Genetic doping

If an athlete uses steroids, he or she is likely to get caught. But what about other ways to enhance performance? According to a perspective published last week in Science, gene-based therapies may soon be widely exploited for this exact purpose, and will require more advanced tests to detect if an athlete is using these new performance enhancing strategies.

For example, small molecule modulators of peroxisomal proliferator-activated receptor delta (PPAR-δ) can affect expression of genes involved in lipid metabolism and energy utilization — both important in athletic performance — and experiments with mice have shown that overexpression of PPAR-δ can increase their endurance. But traditional tests, based on chemical or
molecular detection of the doping agent or markers reflecting the physiological changes associated with the agent, may not recognize such genetic manipulations.

“You would have to be blind not to see that the next generation of doping will be genetic,” Dick Pound, former chairman of the World Anti-Doping Agency, told the Times Online.

But many of these therapies are not yet approved for clinical therapies, nevermind recreational enhancement purposes. Will athletes and their coaches be so desperate for an edge that they try untested and unregulated products? And how many athletes will find success with such new age drugs before athletic associations have developed new ways to detect and discipline such cheaters?

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Unconscious conversation

Can unconscious people communicate by thinking? The answer is yes, according to a study published yesterday in the New England Journal of Medicine, which demonstrated that a supposedly unconscious man could answer yes-or-no questions by visualizing tasks that activate different parts of the brain. This report “challenges clinicians’ definition of consciousness and provides an unprecedented opportunity to communicate with those who show no outward signs of awareness,” Nature reports.

What does this mean for patients we currently think of as being in a “vegetative state”? Could this be a misdiagnosis of someone who is simply unable to move? How will these new findings affect how family members make decisions about when to let their loved ones go, rather than keep them alive on life support?

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An alternative to sex

Why sex? It’s a question that has long stumped evolutionary biologists. Asexual reproduction has the obvious benefit of passing on all of one’s genes, as opposed to only half, to one’s offspring, yet the vast majority of the animal kingdom reproduces sexually at least part of the time, and most asexual organisms don’t last very long before their populations start to disappear from the earth.

One potential answer to this puzzling biological phenomenon is known as The Red Queen hypothesis. The idea is that the genetic variability generated by the mixing of genes that occurs with sex allows organisms to evade the pathogens and parasites that infect them. Because the pathogens and parasites are constantly evolving to better be able to overcome host defenses, the hosts must in turn evolve to avoid such attacks. And generating greater genetic variability among their offspring allows them to do just that.

It’s a great theory for which there is lots of scientific support. But this then raises another question: how do the rotifers do it? To have survived and thrived for millions of years without sexual reproduction, these freshwater invertebrates must have some way to dodge their microscopic predators. Well, according to a new study published this week in Science, their solution to this perpetual evolutionary problem is to “dry up and blow away.” Simple as that.

The researchers showed that when cultured populations of rotifers are exposed to a deadly fungal parasite, they undergo a desiccation response, at which point they can be dispersed by the wind to far away lands where, when they are exposed to fresh water, they can establish entirely new populations. And because the fungus is more sensitive to dehydration than the rotifers, these new populations will be fungus-free.

“These animals are essentially playing an evolutionary game of hide and seek,” Paul Sherman of Cornell University, an author on the study, told Newswise. “They can drift on the wind to colonize parasite-free habitat patches where they reproduce rapidly and depart again before their enemies catch up. This effectively enables them to evade biotic enemies without sex, using mechanisms that no other known animals can duplicate.”

Pretty cool, huh?

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The virgin predator

To call her a virgin may not be entirely accurate — who knows what she was up to before she was adopted by the Belle Isle Aquarium in Detroit — but the white-spotted bamboo is giving birth to young without any male input, a phenomenon known as parthenogenesis. While she is not the first shark known to reproduce asexually, her two daughters, now more than five years old, are the first to demonstrate the viability of such offspring, according to a study published today in the Journal of Heredity.

The shark pups are not direct clones of their mother. Instead, two different haploid cells in the mother (an egg and a byproduct of egg production known as a sister polar body) fuse. The result is an organism that carries genetic material only from its mother, but is not genetically identical to her.

