Culture

A multinational South American team from Peru, Brasil and Bolivia led by the Universidad de San Martin de Porres at Lima, Peru, published the first genetic study on the modern descendants of the imperial Inka lineages in the journal Molecular Genetics and Genomics. This work supported by funds from the Genographic Project (Geno 2.0), shows new insights about the Inkas origins and lineages.

The Inka people arrived to Cusco valley and in a few centuries they built the Tawantinsuyu, the largest empire in the Americas. The Tawantinsuyu was the cultural climax of 6,000 years of Central Andes civilizations overlapping modern countries of Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador, the South of Colombia and the North of Argentina and Chile. In contrast with the richness of archeological and cultural evidence, pre Columbian history vanishes in time as it intermingles with myths due to the lack of writing systems before the arrival of the European chroniclers. Very little is known about the Inka origins and some genetic information could help reconstruct part of their history. Unfortunately the mummies and bodily remains of the Inka emperors, worshiped as gods, were burnt and buried in unknown locations due to religious and political persecution by the Christian Conquistadors and Inquisitors, so no direct material remain to study their DNA. "Thus for now, only the genetic analysis of modern families of Inka descent could provide some clues about their ancestors" remarks geneticist Jose Sandoval, first author, working at Universidad de San Martin de Porres at Lima, Peru.

There were two foundational myths for the origin of the Inkas before they established in Cusco valley to build their capital city. One is that Manco Capac and Mama Ocllo, considered children of the Sun God and founder parents of the civilization, came from Lake Titicaca about 500 km southwards from the border of North Bolivia and South Peru, more or less the same region where Tiwanaku empire existed a few centuries before. The second myth narrates that four Ayar brothers, with divine powers, came out from the caves inside of a hill in the area of Paccarictambo, 50 km south of Cusco and only one of them, Manco, arrived to the Cusco valley. Concerning the succession of the rulers (between 12 to 14), most chroniclers mention only one patrilineal heritage, however other authors think that it was a complex selection of military and administrative skills not necessarily electing the son of a previous Inka. "A unique patrilineal cluster would be expected in the first case. In the second case, two or more patrilineal pattern will be evident" says geneticist Ricardo Fujita, senior author, also at Universidad de San Martin de Porres". The research team included historian Ronald Elward, who studied documentation of twelve Inka noble families and followed up from the conquista times to their contemporary descendants. "Most of them still living in the towns of San Sebastian and San Jeronimo, Cusco, Peru, at present, are probably the most homogeneous group of Inka lineage" says Elward.

Markers for Y chromosome and mtDNA were used for the genetic analysis of these families and compared with a database for 2400 native individuals from Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador and Brazil. "The results show distinctive patrilineal origins to two founder individuals who lived between 1000 to 1500 AD, a period between the decline of former Tiwanaku (south) and Wari (north) contemporary empires, and the rise of the Inca empire a few centuries later" says geneticist Fabricio Santos from the Universidad Federal de Minas Gerais at Belo Horizonte, Brazil. The first patrilineal haplotype named AWKI-1 (awki means crown prince in quechua language) is found in the putative families descending of 2 earlier Incas Yahuar Huacac and Viracocha. The same pattern of the Inca descendants was also found in individuals living south to Cusco, mainly in Aymaras of Peru and Bolivia. The second patrilineal haplotype named AWKI-2 was found in one descendant of a more recent Inca, Huayna Capac, father of the two brothers (Huascar and Atahualpa) who were fighting a fraternal war over the empire at the arrival of the Conquistadors. "AWKI-2 is also found in dozens of individuals from different locations in the Andes and occasionally in the Amazon, suggesting a populational expansion" says Dr. Santos.

"In addition to San Sebastian and San Jeronimo, most locations of AWKI-1, AWKI-2 were southwards to Cusco including the basin of lake Titicaca and neighboring Paccarictambo, in agreement with the two foundational myths of the Incas" says Ricardo Fujita, "probably two pictures at different times of the same journey with final destination Cusco" adds Fujita. "It is also remarkable that in these contemporary Inka noblility families there is a continuity since pre Columbian times" says Ronald Elward. The analysis of their mtDNA suggested a highly varied matrilineal marker whose counterparts are found all over the Andes reflecting a high genetic flow. "This probably reflects the political alliances by arranged marriages between Cusco nobility and daughters of lords of kingdoms and chiefdoms all over the empire" states Jose Sandoval.

This work is the continuation of several studies performed by the team to reconstruct South American history by Genetics and also funded by a previous grant of the Genographic Project (Geno 1.0) led in South America by Fabricio Santos. Two published works included the unique ancient roots of the Uros, people from the Floating Islands of the Lake Titicaca and the Quechwa-Lamistas in Peruvian Amazon. Modern Uros are Aymara speaking people that some have thought to be people from the Aymara ethnia who profited tourism by living on the floating islands. However the team showed that they were genetically isolated people who had lost their original Uro language, shifting to more the widely used Aymara language. On the other hand the Kechwa-Lamista are Amazonian people who speak the Andean Quechua language and they were presumed descendants of Andeans Chancas, former enemies of the Incas, and were chased by them towards the Amazon. DNA showed that they are actually descendants of linguistically different Amazonian people who were gathered by Catholic missions and were taught the Quechua language (learn by the missionaries at the Andes) for a better evangelization.

