STORY OF A NOVEL DNA

 MASSIVE DNA 'BORG'

 DATE:- 20.07.21

Scientists analyzing samples from muddy sites in the western United States have found novel DNA structures that seem to scavenge and ‘assimilate’ genes from microorganisms in their environment, much like the fictional Star Trek ‘Borg’ aliens who assimilate the knowledge and technology of other species.

These extra-long DNA strands, which the scientists named in honor of the aliens, join a diverse collection of genetic structures — circular plasmids, for example — known as extrachromosomal elements (ECEs). Most microbes have one or two chromosomes that encode their primary genetic blueprint. But they can host, and often share between them, many distinct ECEs. These carry non-essential but useful genes, such as those for antibiotic resistance.

Borgs are a previously unknown, unique and “absolutely fascinating” type of ECE, says Jill Banfield, a geo microbiologist at the University of California, Berkeley.

Unlike anything seen before

Borgs are DNA structures “not like any that’s been seen before”, says Brett Baker, a microbiologist at the University of Texas at Austin. Other scientists agree that the find is exciting, but have questioned whether Borgs really are unique, noting similarities between them and other large ECEs.

Their vast size, ranging between more than 600,000 and about 1 million DNA base pairs in length, is one feature that distinguishes Borgs from many other ECEs. In fact, Borgs are so huge that they are up to one-third of the length of the main chromosome in their host microbes, Banfield says.

Banfield studies how microbes influence the carbon cycle — including the production and degradation of methane, a potent greenhouse gas — and, in October 2019, she and her colleagues went hunting for ECEs containing genes involved in the carbon cycle in Californian wetlands. There, they found the first Borgs and later identified 19 different types from this and similar sites in Colorado and California.

Borgs seem to be associated with archaea, which are single-celled microorganisms distinct from bacteria. Specifically, those Banfield and her team have discovered are linked to the Methanoperedens variety, which digest and destroy methane. 

Costs and benefits

Assuming Borgs are real, maintaining such a massive ECE would be costly for Methanoperedens, Banfield and colleagues say, so the DNA structures must provide some benefit. To learn what that might be, the researchers analyzed the sequences of hundreds of Borg genes and compared them with known genes.

Borgs seem to house many genes needed for entire metabolic processes, including digesting methane, says Banfield. She describes these collections as “a toolbox” that might super-charge the abilities of Methanoperedens.

                      'Borg' image under Scanning Electron Microscopy

                         River Colorado from where DNA Borg has been found

Reference :-

Al-Shayeb, B. et al. Preprint at bioRxiv https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.07.10.451761 (2021).

STORY OF iAge

 INFLAMMATION CLOCK

                                                                     

                                           DATE :- 15.07.21

Introduction:- 

A new type of age ‘clock’ can assess chronic inflammation to predict whether someone is at risk of developing age-related disorders such as cardiovascular and neurodegenerative disease. The clock measures ‘biological age’, which takes health into consideration and can be higher or lower than a person’s chronological age.

The inflammatory ageing clock (iAge), reported on 12 July in Nature Aging is one of the first tools of its kind to use inflammation to assess health. Other age clocks have used epigenetic markers, chemical groups that tag a person’s DNA as they age and are passed along as cells divide. The researchers who developed iAge hope that, because inflammation is treatable, the tool could help doctors determine who would benefit from intervention — potentially extending the number of years a person lives in good health.

Keeping time:-

iAge is based on the idea that as a person ages, their body experiences chronic, systemic inflammation because their cells become damaged and emit inflammation-causing molecules. This ultimately leads to wear and tear on their tissues and organs. People who have a healthy immune system will be able to neutralize this inflammation to some extent, whereas others will age faster.

An Experiment :-

To develop iAge, a team including systems biologist David Furman and vascular specialist Nazish Sayed at Stanford University in California analysed blood samples from 1,001 people aged 8–96 who are part of the 1000 Immunomes Project, which aims to investigate how signatures of chronic, systemic inflammation change as people age.

In particular, they pinpointed the immune-signalling protein, or cytokine, CXCL9 as a top contributor; it is mainly produced by the inner lining of blood vessels and has been associated with the development of heart disease.

References :-

1. Sayed, N. et al. Nature Aging https://doi.org/10.1038/s43587-021-00082-y (2021).

2. Fahy, G. M. et al. Aging Cell 18, e13028 (2019).

BATTLE OF EVENS

 

   Natural selection sidelined by medical science?

