Evolution&Security- the site on things which really matter

  • Why are we happy when learn with positive outcomes? Dopamine which opens our minds just like it.

    D1R photo-activation in neurons of the dorsomedial striatum combined with two-photon imaging of activity in L5 cortico-striatal projection neurons. Photo: Nuria Vendrell-Llopis, Jonathan Read, University of California, Berkeley


    Dopamine can modify already set patterns in our brain thus leading to a change of behavior. This neurotransmitter is doing so by activation a certain receptor in a group of brain cells located near cortex.


    Why medicine may be seen as an art? Because its major trick is to asses what’s missing and enable to fix it. In a needed quantity in the case of drugs. In German, the word doctor is ,,Arzt” with the pronunciation similar to English ,,art”. Having in mind, roots of many/Indoeuropean languages come from the same tree, it could be possible that during spreading human groups which were acquiring new lands, expression of some words have changed. But to regain the main plot, why this is dopamine so important for our minds and why it has the potential to substantially change them?

    One signal to another


    In the newly published study in journal ,,Neuron”, scientists of University of California, Berkely claim, timed dopamine signals underlie reinforcement learning, favoring neural activity patterns that drive behaviors with positive outcomes. And, in opposite, its missing may be harmful for brain. This may be why this neurotransmitter has been, among some other, named a happiness hormone. Neurotransmitter is a sort of protein which is capable to change electric impulse flowing from one brain cell to another for a chemical signal. The effect also depends on proteins – receptors taking the signal, in the membrane of the other cell. The whole process is taking place in synapse which is a place where the longer part of a brain cell (neuron) connects the next cell and acts as a link between them.


    American scientists write that in general, dopamine activates five receptors and the process occurs in striatum, a structure belonging to cerembrum which includes also the front-head cortex. These five receptors are differentially expressed in striatal neurons. Moreover, the role of specific dopamine receptors in reinforcement is poorly understood. But, as state scientists, their study on mice proves that activation of specified one may lead to the reinforcement. Applied technique with particular photo-tracker showed the receptor D1R activation is sufficient to change the firing pattern in a group of neurons located in a specific part of stratum. And, what is more, it reinforces it.


    The reinforcement is cumulative and time dependent, with an optimal effect when D1R activation follows the selected neural pattern after a short interval,


    says Nuria Vendrell-Llopis, University of California, Berkeley



    She underlines, that the study results show that D1R activation in striatal neurons can selectively reinforce cortical activity patterns, independent of a behavioral outcome or a reward, crucially contributing to the fundamental mechanisms that support cognitive functions like learning, memory, and decision-making.

    Redirect towards good outcome


    Dopamine is thus pivotal to reinforcement learning, as it bridges the gap between actions and their consequences. Without it or with too low volumes we may feel completely lost and unable to undertake daily tasks in our life. And, in opposite, too high expression may lead to hyperactivity what is also not profitable for our cognitive functions. We may be stuck in the past unable to go forward as our set neural patterns can not change due to constant reinforcement of them in our brains. But as dopamine may leave us in this trap, it can also redirect. How is this possible?

    Scientists hold that, as is typical of learning associated with reward, our focused D1R activation in dorsal striatal neurons results in cumulative and time-dependent reinforcement. The optimal effect occurs when the activity of the cortical neurons briefly precedes D1R activation. Scientists claim, the results show that, independent of a traditional reward, cortical activity patterns can be selectively reinforced by timed D1R activation in dorsal striatal projection neurons. In other word, dopamine certain volumes may create a window for a change with positive outcome particularly when the final activity of the focused path has been preceded by cortical neurons activity. Does it mean think twice before you undertake any action? Yes and not. Dopamine is therefore the one which enables us the right direction of thinking independent from traditionally obtained reward.

  • The key for domestication. Humans’ capability or plant’s domesticability?

    Oryginal date of publishing January 15/2025, By Marta Koblańska, Photo: Pixabay


    Just 15 edible plants provide us 90 percent of calories while a few hundred have been finally domesticated of the thousands of them. Why? The answer might be eligibility for domestication or humans’ limited ability.


    As state scientists, University of Southampton, UK in the newly published article in ,,Trends in Ecology and Evolution”, crop domestication arises from a coevolutionary process between plants and humans, resulting in predictable and improved resources for humans. At the beginning of their existence, humans consumed trees’ leaves and flash abandoned by other predators. Hunting and cultivation of plants which supported first human groups with energy came later. There are theories that meat and particularly cooked meat enabled so spectacular brain development but, on the other hand, plants are those who contributed the most to, lets say, higher culture. Agriculture though became a strong base for further civilization both because of surplus possible for distribution or its storage. Anyway the success of domestication of plants drove us to over 8 billion people living on the Earth in various environment and conditions.