"In some cases Genetics shows us something different than the official history. What is no written or badly written in historical records, can be revealed by what is written in our DNA. " concludes Ricardo Fujita. "This study is just the tip of the iceberg in trying to solve part of several enigmas of one of the most remarkable civilizations. The DNA of one Inka monarch bodily remain or of one direct descendant who lived at the beginning of the Spanish colonization could give more certainty about the Inca lineage, and our team is looking forward to it" declares Jose Sandoval.

WASHINGTON - Human airways already demonstrate gender-based differences in DNA methylation signatures at birth, providing an early hint of which infants may be predisposed to develop respiratory disorders like asthma later in life, a research team reports in a paper published online April 3, 2018, in Scientific Reports.

It's clear that boys and young men are more likely to develop neonatal respiratory distress syndrome, bronchopulmonary dysplasia, viral bronchiolitis, pneumonia, croup and childhood asthma. Unlike boys, girls have an additional copy of the X chromosome, which is enriched with immune-related genes, some of which play key roles in the development of respiratory conditions. Methylation prevents excessive gene activity in X-linked genes, however much remains unknown about how this process influences infants' risk of developing airway diseases.

A multi-institution research team that includes Children's National Health System attempted to characterize gender-based epigenomic signatures in the human airway early in children's lives with a special attention to defining DNA methylation patterns of the X chromosome.

"It's clear as we round in the neonatal intensive care unit that baby boys remain hospitalized longer than girls and that respiratory ailments are quite common. Our work provides new insights about gender differences in airway disease risk that are pre-determined by genetics," says Gustavo Nino, M.D., a Children's pulmonologist and the study's senior author.

"Characterizing early airway methylation signatures holds the promise of clarifying the nature of gender-based disparities in respiratory disorders and could usher in more personalized diagnostic and therapeutic approaches."

The research team enrolled 12 newborns and infants in the study and obtained their nasal wash samples. Six of the infants were born preterm, and six were born full term. The researchers developed a robust gender classification algorithm to generate DNA methylation signals. The machine learning algorithm identified X-linked genes with significant differences in methylation patterns in boys, compared with girls.

As a comparison group, they retrieved pediatric nasal airway epithelial cultures from a study that looked at genomic DNA methylation patterns and gene expression in 36 children with persistent atopic asthma compared with 36 heathy children.

The team went on to classify X-linked genes that had significant gender-based X methylation and those genes whose X methylation was variable.

"These results confirm that the X chromosome contains crucial information about gender-related genetic differences in different airway tissues," Dr. Nino says. "More detailed knowledge of the genetic basis for gender differences in the respiratory system may help to predict, prevent and treat respiratory disorders that can affect patients over their entire lifetimes."

Novel technology developed at UT Health San Antonio gives rise to mouse pancreatic tumors that have the same traits as human pancreatic cancer. A U.S. patent is pending on the invention.

The technology could revolutionize studies of pancreatic cancer initiation and progression and spur new drug development. An article published in the journal Carcinogenesis (Oxford University Press) describes this unique approach. Results of the research were made available online in November 2017 ahead of peer-review and print publication in February 2018.

Scientists study pancreatic cancer by genetically engineering mice to develop the disease or by transplanting tumors into rodents to test drug activity. In both cases, the resulting tumors provide an artificial, rather than true, picture of the human disease, said the technology's inventor, Bruno Doiron, Ph.D., of UT Health San Antonio.

"For a decade, we have failed in treating pancreatic cancer because we didn't have a good way to test new drugs," Dr. Doiron, an assistant professor in the Joe R. & Teresa Lozano Long School of Medicine, said.

Pancreatic cancer kills 95 percent of patients within five years of diagnosis. Advances in therapy have been negligible, with chemotherapies only able to extend survival by a few months. Need for a new study tool is therefore urgent.

Delivery method

Dr. Doiron and his lab team are injecting a modified virus into the adult mouse pancreas. The virus is a delivery vehicle for two pro-cancer molecules (called KrasG12D mutation and shRNA p53) that are present in human pancreatic tumors. Upon injection, the virus permeates the pancreas with these pro-cancer factors. The effect is contained; only the pancreas is altered by this molecular cocktail. When the mice reach 28 to 30 weeks of age, tumors develop that resemble human pancreatic cancer.

"I take the two major genetic mutations involved in human pancreatic cancer and inject them directly to the pancreas, and tumors develop in the adult mice," Dr. Doiron said. "This bypasses the artificial manipulation introduced by other methods, and spontaneous cancers develop that mimic those found in people."

The procedure is performed in mice that are not of any special breeding or stock. They are from many different parents. This ensures that the development of pancreatic cancer is in a random nature, the way it occurs in humans.

A step forward

The Carcinogenesis article "is an important paper for the field of pancreatic cancer, because it demonstrates that all previous methods of study are obsolete," Dr. Doiron said.

Obesity and diabetes are major risk factors for pancreatic cancer. The risk of pancreatic cancer is increased 1.5-fold in obese subjects and two- to threefold in people with diabetes. The new technology can be used to delve into this link.

