ask-professor-george

The Nobel Prize Nematode

Fri, 18 Oct 2024 16:09:12 GMT

The nematode C. elegans was part of a research project awarded the 2024 Nobel Prize in Medicine.

Why has C. elegans been used in research associated with multiple Nobel Prize winning projects?

To answer this question, it is necessary to know a few facts about nematodes!

- Nematodes are roundworms classified in the animal phylum Nematoda.

- Modern science recognizes nematodes as the most prominent group of animals on our planet.

- Nematodes inhabit marine, freshwater, and terrestrial environments.

- Specific nematodes feed on plant or animal tissue while others consume bacteria and various microorganisms. In some cases, this results in infectious diseases. A few nematode species are known to transport viruses from diseased to healthy individuals.

Now for the answer to the question.

- C. elegans feeds on bacteria and reproduces readily under simple laboratory conditions.

- C. elegans has a seventy-two-hour life cycle. This allows researchers to conduct numerous experiments in a relatively short period of time. A plant parasitic nematode named X. americanum vectors a virus that causes an infectious disease of Michigan fruit trees. This species has a two-three-year life cycle. Research with X. americanum is challenging and takes much longer than research with C. elegans.

- The body of a healthy C. elegans is composed of precisely 959 cells. The development of each of these cells has been traced to their origin in the single cell fertilized nematode egg. This knowledge allows researchers to conduct a wide variety of different experiments.

- C. elegans was the first animal to have its genetic sequence determined. The process used for sequencing the C. elegans genome was used as a model for sequencing the human genome (C. elegans Consortium, 1998; Human Genome Consortium, 2001).

A little more basic science before describing the 2024 Noble Prize for Medicine.

- Since discovery that nucleic acids and proteins regulate development and functioning of organisms, it has been known that DNA (deoxyribonucleic nucleic acid) contains the genetic information from an organism’s ancestors. Appropriate parts of this information are transferred from DNA to RNA (ribonucleic acid) for protein synthesis which governs the organism’s overall development and function (Brenner, 2002).

The 2024 Nobel Prize in Medicine was awarded to Victor Ambros (Professor, University of Massachusetts Medical School) and Gary Ruvkum (Professor, Harvard Medical School) for their discovery of a new class of very small RNAs attached to the longer regular RNAs. They found that specific microRNAs are essential for normal growth and function of multicellular organisms. C. elegans was used as the organism in Ambros and Ruvkum’s research that discovered microRNAs. It is anticipated that future research with microRNAs will lead to new medical technologies designed to improved human quality of life (Ambros and Ruvkum, 2024).

C. elegans is truly a Noble Prize Nematode!

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Selected Literature/Information

Ambros and Ruvkum, 2024,

https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/medicine/2024/press-release/__;!!HXCxUKc!1pwd07pgvRvkW7NR_P7o6b0Zl0M7QddUgVMcGsiRsHwmqZqgtj7BjC8510f783Yja3W-S7VWiXDMkoE$

Brenner, 2002 https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/medicine/2002/brenner/facts/__;!!HXCxUKc!xWneal0U3rf4xdDEkcFabnu1vVATYTulS_F7svDbtBaEWjbFjFrV924IGyTgvqT4hBGtMsYt7M989LE$

C. elegans Genome Sequencing Consortium, 1998, Science 282:2012-2019.

Human

TEST 1

Thu, 17 Oct 2024 15:30:00 GMT

Sub title Test

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Pioneering in the 21st Century (Blog No.3)

Fri, 20 Sep 2024 17:03:00 GMT

Pioneering in the 21st Century

Although I knew that one branch of my ancestors were pioneers and moved west in their covered wagon in 1874, I never thought about pioneering until I was requested to write my memoir. Writing Pioneering in the 19th, 20th and 21st Centuries: From a Covered Wagon to an Anthropocene? caused me to realize that I had been a pioneer most of my life. It also caused me to realize that pioneering is a very positive, thought provoking and potentially rewarding activity (Bird, 2021). It led me to the conclusion that everyone should consider themself a pioneer.

What is a pioneer? The word pioneer can be used as a noun, adjective or verb. Dozens of definitions have been created for the term. One thing certain is that change will take place. The future will be different than the past. It will be different than the current environment and state of human affairs. This results in everyone being a pioneer as they venture into the unknown and explore the future.

