Category Archives: Transhuman News

COVENTRY, R.I. (WPRI) A DNA test lead to a heartfelt meeting in Coventry this week.

Paul Bassett has been trying to find out more about his birth father, who he had never met. For Christmas, he got an Ancestry DNA test which led him to an even more special gift.

Its kind of nerve-racking, Im kind of nervous, Pauls daughter Amanda Bassett said. Its kind of crazy after all of these years.

Amanda got her dad the DNA test and thats how they discovered Pauls two sisters Christine Hencler and Patricia Gray.

We live 40 minutes down the road, like we couldve met at like a Market Basket, Amanda said.

And I couldve walked by her 100 times and wouldve never known, Paul said of his sister, Christine.

Instead, Christine and her brother met for the first time in Coventry this week, and spoke to 12 News about the heartfelt moment.

I always was wondering if I had siblings before, I always had a feeling so its a good thing that came out, Christine said. I got to meet my brother.

53 years later, Paul said, his hand around Christines shoulder. Its amazing, it really is.

The two siblings say they have a lot of time to make up for and they plan on spending plenty of it together in the future.

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Local siblings meet for first time in 50+ years thanks to DNA test - WPRI.com

BOGOT Andrea Padilla is a 42-year-old Bogot city councilwoman. She has a Ph.D. in law, two masters degrees in criminology and philosophy, and an undergraduate degree in psychology. Her doctoral dissertation makes the case that animals in Latin America are not simply objects, but rather sentient beings whose rights should be protected by law.

Padilla spoke with Mongabay recently from her home in Bogot, where she described her place as usually being full of animals because she is a cat rescuer. In addition to being an elected official, Padilla coordinates CER Gatos, a volunteer organization working to capture, sterilize, rescue and return cats without homes. Padilla is also a university professor, vegan and writer. Her first non-fiction book will be out within a year.

Mongabay: How would you describe yourself? Who is Andrea Padilla?

Andrea Padilla: I am an activist for the rights of animals who made the leap to electoral politics. I say electoral politics and not politics because life was already political. Everything someone does as part of a cause or movement is political. I believe that once someone forges a leadership role, and has a deep commitment to an issue, that person should take part in the decision-making process and stop delegating that power to others.

I started out as one of the semi-naked people in the streets, marching, performing. I organized demonstrations. Politicians shut the door in my face when I approached them for help. This was years ago, when we were laughed at, not taken with any degree of seriousness or importance. I started, like many, taking in dogs, cats, volunteering weekends at a shelter.

Mongabay: Tell us more about these early formative experiences.

Andrea Padilla: Getting all those doors slammed in my face was a formative experience. Seeing that most politicians dont fight for causes, that was formative. It is easy to feel disgust for politics in a county like Colombia, with so much corruption and clientelism.

One day, a cat came into my life. We named her Mayo because she arrived in May. I had never had a cat. I always had dogs. And this cat changed my life. This cat was a revelation, because one day I am cooking a chicken and Mayo is standing next to me on the counter. And while I am holding this chicken, I feel its claw. And I think to myself, this chickens foot feels just like Mayos foot, the same bones, the same muscles, this is the same animal, the same being. That day I became a vegetarian.

Later I got involved with PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals). PETA would send me packages in the mail with VHS cassettes, pamphlets, signs. This was long before the internet got going, but I just remember seeing these videos and thinking to myself the day people can see this, they will have a change of conscience!

Mongabay: What images shocked you the most?

Andrea Padilla: The slaughterhouses and the laboratories where they test cosmetics on animals.

Mongabay: And now you are a member of Bogots City Council?

Andrea Padilla: Correct. I was elected democratically in 2020 with 23,749 votes. And I spent less than $4,000 on the campaign. I believe it is one of the cheapest campaigns in history.

Mongabay: As an animal rights advocate turned politician, who are your constituents?

Andrea Padilla: I would guess that 80% or so are pet owners and probably close to that, maybe less, are vegetarians. I just saw a study that says 70% of homes in Bogot have at least one non-human animal. This is amazing. Another important trend is that a lot of younger people are not interested in having children. They consider their spouse or partner and their pet as their true family. We now have multi-species families.

Mongabay: What do you believe is at the core of the animal rights movement, why did you join it?

