Researchers find new species of electricity-conducting organism, name it after Tribe

Oregon State University

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Filament of new cable bacteria species.

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Credit: Provided by Cheng Li

CORVALLIS, Ore. – Scientists have identified a novel species of bacteria that acts as electrical wiring, potentially ushering in a new era of bioelectronic devices for use in medicine, industry, food safety, and environmental monitoring and cleanup.

The researchers who discovered the new cable bacteria species in a mud flat at the Oregon coast named it Ca. Electrothrix yaqonensis in honor of the Native Americans of the region where the species was found.

Findings were published today in Applied and Environmental Microbiology.

Cheng Li, a postdoctoral researcher at Oregon State University at the time of the research, and Clare Reimers, distinguished professor emerita in the OSU College of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences, identified the new species in intertidal sediment samples from the Yaquina Bay estuary.

Cable bacteria consist of rod-shaped cells attached end to end with a shared outer membrane, forming filaments that can reach several centimeters in length. Their electrical conductivity, unusual among bacteria, is an adaptation that optimizes their metabolic processes in the sediment environments in which they live.

The new species features metabolic pathways and genes that are a mix of the Ca. Electrothrix genus and the other known cable bacteria genus, Ca. Electronema.

“This new species seems to be a bridge, an early branch within the Ca. Electrothrix clade, which suggests it could provide new insights into how these bacteria evolved and how they might function in different environments,” said Li, who in June will return to Oregon State as an assistant professor in the College of Agricultural Sciences following a stint on the faculty of James Madison University.

“It stands out from all other described cable bacteria species in terms of its metabolic potential, and it has distinctive structural features, including pronounced surface ridges, up to three times wider than those seen in other species, that house highly conductive fibers made of unique, nickel-based molecules.”

The fibers enable the bacteria to perform long-distance electron transport, connecting electron acceptors like oxygen or nitrate at the sediment surface with donors like sulfide in deeper sediment layers. The bacteria’s ability to participate in reduction-oxidation reactions over significant distances gives it a key role in sediment geochemistry and nutrient cycling.

“These bacteria can transfer electrons to clean up pollutants, so they could be used to remove harmful substances from sediments,” Li said. “Also, their design of a highly conductive nickel protein can possibly inspire new bioelectronics.”

Cable bacteria can live under diverse climatic conditions and are found in various environments, including both freshwater and saltwater sediments.

Ca. Electrothrix yaqonensis draws its name from the Yaqona people, whose ancestral lands encompassed Yaquina Bay. Yaqona referred to the bay and river that made up much of their homeland, as well as to the people themselves.

Today, Yaqona descendants are part of the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians, with whom the researchers worked on coming up with a name for the new species.

“Naming an ecologically important bacterium after a Tribe recognizes its historical bond with the land and acknowledges its enduring contributions to ecological knowledge and sustainability,” Li said.

Scientists from the University of Antwerp, Delft University of Technology and the University of Vienna also participated in the research, which was supported by the Office of Naval Research, Oregon Sea Grant, Research Foundation Flanders, the University of Antwerp, the EU Marie Sklodowska-Curie Cofund and the European Innovation Council.

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Journal

Applied and Environmental Microbiology

DOI

10.1128/aem.02502-24 

Method of Research

Observational study

Subject of Research

Animals

Article Title

A novel cable bacteria species with a distinct morphology and genomic potential

Article Publication Date

22-Apr-2025

 

Politecnico di Milano: a study in Earth’s future on agrivoltaics reducing the competition between food and energy

Politecnico di Milano

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Global distribution of rainfed areas harvested and/or convertible to agrivoltaics for the scenarios that produce the lowest (a) and highest (b) convertibility globally. (a) corresponds to 50% of radiation reaching the crops and allowing only for yield maintenance or increase, while (b) corresponds to 90% of radiation reaching the crops and allowing for up to 20% yield reduction. Both harvested and convertible areas are represented as pixel percentage. The bivariate color scheme works as follows: the gray-shaded column corresponds to harvested, non-convertible areas (convertible areas = 0%). The triangular colored scheme changes color tone (vertically) according to harvested areas and color shade (horizontally) according to convertible areas. The scheme is triangular because convertible areas cannot be more than the harvested areas.