                                                                  DATE :- 13.07.21

This first possibility assumes that failure of an individual to reach reproductive age and then actually give rise to offspring is the major evolutionary force. In nature, natural selection is the most powerful evolutionary force, but other factors may take over, in a sense, when technology grants a second chance to those who would have died in the wild. Consequently, even a complete lack of natural selection doesn’t mean that humans will not evolve.

Charles Darwin in his book proposed natural selection as the mechanism by which evolution operates. Natural selection is often explained as ‘survival of the fittest’. Those individuals that are born with traits that best enhance survival to maturity are more likely to grow up and reproduce compared with individuals lacking such traits. Another way of saying this is: fitter individuals out-compete those that are less fit to survive in a particular environment. When an individual leaves offspring, its traits are passed down in genes to a new generation.

Darwin did not know about genes, but careful, detailed observations during his famous voyage on the Beagle led him to make observations of phenomena that were consistent with the idea that traits somehow were transferred from generation to generation. One observation that Darwin made was that in each generation more offspring were born than could possibly survive. In nature, many that are born to parents simply do not survive to maturity, but this was also a reality for humanity until very recently. Particularly in urban areas, such as New York City, where immigrants were arriving in droves. Couples had many children intentionally, expecting that some would die of diphtheria, measles, polio –any one of a plethora of communicable diseases. 

This was a typical way that people used to die, but did their deaths lead the survivors to evolve some resistance to these diseases through natural selection? It’s hard to know because within a generation or two there were vaccines for all of these diseases, so the population was immunized artificially.

A similar phenomenon emerges if we consider purification of public water supplies and antibiotics, drugs that kill bacteria. Most of the medical conditions that used to kill high numbers of babies, children, teens, and young adults as recently as a century ago are either prevented or cured today. Furthermore, children who are born with major disabilities, such as missing limbs, can today grow to adulthood and reproduce in a world where technology for prosthetic limbs is developing rapidly.

Can one measure a lack of evolution? That is hard to do over the span of the few generations during which modern science has been operating, but it may be possible in the future. One strategy might be to monitor changes in sequences of human genes vital to immunity and disease, intelligence, athletic fitness, and other traits, then compare the rates of change with similar genes in species that live in the wild. 

Artificial selection is the selective breeding of animals or plants by humans to modify an organism. Genetic drift is a change in the frequency of a population's genes and alleles over time, often by founder effects (when a small group of individuals relocate) or bottlenecking (when a large population is decimated, leaving a smaller group to repopulate).

When a portion of a population is separated, like when settlers leave for a new location - a type of genetic drift called the founder effect occurs. The separated population's genetic makeup starts to change and, over time, match that of the founding men and women.

When a catastrophic event kills off a large portion of a population and a small group of survivors is left to repopulate, it is a type of genetic drift known as the bottleneck effect. It results in a smaller gene pool and a different mix of allele frequencies.

Transhumanism: shaping our evolution through technology

Transhumanism is the idea that humans can evolve new physical and mental capabilities, particularly through the use of science and engineering. In a literal sense, all of us are transhumans already, because we’ve extended our natural capabilities with technology. This began with simple inventions like clothing in Stone Age times, but you can extend that to people today walking around with artificial valves and pacemakers in their hearts and implanted pumps that infuse them with drugs, such as insulin. The concept can be extended to include communication equipment that we wear, such as smartphones, or vehicles that we enter, such as cars and aircraft. Biotechnology is developing at an ever-increasing rate. Bionic limbs are being tested, arms and legs that a wearer can control via thoughts from his or her brain. Biomedical devices are becoming more dependent on computing capability, improvement of which has followed the so-called Moore’s Law, proposed by the founder of Intel Corporation, who suggested that computing power doubles roughly every 18-24 months.

There may be a theoretical limit to computing power, but it is at least a few decades before we reach it. Along with sheer computing power, developments such as nanotechnology, new genetic engineering methods, and integration of biological and electronic technology will add to what is possible. Thus, at some point in the decades to come, we can expect various technologies that today seem like science fiction, such as a bionic artificial heart that can replace a diseased heart and run indefinitely. Or maybe we will develop the ability to grow a genetically-matched human heart in a host animal such as a pig or sheep.

One day the human genome could be altered in a heritable way with a DNA editing system called CRISPR.

              An illustration of gene drive, where a trait is spread to other members of the same species.

( REFERENCE :- 

https://www.visionlearning.com/en/library/Biology/2/Future-of-Human-Evolution/259)

A JELLICIOUS STORY

 SLEEPING JELLY BEAUTY

                                                          DATE :- 08.07.21

Jellyfish doesn't have the so called brain but still they are able to show the sleeplike state on a particular time of the day which is revealed in a new research findings. 