Andrea Padilla: When we exclude animals and discriminate against them because they belong to a different species, and we think it is OK to subject them to cruelty and suffering because they dont speak like us, reason like us, feel, think, communicate, walk or live like us, we generate exclusion and malice through pain and suffering. I became interested in this cause because I believe its the foundation of kindness and compassion in the world.

Mongabay: You are highly criticized by just about everyone. Animal rights activists criticize you for not being radical enough. Many traditional environmentalists or conservationists criticize you for caring too much about domestic animals and pets and not enough about native fauna and wildlife. For example, what are we going to do about the fact that both feral and domestic cats kill billions of wild birds each year?

Andrea Padilla: Within the movement I am criticized for not being radical enough. And I recognize that I am at times pragmatic, calculatingly pragmatic, terribly pragmatic. But life is short, resources are scarce and the problems are numerous. Take bullfighting in Bogot. People were upset that bullfighting isnt completely prohibited. It is not within our authority to ban bullfighting, but we can regulate it. We shortened the season from eight dates to three. We increased their taxes. We banned a number of the cruel practices used to poke and prod the animals. We made the actual killing of bulls in the plaza illegal. And we require the organizers to include information about animal suffering when they publicize events. This for me is a win. Weve made this spectacle more expensive, less attractive and in terms of its pragmatism, weve all but eliminated it.

Many environmentalists criticize me for only caring about individuals and not about species, or populations or ecosystems. This is also false. I care about ecosystems and about protecting native and wild species and populations. In the case of domestic cats killing birds, which I believe is a huge problem, we need to ensure that our cats are almost completely indoor animals. We all need to make sacrifices and this is one that we can make. Cats need to live primarily inside. If they are outside, they should be in a managed environment and under very close supervision. In the case of the cats and dogs living in wetlands, as they do here here in Bogot, they must be removed.

With feral cats there is a solution as well. In Barcelona and other places, feral populations are sterilized and then released into enclosures with enrichment. The spaces are managed by city authorities in collaboration with nonprofits and other entities.

Mongabay: Another controversial matter currently receiving a lot of coverage in Colombia and around the world is this business of Pablo Escobars hippos and their impact on Colombias native biodiversity. How did we get here and why are animal rights activists and environmentalists fighting about this?

Andrea Padilla: The situation is that during the 1980s, the narco Pablo Escobar brought four hippos to Colombia, obviously with all the complicity of the state imaginable, because how else do you get four hippos into Colombia? If the authorities would have known what they were doing from the get-go, they could have castrated the male, and the hippos never would have reproduced. But since they fell asleep at the wheel, like they always do, by the mid-90s there were some 16 animals and I believe three managed to escape. Today it is estimated that there are 80 individuals, probably more, because it is likely that people are rearing hippos on their farms, in captivity.

Mongabay: And the conservationists, biologists and ecologists want the hippos exterminated because they are wreaking havoc on the aquatic biodiversity and native ecosystems of the Magdalena River?

Andrea Padilla: One of the things that happened as part of this saga is that in 2009, the Ministry of the Environment and the regional environmental management authority CorMacarena issued permits for hunters from a local foundation ironically enough called the Wildlife Foundation to capture the escaped hippos, which of course meant that these guys were going to go out there and just start shooting them.

So, they go out there and kill this enormous hippo named Pepe. After they kill him, it occurs to these guys that they should take a picture posing with Pepe to show off their heroic feat. This generated all manner of public outrage. And it made me realize, Wow, maybe in Colombia there is a little more empathy than I thought. At the very least there is a certain rejection of this impudent attitude that says its OK to pose with a dead animal as a trophy. This outrage resulted in a legal decision to stop what would have otherwise been a mass extermination of the animals.

I understand and share peoples concerns about the importance of ecosystems and native species. The conservation of nature merits everyones full attention. What I find morally unacceptable is that there wasnt even going to be a discussion. One of the things thats good about all of the hell weve raised in the name of animal rights is that it made the environmentalists the ones screaming kill the hippos! moderate their cry for war and sit down at the table. And thats a win. Were not going to have a mass killing, were going to have a discussion and a mixed solution.

Mongabay: What is the mixed solution?

Andrea Padilla: We are talking now about three options, a combination of them I believe will work. First, sterilization. Both surgical and chemical. Since the chemical needs to be readministered, the surgical solution is a better long-term solution. Second, is some type of enclosed natural space.

Mongabay: A hippo park?

