Wednesday, February 26, 2025

 

50 years after the Asilomar conference, Trends in Biotechnology explores regulations for genetic modification technology





Cell Press
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Genetic technologies have the potential to help solve the ever-growing challenges of food insecurity and global health. But for this potential to be met, regulations that hinder scientific innovation need to be reconsidered. In February 1975, the Asilomar conference set the groundwork for the development of evidence-based safety guidelines for the up-and-coming field of agricultural biotechnology.

To mark the 50th anniversary of the Asilomar conference on recombinant DNA, the Cell Press journal Trends in Biotechnology is publishing a focus issue about how genetic modification is regulated. This collection of opinion and review papers reflects on how the Asilomar conference continues to impact genetic technology innovation and adoption around the world.

“For significantly reduced food insecurity and dramatically improved human health by 2050, there needs to be a global return to the wisdom of biotechnology’s pioneers and the risk-appropriate regulations they envisioned and developed,” writes Trends in Biotechnology editor Matthew Pavlovich.

Highlights from the Trends in Biotechnology focus issue: 

In this opinion article, Stuart Smyth and colleagues propose that regulatory frameworks developed post-2000 are not based on scientific evidence but instead prioritize socioeconomic factors that are difficult if not impossible to assess. The authors review evidence that regulatory delays have resulted in economic, environmental, and resource losses—for example, delays in the adoption of genetically modified canola in Australia are estimated to have resulted in the loss of AUS$485 million, the application of 6.5 million kg of additional active ingredients (e.g., pesticides), and the additional emission of 24.2 million kgs of greenhouse gases.

In this opinion article, Simona Lubieniechi and colleagues argue that regulatory frameworks for agricultural biotechnology should be based on each product’s unique attributes and risks rather than on the methods used to produce the products (e.g., genetic modification). They also discuss how the recent development of gene editing techniques such as CRISPR-Cas9 offers an opportunity to rethink the regulation of agricultural biotechnologies, since they enable precise genetic intervention without introducing any foreign or “transgenic” DNA.

The regulation of pharmaceuticals and medical treatments that are produced using genetically engineered organisms sits at the crossroads between GMO law and pharmaceutical law. In this opinion paper, Hans-Georg Dederer reflects on human health applications of genetic technology and how innovation and commercialization in this field are impacted by regulation. He discusses success stories in public health, such as insulin produced using genetically modified E. coli, and reflects on the potential of future applications such as targeted gene therapy and xenotransplantation using organs from genetically modified pigs.

Beneficial soil microbes have a huge impact on crop health and yield. In this review article, Aranksha Thakor and Trevor Charles discuss how genetically engineered soil microbes could offer an alternative to chemical fertilizers and pesticides and help plants resist climate stressors such as drought. Thakor and Charles argue that to unlock the full potential of recombinant DNA technology in addressing global challenges, regulatory reform for recombinant-DNA-derived microbial products for crop plants is essential.

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Trends in Biotechnology (@TrendsinBiotech) is a multi-disciplinary Cell Press journal publishing original research and reviews on exciting developments in biotechnology, with the option to publish open access. This journal is a leading global platform for discussion of significant and transformative concepts across applied life sciences that examine bio-based solutions to real-world problems. Trends in Biotechnology provides cutting-edge research that breaks new ground and reviews that provide insights into the future direction of the field, giving the reader a novel point of view. Visit https://www.cell.com/trends/biotechnology. To receive Cell Press media alerts, contact press@cell.com.    

Journal

Trends in Biotechnology

DOI

10.1016/j.tibtech.2024.11.003 

Method of Research

Commentary/editorial

Subject of Research

Not applicable

Article Title

50 years after Asilomar

Article Publication Date

26-Feb-2025

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Fish teeth show how ease of innovation enables rapid evolution




University of California - Davis


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Fish Teeth Show How Ease of Innovation Enables Rapid Evolution 

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The cichlid fish of Africa's Great Lakes have formed new species more rapidly than any other group of vertebrates. A new study shows that the ease with which these fish can develop a biological innovation (complex teeth), not just the innovation itself, enables this rapid evolution.

