Great British Bioscience

Bite-sized chunks of Great British Bioscience from BBSRC Highly commended - UK Blog Awards 2016  

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Chapattis Vs Zinc Deficiency

Zinc deficiency affects around 17% of the world’s population, mostly in developing countries. In Pakistan, the most recent national nutrition survey indicated that over 40% of women are zinc deficient. Stunted growth and development in children, increased susceptibility to infections, and complications during pregnancy and childbirth are just some of the consequences of zinc deficiency. Potentially leading to severe illness and death, this seemingly invisible deficiency has a negative economic impact on the family, the community, and the region more broadly.

So in May 2017 a group of researchers from the University of Central Lancashire started investigating whether a newly developed strain of biofortified wheat could increase dietary zinc intake in Pakistan by integrating the wheat into normal eating habits, and is being used is used to make chapattis – a staple food in the brick kiln communities of Peshawar.

Biofortified crops are developed using conventional plant breeding techniques, like cross-breeding standard varieties with their wild relatives over several generations. This means that biofortified crops are often more resilient to pests, diseases, higher temperatures and drought, as well as having higher micronutrient concentrations, such as zinc.

The trials were successfully completed in February this year, and the team are heading out to Pakistan this month to meet with research partners. The next steps are laboratory analysis, data entry and statistical analysis, and the team hope they will show improved zinc status associated with consuming bio-fortified zinc flour.

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Unpredictable prey proves problematic for predators

In the battle between predator and prey, the victor can be decided by the smallest of margins. For some animals this has led to an evolutionary arms-race where speed is the main objective. New research carried out by Professor Alan Wilson of the Royal Veterinary College has changed our understanding of athleticism in animals. His new discoveries suggest slower speeds and last-second turns actually give prey animals better chances of survival, whereas predators must evolve to be more athletic to follow the unpredictable prey. Professor Wilson’s analysed movements of wild, free-ranging cheetahs and lions and their most common prey, impalas and zebras, in the Savannah of Northern Botswana. The team collected movement data from five cheetahs, nine lions, seven zebras and seven impalas. They also took tiny muscle samples back to their UK laboratory to test how powerful the animals’ muscle fibers were. State of the art technology, including high-tech location-tracking and movement-sensing collars, as well as Professor Wilson’s self-built research aircraft equipped with sophisticated tracking, filming and terrain-mapping technology.

Results showed although cheetahs and impalas were the more athletic predator-prey pair, compared to lions and zebras, both predators were similarly more athletic than their prey. Their muscles were found to be 20% more powerful, they were 38% faster, 37% better at accelerating and 72% better at decelerating.

More details : Royal Veterinary College: LOCATE.

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Did you know fungi have sex - and are especially active on porridge?

A group of mycologists at the University of Nottingham are investigating the molecular and physiological processes that control sexual reproduction in ascomycete fungi.

The group of scientists quite literally look for sex in fungi. By examining the core biology of fungal sex, the group want to understand how this process can be exploited to do weird and wonderful things to benefit human and plant health.

One particular fungus they are studying is the Aspergillus fumigatus, which was once thought to reproduce only asexually - but the group's research has shown that it does have a sexual cycle.

First catalogued in 1729 by Italian priest-turned-botanist Pier Antonio Micheli, the Aspergillus genus reminded Micheli of an aspergillum – a holy water sprinkler. Micheli has since been dubbed the founding father of scientific mycology.

The Aspergillus genus is the name for a group of moulds, and is particularly important as some species like the fumigatus can cause infections in humans and animals.

The group at Nottingham hope to develop a method for identifying unknown resistance genes against treatments in aspergillosis infections, which are caused by the Aspergillus fumigatus fungus. Although relatively uncommon in the UK, people who already suffer from chest conditions like asthma and COPD are at risk of contracting aspergillosis, which poses potentially very serious health risks.

You can read more about Nottingham University's fungal sex project on the BBSRC website.

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Flowers help increase bumblebee families survival

New research led by the UK’s Centre for Ecology & Hydrology have discovered the key to enhancing the survival of bumblebee families: flower-rich habitats. 

In the UK, most bumblebee colonies live for less than a year; nests are formed in the spring by a single queen and produce up to a few hundred daughter workers. At the end of the summer, new queens are produced which, after mating and hibernation, go on to start new colonies the following spring. Understanding survival between these critical lifecycle stages has proved challenging because in the wild, colonies are almost impossible to find.

