More gender segregation in jobs means more harassment, lower pay

Peer-Reviewed Publication

OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS USA

A new paper in the Quarterly Journal of Economics, published by Oxford University Press, indicates that people who are the gender minority in their workplace are more likely to experience sexual harassment. This harassment discourages people from taking jobs in workplaces where they would be a gender minority. It also leads current minorities to leave their jobs for new ones with lower pay.

Women and men are segregated across workplaces, and previous research indicates that such segregation may explain 15 to 20% of the gender wage gap. Researchers here studied how gender discrimination in work conditions contributes to such inequality. Using information from the bi-annual Swedish Work Environment Survey, the study shows that women’s and men’s harassment risks grow with the share of opposite-sex people in their workplace. Women are about three times as likely as men to experience sexual harassment, but in the most male-dominated workplaces, they are nearly six times more likely than men to do so. Meanwhile, men’s risk is almost twice as high as women’s in the most female-dominated workplaces.  

The research used a survey experiment to measure workers’ aversion to taking jobs in workplaces where a sexual harassment incident had occurred. Both women and men had a high aversion against jobs in such workplaces, but their aversion was three times larger if the harassment victim had the same sex as themselves. These findings imply that harassment deters women from taking jobs in male-dominated workplaces, where women are the main harassment victims, and vice versa for men.

Workplaces with a larger share of men pay more. A workplace with more than 80% men offers a 9% higher wage for the same work as a workplace with 80% female employees.

The researchers here find that harassment produces gender inequality through job changes among harassment victims. Investigators found that women who report sexual harassment are 25 percent more likely to have left for a new job in the three years after the harassment. Men who report sexual harassment are 15 percent more likely to have left for a new job. The study indicates women who experience sexual harassment are more likely to leave for a job at a company with a lower share of men and a lower wage premium.

“By deterring women from taking jobs in male-dominated workplaces, harassment also keeps women away from the highest-paying employers in the labor market, and men from the lowest-paying ones,” said Johanna Rickne, one of the paper’s authors. “In this way, sexual harassment contributes to the gender wage gap.”

The paper “Sexual harassment and gender inequality in the labor market” is available (at midnight on May 12th ) at: https://academic.oup.com/qje/article-lookup/doi/10.1093/qje/qjac018.

To request a copy of the study, please contact:
Daniel Luzer 
daniel.luzer@oup.com

---

DOI

10.1093/qje/qjac018 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Data/statistical analysis

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

Sexual harassment and gender inequality in the labor market

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

12-May-2022

NASA Goddard astrophysicist awarded 2022 LGBTQ+ Scientist of the Year

Grant and Award Announcement

NASA/GODDARD SPACE FLIGHT CENTER

 

IMAGE: DR. JANE RIGBY IS AN ASTROPHYSICIST AT NASA'S GODDARD FLIGHT CENTER IN GREENBELT, MARYLAND. view more 

CREDIT: CREDITS: NASA/DAVID P. FRIEDLANDER

Dr. Jane Rigby, an astrophysicist at NASA's Goddard Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, was recently awarded the 2022 LGBTQ+ Scientist of the Year by Out to Innovate.

The winners of its 2022 recognition awards for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ+) professionals in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) were initiated by the National Organization of Gay and Lesbian Scientists and Professionals (NOGLSTP), which officially transitioned to Out to Innovate in 2021.

The LGBTQ+ Scientist of the Year Award recognizes an individual who has made outstanding contributions to their field through design, research, or management. Rigby, an astrophysicist, is also the Operations Project Scientist for NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (Webb). Rigby earned degrees in both physics and astronomy and astrophysics at Penn State University and her Ph.D. in astronomy from University of Arizona. Rigby develops new techniques to study galaxy evolution, star-forming galaxies, and active galactic nuclei.