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Credit: Nick Peoples, UC Davis




It’s not what you do, it’s how readily you do it. Rapid evolutionary change might have more to do with how easily a key innovation can be gained or lost rather than with the innovation itself, according to new work by biologists at the University of California, Davis, who studied how teeth in certain fishes evolved in response to food sources and habitats.

Their work was published Feb. 26 in Nature.

“This changes the way we think about key innovations,” said Nick Peoples, first author of the paper and a graduate student working with Professor Peter Wainwright at the UC Davis Department of Evolution and Ecology. 

Wainwright’s lab studies the evolution and diversity of fish. The cichlid fishes of Africa’s great lakes are a particularly large and diverse group, adapted to a wide variety of habitats and food sources in the lakes. They form new species more readily than any other group of vertebrates. 

Adaptations of the teeth and jaws that allow the fish to adapt to a wide range of food sources and habitats are thought to be a factor in their success. Fish, including cichlids, have either “simple” teeth, basically cone-shaped pegs, or “complex” teeth with multiple cusps that can adapt to feed on different prey. 

Peoples spent two years examining the teeth of over 30,000 species of fish, including 1,000 species of African cichlids. He used the data to reconstruct when and how often complex teeth evolved, or disappeared, in fishes.

Across all fishes, complex teeth appeared 86 times but are relatively unusual in modern fish, he found. In the African cichlids, they are far more common. 

Peoples discovered that it’s not just the appearance of complex teeth that makes species accumulate faster. The ability of cichlid lineages to quickly switch between simple and complex teeth (and back) is itself an innovation that drives the rapid formation of new species. 

“It’s not just the teeth, it’s how quickly they are gained or lost,” Peoples said. The African cichlids appear to have retained the genetic program needed to make either type of teeth, meaning that they can evolve to switch between them quite easily. 

The discovery that how easily a trait can be gained or lost can itself be an innovation that enables rapid evolution could apply to other innovations that appear multiple times, such as adhesive toe pads for climbing, Peoples said. 

Additional authors on the paper are Michalis Mihalitsis at UC Davis and Michael Burns, now at Oregon State University. 


Complex teeth with multiple cusps in an African cichlid fish. The cichlid fish of Africa's Great Lakes have formed new species more rapidly than any other group of vertebrates. A new study shows that the ease with which these fish can develop a biological innovation (complex teeth), not just the innovation itself, enables this rapid evolution.

Credit

Nick Peoples, UC Davis.

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Journal

Nature

DOI

10.1038/s41586-025-08612-z 

Method of Research

Experimental study

Subject of Research

Animals

Article Title

Evolutionary lability of a key innovation spurs rapid diversification

Article Publication Date

26-Feb-2025

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Earliest evidence for humans in rainforests




Max Planck Institute of Geoanthropology
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Stone Tool 

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Stone tools like this one, excavated at the Anyama site, reveal that humans were present at the rainforested site roughly 150,000 years ago

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Credit: Jimbob Blinkhorn, MPG




Rainforests are a major world biome which humans are not thought to have inhabited until relatively recently. New evidence now shows that humans lived in rainforests by at least 150 thousand years ago in Africa, the home of our species.

Our species originated in Africa around 300 thousand years ago, but the ecological and environmental contexts of our evolution are still little understood. In the search for answers, rainforests have often been overlooked, generally thought of as natural barriers to human habitation. 

Now, in a new study published in Nature, an international team of researchers challenge this view with the discovery that humans were living in rainforests within the present-day Côte d'Ivoire much earlier than previously thought. The article reveals that human groups were living in rainforests by 150 thousand years ago and argues that human evolution occurred across a variety of regions and habitats. 

The story of this discovery begins in the 1980s, when the site was first investigated by co-author Professor Yodé Guédé of l'Université Félix Houphouët-Boigny on a joint Ivorian-Soviet mission. Results from this initial study revealed a deeply stratified site containing stone tools in an area of present-day rainforest. But the age of the tools – and the ecology of the site when they were deposited there – could not be determined.

“Several recent climate models suggested the area could have been a rainforest refuge in the past as well, even during dry periods of forest fragmentation,” explains Professor Eleanor Scerri, leader of the Human Palaeosystems research group at the Max Planck Institute of Geoanthropology and senior author of the study. “We knew the site presented the best possible chance for us to find out how far back into the past rainforest habitation extended.”

