It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Wednesday, January 31, 2024
Music causes similar emotions and bodily sensations across cultures
A new study of the Turku PET Centre in Finland has shown that music evokes similar emotions and bodily sensations around the world.
Music can be felt directly in the body. When we hear our favourite catchy song, we are overcome with the urge to move to the music. Music can activate our autonomic nervous system and even cause shivers down the spine. A new study from the Turku PET Centre in Finland shows how emotional music evokes similar bodily sensations across cultures.
“Music that evoked different emotions, such as happiness, sadness or fear, caused different bodily sensations in our study. For example, happy and danceable music was felt in the arms and legs, while tender and sad music was felt in the chest area,” explains Academy Research Fellow Vesa Putkinen.
The emotions and bodily sensations evoked by music were similar across Western and Asian listeners. The bodily sensations were also linked with the music-induced emotions.
“Certain acoustic features of music were associated with similar emotions in both Western and Asian listeners. Music with a clear beat was found happy and danceable while dissonance in music was associated with aggressiveness. Since these sensations are similar across different cultures, music-induced emotions are likely independent of culture and learning and based on inherited biological mechanisms,” says Professor Lauri Nummenmaa.
“Music’s influence on the body is universal. People move to music in all cultures and synchronized postures, movements and vocalizations are a universal sign for affiliation. Music may have emerged during the evolution of human species to promote social interaction and sense of community by synchronising the bodies and emotions of the listeners,” continues Putkinen.
The study was conducted in collaboration with Aalto University from Finland and the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China (UESTC) as an online questionnaire survey. Altogether 1,500 Western and Asian participants rated the emotions and bodily sensations evoked by Western and Asian songs.
The infection ability of viruses has been reduced by 96% using mechanical methods
An international research project in which the URV has taken part has designed and manufactured a surface that has virucidal properties but does not use any chemicals
A team of researchers from the URV and the RMIT University (Australia) has designed and manufactured a surface that uses mechanical means to mitigate the infectious potential of viruses. Made of silicon, the artificial surface consists of a series of tiny spikes that damage the structure of viruses when they come into contact with it. The research has revealed how these processes work and that they are 96% effective. Using this technology in environments in which there is potentially dangerous biological material would make laboratories easier to control and safer for the professionals who work there.
Spike the viruses to kill them. This seemingly unsophisticated concept requires considerable technical expertise and has one great advantage: a high virucidal potential that does not require the use of chemicals. The process of making the virucidal surfaces starts with a smooth metal plate, which is bombarded with ions to strategically remove material. The result is a surface full of needles that are 2 nanometers thick – 30,000 would fit in a hair – and 290 high. “In this case, we used silicon because it is less complicated technically speaking than other metals”, explains Vladimir Baulin, researcher from the URV’s Physical and Inorganic Chemistry Department.
This procedure is not new for Baulin, who has spent the last ten years studying mechanical methods for controlling pathogenic microorganisms inspired by the world of nature: “The wings of insects such as dragonflies or cicadas have a nanometric structure that can pierce bacteria and fungi”, he explains. In this case, however, viruses are an order of magnitude smaller than bacteria so the needles must be correspondingly smaller if they are to have any effect on them. One example of this is hPIV-3, the object of study of this research, which causes respiratory infections such as bronchiolitis, bronchitis or pneumonia. The so-called parainfluenza viruses cause a third of all acute respiratory infections and are associated with lower respiratory tract infections in children. “In addition to being an epidemiologically important virus, it is a model virus, safe to handle, as it does not cause potentially fatal diseases in adults”, says Baulin.
The process by which viruses lose their infectious ability when they come into contact with the nanostructured surface was analysed in theoretical and practical terms by the research team. The URV researchers, Vladimir Baulin and Vassil Tzanov, used the finite element method – a computational method that divides up the surface of the virus and processes each fragment independently – to simulate the interactions between the viruses and the needles and their consequences. At the same time, the RMIT University researchers carried out a practical experimental analysis, exposing the virus to the nanostructured surface and observing the results.
The findings show that this method is extremely effective and incapacitates 96% of viruses that come into contact with the surface within a period of six hours. The study has confirmed that the surfaces have a virucidal effect because of the ability of the needles to destroy or incapacitate viruses by damaging their external structure or piercing the membrane. Using this technology in risk environments such as laboratories or health centres in which there is potentially dangerous biological material would make it easier to contain infectious diseases and make these environments safer for researchers, health workers and patients.