"When I was a student, all through college, I wasn't aware of any LGBTQ role models,” Rigby said. “I hope I'm part of the last generation who grow up without queer role models.  I hope this award brings hope to queer folks pursuing careers in STEM, and I hope it reminds organizations that inclusion matters every single day.  I also see this award as a recognition of how transformative Webb will be for astronomy — I'm so proud of helping that telescope become a reality."

Rigby and her team at NASA, with international collaborators, have led many successful research campaigns, collecting data from the Keck and Magellan Observatories and the Hubble Space Telescope. She has published more than 100 peer-reviewed publications. She also has given numerous professional and public presentations on her research and on the James Webb Space Telescope. Rigby has been recognized for her research, mentorship, and diversity-related work with awards such as the John C. Lindsay Memorial Award for Space Science and served on the 2020 Decadal Survey of Astronomy and Astrophysics for the National Academies.

Rigby serves as a trustee of the American Astronomical Society (AAS) and was a founding member of the AAS Committee for Sexual-Orientation and Gender Minorities in Astronomy. One letter of support noted that they “especially admire Jane’s unwavering stand that she is a *better* astronomer because she is queer...because of the leadership training she received as a LGBT activist, and because of the resilience she has developed by surviving as an LGBT person.”

When asked what advice she has for future LGBTQ+ scientists interested in research in this world and beyond, she offered: “Do fabulous science, be fabulous, and be kind.”

Out to Innovate has recognized exemplary individuals with LGTBQ+ Educator, Engineer, and Scientist of the year for over 15 years.

 

NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, is home to the nation's largest organization of scientists, engineers and technologists who build spacecraft, instruments and new technology to study Earth, the sun, our solar system and the universe.

 

For more information about Dr. Rigby, visit: https://www.jwst.nasa.gov/content/meetTheTeam/people/rigby.html.

Global food trade research upends assumptions about how biodiversity fares

Peer-Reviewed Publication

MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY

 

IMAGE: SOY GROWING ON A FARM IN ILLINOIS, USA, DESTINED FOR INTERNATIONAL EXPORT. view more 

CREDIT: SUE NICHOLS, MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY CENTER FOR SYSTEMS INTEGRATION AND SUSTAINABILITY.

In this week’s Nature Food, Michigan State University (MSU) researchers find that imports from high-income countries benefit biodiversity in low-income countries.

The findings in “International food trade benefits biodiversity and food security in low-income countries” fly in the face of conventional wisdoms:  that high-income countries harm biodiversity in low-income countries by importing food from them, and yet low-income countries, particularly those with biodiversity hotspots, were increasingly becoming net importers themselves.

Two MSU sustainability scholars from the Center for Systems Integration and Sustainability (CSIS) looked at the growing complexities of global food trade for a better understanding of the interactions and impacts of growing food to feed the world and protecting some of the most precious natural resources. Their paper is entitled

“Understanding the interrelationships between food security and biodiversity is essential to achieve the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals,” said CSIS director Jianguo “Jack” Liu, MSU Rachel Carson Chair in Sustainability and co-author. “Our work seeks to understand how we can achieve global food security to feed a growing population without sacrificing biodiversity in the telecoupled world.”

Countries that are growing both in population and wealth demand more food, and often turn to importing foods. Countries that are increasing their food exports, which often means converting their lands to farms or pastures, can find it results in damage to the environment and biodiversity.

Some low-income countries that don’t have biodiversity hotspots such as Ukraine have rapidly increased exporting food to hotspot countries. Those exports might help further reduce negative impacts on biodiversity.

Liu and Min Gon Chung, who received his PhD at MSU and now is a postdoctoral researcher at University of California, Merced, examined comprehensive datasets comprising 189 food items across 157 countries during 2000–2018.

 The pair offer suggestions, such has having food prices include costs to biodiversity, and those earnings be used to mitigate the damages to biodiversity. Underscoring all solutions involves countries working together to strike agreements benefiting both coffers and the environment.

“With increasing the complexity of food trade among countries with and without biodiversity hotspots, more innovative approaches are needed to minimize the negative impacts of global food production and trade on biodiversity in hotspot countries worldwide,” Chung said.

