Using genomics to unlock the full potential of industrial hemp

Alex Harkess, PhD
Photo Credit: Courtesy of HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology

Plant biologist Alex Harkess, PhD, and his lab at HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology are on a mission to change the future of food and fiber crops, one flowering plant species at a time. Much of plant breeding and global food production relies on the pollination of flowers to produce fruits that are eaten and used to produce further progeny. This process might sound straightforward, but it is complicated because some flowers contain only male or female reproductive organs, others contain both (hermaphrodites), and some can even switch sexes. 

How flowers become male, female, or hermaphroditic is a complex phenomenon. Although not completely understood, it is imperative for crop breeding programs looking to create food and fiber crops better adapted to changing environmental pressures. This is especially true in crop species where one plant sex is more valuable than the other, like female hops that produce cones used in the beer industry, male asparagus plants that live longer in fields, and hermaphroditic papaya fruits that taste better than female fruits. 

While the exact mechanism of sex determination is a mystery in many species, it is widely accepted that genetics plays a major role. Dr. Harkess and the members of his lab are experts at using genomics to understand plant reproduction and the genes that control sex in flowers. Sex-determination genes have only been concretely defined in five plant species, with Harkess playing a critical role in their identification in asparagus.  

Prognosis of nasopharyngeal carcinoma

Illustration Credit: Sisi Huang and Yun Du

Nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) is a type of cancer that occurs in the nasopharynx, which is located behind the nose and above the back of the throat. NPC has a geographically skewed distribution worldwide, with high incidence rates in East and Southeast Asia. NPC is difficult to detect early, and treatment usually involves radiation therapy, chemotherapy or a combination of the two.

Recent hospital-based studies suggest that the development of new radiotherapy techniques has contributed to improved NPC prognosis, but little population-based research on NPC patient survival is available. Similarly, little is known about potential environmental prognostic factors for NPC, such as body mass index (BMI) and body shape, pretreatment plasma Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) DNA, and oral microbiome. Therefore, PhD student Yun Du at the Department of Medical Epidemiology and Biostatistics aimed her thesis to characterize population-based NPC survival patterns and identify potential prognostic factors for NPC in southern China.

Neurotic people are more likely to suffer from mood swings

Neurotic people experience negative emotions more intensely and have more mood swings than others.
Photo Credit: Gerd Altmann

In everyday life, our emotions often change from moment to moment, and people experience these fluctuations to varying degrees. Psychologists at Leipzig University have studied the relationship between the personality trait neuroticism – a potential risk factor for mental health – and emotional experiences. They found that neurotic people experience negative emotions not only more intensely, but also with more mood swings than others. They have just published their findings in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

“Previous studies are in agreement that neurotic people experience stronger negative emotions in everyday life. Because of new, contradictory studies, there has been disagreement about whether this is also associated with increased variability in emotional experiences, i.e. mood swings,” says the study’s first author, Nina Mader from the Wilhelm Wundt Institute of Psychology at Leipzig University. Personality psychologists at Leipzig University have developed a new approach to modelling data that solves previous methodological problems. “We use an approach from Bayesian statistics that allows additional flexibility in data modelling. We first successfully tested this approach in simulations and then re-examined 13 longitudinal data sets. The results suggest that neurotic people do indeed experience greater variability in negative emotions,” explains Mader. A total of 2,518 people were asked about their emotions.

New insights into teen sleep

Dr Serena Bauducco with a sleep monitor at the Flinders University Sleep and Psychology Lab.
Photo Credit: Courtesy of Flinders University

Parents setting bedtime rules can be “protective” of their teenage children’s health and wellbeing, helping them to establish good sleep routines as young adults and in the future, say Flinders University researchers.  

Using feedback from 2500 students aged from 12 to 14 between 2019-2020, the national study found adolescents whose parents set bedtimes had at least 20 minutes more sleep on average which can make “all the difference” to next-day performance – including reaching the recommended 8-10 hours of sleep a night.  