"The prevalence of obesity and Type 2 diabetes has reached epidemic proportions during the last two decades in the U.S. and worldwide, and this may explain, in part, why the death rate from pancreatic cancer has not declined in the same way as it has for some other cancers," Dr. Doiron said.

Ruben A. Mesa, M.D., FACP, director of the Mays Cancer Center, the newly named center home to UT Health San Antonio MD Anderson Cancer Center, commented: "This important work by Dr. Doiron and colleagues will allow us to better predict which treatments for the devastating disease of pancreatic cancer will be effective. These discoveries are a much-needed advance on efforts to cure pancreatic cancer."

Astronomers are back in the dark about what dark matter might be, after new observations showed the mysterious substance may not be interacting with forces other than gravity after all. Dr Andrew Robertson of Durham University will today (Friday 6 April) present the new results at the European Week of Astronomy and Space Science in Liverpool.

Three years ago, a Durham-led international team of researchers thought they had made a breakthrough in ultimately identifying what dark matter is.

Observations using the Hubble Space Telescope appeared to show that a galaxy in the Abell 3827 cluster - approximately 1.3 billion light years from Earth - had become separated from the dark matter surrounding it.

Such an offset is predicted during collisions if dark matter interacts with forces other than gravity, potentially providing clues about what the substance might be.

The chance orientation at which the Abell 3827 cluster is seen from Earth makes it possible to conduct highly sensitive measurements of its dark matter.

However, the same group of astronomers now say that new data from more recent observations shows that dark matter in the Abell 3827 cluster has not separated from its galaxy after all. The measurement is consistent with dark matter feeling only the force of gravity.

Lead author Dr Richard Massey, in the Centre for Extragalactic Astronomy, at Durham University, said: "The search for dark matter is frustrating, but that's science. When data improves, the conclusions can change.

"Meanwhile the hunt goes on for dark matter to reveal its nature.

"So long as dark matter doesn't interact with the Universe around it, we are having a hard time working out what it is."

The Universe is composed of approximately 27 per cent dark matter with the remainder largely consisting of the equally mysterious dark energy. Normal matter, such as planets and stars, contributes a relatively small five per cent of the Universe.

There is believed to be about five times more dark matter than all the other particles understood by science, but nobody knows what it is.

However, dark matter is an essential factor in how the Universe looks today, as without the constraining effect of its extra gravity, galaxies like our Milky Way would fling themselves apart as they spin.

In this latest study, the researchers used the Atacama Large Millimetre Array (ALMA) in Chile, South America, to view the Abell 3827 cluster.

ALMA picked up on the distorted infra-red light from an unrelated background galaxy, revealing the location of the otherwise invisible dark matter that remained unidentified in their previous study.

Research co-author Professor Liliya Williams, of the University of Minnesota, said: "We got a higher resolution view of the distant galaxy using ALMA than from even the Hubble Space Telescope.

"The true position of the dark matter became clearer than in our previous observations."

While the new results show dark matter staying with its galaxy, the researchers said it did not necessarily mean that dark matter does not interact. Dark matter might just interact very little, or this particular galaxy might be moving directly towards us, so we would not expect to see its dark matter displaced sideways, the team added.

Several new theories of non-standard dark matter have been invented over the past two years and many have been simulated at Durham University using high-powered supercomputers.

Robertson, who is a co-author of the work, and based at Durham University's Institute for Computational Cosmology, added: "Different properties of dark matter do leave tell-tale signs.

"We will keep looking for nature to have done the experiment we need, and for us to see it from the right angle.

"One especially interesting test is that dark matter interactions make clumps of dark matter more spherical. That's the next thing we're going to look for."

To measure the dark matter in hundreds of galaxy clusters and continue this investigation, Durham University has just finished helping to build the new SuperBIT telescope, which gets a clear view by rising above the Earth's atmosphere under a giant helium balloon.

The research was funded by the Royal Society and the Science and Technology Facilities Council in the UK and NASA. The findings will appear in a new paper in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.

In a review article published April 5 in the New England Journal of Medicine, scientist Andrew Feinberg, M.D., calls for more integration between two fields of DNA-based research: genetics and epigenetics.

Most people are familiar with genetics, a field of research that focuses on the precise sequence of chemicals that form the ladder-like structure of DNA. However, epigenetics is not as well known among the public. It's the study of how information is added onto or influences the read-out of genes and, Feinberg says, is not combined often enough with genetics research to understand human disease.

Feinberg, who directs the Center for Epigenetics in the Johns Hopkins Institute for Basic Biomedical Sciences, says that the field of epigenetics captures what happens to our genome after environmental exposures in a way that DNA sequencing by itself cannot.

"We tend to think of our genome as static, but it isn't. Most disease is influenced by some component of the changing environment and our variable exposure to it," says Feinberg, the King Fahd Professor of Medicine, Oncology, Molecular Biology and Genetics. "Looking at our genetic sequence alone doesn't tell us everything about that exposure."