The work was funded by the National Science Foundation, Michigan AgBioResearch and Sustainable Michigan Endowment Project.

A related Nature News & Views, "We can have biodiversity and eat it too" has been written by Stuart Pimm at Duke University's Nicholas School of the Environment.

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JOURNAL

Nature Food

DOI

10.1038/s43016-022-00499-7 

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Not applicable

ARTICLE TITLE

Reconsiderations of international food trade and biodiversity conservation

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

12-May-2022

The future of desalination?

A fast, efficient, selective membrane for purifying saltwater

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF TOKYO

 

IMAGE: REDUCING THE ENERGY AND THUS FINANCIAL COST, AS WELL AS IMPROVING THE SIMPLICITY OF WATER DESALINATION, COULD HELP COMMUNITIES AROUND THE WORLD WITH POOR ACCESS TO SAFE DRINKING WATER. view more 

CREDIT: © 2022 ITOH ET AL.

Water scarcity is a growing problem around the world. Desalination of seawater is an established method to produce drinkable water but comes with huge energy costs. For the first time, researchers use fluorine-based nanostructures to successfully filter salt from water. Compared to current desalination methods, these fluorous nanochannels work faster, require less pressure and less energy, and are a more effective filter.

If you’ve ever cooked with a nonstick Teflon-coated frying pan, then you’ve probably seen the way that wet ingredients slide around it easily. This happens because the key component of Teflon is fluorine, a lightweight element that is naturally water repelling, or hydrophobic. Teflon can also be used to line pipes to improve the flow of water. Such behavior caught the attention of Associate Professor Yoshimitsu Itoh from the Department of Chemistry and Biotechnology at the University of Tokyo and his team. It inspired them to explore how pipes or channels made from fluorine might operate on a very different scale, the nanoscale.

“We were curious to see how effective a fluorous nanochannel might be at selectively filtering different compounds, in particular, water and salt. And, after running some complex computer simulations, we decided it was worth the time and effort to create a working sample,” said Itoh. “There are two main ways to desalinate water currently: thermally, using heat to evaporate seawater so it condenses as pure water, or by reverse osmosis, which uses pressure to force water through a membrane that blocks salt. Both methods require a lot of energy, but our tests suggest fluorous nanochannels require little energy, and have other benefits too.”

The team created test filtration membranes by chemically synthesizing nanoscopic fluorine rings, which were stacked and embedded in an otherwise impermeable lipid layer, similar to the organic molecules that make up cell walls. They created several test samples with nanorings between about 1 and 2 nanometers. For reference, a human hair is almost 100,000 nanometers wide. To test the effectiveness of their membranes, Itoh and the team measured the presence of chlorine ions, one of the major components of salt — the other being sodium — on either side of the test membrane.

“It was very exciting to see the results firsthand. The smaller of our test channels perfectly rejected incoming salt molecules, and the larger channels too were still an improvement over other desalination techniques and even cutting-edge carbon nanotube filters,” said Itoh. “The real surprise to me was how fast the process occurred. Our sample worked around several thousand times faster than typical industrial devices, and around 2,400 times faster than experimental carbon nanotube-based desalination devices.”

As fluorine is electrically negative, it repels negative ions such as the chlorine found in salt. But an added bonus of this negativity is that it also breaks down what are known as water clusters, essentially loosely bound groups of water molecules, so that they pass through the channels quicker. The team’s fluorine-based water desalination membranes are more effective, faster, require less energy to operate and are made to be very simple to use as well, so what’s the catch?

“At present, the way we synthesize our materials is relatively energy-intensive itself; however, this is something we hope to improve upon in upcoming research. And, given the longevity of the membranes and their low operational costs, the overall energy costs will be much lower than with current methods,” said Itoh. “Other steps we wish to take are of course scaling this up. Our test samples were single nanochannels, but with the help of other specialists, we hope to create a membrane around 1 meter across in several years. In parallel with these manufacturing concerns, we’re also exploring whether similar membranes could be used to reduce carbon dioxide or other undesirable waste products released by industry.”