The adolescent sleep researchers at Flinders University are now seeking 30 participants for a new study in Adelaide to record their self-monitored sleep overnight, using electronic devices and other factors to find out more about teen sleep habits.  

“Most young people tend to stay up later and have less sleep when they are left to set their own bedtimes, but qualitative research is finding that adolescents are open to parental guidance to improve their sleep patterns,” says psychology researcher Dr Serena Bauducco, a visiting scholar from Sweden.  

Ba2LuAlO5: A New Proton Conductor for Next-Generation Fuel Cells

The discovery of Ba2LuAlO5 as a promising proton conductor paints a bright future for protonic ceramic fuel cells, report scientists from Tokyo Tech. Experiments show that this novel material has a remarkably high proton conductivity even without any additional chemical modifications, and molecular dynamics simulations reveal the underlying reasons. These new insights may pave the way to safer and more efficient energy technologies.

When talking about sustainability, the ways in which a society generates energy are some of the most important factors of consideration. Eager to eventually replace traditional energy sources such as coal and oil, scientists across the world are trying to develop environmentally friendly technologies that produce energy safely and more efficiently. Among them, fuel cells have been steadily gaining traction since the 1960s as a promising approach to producing electricity directly from electrochemical reactions.

However, typical fuel cells based on solid oxides have a notable drawback in that they operate at high temperatures, usually over 700 °C. That is why many scientists have focused on protonic ceramic fuel cells (PCFCs) instead. These cells use special ceramics that conduct protons (H+) instead of oxide anions (O2−). Thanks to a much lower operating temperature in the range of 300 to 600 °C, PCFCs can ensure a stable energy supply at a lower cost, compared to most other fuel cells. Unfortunately, only a few proton-conducting materials with reasonable performance are currently known, which is slowing down progress in this field.

Coral disease tripled in the last 25 years. Three-quarters will likely be diseased by next century

Warming ocean temperatures are linked to an increase in coral disease prevalence.
Photo Credit: Lisa

Research suggests warming temperatures will see nearly 80 per cent of coral in reefs diseased in the next 80 years.

Deadly coral disease is spreading as global temperatures warm, and it’s likely to become endemic to reefs the world over by the next century, according to new research.

The study, published today in Ecology Letters, shows the extent coral health will suffer from climate change, which threatens to wipe out entire reef habitats and devastate coastal communities.

For the meta-analysis, researchers from UNSW Sydney analyzed 108 studies of coral health where coral reefs were surveyed for disease symptoms. They then linked the disease surveys to ocean sea surface temperature records to understand how climate change – specifically ocean warming – has influenced coral disease prevalence worldwide and performed modelling to forecast disease under future warming scenarios.

They found coral disease increased with ocean temperatures over time, tripling over the past 25 years to 9.92 per cent globally. Their modelling also predicts disease prevalence can increase to 76.8 per cent in 2100 if temperatures continue to rise on the same trajectory – the most conservative worst-case scenario.

‘Hot Jupiters’ may not be orbiting alone

Indiana University assistant professor of astronomy Songhu Wang.
Photo Credit: James Brosher, Indiana University

Research led by an Indiana University astronomer challenges longstanding beliefs about the isolation of “hot Jupiters” and proposes a new mechanism for understanding the exoplanets’ evolution.

While our Jupiter is far away from the sun, hot Jupiters are gas giant planets that closely orbit stars outside our solar system for an orbital period of less than 10 days. Previous studies suggested they rarely have any nearby companion planets, leading scientists to believe that hot Jupiters formed and evolved through a violent process that expelled other planets from the area as they moved closer to their host stars. The research team’s findings reveal that hot Jupiters do not always orbit alone.

“Our research shows that at least a fraction of hot Jupiters cannot form through a violent process,” said Songhu Wang, assistant professor of astronomy in the College of Arts and Sciences. “This is a significant contribution to advance our understanding of hot Jupiter formation, which can help us learn more about our own solar system.”