One type of epigenetic change to the genome occurs when small chemical groups glom on to the ladder structure of DNA. Such chemical flags don't change the DNA code itself. Rather, they change how genes are turned on and off. Similarly, other epigenetic changes occur in how DNA and proteins are compacted in the nucleus of the cell. If they are packed tightly, DNA is less open to structures that "read" the chemical alphabet of genes and manufacture proteins.

Epigenetic changes have been found in the lungs of smokers and cord blood of infants prenatally exposed to smoke, writes Feinberg. He also points to epidemiologic studies showing an association between famine in Sweden, Germany and China and shortened lifespans and schizophrenia in subsequent generations, and studies in mice and humans of nutritional deficiencies that lead to disease, an indication that epigenetic changes may occur early in life and can be heritable.

In addition, he says, the modern revolution in gene sequencing has revealed many mutations in cancers that control epigenetic factors.

Yet, he sees a wide array of diseases, including autoimmune disorders, diabetes and rheumatoid arthritis, that can benefit from integrating epigenetic and genetic research. "Epigenetics stands at the interface of the genome, development and environmental exposure," he writes.

He suggests that combining genomewide and epigenomewide association studies can overcome problems of assigning cause and effect to specific alterations among either type of study alone.

Feinberg also sees potential in combining epigenetics and genetics to identify people at risk for disease and monitor a treatment's effectiveness.

He also says that scientists know comparatively little about how existing drugs may be altering patients' epigenomes. Such new discoveries, he says, will depend on collaborations between pharmacologists and computational and physical biologists.

Palaeontologists have discovered part of the skeleton of a 180 million-year-old pregnant ichthyosaur with the remains of between six and eight tiny embryos between its ribs.

The new specimen was studied by palaeontologists Mike Boyd and Dean Lomax from The University of Manchester. It was collected around 2010 from near Whitby, North Yorkshire and is from the Early Jurassic. The fossil was in the collection of fossil collector, Martin Rigby, who thought the specimen might be a block of embryos. Dean confirmed the suspicion and the specimen was acquired by the Yorkshire Museum, York.

Ichthyosaurs were aquatic reptiles that dominated the Jurassic seas. They gave birth to live young, rather than laying eggs, and did not need to return to land, even to breed. They were carnivores, feeding upon other reptiles, fish, and marine invertebrates such as the squid-like belemnites.

Ichthyosaur fossils are quite common in the UK and often found in British Jurassic rocks. However, only five ichthyosaur specimens from Britain have ever been found with embryos and none with this many. All five were collected from Jurassic exposures in the south-west of

England and are between 200-190 million years old. This is the first to be found in Yorkshire. The new specimen is a star attraction in the new major exhibition, Yorkshire's Jurassic World, which recently opened on March 24.

The Jurassic rocks of Yorkshire have produced hundreds of ichthyosaur and other marine reptile skeletons, but have not, until now, yielded any reptilian embryos. The new specimen, as well as being the first embryo-bearing ichthyosaur recorded from Yorkshire, is also geologically the youngest of the British embryo-bearing specimens, being from the Toarcian Stage of the Jurassic, around 180 million-year-old.

The specimen is a small boulder that has been cut in half and polished, which exposes several large ribs (of the adult) and several strings of vertebrae and various indeterminate tiny bones. Boyd and Lomax say there are at least six embryos present, but probably eight.

Mike said: "We also considered the possibility that the tiny remains could be stomach contents, although it seemed highly unlikely that an ichthyosaur would swallow six to eight aborted embryos or newborn ichthyosaurs at one time. And this does not seem to have been the case, because the embryos display no erosion from stomach acids. Moreover, the embryos are not associated with any stomach contents commonly seem in Early Jurassic ichthyosaurs, such as the remains of squid-like belemnites".

Eight different species of ichthyosaur have been documented with embryos. By far, the most commonly found ichthyosaur with embryos is Stenopterygius. Over a hundred specimens of Stenopterygius from Holzmaden and surrounding areas in Germany have been found with embryos, ranging from one to eleven in number.

"The German sites are approximately the same age as the new specimen from Whitby and it is possible that the new specimen is also Stenopterygius, but no identifiable features are preserved in the adult or embryos. Nonetheless, this is an important find." added Dean.

Sarah King, curator of natural science at the Yorkshire Museum, said: "This is an incredible find and the research by Dean and Mike has helped us confirm it is the first example of fossilised ichthyosaur embryos to be found in Yorkshire. Its display in Yorkshire's Jurassic World incorporates the latest digital technology to reveal the embryos and to explain the significance of the discovery. It also allows us to show a softer and more nurturing side to the Sea Dragons which were the top marine predator of their time."

WILMINGTON, Del. (April 5, 2018) - Children whose families have elevated psychological and social risks, including child behavior problems, parent mental health issues, and family financial difficulties, were more likely to drop out of weight management treatment and less likely to have an improvement in weight status, according to a study published online today by the Journal of Pediatrics. The study, a collaboration between researchers at the Nemours Center for Healthcare Delivery Science and Nemours Division of Weight Management, supports the need for psychosocial screening early in the treatment of childhood obesity.

