New pathogenic mechanism for influenza NS1 protein found
by Jeff Hansen, University of Alabama at Birmingham

Naturally occurring mutations can offer clues to mechanisms

 of viral pathogenesis. Credit: University of Alabama at Birmingham

Influenza is a deadly virus, with about 290,000 to 650,000 deaths worldwide each year. When pandemics hit, the toll can soar: The Spanish flu of 1918 caused 40 million to 50 million deaths, the Asian flu of 1957 caused 2 million deaths, and the Hong Kong flu of 1968 caused 1 million deaths.

Chad Petit, Ph.D., and colleagues at the University of Alabama at Birmingham fight influenza at the molecular level, in part by finding natural mutations in the viral RNA genome that have a functional impact during infection. Discovering how the virus uses these unknown mechanisms to stop your body from mounting an effective defense against infection, Petit said, "will better prepare us to predict the pandemic potential of influenza A virus and aid in the development of vaccines and antivirals."

Influenza A is dangerous because each year it adapts to various hosts and undergoes genetic reassortment. This generates a constant stream of unique strains that have unknown degrees of pathogenicity, transmissibility and ability to cause international pandemics.

Petit's latest research, published in the Journal of Biological Chemistry, takes a detailed look at a naturally occurring mutation in a flu strain from a 1972 Russian outbreak that the UAB team described in 2015, while comparing that Russian strain to the 1918 strain responsible for Spanish flu.

The mutation is in the flu protein NS1. In 2015, Petit and his UAB colleagues were the first to show that NS1 from the 1918 strain had a direct interaction with RIG-I, the cell's main sensor to detect flu virus infection and to then launch an innate immune defense. Furthermore, the portion of the 1918 NS1 RNA binding domain that bound to RIG-I had no previously known function. In contrast to the 1918 NS1, Petit's lab found that the NS1 from the influenza A strain 1972 Udorn was unable to bind to the RIG-I site that interacted with the 1918 NS1.

Now, Petit and colleagues report the biological effects of NS1 binding to RIG-I—the binding directly quiets the alarm that activates the cellular innate immunity defense against the infection. This is a newly described way to antagonize the host cellular antiviral response.

"NS1 is almost like the Swiss army knife of proteins because it has so many functions," said Petit, an assistant professor in the UAB Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics. NS1 appears to interact with 20 to 30 host proteins, and compared with other flu proteins, NS1 also has remarkable genetic plasticity, meaning that its effect on virulence can vary among strains.


Study details

The mutation in the Udorn NS1 protein is a change of a single amino acid at position 21 from arginine to glutamine. In the current research, the UAB researchers used reverse genetics to engineer that mutation into a 1934 Puerto Rico flu strain, and then they compared how the wild type NS1 and mutant NS1 proteins functioned.

Using a variety of molecular biology tools, the UAB researchers found that, while the wild type NS1 antagonizes RIG-I signaling to start the alarm sequence, the mutant NS1 permitted that signaling. Specifically, the mutant NS1 was significantly less able to bind to RIG-I, which allowed the triggering of innate immunity—notably by increasing TRIM-25 ubiquitination of RIG-I, which is the critical step to activate RIG-I. That led to increased IRF3 phosphorylation and increased production of type I interferon.

However, the changed amino acid in the mutant NS1 had no effect on two other known ways that NS1 can block the cellular innate immunity response—binding to double-stranded RNA and binding with the TRIM-25 cellular protein. Thus, Petit and colleagues have described an additional tool on NS1 to increase viral survival.

But the UAB researchers are left with a particularly outstanding question—why does the arginine-to-glutamine mutation at amino acid-21 naturally occur if it leads to an increased antiviral response during infection? This seems counterintuitive in terms of evolution.

Comparison of multiple NS1 sequences in the Influenza Research Database, Petit says, suggests that the different amino acids at position 21 may relate to species-specific adaptation. Multiple strains of influenza A from humans were 63 percent arginine and 36.7 percent glutamine at amino acid-21; strains from swine were 92.1 percent arginine and 6.4 percent glutamine; and strains from birds were 79.9 percent arginine, 0.8 percent glutamine and 19.1 percent leucine. There were small percentages of other amino acids among the strains at position 21.