Researchers develop new innovative heat storage material for enhanced energy efficiency

Beads which can store heat, which would otherwise be wasted, from various sources, including industrial operations and the summer sun. The new material has been made using alginate, an inexpensive, abundant and non-toxic seaweed derivative.
Photo Credit: Courtesy of Swansea University

Researchers from the SPECIFIC Innovation and Knowledge Centre and COATED M2A programme at Swansea University have collaborated with the University of Bath to make a groundbreaking advancement in thermal storage research, developing a new efficient material that is easily scalable and can be sized and shaped to fit multiple applications.

Published in the Journal of Materials Science, the material has been made using alginate, an inexpensive, abundant and non-toxic seaweed derivative.

The process starts with the dissolving of sodium alginate in water. Following this, expanded graphite is added, and a method of gelation is chosen:

• The first method is achieved by transferring the solution into a mold for freezing. After being kept at - 20°C for over two hours, beads are formed and transferred to a saturated calcium chloride solution.

• The second uses a drop-cast technique, with the mixture being dropped into thermochemical calcium salt, causing gelation on contact.

• Once sufficient salt diffusion has occurred, the synthesized beads are filtered and dried at 120°C.

Newly discovered brain mechanism linked to anxiety, OCD

Distinguished Professor Mario Capecchi, Ph.D. and Naveen Nagajaran, Ph.D.
Photo Credit: Charlie Ehlert/U of U Health

The pandemic and its aftermath have raised anxiety to new levels. But the roots of anxiety-related conditions, including obsessive-compulsive spectrum disorder (OCSD), are still unclear. In a new study, University of Utah Health scientists discovered insights into the importance of a minor cell type in the brain—microglia—in controlling anxiety-related behaviors in laboratory mice. Traditionally, neurons—the predominant brain cell type—are thought to control behavior.

The researchers showed that, like buttons on a game controller, specific microglia populations activate anxiety and OCSD behaviors while others dampen them. Further, microglia communicate with neurons to invoke the behaviors. The findings, published in Molecular Psychiatry, could eventually lead to new approaches for targeted therapies.

“A small amount of anxiety is good,” said Nobel Laureate Mario Capecchi, Ph.D., a distinguished professor of human genetics at the Spencer Fox Eccles School of Medicine at University of Utah and senior author of the study. “Anxiety motivates us, spurs us on, and gives us that extra bit of push that said, ‘I can.’ But a large dose of anxiety overwhelms us. We become mentally paralyzed, the heart beats faster, we sweat, and confusion settles in our minds.”

Scientists closing in on long-lasting swine flu vaccine

 A team led by Eric Weaver, associate professor of biological sciences, has developed a robust vaccine against a strain of swine influenza. Framed by a model of nucleic acid proteins is (from left) Weaver; Matt Pekarek, a graduate student in the Weaver Lab; Cedric Wooledge, a technician with the Institutional Animal Care Program; David Steffen, with the Nebraska Veterinary Diagnostic Center; and Nicholas Jeanjaquet and Erika Petro-Turnquist, both doctoral students in the Weaver Lab. Not pictured is Hiep Vu, assistant professor in the Nebraska Center for Virology and Department of Animal Science.
Photo Credit: Craig Chandler | University Communication and Marketing

A successful long-term experiment with live hogs indicates Nebraska scientists may be another step closer to achieving a safe, long-lasting and potentially universal vaccine against swine flu.

The results are not only important to the pork industry, they hold significant implications for human health. That’s because pigs act as “mixing vessels,” where various swine and bird influenza strains can reconfigure and become transmissible to humans. In fact, the 2009 swine flu pandemic, involving a variant of the H1N1 strain, first emerged in swine before infecting about a fourth of the global population in its first year, causing nearly 12,500 deaths in the United States and perhaps as many as 575,000 worldwide, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“Considering the significant role swine play in the evolution and transmission of potential pandemic strains of influenza and the substantial economic impact of swine flu viruses, it is imperative that efforts be made toward the development of more effective vaccination strategies in vulnerable pig populations,” said Erika Petro-Turnquist, a doctoral student and lead author of the study recently published in Frontiers in Immunology.