Andrea Padilla: It could be a kind of a hippo park, yes. And third, we will have to sacrifice some. This mixed solution allows us to control their reproduction and birth rate, control their geographic distribution and reduce suffering to the animals and to humans, because dont forget there is a human population that benefits from these animals through tourism. But yes, some will have to be killed. Hopefully as few as possible, and after all other viable options have been exhausted, but in some cases, it must be done. We all have to make compromises.

Mongabay: Although you raise the ire of many environmentalists, your legislative wins and proposals are decreasing the wildlife trade and addressing climate change, is this correct?

Andrea Padilla: Yes. In January of this year, we passed a measure that bans the sale of live animals, which includes caged birds, in all five of the citys public markets. I had been tormented by the horrendous conditions of these markets for years because of the risks they generate for human health and animal well-being.

Its also worth noting that within a year, the sale of caged birds in Bogot will be prohibited everywhere in the city. And that we have also increased funding and improved facilities for wildlife rehabilitation in Bogot.

On climate, at the end of last year, we approved a project to declare a climate emergency in Bogot. In addition to upgrading to the Transmilenio (bus) fleet to electric vehicles and taking other steps, we said: what about the consumption of meat? This received pushback. And before I knew it, we were talking about watered-down solutions: using paper straws; taking shorter showers; not taking the car out as often, etc, etc. All these things are great, but come on. Animal-based agriculture and the consumption of meat are the major drivers of climate change and deforestation. As a capital city, with millions of people making millions of decisions a day, we can do something about this.

So, we inserted two articles into the climate agreement. The first is for the development of an ethical, healthy and sustainable menu program for all public entities. The program reduces consumption of meat by providing a vegetarian and vegan alternative at every public function and entity (like schools and penitentiaries) in the district. It also introduces a curriculum into schools so that children will learn about carbon emissions and the environmental impacts of raising animals for human consumption. And that, yes, in the process of being raised, transported and slaughtered, these animals suffer.

The second is a program called Mondays without Meat. The idea is that the district generates campaigns so that people become more aware of these issues, that eating animals drives climate change, drives deforestation, biodiversity loss, and causes suffering.

Mongabay: And its a voluntary decision people can make as to whether or not they eat meat on Mondays, or will you send people to jail if they do?

Andrea Padilla: One hundred percent voluntary. Were not banning the consumption of meat on Mondays or sending anyone to jail. Were educating people about the benefits of giving up meat once a week and if they wish to do so, thats their decision.

Mongabay: You and the animal rights activists in Colombia are now a political force to be reckoned with. How will you deploy this force in the upcoming presidential elections and beyond?

Andrea Padilla: Right now we are waiting for a legal decision regarding the development of national-level animal protection. This is something thats established in President Ivn Duques National Development Plan. But since these guys have been screwing around for two years on this, nothing has happened. So we had to file a grievance against them and are awaiting the response.

With regard to elections, I belong to the Alianza Verde (Green Alliance). I see it as my role to develop the partys animal rights agenda.

Mongabay: The Green Alliance will have an animal rights agenda?

Andrea Padilla: We must. How can we be the Green Alliance without an animal rights agenda? So far, the national-level discussion has been very weak. I see it as my imperative to change this. Animal rights will be part of our DNA. The rights of animals are important to voters, the media is paying attention and our political relevance grows every day.

Mongabay: Thank you for your time. Anything else youd like to share?

Andrea Padilla: Just to say thank you and that all of this really is about understanding that everyone has a place in this world. That we all want many of the same things. To have food, water, air, sunshine, a place to live, to be with our loved ones, our families, to be safe. To know that our lives matter.

Banner image: Andrea Padilla in Bogots Plaza de Toros. Image courtesy of Andrea Padilla.

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'Animal rights will be part of our DNA': Q&A with Bogot councilor Andrea Padilla - Mongabay.com

Recently, investigators in Montana solved what is believed to be the oldest-known cold case in the U.S. after two teens were murdered in 1956.

But the DNA testing detectives used is now getting restricted as more states look to pass laws barring certain genealogy testing from law enforcement.

On January 3, 1956, the bodies of 18-year-old Dwayne Bogle and 16-year-old Patty Kalitzke were found face down, miles apart from one another, with bullet wounds to their heads. Detectives with the Cascade County Sheriff Office worked the case tirelessly, finding more than 35 suspects who all turned out to be unlikely culprits in the case.

Then, in 2019, Detective Sgt. John Kadner decided to try something.