There is a striking difference among two human serotypes that cause seasonal disease and two human serotypes that are more highly pathogenic. The two seasonal serotypes, H1N1 and H3N2, were 75.4 percent arginine and 24.5 percent glutamine, and 1 percent arginine and 98.8 percent glutamine, respectively, at position 21. The two highly pathogenic strains, H5N1 and H7N9, were 100 percent arginine and 0 percent glutamine, and 95.9 percent arginine and 2.3 percent glutamine, respectively, at position 21. There were small percentages of other amino acids for the H7N9 strains at position 21.

"Taken together, the work presented in this study," Petit said, "stresses the importance of how strain-specific polymorphisms in NS1 can affect its ability to antagonize the host cellular immune response in ways that are yet to be appreciated."


Explore furtherMolecular virologist fights influenza at the molecular level
More information: Alexander S. Jureka et al, The influenza NS1 protein modulates RIG-I activation via a strain-specific direct interaction with the second CARD of RIG-I, Journal of Biological Chemistry (2019). DOI: 10.1074/jbc.RA119.011410
Journal information: Journal of Biological Chemistry


Provided by University of Alabama at Birmingham

Carbon sequestration in oceans powered by fragmentation of large organic particles

by Bob Yirka , Phys.org

A BGC-Argo profiling float equipped with biological and chemical sensors, which can take measurements between the surface of the ocean and a depth of 2,000 metres. Credit: D. Luquet, IMEV

A team of researchers from the National Oceanography Centre, Sorbonne Université and CNRS Villefranche-sur-Mer, Plymouth Marine Laboratory, and the National Centre for Earth Observations, has found evidence of fragmentation of large organic particles into smaller ones, accounting for roughly half of the particle loss in the oceans. In their paper published in the journal Science, the group describes testing carbon sequestration in several ocean locations and what they found. Aditya Nayak and Michael Twardowski with Florida Atlantic University have published a Perspective piece discussing the work by the team in the same journal issue.

Several decades ago, scientists discovered that the oceans can be divided into three main depths: the epipelagic, which is the first 200 meters below the surface; the mesopelagic, which spans depths between 200 and 1000 meters and the abyssal zone, which is everything below the mesopelagic zone down to the ocean floor. Subsequently, researchers discovered that the ocean absorbs 10 to 12 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, but only 30 percent of it makes it to the seafloor. For the past 20 years, scientists have been working to try to understand what happens to the rest. In this new effort, the researchers have found where up to half of the missing carbon goes.

Carbon is absorbed directly by the oceans and is taken up by sea life. As those organisms die, they and the carbon in their tissues fall to lower "depths"—some of that material makes it all the way to the ocean floor. But some of it also clumps together with other falling particles and remains suspended in the water in the mesopelagic zone. In this new effort, the researchers studied such clumps in several ocean locations using advanced optical sensors connected to bobbers. Data from the sensors confirmed what the researchers had suspected—that the large clumps often break apart into smaller clumps. This allows the clumps to hold on to more carbon. The researchers suggest this fragmentation can account for between 49 and 22 percent of the missing carbon. More work is required to account for the remaining missing carbon.Researchers measure carbon movement in ocean's 'twilight zone'

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More information: Nathan Briggs et al. Major role of particle fragmentation in regulating biological sequestration of CO2 by the oceans, Science (2020). DOI: 10.1126/science.aay1790

Journal information: Science 

'Ghost' DNA found in some West African people

by Bob Yirka , Phys.org

Demography relating known and proposed archaic lineages to modern human populations. (A) Basic demographic model with CSFS fit. W Afr, West Africans; Eur, European; N, Neanderthal; D, Denisovan; UA, unknown archaic [see (18)]. Below, we show the CSFS in the West African YRI when restricting to SNPs where a randomly sampled allele from the high-coverage Vindija Neanderthal was observed to be derived [Neanderthal (data)], as well as where a randomly sampled allele from the high-coverage Denisovan genome was observed to be derived [Denisovan (data)]. We also show the CSFS under the proposed model [Neanderthal (model) and Denisova (model)]. Migration between Europe and West Africa introduces an excess of low-frequency variants but does not capture the decrease in intermediate frequency variants and increase in high-frequency variants. (B) Newly proposed model involving introgression into the modern human ancestor from an unknown hominin that separated from the human ancestor before the split of modern humans and the ancestors of Neanderthals and Denisovans. Below, we show the CSFS fit from the proposed model, which captures the U-shape observed in the data. Credit: Science Advances (2020). DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.aax5097

A team of researchers at the University of California, has found evidence of "ghost" DNA in some modern West African people. In their paper published in the journal Science Advances, the group describes their study of genetic samples collected from the Yoruba and Mende groups and what they found.

