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When Genomics Gets Tough, the Tough Get HiFi: Users Share Stories of PacBio Enabled Science at Global Summit – PacBio – Pacific Biosciences

Posted: February 9, 2022 at 1:56 am

Friday, February 4, 2022

Got an impossible polyploid or highly repetitive plant gene, or perhaps an enormous fungal genome or complex microbial community? Have an impossible dream of cracking pandemic, epidemic & endemic biology, or uncovering neurological disorders and rare diseases?

What was once impossible has become possible with HiFi Sequencing, scientists heard at the 2021 PacBio Global Virtual User Meeting.

The event, HiFi Sequencing: Around the World in 24 Hours, featured 32 speakers and 22 panelists from every region of the globe, covering human biomedical research, plant and animal sciences, and microbiology and infectious disease. There were also Ask the Experts sessions and panel discussions about trending topics, such as the COVID-19 pandemic.

If you missed it, it is now available for on-demand viewing, and here are some highlights:

When genomics gets tough, the tough get HiFi: more stories of HiFi enabled scienceKeynote speaker Jeremy Schmutz of HudsonAlpha and the Joint Genome Institute discussed some of the most difficult genomic challenges he and his colleagues face, including the known hard stuff like the FCGR region of the human immune system, an enormous 1.17 Gb zombie fungi, and the gigantic, super complex polyploid 10 Gb, 130 chromosome sugarcane.

Want to know how to get to the ultimate genome? Schmutzs advice: Start with good DNA. Sequence with HiFi. Add Hi-C, assembly curation, and polishing. Use RNA sequencing for annotation.

Unravelling the mysteries of sex determination in reptiles using HiFi sequencingThe bearded dragon lizard, Pogona vitticeps, is an increasingly popular model organism with a unique sex determination, shaped by both genotype and temperature. In his talk, Ira Deveson of the Kinghorn Centre for Clinical Genomics at the Garvan Institute of Medical Research discussed how he used PacBio HiFi sequencing for genome assembly, phasing, and isoform profiling to elucidate the mechanisms of reptile sex determination.

Rapid, accurate surveillance of SARS-CoV-2 variants across the commonwealth of KentuckyAt the University of Louisville Sequencing Technology Center, Melissa Smith (@SmithLab_UofL) was able to create nearly complete genomes for several lineages of SARS-CoV-2 circulating in Kentucky at the end of 2021, including Beta, Gamma, and Delta, using an early access version of the new PacBio HiFiViral Kit. The new HiFiViral kit enables researchers to see a more comprehensive view of viral variation of all types and enables laboratories to identify viral mutations of all kids. Out of 646 samples run with the early access HiFiViral Kit, she saw 80% genome completion; previous methods had yielded complete genomes in only about 50% of cases, she said at the summit. She noted that she appreciated the protocols high multiplexing capacity (384 samples at a time in her lab), reduced hands-on time (by about 80%), and the end-to-end kitted solution, allowing her to avoid having to source reagents from multiple different vendors (especially during the pandemic, when supply chains have at times been unreliable). Melissa now intends to use the HiFiViral Kit to sequence more than 7,000 samples as part of a statewide virus surveillance effort.

Increased risk of severe clinical course of COVID-19 in carriers of HLA-C*04:01Bettina Heidecker and Phillip Suwalski of Charit Universittsmedizin Berlin presented their research investigating HLA as a risk factor for COVID-19. Adjusting for other known confounding factors such as age, BMI, and sex, their data suggests that HLA-C* 04:01 increases susceptibility to SARS-CoV-2 and risk for severe course of COVID-19; the results were reproduced in GWAS data of 7,796 cases and 875,694 controls. HLA typing on the Sequel System also helped contribute to an improved understanding of the pathophysiology of COVID-19.

Characterization of HBV integration patterns with HiFi long readsHow does the hepatitis B virus (HBV) induce hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), the most common type of primary liver cancer? Professor Kai Ye of Xian Jiaotong University explained how he conducted a genome-wide analysis of HBV cell lines and clinical samples and characterized novel recurrent genome rearrangement types associated with HBV integration, finding that different DNA repair mechanisms activated by virus integration were the major cause of virus-specific genome rearrangements.

A new era for marine microbial researchTaylor Priest (@taylorpriest2) of the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology talked about the value of HiFi sequencing in his study on the ecology of microbial communities in arctic marine ecosystems, particularly microbial carbon degradation. One of the most important, but also the most difficult, aspects of elucidating the ecology of microbial populations is accurately linking phylogeny and function, he said. Using HiFi reads and the PacBio ultra-low input library prep protocol, Priest was able to recover a higher quantity and quality of metagenome assembled genomes (MAGs). And with several complete genes obtained per read, genes could be functionally annotated for community-level analysis without any assembly required.

Interested in learning more about PacBio technology? Visit our HiFi sequencing page or Sequel Systems page to learn more.

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(New Report) Cancer Genome Sequencing Market In 2022 : The Increasing use in Treatment, Research is driving the growth of the Industry across the…

Posted: at 1:56 am

[94 Pages Report] Cancer Genome Sequencing Market Insights 2022 This report contains market size and forecasts of Cancer Genome Sequencing in United States, including the following market information:

United States Cancer Genome Sequencing Market Revenue, 2016-2021, 2022-2027, ($ millions)

United States top five Cancer Genome Sequencing companies in 2020 (%)

The global Cancer Genome Sequencing market size is expected to growth from USD million in 2020 to USD million by 2027; it is expected to grow at a CAGR of % during 2021-2027.

The United States Cancer Genome Sequencing market was valued at USD million in 2020 and is projected to reach USD million by 2027, at a CAGR of % during the forecast period.

Researcher has surveyed the Cancer Genome Sequencing Companies and industry experts on this industry, involving the revenue, demand, product type, recent developments and plans, industry trends, drivers, challenges, obstacles, and potential risks.

Get a Sample PDF of report https://www.360researchreports.com/enquiry/request-sample/19689384

Leading key players of Cancer Genome Sequencing Market are

Cancer Genome Sequencing Market Type Segment Analysis (Market size available for years 2022-2027, Consumption Volume, Average Price, Revenue, Market Share and Trend 2015-2027): Second Generation, Third Generation

Regions that are expected to dominate the Cancer Genome Sequencing market are North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, South America, Middle East and Africa and others

If you have any question on this report or if you are looking for any specific Segment, Application, Region or any other custom requirements, then Connect with an expert for customization of Report.

Get a Sample PDF of report https://www.360researchreports.com/enquiry/request-sample/19689384

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A Genetic Chronicle of the First Peoples in the Americas – SAPIENS

Posted: at 1:56 am

Excerpted from Origin: A Genetic History of the Americas. 2022 by Jennifer Raff. Published by Twelve Books. All rights reserved.

We are living through a revolution in the scientific study of human history. Because of recent technical developments in approaches for recovering and analyzing DNA, plus sequencing whole genomes, geneticists and archaeologists ability to ask and answer questions about the past has improved dramatically.

Scientists once thought the peopling of the Americas occurred around 13,000 years ago, following the last ice age, when a small group of people crossed the Bering Land Bridge from Northeast Asia to Northwestern Alaska. In the last 10 to 20 years, however, a mountain of new evidence has emerged, showing us that people had been in the Americas for thousands of years before then.

This is not a surprise to Indigenous peoples, many of whom have Traditional Histories that situate their origins within what is today known as the Americas. Some Indigenous people view their origin stories as literal, while some see them as metaphorical and compatible with Western science. Indeed, some Native American archaeologists have demonstrated the importance of Oral Traditions in interpreting the archaeological record and call for careful and analytical study of these traditions and the integration of any clues they might give for understanding the past.