###

Journal article: Yoshimitsu Itoh, Shuo Chen, Ryota Hirahara, Takeshi Konda, Tsubasa Aoki, Takumi Ueda, Ichio Shimada, James J. Cannon, Cheng Shao, Junichiro Shiomi, Kazuhito V. Tabata, Hiroyuki Noji, Kohei Sato and Takuzo Aida. “Ultrafast water permeation through nanochannels with a densely fluorous interior surface”. Science.

Funding: This work was financially supported by a JSPS Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (S) 7 (18H05260) on “Innovative Functional Materials based on Multi-Scale Interfacial Molecular 8 Science” for T.A. Y.I. is grateful for a JSPS Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B) (21H01903) 9 and JST, PRESTO Grant Number JPMJPR21Q1.

Useful links:
Department of Chemistry and Biotechnology
https://www.chembio.t.u-tokyo.ac.jp/e/
Graduate School of Engineering
http://www.t.u-tokyo.ac.jp/en/soe
Interfacial Molecular Engineering laboratory
https://park.itc.u-tokyo.ac.jp/InterfaceMolEng/EN/index.html
Aida laboratory
http://park.itc.u-tokyo.ac.jp/Aida_Lab/aida_laboratory/aida.html
 

About The University of Tokyo
The University of Tokyo is Japan's leading university and one of the world's top research universities. The vast research output of some 6,000 researchers is published in the world's top journals across the arts and sciences. Our vibrant student body of around 15,000 undergraduate and 15,000 graduate students includes over 4,000 international students. Find out more at www.u-tokyo.ac.jp/en/ or follow us on Twitter at @UTokyo_News_en.

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JOURNAL

Science

DOI

10.1126/science.abd0966 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Experimental study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Not applicable

ARTICLE TITLE

Ultrafast water permeation through nanochannels with a densely fluorous interior surface

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

12-May-2022

The genetic origins of the world’s first farmers clarified

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF BERN

 

IMAGE: ANCIENT DNA EXTRACTION IN MAINZ’S LAB. WORK DONE IN STERILE CONDITIONS TO AVOID CONTAMINATION FROM MODERN DNA. view more 

CREDIT: JOACHIM BURGER / JGU

The genetic origins of the first agriculturalists in the Neolithic period long seemed to lie in the Near East. A new study published in the journal Cell shows that the first farmers actually represented a mixture of Ice Age hunter-gatherer groups, spread from the Near East all the way to south-eastern Europe. Researchers from the University of Bern and the SIB Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics as well as from the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz and the University of Fribourg were involved in the study. The method they developed could help reveal other human evolution patterns with unmatched resolution.   

The first signs of agriculture and a sedentary lifestyle are found in the so-called ‘Fertile Crescent’, a region in the Near East where people began to settle down and domesticate animals and plants about 11,000 years ago. The question of the origin of agriculture and sedentism has occupied researchers for over 100 years: did farming spread from the Near East through cultural diffusion or through migration? Genetic analyses of prehistoric skeletons so far supported the idea that Europe’s first farmers were descended from hunter-gatherer populations in Anatolia. While that may well be the case, this new study shows that the Neolithic genetic origins cannot clearly be attributed to a single region. Unexpected and complex population dynamics occurred at the end of the Ice Age, and led to the ancestral genetic makeup of the populations who invented agriculture and a sedentary life-style i.e. the first Neolithic farmers.

First farmers emerged from a mixing process starting 14,000 years ago

Previous analyses had suggested that the first Neolithic people were genetically different from other human groups from that time. Little was known about their origins. Nina Marchi, one of the study's first authors from the Institute of Ecology and Evolution at the University of Bern and SIB says: "We now find that the first farmers of Anatolia and Europe emerged from a population admixed between hunter-gatherers from Europe and the Near East." According to the authors, the mixing process started around 14,000 years ago, which was followed by a period of extreme genetic differentiation lasting several thousand years.