Prior research has shown that approximately 800,000 years ago, two groups of hominins diverged from a common ancestor—they have become known as the Denisovans and Neanderthals. In this new effort, the researchers have found evidence that suggests a prior group split off from the same common ancestor 200,000 years earlier.

The researchers were studying the lineages of the Yorùbá of southwestern Nigeria and the Mende people of Sierra Leone. The researchers found some non-modern human DNA in samples. That led them to compare the non-human segments to Denisovan and Neanderthal DNA. When they found no match, the researchers were forced to conclude that the DNA was from a common ancestor that diverged over 1 million years ago. Since no fossils of this other ancestor have ever been found, the researchers dubbed their genetic remnants "ghost" DNA. Further study of the gene snippets showed that they were introduced into the modern human genome approximately 24,000 years ago.

The researchers also found that the percentage of the ghost DNA in the Yorùbá and Mende people ranged from two to 19 percent. And those genes were of a type that would have been involved in suppressing tumors and regulating hormones. Due to the percentages found in modern humans, it appears likely that they spread quickly, which indicates widespread interbreeding with West African people for a short time. The team also found evidence of the same DNA in a few people of Han Chinese descent living in Beijing and some westerners living in the U.S., but those cases have not yet been studied more closely.

The researchers plan to continue to their study of the ghost genes, hoping to learn more about their role in the genome and why they persisted so well in West African people for such a long period of ti

Fossil find suggests Denisovan fingers looked more like modern human fingers than Neanderthal fingers

More information: Arun Durvasula et al. Recovering signals of ghost archaic introgression in African populations, Science Advances (2020). DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.aax5097

Chemical process breaks down lignin and turns birch wood into usable chemical products

by Bob Yirka , Phys.org

This picture displays the chemical reactor used in the study to split wood into wood pulp and lignin oil. Credit: KU Leuven

A team of researchers affiliated with multiple institutions in Belgium has developed a chemical process that breaks down lignin and turns birch wood into usable chemical products. In their paper published in the journal Science, the group describes their process and why they believe it could be used to help reduce carbon emissions into the atmosphere.

As scientists continue to find evidence of global warming, they also work to find ways to reduce the amount of carbon emitted into the atmosphere—one approach is using plants instead of chemicals in refineries. Some progress has been made with this approach by simply burning wood and other plant products instead of petrochemicals to produce heat. But scientists would prefer to produce desired chemical products directly from plants such as trees.

Unfortunately, not much progress has been made in this area. This is due mainly to the difficulty in breaking down lignin in the wood to make other material available. Lignin is one of the main components of plant cell walls—it makes up to 20 or 30 percent of wood, depending on the tree type. Chemists would like to find a way to break it down in ways that are not harmful to the environment. In this new effort, the chemists in Belgium have developed a process for breaking down lignin, allowing for the production of phenol, propylene and ethylene from birch trees.

The work involved processing birch wood in several stages. In the first, the wood was reduced to chips and then mixed with hydrogen under pressure and methanol, using ruthenium as a catalyst. This resulted in the production of pulp for use in producing ethanol and several types of lignin oligomers and monomers. The oligomers were processed by applying a nickel catalyst to tear away methoxy groups, resulting in the production of propylphenols, ethylphenols and methane. The final stage involved applying steam and a zeolite catalyst—it resulted in the production of phenol, propylene and ethylene. Once the process was tested, the researchers modeled it in a simulator, demonstrating that it could be made to scale, and would be economically viable—and it would reduce greenhouse gas emissions compared to current processes

Turning wood into pharmaceutical ingredients

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More information: Yuhe Liao et al, A sustainable wood biorefinery for low–carbon footprint chemicals production, Science (2020). DOI: 10.1126/science.aau1567

