Effect of simulated tillage on microbial autotrophic CO2 fixation in paddy and upland soils.

The tillage is a common agricultural practice that consist in draw furrows variable depth in the ground with a hand tool or a plow before to cultivate, this technique has been used by centuries, but some investigation say that tillage practice has a negative effect in soil bacterial populations, for that reason was necessary to evaluate the different effect of tillage practice on soil autotrophic bacterial populations and their CO2 assimilation rates at varying soil depths.
Autotrophic bacteria can fix CO2 and are widely distributed in agricultural soils. We know six pathway to fix CO2 but the most common is the Calvin-Benson cycle. To know the effect of tillage on soil, in this study two samples were from paddy soil and two from upland from different region of China (Table 1.). Two sets were taken from each site of soil, in one group tillage was simulated (CT) and in the other one the analysis of soil was direct, without tillage (NT). The samples of soil were incubated and the CO2 were labelled with 14C. The Result of this experiment showed that the amount of CO2 was higher in the tillage treatment, also the samples of all soil was taken from different depth and independently whether tillage was practiced or not, in both cases the CO2 fixed was to more depth, the lees CO2 fixed.

Table1. Basic study site information and corresponding soil physicochemical characteristics. CEC, cation exchange capacity; SOC, soil organic carbon

Figure 1. The 14C-SOC, 14C-MBC and 14C-DOC concentrations recovered at different depths (0–1 cm, 1–5 cm, and 5–17 cm) in conventional tillage (CT) and no-till (NT) soils after 110 days of incubation. Error bars indicate the standard error of the mean (n =4). *indicates significant differences between CT and NT soils at P < 0.05; nd, not detectable. DOC, dissolved organic carbon; MBC, microbial biomass carbon; SOC, soil organic carbon.

The effect of tillage on soil microbial CO2 fixation, can be positive on agricultural practice, if you are interest, you can read more here:

Ge, T., Wu, X., Liu, Q., Zhu, Z., Yuan, H., Wang, W., Whiteley, A.S., and Wu, J. 2016. Effect of simulated tillage on microbial autotrophic CO2 fixation in paddy and upland soils. Scientific Reports.

An excellent alternative to reduce potential atmospheric methane emissions: Anaerobic methane oxidation in freshwater wetlands

Freshwater wetlands (FWW) are characterized by high rates of methanogenesis, and although they occupy a small fraction of the Earth’s surface, represent one of the largest natural sources of methane. Is assumed that anaerobic methane oxidation is the dominant way of the methane consumption in FWW.  This assumption is because the sulfate has been considered the only oxidant for methane in anoxic environments but can be possible that other compounds are being used as electron acceptors, including nitrate/nitrite, iron and manganese.

This study provides the first constraints on both the magnitude and extent of anaerobic methane oxidation (AOM) in FWW, a critical first step to understanding the role of this process in freshwater environments. In this case were sampled three different bio-geographical provinces from Florida, Georgia and Maine, this sites were sampled in two different seasons to captured a range of in situ conditions to illustrate the broad relevance of AOM in FWW.

The measure parameters were the rates of AOM and sulfate reduction, pore water chemistry and stable carbon isotope geochemistry, including microbial lipid biomarker to     evaluate the magnitude of AOM and SR, their role in wetland carbon cycling and the microbial community potentially involved in AOM.

In the table 1 shows the most significant parameters measured to samples used in this study.

In the next figure shows the interaction between sulphate and AOM according to the depth.

Figure 2 sample the relation between SR and AOM in the same way to the previous figure according to the depth.

There is evidence that AOM in FWW is increasing but the rate of direct measurements is not usual so this study includes methanotrophy advances in FWW showing AOM in real time highlight. The potentially large role AOM plays in wetland methane cycling, the zone of maximum AOM activity was 0-3 cm corresponded to the lowest dissolved inorganic carbon values and the highest methane values. Alternative electron acceptors remain feasible sulphate-independent AOM is clearly indicated at some depth horizons in Georgia where rates of AOM exceeded rates of SR so its possible that iron and/or humic substances may play a role: experimental additions of humic substances may prove useful in future investigations.