I present this history of the last 36,000 years of migration from the perspective of a Western scientist who places genetic evidence in the forefront of the investigation and then tests the models it produces with archaeological, linguistic, and environmental evidence. For many Indigenous peoples, this is not the whole story or the only story that should be told.

As you read this genetic chronicle, please do not lose sight of the dignity of the human beings who lived this history and the rich complexity of individual existences that are lost in the telling. The story I tell here is akin to reconstructing a persons entire life by stitching together the photos they posted on Instagram. Not inaccurate, necessarily, just incomplete.

Around 36,000 years ago, a small group of people living in East Asia began to break off from the larger ancestral populations in the region. By about 25,000 years ago, the smaller group in East Asia itself split into two. One gave rise to a group referred to by geneticists as the ancient Paleo-Siberians, who stayed in Northeast Asia. The other became ancestral to Indigenous peoples in the Americas.

Twelve Books

Around 24,000 years ago, both groups independently began interacting with an entirely different group of people: the ancient Northern Siberians. Some archaeologists and geneticists argue that this meeting of the two grandparent populations of Native Americansthe group in East Asia and the ancient community in Northern Siberiaoccurred because people moved north, not south, in response to the last glacial maximum (LGM), a period in which much of northern North America was covered by massive glaciers. Thus, many geneticists look north, to Beringia, for the location of the refugia that may have allowed the ancestors of Native Americans to survive the ice age.

Central Beringia is mainly underwater today, but it was a substantial land connection between 50,000 and 11,000 years ago. The term Bering Land Bridge gives the impression that people raced across a narrow isthmus to reach what is today Alaska. But the oceanographic data clearly show that during the LGM, the land bridge was twice the size of Texas.

If the Out of Beringia model is correct, Beringia wasnt a crossing point but a homeland. It was a place where people lived for many generations, sheltering from an inhospitable climate and slowly evolving the genetic variation unique to their Native American descendants.

Either just before or shortly after the start of their period of isolation, the Beringians split into several groups: the Ancestral Native Americans, who would move south, below the ice sheets, and become ancestors of the First Peoples; the Ancient Beringians, who would stay behind in Beringia; and a mystery group (Unsampled Population A) known to us only indirectly from the traces of ancestry it contributed to some Mesoamerican populations.

About 17,000 years ago, on the western coast of present-day Alaska, the ice sheets began to melt, and the First Peoples expanded southward. This expansion left very clear imprints in the genomes of their descendants. Mitochondrial DNA lineages show us that after the LGM, people were suddenly and rapidly spreading out. Their populations were growing enormouslyabout 60-fold between about 16,000 and 13,000 years ago.

This population explosion is exactly what we expect to see in the genetic record when people move into new territories, where resources are far less limited, there is no competition from other people, and the game animals have no natural fear of humans, having never seen them before.

The story this rather dry genetic evidence reveals is breathtaking when you stop to think about it: A small group of people survived one of the deadliest climate episodes in all of human evolutionary history through a combination of luck and ingenuity. They established themselves in a homeland, from which their descendantshoping to make a new and better life for themselvesventured out to explore.

Roughly 36,000 years ago, a group living in East Asia began journeying east, eventually crossing Beringia into present-day Alaska, where some populations expanded south as the ice sheets melted around 17,000 years ago. Jennifer Raff

These descendants found new lands beyond their wildest expectations, entire continents (possibly) devoid of people, lands to which they quickly adapted and developed deep ties. These ties persisted through millennia into the present day and have not been severed despite climatic challenges and the brutality of colonialism, occupation, and genocide.

It was the nuclear genome from a small childwho himself did not have any descendantsthat gave us the greatest insight into this process.

In what is today south-central Montana 12,600 years ago, a child died. Based on the archaeological evidence, I imagine what happened at the Anzick site like this:

Like all their children, the 2-year-old boy was treasured by his people. To honor him, they buried him underneath a rock shelter with great care and love, sprinkling his body with red ochre. Everyone in the community contributed to the toolkit that he would take with him into the afterlife: Some placed carefully flaked finished toolsprojectile points, knives, and scrapers for hidesothers left the cores that he would need to make new ones. His parents placed carved elk bone rods into the grave to mark his connection to their ancestors. This burial site was honored by their descendants for generations, who paid their respects to the boy every time they passed it. Two thousand years later, when another boy was suddenly taken from his family, they derived some comfort by burying him close to their ancient ancestor for protection.

The graves of these two children were found accidentally by construction workers in 1968. Because they were found on private land, their remains were not under the purview of the law that requires consultation and repatriation (if requested) with affiliated tribes.

Nevertheless, after the genome of the 2-year-old had been sequenced, researchers consulted with Indigenous peoples in Montana, including the Blackfeet, Confederated Salish, and Kootenai tribes; the Gros Ventre Tribe; the Sioux and Assiniboine tribes; the Crow Tribe; and the Northern Cheyenne Tribe. The tribes agreed that the children should be reburied in a safe place near their original graves, and their wishes were followed shortly after the publication of the study.

The children are referred to by archaeologists as Anzick-1 (the 2-year-old) and Anzick-2 (the 7- or 8-year-old who was buried there later). Anzick-1 was special not only to his parents and relatives (both in the past and across time), but also to the scientific community across the world. His remains were dated to between 12,707 and 12,556 years ago, making him the oldest-known person in the Americasthe only person who lived during the Clovis period whose remains are known to have survived to the present day. His genome was also the first ancient Native American genome to have been completely sequenced, and it has given us important insights into the First Peoples movements into the Americas.

The radiation of dog lineages that mirrors human lineages is extremely strong evidence for this model of migration.

Anzick-1s complete nuclear genomeand those from additional ancient individuals that were sequenced in later yearsshow us that shortly after the LGM, the family tree of the First Peoples split into two major (and one minor) branches.

The minor branch, which diverged between 21,000 and 16,000 years ago, is currently represented by a single genome from a woman who lived on the Fraser Plateau in present-day British Columbiaknown as the Big Bar Lake site to archaeologistsabout 5,600 years ago. The fact that her lineage split before the two other major branches may reflect the divergence of her ancestors from other First Peoples as they were moving southward out of Alaska.

One major branch, which included Anzick-1 and his relatives, became the ancestors of many Native peoples of the present-day United States and everywhere south of that. This branch is referred to by geneticists as SNA (Southern Native Americans). The other branch, which is ancestral to populations of northern North America, including peoples who speak the Algonquian, Salishan, Tsimshian, and Na-Din language groups, is referred to by geneticists as NNA (Northern Native Americans).

This split between the NNA and SNA branches tells us a lot about the initial peopling of the Americas. For one thing, most genetic evidence indicates that the split took place south of the ice sheets, because representatives of Ancient Beringians are equally related to members of the NNA and SNA groups. If those groups had split before they left Alaska, its likely that one or both groups would have intermarried with Ancient Beringians, resulting in Ancient Beringians being more closely related to one branch or the other.

We also see confirmation of this split and its timing from the mitochondrial genomes of dogs, who would have been closely associated with human populations. Dog mitochondrial genomes rapidly diversify into the four lineages found in ancient North American dogs at nearly the exact same time as the NNA/SNA split: about 15,000 years ago.

With the caveat that these mitochondrial data show us only a small fraction of dog population histories in the Americasthe edge pieces of the puzzlethe radiation of dog lineages that mirrors human lineages is nevertheless extremely strong evidence for this model.

