Database developed on key mollusk to study pollution in coastal areas
2021-04-20
(Press-News.org) Scrobiculariaplana is a type of wedge clam widely found along the coasts and estuariesof northern Europe, the Mediterranean and West Africa. Like other mollusks, it is used as a bioindicator to study pollution in these types of ecosystems, for its ability to accumulate heavy metals and organic pollutants.
A new study has managed to identify the transcriptome and the associated proteome of this bivalve, a finding that could represent an important leap forward in the early detection of pollutants in coastal areas. While the genome is the DNA content comprising the genetic information essential for life, the transcriptome includes only the information on genes that are expressed, while the proteome is the totality of proteins expressed at a given time and under specific conditions. Therefore, its reconstruction is key to understanding the molecular effects of pollution.
Thanks to this finding, the study has managed to identify proteins associated with a total of 174 biological processes. Among these are various molecular functions related to stress response mechanisms suffered by these organisms when they are subjected to pollution and its effects.
The work began with collaboration with the Institute of Marine Sciences of Andalusia, the "Molecular Biology of Stress Response Mechanisms" at the University of Cordoba, and the Central Research Support Service (SCAI) of the university institution, which saw to the bio-informatics component, key to the reconstruction of the transcriptome.
After isolating RNA samples from this mollusk under controlled conditions, explained researcher Carmen Michán, small genetic sequences were extracted. The study managed to combine three mathematical algorithms to order all these small fragments, reconstruct entire genes, and bring together all the pieces of this great biological puzzle.
This software tool provides a solid database for biomolecular analysis ,and constitutes a beacon to guide future work. Furthermore, according to Professor José Alhama, another of the researchers who participated in the study, "having this tool increases the likelihood of success of new studies, not only in studies with this specific bivalve, but also in other similar mollusks." The researcher explained that no similar study had been carried out on organisms of this type. Now, this reference map could help better gauge the effects of pollution on marine ecosystems before the damage is irreparable.
INFORMATION:
The work is part of the EPICS research project, funded by the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness under the auspices of the State Program for R&D&I Oriented to the Challenges of Society. Ref. CTM2016-75908-R.
[Attachments] See images for this press release:
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
2021-04-20
Frequent use of social media may not amount to the same as addiction, according to research at the University of Strathclyde.
The study invited 100 participants to locate specific social media apps on a simulated smartphone screen as quickly and accurately as possible, while ignoring other apps. The participants were varied in the extent and type of their social media use and engagement.
The exercise aimed to assess whether social media users who reported the greatest level of use were more likely to have their attention drawn to the apps through a process known as 'attentional bias,' ...
2021-04-20
Researchers assessing the impact of solar energy development across Europe have come up with ten ways in which the expansion of solar can be shaped to ensure pollinators benefit.
Space-hungry solar photovoltaic (PV) is set to dominate future global electricity supply, but with careful decision making, efforts to secure clean energy need not come at the expense of biodiversity - particularly pollinators which are in sharp decline.
Bees, hoverflies, wasps, beetles, butterflies and moths play a key role in food production, with around 75% of the leading global food crops and 35% of global crop production relying on them to some extent.
Writing in the journal Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, a Lancaster-led team of environmental scientists systematically reviewed the available ...
2021-04-20
KINGSTON, R.I., -- April 20, 2021 -- The Northwest Atlantic Shelf is one of the fastest-changing regions in the global ocean, and is currently experiencing marine heat waves, altered fisheries and a surge in sea level rise along the North American east coast. A END ...
2021-04-20
Almost 80% of South Africans speak one of the SEB family languages as their first language. Their origins can be traced to farmers of West-Central Africa whose descendants over the past two millennia spread south of the equator and finally into Southern Africa.
Since then, varying degrees of sedentism [the practice of living in one place for a long time], population movements and interaction with Khoe and San communities, as well as people speaking other SEB languages, ultimately generated what are today distinct Southern African languages such as isiZulu, isiXhosa and Sesotho.
Despite these linguistic differences, ...
2021-04-20
The Cyclostomata is an ancient group of aquatic colonial suspension-feeders from the phylum Bryozoa. The fact that they have unique placentae has been discovered by researchers at St Petersburg University and the University of Vienna. The coenocytes, i.e. large multinucleate cell structures, originate via nuclear multiplication and cytoplasmic growth among the cells surrounding the early embryo. Interestingly, the coenocytes are commonly found among fungi and plants, yet are quite rare in animals. It is the first time coenocytes have been discovered in placenta.
Biologists are well aware that the cells of the living organisms are incredibly different in the way that they behave. They may happen to form a ...
2021-04-20
Targeted therapy in early stages of breast cancer can pave the way for a notable higher success rate, shows a study from the University of Bergen, Norway (UiB).
PARP (Poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase) inhibitors represent an established targeted therapy for multiple cancer types, including cancers of the prostate, ovary and rare cases of breast cancer.
PARP inhibitors take advantage of defects in a central mechanism of DNA damage repair, observed in these cancers. While such compounds have been successfully applied in ovarian and prostate cancers, to this end only a small minority of patients with breast ...
2021-04-20
Researchers at the TUM have demonstrated a way to efficiently study molecular mechanisms of disease resistance or biomedical issues in farm animals. Researchers are now able to introduce specific gene mutations into a desired organ or even correct existing genes without creating new animal models for each target gene. This reduces the number of animals required for research..
CRISPR/Cas9 enables desired gene manipulations
CRISPR/Cas9 is a tool to rewrite DNA information. Genes can be inactivated or specifically modified using this method. The CRISPR/Cas9 system consists of two components.
The gRNA (guide RNA) is a short sequence that binds specifically to the ...
2021-04-20
Although the problem of gender discrimination is already found in the music industry, music recommendation algorithms would be increasing the gender gap. Andrés Ferraro and Xavier Serra, researchers of the Music Technology research group (MTG) of the UPF Department of Information and Communication Technologies (DTIC), with Christine Bauer, of the University of Utrecht (Netherlands), have recently published a paper on gender balance in music recommendation systems in which they ask themselves how the system should work to avoid gender bias.
At the outset, the authors identified that gender justice was one of the artists' main concerns
Initially, the work by Ferraro, Serra and Bauer ...
2021-04-20
MINNEAPOLIS/ST.PAUL (04/20/2021) -- University of Minnesota Medical School researchers have offered new ways to think about the immune system thanks to a recent study published in END ...
2021-04-20
PHILADELPHIA - Renter protection policies that have curbed mass evictions during the COVID-19 pandemic have played a key role in preventing the spread of SARS-CoV-2 in U.S. cities, according to a new study published in Nature Communications.
Using an epidemiological model to predict how evictions and eviction moratoria would impact the epidemic, the researchers found, for instance, that in a city of 1 million in which 1 percent of households experience eviction monthly, this could lead to up to 49,000 excess COVID-19 infections. In Philadelphia alone, a fivefold increase in ...
LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:
[Press-News.org] Database developed on key mollusk to study pollution in coastal areas