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Credit: Politecnico di Milano

Can agriculture and solar energy work together instead of competing? A study led by Maddalena Curioni, Nikolas Galli, Giampaolo Manzolini and Maria Cristina Rulli, researchers in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and the Department of Energy at the Politecnico di Milano, sheds new light on the potential of agrivoltaics. Published in the prestigious journal Earth’s Future, the paper analyses how the coexistence of photovoltaic panels and agricultural crops can help solve the global conflict over land use.

With the growing demand for renewable energy and the need to produce increasing amounts of food, the pressure on arable land is intensifying. Today, between 13% and 16% of ground-mounted photovoltaic installations occupy land that used to be agricultural, a sign of agriculture and energy competing for the same space.

But there is a third option. The study reveals that between 22% and 35% of non-irrigated agricultural land around the world could host agrivoltaic systems while continuing to produce food. It presents an opportunity to integrate two basic needs without compromising one or the other.

To reach these conclusions, the researchers used a spatial agro-hydrological model, simulating the response of 22 crops to the reduction in solar radiation caused by the panels. The model enabled an assessment of potential crop yields in different climates and geographical areas, resulting in a global map of possible places to apply agrivoltaics.

‘Agrivoltaics cannot be applied everywhere, but according to our results, it would be possible to combine cultivation and energy production in many areas of the world without significant reductions in yield,’ says Nikolas Galli, Glob3Science Lab researcher and co-author of the study.

‘Using the land for both cultivation and photovoltaic systems increases overall output per occupied surface area while reducing production costs. In addition, installing crops underneath the photovoltaic panels reduces the panel operating temperature and increases their efficiency,’ adds Giampaolo Manzolini , professor in the Department of Energy and co-author of the study.

‘This technology could help reduce land competition while improving the sustainability of agricultural and energy systems,’ concludes Maria Cristina Rulli, lab coordinator and co-author of the study.

The results provide a sound scientific basis for guiding policy choices and investments for more efficient and sustainable land use.

Agrivoltaics solutions

Credit

Politecnico di Milano

Journal

Earth's Future

DOI

10.1029/2024EF005291 

Article Title

Global Land-Water Competition and Synergy Between Solar Energy and Agriculture

 

SETI Institute launches ARISE Lab, bringing SETI and radio astronomy to community colleges

Bringing SETI science to community colleges

SETI Institute

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The Allen Telescope Array at Hat Creek Radio Observatory.

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Credit: Luigi Cruz

April 22, 2025, Mountain View, CA – The SETI Institute announced it will expand its pilot program funded through a grant from the Amateur Radio and Digital Communication (ARDC) Foundation now called ARISE Lab (arise.seti.org). This initiative brings SETI science to community colleges and provides hands-on training for community college instructors and students in astronomy, digital signal processing, and radio science.

"Hands-on experiences are proven to improve student engagement and retention," said Dr. Vishal Gajjar, project lead and radio astronomer at the SETI Institute. "With ARISE, we’re combining cost-effective tools like GNU Radio with one of the most captivating topics in science — the search for life beyond Earth — to spark curiosity and build skills across STEM disciplines.”

Led by Gajjar, the team has developed an experiential learning technique (ELT) curriculum. Students work with real-time radio telescope data from the SETI Institute’s Allen Telescope Array (ATA), the world’s first and only radio observatory designed specifically to search for technosignatures. They learn to identify and analyze signals from real astrophysical sources.

The ARISE curriculum includes modules and labs. Modules include lecture notes, slides, pre-lab readings, lab manuals, instructor notes, and teaching resources designed to integrate into an existing course. Labs are standalone activities that include a lab manual and pre-lab reading and can be used independently or paired with an instructor’s materials.

After last year’s successful pilot that included a workshop at Hat Creek Radio Observatory (HCRO), home of the ATA in Northern California, the team will expand the program with:

• 15 additional labs on astronomy, digital communications, signal modulations, and data science
• 2 hands-on workshops at HCRO to train community college instructors
• On-site lab sessions at 10 community colleges to support classroom implementation

Research shows that SETI is one of the most compelling science topics for students. By grounding technical concepts in the context of the search for life beyond Earth, ARISE taps into their curiosity about extraterrestrial life.

“Whether it’s detecting a signal from a Mars orbiter or analyzing pulsar data, students are gaining real experience with tools used in both professional astronomy and industries,” said Joel Earwicker, the project’s lead research assistant. “It’s about making science feel real, relevant, and achievable.”

