Female mosquitoes are major vectors of human disease and the most dangerous are those that preferentially bite humans. A ‘domestic’ form of the mosquito Aedes aegypti has evolved to specialize in biting humans and is the main worldwide vector of dengue, yellow fever, and chikungunya viruses. The domestic form coexists with an ancestral, ‘forest’ form that prefers to bite non-human animals and is found along the coast of Kenya. We collected the two forms, established laboratory colonies, and document striking divergence in preference for human versus non-human animal odour. We further show that the evolution of preference for human odour in domestic mosquitoes is tightly linked to increases in the expression and ligand-sensitivity of the odorant receptor AaegOr4, which we found recognizes a compound present at high levels in human odour. Our results provide a rare example of a gene contributing to behavioural evolution and provide insight into how disease-vectoring mosquitoes came to specialize on humans.
Study region: The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) is a critical hub of the ''Belt and Road'' initiative, making it particularly vulnerable to drought effects driven by climate change and human activities. Study focus: This study evaluates the Standardized Precipitation Evapotranspiration Index (SPEI) and the Soil Moisture Deficit Index (SMDI) at 0–10 cm and 10–40 cm depths using monthly grid data for meteorological and soil moisture from 1981 to 2021. The Run Theory, principal component analysis, and other methodologies were employed to analyze drought evolution and its driving factors. New hydrological insights for the region: The longer the timescale, the stronger the correlation between SPEI and SMDI. ''Dryness-dryness,'' indicating prolonged low moisture, and ''dryness-wetness,'' marking transitions to wetter conditions, were recorded during 1998–2003 and 2016–2021, respectively. Spatial trend analysis revealed significant declines in SPEI during summer and winter, while SMDI showed an upward trend in the northeast and southwest regions of CPEC. As indicated by the SPEI, SMDI0–10, and SMDI10–40, extreme drought events occurred with respective counts of 10, 8, and 6. These significant drought events primarily affected Sindh, Punjab, and Gilgit-Baltistan. The study identifies strong correlations (r > 0.7) between drought indices and climate factors, with atmosphere status exerting the more significant impact on drought in CPEC. These insights are invaluable for formulating effective drought monitoring and early warning systems within the CPEC region.
Language is a defining characteristic of humans, playing a crucial role in both species evolution and individual development. While traditional views, such as Chomsky's, emphasize language's dual functions in sensorimotor externalization and conceptual-intentional thought, its broader role as a modulator of cognitive and neurological systems remains underexplored. Here, we propose that language, due to its profound, accessible, and widespread neurological activation, serves as a pivotal modulator of these systems. This perspective provides new insights into the interconnection between language, cognition, and brain function, and points to novel therapeutic pathways that leverage the modulating capabilities of language for cognitive enhancement and neurological rehabilitation.
Abstract Spatial transcriptomics has revolutionized the study of gene expression within tissues, while preserving spatial context. However, annotating spatial spots’ biological identity remains a challenge. To tackle this, we introduce Pianno, a Bayesian framework automating structural semantics annotation based on marker genes. Comprehensive evaluations underscore Pianno’s remarkable prowess in precisely annotating a wide array of spatial semantics, ranging from diverse anatomical structures to intricate tumor microenvironments, as well as in estimating cell type distributions, across data generated from various spatial transcriptomics platforms. Furthermore, Pianno, in conjunction with clustering approaches, uncovers a region- and species-specific excitatory neuron subtype in the deep layer 3 of the human neocortex, shedding light on cellular evolution in the human neocortex. Overall, Pianno equips researchers with a robust and efficient tool for annotating diverse biological structures, offering new perspectives on spatial transcriptomics data.
Noémie Engel, Grant McDonald, Brett K. Sandercock
et al.