As FWW ecosystems are responsible for a major portion of global emissions, a better constraint of methane cycling in wetlands is paramount to understanding past and future global methane budgets and the role of FWW in the global methane cycle.

-Segarra, K. E. A., Schubotz, F., Samarkin, V., Yoshinaga, M. Y., Hinrichs, K. U., & Joye, S. B. (2015). High rates of anaerobic methane oxidation in freshwater wetlands reduce potential atmospheric methane emissions. Nature Communications, 6.

If you can read more can search the next paper “High rates of anaerobic methane oxidation in freshwater wetlands reduce potential atmospheric methane emissions”.

2015 Declared the Warmest year since 1880

2015 has been declared as the hottest year since modern record keeping began in 1880. After 135 years of measurements, the last year has reported an increase in temperatures, but the main problem is that 2016 will be even warmer, according to independent analysis by NASA and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

Globally-averaged temperatures in 2015 were 0.25 degrees Fahrenheit (0.13 Celsius) higher than the last mark in 2014, the next-warmest year on record, according to NOAA. Moreover, the planet´s average surface temperature has presented and increase of about 1.8 degrees Fahrenheit (1.0 degree Celsius) since the end of 19th century, this is due to an increment in levels of carbon dioxide and other gas emission to the atmosphere.

Phenomena such as El niño or La Niña, can have an impact in variations in global average temperature, by the immense amount of heat from the Pacific Ocean, as occurs in 2015. Satellite and balloon records in atmosphere showed less warming owing to a delayed response to El niño, but it is expected to show a faster increment in 2016, continuing to boost the average global temperature by the next several months, resulting in the possibility in a new record heat for the present year.

El niño pattern is also disturbing the circulation of the atmosphere, contributing to worldwide weather extremes that include a drought in southern Africa.

“Even without an El Niño, this would have been the warmest year on record,” said Prof Gavin Schmidt, director at Nasa’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies. He said he expect the increment in temperature will continue because of human emissions.

There are uncertainties in the measurement due to the fewer measurement in the polar regions, but independent results from British scientists showed 2015 as the warmest year in a record dating to 1850. The Japan Meteorological Agency, another independent temperature record beginning in 1891, indicates 2015 was by far the hottest year.

Temperatures changes from 1880 to 2015 as a rolling five-year average.

 Credits: GSFC Scientific Visualization Studio

ConCiencia - Logro Nivel Estatal - Felicidades

Felicidades a los miembros de lab biorem: Elena, Miriam, Maria Jose y Isaac para haber ganado primer lugar de nivel Estatal en el reto del Medio Ambiente. También a Marleny, Yadira, Karen y Adrian para haber ganado mención honorifica del reto en Energia.

Mención Honorifica

Primer Lugar

Mejores deseos al equipo de Elena en nivel Nacional.

Scientist from Harvard Sugest Diamond Dust as an Alternative to Climate Change

Injecting solid dust in the stratosphere could be a feasible "geoengineering" to counter the climate changes.

Geoengineering has been defined as an approach to the climate change problem. The Royal Society defines geoengineering as "deliberate large-scale manipulation of the planetary environment to counteract anthropogenic climate change". It is dividen into two basic categories:

1. Carbon Dioxide Removal techniques.
2. Solar Radiation Management techniques, which reflect a small percentage of the sun's light and heat back into the space.

Climate scientists have thought up plenty of futuristic ways to cool the planet, but a recent study suggest a new idea: spraying diamond dust in the stratosphere. Solid aerosol particles have been proposed as an alternative to sulfate aerosols for solar geoengineering. A team of scientist from Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in their paper published in Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics suggest that nanoparticles of diamond and aluminum oxide could be more effective and less environmentally damaging than sulphate due to in atmosphere, sulphate can produce sulphuric acid, which is a problem to the ozone layer, also, by absorption of certain wavelengths, they heat up the lower stratosphere, it could affect air-circulation patterns and climate. This problem isn't present when alumina and diamond are used, it is because they don't produce sulfuric acid and absorb particular wavelengths of light in a different way. Alumina dust would achieve a similar cooling effect to that sulphate sprays, but diamond dust would be at least 50% more effective.