They don't have brains, or even anything more than a rudimentary nervous system, but jellyfish apparently do have bedtimes.

New research finds that jellyfish enter a sleep-like state. If the study, published in the journal Current Biology, is confirmed by future studies, jellyfish are the first-ever animals with no central nervous system to have been observed sleeping. That finding could bolster the theory that sleep is an emergent property of neurons — in other words, sleep might be something that nerve cells connected in a network just do, even without complex organization. 

ORIGIN OF SLEEP IN THE CONTEXT OF JELLY FISH

One research scholar from CALTECH ; Michael Abrams, happened to be cultivating jellyfish in the lab of biologist Lea Goentoro at the same time for an entirely unrelated project. He noticed that one genus, Cassiopea, or the upside-down jellyfish, seemed to become less active at night. Cassiopea spends the vast majority of its time sitting upside down on the ocean or tank floor, pulsing its bell about once a second, Abrams told Live Science. This sedentary behavior makes the upside-down jellyfish an easy animal to track behaviorally.

SNOOZING JELLIES

Abrams and Nath joined forces with Benbrook to investigate just what the jellies were doing. They knew that to show that the jellyfish were sleeping, they'd have to prove that their behavior met the standard criteria for sleep: decreased activity that is rapidly reversible, unlike a coma or unconsciousness; reduced responsiveness to stimuli compared to a waking state; and homeostatic regulation, meaning there is some sort of innate "drive" toward sleep and that the animal needs sleep to function.

AN EXPERIMENT 

To measure activity, the researchers counted the rate of the bell's pulsation in 23 jellyfish for six straight days and nights. They found that the rate dropped by 32 percent at night, going from about 1,155 pulses per 20 minutes during the day to 781 pulses per 20 minutes at night. When the researchers put a little midnight snack in the water column, the jellies perked up and started pulsing at daytime rates, indicating that this quiescent period was easily reversible.

Cassiopea jellyfish, known as upside-down jellyfish for their preferred position, appear to sleep at night. (Image credit: Caltech)

LIFE CENTRIC

 Looking through the glass of water

                                        DATE :- 05.07.21

We genuinely call nature as mystery, yes it is. But for me nothing can be more mysterious than human being. Not only I am taking the references of their behavior if you imagine their thought process on any situation makes a keen observer more curious than anything else. Our life had started in the water it is almost confirmed ( at least for now), ya so nothing can be so long and tiring journey than life is which is the ultimate truth. In this long journey nothing is constant, your love respect worth even it can even be like "the upturn glass" depending on situation. You can try to put a barrier like we keep the water in glass but what we see in the glass that is not the reality, the water is much more expanded as so the life is. 

Water can fall from the glass if we are not aware enough then it knows no bound and then we have no control on it.  

" Sorry my majesty your time is over!"

But the things can be different also if we take the life as our hard task Mistress who always reminds you about your things to do. 

Life is also not like an evenly poised something rather they are entangled with situations which makes a human to human being itself. What is the most special thing about it is the versatility of looking on the situations. Here are three categories :- one who is always happy whatever the situation is, rather we can say optimistic. Are the happiness and satisfaction same?  Well I don’t know  Pundit's verdict but for me it is not that. Happiness provides you positive motivation and self actualization to proceed forward to become more satisfied, which have actually no limit. There are some peoples who are saturated or supersaturated they follows the linear curve of life. I have no problem or it should not be also. But do all the unsaturated people are in relentlessly  negative?  It may not be. Here comes the question of dissatisfaction ; when a person is not fully satisfied on his / her current state so there is always a wake up call inside that person. And who is unsatisfied means probably the situation is not made for you, left and thrive for excellence ( as for you). 

Now look upon the glass of water it is almost empty but not null means a state of unsatisfactory state of mind. 

On the other hand the level of water goes down from the mark means some sorts of dissatisfaction. 

Though situation matters and then decision matters the most but the relentless authority is still on the Time who writes " Odyssey of life ". We should not be like unseeded pedestrian. 

When a seed germinates it has the aim of not only big but also for a fruitful tree. Quality of fruit is not the same but obviously unique for that tree and also important for the tree.

Life is like a tree of events and occurrences. Here also you should sprinkle the water ( values of life)  not drown it ( over ethical situations) when it is in the form of sapling ( time of development), who will care if the root is got rotten?  Literally no one. 