Scientists speculate that asexual production in this context may be a last-resort strategy for shark moms. While the offspring don’t benefit from the genetic diversity sexual reproduction provides, if there are no males around, at least the females are still propagating their genes.

“Sharks have been around for hundreds of millions of years,” Sweet told Newswise. “I suspect they have some pretty interesting survival strategies that we are only now becoming aware of.”

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Animal cross-talk?

Ok, this is a stretch, but a new finding got me thinking…what if we could make animal translators? This may be better material for a science fiction book (I’m seeing flashbacks to SeaQuest), but food for thought at least.

The finding: Using data from nearly 500 different species, the researchers found a consistent result — the uptake and use of energy is ultimately determined (to some degree) by an animal’s metabolic rate. Thus, by controlling for body size and temperature, the animals’ calls sounded somewhat similar.

My idea: Build a device that records the sounds of one animal, adjusts it to the specification of another organism’s metabolic specs, and emits the corresponding call in that species’ “language.”

Ok, like I said, it’s a bit out there. Just my wacky science thought of the day…a world without language barriers, even between species.

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Squatter’s choice

Have you ever experienced a squatter?  You know, that friend or in-law who says she’s coming for a visit…a visit of indefinite length.  Or worse, the ex who still has a key to your place and decides it would be a good place to crash when he gets booted from his apartment for not paying the rent, so you come home from work to find him lounging on your couch, watching TV and eating Cheetos (your Cheetos). Well, is essence, that’s what seems to be happening in the blue petrel community, with just a little less of the drama perhaps: some of the small seabirds that nest in self-excavated burrows on seaward-facing slopes of the Antarctic islands are squatting in empty burrows rather than building their own.

This type of mooching is not unheard of in the animal kingdom, but what is interesting about this example is the selectivity with which the male birds choose their stolen nests. Rather than occupy an empty burrow of a closely-related species, the Antarctic prion — which are undoubtedly easier to find early in the breeding season as prions do not start nesting until a month after the blue petrels — males preferentially choose to occupy empty burrows of their own species. This choice, reported in the February issue of Ethology, may be made by a simple smell test: when placed in a simple Y-maze, blue petrels preferred their specific odor over the prion odor. Such a preference may have evolved as a way to avoid the conflict when the prions show up to claim their burrows, which can ruin a squatter’s breeding attempt, but I guess that’s just the risk you take when you decide to invade another’s space.

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A cancer-free New Year

We’re always hearing about the things that may cause cancer — saccharin, cell phones, plastic water bottles — but what about those things that can help prevent it? Well, at the American Association for Cancer Research Frontiers in Cancer Prevention Research Conference held earlier this month, researchers from around the world presented the most recent findings in the field of cancer, and many of them had good things to say.  Here’s a brief run down of some of the more unexpected items that may help protect our bodies against the dreaded disease:

– Hops: People are always arguing that a glass of red wine a day is good for you, but what about beer? Well, according to a group at the German Cancer Research Center in Heidelberg, a natural compound known as xanthohumol derived from hops blocks the tumor-promoting effects of testosterone — such as gene expression and cell growth — which can help prevent prostate cancer. And for the girls, xanthohumol also appears to block the action of estrogen, which may help protect against breast cancer. (Photo credit)

– Pistachios: A daily dose of pistachios may help reduce the risk of lung and other cancers, according to work done at the University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center.  Apparently, pistachios are a good source of gamma-tocopherol, a form of vitamin E that is known to provide protection against certain forms of cancer, and eating 117 kernels a day resulted in significant increase in gamma-tocopherol in just a few weeks. (Photo credit)

– Coffee: The more coffee you drink, the more you reduce your risk of lethal or advanced prostate cancer. According to a study from the Harvard Medical School, men who drank the most coffee had as much as a 60 percent lower risk of aggressive prostate cancer than men who did not drink any coffee. As for which component of coffee might be the key factors in this protection, that is still up in the air. While caffeine did not appear to contribute greatly to the association, coffee does contain a variety of biologically active compounds like antioxidants and minerals that may participate. (Photo credit)