Following the split between the NNA and SNA branches, people belonging to the SNA clade dispersed throughout North and South America very rapidly. We can see just how rapid this movement must have been when we compare the genomes of the most ancient peoples in the Americas. Despite being on different continents, 6,000 miles apart, the genomes of the Anzick-1 child, an ancient man from Spirit Cave in Nevada (10,700 years ago), and five people from the Lagoa Santa site in Brazil (~10,400 to 9,800 years ago) are very closely related to one another.

The story their DNA tells us is that between 15,000 and 13,000 years ago, the ancestors of people in Central and South America diverged from populations in North America. There are two pieces of evidence that strongly suggest that their movement southward was along the coast, rather than by inland routes.

First, the coast was open by 16,000 years ago, whereas the ice-free corridor between the two ice sheets probably wasnt a viable route until about 12,500 years ago. Second, the pattern of population splits that the genomes reveal is so fastnearly instantaneousthat the scientists who analyzed them likened the migration process as nearly jumping over large regions of the landscape. This fits more closely with southward migration by boat along the coast than with overland migration. By the time people got to South America, via the Isthmus of Panama, they may have expanded along both the east and west coasts.

Around 15,000 years ago, the ancestors of people in Central and South America began moving south rapidly, likely traveling by boat along the coasts. Jennifer Raff

This rapid first movement was followed by population growth, settling in to different environments, and gradual expansions. It was also followed by other significant migrations. After about 9,000 years ago, a group of people from Central Americaancestral to the present-day Mixe in the Mexican state of Oaxacaspread throughout South America and mingled with all the populations there. They may also have migrated northward as well, as the genomes of people buried in the Lovelock Cave in Nevada (1,950 to 600 years ago) show us.

But as is typical in scientific research, this finding only raises more questions. What caused this movement? And how did traces of a new population in North America come to the Mixe genomes about 8,700 years ago? And finally, what is the explanation for very ancient traces of shared ancestry between people in South America and those in Australasia and Melanesia? (Genetics models suggest it was not the result of a trans-Pacific migration.) Finally, how does the new White Sands Locality II site in present-day New Mexico, which may date to the LGM, change our understanding of the genetic models?

We dont have answers for these questions yet. We are only at the beginning of understanding the complexities of these histories using genetic and archaeological evidence.

Editors Note: This excerpt has been edited for style and length.

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A Genetic Chronicle of the First Peoples in the Americas - SAPIENS

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Auburn, HudsonAlpha researcher awarded fellowship to accelerate hop breeding programs – Office of Communications and Marketing

Posted: at 1:56 am

The beer industry has been steadily growing in the United States over the last decade, driven largely by the increased popularity of craft breweries. It is predicted to continue this growth with an estimated market value of $146 billion by 2025. To meet the growing demand of beer enthusiasts, breweries need a steady supply of the three main beer ingredients: barley, hops and yeast.

Sarah Carey, postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Crop, Soil and Environmental Sciences in Auburn Universitys College of Agriculture, recently received a two-year, $225,000 postdoctoral fellowship from the U.S. Department of Agriculture National Institute of Food and Agriculture, or USDA NIFA, for developing genomic tools to sustainably accelerate hop breeding programs. Carey also works for the HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology in the lab of Alex Harkess, assistant professor in the Department of Crop, Soil and Environmental Sciences and a faculty investigator with HudsonAlpha.

Although the U.S. is second in global hop production, most of the hops are grown in the Pacific Northwest due to the temperature and climate needs of current hop varieties. Globally, hop production in 2020 increased by more than 1,100 hectares, or roughly 2,056 American football fields. In an effort to ramp up the production of hops to satisfy all of the hoppy beer lovers out there, scientists and breeders are trying to create new varieties of hops that can grow across the U.S.

Marrying genomic technology, traditional breeding

Hops are the flowers, or cones, of a plant called Humulus lupulus. Glands within the hop cone produce bitter acids and other essential oils that are important to help to keep beer fresher longer and help beer retain its head of foam. However, one of the most popular attributes of hops is adding hoppy aroma, flavor and bitterness to beer. Hops are very sensitive to their environment and can only grow at a commercial scale in certain parts of the country.

In addition to their limited geographic footprint, growing hops is also complicated by the fact that only female plants develop economically valuable hop cones. Male plants are necessary for breeding purposes but must be separated from females in the fields so that they do not fertilize female plants, causing unintended crosses and the production of seeds that negatively affect the beer flavor profile. Using traditional breeding methods, breeders must wait up to two years to determine if any given plant in the field is male or female.

One way to improve the hops industry is through identifying the sex-determining genes to better control the sex of the plant. However, few hop varieties have had their genome sequenced to a level and quality necessary to investigate sex chromosomes. Careys fellowship project aims to create high-quality reference genomes, fully assembled into chromosomes for all five H. lupulus varieties.

The reference genomes and other genomic tools developed during Careys fellowship will help identify genetic markers of sex determination, allowing breeders to identify the sex of plants earlier. Early identification of male plants would reduce water and land usage, and allow more female plants to be grown. The tools will also allow breeders to identify genetic markers of other valuable traits like drought tolerance and pest resistance.

This fellowship gives me the opportunity to take the skills that I gained studying mosses and evolutionary genetics in graduate school and apply them to an agricultural crop, Carey said. By doing this work at HudsonAlpha, I will also be immersed in cutting-edge genomics that I can combine with my current skillset to create a hop breeding pipeline that is directly useful for the botanical and agricultural world.

A pipeline to create regional hops

Carey already has plans to use the genomic resources she is developing over the next three years to create an Alabama sourced hop. She and the Harkess lab have been collaborating with researchers at Auburn, like Andre da Silvas lab, to begin the process of growing hops in Alabama, a state that is outside of most hop varieties environmental comfort zone. They plan to get different varieties to make different genetic crosses, relying on the hop genomes and genetic markers from Careys project to establish hop varieties that can grow in the climate and environment here in Alabama.

Sarah has built a powerful network of collaborators and stakeholders that spans industry, academic, agronomic and biotechnology partners to come together to grow a new crop in a new place, Harkess said. Hops grow in an extremely limited geographic region, complicated by their unique reproductive biology and sex chromosomes. Sarah is approaching these problems from a different angle, leveraging the immense diversity of hop species, the evolutionary histories of those species and her unique skillset of assembling complex plant genomes and sex chromosomes.

As part of her fellowship, Carey also plans to establish the Southeastern Hop Alliance to build a community of hop scientists, breeders, brewers and other stakeholders in the hop industry. Carey hopes to organize symposiums at Alabama breweries to bring together members of the alliance and provide updates on the genome references and tutorials on using the tools she is building. From this community, Carey aims to learn the many facets of hop breeding and the hop industry to better develop genomic tools for the needs of the people actually using them.

Im so grateful for the opportunity the USDA NIFA postdoctoral fellowship is giving me, Carey said. I get to learn about hop breeding from an academic, nonprofit and industry perspective, while also learning the ins and outs of developing high-quality genomic toolkits. The end result, from the scientific perspective, will be genomic tools that will help accelerate hop breeding programs. But from a personal perspective, this fellowship will give me the skills I need to launch my career in plant genomics to new and exciting heights.

Major collaborators contributing to the hop genome project include Joshua Havill, doctoral candidate at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities; Gary Muehlbauer, Distinguished McKnight University Professor at University of Minnesota-Twin Cities; Katherine Easterling, lead research scientist and hopsteiner; Paul Matthews, senior research scientist and hopsteiner; and da Silva.

To hear Carey talk more about her research in hops, listen to this episode of HudsonAlphas podcast Tiny Expeditions.