Only we relish some moments nothing else ; no one will have that propeller of your life except you yes someone can inspire you, love you, admire you or can disrespect or hate you not more than that.

The glass is still there, it has spoken a lot you may not hear it but if you feel it then the Earth will be your oyster. Even in captivity of glass outside you can feel the taste of water ; the life. 

( The KB)

About a famous rock from Bulgaria

BELOGRADCHIK ROCK 

Date:- 01.07.2021  

The Belogradchik Rocks (Bulgarian: Белоградчишки скали, Belogradchishki skali) are a group of strangely shaped sandstone and conglomerate rock formations located on the western slopes of the Balkan Mountains (Stara Planina) near the town of Belogradchik in northwest Bulgaria. The rocks vary in color from primarily red to yellow; some of the rocks reach up to 200 m in height. Many rocks have fantastic shapes and are associated with interesting legends. They are often named for people or objects they are thought to resemble. The Belogradchik Rocks have been declared a Natural Landmark by the Bulgarian government and are a major tourist attraction in the region. They are the only habitat of the critically endangered Bulgarian endemic plant Hieracium belogradcense.

Geography:-

The Belogradchik Rocks are spread over the western part of the Balkan Mountains and cover an area of 50 km² (19 sq mi). They extend from the village of Rabisha in the west to the village of Belotintsi in the east.

The central group of rocks is situated just to the south and adjacent to the town of Belogradchik. Located here are several notable formations: Adam and Eve, the Mushrooms, the Schoolgirl, the Bear, the Dervish, the Shepherd Boy, the Lion, the Camel, the Madonna, the Horseman, the Monks, the goddess Bendida, the Rebel Velko, and many other stone figures.

The second group of rocks lies to the west of Belogradchik. The rocks are of the Alpine variety and are surrounded by steep precipices. The most famous of these rocks are Zbegovete, Erqupriya, and Boritch.

The third group of rocks lies 4 km (2.5 mi). to the east of Belogradchik and includes the rocks around the Latin Gate and the Lipenik Cave.

Geology:-

Many rock figures and small valleys with steep vertical slopes have formed over hundreds of millions of years as a result of the natural processes of erosion, denudation, growth of mosses and lichens, and other natural factors.

The formation of the Belogradchik Rocks started during the Permian period, about 230 million years ago,^[when the tectonic cycle was folding to create the Balkan Mountains and elevating the region of Belogradchik.

Later, during the Triassic period, the region became the floor of a shallow sea. At the same time, the destruction of the earlier Paleozoic rocks formed enormous quantities of gravel, sand and clay, which were deposited by the rivers into the sea basin. The sediment piled up and gradually became thicker layers of conglomerates and sandstone, with the conglomerate pieces becoming well rounded over time by the forces of water.

Tourism:-

The Belogradchik Rocks are a major tourist destination in northwest Bulgaria, along with the town of Belogradchik and the Belogradchik Fortress, which incorporates the rocks as part of its natural defense, and the nearby Magura Cave, situated near the village of Rabisha. Another tourist attraction in the area is the Baba Vida medieval fortress in the nearby town of Vidin on the Danube river.

Legends of Madona:-

The Madonna – Once there were a monastery and nunnery amongst the Belogradchik Rocks. There lived a beautiful nun, who was secretly envied by all for her beauty. More than once, the old Mother Superior reminded the nun not to forget that even though she was young and pretty, that she had taken the veil and was vowed to God. During the Petrovden celebration, a young patrician came to the festival on his white horse. Immediately, when she saw him, the nun recognized the man of her dreams. She could not resist her heartache and secretly met him, but the nun's illicit love was eventually discovered by the cries of her young child. The Mother Superior decided to severely punish the nun by all monastic canons, and even the monks from the monastery were summoned to pass judgment on her. It took a long time for the white bearded monks to draw a punishment, but at last they decided to expel her and her child out of the priory. The poor nun was doomed to a life worse than death itself. Ordinary people would treat her like a leper, and no one would dare talk to her, let alone give her shelter or food. The nun was ready to have her life taken rather than be chased out of the nunnery. As heartbreaking as her sincere plea for mercy was, it did not move the monks. As the nun was exiting the monastic gates, a miracle happened. The day became night and a frightening thunder was heard. The rocks opened up and the monastery and nunnery were both driven into the ground, and the Monks, on their retreat back to the cloister, the Madonna, bending over her child, and the Horseman, riding to his beloved on his white horse, were all turned to stone.