Press release

5,200-year-old grains in the eastern Altai Mountains redate trans-Eurasian crop exchange

by Max Planck Society

A photo of the stone men (Chimulchek Culture) in the steppe area of Altai Mountains. These figures are characteristic of the peoples who lived in the area around the time of occupation at Tongtian. These specific examples are located at the Chimulchek site (ca. 4000 years old) and not far from Tongtian Cave. Ceramic sherds from the cave suggest that the occupants in the cave shared similar cultural traits to other people in the region. Credit: Jianjun Yu

Cereals from the Fertile Crescent and broomcorn millet from northern China spread across the ancient world, integrating into complex farming systems that used crop-rotation cycles enabled by the different ecological regions of origin. The resulting productivity allowed for demographic expansions and imperial formation in Europe and Asia. In this study, an international, interdisciplinary team of scientists illustrate that people moved these crops across Eurasia earlier than previously realized, adapting cultivation methods for harsh agricultural environments.

Most people are familiar with the historical Silk Road, but fewer people realize that the exchange of items, ideas, technology, and human genes through the mountain valleys of Central Asia started almost three millennia before organized trade networks formed. These pre-Silk Road exchange routes played an important role in shaping human cultural developments across Europe and Asia, and facilitated the dispersal of technologies such as horse breeding and metal smelting into East Asia. One of the most impactful effects of this process of ancient cultural dispersal was the westward spread of northeast Asian crops and the eastward spread of southwest Asian crops. However, until the past few years, a lack of archaeo-botanical studies in Central Asia left a dearth of data relating to when and how this process occurred.

This new study, led by scientists from the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, provides details of recently recovered ancient grains from the far northern regions of Inner Asia. Radiocarbon dating shows that the grains include the oldest examples of wheat and barley ever recovered this far north in Asia, pushing back the dates for early farming in the region by at least a millenium. These are also the earliest domesticated plants reported from the northern half of Central Asia, the core of the ancient exchange corridor. This study pulls together sedimentary pollen and ancient wood charcoal data with archaeobotanical remains from the Tiangtian archaeological site in the Chinese Altai Mountains to reveal how humans cultivated crops at such northern latitudes. This study illustrates how adaptable ancient crop plants were to new ecological constraints and how human cultural practices allowed people to survive in unpredictable environments.

Dr. Xinying Zhou and his team from the IVPP in Beijing excavated the Tangtian Cave site during the summer of 2016. Credit: Xinying Zhou

The Northern Dispersal of Cereal Grains

The ancient relatives of wheat and barley plants evolved to grow in the warm and dry climate of the eastern Mediterranean and southwest Asia. However, this study illustrates that ancient peoples were cultivating these grasses over five and a half thousand kilometers to the northeast of where they originally evolved to grow. In this study, Dr. Xinying Zhou and his colleagues integrate paleo-environmental proxies to determine how extreme the ecology was around the archaeological cave site of Tangtian more than five millennia ago, at the time of its occupation. The site is located high in the Altai Mountains on a cold, dry landscape today; however, the study shows that the ecological setting around the site was slightly warmer and more humid at the time when people lived in and around this cave.

The slightly warmer regional conditions were likely the result of shifting air masses bringing warmer, wetter air from the south. In addition to early farmers using a specific regional climate pocket to grow crops in North Asia, analysis showed that the crops they grew evolved to survive in such northern regions. The results of this study provide scholars with evidence for when certain evolutionary changes in these grasses occurred, including changes in the programed reliance of day length, which signals to the plant when to flower, and a greater resistance to cold climates.

Charred seeds from Tontian Cave site. Credit: Xinying Zhou

The Trans-Eurasian Exchange and Crop Dispersal

The ancient dispersal of crops across Inner Asia has received a lot of attention from biologists and archaeologists in recent years. As Dr. Spengler, one of the study's lead authors, discusses in his recent book Fruit from the Sands, these ancient exchange routes shaped the course of human history. The mingling of crops originating from opposite ends of Asia resulted in the crop-rotation cycles that fueled demographic growth and led to imperial formation.

East Asian millets would become one of the most important crops in ancient Europe, and wheat would become one of the most important crops in East Asia by the Han Dynasty. While the long tradition of rice cultivation in East Asia made rice a staple of the Asian kitchen, Chinese cuisine would be unrecognizable without wheat-based food items like steamed buns, dumplings, and noodles. The discovery that these plants dispersed across Eurasia earlier than previously understood will have lasting impacts on the study of cultivation and labor practices in ancient Eurasia, as well as the history cultural contact and shifts in culinary systems throughout time.

