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বৃহস্পতিবার, ২৫ অক্টোবর, ২০১২
Video: Deadly violence erupts between Israel, Hamas
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Did bacteria spark evolution of multicellular life?
ScienceDaily (Oct. 23, 2012) ? Bacteria have a bad rap as agents of disease, but scientists are increasingly discovering their many benefits, such as maintaining a healthy gut.
A new study now suggests that bacteria may also have helped kick off one of the key events in evolution: the leap from one-celled organisms to many-celled organisms, a development that eventually led to all animals, including humans.
Published this month in the inaugural edition of the new online journal eLife, the study by University of California, Berkeley, and Harvard Medical School scientists involves choanoflagellates (aka "choanos"), the closest living relatives of animals. These microscopic, one-celled organisms sport a long tail or flagellum, tentacles for grabbing food and are members of the ocean's plankton community. As our closest living relative, choanos offer critical insights into the biology of their last common ancestor with animals, a unicellular or colonial organism that lived and died over 650 million years ago.
"Choanoflagellates evolved not long before the origin of animals and may help reveal how animals first evolved," said senior author Nicole King, UC Berkeley associate professor of molecular and cell biology.
Since first starting to study choanoflagellates as a post-doc, King has been trying to figure out why some choanoflagellates live their lives as single cells, while others form colonies. After years of dead ends, King and undergraduate researcher Richard Zuzow discovered accidentally that a previously unknown species of bacteria stimulates one choanoflagellate, Salpingoeca rosetta, to form colonies. Because bacteria were abundant in the oceans when animals first evolved, the finding that bacteria influence choano colony formation means it is plausible that bacteria also helped to stimulate multicellularity in the ancestors of animals.
"I would be surprised if bacteria did not influence animal origins, since most animals rely on signals from bacteria for some part of their biology," King said. "The interaction between bacteria and choanos that we discovered is interesting for evolutionary reasons, for understanding how bacteria interact with other organisms in the oceans, and potentially for discovering mechanisms by which our commensal bacteria are signaling to us."
No one is sure why choanoflagellates form colonies, said one of the study's lead authors, UC Berkeley post-doctoral fellow Rosanna Alegado. It may be an effective way of exploiting an abundant food source: instead of individual choanoflagellates rocketing around in search of bacteria to eat, they can form an efficient bacteria-eating "Death Star" that sits in the middle of its food source and chows down.
Whatever the reasons, colonies of unicellular organisms may have led the way to more permanent multicellular conglomerations, and eventually organisms composed of different cell types specialized for specific functions.
Sequencing the choanoflagellate genome
King's 12-year search for the trigger of choanoflagellate colony development was reignited in 2005 when she started to prime cultures of the choanoflagellate S. rosetta for a genome sequencing project. The sequencing of another choanoflagellate, the one-celled Monosiga brevicollis, gave some clues into animal origins, but she needed to compare its genome to that of a colony-forming choanoflagellate.
Surprisingly, when Zuzow tried to isolate the colony-forming choanoflagellate by adding antibiotics to the culture dish to kill off residual bacteria, strange things happened, said King.
"When he treated the culture with one cocktail of antibiotics, he saw a bloom of rosette colony formation," she said, referring to the rose petal-shaped colonies that were floating in the culture media. "When he treated with a different cocktail of antibiotics, that got rid of colony formation altogether."
That "rather mundane but serendipitous observation" led Zuzow and Alegado to investigate further and discover that only one specific bacterial species in the culture was stimulating colony formation. When other bacteria outnumbered it, or when antibiotics wiped it out, colony formation stopped. Alegado identified the colony-inducing bacteria as the new species, Algoriphagus machipongonensis. While she found that other bacteria in the Algoriphagus genus can also stimulate colony formation, other bacteria like E. coli, common in the human gut, cannot.
Working with Jon Clardy of Harvard Medical School, a natural products chemist, the two labs identified a molecule -- a fatty acid combined with a lipid that they called RIF-1 -- that sits on the surface of bacteria and is the colony development cue produced by the bacteria.
