PRESS-NEWS.org - Press Release Distribution
PRESS RELEASES DISTRIBUTION

Simulating evolution to understand a hidden switch

Simulating evolution to understand a hidden switch
2021-01-15
(Press-News.org) Computer simulations of cells evolving over tens of thousands of generations reveal why some organisms retain a disused switch mechanism that turns on under severe stress, changing some of their characteristics. Maintaining this "hidden" switch is one means for organisms to maintain a high degree of gene expression stability under normal conditions.

Tomato hornworm larvae are green in warmer regions, making camouflage easier, but black in cooler temperatures so that they can absorb more sunlight. This phenomenon, found in some organisms, is called phenotypic switching. Normally hidden, this switching is activated in response to dangerous genetic or environmental changes.

Scientists have typically studied this process by investigating the changes undergone by organisms under different circumstances over many generations. Several years ago, for example, a team bred generations of tobacco hornworm larvae to observe and induce color changes similar to those that occurred in their tomato hornworm relatives.

"Computer simulations, when built on reasonable assumptions and conducted under careful control, are a very powerful tool to mimic the real situation," says KAUST computational bioscientist Xin Gao. "This helps scientists observe and understand principles that are otherwise very difficult, or impossible, to observe by wet-lab experiments."

Gao and KAUST research scientist Hiroyuki Kuwahara designed a computer simulation of the evolution of 1,000 asexual microorganisms. Each organism was given a gene circuit model for regulating the expression of a specific protein X.

The simulation evolved the population over 90,000 generations. The original founding population had identical nonswitching gene circuits and evolved over 30,000 generations, collectively called the ancient population, under stable conditions. The next 30,000 generations, called the intermediate population, were exposed to fluctuating environments that switched every 20 generations. The final 30,000 generations, the derived population, were exposed to a stable environment.

The individuals in the ancient and derived populations, who evolved in stable environments, both had gene expression levels that were optimized for stability. But they were different: the ancient population's stability did not involve phenotypic switching, while the derived population's did. The difference, explains Kuwahara, stems from the intermediate population, in which switching was favored in order to deal with the fluctuating conditions.

The simulations suggest that populations of organisms maintain their switching machinery over a long period of environmental stability by gradually evolving low-threshold switches, which easily switch in fluctuating circumstances, to high-threshold switches when the environment is more stable.

This is easier, says Kuwahara, than reverting to a nonswitching state through small mutational shifts. "Instead, we end up with a type of 'hidden' phenotypic switching that acts like an evolutionary capacitor, storing genetic variations and releasing alternative phenotypes in the event of substantial perturbations," Kuwahara says.

The team next plans to use computer simulations to study more complex biological systems while also interactively collaborating with researchers conducting wet-lab experiments. Their aim is to develop theoretical frameworks that can be experimentally validated.

INFORMATION:


[Attachments] See images for this press release:
Simulating evolution to understand a hidden switch

ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

Scientists' discovery is paving the way for novel ultrafast quantum computers

Scientists discovery is paving the way for novel ultrafast quantum computers
2021-01-15
Scientists at the Institute of Physics of the University of Tartu have found a way to develop optical quantum computers of a new type. Central to the discovery are rare earth ions that have certain characteristics and can act as quantum bits. These would give quantum computers ultrafast computation speed and better reliability compared to earlier solutions. The University of Tartu researchers Vladimir Hizhnyakov, Vadim Boltrushko, Helle Kaasik and Yurii Orlovskii published the results of their research in the scientific journal Optics Communications. While in ordinary computers, the units of information are binary digits or bits, in quantum computers the units are quantum bits or qubits. In an ordinary computer, information is mostly ...

Stuck in a rut: Ocean acidification locks algal communities in a simplified state

Stuck in a rut: Ocean acidification locks algal communities in a simplified state
2021-01-15
Tsukuba, Japan - Out with the old, in with the new, as the New Year's saying goes, but not where the marine environment is concerned. Researchers from Japan have discovered that ocean acidification keeps algal communities locked in a simplified state of low biodiversity. In a study published on 11th January 2021 in Global Change Biology, researchers from the University of Tsukuba have revealed that as oceanic carbon dioxide levels rise, the biodiversity and ecological complexity of marine algal communities decline. Ocean acidification is the continuing increase in the acidity of the Earth's oceans, caused by the absorption of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2). ...

Revisiting the Global Workspace orchestrating the hierarchical organisation of the human brain

2021-01-15
The celebrations in the 250th anniversary of the birth of Ludwig van Beethoven would not be the same without Herbert von Karajan's brilliant performances conducting Beethoven's memorable symphonies. The execution of any musical symphony is a hugely difficult task, demanding very significant skills on the part of each individual musician - but perhaps the most difficult task lies with the conductor who has to orchestrate the musicians into making the music cohesively come alive and speak to our deepest emotions. In many ways the human brain is like an orchestra, where different regions perform very different types of processing, such ...

Increased risk of Parkinson's disease in patients with schizophrenia

2021-01-15
A new study conducted at the University of Turku, Finland, shows that patients with a schizophrenia spectrum disorder have an increased risk of Parkinson's disease later in life. The increased risk may be due to alterations in the brain's dopamine system caused by dopamine receptor antagonists or neurobiological effects of schizophrenia. The record-based case-control study was carried out at the University of Turku in collaboration with the University of Eastern Finland. The study examined the occurrences of previously diagnosed psychotic disorders and schizophrenia in over 25,000 Finnish Parkinson's disease (PD) patients ...