These new discoveries provide reason to question these views, and seem to suggest that mixed small-scale human populations made major contributions to world history through migration and cultural and technological exchange. "This study not only presents the earliest dates for domesticated grains in far North Asia," says Professor Xiaoqiang Li, director of the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology in Beijing, "it represents the earliest beginning of a trans-Eurasian exchange that would eventually develop into the great Silk Road."

Dr. Xinying Zhou, who headed the study and directs a research team at the IVPP in Beijing, emphasizes that "this discovery is a testament to human ingenuity and the amazing coevolutionary bond between people and the plants that they maintain in their cultivated fields."

Origins and spread of Eurasian fruits traced to the ancient Silk Road

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More information: Xinying Zhou et al, 5,200-year-old cereal grains from the eastern Altai Mountains redate the trans-Eurasian crop exchange, Nature Plants (2020). DOI: 10.1038/s41477-019-0581-y

Journal information: Nature Plants 

Forest soils release more carbon dioxide than expected in rainy season

by Francisco Tutella, Pennsylvania State University

Current carbon cycle models may underestimate the amount of carbon dioxide released from the soil during rainy seasons in temperate forests like those found in the northeast United States, according to Penn State researchers. Credit: Caitlin Hodges

Current carbon cycle models may underestimate the amount of carbon dioxide released from the soil during rainy seasons in temperate forests like those found in the northeast United States, according to Penn State researchers.

Tree roots and microbes use oxygen to convert organic carbon in the soil to carbon dioxide (CO2) for energy through a process called aerobic respiration. This release of CO2 from soils to the atmosphere represents the largest flux of carbon from terrestrial ecosystems, making it a key component of the global carbon budget. Aerobic respiration is the dominant process contributing to this flux, but the researchers found that under wet conditions, anaerobic respiration—or respiration without oxygen—also significantly contributes to the flux.

"In current models, amounts of carbon dioxide and oxygen are controlled by the consumption of oxygen and the production of carbon dioxide through aerobic respiration," said Caitlin Hodges, a doctoral candidate in the Department of Ecosystem Science and Management. "It's usually a one-to-one relationship of consumption and production. But we found that, especially in summer, there was a significant signal of anaerobic respiration caused by the roots having a higher demand for oxygen and outcompeting the microbes. The microbes then have to switch over to using anaerobic respiration."

One benchmark for interpreting soil processes affected by soil carbon dioxide and oxygen is to calculate the apparent respiratory quotient (ARQ), which combines carbon dioxide and oxygen concentrations into one value.

"If ARQ equals one, that means that aerobic respiration is the controlling process," said Hodges. "If there is a significant deviation from one, then that tells us something else is controlling the soil gas concentrations."

The scientists studied soil respiration in a shale watershed and a sandstone watershed in the National Science Foundation-funded Susquehanna Shale Hills Critical Zone Observatory. They measured soil carbon dioxide and oxygen levels about eight and 16 inches belowground and just above the bedrock layer where the soil ends.

"Caitlin interpreted gas sampled from soil somewhat like a policeman interprets the breathalyzer test of a tipsy driver," said Susan Brantley, distinguished professor of geosciences and director of the Earth and Environmental Systems Institute (EESI) at Penn State. "The chemistry of the gas stuck in the soil yields a picture of what the bacteria are doing."

The team found that ARQ sometimes signaled significant anaerobic respiration by the microbes. During anaerobic respiration, the microbes shifted from using oxygen to oxidized metals, like iron and manganese, for growth.

"When we see large numbers in the ARQ, it means we have more carbon dioxide than the oxygen levels would suggest," said Jason Kaye, professor of soil biogeochemistry. "How can that happen? It can happen because CO2 is being produced without oxygen consumption, and that's exactly what an anaerobic process is. That's what these large numbers mean. You're seeing more carbon dioxide than you would expect from aerobic respiration."

The Penn State team's research, reported in the Soil Science Society of America Journal, is the first to use ARQ to find evidence of a seasonal pattern of anaerobic respiration in temperate forests.

The researchers also calculated the total amount of carbon dioxide—36 grams per meter squared—that leaves the soil system every year due to anaerobic respiration. They said the conservative estimate constitutes 10% of all respiration done by soil microbes at their research sites, which is a large number since scientists don't think of these humid temperate forests as posting much anaerobic respiration.