THE RESEARCH GROUP OF THE PROFESSOR OF CELL AND MOLECULAR BIOLOGY VARPU MARJOMÄKI FROM THE UNIVERSITY OF JYVÄSKYLÄ, IS INVESTIGATING HOW DIFFERENT SURFACES AND MATERIALS COULD DECREASE THE SPREAD OF VIRAL DISEASES.
Researchers at the University of Jyväskylä, Finland, are currently developing anti-viral surfaces to decrease the spread of infectious diseases. A recent study found that a resin ingredient is effective against coronaviruses and strongly decreases their infectivity on plastic surfaces.
Viruses may persist on solid surfaces for long periods, which may contribute to an increased risk for infection. The research group of the Professor of Cell and Molecular Biology Varpu Marjomäki from the University of Jyväskylä, is investigating how different surfaces and materials could decrease the spread of viral diseases. For example, they are studying how long corona viruses survive on different surfaces when humidity and temperature are varying.
- This information would be of direct benefit to both consumers and industry. Antiviral functionality could be used, for example, in restaurants, kindergartens, public transport and stores, on different surfaces, where viruses can potentially stay infective for a long time and spread easily, says Professor Varpu Marjomäki from the University of Jyväskylä.
Plastic surfaces with antiviral functionality
The researchers of the Nanoscience Center of the University of Jyväskylä studied resin-embedded plastic surfaces against both the seasonal human coronavirus and the SARS-CoV-2 virus.
- In our recent study, we found that the viruses stayed infective for more than two days on plastic surfaces that were not treated at all. In contrast, a plastic surface containing resin showed good antiviral activity within fifteen minutes of contact and excellent efficacy after thirty minutes. Plastic treated with resin is therefore a promising candidate for an antiviral surface, says Marjomäki.
Research cooperation project with Premix Oy
The research is part of the BIOPROT project (Development of bio-based and antimicrobial materials and use as protective equipment) funded by Business Finland and has been done in collaboration with the Finnish company Premix Oy.
- The project aims to study existing and develop new antiviral solutions in cooperation with companies such as Premix Oy. This will help to create new products for future pandemics and epidemics, says Marjomäki.
New bio-based and antimicrobial materials in protective equipment
The BIOPROT project involves a total of six universities and research institutes and several companies. The project is coordinated by LUT University and aims to develop new, sustainable and safe material solutions that will be used in the fight against infections, with a particular focus on respiratory and surgical mouth masks and reusable masks for industrial use. It is also hoped that the project will improve the self-sufficiency of products and materials in Europe. At the University of Jyväskylä, under the supervision of Marjomäki, the project is developing bio-based antiviral materials.
- Effective and nature-derived antivirals are available in Finland and could be used for the functionalisation of masks and surfaces. Presently, there are only few bio-based functional solutions available, so we have an opportunity to be pioneers in this field, says Marjomäki.
Further information:
Prof. Varpu Marjomäki, varpu.s.marjomaki@jyu.fi, +358405634422
Antiviral action of a functionalized plastic surface against human coronaviruses, S. Shroff, M. Haapakoski, K. Tapio, M. Laajala, M. Leppänen, Z. Plavec, A. Haapala, S. J. Butcher, J. Ihalainen, J. J. Toppari, V. Marjomäki, Microbiology Spectrum, 16.1.2024, https://doi.org/10.1128/spectrum.03008-23
A new discovery by Tel Aviv University has succeeded in cultivating and characterizing tomato varieties with higher water use efficiency without compromising yield. The researchers, employing CRISPR genetic editing technology, were able to grow tomatoes that consume less water while preserving yield, quality, and taste.
The research was conducted in the laboratories of Prof. Shaul Yalovsky and Dr. Nir Sade and was led by a team of researchers from the School of Plant Sciences and Food Security at Tel Aviv University’s Wise Faculty of Life Sciences. The team included Dr. Mallikarjuna Rao Puli, a former postdoctoral fellow supervised by Prof. Yalovsky, and Purity Muchoki, a doctoral student jointly supervised by Prof. Yalovsky and Dr. Sade. Additional students and postdoctoral fellows from TAU’s School of Plant Sciences and Food Security, along with researchers from Ben Gurion University and the University of Oregon, also contributed to the research. The study’s findings were published in the academic journal PNAS.