Some future activities will open new areas of thought and development. Others will pave the way for dealing in a positive manner with the impacts of change on one’s local environment. Everyone is the first individual to deal with the specific changes and challenges of their daily lives. Based on the Latin derivation of the word pioneer, we must all have broad feet to successfully meet the challenges of the day in a successful manner before circling the wagons to await the next day.

During my life I raised earthworms as a young boy, managed an apple orchard as a teenager, assisted with insect research as a university undergraduate, conducted nematode research as a young scientist, engaged in academic instruction as a professor, conducted public education as an Extension specialist and assisted with government policy development in several ways. Throughout my entire life, I do not recall anyone referring to themself as a pioneer, or their activities being pioneering initiatives. This lack of a pioneering focus is unfortunate. The pioneering spirit needs to be reinvented with a comprehensive focus on local ecosystems and their future.

Pioneers have imagination and dreams. Whenever possible, these should lead to inspiration and meaningful innovations. Each implemented innovation will have an impact on the local ecosystem and most likely beyond. The feedback loops associated with the processes of imagination, inspiration, innovation, and system responses allow a pioneer to make sound decisions related to their environment and its potential impact on the universe. It is well known that when a system reaches a tipping or bifurcation point, change can occur rapidly. A sound pioneering spirit can assist in assuring that the change will be appropriate for overall quality of life and the health of planet Earth.

Pioneers face a diversity of challenges. Marco Polo, the Venetian merchant, explorer, and writer faced immense challenges as he traveled the ancient Silk Roads throughout Asia. During the westward movement in the U.S.A., pioneers had to find ways to find food and safe drinking water for themselves and their horses, cows, and chickens. Individuals born at the beginning of the 20th Century faced the challenges of the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic, World War I, the dust bowl, the great depression, and World War II. In the 21st Century, generation Z has encountered major classroom security, COVID-19, and climate change prediction issues. It is the ingenuity of these 21st Century pioneers and their pioneering spirit that will allow them to proceed in a highly successful manner.

Unfortunately, there are times when pioneers unknowingly engage in activities that disrupt ecosystems resulting in increases in pest and pathogen occurrences and decreases in the biological diversity that maintain the system’s dynamic equilibrium. Pests are usually defined as: organisms that successfully compete with humans in their quest for food, fiber, shelter and space, or function as vectors of pathogens or nuisance organisms in relation to human comfort and welfare . Is it appropriate to redefine the concept of a pest to include pioneers engaged in activities that have negative unexpected consequences? Absolutely!

One option is to define pests as organisms that disrupt the normal state of an ecosystem in a manner that is detrimental to its sustainable and equitable development. This can include pioneers. Does it include you? Do your activities qualify you as a pest?

One intent of this blog is to provide bloggers with the background essential to determine if they are a constraint to the evolution of a high quality of life for future generations. As a pioneer blogger, you need to evaluate your activities and lifestyle, and make appropriate adjustments when necessary. There is only one Planet Earth, a place that

should have been named Oceana. It must be a place where organisms undergo the process of transition from a neopecies (recently evolved species) to a telospecies (species about ready to become extinct) in an environmentally sound and equitable manner.

A bloggers reflection about current day pioneers

In the early 1990s, a group of pioneering public sector nematologists and private sector industry representatives formed a coalition to facilitate management of the soybean cyst nematode (SCN). A unique aspect of the program was the involvement of a marketing company. The program was successful for the next two decades. Change, however, is inevitable and too much of a good thing resulted in a new problem. The coalition relied primarily on a single source of genetic resistance for SCN management. This facilitated development of highly aggressive populations of SCN. Could another pioneering initiative resolve this problem?

In 2016, nematologists and agricultural industry pioneers organized a second SCN coalition (Markell e t al., 2020). It was designed to facilitate resistance management. The new coalition included twenty-eight states, eight corporations and the marketing company. Implementation of modern social multimedia resulted in millions of media impressions and a six-week video campaign that generated 913,070 views. In addition, pioneer marketing research determined that during the first three years of the Coalition, soybean growers made statistically significant improvements in their SCN understanding and management practices. As a true pioneer, in 2021, the Coalition received the highest award granted by the Public Relations Society of America. In accordance with a pioneering spirit, the Coalition continues to explore previously unchartered aspects of the domain of SCN. This is achieved in a way to assure that the soybean community is a sustainable and equitable, but pioneering entity.