The Human Palaeosystems team therefore mounted a mission to re-investigate the site. “With Professor Guédé’s help, we relocated the original trench and were able to re-investigate it using state of the art methods that were not available thirty to forty years ago,” says Dr. James Blinkhorn, researcher at the University of Liverpool and the Max Planck Institute of Geoanthropology. The renewed study took place just in time, as the site has since been destroyed by mining activity.

“Before our study, the oldest secure evidence for habitation in African rainforests was around 18 thousand years ago and the oldest evidence of rainforest habitation anywhere came from southeast Asia at about 70 thousand years ago,” explains Dr. Eslem Ben Arous, researcher at the National Centre for Human Evolution Research (CENIEH), the Max Planck Institute of Geoanthropology and lead author of the study. “This pushes back the oldest known evidence of humans in rainforests by more than double the previously known estimate.”

The researchers used several dating techniques, including Optically Stimulated Luminescence and Electron-Spin Resonance, to arrive at a date roughly 150 thousand years ago. 

At the same time, sediment samples were separately investigated for pollen, silicified plant remains called phytoliths, and leaf wax isotopes. Analyses indicated the region was heavily wooded, with pollen and leaf waxes typical for humid West African rainforests.  Low levels of grass pollen showed that the site wasn’t in a narrow strip of forest, but in a dense woodland. 

“This exciting discovery is the first of a long list as there are other Ivorian sites waiting to be investigated to study the human presence associated with rainforest,” says Professor Guédé joyfully. 

“Convergent evidence shows beyond doubt that ecological diversity sits at the heart of our species,” says Professor Scerri. “This reflects a complex history of population subdivision, in which different populations lived in different regions and habitat types. We now need to ask how these early human niche expansions impacted the plants and animals that shared the same niche-space with humans. In other words, how far back does human alteration of pristine natural habitats go?”

The research was funded by the Max Planck Society and the Leakey Foundation. 


 initially excavated by Professor Guédé’s team was overgrown when researchers returned for the current study. 

Credit

Jimbob Blinkhorn, MPG

Journal

Nature

DOI

10.1038/s41586-025-08613-y 

Article Title

Humans in Africa’s wet tropical forests 150 thousand years ago

Article Publication Date

26-Feb-2025

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New spatial mechanism for the coexistence of tree species


Hidden patterns in tree distribution stabilize biodiversity in forests



Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research - UFZ

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tropical forest 

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The spatial distribution of tree species in species-rich tropical forests is highly complex. The figure shows the spatial position, species identity (colour) and size of individual trees in a 500 m × 1000 m study plot on Barro Colorado Island (Panama), which was also analysed in the study. 

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Credit: UFZ





The data sets are very large: with more than 75 permanent forest dynamics plots in 29 countries worldwide, the Forest Global Earth Observatory network (ForestGEO) of the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI) provides excellent forest inventories for investigating the dynamics of forest ecosystems and better understanding the processes that drive the structure and function of forests. On these 20-to-50-hectare plots, every single tree with a diameter not much larger than a pencil has been identified, measured and mapped every five years, often totalling more than 200 000 trees. The two UFZ researchers, Dr. Thorsten Wiegand and Prof. Dr. Andreas Huth, took a closer look at 21 of these forest megaplots, which cover a gradient from the tropical to the subtropical and temperate zones. Their international team then used the ForestGEO data to analyse the distribution of tree species in the forests and which processes are responsible for their spatial patterns. “The search for simple principles underlying the spatial structure and dynamics of plant communities is a long-standing challenge in theoretical ecology,” says first author Thorsten Wiegand, describing their research question.

For their analyses, the research team examined all individual trees with a diameter at breast height of at least 10 centimetres as found in the forests. “The closer the forest plot was located to the equator, the less likely it was that trees of rare species had a tree of the same species nearby,” says Andreas Huth. In temperate forests, in contrast, they found only slight differences between common and rare species. This results in unexpected and systematic changes in the spatial patterns from the tropics over the subtropics to the temperate latitudes. This intriguing finding immediately raised two questions: What consequences do these changes have for the coexistence of tree species and which processes cause them?