The new research overcame these challenges by matching daughter queens to their mothers and sisters using advanced molecular genetics, and estimating the locations of colonies in the landscape from the locations of their workers.

The results provide strong support for environmentally-friendly management of farmland to provide more flowers in hedgerows, meadows and along the edges of arable fields. They also help farmers and land managers decide where best to plant flowers in the landscape.

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Paper reference: Claire Carvell, Andrew F.G. Bourke, Stephanie Dreier, Stephen N. Freeman, Sarah Hulmes, William C. Jordan, John W. Redhead, Seirian Sumner, Jinliang Wang & Matthew S. Heard, ‘Bumblebee family lineage survival is enhanced in high quality landscapes’ Nature, published online 1800 GMT/1400 US Eastern Time, 15 March 2017. DOI: 10.1038/nature21709.

Images: copyright: Lucy Holmes, top & bottom photos copyright: Flickr, Bee, middle photos 

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Detect. Lock on. Intercept. The remarkable hunting ability of the robber fly

A tiny fly, the size of a rice grain, might be the Top Gun of the fly world, with a remarkable ability to detect and intercept its prey mid-air, changing direction mid-flight if necessary before sweeping round for the kill.

When it sees a potential prey, the fly launches itself upwards while maintaining a ‘constant bearing angle’ – in other words, it moves in a direction such that while moving closer and closer to its prey, it still maintains the same relative bearing. This ensures it will intercept its prey.

Once the fly is around 29 cm away from its prey – though exactly how it judges this distance is still unclear – the fly displays a remarkable strategy never before observed in a flying animal. It ‘locks-on’ to its prey while changing its own trajectory, enabling it to sweep round, slow down and come alongside the prey to make its final attack.

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Images 1-2: Sam Fabian; small robber fly Holcocephala, waiting patiently on a stick until an unsuspecting prey is detected with the help of those highly specialized eyes.  Image 3: Sam Fabian; Unlucky fruit fly did not escape the keen eyes and aerial virtuosity of Holcocephala, who now sits on a stick consuming its prize. Image 4:  Sam Fabian, with assistance for processing by the CAIC centre; scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) images of the three predatory dipterans 

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From creepy crustacean to better biofuels (and regrowing a limb?)

Could this creature from the deep be a part of the answer to not one, but two of the major challenges in 21st century bioscience?  

The top pic is the marine arthropod Parhyale hawaiensis, which, although looming large in this picture, is typically about 1mm long! But small size is no obstacle for scientists with huge ambitions – like finding out if humans could even regrow limbs. Parhyale can, and so researchers led by Dr Aziz Aboobaker at the University of Oxford have just sequenced this critter’s DNA and observed a few mutants along the way (second pic).

And lying undetected in this organism’s genome were the genes for digesting lignocellulose (that’s the posh term for ‘wood’). This is a big deal, because humans and 99.9% of other animals can’t digest wood, but it’s packed with energy. Engineering these wood-digesting genes into microbes could bring cheaper and better biofuels a step closer.

Images: Image: Anastasios Pavlopoulos and Igor Siwanowicz from HHMI Janelia Research Campus, published under https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0

Read the full paper here.

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Evolution of Ebola Virus – Where are we now?

Scientists continue to study the evolution of the Ebola virus following the West African outbreak to determine how extraordinary numbers of humans became infected. 

Their results showed genetic changes occurring as the virus transmitted from human to human. 

To be sure, the theory was put to test. Researchers focused on the surface protein which the virus uses to bind a protein receptor on the surface of the target cell in order to gain entry. After identifying genetic changes accruing in the surface protein, synthetic clones were generated to see if mutant proteins behave differently to those seen in virus samples at the start of the outbreak.

The data was clear, a number of genetic changes that occurred during the outbreak increased infectivity. One change in particular, a substitution of an amino acid involved in receptor binding, was particularly striking: not simply because it dramatically increased infectivity, but also because it was present in viruses that dominated the West African outbreak. Another twist from the study, mutations that increased infectivity in human cells seemed to reduce the ability of the protein to mediate entry into cells obtained from fruit bat cells - said to be the natural host for ebola virus. Unprecedented number of human to human transmissions gave the virus an opportunity to adapt to humans; an opportunity the virus didn’t miss.