"This molecule may be betraying the presence of bacteria," Alegado said. "Bacteria just sit around blebbing off little membrane bubbles, and if one of them has this molecule, the choanoflagellates all of a sudden say, 'Aha, there are some bacteria around here.'"
The signal sets off a predetermined program in the choanoflagellate that leads to cell division and the development of rosettes, she said. The molecule RIF-1 is remarkably potent; choanos detect and respond to it at densities that are about one billionth that of the lowest concentration of sugar that humans can taste in water.
"We are investigating this molecule from many sides. How and why do bacteria make it? How do choanoflagellates respond to it, and why?" King said. She and her team also are analyzing the genome of the colony-forming choanoflagellate and the colony-inducing bacteria for clues to their interaction.
King hopes that this unexpected signaling between choanoflagellates and bacteria can yield insights into other ways in which bacteria influence biology, particularly the biology of the gut.
Coauthors with King, Alegado and Clardy are Zuzow, now a graduate student at Stanford University; Laura Brown, now a faculty member at Indiana University; Shugeng Cao and Renee Dermenjian of Harvard Medical School; and Stephen Fairclough of UC Berkeley. Dermenjian is now at Merck.
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of California - Berkeley. The original article was written by Robert Sanders.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.
Journal Reference:
- Rosanna A Alegado, Laura W Brown, Shugeng Cao, Renee K Dermenjian, Richard Zuzow, Stephen R Fairclough, Jon Clardy, Nicole King. A bacterial sulfonolipid triggers multicellular development in the closest living relatives of animals. eLife, 2012; 1 DOI: 10.7554/eLife.00013
Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.
Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.
Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/~3/jc083uSCCwo/121024101758.htm
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বুধবার, ২৪ অক্টোবর, ২০১২
Government to delay badger cull
23 October 2012
Last updated at 11:23 ET
Owen Paterson: Need to ensure "the cull will conform to the scientific criteria and the evidence base"
The government has announced it will delay a planned cull of badgers in England until next summer, after widespread protests against the scheme.
Environment Secretary Owen Paterson said this was necessary to "get it right" and the "optimal time" for this year had passed.
Under coalition plans, several thousand badgers could be shot, in an effort to reduce levels of bovine tuberculosis.
The anti-cull campaigner and Queen guitarist Brian May welcomed the delay.
Ministers have given approval for a cull in two areas, Gloucestershire and west Somerset, as part of efforts to control bovine TB.
Under the plans, badgers will be shot in the open without first being trapped in cages, which is current practice.
Opponents, including the RSPCA, say that is inhumane, with an e-petition to the government attracting more than 160,000 signatures.
'Convinced'In a statement to MPs, Mr Paterson said the cull "should have begun" earlier this summer but had been delayed until after the Olympics and Paralympics, with recent bad weather also hampering preparations.
But he said that the alternative - a vaccine - was only 50% to 60% effective, adding: "I'm entirely convinced that the badger cull is the right thing to do."
The National Farmers' Union is leading the preparations for the scheme, but Mr Paterson said it had written to him asking for a delay, as this was not the best time of year to go ahead.
He said badger numbers in Gloucestershire and Somerset were higher than had been previously thought, adding: "It's crucial that we get this right."
The government's plan is based on the results of a nine-year trial which showed the spread of the disease could be slowed slightly if more than 70% of badgers in an area could be eradicated. But if it was less than 70%, the spread of TB could increase, it found.
Mr Paterson said: "It would be wrong to go ahead if those on the ground cannot be confident of removing at least 70% of the population."
He added: "By starting the pilots next summer, we can build on the work that's already been done and ensure that the cull will conform to the scientific criteria and the evidence base."
'No answer'For Labour Mary Creagh, shadow environment secretary, called the government's handling of the badger cull "incompetent and shambolic".
"Once again, ministers present the House with a disaster entirely of their own making. Once again, it's farmers and taxpayers who are left counting the cost," she said.