"Previous studies have found that the majority of children who receive interdisciplinary treatment in weight management clinics are successful at achieving a healthier weight. However, most weight management clinics report significant drop-out rates, limiting the number of patients who benefit from treatment," said Thao-Ly Tam Phan, MD, MPH, a pediatrician in the Nemours Weight Management Clinic, and lead author of the study. "Given the significant impact that psychosocial risk factors seem to have on outcomes in weight management treatment, identifying and addressing parent mental health concerns, child behavior concerns, and family social resource needs upfront may help improve outcomes in children with obesity."

The prospective study, funded by the Academic Pediatric Association's Research in Academic Pediatrics Initiative on Diversity (RAPID) Award received by Dr. Phan, enrolled 100 families of children between the ages of 4 and 12 during their first visit to the weight management clinic. The majority of children were non-Hispanic Black (36 percent) or White (43 percent) and had severe obesity (55 percent). Researchers found that 59 percent of families had moderate to high psychosocial risk scores and 41 percent had low scores on the Psychosocial Assessment Tool (PAT©), a validated screener of family psychosocial risk. Compared to data on all patients who have completed the PAT© in the United States and internationally, families in this study were two times more likely to have a moderate-to-high risk score.

Each child's progress was tracked over six months, and the study found that families with moderate-to-high risk scores on the PAT© were 3.1 times more likely to stop attending the clinic. Additionally, children of those families were 2.6 times more likely to have an increase in body mass index (BMI) z-score and 3.2 times more likely to not have a meaningful change in their BMI z-score. Notably, 14 patients receiving psychological services as a component of their weight management treatment experienced lower attrition rates than those who did not (27 percent vs. 57 percent).

"These findings together highlight how important family psychosocial factors are to a child's health behaviors and weight," said Anne E. Kazak, PhD, ABPP, the co-director of the Center for Healthcare Delivery Science at Nemours Children's Health System and creator of the PAT©.

The authors suggest that future studies evaluate the long-term impact of psychosocial risk and of providing psychosocial services to families of children with obesity. Through a National Institute of Child Health and Human Development-sponsored K23 Mentored Patient-Oriented Research Career Development Award, Drs. Phan and Kazak are taking this next step by developing and testing an innovative intervention to provide parents with guidance on managing their child's behaviors and to engage families of diverse backgrounds in obesity treatment.

In a new BJU International study, women with urinary incontinence reported declines in sexual activity and arousal over the last year, and they expressed increased concern about their frequency of sexual activity and ability to become sexually aroused. Men with urinary incontinence reported declines in sexual desire, increased erectile and orgasm difficulties, and concern about these sexual functions.

The study included information from 3,805 individuals in the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA), a population-representative panel survey of ageing, retirement, and health in middle-aged and older men and women living in England. Twenty percent of women and seven percent of men reported any urinary incontinence in the last 12 months.

"Our findings highlight strong links between urinary incontinence and a number of negative outcomes regarding sexual health. Both urinary incontinence and later-life sexuality remain taboo subjects in society and are likely to be under-reported as coexisting health problems," said lead author Dr. David Lee, of Manchester Metropolitan University, in the U.K. "Given the relatively high occurrence of incontinence, particularly among women, healthcare professionals should be aware of the potential impacts on quality-of-life and well-being, and recognise that sexual activity and satisfaction are key factors in this equation."

Naturally occurring pigments in berries, also known as anthocyanins, increase the function of the sirtuin 6 enzyme in cancer cells, a new study from the University of Eastern Finland shows. The regulation of this enzyme could open up new avenues for cancer treatment. The findings were published in Scientific Reports.

Sirtuins are enzymes regulating the expression of genes that control the function of cells through key cellular signalling pathways. Ageing causes changes in sirtuin function, and these changes contribute to the development of various diseases. Sirtuin 6, or SIRT6 for short, is a less well-known enzyme that is also linked to glucose metabolism.

Berries get their red, blue or purple colour from natural pigments, anthocyanins.

"The most interesting results of our study relate to cyanidin, which is an anthocyanin found abundantly in wild bilberry, blackcurrant and lingonberry," says Minna Rahnasto-Rilla, Doctor of Pharmacy, the lead author of the article.

Cyanidin increased SIRT6 enzyme levels in human colorectal cancer cells, and it was also discovered to decrease the expression of the Twist1 and GLUT1 cancer genes, while increasing the expression of the tumour suppressor FoXO3 gene in cells.

The researchers also designed a computer-based model that allowed them to predict how different flavonoid compounds in plants can regulate the SIRT6 enzyme.

The findings indicate that anthocyanins increase the activation of SIRT6, which may play a role in cancer pathogenesis. The study also lays a foundation for the development of new drugs that regulate SIRT6 function.

Working at the School of Pharmacy of the University of Eastern Finland, the Sirtuin Research Group studies whether anthocyanins found in berries could activate SIRT6 function and, consequently, reduce the expression of cancer genes and cancer cell growth. The group also develops new compounds targeting the epigenetic regulation of gene function.

The Finnish-American study included researchers from the University of Eastern Finland and the National Institute on Ageing in the US. The study was funded by the Academy of Finland, the Finnish Cultural Foundation, and the US National Institute of Health.