He sent in a piece of preserved evidence, a vaginal slide taken during Kalitzkes autopsy, to a laboratory that returned the sample with a piece of discovered DNA.

[The lab] was able to swab that slide and identify sperm samples, which ultimately led to a DNA sample, which was fed into a genealogical database, and that was able to identify three known test-takers, said Sgt. Kadner.

The process, which has become more popular in recent years, is called genetic genealogy and works just how Sgt. Kadner explained.

Evidence from a case is sent to a lab for testing. Once a DNA sample is identified, investigators take it and put it into a genealogical database, similar to 23andMe or Ancestry.com, which has millions of samples from people trying to trace their family history. Once a match-- or in this case, matches-- come back, investigators treat them as leads and get to work.

[Genealogy testing] was the only way we were able to solve this cold case, said Cascade County Sheriff Jesse Slaughter.

To people like Sheriff Slaughter, the testing bypasses drawbacks, like only being able to cross-reference investigative data with known criminals in their records. But to professor of civil liberties at New York University, Erin Murphy, making this information known and available is nothing more than a slippery slope.

You know, I have real concerns about genomic information in the criminal justice system, she said. It could end up hurting you in the future. Someone could de-identify you in a covert operation abroad, [or] it could be used to exclude you from military service.

To ensure things like that do not happen, Maryland and Montana have both passed laws restricting the use of genealogy testing in criminal investigations.

In Maryland, a judge will need to sign off on the practice, which can only be used for serious crimes like murder and sexual abuse. A similar statute exists in Montana, where investigators must first get a search warrant approved by a judge.

Similar legislation is also being discussed in Utah and Washington state, which have both proposed bills in the last year.

A recent study from scientists in Israel found a genealogical database of around 1.3 million people could identify around 60% of people in the U.S. with European descent, showing just how many matches could come from one DNA sample, and in many cases, people who sign up for these websites might not know their information is being used in criminal investigations.

Legislation of this kind is good for the business interests, said Murphy. If you want to put yourself out there as were genomic genealogists that does crime-solving, I think theres a lane for that, but theres also a lane to say were genomic genealogists who believe in your genomic privacy.

In this case, the countrys oldest known cold case, the suspects family members were helpful, and Sgt. Kadner says grateful, as the practice of DNA testing led to their closure.

But Murphy poses the question, At what cost?

From a constitutional perspective, I think its a good decision," said Sheriff Slaughter. "But from a 'my ambition to solve those crimes and put those people away,' it is a little bit of a roadblock."

More here:
States work to pass laws that restrict DNA testing in criminal investigations - The Denver Channel

Opinion: The prejudices and discrimination Latinos faced date back to Arizona's territorial days. They also emboldened generations of heroes who rose in resistance.

Terry Greene Sterling| opinion contributor

As the American West was opening up to white non-Latino settlers, extensive traveler and journalist Richard Hinton wrote a popular Arizona guidebook for prospective newcomers.

The Hand-Book to Arizona: Its Resources, History, Towns, Mines, Ruins and Scenery was published three decades after the United States won the Mexican-American War, thus acquiring most of what would become Arizona and setting the Mexicans who lived there on a treacherous path. Whats more, Hintons guidebook came out a scant 13 years after southern Arizona and the rest of the Confederacy were defeated in the American Civil War.

Those two pivotal events in Arizona history, plus the fact that many members of Indigenous nations in the state had either been slaughtered, or had died of disease, or had been confined to reservations, would not only shape Arizonas politics and prejudices that continue to this day but also embolden generations of heroes who were willing to resist them.

And such prejudices were clearly on Hintons mind way back in 1878,when he warned prospective settlers about Mexicans.

He described them as quite primitive with a shiftless way.

Hinton used the catch-all term Mexicans to identify American citizens of Mexican descent as well as Mexican immigrants. The label has been embracedby many non-Latino whites to identify generations of Mexican immigrants and American citizens who have called themselves Hispanic, Mexican American, Chicano/a, Latino/a or Latinx.

When Hinton published his guidebook, Phoenix was a tiny farming community founded by an ex-Confederate soldier. The settlement, now a city, is widely thought to be named after the mythical bird that rose from the ashes. After all, early Phoenix was built on the ruins of Indigenous communities.

But the word Phoenix is also a post-Civil War code word for a rebirth of the South, writes Edmund Drago in his book Confederate Phoenix: Rebel Children and Their Families in South Carolina.