– Omega-3 fatty acids: Finally, long-chain omega-3 fatty acids, which are found primarily in fish and other seafoods, may help protect against colon cancer, according to research conducted at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences in North Carolina. The researchers found an inverse relationship between how much omega-3s one ate and the occurence of distal large bowel cancer. Added to the growing list of other omega-3 benefits, such as reduced tumor growth, suppression of angiogenesis and inhibition of metastasis, it’s seeming more and more like a fish a day may keep cancer at bay. (Photo credit)

I do have to throw in the disclaimer that despite all of this exciting research, it is still far too early to start trusting your health to pale ales, nuts, espresso, and salmon. But for me, I’ll take some of each this Christmas. Happy holidays everyone!

Home for the holidays

Here’s a heartwarming Christmas story for you. American Airlines made a one-time exception and allowed UNC Wilmington professor Alina Szmant to fly an endangered marine turtle named Anita from Curacao to Florida, where she will be able to receive the care she needs after she sustained what are believed to be boat-caused injuries in her native habitat.

Szmant first met Anita while teaching a coral reef ecology course in Curacao. Her students found the injured animal struggling in a shallow pool, and the group brought her to the Curacao Sea Aquarium to be examined by the qualified staff. For the next several weeks, Szmant and her students cared for Anita, including feeding her by hand each day, obtaining the proper medications (which were not available in Curacao), and even velcroing a lead plate to her shell to help compensate for a hyper-inflated lung. When the group had to return to the US, the Sea Aquarium kept up Anita’s care, but she never fully recovered. It became clear that Anita needed a more permanent home.

That’s when Szmant found “The Turtle Hospital” in Marathon, Florida – a facility that I had the pleasure to visit during one of my annual trips down to the Dolphin Research Center in Marathon during high school. Ryan Butts, the director of the hospital, agreed to take Anita in, and two permits and six months later, she was flown free-of-charge in the passenger cabin of an American flight, just ten days before Christmas.

I hope you all take a lesson from Anita and make it home safe and sound this holiday season.

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Awesome octopi

Animals and their clever ways never cease to amaze me. It’s part of the reason I started this blog in the first place. Today I was alerted to a BBC video of octopi carrying coconut half shelves to use as shelters. This is apparently the first example of tool use in this species, which surprises me slightly. The octopus is one of the smartest — maybe the smartest — invertebrates. To study them requires the completion of all the same regulatory measures as vertebrate work does, and octopi in captivity require mental stimulation, just like dogs or dolphins. (Playing with the octopus was one of the daily jobs I got to partake in during my time at the Tennessee Aquarium where I did much of my graduate work.)

In any case, this video has inspired me to start blogging again. My new job has kept me busy, with lots of writing, so I have been less motivated to work on my blog during the evenings and weekends. Kind of like how the last thing I wanted to do during my prelim exams was pick up a pleasure book. But my fascination with the animal world has not dwindled, and for those of you who do read my blog (thanks Mom!), I want to continue to share all the newly discovered animal stories with you. So check out this video, and check back soon for more tales of what, why, and how animals do what they do.

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Bat vs moth

Bats and moths are a classic predator and prey story, with lots of evolutionary twist and turns along the way. It has long been known that moths could detect the ultrasonic pulses that bats emit as part of their echolocation navigational system. Researchers have identified a variety of moth survival strategies, including their distinctive erratic flight patterns, which they employ when they hear an approaching predator. A Current Biology paper a couple of years ago even found that the yellow underwing moths can tune their ears to better hear the bats calls while being chased. It’s a constant evolutionary struggle for the bats to overcome these prey defenses to catch their daily full meals.

A new study, published in Science, identifies yet another innovative moth adaptation to avoiding bat predation: sonar jamming. Using a paired set of sound-producing organs known as tymballs, the moths can emit up to 450 ultrasonic clicks in a tenth of a second — a frequency that somehow disrupts the bat’s echolocation.

Whether or not this strategy helps the moths evade capture in the wild remains to be seen, but it certainly seems like it could buy them enough time to escape. What’s next in this evolutionary arms race?

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