A novel approach to model population history from prehistoric skeletons

This research was made possible by combining two techniques: the production of high-quality ancient genomes from prehistoric skeletons, coupled with demographic modeling on the resulting data. The research team coined the term "demogenomic modeling" for this purpose. "It is necessary to have genome data of the best possible quality so that the latest statistical genomic methods can reconstruct the subtle demographic processes of the last 30 thousand years at high resolution", says Laurent Excoffier, one of the senior authors of the study. Laurent Excoffier is a professor at the Institute of Ecology and Evolution at the University of Bern and group leader at SIB. He initiated the project together with Joachim Burger of the Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz and Daniel Wegmann of the University of Fribourg. Nina Marchi adds: "Simply comparing the similarity of different ancient genomes is not enough to understand how they evolved. We had to reconstruct the actual histories of the populations studied as accurately as possible. This is only possible with complex population genetic statistics."

Interdisciplinarity key to solve such ancient puzzles

Joachim Burger of the University of Mainz and second senior author emphasizes the necessity of interdisciplinarity: "It took close to ten years to gather and analyze the skeletons suitable for such a study. This was only possible by collaborating with numerous archaeologists and anthropologists, who helped us to anchor our models historically". The historical contextualisation was coordinated by Maxime Brami, who works with Burger at Johannes Gutenberg University. The young prehistorian was surprised by some of the study's findings: "Europe's first farmers seem to be descended from hunter-gatherer populations that lived all the way from the Near East to the Balkans. This was not foreseeable archaeologically”.

Towards a general model of human population evolution

Genetic data from fossils (skeletons) are badly damaged and must be processed accordingly using bioinformatics, as Daniel Wegmann from the University of Fribourg and group leader at SIB explains: "The high-resolution reconstruction of the prehistory of the Europeans was only possible thanks to methods that we specifically developed to analyse ancient fossil genomes." Joachim Burger adds: "With these approaches, we have not only elucidated the origins of the world’s first Neolithic populations, but we have established a general model of the evolution of human populations in Southwest Asia and Europe."

"Of course, spatial and temporal gaps remain, and this does not imply the end of studies on the evolution of humans in this area", concludes Laurent Excoffier. Thus, the team's research plan is already set; they want to supplement their demographic model with genomes from the later phases of the Neolithic and Bronze Ages to provide an increasingly detailed picture of human evolution.

University of Bern, Institute of Ecology and Evolution, Computational and Molecular Population Genetics (CMPG) lab People in the Computational and Molecular Population Genetics (CMPG) lab at the University of Bern use molecular techniques, theoretical developments, and computer simulations to reconstruct the demographic history of populations and species from genetic data, and to explore evolutionary scenarios. https://www.cmpg.iee.unibe.ch/index_eng.html

SIB Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics The SIB Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics is an internationally recognized non-profit organization, dedicated to biological and biomedical data science. Its data scientists are passionate about creating knowledge and solving complex questions in many fields, from biodiversity and evolution to medicine. www.sib.swiss

Palaeogenetics Group at the Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz The Palaeogenetics Group at the Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz in Germany performs research on the genetic population history of humans and their domestic animals. A particular focus lies on the Neolithic period when humans became sedentary in the Near East, Anatolia and Europe some 7,000-12,000 years ago. https://palaeogenetics-mainz.de

University of Fribourg, Bioinformatics lab At the bioinformatics lab of the university of Fribourg we develop dedicated analysis tools to correctly compare ancient DNA data affected by damages and other complications. https://www.unifr.ch/bio/en/research/bioinformatics/wegmann.html