And given the discriminatory policies that have reigned over Maricopa County for well over a century, including policing, I cant help but wonder if early settlers named Phoenix after the code word instead of the bird. The influence of the Old South isundeniable in early Phoenix.

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For years, local zoning restrictions forced most people of color to live in overcrowded, segregated neighborhoods. And while Mexican labor largely built the town and nourished the profitable farmlands surrounding it, Mexicans were routinely stereotyped by the local media in a way that reflected the towns sentiments.

Treacherous greasers were especially denounced by the local press, which gave considerable space to their violent exploits, writes Bradford Luckingham in Minorities in Phoenix: A Profile of Mexican American, Chinese American, and African American Communities, 1860-1992.

The Arizona Republican, the ancestor of this newspaper, depicted Mexicans as brawling drunkards and thieves who upset white women.

Its not at all surprising that Mexicans were occasionally lynched in early Phoenix.

There was so much more that made life difficult for Mexicans in historic Arizona. A state miscegenation law outlawed the marriage of whites to most people of color, including those with visible traits of Indigenous DNA. A voter suppression law that required literacy tests. Unfair wages. Unlawful deportations of Mexican American citizens to Mexico.

Alfredo Gutierrezs dad Samuel, an American citizen born in Arizona, was illegally deported to Mexico in the 1930s. Samuel eventually returned to Arizona and became a union activist in Miami, an Arizona mining town.

Gutierrez as a child got to witness firsthand what resistance to civil rights abuses could accomplish.

Thanks to the movement his dad joined, Mexicans were finally paid the same wages as whites in the mines. Schools and swimming pools were desegregated.

That childhood experience shaped Gutierrezs lifelong commitment to social justice.

Mentored by Cesar Chavez, Gutierrez was elected to the Arizona Senate when he was 26 and soon became the majority leader. Gutierrez told me that thelegendary Republican power broker Burton Barr once said to him, You are one of the smartest Mexicans I have ever met.

Starting in the mid 2000s, Gutierrez became one of many leaders of a Latino-led resistance that stood up to the powerful politico who became the patriarch of modern Arizona xenophobes Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio.

The son of an immigrant, Arpaio for several years in the mid to late 2000s hunted immigrants in Maricopa County. You go after illegals. Im not afraid to say that he once famously said. And you go after them and you lock them up.

His massive immigration-themed traffic sweeps did a lot more than that. Theyensnared American citizens and provoked terror in Latino neighborhoods. Arpaio also enforced new state laws meant to criminalize and deport unauthorized immigrants.

Arpaio, who has always claimed he is neither a racist nor a xenophobe, was nevertheless enormously popular with those in his mostly white base who viewed Mexicans in much the same way as Richard Hinton et al. had viewed them many decades before.

Given Arizonas history, most who joined the resistance to Arpaio took his actions personally.

The resistance was made up of thousands of heroes and heroines who stood on the shoulders of earlier activists like Cesar Chavez and Samuel Gutierrez.

And while Central Americans, Indigenous folks and non-Latino allies took part in the resistance against Arpaio, most of its members were Mexicans.

Lydia Guzman united families with loved ones caught up in Arpaios raids. She gathered plaintiffs for a federal court case in which a judge would find that Arpaio and his deputies had indeed engaged in unconstitutional policing.

Guzman also set up a hotline that was the only place some felt they could turn to for social services and advocacy. And she assisted the U.S. Department of Justice in its civil rights investigations of Arpaio. Her activism so consumed her that she lost her house to foreclosure and her husband to divorce.

But she never gave up, and in the end she triumphed.

Carlos Garcia, now vice mayor of the city of Phoenix,was born in Sonora and spent much of his boyhood as an undocumented immigrant in Arizona.

He became an activist in college and blossomed as a young leader in the Puente Human Rights Movement. This group of young immigrant and citizen activists was instrumental in the resistance because it carried out brave street actions that forced the public not to ignore the impact of discriminatory policing on the Latino community in Maricopa County.

Thanks to the tireless, yearslong work of this resistance, Arpaio is no longer in office.And Arizonas constitutionally sketchy state immigration laws have been mostly defanged or stopped by the courts.

But the influence of the Old South still remains in Arizona. Many see it in the Maricopa County ballot count and voter suppression efforts in the Arizona Capitol. Others see it in ongoing discriminatory policing of people of color in Maricopa County.

