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Time of India
4 days ago
- Science
- Time of India
Fungus, not insect, is true source of prized lac pigment: Indian Institute of Science studeyt
Bengaluru: The red lac pigment, long thought to be made by insects, may actually originate from a yeast-like fungus living symbiotically inside them, researchers at Indian Institute of Science (IISc) have found. By sequencing the lac insect's microbial community, the team from department of developmental biology and genetics discovered that only the fungus, not the insect or its bacteria, carried genes needed to produce laccaic acid, the key compound in the pigment. Their findings were published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. "For thousands of years, India has been a key producer of lac pigment," Shantanu Shukla, assistant professor and corresponding author of the study, said. The pigment, derived from resin secreted by the insect, is widely used in textiles, food colouring, handicrafts, and traditional art. Lac insects, which feed on the sugary sap of host trees such as "Butea monosperma" (commonly known as Flame of the Forest), secrete shellac and laccaic acid. However, the pathway through which the pigment is synthesised has remained unclear for decades. Repeated efforts to locate the required genes in the insect's own genome had been unsuccessful. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Giao dịch vàng CFDs với sàn môi giới tin cậy IC Markets Tìm hiểu thêm Undo The new study suggests the insect lacks the capability to produce tyrosine, an amino acid essential for laccaic acid synthesis, and relies instead on microbial partners. "Such missing nutrients are often supplied by symbiotic bacteria or fungi in insects," said Shukla. By sequencing the bacterial and fungal communities associated with the insect, researchers narrowed down their search to two candidates: a "Wolbachia" bacterium and a yeast-like fungus. The fungus, previously hinted at, but not fully characterised in earlier studies, turned out to possess the entire genetic toolkit for pigment synthesis. This included genes for enzymes that catalyse the formation of aromatic molecules, which form the structural basis of laccaic acid. According to Vaishally, a PhD student and first author of the paper, isolating the role of the fungus was not straightforward. "The fungus is uncultivable, and the insects cannot survive outside their host plants. All our work had to be done using plant-reared insects, which made it challenging," she said. One striking feature of the fungus is its location and mode of inheritance. It is present not just in the insect's haemolymph — comparable to blood — but also inside its egg cells. "The fungus enters the oocyte as it matures and is passed on to the next generation. This kind of vertical transmission is rare and noteworthy," Shukla said. Researchers also observed treating the insects with a fungicide led to reduced pigment production and stunted growth. This indicates the insect likely depends on the fungus for more than just pigment synthesis, possibly for other nutrients it cannot obtain from its sap-based diet. "The yeast-like organism is central to the story. Fungal symbionts are still poorly understood in insects, and this study adds to our understanding of their evolutionary role," Shukla said. The findings suggest a more complex biological relationship behind the production of lac pigment than previously known, and may open up avenues for studying fungal symbiosis in other pigment-producing insects.
Yahoo
13-05-2025
- Climate
- Yahoo
Michigan Court of Claims denies state's request to resolve Edenville Dam case without trial
Flooding aftermath of Edenville Dam failure | Timothy Wenzel of Midland photo At a Monday afternoon motion hearing, Michigan Court of Claims Judge James Robert Redford rejected the state of Michigan's request to resolve a case brought by several individuals impacted by the 2020 Edenville Dam failure without a trial. Nearly five years ago, on May 19, 2020, the Edenville and Sanford Dams, located near Midland, failed due to record rainfall, forcing thousands of individuals to evacuate and causing catastrophic flooding and damage to property. The Edenville Dam's former owner Lee Mueller was found liable for $119 million in environmental damage in a suit brought by the Michigan Department of Natural Resources and the Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy. Days after the dam failed, a number of property owners took action against the DNR and EGLE, seeking compensation and arguing the departments' actions contributed to the dam's failure. The DNR and EGLE sought summary disposition on the grounds that there is no genuine issue of material fact within the complaint. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX According to the Michigan Judicial Institute' Civil Proceedings Benchbook, a motion of this nature should not be filed until discovery is completed, however the motion may be granted when 'there is no reasonable chance that further discovery will result in factual support for the nonmoving party.' 'The bottom line is, there's some, limited albeit, but there is some expert discovery that's continuing,' Redford said. Any further motions for summary disposition must be filed no later than July 3, 2025, with the court scheduled to hear arguments on those motions on Sept. 15, 2025. The DNR's motion clearly created factual questions on whether EGLE was aware of the safety risk posed by the dam, Redford said, noting that the court's task under the specific motion filed by the state is to determine whether an issue of material fact exists to warrant a trial. 'The opinion to deny [this motion for] relief is not an opinion which states the plaintiffs will win this case at trial. That's not the standard. This case, if allowed to, will go to trial, and the trial court will have to weigh and evaluate the credibility of the evidence in a standard and in a manner which is far different from that in the [summary disposition] motion,' Redford said. Kevin Carlson, who represents the individuals impacted by the dam failure, was pleased with Redford's decision, saying they would 'finally have their day in court.' 'These plaintiffs have suffered unimaginable losses, and we are committed to holding the parties responsible accountable for their actions. For five years, the State of Michigan knew about the dam's dangerous condition but refused to act in the best interests of the public and instead made the dam more dangerous by authorizing higher water levels. We look forward to pressing forward with this case and ensuring justice for those impacted by this catastrophic failure.' While the Michigan Advance reached out to Nathan Gambill, the assistant attorney general representing the DNR and EGLE, he redirected questions to a department spokesperson. The Attorney General's office had not responded as of the time of publication.