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JOURNAL

Cell

DOI

10.1016/j.cell.2022.04.00 

ARTICLE TITLE

The genomic origins of the world's first farmers

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

12-May-2022

High-resolution genomes reveal nuanced

 origins of the first farmers

Peer-Reviewed Publication

CELL PRESS

Farming has been thought to originate from a single population in Southwest Asia, which covers parts of the modern-day Middle East, and made its way to areas in Turkey, Greece, and eventually across Western Europe. Scientists have long debated how these populations have emerged and flowed throughout these regions, but now an international team of researchers have excavated a trove of new genetic information that may settle the debate. Their findings, presented May 12 in the journal Cell, show that the world’s first farmers did not originate from a single group as was previously thought but from the mixing of two groups of hunter-gatherers during a tumultuous time in which human settlements almost went extinct.

“I see the study as the first attempt at demonstrating demographic modeling based on ancient DNA,” says senior author and population geneticist Laurent Excoffier (@loronet) of the University of Bern, Switzerland. By sequencing the genome of each ancient human multiple times, a technique called deep sequencing, the research team yielded higher-quality data and much more information than conventional analyses based on shallower or partial sequencing. “We get much more detail about the demographic history of those populations, including population divergence, expansions, and infer admixture dates, which was really impossible to do before.”

The ancient DNA-based model, which was refined by additional geographical, cultural, archaeological, and climate data, assumed that about 25,000 years ago, a large initial population split into two groups. One moved to Western Europe, while the other stayed in Southwest Asia. Later, because of the drop in global temperature, the Western group experienced an extreme reduction in its population, where some grew close to extinction. The model explained why descendants of European hunter-gatherers have lower genetic diversity, a question that has long puzzled scientists.

“This is a new finding, and it leads to a different interpretation of how these hunter-gatherer populations were structured socially,” says Excoffier. Researchers have thought the groups’ small population size was what contributed to their low genetic diversity, but the new evidence showed that their populations were much larger than previously thought. “What it implies to us is that they were perhaps more connected between different groups.”

As the temperature fell and rose, the population ebbed and flowed. During warm periods, the populations dispersed, resulting in overlapping territories and admixtures, where individuals from previously isolated groups interbred. The model revealed that some of the first farmers emerged from the admixture of hunter-gatherers from a Western group and an already mixed group living in the east around 12,900 years ago. These farmers who domesticated plants and animals then migrated west, eventually bringing their culture to central Europe. Today, many people from all over Europe have descended from them.

Next, the team plans to further analyze ancient genomes from other geographical sites and times to understand cultures and populations that appeared during different stages of the Stone Age and potentially Bronze Age.

“While our study brought new results about history, I think what it really shows is that it’s worth investing in high-quality genomic data,” says Excoffier. “These ancient materials are limited and too precious not to be optimally analyzed. We should extract as much information as possible, which will become lasting resources that could be shared.”

###

This work was supported by the German Science Foundation, the Humboldt Foundation, the Greek-German bilateral agreement, the Serbian Ministry of Science project, the ERC BIRTH project, the Skłodowska-Curie individual fellowship, the EMBO Long-Term fellowship, Mainz University, and grants from the Swiss SNSF and the Seal of Excellence Fund from the University of Berne.

Cell, Marchi et al. “The genomic origins of the world's first farmers” https://www.cell.com/cell/fulltext/S0092-8674(22)00455-X

Cell (@CellCellPress), the flagship journal of Cell Press, is a bimonthly journal that publishes findings of unusual significance in any area of experimental biology, including but not limited to cell biology, molecular biology, neuroscience, immunology, virology and microbiology, cancer, human genetics, systems biology, signaling, and disease mechanisms and therapeutics. Visit: http://www.cell.com/cell. To receive Cell Press media alerts, contact press@cell.com.