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Images:  Credit: NIAID; String-like Ebola virus particles are shedding from an infected cell in this electron micrograph.  Credit: Nixxphotography; Ebola Virus Disease  Credit: Credit Maurizio De Angelis, Wellcome Images; Ebola virus structure, illustration

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Hospital superbug treatment could be revolutionised with faecal transplants

C.difficile is a bacteria that can infest the gut, causing anything from mild diarrhoea to life threatening illness. In the last year, the lives of 20 patients have been transformed by the use of Faecal Microbiota Transplant (FMT) in the UK.

The treatment uses faecal material collected from a healthy donor which is then screened for infections in a lab. Healthy material is mixed with a solution, filtered and administered through a fine tube into the stomach or small intestine. It can also be directly applied to the colon or large bowel via an endoscope. The treatment has had a 90 percent success rate, restoring balance in the gut.

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Images: Top image -  ‘Clostridium difficile’ credit: Wellcome Images. Bottom image - credit: Giphy. 

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When Dogs Lose their Will to Wag

‘Limber tail’ is a painful condition affecting large working dog breeds, such as Labrador Retrievers. 

To find out more about the cause, a team of researchers reviewed cases of limber tail with the owners - noticing a few trends. 

They discovered that dogs suffering from limber tail were more likely to be working dogs, live in northern areas in the UK, and be related to each other. Further studies are now needed to identify the genes associated with the condition.

The symptoms can be distressing for the animal, but usually resolve within a few days or weeks.

This is the first large-scale investigation of limber tail conducted as part of the Dogslife Project; which follows the health and wellbeing of more than 6000 Labradors across the UK to improve animal welfare.

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Mind over muscle: what limits human performance?

The Rio Olympics will see athletes pushing their bodies to physical extremes. But what determines the limits for athletes? Does nonstop exercise limit performance because “the mind would, but the muscles can’t”? Or does a person stop because the “muscles could, but the mind won’t”?

When hit with this ‘central fatigue’, the central nervous system limits performance by losing the will to carry on. Even in athletic people, two-legged exercise becomes limited when only a tiny fraction – perhaps just 5% – of the active muscle mass is exhausted of its energy reserves. Why can’t the other 95% meet the call for action?

Researchers at the University of Leeds and University of Liverpool, together with the Los Angeles Biomedical Research Institute in California, are developing new tools and using advanced MRI imaging techniques to explore the relationship between mind and body in limiting endurance exercise performance, comparing older and younger people in the process.

The findings are being used to develop new therapies to reduce central fatigue, and increase the capacity for physical activity to maintain healthy living.  

Image credit: Bottom - Faculty of Medicine NTNU

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Are birds man’s best friend?

They say dog is man’s best friend, but would you believe a bird could assume the title of ‘loyal companion’? 

A certain type of bird is earning the title in and amongst parts of Africa. A wax-eating bird called the greater honeyguide works together with people to find wild bees’ nest. This relationship is vital between human and bird because it provides a valuable resource to both. It’s also the first time this kind of ‘human-bird’ relationship has been described. During the honey hunting season, Honeyguides give a special call to attract people’s attention, then fly from tree to tree to indicate the direction of a bees’ nest. Local honey hunters follow the birds, subdue the stinging bees with smoke and chop open their nest. The end result provides wax to both the honeyguide and humans.

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Image credit: Dr Claire Spottiswoode/University of Cambridge

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The life of Dolly the sheep

20 years ago today - Dolly the sheep was born (5th July 1996) 

We take a look at the life of the world’s most famous sheep

Making Dolly

Dolly was part of a series of experiments at The Roslin Institute that were trying to develop a better method for producing genetically modified livestock. If successful, this would mean fewer animals would need to be used in future experiments.

Dolly was cloned from a cell taken from the mammary gland of a sheep, and an egg taken from a Scottish Blackface sheep.

She was born to her Scottish Blackface surrogate mom on 5th July 1996. 

Dolly’s white face was one of the first signs that she was a clone because if she was genetically related to her surrogate mother, she would have had a black face. 

Because Dolly’s DNA came from a mammary gland cell, she was named after the country singer Dolly Parton. 

Why was Dolly so important?

Dolly was important because she was the first mammal to be cloned from an adult cell. Her birth proved that specialised cells could be used to create an exact copy of the animal they came from.