The Hindu
13-05-2025
- Health
- The Hindu
East Asians began evolving to drink milk before they reared cattle
Female mammals produce milk to nourish their young. Much of the nourishment comes from lactose, the major sugar in milk. The lactose is broken down in the infant's small intestine into the more simpler sugars, glucose, and galactose, which are readily absorbed by the small intestine. The break-down, or digestion, of lactose is mediated by an enzyme called lactase. After weaning, a baby rapidly loses the ability to produce lactase. When adults consume milk, cheese, ice cream or other dairy products, many of them experience unpleasant effects like bloating, flatulence, and diarrhoea. This is because the undigested lactose passes into the large intestine, where it is utilised by the bacteria residing there. This produces hydrogen, carbon dioxide, and methane, and the unabsorbed sugars increase water flow into the bowels to produce diarrhoea. These are the hallmarks of lactose intolerance. Yet millions of people around the world regularly indulge in milkshakes, cheese pizzas, and ice cream sundaes even as adults. This is because they carry genetic mutations that allow them to continue producing lactase even as adults. This trait is called lactase persistence. A textbook example The mutations that confer lactase persistence emerged independently in different populations. Their emergence in North European and African populations in particular appears to have coincided with the domestication of cattle, buffaloes, goats, sheep, and other livestock, which began about 11,000 years ago. The cultural shift from hunting/gathering to pastoralism gave continued access to meat, milk, and hides from herds of domesticated animals. The coincidental emergence of lactase persistence mutations with livestock domestication was taken by many scientists at the time to be a 'textbook example' of convergent evolution. That is, the independent evolution of similar traits in distantly related populations. Experts believed it was driven, in the words of a 2007 paper in Nature Genetics, by the 'strong selective pressure resulting from shared cultural traits — animal domestication and adult milk consumption'. A wrinkle in the textbook Scientists may need to reevaluate this neat summation in the light of new findings reported by a team of researchers from Fudan University in Shanghai, China; the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, in Leipzig, Germany; and the Université de Lyon in France. Their findings were published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The researchers found a distinct evolutionary pathway for lactase persistence in East Asian populations, which includes the Chinese, the Japanese, and the Vietnamese. Unlike the gene-and-culture coevolution well-documented in African and European groups, the East Asian lactase persistence gene had come from the Neanderthals, an archaic group of humans that went extinct about 30,000 years ago. When the researchers conducted population genetic analyses of the part of the genome containing the lactase gene, they found evidence of pre-agricultural selection pressures beginning more than 30,000 years ago. That is, the East Asian genomes began evolving towards lactase persistence several millennia before these populations began to domesticate livestock. This early evolution likely targeted advantages related to the immune system rather than lactose digestion directly. The researchers found the East Asian (Neanderthal-derived) lactase gene showed the same expression pattern as the mutant responsible for lactase persistence in Europeans. This suggested it also conferred lactate persistence. Neanderthals in our genome About 7 million years ago, the evolutionary line leading to the contemporary Homo sapiens diverged from the one leading to our closest living cousins, the chimpanzees and bonobos. About 800,000 years ago, our line split once more: one population broke away and migrated to Eurasia, adapting to cold climes and eventually becoming the Neanderthals. The other stayed put in Africa and, by about 200,000 years ago, evolved into modern humans. Modern humans migrated out of Africa into Eurasia 120,000 to 80,000 years ago, and came into contact with their Neanderthal cousins there. DNA evidence from skeletal remains dating to after the contact showed the two occasionally interbred as well. As a result, today, about 1-4% of the genome of individuals with Eurasian ancestry — i.e. Europeans, East Asians, Indians, Native Americans, and Oceanians — represents Neanderthal-derived DNA sequences. The lactase gene of East Asians was one such segment. On the other hand, those of African descent have close to 0% Neanderthal-derived sequences. About 30,000 years ago the Neanderthals went extinct for reasons that are still not clear. Bones to pick Experts can distinguish Neanderthal skeletal remains from those of modern humans by the shape of the skull, inner ear bones, and pelvis width. Neanderthal bones have yielded DNA, which scientists have sequenced and compared with that of H. sapiens. Two random humans share about 99.9% of their DNA sequence whereas humans and Neanderthals