To find answers to these questions, the researchers used information on the dispersal mechanisms of the different species. “Roughly 70 to 80 percent of tree species in the tropics are dispersed by animals, but much less in temperate forests,” says Thorsten Wiegand. Another important factor is mycorrhizal fungi. This network of fungi forms a symbiotic relationship with the fine roots of the trees to benefit both organisms: The fungi supply the trees with nutrients and water, receiving glucose in return. “In temperate forests, mycorrhiza usually protect the roots of young trees in the neighbourhood of large conspecifics from pathogens or insect pests,” explains UFZ researcher Dr. Samuel M. Fischer, who was also involved in the study. In tropical forests, on the other hand, this is mostly not the case. “That's why seeds in the tropics have to ensure that they are dispersed away from their parent trees, a job mostly done by animals,” he says. The conclusion: “In tropical forests, mechanisms such as seed dispersal by animals lead to the observed patterns, while in temperate forests, the patterns are shaped by mycorrhizal fungi” says Thorsten Wiegand.

In order to better understand the consequences of the observed spatial patterns for species coexistence, the UFZ researchers used spatially explicit simulations and a novel mathematical theory. “We wanted to know under what circumstances tree species would be able to coexist,” says Andreas Huth. Stable coexistence generally requires that species that have become rare can increase in abundance again. Based on mathematical models of forest dynamics, the UFZ researchers have developed a novel formula to describe the population growth rate at low abundances. A key element of their formula is a risk factor that combines several influencing factors. The result: the more common the species currently is and the more neighbours of the same species it has, the smaller the risk factor and the higher the probability that the species can coexist. Species in temperate forests generally have a low risk factor. However, the risk factors are often greater in tropical forests, but the formula includes additional factors that compensate for this disadvantage, such as the specific spatial patterns generated by animal seed dispersal. “Overall, it turned out that species in tropical and temperate forests exhibit optimal – but contrasting - spatial structures that each promote coexistence,” concludes Thorsten Wiegand.

This newly discovered spatial mechanism now provides the starting point for further research. Thorsten Wiegand and Andreas Huth want to develop a more general theory for understanding the spatial dynamics and stability of species-rich forests as part of their research funded by an Advanced ERC Grant acquired last year. “We want to substantially expand our methods and analyses, such as by taking into account the size of the trees, the immigration of species and more detailed species characteristics, as well as by using remote sensing data,” he says. Around 2.5 million euros will be available to them for this work over the next five years.

Journal

Nature

DOI

10.1038/s41586-025-08604-z 

Method of Research

Computational simulation/modeling

Subject of Research

Not applicable

Article Title

Latitudinal scaling of aggregation with abundance and coexistence in forests

Article Publication Date

26-Feb-2025

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Hidden allies


Endophytic fungi inside the leaves strengthen the chemical defenses of black poplars and influence the interactions between insect populations living on the trees



Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology

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Ants and aphids 

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Ants and aphids on a poplar leaf: When aphids infest plants, ants are often also present. The ants do not prey on the small insects, but are interested in their honeydew. In return, they even protect the aphids from predators. Observations showed that fewer ants colonized the poplars when endophytic Cladosporium fungi could be detected inside the leaves. This may be due to the defense substance stachydrine, which the fungi produce and which the aphids excrete with their honeydew.

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Credit: Christin Walther, Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel, Germany




Endophytes: A plant’s friends or foes

Endophytes are microorganisms that live inside plants. Some of these organisms, mostly bacteria or fungi, make the plants sick, while others have no harmful effect on the plants or are even beneficial. Previous studies of endophytic fungi living inside certain grasses have shown that these fungi provide the grasses with a defense against predators. However, little has been known about whether this is also true for trees. The current study investigated the influence of an endophytic fungus of the genus Cladosporium on the herbivore defense of the black poplar Populus nigra, as well as the effects on the insect communities that live on poplars.

"We investigated the influence of the endophyte on the chemical defense of black poplars and the consequences for the food preference and fitness of herbivorous insects, as well as the composition of the insect community on young trees in the field. We already knew from previous studies that plant pathogenic rust fungi are beneficial to herbivorous insects. Now we were interested in an endophytic fungus whose role in poplar-insect interactions is still largely unexplored," says first author Christin Walther, explaining the starting point of the study.