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Snakes in mythology – Wikipedia

Posted: at 1:47 am

The behaviour of snakes and their facial features (e.g. the unblinking, lidless eyes) seemed to imply that they were intelligent, that they lived by reason and not instinct, and yet their thought-processes were as alien to humans as their ways of movement.

In most cultures, snakes were symbols of healing and transformation, but in some cultures snakes were fertility symbols. For example, the Hopi people of North America performed an annual snake dance to celebrate the union of Snake Youth (a Sky spirit) and Snake Girl (an Underworld spirit) and to renew fertility of Nature. During the dance, live snakes were handled and at the end of the dance the snakes were released into the fields to guarantee good crops. "The snake dance is a prayer to the spirits of the clouds, the thunder and the lightning, that the rain may fall on the growing crops.."[1] In other cultures[which?] snakes symbolised the umbilical cord, joining all humans to Mother Earth. The Great Goddess often had snakes as her familiarssometimes twining around her sacred staff, as in ancient Creteand they were worshipped as guardians of her mysteries of birth and regeneration.[2]

Some cultures regarded snakes as immortal because they appeared to be reincarnated from themselves when they sloughed their skins. Snakes were often also associated with immortality because they were observed biting their tails to form a circle and when they coiled they formed spirals. Both circles and spirals were seen as symbols of eternity. The circle was particularly important to Dahomeyan myth where the snake-god Danh circled the world like a belt, corseting it and preventing it from flying apart in splinters. In Egyptian myth, the state of existence before creation was symbolised as Amduat, a many-coiled serpent from which Ra the Sun and all of creation arose, returning each night and being reborn every morning. Also, the snake biting its tail (Ouroboros) symbolised the sea as the eternal ring which enclosed the world. In Egypt the snake has healing abilities. Hymns and offerings were made to it since it was believed that the Goddess could manifest through the snake. "In a hymn to the goddess Mertseger, a workman on the Necropolis of Thebes relates how the goddess came to him in the form of a snake to heal his illness (Bunn1967:617).[3]

In Serer cosmogony and religion, the serpent is the symbol of the pangool, the saints and ancestral spirits of the Serer people of West Africa. When a person dies, the Serer believe that their soul must make its way to Jaaniiw (a place where goods souls go). Before the soul can reach Jaaniiw in order to reincarnate (cii in Serer[4]), it must transform into a black snake. During this transformation, the snake hides in a tree. For this reason, it is taboo in Serer culture to kill snakes. A great degree of respect is afforded to snakes in Serer culture, as they are the very embodiment and symbol of their saints and ancestral spirits.[5][6][7][8] Like their Serer counterparts, the Dogon people of Mali also have great reverence for the serpent. The serpent plays an active role in Dogon religion and cosmogony. The mythology of the Dogon's primordial ancestor Lebe, it based almost entirely on a serpent mythology. In their traditional African religious belief, they say that the Serpent Lebe guided the Dogon people from Mand to the Bandiagara Escarpment (their current home) when they decided to migrate to flee Islamization and persecution.[9][10] The Dogon believe that Lebe is the very reincarnation of the Dogon's first ancestorwho was resurrected in the form of a snake.[11][12][13]

In the Sumerian culture snakes were also very important as a healing symbol. In Hammurabis Law Code (c. 1700 BC) the god Ninazu is identified as the patron of healing, and his son, Ningishzida, is depicted with a serpent and staff symbol (Bunn 1967:618)

Snakes were a common feature of many creation myths, for example many people in California and Australia had myths about the Rainbow Snake, which was either Mother Earth herself giving birth to all animals or a water-god whose writhings created rivers, creeks and oceans. In ancient Indian myth, the drought-serpent Ahi or Vritra swallowed the primordial ocean and did not release all created beings until Indra split the serpent's stomach with a thunderbolt. In another myth, the protector Vishnu slept on the coils of the world-serpent Shesha (or "Ananta the endless";). Shesha in turn was supported on Kurma and when Kurma moved, Shesha stirred and yawned and the gaping of its jaws caused earthquakes.[14]

In Chinese mythology, the woman-headed snake Nwa made the first humans. She made humans one at a time with clay.

Delighted, she made another figure, and another and another, and each came to life in the same way. Day in and day out Nw amused herself making mud figures and watching them come to life.[15]

To conserve her energy, she dipped a rope in clay and flicked it so blobs of clay landed everywhere; each blob of clay became an individual human. The first humans of hers became high-class, but second ones became low-class.

Greek cosmological myths tell of how Ophion the snake incubated the primordial egg from which all created things were born.

The classical symbol of the Ouroboros depicts a snake in the act of eating its own tail. This symbol has many interpretations, one of which is the snake representing cyclical nature of life and death, life feeding on itself in the act of creation.

Snakes were regularly regarded as guardians of the Underworld or messengers between the Upper and Lower worlds because they lived in cracks and holes in the ground. The Gorgons of Greek myth were snake-women (a common hybrid) whose gaze would turn flesh into stone, the most famous of them being Medusa.[16] Nagas, "the demon cobra"[17] and naginis were human-headed snakes whose kings and queens who lived in jewel-encrusted underground or underwater paradises and who were perpetually at war with Garuda the Sun-bird. In Egyptian myth, every morning the serpent Aapep (symbolising chaos) attacked the Sunship (symbolising order). Aapep would try to engulf the ship and the sky was drenched red at dawn and dusk with its blood as the Sun defeated it.[18]

In Nordic myth, evil was symbolised by the serpent (actually a dragon) Nidhogg (the 'Dread Biter') who coiled around one of the three roots of Yggdrasil the Tree of Life, and tried to choke or gnaw the life from it."Here there is an evil dragon named Nidhogg that gnaws constantly at the root, striving to destroy Yggdrasil" [19] In ancient Slavic paganism a deity by the name of Veles presided over the underworld. He is almost always portrayed as a serpent or dragon depending on the particular myth. The underworld was part of a mythical world tree. The roots of this tree (usually growing in water) were guarded by Veles (Volos) the serpent god.

The idea of snake-people living below the Earth was prominent in American myth. The Aztec underworld, Mictlan was protected by python-trees, a gigantic alligator and a snake, all of which spirits had to evade by physical ducking and weaving or cunning, before they could start the journey towards immortality. In North America, the Brule Sioux people told of three brothers transformed into rattlesnakes which permanently helped and guided their human relatives.

The Pomo people told of a woman who married a rattlesnake-prince and gave birth to four snake-children who freely moved between the two worlds of their parents. The Hopi people told of a young man who ventured into the underworld and married a snake-princess.

Snakes have been associated with Hecate, the Greek goddess of magic and the lower world.[20]

Snakes were also commonly associated with water especially myths about the primordial ocean being formed of a huge coiled snake as in Ahi/Vritra in early Indian myth and Jormungand in Nordic myth.[21] Sea monsters lived in every ocean from the seven-headed crocodile-serpent Leviathan of Hebrew myth to the sea-god Koloowisi of the Zuni people of North America and the Greek monster Scylla with twelve snake-necks. In some cultures, eels (which spend their early lives in freshwater before returning to the sea as adults) were regarded as magical creatures.

Rivers and lakes often had snake-gods or snake-guardians including Untekhi the fearsome water-spirit of the Missouri River. Until recently, some northern European communities held well dressing ceremonies to appease the snake-spirits which lived in village wells and told legends of saints defeating malevolent lake-snakes e.g. Saint George killing a maiden-devouring serpent or Saint Columba lecturing the Loch Ness Monster which then stopped eating humans and became shy of human visitors.