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JOURNAL

Cell

DOI

10.1016/j.cell.2022.04.008 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Experimental study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

The genomic origins of the world's first farmers

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

12-May-2022

From cavefish to humans: Evolution of metabolism in cavefish may provide insight into treatments for a host of diseases such as diabetes, heart disease, and stroke

Peer-Reviewed Publication

STOWERS INSTITUTE FOR MEDICAL RESEARCH

 

IMAGE: MORPHOLOGICAL DIFFERENCES BETWEEN CAVEFISH (TOP) COMPARED WITH SURFACE-DWELLING RIVER FISH (BOTTOM). view more 

CREDIT: STOWERS INSTITUTE FOR MEDICAL RESEARCH

KANSAS CITY, MO—May 12, 2022—New research from the Stowers Institute for Medical Research examines how cavefish, surface-dwelling river fish that flooded into underground cave systems over 100,000 years ago, developed unique metabolic adaptations to survive in nutrient-scarce environments. The study, published online in Nature Genetics on May 12, 2022, led by Jaya Krishnan, PhD, a senior research associate in the lab of Nicolas Rohner, PhD, created a genome-wide map of liver tissue for two independent colonies of cavefish along with river fish to understand how cavefish metabolism evolved and how this may be applicable for humans.  

Historically, humans have been able to adapt during periods of feast or famine. Today, however, feast has replaced famine in many regions around the globe leading to a rise in a host of diseases related to metabolism such as diabetes, heart disease and stroke. Collectively called metabolic syndrome, these conditions are associated with genetic mutations in regions of DNA that regulate how our genes work to keep us healthy; on an evolutionary timescale, the constant “feast state” is in its infancy, which for humans, means disease rather than adaptation.  

This study marks the first time genetic mapping of the non-coding regions of liver DNA that act to regulate gene activity and expression have been performed. The new data is a now valuable resource for the scientific community studying starvation resistance and metabolism.   

“It’s a very good foundation for us or anyone to now ask relevant questions in relation to metabolism, diet, and adaptation,” said Krishnan.  

Metabolism, or the way in which we utilize and store energy, is an integral part of health in all species. Cavefish are ideal for studying metabolism; during periodic flooding of caves, these fish intake and store all the nutrition they need to survive until the next nutrient inundation, which may not be for another year. “They can shed light on metabolic disorders such as diabetes and obesity,” said Krishnan, because, despite elevated fat and blood glucose levels, these fish remain vibrant and healthy.  

“The fact that these fish are apparently healthy, despite having these extreme traits is, by definition, a good place to ask how they deal with that,” said Rohner.  

What is truly remarkable is that the two independently derived cavefish colonies examined in this study evolved strikingly similar metabolic adaptations to survive in dark, nutrient-scarce environments. This raises the question, what can we learn from animals who have had the time to evolve? And even further, if multiple cavefish populations evolved in a very similar manner completely independently from each other, are there universal adaptation mechanisms that could potentially be triggered in other species like humans?   

“We know only a handful of genes that could be therapeutic targets,” said Krishnan. “This means we need to adopt novel ways to identify such potential genes so that we can investigate them, and cavefish are a very powerful system for us to do that.”  

Coauthors include Christopher W. Seidel, PhD, Ning Zhang, PhD, Narendra Pratap Singh, PhD, Jake VanCampen, Robert Peuß, PhD, Shaolei Xiong, Alexander Kenzior, Hua Li, PhD, and Joan W. Conaway, PhD.  

Funding for the study was provided by JDRF, the Edward Mallinckrodt Foundation, the National Institutes for Health (award R01GM127872), the National Science Foundation (award IOS-1933428), the Enabling Discovery through GEnomics of the National Science Foundation (award 1923372), the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (award PE2807/1-1) and by institutional support from the Stowers Institute for Medical Research. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the NIH.   

About the Stowers Institute for Medical Research 

Founded in 1994 through the generosity of Jim Stowers, founder of American Century Investments, and his wife, Virginia, the Stowers Institute for Medical Research is a non-profit, biomedical research organization with a focus on foundational research. Its mission is to expand our understanding of the secrets of life and improve life’s quality through innovative approaches to the causes, treatment, and prevention of diseases. 