Tropical islands harbour a disproportionally high number of endemic species, which face increasing threats due to habitat loss, disturbance and introduced alien predators. Long-term demographic studies are needed to understand how such threats may impact on population productivity. We report an investigation of a key demographic parameter, nest survival, over a 13-year period in a small ground-nesting shorebird on the island of Maio (Cabo Verde). Similar to many tropical islands, Maio is expected to face increased tourism, disturbance, and potential loss of nesting habitats. We monitored over 700 nests of the largest, year-round resident breeding population of Kentish plover in the Atlantic Ocean archipelago. Our work produced three important findings. First, we show that nest survival differed among the major habitats of the main breeding site, the Salinas do Porto Inglês, because nests in the salt-extraction area had higher daily survival rates DSR = 0.9654 ± 0.0076 SE than nests in grasslands DSR = 0.9557 ± 0.0038 SE. The salt-extraction is a dynamic habitat that is naturally regulated by rainfall and sea water inflow and managed with traditional methods for salt-extraction. Kentish plovers breed on small islets surrounded by salty water where mammalian predators may have restricted access. Second, we found that breeding densities of plovers decreased from 0.11 nests/ha to 0.03 nests/ha over 13 years. Last, we show that nest survival declined from 0.9784 ± 0.0107 in 2007 to 0.8967 ± 0.0401 in 2019. We suggest that the declining breeding density and nest survival may be driven by a combination of ecological factors including predation by native and introduced species, and by increased human disturbance. To help maintain sustainable levels of nest survival and to ensure long-term persistence of this Kentish plover population, we propose to incorporate traditional Salinas management into direct conservation actions, to reduce human disturbance and manage nest predators to help nest survival on tropical islands.
COVID-19 has taken a severe toll on the global population through infections, hospitalizations, and deaths. Elucidating SARS-CoV-2 infection-derived immunity has led to the development of multiple effective COVID-19 vaccines and their implementation into mass-vaccination programs worldwide. After ~3 years, a substantial proportion of the human population possesses immunity from infection and/or vaccination. With waning immune protection over time against emerging SARS-CoV-2 variants, it is essential to understand the duration of protection, breadth of coverage, and effects on reinfection. This targeted review summarizes available research literature on SARS-CoV-2 infection-derived, vaccination-elicited, and hybrid immunity. Infection-derived immunity has shown 93–100% protection against severe COVID-19 outcomes for up to 8 months, but reinfection is observed with some virus variants. Vaccination elicits high levels of neutralizing antibodies and a breadth of CD4+ and CD8+ T-cell responses. Hybrid immunity enables strong, broad responses, with high-quality memory B cells generated at 5- to 10-fold higher levels, versus infection or vaccination alone and protection against symptomatic disease lasting for 6–8 months. SARS-CoV-2 evolution into more transmissible and immunologically divergent variants has necessitated the updating of COVID-19 vaccines. To ensure continued protection against SARS-CoV-2 variants, regulators and vaccine technical committees recommend variant-specific or bivalent vaccines.
Narges Dehghan, Reza Hosein Gandomkar, mohammad mahdi azizollahi
Devices in the course of the evolution of science and technology continue to grow and develop for greater efficiency as well as being placed on smaller scales. The increasement use of microchips in the fields of medicine, services and etc. has caused a lot of concerns about the legal regulations of society and human about managing and control over this new technology, including license and legal effects of this technology. The use of this technology, especially its implantation in the human body for therapeutic purposes, from a jurisprudential and legal point of view, leads to consequences and liabilities for the person receiving the microchip, the physician and the factors that create or guide it. Microchips implantation in human and animal bodies is done for different purposes, but the invasion of human body is basically forbidden and illegitimate and the use of this technology and its disorders in legitimate cases may also cause injuries and damages to the receiver and others. Therefore, this article is a descriptive and analytical research method to describe this achievement and especially the civil liability caused by physical, mental and financial damages of its use and analyzes various assumptions of how to create legal liability.
Sociological studies devoted to educational inequality frequently assume that access to rationality and scientific thought, in the evolution of the individual as in the history of the human species, necessarily involves learning to use writing and the institution of a “scriptural” relationship to language. In contrast to this thesis, it is possible, by relying on the Popperian theory of the origins of rationality, to establish that there is a specifically oral modality of rational and scientific thought (a “learned orality”), with its own standards, different from those of writing and written culture. The recognition of this scholarly orality leads to a revision of some of the ideas and practices currently dominant in the field of science education.
Viviana Ligorini, Nathalie Malet, Marie Garrido
et al.