The SETI Institute will host an in-person ARISE Lab workshop at the HCRO from June 25–27, 2025 for the selected group of six community college instructors. The program will provide travel and lodging support for selected participants. During the workshop, they will explore the telescope site, participate in live observations, test lab activities, and collaborate with fellow educators.

Community college instructors interested in attending the workshop can apply here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSe14k_-kUnJGxGg5j8KQWdDThUxM1H_CI84IezpwgJdOlYz7Q/viewform?usp=sharing.

The application deadline is May 13, 2025.

In addition to the in-person workshop at the ATA, there will also be virtual workshops on the first Monday of every month, 11 AM - 12 PM PDT, beginning on June 2nd. These monthly events will allow instructors to hear about new labs, share how they have implemented or plan to implement the ARISE curriculum in their classes and create a community of collaboration between instructors. Instructors can sign up from the Events page on the website to get regular updates on these virtual and in-person meetings. 

The ARISE curriculum is available at arise.seti.org.

About the SETI Institute
Founded in 1984, the SETI Institute is a non-profit, multi-disciplinary research and education organization whose mission is to lead humanity's quest to understand the origins and prevalence of life and intelligence in the universe and to share that knowledge with the world. Our research encompasses the physical and biological sciences and leverages expertise in data analytics, machine learning and advanced signal detection technologies. The SETI Institute is a distinguished research partner for industry, academia and government agencies, including NASA and NSF.

MLB’s international Latino players, coaches face challenges despite diversity efforts

Cornell University

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ITHACA, N.Y. – Using Major League Baseball as a case study, Cornell University research highlights potential shortcomings in diversity metrics that could obscure inequities in sports and other organizations.

The researchers’ analysis of data from the major and minor leagues found that players and coaches from Latin America on average had shorter careers and were less likely to make it to the big leagues, reflecting unique obstacles despite MLB’s proactive diversity initiatives and high grades for on-field diversity.

In interviews, Minor League Baseball (MiLB) players and coaches and two MLB education coordinators shared overall positive attitudes toward baseball’s growing interculturalism. But they also described locker room cliques based on languages; disadvantages communicating with coaches who mostly speak only English; stronger feelings of inclusion among white players; and occasional incidents of bias. Those challenges could exacerbate struggles common to all minor leaguers: low pay, frequent travel and extended separation from families and friends, sometimes starting as teenagers.

“International Latino players face language and cultural barriers that aren’t captured in the most commonly used measures of diversity,” said Claire Malcomb, a doctoral student in the field of organizational behavior. “Our studies provide some evidence that despite high player and coach diversity grades in the majors, there is still work to be done.”

Malcomb is the first author of a pair of papers published in Frontiers in Psychology, in a special issue on the role of cultural diversity in sports: “The Illusion of Inclusion: Examining the Limitations of Diversity Metrics in Baseball” and “Beyond the Grind: The Intercultural Challenges and Cohesion Efforts in MiLB,” both co-authored by Emily Zitek, associate professor of organizational behavior.

While all pro players coped with mental and physical grinds in a sport where even successful players experience failure frequently, players’ and coaches’ experiences revealed unique barriers for international Latino players, the researchers said.

The researchers recommended that organizations such as MLB pay careful attention to how their data is measured, who their data includes and the limitations of what their diversity metrics show, or risk overlooking obstacles. For example, Malcomb said, international Latino players account for much of the diversity among players, while front-office diversity stems largely from that among U.S. citizens.

Simply counting “people of color” — the metric many organizations use to measure diversity — doesn’t capture the diverging experiences people from different backgrounds may have, particularly at lower levels, the researchers said.

“Better understanding the population within baseball becomes especially important when considering how to improve diversity, equity and inclusion,” Malcomb said. “The barriers and inequity faced by a U.S.-born Black player likely differ from those faced by an international Latino player. Despite this, under current diversity metrics, both are labeled ‘people of color’ and considered the same when making DEI policy decisions.”

For additional information, see this Cornell Chronicle story.

Cornell University has dedicated television and audio studios available for media interviews.