"It's expected that the northeastern United States will have increased rainfall with climate change," said Hodges. "We expect that this anaerobic respiration will become a more dominant process in these forest systems, and our soil carbon models don't yet take this into account."

Brantley said novel approaches like soil gas sampling are needed to understand how soils will respond to changing climate.

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More information: Caitlin Hodges et al. Soil CO and O Concentrations Illuminate the Relative Importance of Weathering and Respiration to Seasonal Soil Gas Fluctuations, Soil Science Society of America Journal (2019). DOI: 10.2136/sssaj2019.02.0049

Journal information: Soil Science Society of America Journal 

Are you a cat whisperer? How to read Fluffy’s facial expressions

February 2, 2020 

Cats are capable of a expressing a wide range of emotions through facial expressions 
and body language. 

Cats are popular pets: there are an estimated 200 million pet cats worldwide, with more pet cats than pet dogs. Cats live in about 38 per cent of Canadian households, 25.4 per cent of American households and 25 per cent of European households.

Cats also seem to be a great source of entertainment. There are two million cat videos on YouTube and counting, and countless internet-famous cats, like Grumpy Cat and Lil’ Bub, each with millions of followers on their social media accounts.

Despite the popularity of cats, as anyone who has been around a cat knows, reading cats is not always an easy task. One minute they can be seeking your affection and the next they can be swatting at you without any apparent warning. This leads to the question: are cats just jerks or are they simply misunderstood?

Cats’ body language

While cats may seem mysterious, their behaviour can help us to understand how they are feeling. The position of a cat’s body, head, ears and tail are all telltale hints.

An anxious or fearful cat may crouch down to the ground, arch their back, lower their head and flatten their ears. Fearful or anxious cats may also retreat backwards in avoidance, hide themselves, make their fur stand on edge (piloerection), growl, hiss, spit, swat or bite.

Conversely, a content cat may approach you with their tail up, with their body and head in a neutral position and their ears forward. When resting, they may tuck their paws in, or lay on their side with their legs stretched out.

Cats’ emotions can be deciphered through their different behaviours. (Lili Chin), CC BY

Facial expressions may also be an indicator of how cats are feeling. Researchers have found that certain individuals can readily distinguish the images of cats in pain from those of pain-free cats. Despite this, the full range of cat facial expressions, including those made in positive situations, has not received much investigation.

Most people are poor cat face readers

As a postdoctoral researcher in animal science, I ran an online study in which participants were shown short video clips of cats in various situations. Positive situations were those where cats approached, for example, their owner for treats. Negative situations were those where cats sought to avoid, for example, retreating from a person unknown to them.

The videos were carefully selected based on strict behavioural criteria and edited to only show each cat’s face, removing any potential body language or location cues.

An example of a video from the study: here, a cat is kneading in his favoured resting spot, a positive situation.

More than 6,300 people from 85 countries judged whether the cat in each video was feeling positive or negative. On average, people identified the correct expression 59 per cent of the time. While this score is slightly better than if people had simply guessed, it suggests that many people find the task of reading cat faces challenging.

An example of a video from the study: here, a cat is hiding in the examination room of a veterinary clinic, a negative situation.

Cat whisperers

Although most people were poor cat face readers, a small subset of people (13 per cent) were quite skilled, scoring 15 points or higher out of a possible 20 points.
Individuals in this group are more likely to be women than men. This is not surprising, since research has found that women are generally better at interpreting non-verbal emotional cues; this has been shown with human babies and dogs.

I found “cat whisperers” also tend to have experience working as a veterinarian or veterinary technician. People in these occupations encounter a large number of cats on a daily basis and must learn to interpret their behaviour to recognize illness and avoid injury.

Suprisingly (or not, depending on your personal experience as a cat owner), cat owners are not any better at reading cat faces than people who have never owned a cat. This may be because cat owners learn the intricacies of their own cat through continued interactions, but likely cannot draw on varied experiences when faced with a series of unfamiliar cats.

Implications for animal welfare

My work has shown that cats display different facial expressions and that these facial expressions differ depending on how cats are feeling, both positive and negative.

Being able to read and interpret these different facial expressions can help to ensure that cats receive appropriate care. For example, facial expressions can indicate when a cat may be in pain and require treatment. Being able to read cat faces can also improve the bond between cat owners and their cats, through an improved understanding of how their cats may be feeling.