The resistance is still standing up to these forces, and serves as a model to those who want to stop whats tearing the nation apart civil rights abuses, institutionalized white supremacy, xenophobia and voter suppression.

In short, the same ills that were rooted in territorial Arizona when Richard Hinton wrote his guidebook still exist today. Still, theres a chance they can be tamped down in this era of demographic change and movement towards racial reckoning.

There is a way for just about everyone to become engaged in social justice. The movement to stop Arpaio and Arizonas immigration laws was made up of everyday folks. Day laborers and politicians. Hotel maids and lawyers. University students and engineers. Undocumented immigrants and American citizens. People of color and their white allies.

They battled for their civil rights on the streets, in voting booths, in the public square, in the halls of Congress and in the courts.

They didnt give up.They lost some battles and won others, but they trudged on.

And in the end, they were, and are, on the right side of history.

Terry Greene Sterling is a three-time Virg Hill Journalist of the Year. Shes the coauthor of a new nonfiction book, "Driving While Brown: Sheriff Joe Arpaio versus the Latino Resistance," whichtells stories of Arizonans on both sides of a battle for civil rights and American identity in a timeof demographic change. On Twitter:@tgsterling.

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Racism shaped Phoenix, long before Sheriff Joe Arpaio. But it's also inspired a resistance - The Arizona Republic

Image: KTSDESIGN/ SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY via Getty Images

ABSTRACT breaks down mind-bending scientific research, future tech, new discoveries, and major breakthroughs.

Scientists have discovered DNA sequences in wetland soil that are unlike anything ever found and which could have important and unanticipated climate implications, according to a new preprint study co-authored by a Nobel Prize Laureate, among other genomics researchers.

The authors of the new paper, which has not yet been peer-reviewed, named these genetic elements Borgs after the recurring villains in Star Trek, because they assimilate genes from other organisms.

Borgs are extrachromosomal elements, meaning that these DNA sequences are found outside the chromosomes that lie within the nucleus of most cells and that contain the majority of an organisms genetic material. Examples of extrachromosomal elements include plasmids, which can replicate outside of a hosts chromosomes, and some viruses.

Exactly what Borgs are remains a mystery at this point, but it is clear that they share genes and proteins with organisms that oxidize methane, called methanotrophs, that belong to the genus Methanoperedens, suggesting that they acquired these elements through past gene transfers. Methanotrophs are of immense interest to climate change researchers because they reduce atmospheric emissions of methane, a potent greenhouse gas that contributes to rising global temperatures.

Speaking for myself, I was really very excited, especially once it became clear that they carry genes directly involved in methane oxidation, said senior author Jillian Banfield, a biogeochemist and geomicrobiologist at the University of California, Berkeley, in an email.

Banfield and her colleagues realized they were dealing with something special after sequencing DNA found in the wetlands of Lake County, California. Her team includes several researchers from the Innovative Genomics Institute (IGI), a partnership between UC Berkeley and the University of California, San Francisco that was founded by Jennifer Doudna, who received the 2020 Nobel Prize for Chemistry and is a co-author of the new study.

The researchers have studied a huge variety of microbial entitiesbacteria, archaea, eukaryotes, viruses, phages, and plasmids, for instancethat inhabit watery habitats such as groundwater aquifers, soils, and vernal pools. The Borgs were clearly different from anything they had seen before, hinting at a distinct evolutionary origin.

In studying one wetland soil (vernal pool) we identified fragments of enigmatic genomes that were clearly archaeal but could not be classified easily as any type of known genetic element, said Banfield, who leads the Microbial Initiative at the IGI.

We then sought them in other datasets we have generated, she continued. Using this approach, the researchers were able to collect at least 19 examples of Borgs, and sequence four complete genomes, thereby establishing the existence of a substantial lineage of related entities with clearly shared (and somewhat unusual) features making them novel extrachromosomal elements.

The team color-coded the 19 groupsthere are Orange, Lilac, and Rose Borgs, for exampleand described some of their perplexing properties, including their exceptionally enormous size. The DNA sequences were most abundant in deep anaerobic (oxygen-poor) soil and sometimes exceeded actual Methanoperedens populations in these locations by eight times. Indeed, there was no consistent relationship in the abundances observed between the Borgs and the methanotrophs they interact with, adding another layer of mystery to their origins and behavior.