Dolly’s life

Dolly was announced to the world on 22nd February 1997. Dolly captured the public’s imagination - no small feat for a sheep - and sparked a public debate about the possible benefits and dangers of cloning.

In the week that followed the announcement, The Roslin Institute received 3,000 phone calls from around the world.

Dolly spent her life at The Roslin Institute, and apart from the occasional media appearance, led a normal life. Over the years, Dolly had a total of six lambs with a ram called David. 

After Dolly gave birth to her last lambs in September 2000, it was discovered that she’d become infected by a virus called JSRV, which causes lung cancer in sheep. Other sheep at The Roslin Institute had also been infected with JSRV in the same outbreak.

Dolly continued to have a normal quality of life until February 2003, when she developed a cough. A CT scan showed tumours in her lungs, and the decision was made to euthanise Dolly rather than risk her suffering. Dolly was put to sleep on 14th February 2003, at the age of six.

What made Dolly so special is that she had been made from an adult cell, which no-one at the time thought was possible. This knowledge changed what scientists thought was possible and opened up a lot of possibilities in biology and medicine.

To find out more about the science behind Dolly the sheep, visit www.dolly.roslin.ed.ac.uk.

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Thermal images reveal stress in chickens

Researchers at the University of Glasgow are using heat cameras to help improve chicken welfare. 

When exposed to a stressful situation like a sudden unfamiliar sound, the body prepares for the fight-or-flight-response. In doing so, blood is directed away from the surface to the organs, causing a change in temperature. The image above, captured with infrared thermography technology, shows this change in vivid colour.

The findings could help to monitor chickens from a distance, over a long period of time to help ensure high standards of animal welfare.

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Image credit: University of Glasgow

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Breakthrough on ash dieback

UK scientists have identified the country’s first ash tree that shows tolerance to ash dieback.

Ash dieback is spreading throughout the UK and in one woodland in Norfolk, a great number of trees are infected. 

The team compared the genetics of trees with different levels of tolerance to ash dieback disease. From there, they developed three genetic markers which enabled them to predict whether or not a tree is likely to be tolerant to the disease. One tree named Betty, they discovered, was predicted to show strong tolerance.

The findings raise the possibility of using selective breeding to develop strains of trees that are tolerant to the disease to help safeguard our forests. 

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Images: Close-up infected ash petioles (leaf stems) - Copyright: John Innes Centre

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Revealed: hunting strategy of the endangered African wild dog

A new study led by researchers at the Royal Veterinary College has revealed that African wild dogs may be more robust than previously thought.

The researchers used custom-built GPS collars to collect position and speed data to reconstruct the hunt behaviour of an entire pack of African wild dogs in northern Botswana.

The researchers found that given the the opportunity, African wild dogs hunt with frequent short chases. In addition, the pack showed no evidence of coopertive hunting, apart from travelling together and sharing the kills made by an individual dog. 

Understanding the hunting strategies of a species helps conservationists to identify which areas should be protected, or where new populations can be reintroduced most successfully.  Read more

Image credit: Neil Jordan, Megan Classe,  Tambako The Jaguar

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Mom’s in control – even before you’re born

Researchers have uncovered a way in which information contained in unfertilised eggs influences the development of the fetus and placenta during pregnancy. 

The research, performed in mice, indicates that even before conception a mother’s health may influence the health of her fetus. 

Epigenetic information is critical for determining which genes are turned on and off in our DNA. 

The researchers discovered that some epigenetic ‘marks’ laid down in eggs during their development in the ovaries and after fertilisation are passed onto the fetus and placenta. 

The findings suggest that mothers have the genetic tools to control the growth of their offspring during pregnancy by instructing placental development.

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Image credit: lunar caustic 

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Bee flower choices altered by pesticide exposure

Scientists have shown that low levels of pesticides can impact the foraging behaviour of bumblebees on wild flowers, changing their flower preferences and hindering their ability to learn the skills needed to extract nectar and pollen.

Bees and other insects pollinate many of the world’s important food crops and wild plants, and have been threatened in recent years.

The study is the first to explore how pesticides may impact the ability of bumblebees to forage from common wildflowers in the UK that have complex shapes. 

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Image credits: westpark (top), Chris Fifield-Smith (bottom)