Researchers uncover gene that doubles risk of death from COVID-19

Scientists at Oxford University have identified the gene responsible for doubling the risk of respiratory failure from COVID-19. Sixty percent of people with South Asian ancestry carry the high-risk genetic signal, partly explaining the excess deaths seen in some UK communities, and the impact of COVID-19 in the Indian subcontinent.

Previous work has already identified a stretch of DNA on chromosome 3 which doubled the risk of adults under 65 of dying from COVID. However, scientists did not know how this genetic signal worked to increase the risk, nor the exact genetic change that was responsible.

In a study published in Nature Genetics, a team lead by Professors James Davies and Jim Hughes at the University of Oxford’s MRC Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine used cutting edge technology to work out which gene was causing the effect, and how it was doing so.

Study co-lead Jim Hughes, Professor of Gene Regulation, said: ‘The reason this has proved so difficult to work out, is that the previously identified genetic signal affects the “dark matter” of the genome. We found that the increased risk is not because of a difference in gene coding for a protein, but because of a difference in the DNA that makes a switch to turn a gene on. It’s much harder to detect the gene which is affected by this kind of indirect switch effect.’

A child of darkness

The skull of the child presented in the current study was recovered during further work in the cramped spaces of the cave in 2017. The child’s skull was found alone, and no remains of its body have been recovered.

Meet Leti, a Homo naledi child discovered in the Rising Star Cave System that yielded Africa’s richest site for fossil hominins.

An international team of researchers, led by Professor Lee Berger from Wits University, has revealed the first partial skull of a Homo naledi child that was found in the remote depths of the Rising Star Cave in the Cradle of Humankind World Heritage Site near Johannesburg, South Africa.

Describing the skull and its context in two separate papers in the Open Access journal, PaleoAnthropology, the team of 21 researchers from Wits University and thirteen other universities announced the discovery of parts of the skull and teeth of the child that died almost 250,000 years ago when it was approximately four to six years old.

The first paper, of which Professor Juliet Brophy of Wits and Louisiana State Universities is lead author, describes the skull, while the second paper, of which Dr Marina Elliott, a National Geographic Explorer, is lead author, describe the context of the area and circumstances in which the skull was discovered.

Non-invasive breathing support for COVID-19 patients isn’t linked to heightened infection risk

The use of non-invasive breathing support, commonly known as CPAP or HFNO, to treat moderate to severe COVID-19 infection, isn’t linked to a heightened infection risk, as currently thought, suggest two new studies which included work led by University of Bristol researchers. The findings and a linked editorial are published today in Thorax.

Both assisted breathing methods produced little measurable air or surface viral contamination, and not more than simple oxygen therapy, while coughing produced far more aerosol than either method, the studies show.

The findings prompt the researchers to call for a thorough reassessment of the infection control measures deployed for these respiratory support methods, both of which have been categorized as ‘aerosol generating procedures’ that expose healthcare staff and other patients to a heightened infection risk.

Continuous positive airways pressure or CPAP for short, delivers a steady level of pressurized air and oxygen through a hose and mask to assist breathing; high-flow nasal oxygen or HFNO for short, pumps oxygen at a high flow rate through two small tubes in the nose.

Unlike mechanical ventilation, which requires intubation and sedation, CPAP and HFNO aren’t invasive. But they are thought to generate viral particles capable of contaminating the air and surfaces nearby, necessitating additional infection control precautions.

New research highlights the economic cost of climate change inaction

Different countries face different risks and opportunities as the world switches from fossil fuels to renewable energy, researchers say.

Green policies have traditionally been seen as costly to countries who implement them, while other nations can do nothing and “free-ride” – leading to global inaction on the climate crisis.

However, the research team – led by The Open University and the universities of Exeter, Cambridge, and Cambridge Econometrics – say this is a “poor description” of today’s reality. Instead, they say the transition is already happening and, for many countries, embracing it is the best strategy to reduce costs.