The researchers explain that in light of global warming and the diminishing of freshwater resources, there is a growing demand for agricultural crops that consume less water without compromising yield. Naturally, at the same time, because agricultural crops rely on water to grow and develop, it is particularly challenging to identify suitable plant varieties.
In a process called transpiration, plants evaporate water from their leaves. Concurrently, carbon dioxide enters into the leaves, and is assimilated into sugar by photosynthesis, which also takes place in the leaves. These two processes — transpiration and carbon dioxide uptake — occur simultaneously through special openings in the surface of leaves called stomata. The stomata can open and close, serving as a mechanism through which plants regulate their water status.
The researchers highlight that under drought conditions, plants respond by closing their stomata, thereby reducing water loss by transpiration. The problem is that due to the inextricable coupling between the transpiration of the water and the uptake of carbon dioxide, the closing of the stomata leads to a reduction in the uptake of carbon dioxide by the plant. This decrease in carbon dioxide uptake leads to a decline in the production of sugar by photosynthesis. Since plants rely on the sugar generated in photosynthesis as a vital energy source, a reduction in this process adversely affects plant growth.
In crop plants, the decline in photosynthetic sugar production manifests as a decline in both the quantity and quality of the harvest. In tomatoes, for example, the damage to the crop is reflected in a decrease in the number of fruits, their weight, and the amount of sugar in each fruit. Fruits with lower sugar content are less tasty and less nutritious.
In the present study, the researchers induced a modification in the tomato through genetic editing using the CRISPR method, targeting a gene known as ROP9. The ROP proteins function as switches, toggling between an active or inactive state.
Prof. Yalovsky: “We discovered that eliminating ROP9 by the CRISPR technology cause a partial closure of the stomata. This effect is particularly pronounced during midday, when the rate of water loss from the plants in the transpiration process is at its highest. Conversely, in the morning and afternoon, when the transpiration rate is lower, there was no significant difference in the rate of water loss between the control plants and ROP9-modified plants. Because the stomata remained open in the morning and afternoon, the plants were able to uptake enough carbon dioxide, preventing any decline in sugar production by photosynthesis even during the afternoon hours, when the stomata were more closed in the ROP9-modified plants.”
To assess the impact of the impaired ROP9 on the crop, the researchers conducted an extensive field experiment involving hundreds of plants. The results revealed that although the ROP9-modified plants lose less water during the transpiration process, there is no adverse effect on photosynthesis, crop quantity, or quality (the amount of sugar in the fruits). Furthermore, the study identified a new and unexpected mechanism for regulating the opening and closing of the stomata, related to the level of oxidizing substances, known as reactive oxygen species, in the stomata. This discovery holds significant implications for basic scientific knowledge as well.
Dr. Sade: “There is great similarity between the ROP9 in tomatoes and ROP proteins found in other crop plants such as pepper, eggplant and wheat. Therefore, the discoveries detailed in our article could form the basis for the development of additional crop plants with enhanced water use efficiency, and for a deeper understanding of the mechanisms behind stomatal opening and closing.”
Washington, D.C.—Tomato juice can kill Salmonella Typhi and other bacteria that can harm people's digestive and urinary tract health, according to research published this week in Microbiology Spectrum, a journal of the American Society for Microbiology. Salmonella Typhi is a deadly human-specific pathogen that causes typhoid fever.
“Our main goal in this study was to find out if tomato and tomato juice can kill enteric pathogens, including Salmonella Typhi, and if so, what qualities they have that make them work,” said principal study investigator Jeongmin Song, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Department of Microbiology & Immunology, Cornell University. First, the researchers, in laboratory experiments, checked to see if tomato juice really does kill Salmonella Typhi. Once they ascertained it did, the team looked at the tomato's genome to find the antimicrobial peptides that were involved. Antimicrobial peptides are very small proteins that impair the bacterial membrane that keeps them as intact organisms. The researchers chose 4 possible antimicrobial peptides and tested how well they worked against Salmonella Typhi. This helped them find 2 antimicrobial peptides effective against Salmonella Typhi.
The research team conducted more tests on Salmonella Typhi variants that appear in places where the disease is common. They also did a computer study to learn more about how the antibacterial peptides kill Salmonella Typhi and other enteric pathogens. Lastly, they looked at how well tomato juice worked against other enteric pathogens that can hurt people's digestive and urinary tract health.
The most significant discovery is that tomato juice is effective in eliminating Salmonella Typhi, its hypervirulent variants, and other bacteria that can harm people's digestive and urinary tract health. In particular, 2 antimicrobial peptides can eliminate these pathogens by impairing the bacterial membrane, a protective layer that surrounds the pathogen.