Carved stones depicting a seven-headed cobra are commonly found near the sluices of the ancientirrigation tanks in Sri Lanka; these are believed to have been placed as guardians of the water.

Snakes were associated with wisdom in many mythologies, perhaps due to the appearance of pondering their actions as they prepare to strike, which was copied by medicine men in the build-up to prophecy in parts of West Africa. Usually the wisdom of snakes was regarded as ancient and beneficial towards humans but sometimes it could be directed against humans. In East Asia snake-dragons watched over good harvests, rain, fertility and the cycle of the seasons, whilst in ancient Greece and India, snakes were considered to be lucky and snake-amulets were used as talismans against evil.

Tiresias gained a dual male-female nature and an insight into the supernatural world when he killed two snakes which were coupling in the woods.

The Biblical story of the fall of man tells of how Adam and Eve were deceived into disobeying God by a snake (identified as Satan by both Paul and John in II Corinthians and Revelation, respectively). In the story, the snake convinces Eve to eat fruit from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, which she then convinces Adam to do as well. As a result, God banishes Adam and Eve from the garden and curses the snake.

In the state of Kerala, India, snake shrines occupy most households. Snakes were called upon by the creator of Kerala, Parasurama, to make the saline land fertile. The Mannarasala Shri Nagaraja Temple is one of the main centres of worship. The presiding deity here is Nagaraja - a five-headed snake god born to human parents as a blessing for their caretaking of snakes during a fire. It is believed that Nagaraja left his earthly life and took Samadhi but still resides in a chamber of the temple.

Healing and snakes were associated in ancient Greek myth with Asclepius, whose snake-familiars would crawl across the bodies of sick people asleep at night in his shrines and lick them back to health.

In northern Europe and West Asia, snakes were associated with healing whilst in parts of South Asia, snakes are regarded as possessing aphrodisiac qualities. Greek myth held that people could acquire second hearing and second sight if their ears or eyes were licked by a snake.

In ancient Mesopotamia, Nirah, the messenger god of Itaran, was represented as a serpent on kudurrus, or boundary stones.[22] Representations of two intertwined serpents are common in Sumerian art and Neo-Sumerian artwork[22] and still appear sporadically on cylinder seals and amulets until as late as the thirteenth century BC.[22] The horned viper (Cerastes cerastes) appears in Kassite and Neo-Assyrian kudurrus[22] and is invoked in Assyrian texts as a magical protective entity.[22] A dragon-like creature with horns, the body and neck of a snake, the forelegs of a lion, and the hind-legs of a bird appears in Mesopotamian art from the Akkadian Period until the Hellenistic Period (323 BC31 BC).[22] This creature, known in Akkadian as the muuu, meaning "furious serpent", was used as a symbol for particular deities and also as a general protective emblem.[22] It seems to have originally been the attendant of the Underworld god Ninazu,[22] but later became the attendant to the Hurrian storm-god Tishpak, as well as, later, Ninazu's son Ningishzida, the Babylonian national god Marduk, the scribal god Nabu, and the Assyrian national god Ashur.[22]

The anthropomorphic basis of many myth-systems meant snake-gods were rarely depicted solely as snakes. Exceptions to this were the Fijian creator-god Ndengei, the dozen creator-gods of the Solomon Islands (each with different responsibilities), the Aztec Mother Goddess Coatlicue, and the Voodoo snake-spirits Damballa, Simbi and Petro. Snake-gods were more often portrayed as hybrids or shape-shifters; for example, North American snake-spirits could change between human and serpentine forms whilst keeping the characteristics of both. Likewise, the Korean snake goddess Eobshin was portrayed as a black snake that had human ears.

The Aztec spirit of intelligence and the wind, Quetzalcoatl ("Plumed Serpent"). The Mayan sky-goddess was a common attribute. However, in her case, the snakes leaned into her ears and whispered the secrets of the universe (i.e. the secrets of herself). In Indian myth, Shiva had a cobra coiled on his head and another at rest on his shoulder, ready to strike his enemies. Egyptian myth has had several snake-gods, from the 'coiled one' Mehen who assisted Ra in fighting Aapep every day to the two-headed Nehebkau who guarded the underworld. In Korean mythology, the goddess Eobshin was the snake goddess of wealth, as snakes ate rats and mice that gnawed on the crops.

The Horned Serpent appears in the mythologies of many Native Americans.[23] Details vary among tribes, with many of the stories associating the mystical figure with water, rain, lightning and thunder. Horned Serpents were major components of the Southeastern Ceremonial Complex of North American prehistory.[24][25]

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Genetic Engineering: 20 Pros & Cons You Have To Know – E&C

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I think the ethics and morals of genetic engineering are very complicated. It intrigues me.

Roger Spottiswoode

Genetic engineering can be defined as manipulation of an organisms genes with the help of biotechnology.

The first official genetic manipulation happened in 1972 by Paul Berg when he combined the DNA from a monkey virus with the lambda virus.

Genetic engineering is a very controversial topic in our society.

There are many pros and cons regarding this topic.

In the following, the advantages as wells as the downsides of genetic manipulation are examined.

In order to create a genetically modified organism, scientists first have to choose what gene they want to insert into the organism.

With the help of genetic screens, potential genes can be tested with the goal of finding the best candidates.

When a suitable gene has been determined, the next step is to isolate it.

The cell which contains the gene has to be opened and the DNA has to be purified.

After isolating the gene, it is ligated into a plasmid which is inserted into a bacterium.

Thus, whenever the bacterium divides, the plasmid is also replicated.

This leads to a vast number of copies of this gene.

Before inserting the gene into the target organism, it has to be combined with other genetic elements including a terminator and promoter region which end and initiate the transcription.

In the final step, the genetic material is inserted into a host genome.

After that, the genetic engineering process is finished.

Genetic engineering is often used by scientists to improve their understanding of how genetics actually work and how they affect our talents and our decisions.

From these findings, scientists can provide insights for medical purposes and thus increase the probability of curing serious diseases in the future.

There are many important areas in the field of medicine in which genetic manipulation could contribute to better treatment of diseases.

This also includes the invention of more effective drugs with fewer side effects.

Moreover, model animals can be genetically modified in the hope to get new insights on how these modifications would work on humans.

For this purpose, using mice in order to examine the effects of genetic manipulation on obesity, cancer, heart diseases and other serious conditions is common practice in nowadays scientific work.

Genetic engineering is also used in the field of agriculture in order to increase yields and also make plants more resistant to pests.

Moreover, even genetic experiments on livestock have been performed in the past.

Apart from the use for consumption, plants have also been genetically modified for medical purposes.

By changing the gene structure of plants, scientists want to examine if they could produce new drugs that can cure diseases more effectively.

Genetic manipulation is also a field of interest for industrial purposes.

Since through genetic engineering processes, all kinds of properties of animals and plants can be modified, this also comes down to a potential increase in revenue for firms if they are able to optimize the gene structure for their purposes.

An example of this is the use of genetically modified bacteria for making biofuels.

The rules and regulations for genetic engineering vary significantly across different countries.

However, there is some consensus on the level of danger genetic modification poses to humanity.

For example, the majority of scientists claim that there is no greater risk to human health from genetically modified crops compared to conventional food.

However, before making this genetically modified food available for public consumption, it has to be tested extensively in order to exclude any possibility of danger.

Moreover, some groups like Greenpeace or the World Wildlife Fund claim that genetically modified food should be tested more rigorously before releasing it for public consumption.

There are some severe diseases that we will likely never be able to fight if we do not use genetic engineering.