There are different problems with the application of this project, one of the most important is the cost of diamond dust, this is less expensive than cut gemstones, but the cost still being high (less than US$100 per kilogram), however, according to the results of the paper, the amount of human-emitted greenhouse gases would take hundreds of thousands of tonnes of dust annually.

In another paper, David Keith says that by 2065 the population of the planet will be among 10 billion people, and the cost might be of $5 per person to pump up 450,000 tons of dust.

In spite of the disadvantages of sulphate, it is well studied and understood, however, the risk of both alumina and diamond nanoparticles are unknown, although the Harvard researchers are doing la test to remedy that. 

Recent studies suggest that solid dust could significantly lower some of the risks associated with sulphates.

 

 References:

• Weisenstein, D. K., & Keith, D. W. (2015). Solar geoengineering using solid aerosol in the stratosphere. Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics Discussions, 15(8), 11799-11851.
• http://www.geoengineeringwatch.org/

 

 

MicroRNAs act as transcriptomic modifiers of the preimplantation embryo even if the embryo is donated.

Endometrial fluid is a viscous fluid secreted by endometrial glands into the uterine cavity and its function is the nutrition of the embryo and gives an environment in which the first communication between the maternal endometrium and the embryo occurs during the window of implantation. This endometrial fluid contains different molecules such as proteins, glycodelin, lipids and cytokines, which are employed by the embryo for its development, but they can also create an impact in its physiology. A clear example are microRNAs from endometrial fluid (small, 19-22 nucleotide sequences of non-coding RNA), which can regulate the gene expression of endogenous genome (embryo). 

This study says that the mother can change the genetic information even when the egg has been donated. The finding shows an exchange between endometrial fluid and embryo, it had been though because of the physical similarity between mother and children of ovodonation, as well as disease incidence in children related with maternal pathologies during gestation, such as obesity and smoking (fig. 1).

Figure 1. Analysis of microRNAs content in endometrial fluid and evaluation of its biological function.

Transmission of molecules occurs during the window of implantation, it is because after fecundation, the embryo takes 5 days to move from fallopian tubes to the uterine cavity, and then are necessary around 24-36 hours to the implantation. In this period the embryo takes the genetic information of endometrial fluid and it can modify its development. These microRNAs prepare the embryo for implantation with specific protein expression (fig. 2). That communication can inhibit specific functions or on the other hand can express new functions.

With this information, researchers can employ the knowledge in future to avoid diseases such as obesity.

Figure 2. Endometrial fluid from the maternal endometrium modify the embryo transcriptome.

Reference:
Vilella, F., Moreno-Moya, J. M., Balaguer, N., Grasso, A., Herrero, M., Martínez, S., ... & Simón, C. (2015). Hsa-miR-30d, secreted by the human endometrium, is taken up by the pre-implantation embryo and might modify its transcriptome. Development, 142(18), 3210-3221.

Full paper: http://dev.biologists.org/content/142/18/3210.full#ref-list-1

Producing opiates from sugar

For several years, synthetic research teams have modified pathways into microorganisms to produce benzylisoquinoline alkaloids which are used in pharmacology. If it were possible, the analgesic production would be cheaper, safer and more effective. In recent years, synthetic biologists have engineered yeast strains to make morphine (belonging to opiates, naturally produced from the opium poppy Papaver somniferum) from sugar.

Going from glucose to morphine is a complex pathway which is carried out in 18 stages. Vicent Martin and his collages at Concordia University in Montreal, Canada, created yeast that can go to R-reticuline to morphine. R-reticuline is an intermediate compound in this pathway. To go from glucose to S-reticuline (an intermediate compound before R-reticuline), John Deuber's team at University of California, Berkeley carried out their research. Both groups worked together to found the enzyme needed to transform S-reticuline to R-reticuline and have the complete pathway, but this could take many years. 

Stages known of glucose-morphine pathway. (Oye et al., 2015)

The last week, a research team by Cristina Smolkey, a synthetic biologist at Standford Universty in Palo Alto, California, published in Science that they had achieved to turn sugar into thebaine, a key opiate precursor to morphine, by a Saccharomyces cerevisiae strain. This biosynthesis required the expression of 21 genes from a rat, a bacterium and several plants. This research presents the most complete pathway of glucose to morphine, because thebaine is the last intermediate in this pathway, but is still the first piece of the project. Is necessary to increase the yield to each cell 100, 000 times to accomplish that the process scales up, be economically feasible and can compete with the oppium poppy production in pharmacology.