That said, the Borgs do clearly contain metabolic genes, which might be able to boost the energy metabolisms of Methanoperedens that host them. If so, these unique genetic elements could provide new insights into reducing methane emissions, which is a major aim for climate change mitigation plans.

We expect that Borgs increase the overall amount of methane that a Methanoperedens can oxidize, in part by making them more able to adapt to changing conditions, Banfield said. Thus, one short term strategy is to figure out how to foster Methanoperedens in agricultural soils (which are already manipulated) that are more robust due to the Borgs than those without.

The team is also interested in resolving a more basic question: what even are these Borgs? They could be giant linear viruses, or plasmids unlike anything previously reported, or perhaps a sibling Methanoperedens lineage that underwent gene loss and established a symbiotic association within Methnoperedens, according to the study.

To get a better handle on the countless riddles posed by these weird DNA sequences, the researchers hope to find more Borgs in other datasets. Banfield said that this research could lead to the discovery of new mechanisms for processes that as yet, we dont even know exist.

Thus, the analogy may be made to CRISPRa system with only partially predicted function related to microbial defense against viruses, but ultimately a fantastic new toolset, she concluded.

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Newly-Discovered 'Borg' DNA Is Unlike Anything Scientists Have Ever Seen - VICE

A jury this week convicted a western Washington man of cutting down and stealing three valuable bigleaf maples from Olympic National Forest, marking the first time that a federal court has considered tree DNA as evidence in a trial.

In their indictment, prosecutors alleged that in July and August 2018, Justin Andrew Wilke, codefendent Shawn Williams, and another companion illegally felled three bigleaf maple trees under cover of night near Elk Lake in the Olympic National Forest. Bigleaf maple, which can grow up to nearly 160 feet tall, and bears attractively-patterned timber valued for use in furniture and stringed instruments. When the trio encountered a bees nest in one of the trees, the government claimed, they tried to burn it with gasoline.

Though they attempted to extinguish the flames with dirt and water from a nearby creek, prosecutors said the end result was the Maple Fire, a 3,300-acre blaze that cost roughly $4.2 million to bring under control. (While Wilkes co-defendent Shawn Williams pled guilty to setting the timber alight, the jury found Wilke not guilty on those counts, apparently based partially on the testimony of witnesses who said they saw him standing next to the fire but did not see him cause it. In a statement to the Washington Post, Wilkes lawyer Gregory Murphy said that, though Wilke did not dispute that he, along with other uncharged co-conspirators, unlawfully profited from unlawfully logged maple, he denied causing the fire.)

While Wilke claimed that the timber, which he sold to a local mill, had come from private land, Richard Cronn, a research geneticist for the U.S. Forest Service, testified that DNA from the wood matched the remains of the trees found in the national forest.

In a press release, the United States Attorneys Office for the Western District of Washington heralded the conviction as the first time DNA evidence from a tree had been introduced at a federal trial.

The DNA analysis was so precise that it found the probability of the match being coincidental was approximately one in one undecillion (one followed by 36 zeroes), the office claimed. Based on this evidence, the jury concluded the wood Wilke sold the mill had been stolen.

Wilke, 39, faces up to 10 years in prison when the court sentences him in October.

Link:
Olympic National Forest Lumber Thief Convicted Thanks to Tree DNA - Backpacker

Fourteen people alive today in Italy can claim that they are descendants of Leonardo da Vinci, according to a study of the Renaissance genius' family tree.

Researchers traced da Vinci's genealogy over nearly 700 years and 21 generations, from 1331 to the present day, beginning with da Vinci's great-great-great grandfather Michele.

The findings, published July 4 in the journal Human Evolution, could enable historians to reconstruct da Vinci's genome, helping them "scientifically explore the roots of his genius" and other characteristics, such as his left-handedness and unique sensory perceptions, the researchers wrote in the study.

Alessandro Vezzosi, a historian at the Museo Ideale Leonardo Da Vinci in Italy, and Agnese Sabato, president of the Leonardo Da Vinci Heritage Association, mapped five major branches of the updated family tree. Da Vinci, best known for painting "The Last Supper" and "The Mona Lisa," had no children, but his blood relatives include 22 half siblings. The Renaissance artist, scientist and engineer was born out of wedlock on April 15, 1452.