    But, someone may ask, why we succeeded with only several domesticated plants delivering us often majority of energy we need to live, work, study or produce and distribute our ideas or discoveries? Some plants due to their genetic variants may be easier to edit and thus adapt to the environment offered by humans. Some are different and not eligible for domestication. This is why there is a difference between our capability to genetically adopt plant for our purposes and needed quantities as well as the plant capacity to adapt to new conditions.

    British scientists asked a question: ,,are there genomic and phenotypic features that facilitated or constrained the domestication of certain wild species under human management or cultivation? And they further state this knowledge would have consequences for understanding how future food security can be ensured. Why? Because hundreds of wild plants were collected and cultivated during the Neolithic and then abandoned as efficient food sources. But at that time the number of humans had been much lower than today.

    What makes plants possible to cultivate?


    The answer is simple. Their traits and more precisely the traits of their progenitors what stipulates a specific variant of genetic code which either enables adaptation to new requirements or makes it more difficult or impossible. The scientists admit, if crop progenitors possess traits that increase their domesticability, then domesticated species are a biased sample not representative of natural selection in the wild. If so, domestication could instead be a model for understanding the rapid evolution of highly evolvable species.


    The trait which is particularly desired from humans point of view is plasticity of a plant phenotype. This phenotype may be induced by climate change and/or human management. The phenotype expresses plant outfit while, as the scientists underline, plasticity is an adaptive mechanism that can result in multiple phenotypes from a single genotype. It is driven by transcriptomic changes in response to environment. In other words this is a rapid way of introducing new phenotypes into the population with pre-existing genetic variation. Of course the key is genotype ( hidden resources of species) which constitutes in the process of propagating and needs to its growth and expression certain conditions along with water and nutrients. Scientists admit that genotypes with high plasticity may be able to acquire resources quicker and increase growth under optimal conditions. Roots and leaves are
    particularly sensitive to growing conditions and root traits are known to be highly plastic.


    Plasticity could therefore ‘push’ crop progenitors in the right direction when brought into cultivation, accelerating adaptation to the cultivated environment and producing traits that humans would benefit from, as opposed to waiting for the relevant genetic mutation.


    says Anne J. Romero, the lead author of the study.


    But, certainly, specific mutations may also make the process of domestication easier and more efficient. But the process remains for now impossible to control if occurs in nature. However, despite mutations are random process, some of them may result with benefits. But, in the other hand limits the most human ability to assimilate the wild. For example, as British scientists hold, the number of loci responsible for selected traits, their dominance/recessiveness, and their arrangement in the genome (i.e., linkage), determines how fast species can adapt/evolve under selection. These together could have favoured some species over others. Selection from standing variation can fix small numbers of alleles with large effects faster than a large number of alleles with small effects. To be clear a loci is, in some sense, a collection of spaces with, lets say the same properties. The more of them with beneficial bodies, the better effect might be. This effect for plants may be for instance more and bigger seeds, size or response to light availability. In contrary, loci with dysfunctional properties – the final effect becomes worse. And usually the level of difficulty along with the success in domestication comes from progenitors genome traits.

    The scientists’ one of the most important conclusion is that crop progenitors may also be more resilient to disturbance. Defoliation of crop progenitors led to a 31 percent decrease in tillering and seed production, but a 61 percent reduction in never-domesticated relatives.

    The author’s note: The post has been first published on January 15/2025 with the number 173. Due to technical issues the post number had to be changed for 224, however the oryginal date of publication has been sustained.



  • Is Poland violating human rights?

    Written and published January 17/2025, By Marta Koblańska, Photo: Daniel Reche, Pixabay

     


    One of the top Polish psychiatric hospitals in Lodz, central Poland, unabled a parcel delivery to its patient, demanding an entry fee from the services provider. The parcel had been left, though in the Polish Post Office, just ten blocks from the hospital.



    On January 11 2025, a member of a family of a disabled patient of Szpital Babińskiego in Lodz, Aleksandrowska 159 street, being on bensodiazepine, asked Polish Post to deliver a parcel to him. The parcel included some food, coffee, and cigarettes, which can alleviate suffering due to benzodiazepine cut off, as well as apples, giving much help for patients treated with psychiatric medicines. Standard parcel with medium weight dispatched with Pocztex from Warsaw to Łódź is around 20 PLN. But Polish Post offered an extra 15 PLN delivery service for a designated date. Having in mind the kindness of a courier delivering a previous parcel to the same patient and the same hospital, this service has been paid for. The delivery date has been set for Monday, January 13, as Sunday is a day free from work, despite the transport to Łódź was taking place yet on Saturday.