In 2024, the Coalition made two pioneering adjustments as they envisioned their path forward. Leadership for the initiative was transferred to the next generation and the program was expanded to include four highly significant plant parasitic nematodes. The future challenges associated with these changes are unknown, but it is assured that they will have to be resolved in a pioneering manner.

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Literature Cited

Bird, G. 2021. Pioneering in the 19th, 20th and 21st Centuries: From a Covered Wagon to an Anthropoce ne?. Elegantus Press, Lansing. 66 pp. ISBN 987-0-578-70239-1

Markell, S., G. Tylka, E. Anderson and H. van Esse. 2020. Developing Public-Private Partnerships in Plant Pathology Extension: Case Studies and Opportunities in the United States. Ann. Rev. Phytopathol. 58:161-180.

an image of myself, from a time before I re-found my faith.

Climate Issues and Resolution (Blog No. 2)

Fri, 20 Sep 2024 17:01:27 GMT

Climate Issues and Resolution.

Global Warming.- Throughout recorded history, temperature and moisture extremes have resulted in poor crop yields and numerous famines. This, in addition to pandemics, kept human population low. Global population did not reach 1.0 billion until soon after 1800. The 1.0 billion population mark was about 50 years after the beginning of the western industrial revolution. In the 10,000 years before the industrial revolution, the natural processes of photosynthesis and respiration removed and returned carbon dioxide to the troposphere (Earth’s surface to ten miles out) in relatively similar amounts. This resulted in temperatures appropriate for humankind and other forms of life.

Many improvements in human quality of life are due to the use of energy produced by burning fossil fuels. This emits carbon dioxide into the troposphere without a return system! It results in increases in carbon dioxide in the trophosphere, increases in global temperature and increases in other non-desirable local weather events. Currently, polar ice is declining and tropical oceans have a fever.

Lack of Public Understanding of How Climate is Regulated.- A 2010, Yale University climare change survey found that only eight percent of Americans have knowledge about climate equivalent to an A or B, forty percent would receive a C or D, and fifty-two percent would get an F (Leiserowitz, Smith and Marion). My experience as an educator indicates that the situation is similar in 2024. In addition, if I taught a course where ninety-two percent of the class received a grade less than a B, I would assume I had failed as a teacher. The following three paragraphs are designed to assist bloggers in hqaving a better understanding climate change.

Visible light and infrared energy regulate earth’s temperature. The troposphere contains about 78% nitrogen gas, 21% oxygen and 0.035% carbon dioxide. The carbon dioxide functions like a blanket, automobile windshield or greenhouse glass. The wave length of visible light from the sun is short enough to pass through the carbon dioxide blanket. When it contacts the earth’s surface it is transformed into infrared energy. Infrared energy is heat.

After the troposhere, the next twenty miles from the Eareth’s surface is the stratosphere. The wave length of infrared is too long to pass through the carbon dioxide blanket and into the stratosphere. It is trapped. The trapped heat warms our planet. Without this process, Earth would be very cold . It would not be suitable for most forms of life.

Why has this essential process become a problem?

The trapping of infrared energy at the trophosphere-stratosphere interface has become a problem because of excessive amounts of carbon dioxide and other blanket gases in the troposphere preventing infrared energy from exiting into the stratosphere. ,

Impact of Government and Organiations on Climate Remediation . For more than three decades, national and international institutions have proposed practices to mediate global warming. These efforts currently fall short of limiting temperature increases to the 1.5 C goal (Stechemesser, 2024). Today, global population exceeds eight billion. It was only three billion when I was a university student. It is predicted that global population will stabilize around ten billion between 2050 and 2080. Maintaining a desired quality of life for a population of ten billion will require massive amounts of matter and energy.

The grand challenge for humankind, therefore, is to attain and maintain carbon dioxide and other blanket gasses at the trophosphere/stratosphere interface at appropriate levels for food production and human comfort, without negatively impacting essential natural cycles and resources. This mandates change! Change requires implementation of innovations and careful monitoring.

Issue Resolution.- There are four tools for change in my tool box. The first three are education, facilitation and persuasion. Education is my passion. It can, however, be a long and difficult process as indicated by Leiserowitz, Smith and Mario (2010). For change to occur, appropriate alternatives must be readily available, economically viable, and socially acceptable. Change can also be enhanced through rewards or penalities. Regardless of the method, change should be implemented in an environmentally-sound local manner.