While many people seem to struggle with reading cat faces, some individuals are able to read them well. This suggests that interpreting cat faces is a skill that could improve with training and experience.

Do you think you could be a cat whisperer? You can test your cat-reading abilities by taking this interactive quiz.

Author

1. Lauren Dawson
   Postdoctoral fellow, Animal Biosciences, University of Guelph

A national licence to practice may be one way to help address the lack of doctors in some regions, and to encourage telemedicine consultations. (Shutterstock)


A national licence for doctors in Canada: Is it really possible?

February 5, 2020

In December 2019, just before the holiday season, Pontiac Hospital in Shawville, Qué., not too far from the Ontario border, shut down its obstetric services for 21 days. It was the 10th closure of its obstetric services since September.

These closures meant that without specialized staff, women who were ready to give birth had to go to another hospital, over an hour’s drive away. This came at a time when there is already a shortage of family doctors in the Outaouais region, which lies just north of Ottawa.

The causes of this shortage of family physicians are complex, and we should avoid magical thinking when looking for solutions. Yet these service interruptions raise a legitimate question: should a medical doctor who is fully licensed in Ontario be allowed to practise on the Québec side of the Ottawa River to help alleviate the shortage, without going through all the paperwork, costs and delays required to obtain a practice licence in Québec?

Many doctors think so, judging by the results of a survey conducted in 2019 by the Canadian Medical Association (CMA). Based on the answers provided by 7,000 of its members, the CMA claims that “nine out of 10 physicians support the establishment of a national licence to practice and three quarters believe that this will improve access to health care”.

Other Canadian medical stakeholders also appear to be in favour of such a measure, citing the need to facilitate replacements (locums) for doctors in underserved regions as well as interprovincial medical teleconsultations.Remote consultations could be very useful in regions with shortages of family physicians. (Shutterstock)

This seems to be a reasonable proposition. But would it be possible, from a legal perspective, to implement a national licence for doctors and other health-care providers considering that professional regulation falls under provincial jurisdiction?

I have more than 20 years of academic and professional experience in health law and policy. I’m particularly interested in trying to improve the Canadian professional regulation framework on such issues, to address the challenges presented by issues like workforce shortages and new technologies.
Similarities with securities

A 2018 Supreme Court of Canada ruling on securities regulation suggests what could be the legal basis for a national medical licence.

Although securities fall under provincial jurisdiction, the federal government and the governments of some provinces and territories have proposed a legislative system of co-operation. This includes a model statute that may be passed by the legislatures of the provinces and territories to regulate various aspects of the securities business, as well as a federal statute to prevent and manage systemic risk and to establish criminal offences relating to financial markets. A national securities regulator would be in charge of making this system work, under the supervision of a federal-provincial council of ministers.

Despite strong opposition from some provinces, the Supreme Court indicated that such a regime would respect provincial jurisdiction, since provinces would not be forced to join it. It also concluded that the intervention of the federal government would be justified, considering its own jurisdictions and the national issues involved.

This model is actually very similar to the one that has been put in place in Australia to establish a national licence for all health-care professionals, based on an intergovernmental agreement between the federal government, states and territories.

With these precedents, it is plausible, from a legal point of view, to consider the possibility of implementing a national licensing system for doctors and other health-care providers in Canada.
A professional passport

Another solution, less well integrated but maybe easier to set up from a political and legal perspective, could be to establish a “national professional passport,” perhaps by improving the current labour mobility provisions of the Canadian Free Trade Agreement (CFTA).

This agreement between the federal, provincial and territorial governments commits them to put in place measures allowing people in regulated trades and professions to work anywhere in Canada, without having to comply with additional requirements related to training, experience, competencies, etc.

That said, the CFTA still allows certain provincial and territorial requirements to be maintained, like language proficiency in French or English, registration and permit fees, professional liability insurance and examinations relating to ethical aspects.

The idea of a national passport, based on the elimination or reduction of these obstacles, as well as on a greater administrative co-ordination between provincial regulatory authorities, seems to be supported by the Federation of Medical Regulatory Authorities of Canada (FMRAC).