Dynamic interactions between the nervous system, hormones and the immune system are normally on-going but in diabetes the balance is disturbed. The two studies published in EBioMedicine by an international research team from Uppsala University highlight the importance of the neurotransmitter gamma-aminobutyric acid in both Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes.

GABA is synthesized by an enzyme called GAD from the amino acid glutamate in nerve cells but also, importantly, in the insulin-producing beta cells in pancreatic islets. GAD has two forms, GAD65 and GAD67. In type 1 diabetes, beta cells are destroyed while type 2 diabetes is associated with impaired beta cell function and insulin resistance.

Patients with type 1 diabetes often have antibodies to GAD65. However, there has been no strong link between GABA and type 2 diabetes until recently when it was shown that GABA is important for maintaining and potentially also in the making of new beta cells.

The two current studies, now published in EBioMedicine, reinforce the image of GABA's importance, for both types of diabetes. The scientists used ion channels that GABA opens, the GABAA receptors, as a biological sensor for GABA, and were able to determine the effective, physiological GABA concentration levels in human pancreatic islets. They also showed that these ion channels became more sensitive to GABA in type 2 diabetes and that GABA helps regulate insulin secretion (Article 1).

The scientists then isolated immune cells from human blood and studied the effects GABA had on these cells. They show that GABA inhibited the cells and reduced the secretion of a large number of inflammatory molecules (Article 2).

The anti-inflammatory effect of GABA may be vital in the pancreatic islets since as long as GABA is present, toxic white blood cells can be inhibited, thus increasing the survival of the insulin-secreting beta cells. When the beta cells decrease in number and disappear from the islets as happens in Type 1 diabetes, then GABA consequently is also decreased and, thereby, the GABA protective shielding of the beta cells. When inflammatory molecules increase in strength, it may weaken and even kill the remaining beta cells.

In ongoing studies, the scientists now focus on clarifying the GABA signaling mechanisms in the immune cells and in the human beta cells. They will also study how existing drugs can increase, decrease or mimic the effects of GABA, says Bryndis Birnir.

Bonobos are willing to share meat with animals outside their own family groups. This behaviour was observed in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and is documented in a new study in Springer's journal Human Nature. Even though bonobo apes have been studied for years, animal behaviourists have only realised in the past 25 years that these primates do not only eat plants, but similar to the common chimpanzee, also hunt and share their catch among members of their own social group. This study is the first observation of sharing behaviour across community borders and was led by Barbara Fruth of Liverpool John Moores University in the UK and the Royal Zoological Society of Antwerp in Belgium, and Gottfried Hohmann of the Max-Planck-Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Germany.

Fruth and Hohmann's team witnessed the behaviour in January 2017 while studying two neighboring communities of bonobos (Pan paniscus) in a forest area near the Bompusa River. Researchers have previously noted that these communities hunt or eat meat twice a month on average. In most cases they opportunistically kill a small forest antelope called a duiker.

One afternoon, bonobos from the Bompusa West community met up with the Bompusa East bonobo community. After the alpha male of the West party caught a duiker, he was immediately approached by members of both communities. He moved into the crown of a tall tree, followed by nine females (four from the one group, five from the other) and their offspring. For the next half an hour, the researchers watched how he dished out some meat to all of them.

"Solicitation involved behaviours such as peering and stretched out hands but no aggression or forceful taking. As in other cases, the transfer of food from the male to females was passive," remembers Fruth, who says that the pieces of meat given were immediately eaten.

One of the females from the East party then removed the duiker's entire head to share pieces of meat with her offspring and adult females from both communities. A female from the West party only shared a leg from the carcass with her offspring and other female members of her party. Only the initial male participated in the meat-sharing episode, despite seven others being present.

The social structure of bonobos is dominated by females, and sex plays a major part in keeping the peace within a group. During the course of the meat-feeding period, the researchers also observed how females (even ones from different groups) rubbed their genitals together. A male mated with a female from an opposing community, while grooming between members of the different groupings also took place.

"No aggression was observed among females, between males and females, or among males, a behaviour not uncommon during other inter-community encounters," notes Fruth.

"Cooperative behaviours such as hunting and food sharing play an important role in constructing models of human origins," explains Hohmann. "Scrutiny of these behavioural patterns in our closest living relatives, the chimpanzee and the bonobo, provides potential insights into how our last common ancestor may have acted when dividing food with others."

James Cook University researchers in Australia have helped develop a new way to save endangered African wild dogs.

Dr Damien Paris and PhD student Dr Femke Van den Berghe from the Gamete and Embryology (GAME) Lab at James Cook University, have successfully developed a sperm freezing technique for the species (Lycaon pictus).

The highly efficient pack hunters have disappeared from most of their original range across sub-Saharan Africa due to habitat destruction, human persecution and canine disease, leaving less than 6,600 animals remaining in the wild.

Dr Paris said population management and captive breeding programs have begun, but there is a problem.

"One goal of the breeding programs is to ensure the exchange of genetic diversity between packs, which is traditionally achieved by animal translocations. But, due to their complex pack hierarchy, new animals introduced to an existing pack are often attacked, sometimes to the point of being killed," he said.

Dr Paris said the new sperm freezing technique could now be combined with artificial insemination to introduce genetic diversity into existing packs of dogs, without disrupting their social hierarchy.

