Virus Discovery Offers Clues About Origins of Complex Life

Comparison of all known virus genomes. Those viruses with similar genomes are grouped together including those that infect bacteria (on the left), eukaryotes (on the right and bottom center). The viruses that infect Asgard archaea are unique from those that have been described before.
Credit: University of Texas at Austin.

The first discovery of viruses infecting a group of microbes that may include the ancestors of all complex life has been found, researchers at The University of Texas at Austin report in Nature Microbiology. The discovery offers tantalizing clues about the origins of complex life and suggests new directions for exploring the hypothesis that viruses were essential to the evolution of humans and other complex life forms.

There is a well-supported hypothesis that all complex life forms such as humans, starfish and trees — which feature cells with a nucleus and are called eukaryotes — originated when archaea and bacteria merged to form a hybrid organism. Recent research suggests the first eukaryotes are direct descendants of the so-called Asgard archaea. The latest research, by Ian Rambo (a former doctoral student at UT Austin) and other members of Brett Baker’s lab, sheds light on how viruses, too, might have played a role in this billions-year-old history.

“This study is opening a door to better resolving the origin of eukaryotes and understanding the role of viruses in the ecology and evolution of Asgard archaea,” Rambo said. “There is a hypothesis that viruses may have contributed to the emergence of complex cellular life.”

Researchers find deadly fungus can multiply by having sex, which could produce more drug-resistant, virulent strains

 Jianping Xu, professor in McMaster University’s
Department of Biology and researcher with Canada’s
Global Nexus for Pandemics and Biological Threats
Credit: McMaster University

Researchers at McMaster University have unlocked an evolutionary mystery of a deadly pathogen responsible for fueling the superbug crisis: it can reproduce by having sex.

And while such fraternizing is infrequent, scientists report it could be producing more drug-resistant and more virulent strains of Candida auris, capable of spreading faster.

C. auris is a fungus that can cause severe infections and sometimes death, often striking immunocompromised hospital patients.

Unlike animals and plants, microorganisms of this nature usually divide and reproduce asexually, so one produces two, two produce four and so on, all genetically identical to each other, through a process of very simple division and without the exchange of genetic material.

“One of the really complex and puzzling questions about this fungal pathogen is its origin and how it reproduces in nature,” says Jianping Xu, a professor in McMaster’s Department of Biology and researcher with Canada’s Global Nexus for Pandemics and Biological Threats.

For the study, recently published online in Computation and Structural Biotechnology Journal, researchers analyzed nearly 1,300 strains available on a public database of C. auris genome sequences. They searched for and confirmed recombination events, or sexual activity.

The findings will help to further research because scientists can now replicate those sexual behaviors in the lab.

“The research tells us that this fungus has been recombined in the past and can recombine in nature, which enables it to generate new genetic variants rather quickly,” explains Xu. “That may sound frightening, but it’s a double-edged sword. Because we learned they could recombine in nature, we could possibly replicate the process in the lab, which could allow us to understand the genetic controls of virulence and drug resistance and potentially other traits that make it such a dangerous pathogen, much faster.”

Long-term liquid water also on non-Earth-like planets?

Low-mass planets with a primordial atmosphere of hydrogen and helium might have the temperatures and pressures that allow water in the liquid phase. The presence of liquid water is favorable for life, so that these planets potentially harbor exotic habitats for billions of years.
Credit: (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) - Thibaut Roger - Universität Bern - Universität Zürich

Liquid water is an important prerequisite for life to develop on a planet. As researchers from the University of Bern, the University of Zurich and the National Centre of Competence in Research (NCCR) PlanetS report in a new study, liquid water could also exist for billions of years on planets that are very different from Earth. This calls our currently Earth-centered idea of potentially habitable planets into question.

Life on Earth began in the oceans. In the search for life on other planets, the potential for liquid water is therefore a key ingredient. To find it, scientists have traditionally looked for planets similar to our own. Yet, long-term liquid water does not necessarily have to occur under similar circumstances as on Earth. Researchers of the University of Bern and the University of Zurich, who are members of the National Centre of Competence in Research (NCCR) PlanetS, report in a study published in the journal Nature Astronomy, that favorable conditions might even occur for billions of years on planets that barely resemble our home planet at all.