“Our research shows that tomato and tomato juice can get rid of enteric bacteria like Salmonella,” Song said. The researchers said they hope that when the general public, particularly children and teenagers, learns about the outcome of the study, they will want to eat and drink more tomatoes as well as other fruits and vegetables, because they provide natural antibacterial benefits to consumers.
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The American Society for Microbiology is one of the largest professional societies dedicated to the life sciences and is composed of 36,000 scientists and health practitioners. ASM's mission is to promote and advance the microbial sciences.
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JOURNAL
Microbiology Spectrum
Asparagus and orchids are more similar than you think
What does an asparagus have in common with a vanilla orchid? Not much, if you are just looking at the two plants’ appearances. However, when you look inside - their leaves are more similar than you would think – as revealed by the composition of their cell walls.
By studying plant cell walls – which are to plants what skeletons are to humans – we can reveal the composition of how leaves and stems of plants are actually constructed. This is exactly what a team of University of Copenhagen researchers has done, in a large comprehensive study. In doing so, they have created something truly novel: a large "reference catalogue" of plant cell wall compositions from 287 species, broadly representing the entire plant kingdom.
"Flowering plants have succeeded in adapting to the most unwelcoming and harshest environments in the world, in part due to the construction of their cell walls. They provide the plants with both mechanical structure and ensure the internal transport of water. Plant cell walls are composed of many different carbohydrates, that each have a unique structure and function – you can think of them like toy building blocks." says botanist Louise Isager Ahl from the Natural History Museum of Denmark, and continues:
"Although humans rely heavily on plants and their carbohydrates for food, building materials, clothing and medicine, our knowledge of their fine structure is still quite limited. We know that carbohydrates are some of the most complex chemical structures in nature, but how they are assembled, how they work and how they have evolved over the past several million years is still largely unknown."
By analysing leaf and stem tissues from 287 different plant species, the researchers investigated the connection between the ultra-complex plant carbohydrates and their evolutionary history, growth forms and habitats. The species included in the study represent the most important evolutionary branches of the plant tree of life, from algae to vascular plants.
Genetic heritage more influential than environment
The researchers' hypothesis was that growth form and habitat would also affect plant cell wall structure. They expected, for example, to find similarities in the cell wall composition between species that were genetically distant but living in the same environment. This turned out not to be the case:
"As an example, in a typical Danish beech forest, you will find beech trees, anemones, various grasses, and other plants. Since they share the same habitat, it would be easy to think that their construction is also similar. However, our analyses show that the carbohydrate compositions of their cell walls are vastly different. And when we compare carbohydrate compositions with the plants' family history, habitat and growth form, we can see that it is primarily their family history that determines their individual structures," explains Louise Isager Ahl.
"The carbohydrate composition of a plant is thereby more closely related to where it is placed in a family tree than to its habitat and growth form. Here, heritage plays a more important role than environment," adds Professor Peter Ulvskov from the Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences.
Conversely, this also means that species that morphologically resemble each other or live in the same type of habitat can be constructed in very different ways. One good example of this relates to a pair of succulents studied by the scientists.
"Among others, we examined two succulent species, the jade plant (Crassula ovata) and jade necklace (Peperomia rotundifolia), both are common living room plants where the leaves resemble one another. However, they belong to two different families, and when we look at their carbohydrates, it turns out that the two plants are built very differently too," says Louise Isager Ahl.
Targeted plant breeding
The scientists hope that others will make use of their large dataset, which is freely available, together with their recently published article in the journal Plant, Cell & Environment.The catalogue of cell wall compositions could, for example, be used as a starting point for targeted breeding of crop plants.
"Even though the cell walls of plants are an important component in our food, animal feed, textiles and other materials, we have yet to target our breeding of cultivated plants to improve their cell wall properties. For example, cell walls determine to a large extent the digestibility of plant material. Targeted breeding of cell walls could increase both the quality and sustainability of animal feed. Now there is a catalogue to start from," says Peter Ulvskov.
Furthermore, the researchers believe that the dataset is ideal when it comes to research into climate-resilient plants.
"Our data can be used as an encyclopedia orreference database for researchers when they, for example, want to plan a study on a plant group they have not previously worked on. For example if you want to study how plant species in the rain forest, desert or on the heath react to environmental influences such as drought, high CO2 levels or floods – the dataset can be used as a benchmark," says Louise Isager Ahl.