Working with international canine experts Associate Professor Monique Paris (Institute for Breeding Rare and Endangered African Mammals), Dr Michael Briggs (African Predator Conservation Research Organization), and Professor. Wenche Farstad (Norwegian University of Life Sciences), Dr Paris and Dr Van den Berghe collected and froze semen from 24 males across 5 different packs using the new formulation.

After thawing sperm to test their survival, the team discovered most sperm remained alive, appeared normal and continued to swim for up to 8 hours.

"Sperm of this quality could be suitable for artificial insemination of African wild dog females to assist outbreeding efforts for the first time," said Dr Van den Berghe.

Dr Paris said he is determined the findings will reach zoo and wildlife managers in order to maximise the uptake of these techniques and develop a global sperm bank for the species.

As part of these efforts, the team have also presented these results at the International Congress on Animal Reproduction (France), African Painted Dog Conference (USA), and European Association of Zoo and Aquaria Conference (Netherlands).

Gains in the ability to sustain attention developed through intensive meditation training are maintained up to seven years later, according to a new study published in the Journal of Cognitive Enhancement. The study is based on the Shamatha Project, a major investigation of the cognitive, psychological and biological effects of meditation led by researchers at the University of California, Davis, Center for Mind and Brain.

"This study is the first to offer evidence that intensive and continued meditation practice is associated with enduring improvements in sustained attention and response inhibition, with the potential to alter longitudinal trajectories of cognitive change across a person's life," said first author Anthony Zanesco, postdoctoral researcher at the University of Miami, who began work on the project before starting his Ph.D. program in psychology at UC Davis. The project is led by Clifford Saron, research scientist at the UC Davis Center for Mind and Brain, in collaboration with a large group of researchers.

The Shamatha Project is the most comprehensive longitudinal study of intensive meditation yet undertaken and has drawn the attention of scientists and Buddhist scholars alike, including the Dalai Lama, who has endorsed the project. It examines the effects of two intensive meditation retreats held in 2007 at the Shambhala Mountain Center in Red Feather Lakes, Colorado. The study followed 60 experienced meditators who attended these three-month meditation retreats and received ongoing instruction in meditation techniques from Buddhist scholar, author and teacher B. Alan Wallace of the Santa Barbara Institute for Consciousness Studies. They attended group meditation sessions twice a day and engaged in individual practice for about six hours a day.

Gains maintained in regular meditators

Immediately after the study, participants in the meditation retreat showed improvements in attention as well as in general psychological well-being and ability to cope with stress.

Since the retreats, the researchers have followed up with participants at six and 18 months, and most recently at seven years. The 40 participants who remained in the study at this latest follow-up all reported that they continued some form of meditation practice over the seven-year period, equivalent to about an hour a day on average.

The new study shows that those gains in attention observed immediately after retreat were partly maintained seven years later, especially for older participants who maintained a more diligent meditation practice over the seven years. Compared to those who practiced less, these participants maintained cognitive gains and did not show typical patterns of age-related decline in sustained attention.

The participants' lifestyle or personality might also have contributed to the observations, Zanesco noted. Benefits from meditation appeared to have plateaued after the retreats, even in participants who practiced the most: This could have implications for how much meditation can, in fact, influence human cognition and the workings of the brain, he said.

Bees are not the only animals that carry pollen from flower to flower. Species with backbones, among them bats, birds, mice, and even lizards, also serve as pollinators. Although less familiar as flower visitors than insect pollinators, vertebrate pollinators are more likely to have co-evolved tight relationships of high value to the plants they service, supplying essential reproductive aid for which few or no other species may substitute.

In plants known to receive flower visitations from vertebrates, fruit and seed production drops 63 percent, on average, when the larger animals, but not insects, are experimentally blocked from accessing the plants, ecologists report in the March cover study for the Ecological Society of America's journal Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment.

Fabrizia Ratto and colleagues reviewed 126 such animal exclusion experiments to get an idea of how dependent wild plants are on animals with backbones for reproduction. The researchers selected published studies that quantified pollination through the subsequent growth of fruit or seeds.

The exclusion of bat pollinators had a particularly strong effect on their plant consorts, reducing fruit production by 83 percent, on average. Bats pollinate about 528 plant species worldwide, including crops like dragon fruit, African locust beans, and durian, Southeast Asia's "King of Fruits." The authors speculate that chiropterophilous, or bat-pollinated, plants are unusually dependent on just a few, related species to carry their pollen.

Many bat species have coevolved intimate interdependencies with the plants that feed them in exchange for pollen transport. Among them, blue agave (Agave tequilana), the source of tequila, depends entirely on the greater (Leptonycteris nivalis) and lesser (Leptonycteris yerbabuenae) long-nosed bats. The cacti open their long, narrow flowers only at night, luring in the bats with the fragrance of rotten fruit. Both bat species are endangered or near threatened.

Loss of pollination by vertebrates had a higher impact in the tropics, where the study found a 71 percent decline in fruit or seed production. This higher impact may reflect the higher degree of customization for specific pollinators, the authors say. Like the agave cacti, specialized plants that rely on a small number of species of animal helpers for their reproductive success are more vulnerable to disruption.