Will renaming carp help control them?

Joseph Parkos directs the Illinois Natural History Survey’s Kaskaskia, Ridge Lake and Sam Parr biological stations in Illinois.
Photo Credit: B. Gallo-Parkos

Illinois officials this month announced that Asian carp would now be called “copi” in an attempt to make the fish more desirable for eating. Joseph Parkos, the director of the Illinois Natural History Survey’s Kaskaskia, Ridge Lake and Sam Parr biological stations in Illinois, spoke with News Bureau life sciences editor Diana Yates about scientific initiatives to study and control carp/copi fish populations and the potential for rebranding to aid those efforts.

What are Asian carp/copi and where in Illinois are their populations a problem?

Silver carp produce more offspring than other carp species. 
Photo Credit: USGS

Study hopes to understand the impact of exposure to COVID-19 infection early in life on a child’s brain development

More than 650,000 babies are born every year [i] in the UK, and during the pandemic some of them will have been exposed to SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus which causes COVID-19. A national study, funded by the charity Action Medical Research, will investigate the long-term impact of exposure to SARS-CoV-2 in the womb or shortly after birth.

It is known that exposure to certain viral infections shortly after birth or during pregnancy can impact a baby’s brain development or affect their development later in life, but it is not known if this is the case with SARS-CoV-2 infection. The SINEPOST (SARS-CoV-2 infection in neonates or in pregnancy) study, led by the University of Bristol in collaboration with researchers from the National Perinatal Epidemiology Unit (NPEU) at the University of Oxford, Imperial College London, and University of Leicester, aims to compare the impact of SARS-CoV-2 on the development of children who were exposed to the virus during pregnancy or shortly after birth to infants who have not been exposed to the virus.

Two hundred and fifty-seven infants have already been enrolled into the study, with recruitment ongoing until October 2022. The children will be followed up when they are 21 to 24 months old, with parents or carers being asked to complete questionnaires on how their child is developing.

The questionnaire will include the Ages and Stages Questionnaires (ASQ) used by professionals to monitor a child’s developmental progress; the Liverpool Respiratory Symptoms Questionnaire (LRSQ) which assesses patterns of wheezing and other respiratory symptoms in infants and preschool children; and additional questions about the child’s general health and use of health care services.

Chemically modified plant substances work against the hepatitis E virus

Chemically modified rocaglamides prevent certain viruses from multiplying.
Credit: Department of Molecular and Medical Virology

Rocaglamides from mahogany plants raise hope for the development of an antiviral drug.

The hepatitis E virus (HEV) is widespread and so far, there is no effective drug. In the search for this, the so-called rocaglamides have come into focus: plant substances that can inhibit the multiplication of viruses. Researchers from the Molecular and Medical Virology Department at the Ruhr University Bochum (RUB) have examined a library of chemically modified rocaglamides for their antiviral effects, which a team from Boston has created. A group of active substances that has a so-called amidino group stood out. It particularly effectively inhibited virus multiplication. The team around Dimas F. Praditya, Mara Klöhn and Prof. Dr. Eike Steinmann reports in the journal Antiviral Research.

Plant substances inhibit the multiplication of cancer cells and viruses

Rocaglamides are a group of plant substances that are produced by various mahogany plants. It is known that they have an inhibitory effect on the multiplication of some cancer cells. It was not until 2008 that findings on their antiviral effects against RNA viruses were published for the first time: for example, they can inhibit the multiplication of Ebolaviruses, HEV, zikaviruses or Sars-Cov-2.

Ancient microbes may help us find extraterrestrial life forms

Rendering of the process by which ancient microbes captured light with rhodopsin proteins.
Credit: Sohail Wasif/UCR

Using light-capturing proteins in living microbes, scientists have reconstructed what life was like for some of Earth’s earliest organisms. These efforts could help us recognize signs of life on other planets, whose atmospheres may more closely resemble our pre-oxygen planet.