The idea would be to have something like a Nexus card that would allow physicians to quickly meet the administrative requirements of a province or territory, and be authorized to practice there. This approach is also similar to what the Americans have been trying to implement for a few years, without complete success yet, with the “Interstate Medical Licensure Compact”.
Political will needed

Although complex, the introduction of a national licensure or a national passport for doctors and other health-care professionals could be legally feasible, provided that there is sufficient political will.

However, there would be obstacles to overcome. Examples include some specific provincial requirements such as French knowledge requirements in Quebec, medicare coverage for services provided by out-of-province providers, scope of practice disparities, etc.

Arguably, it is not a given that we can count on the level of federal-provincial co-operation that would be required to remove these obstacles. Let’s just consider that the pan‑Canadian securities regulation is still facing a steady opposition from some provinces, not to mention the issues raised by the prospect of a national pharmacare program.
What about public protection?

One thing that should be avoided if a national licensure or a national passport for health-care professionals were implemented, is weakening the public protection that professional regulation aims to support.

Filing a complaint or initiating a disciplinary process is not easy for most patients. It should not be made more complex when a problem occurs with an out-of-province professional providing services through teleconsultation or acting as a replacement.

Patients should still be allowed to rely on the local regulator, which would require closer co-operation between provincial regulatory authorities on disciplinary matters, as well as the harmonization of standards of practice and quality assessment of professionals.

Given all of these factors, establishing a national licensure for doctors and other health-care professionals would certainly not be a walk in the park from a legal and political perspective. To gather sufficient public support, this project should undoubtedly be designed first and foremost to meet the needs of patients and not just to reduce the administrative requirements for professionals.


This article was originally published in French
Author
Marco Laverdière

Avocat, enseignant et chercheur associé en droit et politiques de la santé / Lawyer, lecturer and research associate in Health Law and Policy, Université de Sherbrooke
Disclosure statement

In addition to his academic activities at Université de Sherbrooke and Université de Montréal, Marco Laverdière serves as the executive director and secretary of the Ordre des optométristes du Québec. / En plus de ses activités académiques à l'Université de Sherbrooke et à l'Université de Montréal, Marco Laverdière occupe les fonctions de directeur général et de secrétaire de l'Ordre des optométristes du Québec.

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David Behne-Smith




Dear Marco,

Thank you for your article,

How much resistance to this policy change by some provinces is financially-based?

If an open-border licensing scheme is possible, wouldn’t that mean access to doctors would increase, competition within the country would increase, prices would decrease and doctors would make less money in their professional practice?

Is there a risk that interstate practice has higher risk of fraudulent doctors practising, as it may be harder to confirm interstate qualifications?

Do you think there should be worldwide licensing options as well?

Are there ways around similar competition and quality risks?

I’m very interested to learn more on this topic, thank you again for your time.

Kind regards,

David
3 days ago
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Marco Laverdière

Avocat, enseignant et chercheur associé en droit et politiques de la santé / Lawyer, lecturer and research associate in Health Law and Policy, Université de SherbrookeIn reply to David Behne-Smith


Hi David,

Thanks for your comments.

Financial/competition considerations shouldn’t probably be discarded as a cause of resistance to greater intersate/interprovincial professional mobility. But in the Canadian context and in the case of doctors (and most other health care professionals), I tend to think that the main causes may currently be these ones:


moving from a provincial/territorial regulation/licensure scheme to something more integrated at a national level is not so obvious from a legal and administrative point of view, considering our constitutional framework; the Australian model and even a “national passport” are quite complex things to set up.


for historical and political reasons, some provinces are not so inclined to give away or “dilute” their jurisdiction over professional regulation (typically, smaller provinces and territories are usually more eager to share responsibilities at a national level, which is not always the case for bigger ones); in other words, I think that there is just not enough political will for the moment… but that may change eventually.

As for the risks of greater professional mobility, it all depends on how the national system would be set up. The current fragmentation of the registration requirements/procedures in the country, where some provinces/territories have more robust systems than others, is also a risk with respect to fraudulent doctors trying to get in or trying to escape disciplinary actions.

In the current state of affairs, with so much disparities in training/practice requirements and with some new form of protectionism rising up, I don’t anticipate “worldwide licensing” developments anytime soon. But at a regional level (like the EU), you may find some interesting examples of what could be an international mobility agreement.

Quite an interesting topic, indeed!

All the best.

Marco