This type of knowledge is important because climatic changes will probably change plant habitats:
"All of the climatic and environmental changes that we are now facing are challenging the planet's plants, and thus humans as well. Because we are deeply dependent on how plants function. If we are going to develop more resilient plants, it is important that we understand the mechanisms by which they survive or succumb. Here, understanding their building blocks, in the form of cell walls and carbohydrates plays a key role," concludes Peter Ulvskov.
ABOUT THE STUDY
The researchers analysed leaf and stem tissue from 287 specially selected plant species. The species represent both the main evolutionary branches of the plant kingdom, but also adaptations to a variety of habitats. The samples were examined using the MAPP (microarray polymer profiling) method, which provided unique carbohydrate (polysaccharide) compositions for both leaf and stem material. This data was then linked to the developmental history of the plants and their respective habitats.
Plant materials were collected both in nature, primarily on the island of Zealand, Demark, and from the University of Copenhagen’s various collections at the Natural History Museum of Denmark’s Botanical Garden, university greenhouses at the Frederiksberg Campus and the Arboretum in Hørsholm.
The researchers behind the study are: Jonatan U. Fangel, Niels Jacobsen, Jozef Mravec and Peter Ulvskov from the Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences; Louise Isager Ahl from the Natural History Museum of Denmark; Klavs Martin Sørensen and Søren Balling Engelsen from the Department of Food Science; Cassie Bakshani and William Willats from Newcastle University, UK and Maria Dalgaard Mikkelsen from the Technical University of Denmark (DTU).
IN COLLABORATION WITH NEW YORK UNIVERSITY’S MICHAEL LONG AND STANFORD UNIVERSITY’S FENG CHEN AND SHAUL DRUCKMANN, COLD SPRING HARBOR LABORATORY NEUROSCIENTIST ARKARUP BANERJEE IS USING SINGING MICE, LIKE THE ONE SHOWN HERE, TO UNDERSTAND HOW OUR BRAINS CONTROL TIMING AND COMMUNICATION. THESE STUDIES MAY OFFER VALUABLE INSIGHTS INTO NEUROLOGICAL CONDITIONS THAT AFFECT OUR ABILITY TO SPEAK, INCLUDING STROKES AND COMMUNICATION DISORDERS.
CREDIT: BANERJEE LAB/COLD SPRING HARBOR LABORATORY
Life has a challenging tempo. Sometimes, it moves faster or slower than we’d like. Nevertheless, we adapt. We pick up the rhythm of conversations. We keep pace with the crowd walking a city sidewalk.
“There are many instances where we have to do the same action but at different tempos. So the question is, how does the brain do it," says Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Assistant Professor Arkarup Banerjee.
Now, Banerjee and collaborators have uncovered a new clue that suggests the brain bends our processing of time to suit our needs. And it’s partly thanks to a noisy critter from Costa Rica named Alston’s singing mouse.
This special breed is known for its human-audible vocalizations, which last several seconds. One mouse will sing out a longing cry, and another will respond with a tune of its own. Notably, the song varies in length and speed. Banerjee and his team looked to determine how neural circuits in the mice’s brains govern their song’s tempo.
The researchers pretended to engage in duets with the mice while analyzing a region of their brains called the orofacial motor cortex (OMC). They recorded neurons’ activity over many weeks. They then looked for differences among songs with distinct durations and tempos.
They found that OMC neurons engage in a process called temporal scaling. “Instead of encoding absolute time like a clock, the neurons track something like relative time,” Banerjee explains. “They actually slow down or speed up the interval. So, it’s not like one or two seconds, but 10%, 20%.”
The discovery offers new insight into how the brain generates vocal communication. But Banerjee suspects its implications go beyond language or music. It might help explain how time is computed in other parts of the brain, allowing us to adjust various behaviors accordingly. And that might tell us more about how our beautifully complex brains work.
“It’s this three-pound block of flesh that allows you to do everything from reading a book to sending people to the moon," says Banerjee. "It provides us with flexibility. We can change on the fly. We adapt. We learn. If everything was a stimulus-response, with no opportunity for learning, nothing that changes, no long-term goals, we wouldn’t need a brain. We believe the cortex exists to add flexibility to behavior.”
In other words, it helps make us who we are. Banerjee’s discovery may bring science closer to understanding how our brains enable us to interact with the world. The possible implications for technology, education, and therapy are as unlimited as our imagination.