References:

- Galanie, S., Thodey, K., Trenchard, I. J., Interrante, M. F., & Smolke, C. D. (2015). Complete biosynthesis of opioids in yeast. Science, aac9373.

- Oye, K. A., Lawson, J. C., & Bubela, T. (2015). Drugs: Regulate'home-brew'opiates. Nature,521(7552), 281.

Felicidades Nayeli

Me da mucho gusto compartir la noticia que la M.C. Nayeli Ortiz Silos, compañera de Biorem y egresada como Ingeniera Bioquímica de nuestra Facultad, ha sido nombrada como Secretaria de la Facultad de Ciencias Químicas de la Universidad Veracruzana. Muchas Felicidades Nayeli y mejores deseos para muchas éxitos en su camino profesional y nivel personal.

M.C. Nayelo Ortiz Silos

Study of Effects of Pollution in Health Through Mouse Embryonic Stem Cells

During our life we are exposed to several substances due to industrial processes. These compounds tend to accumulate in the environment, thus, we are at risk of several health effects caused by them, even if we don't have a direct contact with the pollutants. Stem cell toxicology is a favorable alternative to animal tests or in vitro assays because it allows the develope of a pollutant of interest, quickly, thoroughly, and cost-effectively. Embryonic stem cells (ESCs) have several advantages such as the ability of be cultived indefinitely in dishes, can be employed in developmental toxicity assays, and they can virtually differentiate specifically into any type of cell of an adult organism.

One of the most studied pollutants is Bisphenol A (BPA) that is employed to make polycarbonate plastics in different products, and is recognized by the effects in health such as fertility problems, behavioral abnormalities, heart disease, diabetes, and obesity. 

The researchers used a combination of biochemical and cell-based assays to examine the gene expression during the differentiation of mouse embryonic stem cells upon treatment with BPA.

Previous reports have employed many in vivo and in vitro systems, but almost none utilized stem cells and when BPA was used in mouse ESCs, the effects were not toxic or not detected. In this study the effects of the toxicant BPA on mouse ESCs were tested with the stem cell toxicology system., resulting in a contradiction to previous reports, because the stem cell toxicology system was able to detect BPA toxicity in vitro, particularly towards the neural ectoderm specification.

"Our stem cell toxicology system proved to be very sensitive and reflective of the physiological toxic effects of BPA", said Francesco Faiola, Professor at the State Key Laboratory of Environmental Chemistry and Ecotoxicology. "What's even more valuable is the fact that this system can be applied to assess numerous other pollutants for their toxicity and/or lethality without the expenses of time-consuming animal models.



If you want to know more visit: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1001074215002776

Tiny little lasers

Injectins cells with a luminiscent dye and droplets of oil turns the cells in tiny little lasers that can be used in diagnosting diseases and like a label for a cell.

An optical fibre is shown activating tiny lasers created within pig skin cells.

Scientists turned cells in lasers at injecting oil or fat mixed with a luminiscent dye an activating it with short pulses of light.

This finding could be used for diagnosis and for medical treatment and was divised by Seon Hyuk Yun and Matjaz Humar, optical physicists from Harvard Medical School in Cambridge, Massachussets and uses oil droplets or fat to reflect and amplify the light to generate a laser.

The lipid droplet (orange) within a fat cell can be used as a natural laser.

Luminiscent probes, which includes proteins and fluorescent dyes, had a broad emission spectra around 30 to 100 nanometers. With this broad bands its limits the number of probes, because its difficult to distinguish the sources of light.

This could change because the spectra from this source of light is narrow - around 500 to 800 nanometers, making it easy to label cells. Also, Yan and Humar reported that can vary the wavelenght and can tag individual cells using polystirene beads with different diameter rather than inject oil or fat. And also reports that in theory usind differents dyes with different spectral properties and different polystirene bends they can tag every cell in the human body.