As the world economy transforms, free-riding may now be the risky approach – not only environmentally but also economically.

According to the new study, the risks and opportunities vary dramatically between countries, depending on their degree of competitiveness in fossil fuel markets. Countries fall into one of three categories – each with different incentives driven by the green transition.

Large fossil fuel importers like the EU and China will gain multiple benefits from decarbonizing.

Meanwhile, “large competitive fossil fuel exporters” like Saudi Arabia may avoid economic decline by flooding global markets with cut-price fossil fuels.

Microbes' sense of community, cooperation could improve biofuels

Stephen Lindemann, associate professor of food science at
Purdue University, sits at a microscope.
(Purdue University photo/Tom Campbell)

Microorganisms can be neighborly – when breaking down complex plant fibers they divide the labor and are able to sustain a diverse community, as each member gets its share of food. Understanding how they are able to adapt in this way could lead to improved biofuels processes and is the focus of a new $2 million project at Purdue University.

“One would expect microorganisms to compete against each other as they do for simple resources, with one eventually crowding out the others, but in communities consuming complex substrates, like sorghum fibers, we see microbial diversity maintained,” said Steve Lindemann, associate professor of food science at Purdue University, who leads the project. “We’ve seen that microorganisms change the enzymes they produce depending on their neighbors and the food source they are consuming. Understanding this behavior could lead to a way to engineer more stable and productive systems for processes that rely on microbes to convert plant material into useful products, like biofuels production and other types of food and industrial fermentation.”

The National Science Foundation funded the project, which aims to uncover the mechanisms behind the division of labor among microorganisms, single-celled living organisms, including bacteria and fungi, which are too small to be seen without a microscope and naturally live in communities. The team also will develop a theory that describes how microbial interactions maintain diversity and influence the productivity and stability of a community.

Creating solar cells and glass from wood – or a billion tons of biowaste

Professor Kati Miettunen, Assistant Professor Jaana Vapaavuori
and doctoral student Yazan al Haj study nanocellulose films.
Photo: Mikael Nyberg/Aalto University

A digital, urbanized world consumes huge amounts of raw materials that could hardly be called environmentally friendly. One promising solution may be found in renewable raw materials, according to research published in Advanced Materials. In their paper, the international research group has taken a close look at how lignocellulose — or plant biomass — can be used for optical applications, potentially replacing commonly used materials like sand and plastics.

‘We wanted to map out as comprehensively as possible how lignocellulose could replace the unrenewable resources found in widely used technology, like smart devices or solar cells,’ says Jaana Vapaavuori, assistant professor of functional materials at Aalto University, who carried out the analysis with colleagues at the University of Turku, RISE – Research Institute of Sweden, and University of British Columbia.

Lignocellulose, the term that encompasses cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin, is found in nearly every plant on Earth. When scientists break it down into very small parts and put it back together, they can create totally new, usable materials.

In their extensive review of the field, the researchers assessed the various manufacturing processes and characteristics needed for optical applications, for example, transparency, reflectiveness, UV-light filtering, as well as structural colors.

Whole genome sequencing increases diagnosis of rare disorders by nearly a third

Belova59 via Pixabay

Mitochondrial disorders affect around 1 in 4,300 people and cause progressive, incurable diseases. They are amongst the most common inherited diseases but are difficult for clinicians to diagnose, not least because they can affect many different organs and resemble many other conditions.

Current genetic testing regimes fail to diagnose around 40% of patients, with major implications for patients, their families and the health services they use.

A new study, published in the BMJ, offers hope to families with no diagnosis, and endorses plans for the UK to establish a national diagnostic program based on whole genome sequencing (WGS) to make more diagnoses faster.

While previous studies based on small, highly selected cohorts have suggested that WGS can identify mitochondrial disorders, this is the first to examine its effectiveness in a national healthcare system – the NHS.