From only small manipulations of genes, it is expected that we can fight a significant number of deadly diseases.

Moreover, even for unborn babies, there could be genetic diseases detected.

The most prominent example of this kind of genetic disease is Down syndrome.

If our scientists get quite advanced, it is likely that we would be able to cure all genetic diseases, even that of unborn children.

Abortions because of the diagnosis of genetic diseases would no longer be necessary since we could ensure the babies health through genetic manipulation.

Since we can fight many diseases with genetic engineering, the overall life expectancy of people is likely to increase since the dangers of death due to these diseases decreases.

Moreover, if we are able to further improve our knowledge regarding genetic modification, diseases could be treated more effectively.

Especially in poor countries where some diseases can cause the death of many people, also the development of genetically modified plants for medical use could be a great measure in order to mitigate the issue.

We could also fight diseases which usually cause death for old people and thus prolong their lives.

Moreover, we can increase their life quality since old people do not have to suffer from these diseases anymore.

Thus, genetic engineering may lead to an increase in average life expectancy.

With the help of genetic manipulation, we could increase the variety of foods and drinks for our daily consumption.

Moreover, we could further improve the crop yields since we could create sorts of plants that are resistant to all kinds of pests.

Thus, we could supply enough food to all people worldwide and fight famine in an effective way.

Additionally, with the help of genetic engineering, it may be possible to create more nutritious food.

This would be especially beneficial in countries where people suffer from vitamin deficiencies.

If we are able to increase the level of these vitamins in crops or other foods, we could help people to overcome their vitamin deficiency.

If we are able to modify the genetics in a way that they naturally become resistant against pests, we will no longer have to use harmful chemical pesticides.

Thus, genetic engineering may also lead to a reduction in the use of pesticides.

With the help of genetic engineering, we may also be able to create certain medical foods which may also replace some of the common injections.

Medical foods may also help to prevent certain diseases.

Therefore, genetic engineering could also lead to an improvement in medical standards.

Through genetic engineering, it would be possible to create plant species that need less water than the plant species currently used in agriculture.

By replacing the natural species with genetically modified ones, farmers could save plenty of water.

This would be especially useful in regions where water shortage is a serious problem.

Water shortage will be a quite big issue in the future due to global warming.

If the average temperature increases, water scarcity is likely to also increase.

Thus, with the help of genetic modification, water can be saved and the problem of water shortages may be mitigated to a certain extent.

We may also be able to increase the speed of growth of plants and animals.

By doing so, we could produce more food in a given period of time.

This may quite important since our world population is growing and therefore the demand for food is increasing.

Through genetic modification, we may also be able to strengthen specific characteristics of plants.

This may include that plants are better able to adapt to the global warming problem or that they may become more resistant to changes in their natural conditions.

Many followers of religions are strictly against genetic engineering since they think playing god should not be a task performed by humans.

There are also ethical concerns if genetic manipulation should become a valid instrument for changing the course of our lives.

There is also the argument that diseases are a natural phenomenon and that they have a role in nature since they persisted over a quite long time horizon of evolution.

Moreover, there are many scientists who believe that the creation of designer babies could not be in the interest of humanity.

If perfected, parents could choose the eye color, hair color or even the sex of the baby.

This could lead to an optimization contest in our society which could also have vastly negative effects if pushed too far.

Genetic manipulation can also cause genetic problems if we do not handle it in a proper way.

Since science is still at an early stage in the understanding of genetics, manipulations of genes may even do more harm than good at our current state of genetic understanding.

Errors could even lead to the development of new diseases or to miscarriages.

Genetic engineering also poses a risk to human health.

For example, genetically modified food may lead to long-term health issues.

There is just not enough reliable data yet on how harmful genetic engineering really is in the long term.

Thus, it may pose serious health effects, some of them currently even unknown to scientists.

Genetic engineering may also lead to the development of allergies against certain food items.

Since the DNA-structure is altered in the genetic modification process, food that has former been uncritical for people could now cause allergic reactions.

Genetic engineering is also used to modify plants.

Specifically, some plant species have been developed which include their own pesticide which can protect them from animals and insects.

In this way, scientists hope to be able to increase crop yields.

However, this altering of genetic code in plants can lead to a resistance of certain insects to the pesticide.

This may pose big problems to the agricultural system since if insects or other pests become resistant against toxins, they are harder to fight.

Thus, in the short run, altering genetic material in plants may have its advantages.

However, in the long run, there may be severe issues when it comes to resistance of pest strains.

Some researchers are afraid that genetic engineering may also lead to resistance against antibiotics for humans.

This may lead to serious problems since the treatment of diseases with antibiotics will not be effective anymore.

Genetic engineering would also lead to a reduction in genetic diversity.

Since the process of gene manipulation would be quite expensive, only rich people would be able to afford it.

Thus, this would likely lead to human behavior which favors being rich over all other things in order to be able to afford genetic manipulation.

As a consequence, the variety of human behavior would be reduced.

Since genetically modified plants often contain own pesticides, they can be quite harmful to animals that are consuming these kinds of plants.

Animals can suffer severe diseases from these pesticides and even die.

This problem is especially severe for butterflies and other insects which usually rely on certain plants in their near surroundings.

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Wrestling with the Legacy of Eugenics – Georgia State University News

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A century ago, the U.S. Supreme Court handed down a decision that legal scholars generally consider to be among the worst in its history. In the landmark case, Buck v. Bell, the court affirmed that states had the right to forcibly sterilize feebleminded and socially inadequate people to prevent them from having children. The decision bolstered Americas burgeoning eugenics movement, which proclaimed to improve humanity through selective breeding. In ruling against Carrie Buck, a young woman residing in a Virginia state mental institution, Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., famously wrote three generations of imbeciles are enough.

That phrase is echoed in the title of Georgia State legal historian Paul Lombardos 2008 book, Three Generations, No Imbeciles, the first fully documented account of the Buck case. The work revealed how Buck was misrepresented in court and detailed how the decision influenced public attitudes and the law.

Most people think that eugenics is something from the distant past, but it has come back into the public conversation in a big way in the last 30 years, says Lombardo, Regents Professor and Bobby Lee Cook Professor of Law. Were still wrestling with questions about how we might manipulate heredity and how those impulses might mirror what the eugenics movement was driven by.

This month, Three Generations, No Imbeciles is being rereleased with a new afterword that identifies the role theBuckstory plays abortion laws. We spoke with Lombardo about why this nearly 100-year-old case continues to resonate today.

Many people today have a limited understanding of the eugenics movement. Can you talk about its legal significance?

Im a legal historian, and my focus has been trying to excavate and explicate the laws that were passed that relied on eugenic ideology. There are the sterilization laws, like the one highlighted in Buck v. Bell. There are the so-called racial integrity laws, which prohibited interracial marriage. There were also immigration laws. In 1924, same year that Virginia statute allowing sterilization was enacted, there was a national law that prohibited immigration by large groups of people from Eastern and Southern Europe. The eugenics movement generated a number of laws that impacted not only people with disabilities but also other groups.

You say that in the past 30 years, eugenics has moved back into the public conversation. Why?

In the 1990s, two major events prompted this conversation to reemerge. One was the commencement of the Human Genome Project, which aimed to map the complete set of human genes. By the late 1990s, this project was beginning to reach its milestones and raising a lot of questions about the ethics of genetic testing and genetic engineering. The second event was the 50th anniversary of the end of the Holocaust and the Nuremburg trials. The Nazis embrace of eugenics through every measure from sterilization to death camps has drawn a great deal of historical attention. Conversations today about how we treat people based on things like disabilities, race, gender or sexual orientation are all tied to eugenics and how it played out in both the U.S. and countries like Nazi Germany.