The fourth and possibly most important instrument for change does not currently exist in a meaningful way. It involves local communities, and consists of meaningful dialogue among citizens, innovation councils and innovation work groups (Bird, 1993). Local innovation council responsibilities include recognition of issues requiring change, identification of ingenuities likely to result in appropriate change and periotic discussions with their local citizens and government. Local innovation councils and work groups should consist of representatives from private business, agriculture, academia, government and the NGO community. In addition, each council or work group must include at least two representatives from the millenia/Z generations. With only about 1.2% of the solar energy entering the earth’s atmosphere being captured for photosynthesis and other energy dependent activities., the remaining 98.8% should be available for new environmentally-sound innovations designed to ehance the future quality of life of humankind.

As described elegantly by James Burke in After the Warming , it is certain that the future will be different than the past or present. Many individuals resist change because they feel more comfortable with the known (the present) than the unknown resulting from change. This mandates that environmentally-sound innovations be identified and implemented through meaningful dialogue and appropriate actions taken by neighbors on a local community basis.

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References Cited

Bird, G. 1993. Sustainable Agriculture and the 1990 Farm Bill 1991-1992 (Regional Administrative Council Structure, p. 110). Proceedings of the Philadelphia Society for Promoting Agriculture, pp. 108-117.
Stechemesser, A. et al. 2024. Climate policies that achieve major emission reductions: Global evidence fron two decades. Science 385:884-892.
Leiserowitz, A., N. Smith abd J. Marion. 2010. Americans’ Knowledge of Climate Change . Yale UniversityClimate Change Report, October 12, 2010, Beliefs & Attitidues.

Blog No. 3 will be entitled Pioneering in the 21st Century .

Ask Prof George (Blog No. 1)

Fri, 20 Sep 2024 17:00:13 GMT

Knowledge will forever govern ignorance, and people who mean to be their own Governors, must arm themselves with the power knowledge gives (James Madison, 1822)

Where should we begin?

Let’s begin with us.

People

Homo sapiens Linneaus, 1758

As living organisms, we consume matter from external sources and release residuals. The term waste is not in my vocabulary. In addition, people reproduce and respond to their environment (Capra, 1996).

Over time, species evolve and subsequently become extinct.

During the time a species exists in nature, it undergoes a sequence of changes based on its relative success as reflected by abundance, genetics, and geographical distribution.

In 1970, Dillion proposed that species undergo a four-stage transition.

New species that succeed are characterized by increasing abundance and expanding geographical distribution.

Young species have extensive biological variability, great abundance, and diverse geographical boundaries.

Mature, middle-age species are common with fixed geographical boundaries and little biological variability.

In the final stage before extinction, old species have limited biological variability, narrow geographical boundaries, and are not abundant.

While collapse (the topic of a future blog) is different than extinction, I find it interesting that collapse of vulture species in India resulted in an estimated 104,000 human deaths and close to $70 billion US in annual negative mortality impacts (Wible, 2024)

Research reported in the July 10, 2019, issue of Science indicated that humans existed in Europe as early as 200,000 years ago (Wade). Our species, however, did not evolve from its adolescent stage until recently when it reached a population of one billion about 1830. Evidence indicates that much of this delay was due to a continual sequence of pandemics and famines (Bird and Maredia, 2020).

As humans, we are currently a young species learning how to deal with the challenges related to our transitory success and abundance in a word of finite resources.

Our future success depends on implementing old, current, and future technologies (applied knowledge) in an environmentally-sound and socially acceptable manner.

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References Cited

Bird, G. and K. Maredia, 2020. Pandemics, Famine and Global Development. J. Med. Anthro. 2:51-65.

Capra, F. 1996. The Web of Life: A New Scientific Understanding of Living Systems. Anchor Books.

Dillion, L. 1970. Speciation and Changing Environment. Zoolocist 10:27-39.

Wade, L. 2019. 200,000-Year-Old Human Skull Found in Europe. Science, July 10 News.

Wlble, B. 2024. When species collapse, society pays. An. Econ. Rev. 10 2139/ssrn 431879.

Next week’s blog is entitled, Climate Issues and Resolution.