Non-flying mammals are also pollinators, visiting at least 85 plant species worldwide. Ruffed lemurs (Varecia variegata) may be the largest pollinators, known to pry open the tough flowers of the traveler's tree (Ravenala madagascariensis) for a nectar treat on their native island of Madagascar. The lemurs, which rely on the nectar for many of their calories, leave the flowers intact and carry pollen on their fur. Possums and squirrels also pollinate plants. Because empirical studies have only been conducted with species of mice, Ratto and colleagues' analysis cannot give a picture of the importance of non-flying mammal species for plant reproduction.

Over 920 bird species pollinate plants, forming the largest contingent of the vertebrate pollinators and pollinating about 5 percent of plant species in most regions. The reliance of plants on birds tends to be higher on islands, where birds typically pollinate 10 percent of the local flora. Perhaps most surprisingly, some lizard species are also pollinators, especially on islands.

The distribution and health of vertebrate pollinators is well documented compared to insect species, allowing, the authors argue, for targeted conservation efforts. As pollinating bird and mammal species fall under increasing pressure from habitat conversion to agriculture needs, fire, hunting, and invasions of non-native species, their plant companions and other species that feed on fruits and seeds are also at risk.

Virginia Tech College of Natural Resources and Environment research published in the scientific journal PLOS ONE shows that private landowners trust conservation agencies more and have better views of program outcomes when they accompany conservation biologists who are monitoring habitat management on their land.

Engaging private landowners in conservation and sustaining that interest is critically important, particularly in the eastern United States, where more than 80 percent of land is privately owned. Outreach from conservation professionals can connect private landowners with voluntary conservation programs, such as those administered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) and could also help keep landowners involved in conservation.

Federal conservation programs funded through the Farm Bill, such as Working Lands for Wildlife and the Regional Conservation Partnership Program, provide private landowners with financial and technical assistance to conduct conservation on their lands. Since 2012, efforts through these two programs have helped landowners create young forest habitat to benefit wildlife, such as the at-risk golden-winged warbler.

According to lead author Seth Lutter, a master's student in fish and wildlife conservation, the goal of the research was to understand how effective these habitat programs are from a social perspective. The researchers were interested in evaluating how outreach could influence landowners' program experiences and possibly their future management for wildlife on their land.

Lutter worked with Ashley Dayer, assistant professor of human dimensions in Virginia Tech's Department of Fish and Wildlife Conservation, to survey landowners to supplement a wider NRCS Conservation Effects Assessment Project (CEAP) assessment. The CEAP assessment, led by Jeffery Larkin, professor of biology at Indiana University of Pennsylvania and forest bird habitat coordinator with the American Bird Conservancy, evaluates the effectiveness of young forest management in creating quality habitat for the golden-winged warbler and other wildlife species.

The phone survey was conducted with a group of landowners who had participated in NRCS programs to manage young forest since 2012. These landowners had voluntarily allowed biological technicians onto their properties to monitor bird populations and vegetation regrowth as part of the assessment project. Some landowners accompanied these technicians on site visits, while many chose not to. In addition, some landowners received another form of outreach -- personalized mailings that described the birds detected on the monitored property.

The survey investigated landowners' experiences with the habitat program and what they thought the effects of management were for their land and its wildlife. The researchers then compared responses from landowners who had received additional outreach with those from landowners who had not.

Landowners who had accompanied technicians expressed higher trust of the agency and better perceptions of program outcomes. Meanwhile, the mailings contributed to increased landowner knowledge about birds, but did not improve landowner trust of the agency or perceptions of program outcomes.

These findings suggest that outreach, particularly in-person interactions, can have a significant effect on shaping landowner experiences with conservation programs. At a time when funding for agency outreach is tight, these results are particularly important.

"This study shows the value of investing in face-to-face interactions and relationship building," Lutter explained. "Further, the results show an important and unexpected role that biological monitoring technicians can play in building landowner trust with the agency delivering conservation programs."

Dayer and Lutter hope their results will help agencies like NRCS focus their efforts on effective outreach strategies, including training technicians and field staff on landowner interactions, encouraging site visits, and providing feedback to landowners on management outcomes.

"This study gives NRCS a unique perspective on how landowners perceive the conservation planning help we provide them to manage sustainable working lands and emphasizes the importance of including landowners when assessing outcomes of conservation efforts," said Charlie Rewa, the NRCS biologist coordinating CEAP's wildlife component.

Dayer added, "Private landowners are critical to the health of our nation's wildlife populations. Ensuring that conservation programs are designed and delivered in a way that works for landowners and fosters their continued interest in conservation is essential."

Moving forward, Lutter and Dayer will further explore the experiences of landowners in programs to manage young forest in an effort to understand what causes some of them to manage habitat after incentives from conservation programs have ended. This research will build on a literature review about management persistence after conservation programs that Dayer and Lutter published last year.

Dayer, who is affiliated with the Global Change Center housed in Virginia Tech's Fralin Life Science Institute, will also follow up on this study's findings with research into the effects of outreach in the context of biological monitoring for eastern hellbender salamanders in Southwest Virginia.