The book includes new discussion of how Buck relates to reproductive rights. Can you talk about those connections?

The debate over abortion and birth control and who is fit to be a parent has been a century-long discussion in this country. In the 1800s, America passed laws forbidding people with epilepsy to marry. There were laws passed saying you cant have children if you have a disability.

Although sterilization laws were later used dramatically against women, they were initially focused primarily on men who were involved in same-sex relationships and charged with crimes against nature. The chief complaint was essentially, dont let those people have children because theyll turn out just like them. The same argument was made to justify compulsory sterilization of incarcerated people, a practice that continues to this day.

These laws raise two fundamental questions: Who gets to decide whether you become a parent? And who gets to decide what is done or not done to your body? The question of whether the government can or should control your body and its reproductive functions is one of the main questions raised by eugenics history, and its one were still struggling with.

You have criticized Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas for his claim that the founders of the eugenics movement in America were really trying to justify the use of abortion. Is there merit to that argument?

Some people believe that the eugenics movement leaders were all closeted abortionists, but history shows that is false. Advocacy for abortion by the birth control movement and Margaret Sanger, who was a known supporter of eugenics, did not begin early in the 20th century. While many people in the eugenics movement were in favor of birth control, there were also many against it, and almost no one leading the movement between 1900 and roughly the beginning of World War II endorsed abortion. In fact, you could characterize them as pro-life because they used a lot of the same language used by the pro-life movement today.

What about the implications for laws regarding genetic testing or genetic manipulation?

We will continue to see these questions raised as new technologies emerge, whether its prenatal genetic testing or CRISPR gene editing. There will continue to be, and there should be, conversations about the potential benefits and drawbacks, such as how the use of technologies could lead to a devaluing of certain people.

As a society, we still exhibit dramatic prejudice towards people with disabilities. Thats clearly been on display during the pandemic. In the eugenics movement, some people would say those who were ill, old or had medical vulnerabilities were better off dead, and we still hear echoes of that argument. However, its important to understand that not every scientific advancement has a direct line to eugenics.

That brings up another issue, which is vaccine mandates and arguments over individual liberty versus government action to pursue the common good.

What is the balance between notions of physical autonomy and notions of common good? That has come up again and again during the pandemic. Interestingly, there has been a great deal of language borrowed by the anti-vaccine movement from the pro-choice movement around the notion of my body, my choice.

However, legally you must determine whether there is a difference between forcible vaccination and making it a condition of, say, employment or getting on an airplane. The metaphors that we use, publicly and politically, need to be evaluated based on those distinctions. If the hurricane is raging and you want to have a parade down Main Street, your legal right to free assembly might disappear in that emergency. Our legal reaction would likely be different if basic rights were curtailed every time it threatened to rain.

Whats the current state of the eugenics movement? Has it truly ended?

If youre talking about a well-organized and well-funded public campaign that reflected flawed notions of heredity branded as eugenics, then the answer is yes. But the laws passed by the eugenics movement were designed by opportunistic supporters who capitalized on ancient prejudices. Bigotry against people because of their race, disability, poverty or gender has always been with us, and it continues to be with us. And thats why these issues still loom large in our national discourse.

Many famous Americans were known eugenicists. How should we consider them and this Supreme Court case today?

No one in the country escaped the reach of these ideas, and when we point the historical finger, we should remember that there are an infinite number of targets. People have mixed motives, some of which are laudable while others are condemnable. Many U.S. Presidents signed laws that were aligned with the eugenics movement or endorsed the movement. Teddy Roosevelt was one of the biggest proponents of eugenics. The public health movement was initially infused with eugenic thinking.

We can even look back at the Supreme Court opinion in Buck with a quantum of charity. The Court can certainly be faulted for the illogic and cruelty of its decisions, but we cant expect it to focus on evidence not in the record it receives. The Justices had to make a decision based only on what they knew, while Ive made a career out of demonstrating what they didnt know in some cases.

The lesson of history is that we cant escape the fact that our knowledge and understanding is limited and comes to us through blinders based on our biases and experiences. Thats why we should have some measure of humility particularly when were deciding how other peoples lives should work or who gets to become a parent.

Portrait by Meg Buscema

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Scientists Engineered Baker’s Yeast to Produce Treatment Drugs for Dementia – Nature World News

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Experts from the UK and Singapore have suceeded in engineering common baker's yeast so that a primary ingredient for the treatment ofdementiacanbe produced.

(Photo : Marta Dzedyshko / Pexels)

By making some changes in the genome of yeast, researchers from Imperial College London and National University of Singapore (NUS) succeeded in changing the fungi into bio-factories so that achemical compoundknown as D-lysergic acid (DLA) can beproduced, as per Phys.org.

Alkaloid DLA is used in the treatment of dementia and Parkinson's disease, as well as migraines and other neurological diseases. The annual production of the chemical is estimated to be between 10 and 15 metric tons to meet the global demand for such medicines.

As of now, the only way to get DLA is through ergot extracts, which are derived from parasitic fungi that infect crops like wheat and rye with illness.

Industrial agriculture, which is a major source of carbon emissions, makes it impossible to grow ergot fungus for medical purposes. Yeast might be used to produce DLA in a proof-of-concept study published in Nature Communications, according to the study's authors.

Also Read:Researchers Create First-Ever 'Designer Chromosome' in Yeast [Video]

For thousands of years, yeasts have been utilized to manufacture ethanol and flavor-enhancing chemicals in alcoholic beverages like beer, wine, and even bread.

Researchers have also investigated microorganisms, and baker's yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) was one of the first cellular organisms to have its genome sequenced, making it a perfect model for genetic engineering to produce a variety of chemicals.

Imperial and NUS worked together on the initiative for two years, sending Ph.D. students to each other's campuses to collaborate on the strategy.

For the first time, researchers have successfully created a yeast cell capable of manufacturing DLA from the genome of baker's yeast by inserting a number of different DLA genes from ergot fungus.

(Photo : Mark Evans/Getty Images)

To generate DLA, these modified fungal factories adapted the same fermentation process that is used to make beer and bread, feeding on sugar and producing slightly under 2mg of DLA in a 1L reactor, according to Imperial College London.

In spite of the small volumes produced in this study, researchers say the method might be used to create tons of the substance each year if ramped up to industrial levels.

Co-principal Investigator and Professor Paul Freemont of Imperial College London's Department of Infectious Diseases stated that "yeast has been a key part of human civilization for thousands of years, helping us to make bread and brew beer.

But our relationship with this familiar microbe is evolving. Through this exciting collaboration we have been able to harness fungal cells to act as miniature factories to produce the raw compounds for medicines."

Freemont said this is an instance of how something that may seem small and less important has the capability of changing human lives by providing the drugs that can allow humans to age better and also curb the impact of industrial drug production.

Related Article:Yeast Drug: Biotechnologists Are Turning Yeasts into Micro Medicine Source

For more news, updates about yeast cells and similar topics don't forget to follow Nature World News!

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Highly Virulent HIV-1 Variant That Causes Rapid T Cell Decline Discovered in the Netherlands – Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News

Posted: at 1:42 am

As the ongoing coronavirus pandemic has demonstrated, new mutations in viral genetic sequences can impact significantly on viral transmissibility and damage to the host. This potential has long been a concern for HIV-1. A research team headed by scientists at University of Oxfords Big Data Institute has now discovered a new, highly virulent HIV strain that has been circulating in the Netherlands for the last few decades. According to their newly reported study, a cluster of more than 100 individuals infected with the VB (virulent subtype B) variant showed exceptionally high viral loads, rapid CD4 T cell decline, and increased infectivity.