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Journal

Frontiers in Psychology

DOI

10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1512033 

Subject of Research

People

Article Title

The illusion of inclusion: examining the limitations of diversity metrics in baseball

 

How do you like them apples? Apple genus evolution revealed

New genomic analysis results could help guide breeding for tastier, hardier apples

Penn State

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A new comparison and analysis of the genomes of species in the genus Malus, which includes the domesticated apple and its wild relatives, revealed the evolutionary relationships among the species and how their genomes have evolved over the past nearly 60 million years. (a) Family tree of Malus species showing potential evolution of polyploidy — having more than two copies of each chromosome — in the genus. (b) Schematic diagram of pan-genome graph showing relationship between a segment of the M. floribunda genome and the reference Fuji genome. 

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Credit: Provided by the Ma Laboratory / Penn State

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — A new comparison and analysis of the genomes of species in the genus Malus, which includes the domesticated apple and its wild relatives, revealed the evolutionary relationships among the species and how their genomes have evolved over the past nearly 60 million years. The research team identified structural variations among the genomes and developed methods for identifying genes associated with desirable traits, like tastiness and resistance to disease and cold, that could help guide future apple breeding programs.

A paper describing the research, conducted by an international team that includes Penn State biologists, appeared this week (April 16) in the journal Nature Genetics.

“There are roughly 35 species in the genus Malus, but despite the importance of apple as a fruit crop, there hasn’t been extensive study of how this group’s genomes have evolved,” said Hong Ma, Huck Chair in Plant Reproductive Development and Evolution and professor of biology in the Eberly College of Science at Penn State and an author of the paper. “In this study, we were able to do a deep dive into the genomes of Malus, establish an apple family tree, document events like whole-genome duplications and hybridizations between species, and find regions of the genome associated with specific traits, like resistance to apple scab disease.”

The team newly sequenced and assembled the genomes of 30 members of the genus, including the domesticated golden delicious apple variety. Of the 30 species, 20 are diploid, meaning that they have two copies of each chromosome, like humans, and 10 are polyploid, having three or four copies of each chromosome, likely due to a relatively recent hybridizations of diploid and other relatives in Malus. By comparing the sequence of nearly 1,000 genes from each species, the researchers built a family tree of the genus and then used biogeographical analysis to trace its origin to about 56 million years ago in Asia.

“The evolutionary history of the genus is quite complex, with numerous examples of hybridization between species and a shared whole-genome duplication event that make comparisons difficult,” Ma said. “Having high-quality genomes for such a large number of the species in the genus and understanding the relationships among them allowed us to dig deeper into how the genus has evolved.”

To further analyze the history and evolution of the Malus genomes, the team examined the 30 sequenced genomes in an analytical approach called pan-genomics. This approach involved comprehensive comparison for both shared, or conserved, genes and other sequences, such as transposons — sometimes called jumping genes for their ability to move in the genome — across the 30 genomes, as well as genes that are only present in subsets of the genomes. Pan-genomic analyses combine the genomic information from a closely related group to understand evolutionary conservation and divergences and were greatly facilitated by the pan-genome graph tool.

“The use of the pan-genome of 30 species was powerful for detecting structural variation, as well as gene duplications and rearrangements, among the species that might be missed by comparisons of only a few genomes,” Ma said. “In this case, one of the uncovered structural variants allowed us to pinpoint the genome segment associated with resistance to apple scab, a fungal disease that impacts apples worldwide.”

The team also developed a pan-genome analysis tool to help find evidence of selective sweeps, a process where a beneficial trait rapidly increases in frequency in a population. Using this method, they identified a genome region responsible for cold and disease resistance in wild Malus species that also may be related to unpleasant taste in fruit.

“It’s possible that in the efforts to produce the best tasting fruit, there was an inadvertent reduction of the hardiness of domesticated apples,” Ma said. “Understanding the structural variations in the Malus genomes, the relationships among the species and their history of hybridization using pan-genome analysis could help guide future breeding efforts so that the beneficial traits for good taste and disease-resistant can both be retained in apples.”

In addition to Ma, the research team also included postdoctoral researcher Taikui Zhang at Penn State. Ma and Zhang’s contributions to this research were supported by the Eberly College of Science and the Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences at Penn State. A full list of collaborators and funders is available in the paper.

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Journal

Nature Genetics

DOI

10.1038/s41588-025-02166-6 

Method of Research

Experimental study

Article Title

Pan-genome analysis reveals the evolution and diversity of Malus

Article Publication Date

16-Apr-2025