shared only about 99.7%. Thus, there are about 9.6 million points of difference between Neanderthal and human DNA sequences, in terms of the bases the DNA is made of. Based on these differences, if a DNA sequence is sufficiently long, one can tell whether it is from humans or Neanderthals. The Allen Ancient DNA Resource (AADR) is a curated database of more than 10,000 genome sequences from the skeletal remains of ancient individuals who lived up to 20,000 years ago. The researchers who put this resource together have also identified, on every genome, more than a million sites where the DNA has been known to exhibit a different ordering of bases than 'normal'. About 67% of the ancient DNA sequences in AADR are from remains recovered in Europe and Russia, some 8% each are from East Asia and the Near East, about 7% are from the Americas, about 5% are from South and Central Asia, about 3% from Africa, and about 2% from Oceania. A story upended The researchers behind the new study searched AADR and found one modern human who lived around 14,000 years ago in the Amur area of China. This individual carried the Neanderthal-derived lactase gene. The gene occurred in roughly 10% of those humans who lived 8,000 to 3,000 years ago, and in about 20% of those who lived about 3,000 to 1,000 years ago. Its current frequency among East Asians is 28.9%. Thus, the AADR data also supported the inference made from the population genetic analyses: that the lactase gene had already experienced selection and had reached a (relatively) high frequency among East Asians long before they began to domesticate animals. Thus either the selection in East Asians, unlike that in Africans and North Europeans, was for reasons other than lactase persistence, or in all three geographies the selection was similarly not for lactase persistence. Either way in the light of these findings the classic story of gene–culture coevolution has become more complicated and hence, as the researchers note, more interesting. D.P. Kasbekar is a retired scientist.
USA Today
04-04-2025
- Health
- USA Today
Timber! Bless you: Video shows Georgia tree releasing plume of pollen when cut down
Timber! Bless you: Video shows Georgia tree releasing plume of pollen when cut down Show Caption Hide Caption Massive pollen plume rises from fallen tree A tree full of pollen had to be cut down due to construction in Georgia. Yeah, that's going to cause some sneezing. Video of construction workers in Southern Georgia caused a tree to release a plume of pollen when it was cut down. The plume is an impressive addition of pollen to a region struck with the allergen. The Atlanta Allergy & Asthma's Pollen Counting Station shows "extremely high" pollen counts for three out of the four days this week. The Climate Prediction Center says that the south is likely to see "well-above-average temperatures" in April, which would contribute to the pollen count rising. Why is there so much pollen? An unforeseen side effect of climate change is increased pollen counts. Recent climate change has caused weather patterns to shift. There are more days without frost or freezes, warmer seasonal air temperatures and more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, all of which can contribute to higher pollen counts and earlier pollen seasons. Warmer temperatures and more carbon dioxide allow plants to grow more aggressively, which can account for more pollen in the air. Allergy season will likely continue to worsen for many individuals with tree, grass or weed allergies. According to the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, pollen amounts between 1990 and 2018 increased by up to 21%.
Yahoo
03-04-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Timber! Bless you: Video shows Georgia tree releasing plume of pollen when cut down
Yeah, that's going to cause some sneezing. Video of construction workers in Southern Georgia caused a tree to release a plume of pollen when it was cut down. The plume is an impressive addition of pollen to a region struck with the allergen. The Atlanta Allergy & Asthma's Pollen Counting Station shows "extremely high" pollen counts for three out of the four days this week. The Climate Prediction Center says that the south is likely to see "well-above-average temperatures" in April, which would contribute to the pollen count rising. An unforeseen side effect of climate change is increased pollen counts. Recent climate change has caused weather patterns to shift. There are more days without frost or freezes, warmer seasonal air temperatures and more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, all of which can contribute to higher pollen counts and earlier pollen seasons. Warmer temperatures and more carbon dioxide allow plants to grow more aggressively, which can account for more pollen in the air. Allergy season will likely continue to worsen for many individuals with tree, grass or weed allergies. According to the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, pollen amounts between 1990 and 2018 increased by up to 21%. This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Video shows Georgia tree releasing pollen plume after being cut down