The earliest living things, including bacteria and single-celled organisms called archaea, inhabited a primarily oceanic planet without an ozone layer to protect them from the sun’s radiation. These microbes evolved rhodopsins — proteins with the ability to turn sunlight into energy, using them to power cellular processes.

“On early Earth, energy may have been very scarce. Bacteria and archaea figured out how to use the plentiful energy from the sun without the complex biomolecules required for photosynthesis,” said UC Riverside astrobiologist Edward Schwieterman, who is co-author of a study describing the research.

Rhodopsins are related to rods and cones in human eyes that enable us to distinguish between light and dark and see colors. They are also widely distributed among modern organisms and environments like saltern ponds, which present a rainbow of vibrant colors.

Environmental Factors Predict Risk of Death

Photo by Amir Hosseini on Unsplash

Along with high blood pressure, diabetes, and smoking, environmental factors such as air pollution are highly predictive of people’s chances of dying, especially from heart attack and stroke, a new study shows.

Led by researchers at NYU Grossman School of Medicine and the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, the study showed that exposure to above average levels of outdoor air pollution increased risk of death by 20 percent, and risk of death from cardiovascular disease by 17 percent.

Using wood- or kerosene-burning stoves, not properly ventilated through a chimney, to cook food or heat the home also increased overall risk of death (by 23 percent and 9 percent) and cardiovascular death risk (by 36 percent and 19 percent). Living far from specialty medical clinics and near busy roads also increased risk of death.

Published online June 24 in the journal PLOS ONE, the findings come from personal and environmental health data collected from 50,045 mostly poor, rural villagers living in the northeast Golestan region of Iran. All study participants were over age 40 and agreed to have their health monitored during annual visits with researchers dating as far back as 2004.

Researchers say their latest investigation not only identifies environmental factors that pose the greatest risk to heart and overall health, but also adds much-needed scientific evidence from people in low- and middle-income countries. Traditional research on environmental risk factors, the researchers note, has favored urban populations in high-income countries with much greater access to modern healthcare services.

Small molecules transport iron in mice, and human cells to treat some forms of anemia

University of Illinois chemistry professor Martin D. Burke and graduate student Stella Ekaputri were part of a team that found a small molecule, hinokitiol, ferries iron out of liver cells lacking the protein that normally does the job and restores hemoglobin and red blood cell production.   
Photo Credit: Michelle Hassel

A natural small molecule derived from a cypress tree can transport iron in live mice and human cells lacking the protein that normally does the job, easing a buildup of iron in the liver and restoring hemoglobin and red blood cell production, a new study found.

Stemming from a collaboration between researchers at the University of Illinois Urbana Champaign, the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor and the University of Modena in Italy, the study demonstrated that the small molecule hinokitiol potentially could function as a “molecular prosthetic” when the iron-transporting protein ferroportin is missing or defective, offering a potential treatment path for ferroportin disease and certain kinds of anemia.

“This is a really striking demonstration in a whole animal model that an imperfect mimic of a missing protein can reestablish physiology, acting as a prosthesis on a molecular scale,” said study co-leader Dr. Martin D. Burke, a professor of chemistry at Illinois and a member of the Carle Illinois College of Medicine, as well as a medical doctor. “The implications are really quite broad with respect to other diseases caused by loss of protein function.”

Ferroportin is a protein that forms a channel for transporting iron in and out of cells. Ferroportin deficiency can be due to a genetic mutation or caused by inflammation or infection. Patients without the protein have an excess buildup of iron in the liver, spleen and bone marrow, particularly in a type of cell called a macrophage. Macrophages in the liver chew up old red blood cells and transport the iron in them for recycling into new red blood cells. However, without ferroportin, the iron builds up inside the cells and can’t be recycled, Burke said.

The laboratory comet

The aim of several scientists is to trace the changes of a comet during its journey through the solar system by reproducing the thermal and light characteristics of the cosmos in the laboratory. This will enable them to understand where the elements that formed the Earth came from and to track down the first traces of life.

Source/Credit: French National Center for Scientific Research

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