"Bovine TB is a terrible disease for farmers, their families and their communities. But this cull was never going to be a silver bullet."
RSPCA chief executive Gavin Grant said: "We welcome this postponement, but this must not be a temporary reprieve, but must mark an end to all cull plans.
"Science, the public and MPs from all parties had said very clearly that a cull is no answer to bovine TB."
Brian May, who has campaigned against the cull, called the government announcement "at least a temporary reprieve".
He added: "But let's be very clear: this is a scientifically flawed, ethically reprehensible, economically unjustifiable and reckless policy that needs to be abandoned, once and for all."
But Peter Jones, president of the British Veterinary Association, said: "The science has not changed. Scientists agree that culling badgers does reduce the levels of infection in cattle herds, and we know that no country has dealt with bovine TB without tackling the disease in wildlife."
The Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs says the cull is necessary to protect cattle from bovine TB.
Last year, 26,000 cattle in England had to be slaughtered after contracting the disease.
The Welsh government has opted for a system of vaccination while Scotland is officially TB-free.
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-20039697#sa-ns_mchannel=rss&ns_source=PublicRSS20-sa
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Obama volunteers at Boulder polls draw complaint from GOP
FORT COLLINS???Some on-campus supporters of President Barack Obama got a little overzealous on the first day of early voting at Colorado State University.
Pro-Obama signs were placed near the entrance to the early voting location, leading to a formal complaint by the Colorado Republican Party to the Larimer County Clerk.
Colorado election law states that electioneering is not permitted within 100 feet of polling locations.
Colorado Secretary of State Scott Gessler said the problems identified by the state GOP had been corrected. "Every election cycle, you'll get overzealous people who step over the line. It was fixed today."
Read more of the article Obama volunteers at Boulder polls draw complaint from GOP at 9News.com.
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U.S. consumer agency to supervise debt collectors
(Reuters) - The U.S. consumer agency will begin closely supervising about 175 debt collectors for the first time starting in January, widening the new watchdog's oversight of consumer lending.
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) said on Wednesday it had finalized plans to oversee larger firms in the industry to make sure debt collectors treat Americans fairly.
The agency said it will determine whether debt collectors properly disclose the amount owed, maintain accurate data about consumer debt, and address consumer complaints quickly.
"We want all companies to realize that the better business choice is to follow the law ? not break it," CFPB Director Richard Cordray said in a statement.
The 2010 Dodd-Frank financial law created the bureau and directed it to oversee consumer financial products such as mortgages, student loans and credit cards.
It also allowed the CFPB to extend its oversight to larger non-bank companies participating in consumer financial markets.
The CFPB will supervise firms with more than $10 million in annual receipts from consumer debt collection. About 30 million Americans have outstanding debt that is subject to collection, the agency estimates.
Firms involved in debt collection try to get money from delinquent borrowers for a fee, buy up debt from lenders and recover what is owed, or collect money through litigation.
Encore Capital Group Inc and Asset Acceptance Capital Corp are among the biggest companies in the industry.
Debt collectors sometimes pass on consumers' collection status to credit agencies, which issue the credit reports that banks and other lenders use to determine whether to lend money and what interest rates to charge, the CFPB said.
"If they get the information wrong, this can be the difference between getting approved or denied for such financial products as a mortgage or a car loan," the agency said.
The CFPB in September began supervising credit reporting agencies that take in more than $7 million each year, including Equifax, Experian and TransUnion.
Cordray has said those industries were chosen partly due to the role they are playing in consumers' lives after the 2007-2009 financial crisis.
When the bureau begins overseeing debt collectors, it will be able to keep an eye on every stage of the lending process, the CFPB said.
The CFPB said on Wednesday it also released the field guide that examiners will use to supervise debt collectors.
(Reporting By Emily Stephenson; Editing by Steve Orlofsky)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/u-consumer-agency-supervise-debt-collectors-040455590--sector.html
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