The Institute consists of 17 independent research programs. Of the approximately 500 members, over 370 are scientific staff that include principal investigators, technology center directors, postdoctoral scientists, graduate students, and technical support staff. Learn more about the Institute at www.stowers.org and about its graduate program at www.stowers.org/gradschool. 

### 

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JOURNAL

Nature Genetics

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Experimental study

ARTICLE TITLE

Genome-wide analysis of cis-regulatory changes underlying metabolic adaptation of cavefish

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

12-May-2022

Unusually fast beaked whale has special deep-sea hunting strategy

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITEIT VAN AMSTERDAM

 

VIDEO: SOWERBY’S BEAKED WHALES (MESOPLODON BIDENS) SURFACING IN THE WATERS OFF TERCEIRA ISLAND, AZORES. CREDITS: M.G. OUDEJANS @KELP MARINE RESEARCH view more 

CREDIT: M.G. OUDEJANS @KELP MARINE RESEARCH

An international team of biologists has successfully used biologgers to reveal insights into the lifestyle and hunting behaviour of the little-known species Sowerby’s beaked whale. The team’s first results show that these dolphins have a surprisingly different, much faster lifestyle than related species. The research was led by Fleur Visser of the University of Amsterdam (UvA) and the Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research (NIOZ). The results were published on 12 May in the Journal of Experimental Biology.

Beaked whales include a number of species of marine mammals that can perform record-breaking dives. They routinely visit depths of up to several kilometres during hour-long hunting trips searching for deep-sea squid and fish. Due to their elusive nature and limited surface presence, little is known about their behaviour.

With 16 species, the so-called Mesoplodont whales form the largest genus of cetaceans. The genus includes some of the least-known marine mammals - so much so that three new species of these rhinoceros-sized whales have been discovered in just the past 30 years. Most of gthe species are physically very similar and are all assumed to be specialised deep-sea predators. Moreover, they often occur in the same areas and forage at similar depths. This raises the question as to how they are able to avoid competition among themselves for the same prey.

Biologging
For a few beaked whale species, biologging tags, attached to their backs with suction-cups, have revealed that they typically have a low-energy lifestyle: they are able to perform extreme deep dives through slow, energy-conserving swim-styles and hunting strategies. But Sowerby’s beaked whales had never been tagged before. However, after years of effort, the research team were able to deploy biologging tags on two Sowerby’s beaked whales. The tags recorded detailed information about the diving, movement and echolocation strategies of these extremely shy animals, providing the first opportunity to investigate their foraging behaviour. This enabled direct comparison of their hunting strategies with those of their close relatives, the slow-moving Blainville’s beaked whale.  

Surprise
Much to the researchers’ surprise, Sowerby’s beaked whales differ strongly from other Mesoplodon species in their swimming and hunting strategies. While targeting a similar foraging depth (800-1300 m), they consistently swim faster, perform shorter deep dives, and echolocate at a faster rate, with higher frequency clicks. This first record of a ‘fast’ beaked whale suggests that Mesoplodon whales exploit a broader diversity of deep-sea niches than hitherto suspected. The deep-sea is a rich and diverse hunting ground for marine mammal predators, who have clearly developed a wider range of specialised strategies to be able to exploit it than was previously known. The marked deviation of Sowerby’s beaked whales from the typically slower behaviour of other beaked whales also has potential implications for their response to man-made sounds, which appear to be strongly behaviourally-driven in other species.

CAPTION

Sowerby’s beaked whale (Mesoplodon bidens) surfacing in the waters off Terceira Island, Azores. The species’ characteristically long beak protrudes from the water during surfacing.

CREDIT

Kelp Marine Research

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JOURNAL

Journal of Experimental Biology

DOI

10.1242/jeb.243728 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Observational study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Animals

ARTICLE TITLE

Sowerby’s beaked whale biosonar and movement strategy indicate deep-sea foraging niche differentiation in mesoplodont whales

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

12-May-2022