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Scientists have used CRISPR gene editing to reduce the lignin content in poplar trees by as much as 50%, offering a potentially more sustainable and efficient method of fibre production.

CRISPR-modified poplar trees (left) and wild poplar trees (right), growing in a North Carolina State University greenhouse. Credit: Chenmin Yang, NCSU

Lignin is a complex organic polymer that is integral to the structure of cell walls in many types of plants, especially in wood and bark. It acts as a type of binder in these walls, giving wood its hardness and resistance to rot. Lignin is the second most abundant natural polymer in the world, next to cellulose, and makes up between 15% and 25% of the composition of wood.

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A team of scientists led by researchers from the University of Leicester have discovered that the genes required for learning, memory, aggression and other complex behaviors originated around 650 million years ago.

The findings led by Dr. Roberto Feuda, from the Neurogenetic group in the Department of Genetics and Genome Biology and other colleagues from the University of Leicester and the University of Fribourg (Switzerland), have now been published in Nature Communications.

Dr. Feuda said, “We’ve known for a long time that monoamines like serotonin, dopamine and adrenaline act as neuromodulators in the , playing a role in complex behavior and functions like learning and memory, as well as processes such as sleep and feeding.”

Research led by Sichuan University and Huazhong University of Science and Technology, China, has revealed genetic mechanisms that could prolong healthy aging. In the paper, titled “Partial inhibition of class III PI3K VPS-34 ameliorates motor aging and prolongs health span,” published in PLOS Biology, the team details the methods they used to narrow down the potential genomic pathways to a single gene that could be critical to extending healthy human longevity.

With a combination of genetic manipulation, behavioral assays, microscopy techniques, and electrophysiology, the researchers investigated the role of VPS-34 in aging. These methods allowed the researchers to gain insights into the underlying motor aging and the effects of VPS-34 on , synaptic transmission, and muscle integrity.

According to the authors, increased in recent decades has not been accompanied by a corresponding increase in health span. Aging is characterized by the decline of multiple organs and tissues and motor aging, in particular, leads to frailty, loss of motor independence, and other age-related issues. Identifying mechanisms for therapeutics to delay motor aging is crucial for promoting .

Summary: Researchers have uncovered genes essential for learning, memory, aggression, and other complex behaviors originated around 650 million years ago.

The study utilized computational methods to trace the evolutionary history of these genes involved in the production, modulation, and reception of monoamines like serotonin, dopamine, and adrenaline. This discovery suggests that this new method of modulating neuronal circuits could have played a role in the Cambrian Explosion, contributing to the diversification of life.

The finding offers new research avenues to understand the origins of complex behaviors and their relation to diverse processes like reward, addiction, aggression, feeding, and sleep.

This video explores Super Intelligent AIs and the capabilities they will have. Watch this next video called Super Intelligent AI: 10 Ways It Will Change The World: https://youtu.be/cVjq53TKKUU.
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This video explores Super Intelligent AI and 10 scientific discoveries it could make. Watch this next video called Super Intelligent AI: 10 Ways It Will Change The World: https://youtu.be/cVjq53TKKUU.
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https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/qm-manyworlds/#:~:text=Th…ion%20(MWI, and%20thus%20from%20all%20physics.

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The immune system is an incredibly complex network that has some amazing capabilities. It can eliminate dangerous cells that may lead to cancer, and defend the body against a wide variety of pathogenic invaders. It also has the ability to remember those encounters with pathogens so if they happen again, the immune system is primed to respond more quickly and forcefully against the offender. Scientists have now learned more about how the immune system memory is created at the molecular level. The findings have been reported in Science Immunology.

When immune cells are exposed to an invader, they can recognize structures called antigens on the surface of the pathogen. In this study, the researchers compared immune cells that had never been exposed to an antigen, so-called naive cells, to immune cells that had been in contact with an antigen, known as memory cells. The investigators wanted to identify the epigenetic differences between these cell types, which are changes in DNA that can impact gene expression, such as structural shifts or chemical tags, but do not alter the sequence of the genome. Epigenetic changes might explain why memory cells can react so quickly while naive cells are comparatively slow.

The immune system is one of the most complex parts of our body. It keeps us healthy by getting rid of parasites, viruses or bacteria, and by destroying damaged or cancer cells. One of its most intriguing abilities is its memory: upon first contact with a foreign component (called antigens) our adaptive immune system takes around two weeks to respond, but responses afterwards are much faster, as if the cells remembered the antigen. But how is this memory attained?

In a recent publication, a team of researchers coordinated by Dr. Ralph Stadhouders, from Erasmus MC, and Dr. Gregoire Stik, Group Leader at the Josep Carreras Leukemia Research Institute, provides new clues on immune memory using state-of-the-art methodologies.

In their research paper, published in the journal Science Immunology, the first-author Anne Onrust-van Schoonhoven and colleagues compared the response of immune cells that had never been in contact with an antigen (called naïve cells) with cells previously exposed to antigen () and sort of knew it. They focused on the differences in the epigenetic control of the cellular machinery and the nuclear architecture of the cells, two mechanisms that could explain the quick activation pattern of memory cells.