Spreading the sound

2021-01-15
Tsukuba, Japan - A team of researchers lead by the University of Tsukuba have created a new theoretical model to understand the spread of vibrations through disordered materials, such as glass. They found that as the degree of disorder increased, sound waves traveled less and less like ballistic particles, and instead began diffusing incoherently. This work may lead to new heat- and shatter-resistant glass for smartphones and tablets. Understanding the possible vibrational modes in a material is important for controlling its optical, thermal, and mechanical properties. The propagation of vibrations in the form of sound of a single ...

Scientists synthetize new material for high-performance supercapacitors

2021-01-15
Scientists of Tomsk Polytechnic University jointly with colleagues from the University of Lille (Lille, France) synthetized a new material based on reduced graphene oxide (rGO) for supercapacitors, energy storage devices. The rGO modification method with the use of organic molecules, derivatives of hypervalent iodine, allowed obtaining a material that stores 1.7 times more electrical energy. The research findings are published in Electrochimica Acta academic journal (IF: 6,215; Q1). Photo: modified rGO supercapacitor electrodes A supercapacitor is an electrochemical device for storage and release ...

IOF and IFCC review calls for harmonization of assays for reference bone turnover markers

2021-01-15
Bone turnover markers (BTMs) in blood and urine are useful tools in monitoring osteoporosis treatment effects and may be useful for improving patient adherence. In 2011, a Joint Committee on Bone Metabolism of the International Osteoporosis Foundation (IOF) and the International Federation of Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine (IFCC) designated Procollagen type I N-propeptide (PINP) and the C-terminal telopeptide of type I collagen (β-CTX) in blood as reference bone turnover markers for bone formation and bone resorption, respectively, in osteoporosis. However, the effective clinical implementation of ...

Climate impacts on health and urban areas: Heatwaves and death rate

2021-01-15
Over the last half-century, the probability of heat extreme events has changed by orders of magnitude in almost every region of the world, with occurrences that are now up to a hundred times more in respect to a century ago. Of all-natural disasters, extreme high temperature events are the main cause of weather-related mortality and they are also expected to be the main factor responsible for additional deaths due to climate change in the coming years. In cities, the heat island effect creates higher temperatures than in vegetated areas. But conditions within urban areas are not equal in all their parts - either due to their physical form or to the specific needs or vulnerabilities of inhabitants - therefore not all districts ...

Hubble pinpoints supernova blast

Hubble pinpoints supernova blast
2021-01-15
The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has observed the supernova remnant named 1E 0102.2-7219. Researchers are using Hubble's imagery of the remnant object to wind back the clock on the expanding remains of this exploded star in the hope of understanding the supernova event that caused it 1700 years ago. The featured star that exploded long ago belongs to the Small Magellanic Cloud, a satellite galaxy of our Milky Way located roughly 200 000 light-years away. The doomed star left behind an expanding, gaseous corpse -- a supernova remnant -- known as 1E 0102.2-7219. Because the gaseous knots in this supernova ...

Designer cytokine makes paralyzed mice walk again

2021-01-15
The researchers published their report in the Journal Nature Communications from 15 January 2021. When the communication breaks down Spinal cord injuries caused by sports or traffic accidents often result in permanent disabilities such as paraplegia. This is caused by damage to nerve fibers, so-called axons, which carry information from the brain to the muscles and back from the skin and muscles. If these fibers are damaged due to injury or illness, this communication is interrupted. Since severed axons in the spinal cord can't grow back, the patients suffer from paralysis and numbness for life. To date, there are still no treatment options that could restore the lost functions ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

Brain area 46 is at the center of a network for emotion regulation in marmosets

Self-morphing, wing-like feet enhance surface maneuverability of water striders and robots

Zooming in reveals a world of detail: breakthrough method unveils the inner workings of our cells

DNA from extinct hominin may have helped ancient peoples survive in the Americas

UC Irvine-led research team uncovers global wildfire paradox

Extinct human relatives left a genetic gift that helped people thrive in the Americas

Overinflated balloons: study reveals how cellular waste disposal system deals with stress

The rise of plant life changed how rivers move, Stanford study shows

What traits matter when predicting disease emergence in new populations?

Overcoming disordered energy in light-matter interactions

Zoo populations hold key to saving Pacific pocket mouse

Astronomers detect the brightest fast radio burst of all time

OET inaugural cover | 30 years of nanoimprint lithography: Leading the new era of nanomanufacturing

Metalens evolution: From individual devices to integrated arrays

Advancing disaster response with the EBD dataset

Putting solar panels in space could aid Europe’s net-zero transition

Ambient documentation technologies reduce physician burnout and restore ‘joy’ in medicine

Solar panels in space could cut Europe’s renewable energy needs by 80%

Computational approach meets biology to connect neural progenitor cells with human disorders

GLP-1 receptor agonists and cancer risk in adults with obesity

Impact of a weight loss intervention on 1-year weight change in women with stage II/III breast cancer

Novel tool helps identify key targets to strengthen CAR NK cell therapies

New RP-HPLC method for orlistat analysis validated

How AI will transform mental health support for patients with breast cancer

First observations by the Total Anthropogenic and Natural emissions mapping SpectrOmeter-3 (TANSO-3) onboard the Global Observing SATellite for Greenhouse gases and Water cycle “IBUKI GW” (GOSAT-GW)

Optimizing how cells self-organize

Impact of cancer on forensic DNA methylation age estimation

Researchers use photonic origami to fold glass into microscopic 3D optical devices

Dr. Matthew Greenblatt awarded Paul-Gallin Trailblazer Prize for bone stem cell discoveries

Natural products used as disinfectants in prosthodontics and oral implantology

[Press-News.org] Simulating evolution to understand a hidden switch