Vezzosi and Sabato scoured historical documents to identify the living relatives through an unbroken male line from da Vinci's father, Ser Piero, and half brother Domenico. The living descendants range in age from 1 year old to 85 years old, according to the researchers.

The historians are planning to conduct genetic analyses of the living relatives to zero in on the Y chromosome, which is passed down to male descendants, and "in which the indelible profile of Leonardo's personal and family identity is stamped," the researchers wrote in the study. Because this particular male line is unbroken, it's possible that the Y chromosome remains unchanged, they said.

In addition to revealing new insights into da Vinci's personality and health, a DNA study could help verify his remains. Da Vinci died in 1519 and is thought to be buried in Amboise, France, but the precise location is not known.

The new study is part of an international effort to find and sequence the polymath's DNA. The so-called Leonardo Da Vinci DNA Project includes researchers from the Leonardo Da Vinci Heritage Association, the Museo Ideale Leonardo Da Vinci and the California-based J. Craig Venter Institute.

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Da Vinci's DNA traced through living relatives to understand his genius - Yahoo News

The world is still not over with the COVID-19 pandemic and now anotherhighly infectious virus is on a surge. Also known as thevomiting bug, Norovirus is highly infectious and causes vomiting and diarrhoea but usually passes in a couple of days. This normally peaks in the winter months.

But cases of the bug have recently been increasing across England.Outbreaks have been particularly concentrated in nursery and childcare facilities with far more than expected in summer months, Public Health England (PHE) said.

In the past five weeks, 154 outbreaks have been notified, compared with an average of 53 outbreaks for the same time period in the previous five years.PHE said while young children were affected, there has also been a rise in infection in all age groups.

The overall number of laboratory-confirmed norovirus reports across all age groups has also recently increased to the levels seen in previous years before the COVID-19 pandemic.

Norovirus is commonly known as the winter vomiting bug.

It is easily transmitted through contact with infected individuals or contaminated surfaces.

Norovirus is highly infectious and causes vomiting and diarrhoea but usually passes in a couple of days.

The increase in outbreaks has been mostly in educational settings, particularly in nursery and childcare facilities.

Symptoms include sudden onset of nausea, projectile vomiting and diarrhoea.

Symptoms can also include a high temperature, abdominal pain and aching limbs.

Norovirus can be spread through food contaminated by the virus when food is handled by symptomatic people or infected individuals.

Stay at home if you are experiencing norovirus symptoms.

Wash your hands frequently and thoroughly with soap and warm water.

Unlike for COVID-19, alcohol gels do not kill off norovirus so soap and water is best.

A bleach-based household cleaner or a combination of bleach and hot water should be used to disinfect potentially contaminated household surfaces.

If you are ill, avoid cooking and helping prepare meals for others until 48 hours after symptoms have stopped.

Wash any contaminated clothing or bedding using detergent and at 60C, and if possible, wear disposable gloves to handle contaminated items.

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DNA Explainer: Know about highly infectious Norovirus and precautions to be taken - DNA India

TACOMA, Wash. - For the first time in federal court, tree DNA has been used to help decide a case.

39-year-old Justin Wilke was put on trialfor his role in an illegal logging operation at Washington's Olympic National Forest. In 2018, Wilke and his accomplice Shawn Williamsillegally felled maple trees and sold the lumber to sawmills. Williams was then sentenced to 30 months in prison.

But that's not all. In August 2018, the two encountered a tree with a wasp's nest at its base. They decided to burn the nest with gasoline to get rid of it.

A blaze soon erupted, which ended up burning 3,300 acres of forest. Many of the destroyed trees were bigleaf maple, a prized species used in higher-end acoustic guitars.

Dubbed the "Maple Fire", officials estimated it cost around $4.2 million to eventually contain.

Now, prosecutors used DNA analysis to determine that the lumber Wilke sold matched the remains of three bigleaf maples taken from the forest. This proved that the trees had not been harvested legally from private lands, as Wilke had said.

The DNA analysis was so precise that it found the probability of the match being coincidental was approximately one in one undecillion (one followed by 36 zeros), saidthe U.S. Attorneys Office for Western Washington.

Wilke was convicted ofconspiracy, theft of public property, depredation of public property, and trafficking and attempted trafficking in unlawfully harvested timber. Wilke could face up to ten years in prison. He will be sentenced in October.

See the full Department of Justice release here.

The rest is here:
Tree DNA helps convict timber thief who started forest fire - woodworkingnetwork.com