The study, led by researchers from the MRC Mitochondrial Biology Unit and Departments of Clinical Neuroscience and Medical Genetics at the University of Cambridge, involved 319 families with suspected mitochondrial disease recruited through the 100,000 Genomes Project which was set up to embed genomic testing in the NHS, discover new disease genes and make genetic diagnosis available for more patients.

Astronomers make most distant detection yet of fluorine in star-forming galaxy

This artist’s impression shows NGP–190387, a star-forming, dusty galaxy that is so far away its light has taken over 12 billion years to reach us.Credit: ESO/M. Kornmesser
Full Caption and Hi-Res Zoomable Image

A new discovery is shedding light on how fluorine — an element found in our bones and teeth as fluoride — is forged in the Universe. Using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), in which the European Southern Observatory (ESO) is a partner, a team of astronomers have detected this element in a galaxy that is so far away its light has taken over 12 billion years to reach us. This is the first time fluorine has been spotted in such a distant star-forming galaxy.

“We all know about fluorine because the toothpaste we use every day contains it in the form of fluoride,” says Maximilien Franco from the University of Hertfordshire in the UK, who led the new study, published today in Nature Astronomy. Like most elements around us, fluorine is created inside stars but, until now, we did not know exactly how this element was produced. “We did not even know which type of stars produced the majority of fluorine in the Universe!”

Franco and his collaborators spotted fluorine (in the form of hydrogen fluoride) in the large clouds of gas of the distant galaxy NGP–190387, which we see as it was when the Universe was only 1.4 billion years old, about 10% of its current age. Since stars expel the elements they form in their cores as they reach the end of their lives, this detection implies that the stars that created fluorine must have lived and died quickly.

As-needed pesticide use brings wild bees

A team of researchers at Purdue University found as-needed pesticide use
increased pollination from wild bees and increased watermelon yield.
 (Purdue University photo/Tom Campbell)

Many farmers rent bee hives to pollinate crops, but they could tap into the free labor of wild bees by adopting an as-needed approach to pesticides, a new proof-of-concept study shows.

A multiyear study of commercial-scale fields in the Midwest found this approach led to a 95% reduction in pesticide applications, while maintaining or increasing crop yield for corn and watermelon. The findings are detailed in a paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

“An as-needed approach to pesticide treatment can benefit farmers,” said Ian Kaplan, professor of entomology at Purdue University, who led the project. “With reduced pesticide use, we saw within the first year wild bees returned to the fields, and our findings showed an average 26% increase in watermelon yield.”

The team of researchers from Purdue’s College of Agriculture studied fields at five different locations in Indiana and the Midwest over a period of four years to compare conventional pest management with an integrated pest management, or IPM, approach. The IPM approach relied on scouting the fields and applying pesticides only when pest levels reached previously established thresholds for damage that would lead to economic losses.

In the last few decades, pesticides have been used preemptively, beginning with treated seed and followed by applications on a set schedule, said Christian Krupke, professor of entomology and member of the research team.

Worm study finds molecule crucial for fertility

Worm germ cells: chromosomes stained in magenta
 and S-phase germ cells in green

A Monash Biomedicine Discovery Institute (BDI) study using roundworms has identified the vital role MOG-7, a protein also found in yeast in humans, plays in fertility.

The worms (Caenorhabditis elegans), used because many of their genes are also found conserved in humans, allowing insights into human cells, have both sperm and oocytes (eggs) and produce around 300 progeny (offspring) over three days.

The study screened through molecules to identify their function in the germ line, knocking down hundreds of genes one by one to see if there were defects in the number of progeny being produced or in the germ line itself.

It found that by removing MOG-7, the worm produced no progeny, rendering it sterile.

Remarkably, they found that re-supplying MOG-7 after a period of time meant the germline became fertile again.

Led by Professor Roger Pocock the study found that MOG-7 was involved in RNA splicing, the process by which intervening sequences within genes are necessarily removed before the gene can make a protein.

The germ lines sense when they’re defective and through the process of apoptosis or programmed cell death, kill and clear up defective germ cells, Professor Pocock said.