The researchers found that colonization with the fungal endophyte boosted the poplars' natural defenses and those induced by insect damage. In laboratory experiments, the larvae of the gypsy moth Lymantria dispar, a generalist on various trees, preferred uninfected leaves and performed better there. "We were able to show that Cladosporium helps the plant to defend itself against predators. To do this, the fungus alters the plant's chemical defense profile and also supports it with a self-produced defense substance," says Christin Walther.

Using the state-of-the-art chemical analysis method known as metabolomics, which analyses the metabolic products in the leaves, the scientists were able to show that infection with the fungus changes the poplar metabolome, i.e. the substances produced in the poplar. Specific defense substances such as salicinoids (salicin, nigracin) and phenolic acids (caffeic acid) were produced at higher levels in the presence of the fungus. Together with tannins, salicinoids are the most important natural defense substances produced by poplars to protect themselves. Salicinoids are particularly effective against generalist insects that are not only specialized on poplar, but are also pests of other plants. As well as deterring pests, they also have a negative effect on the fitness of insects that feed on chemically defended leaves.


Cladosporium defends poplars with its own defense substance

The analysis revealed that the fungus itself produces an effective defense compound, the alkaloid stachydrine. Tests with stachydrine showed that the endophyte's active substance fended off both generalists, such as the brush moth Orgyia antiqua, and poplar specialists, such as the poplar leaf beetle Chrysomela tremulae.

 "It was particularly exciting for us to see that the fungus can produce an alkaloid that we can detect in the plant matrix and thus use as a marker for the presence of the fungus. We even found this substance in the leaves of old trees in the field," says study leader Sybille Unsicker, who headed the "Plant-Environment Interactions" group at the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology and has been a professor at Kiel University since 2023.


Combination of chemical analyses, behavioral experiments and field studies

The scientists took a holistic approach to their research. In addition to chemical analyses of laboratory plants with and without the endophytic fungus and associated feeding experiments, they investigated in the field how Cladosporium affects the chemical ecology of black poplars.

Another interesting result of this study is an observation that the researchers made in the field. The endophytic fungus also seems to alter the interactions between aphids and ants that colonize young black poplars. The ant-aphid-relationship is a mutualism, a symbiosis that benefits both the ants, who drink the aphids' honeydew, and the aphids, who are protected from predators by the ants. Plants that had previously been infected with the endophyte were more often colonized by aphids, but less often by ants. This is probably due to the concentration of stachydrine in their honeydew. "The fungus even seems to be able to manipulate the mutualistic relationship between ants and aphids. Further research is needed to clarify exactly what is happening," says Christin Walther.


Trees are metaorganisms

Studying a tree's microbiome, the entirety of the microorganisms associated with the tree, is important for understanding the complexity of the co-evolution of trees and other organisms with which they interact. The current study is just the beginning of a broad field of research that raises many other exciting questions. For example, further studies will look at how the fungus spreads through the plant and whether it protects the plant not only from insect damage, but possibly also from pathogens. Another interesting question is whether the relationship between black poplar and Cladosporium is symbiotic, and whether the fungus benefits from living with the tree, or whether there are conditions under which it turns from a partner to a threat to the tree.

"There is a growing body of evidence in favor of considering trees as holobionts, as communities of different organisms. A tree is never a single individual, but a complex metaorganism colonized by microorganisms and arthropods in all its organs. The exciting question for us is how microorganisms contribute to the co-evolution of trees and herbivorous insects. Our results are certainly only a small contribution to understanding these complex interactions," concludes Sybille Unsicker.

Several endophytic fungi have been isolated from a poplar leaf. The current study investigates the influence of an endophyte of the genus Cladosporium on the chemical defense of black poplar and on the coexistence of insects on the tree.

Credit

Sybille Unsicker, Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel, Germany

Journal

Ecology Letters

DOI

10.1111/ele.70007 

Method of Research

Experimental study

Subject of Research

Not applicable

Article Title

A fungal endophyte alters poplar leaf chemistry, deters insect feeding and shapes insect community assembly

Article Publication Date

26-Feb-2025

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