of new products.

Finding ways to recover and use these metals in a low-cost, low-energy and non-toxic way is therefore crucial for making our use of electronic goods more sustainable.

Lead researcher Professor James Wilton-Ely, from the Department of Chemistry at Imperial, said: “It is shocking that most of our electronic waste goes to landfill and this is the opposite of what we should be doing to curate our precious elemental resources. Our approach aims to reduce the waste already within our communities and make it a valuable resource for new catalysts, thereby also reducing our dependence on environmentally damaging mining practices.”

“We are currently paying to get rid of electronic waste, but processes like ours can help reframe this ‘waste’ as a resource. Even SIM cards, which we routinely discard, have a value and can be used to reduce reliance on mining and this approach has the potential to improve the sustainability of processes such as drug manufacture.”

Professors Angela Serpe and Paola Deplano, from the University of Cagliari, developed a low-cost way to extract gold and other valued metals from electronic waste such as printed circuit boards (PCBs), SIM cards and printer cartridges under mild conditions. This patented process involves selective steps for the sustainable leaching and recovery of base metals like nickel, then copper, silver and, finally, gold, using green and safe reagents.

However, the gold produced from this process is part of a molecular compound and so cannot be re-used again for electronics without investing a lot more energy to obtain the gold metal. Seeking a use for this compound of recovered gold, the team of Professor Wilton-Ely and his colleague, Professor Chris Braddock, investigated whether it could be applied as a catalyst in the manufacture of useful compounds, including pharmaceutical intermediates.

Catalysts are used to increase the rate of a chemical reaction while remaining unchanged and are used in most processes to produce materials. The team tested the gold compound in a number of reactions commonly used in pharmaceutical manufacture, for example for making anti-inflammatory and pain-relief drugs.

The steps involved in recovering gold from SIM cards

They found that the gold compound performed as well, or better, than the currently used catalysts, and is also reusable, further improving its sustainability.

The researchers suggest that making it economically viable to recover gold from electronic waste could create spin-off uses for other components recovered in the process. For example, in the process, copper and nickel are also separated out, as is the plastic itself, with all these components potentially being used in new products.

Sean McCarthy, the PhD student leading the research in the lab at Imperial, said: “By weight, a computer contains far more precious metals than mined ore, providing a concentrated source of these metals in an ‘urban mine’.”

Professor Serpe said: “Research like ours aims to contribute to the cost-effective and sustainable recovery of metals by building a bridge between the supply of precious metals from scrap and industrial demand, bypassing the use of virgin raw materials.”

The teams are working to extend this approach to the recovery and re-use of the palladium content of end-of-life automotive catalytic converters. This is particularly pressing as palladium is widely used in catalysis and is even more expensive than gold.

The reactions that can be catalysed by the recovered gold compound

CREDIT

James Wilton-Ely

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JOURNAL

ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering

DOI

10.1021/acssuschemeng.2c04092 

ARTICLE TITLE

Homogeneous Gold Catalysis Using Complexes Recovered from Waste Electronic Equipment