The study results suggest that after starting treatment, individuals infected with VB variant show similar immune system recovery and survival compared with individuals with other (non-VB) HIV variants. However, the researchers stressed that because the VB variant causes a more rapid decline in immune system strength, it will be critical to diagnose individuals early and start treatment as soon as possible. And while the findings show that the HIV lineage likely arose de novo around the turn of the millennium, extensive changes in its genome make it hard to discern the mechanisms that underlie elevated virulence.

Lead author Chris Wymant, PhD, from the University of Oxfords Big Data Institute and Nuffield Department of Medicine, said, Before this study, the genetics of the HIV virus were known to be relevant for virulence, implying that the evolution of a new variant could change its impact on health. Discovery of the VB variant demonstrated this, providing a rare example of the risk posed by viral virulence evolution.

Wymant and colleagues reported their findings in Science, in a paper titled A highly virulent variant of HIV-1 circulating inthe Netherlands.

The risk posed by viruses evolving to greater virulence has been extensively studied in theoretical work, yet, as the authors acknowledged, there have been just a few population-level examples. One example of note, they pointed out in their new paper, is the Delta variant of SARS-CoV-2, which demonstrates increased transmissibility, as well as a reported increase in probability of death. However, outside of recent studies on SARS-CoV-2 variants, an understanding of the evolution of virulence in viruses beyond theoretical analyses is lacking.

RNA viruses have long been a particular concern, the investigators continued, as error-prone replication results in the greatest known rate of mutationand thus high potential for adaptation. For many years there have been concerns that such mutations may arise in HIV-1. Continued monitoring of HIV virulence is important for global health: 38 million people currently live with the virus, and it has caused an estimated 33 million deaths, the authors stated, citing data from UNAIDS.

The newly characterized VB variant of HIV-1 was first identified by the team in 17 HIV-1-positive individuals from the BEEHIVE ((Bridging the Epidemiology and Evolution of HIV in Europe) project, an ongoing study which collects samples from across Europe and Uganda. These individuals demonstrated highly elevated viral loads. And since 15 of the 17 people were part of the ATHENA study in the Netherlands, the researchers then analysed data from a cohort of over 6,700 HIV-positive individuals in the ATHENA study. They identified an additional 92 individuals with the VB variant, all from Netherlands, bringing the total number of people infected with the VB subtype to 109.

The teams analyses of the data indicated that individuals with the VB variant had a viral load of between 3.5 times and 5.5 times higher than individuals with a non-VB variant. When replicating the BEEHIVE test with the ATHENA data, we again observed a large rise in viral load in individuals with this viral variant In addition, the rate of CD4 cell decline, which represents a hallmark of immune system damage by HIV, occurred twice as fast in individuals with the VB variant, placing them at risk of developing AIDS much more rapidly. Individuals with the VB variant also showed an increased risk of transmitting the virus to others.

Reassuringly, after starting treatment, individuals with the VB variant did show similar immune system recovery and survival to those with other HIV variants. However, the team estimated that, without treatment, males diagnosed with the VB variant at the age of 30-39 years would progress to advanced HIVCD4 cell counts below 350 cells per cubic millimetre with long-term clinical consequenceswithin only 9 months from the time of diagnosis, compared with 36 months for individuals diagnosed with non-VB variants. Advanced HIV is reached even more quickly in older age groups, and there is considerable variation between individuals around these expected values, the scientists noted. Many individuals could therefore progress to advanced HIV by the time they are diagnosed, with a poorer prognosis expected thereafter in spite of treatment.

And, in practice, there is still considerable variation in the delay between initial infection, to the start of therapy, which makes the VB variant a particular concern even in the high-awareness and highly monitored context of the Dutch HIV-1 epidemic, the investigators stated. In contexts with less awareness and monitoring, in which diagnosis often occurs later in infection, the probability of reaching advanced HIV before diagnosis would be even greater.

The VB variant is characterized by many mutations spread throughout the genome, meaning that a single genetic cause cannot be identified at this stage. By analysing the patterns of genetic variation among the samples, the researchers estimate that the VB variant first arose during the late 1980s and 1990s in the Netherlands. Genetic sequence analysis suggests that this variant arose in the 1990s from de novo mutation, not recombination, with increased transmissibility and an unfamiliar molecular mechanism of virulence. It spread more quickly than other HIV variants during the 2000s, but its spread has been declining since around 2010.

The research team believes that the VB variant arose in spite of widespread treatment in the Netherlands, not because of it, since effective treatment can suppress transmission. The individuals identified with the VB variant showed typical characteristics for people living with HIV in the Netherlands, including age, sex, and suspected mode of transmission. This indicates that the increased transmissibility of the VB variant is due to a property of the virus itself, rather than a characteristic of people with the virus. The increased virulence is a property of the virus rather than a confounding property of individuals in this transmission cluster, the team stated.

Further research to understand the mechanism that causes increased transmissibility of the VB variant and faster damage to the immune system could reveal new targets for next-generation antiretroviral drugs.Senior study author Christophe Fraser, PhD, from the University of Oxfords Big Data Institute and Nuffield Department of Medicine, commented, Our findings emphasise the importance of World Health Organization guidance that individuals at risk of acquiring HIV have access to regular testing to allow early diagnosis, followed by immediate treatment. This limits the amount of time HIV can damage an individuals immune system and jeopardise their health. It also ensures that HIV is suppressed as quickly as possible, which prevents transmission to other individuals.

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UNICEF and Japan will support Cuba’s response to Covid-19 – Prensa Latina

Posted: at 1:42 am

According to a Unicef statement, the actions of this collaboration are aimed at guaranteeing human security in times of pandemic, by supporting the health system, the vaccination campaign and health education.

The initiative is currently going through the process of purchasing equipment and supplies worth more than two million dollars, to contribute to strengthening the technical capacities of health institutions and two science centers belonging to the BioCubaFarma business group, linked to the development of anti-Covid-19 immunogens.

The support will benefit 253 polyclinics in the provinces of Pinar del Ro, Havana, Matanzas, Camagey, Granma, Santiago de Cuba, Guantnamo and Isla de la Juventud Special Municipality.

It will also strengthen the institutional capacities of 14 hospitals in Havana linked to maternal and child care, as well as the Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology and the Finlay Institute of Vaccines.

It is estimated that it will benefit a total population of 6.6 million people, including more than one million 271 thousand children.

The resources in the process of acquisition consist of equipment to strengthen the cold chain, supplies for vaccination, personal protection equipment and means to guarantee adequate hygiene conditions.

Accessories for oxygen therapy, high-performance ultrasound equipment for pediatric and gynecological hospitals, an ambulance equipped for life support, among others, will also be obtained.

The agreement will be implemented with the support of the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Foreign Investment, the Ministry of Public Health, Provincial Directorates of Health, BioCubaFarma and the United Nations Population Fund.

Regarding the important donation, the UNICEF Representative in Cuba, Alejandra Trossero, expressed that this joint effort of collaboration between the government, people of Japan and her entity will strengthen the actions carried out by Cuba to face the pandemic and ensure the well-being of boys, girls, adolescents and their families.

Said project, presented and approved by the Government of Japan, is aligned with the National Response Plan of the Government of Cuba for the control and containment of Covid-19 and the Unicef Emergency Response Plan for the health sector.

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UNICEF and Japan will support Cuba's response to Covid-19 - Prensa Latina

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