Coastal lagoons are subjected to ever-increasing direct or indirect anthropic pressures and are inexorably deteriorating with serious issues regarding their resilience. In this paper, we assessed the functioning and evolution of the highly disturbed Biguglia coastal lagoon (Mediterranean Sea, Corsica) through an ecosystem-based approach (EBA), using multiple biotic and abiotic proxies (hydro-climatic context and eutrophication), considering its connectivity to sea and watershed and biological compartments (macrophytes, phytoplankton, and invasive species) and taking into account human influence (management actions and fishing activities). The aim of this work is firstly to provide a comprehensive analysis of its long-term (2000–2021) ecological evolution trajectory and then, based on these results, to anticipate management strategies for supporting its conservation and restoration, and the maintenance of ecosystem services it offers. Results revealed that while the lagoon showed these days a good capacity to recover after disturbance and absorb change, it recently exhibited considerable changes in its phytoplankton community composition, developed an increased susceptibility to biological invasion, and experienced a drastic reduction in fish stocks. The major interannual variations of the mean salinity, strongly dependent on management interventions beyond natural climatic variability, summarized this instability. In the future, the lagoon may no longer be able to cope with even small disturbances, which could then be sufficient to reach a breakpoint and tip the system permanently into undesired/degraded states. We demonstrated that local and punctual management actions are not always beneficial for the entire ecosystem or even detrimental in some instances. Such a retrospective ecosystem-based approach is fundamental for producing the holistic insights required to implement efficient integrated ecosystem management. This further helps enhance lagoon resilience and hence preserve its ecosystem services in the context of increasing global changes. Such lessons are useful anywhere for comparable ecosystems.
Science, General. Including nature conservation, geographical distribution
Leijiane F. Sousa, Amanda P. Freitas, Bruna L. Cardoso
et al.
The evolution of snake venoms resulted in multigene toxin families that code for structurally similar isoforms eventually harboring distinct functions. PLA<sub>2</sub>s are dominant toxins in viper venoms, and little is known about the impact of their diversity on human envenomings and neutralization by antivenoms. Here, we show the isolation of three distinct PLA<sub>2</sub>s from <i>B. atrox</i> venom. FA1 is a Lys-49 homologue, and FA3 and FA4 are catalytic Asp-49 PLA<sub>2</sub>s. FA1 and FA3 are basic myotoxic proteins, while FA4 is an acid non-myotoxic PLA<sub>2</sub>. FA3 was the most potent toxin, inducing higher levels of edema, inflammatory nociception, indirect hemolysis, and anticoagulant activity on human, rat, and chicken plasmas. FA4 presented lower anticoagulant activity, and FA1 had only a slight effect on human and rat plasmas. PLA<sub>2</sub>s presented differential reactivities with antivenoms, with an emphasis on FA3, which was not recognized or neutralized by the antivenoms used in this study. Our findings reveal the functional and antigenic diversity among PLA<sub>2</sub>s from <i>B. atrox</i> venom, highlighting the importance of assessing venom variability for understanding human envenomations and treatment with antivenoms, particularly evident here as the antivenom fails to recognize FA3, the most active multifunctional toxin described.
Abstract Heparan sulfates have long been known to intracellularly accumulate in Alzheimer’s disease neurons, where they colocalize with neurofibrillary tangles made of abnormally phosphorylated and aggregated tau protein. However, the reasons and consequences of the heparan sulfates accumulation in the Alzheimer’s cells are not yet well understood. Previously, we showed that the neural heparan sulfate 3-O-sulfotransferase HS3ST2 is critical for the abnormal phosphorylation of tau in Alzheimer's disease-related tauopathy. Using cell models of tauopathy we showed that intracellular 3-O-sulfatated heparan sulfates interact with tau inducing its abnormal phosphorylation. However, it is unknown whether HS3ST2 expression induces the intracellular aggregation of tau in cells. Here, by using replicative pEBV plasmids, we engineered HEK293 cells to stably express HS3ST2 together with human tau carrying or not the P301S mutation. We show that HS3ST2 gain of function induces the cell autonomous aggregation of tau not only in cells expressing tauP301S, but also in cells expressing the wild type tau. Our engineered cells mimicked both the HS intracellular accumulation observed in neurons of Alzheimer’s disease and the tau aggregation characteristic of tauopathy development and evolution. These results give evidence that the neural HS3ST2 plays a critical role in the cell autonomous self-aggregation of tau.