    Monday came, and the parcel was found in Aleksandrowska 149 instead of 159 street, with the information left for the receiver, it is possible to collect at the Polish Post office. The patient, to whom the parcel was addressed to, obviously could not go to the post office and collect it due to his health condition and the rules applied in the hospital. The sender asked the hospital personnel to collect the parcel for the patient/recipient as it could not have been delivered directly due to the entry fee. The courier stated he would have to pay himself the fee, or the hospital would have charged the patient. The fact of payment, the delivery date, and the service by the sender of the parcel should secure the parcel’s receipt. But this has not been performed, and did not happen.

    What are Polish hospitals dedicated to?


    Instead of the collection of the parcel for the patient, the sender received on Wednesday, January 15, a furious phone call from the chief of the hospital division to which the patient was assigned. The chief was touched by the email with a request to collect the parcel for the patient. The doctor strongly underlined the legal obligation of a hospital is patients’ treatment, not the collection of parcels. He added, though, after making sure the sender is aware of how hospitals function in Poland, that demand from hospital a parcel tracking is not exactly what they provide. The sender managed to explain the case to the doctor.  Though there has not been tracking, but the parcel collection after the hospital required fees for entry. The doctor denied obligatory entry fees, and the next day the patient was released from the hospital. The parcel remained at the post office. The patient is now in a dedicated centre in Łód,ź further asking for cigarettes and fruits to relieve the effects of breaking addiction to bensodiazepines. These are the most difficult to cancel from the list of medications prescribed for a psychiatric patient and require a strong medical knowledge and knowledge of brain functioning to do so.

    Just to recall. Receiving a parcel is a patient’s right. The right to receive a parcel at the hospital or jail is one of the basic human rights, as everyone is equal in owning property. A dedicated parcel may be an example of that.

    Editor’s note: Due to technical issues, the post originally numbered 173 under the title,The key for domestication. Humans’ capability or plant’s domesticability?” published on January 15/2025 became post 224 while the post published on January 17/2025 with the title,, Is Poland violating human rights? has been numbered 173. I am sorry for the inconvenience.

     

     

  • Metformin, popular anti-diabetes drug can delay aging

    Photo: Temel


    Aging is an irreversible process of mature organisms. It involves all organs. Now, Chinese scientists claim that metformin, a popular drug for diabetes may reduce symptoms of aging.


    Biology of each mammal organism is similar. First, in womb form a two-cell zygote, it starts transformation into more and more advanced form till the readiness for living outside mother organism. Some experts say that human fetus has to get through all stages of evolution of vertebrates from fish to human off-spring. Then, outside mother organism it starts to mature and the process ends in brain which becomes ready for abstract thinking after adolescence completes. During this time anabolism which is a building of new cells outweighs katabolism which is cells’ destruction. But during menopause which has a hormone cause, katabolism starts to override anabolism and this is why organs become less and less efficient. This also touches, sooner or later, our brains. Now scientists from multiple institutions from China in cooperation with scientists from the US hold that metformin which is a substance commonly used to cure diabetes type 2 may delay this process. They published their study results in ,,Cell”.


    The scientists drove their conclusions from the detailed examination of cynomolgus monkeys. The monkeys, apes in particular are very similar to humans both in physiology and structure. But scientists started from studying analyzes of simpler in evolution tree organisms such as rodents, files and warms. In accordance with these studies, prior administration of metformin in these organisms showed some hints of rejuvenation.

    Is this why Chinese look so young?


    Although there are more advanced therapies for people with diabetes type 2, still many of them are taking metformin as the drug is very cheap. Diabetes type 2 causes many complications including vessels dysfunction what may lead to blindness or feet problems which may lead even to death. This is why people with this condition apart from strict diet are on pills or injections for a long time. And, what’s more, they often reported during the treatment they felt younger.


    Based on the results scientists conducted a study designed specifically to learn more about the drug’s impact on mammalian biological age. Several eldery male cynomologus monkeys were given metformin in the period of 40 months. Before the administration of the drug scientists collected tissue samples from the monkeys’ organs. They collected it also during the study except the brain which has been scanned. Monkeys were also to get thought some physical and mental tests in order to catch on potential changes.

    Breaking through outcome?


    What are the results? Metformin slowed down the process of aging in many organs including lungs, skin and kidneys. It was the brain that benefited the most form the drug what scientists could see in the cellular level due to modern medical technologies of examination. And all monkeys included in the study saw a slowdown in age-related decline of functions. They even managed to increase activity of their brain and showed results stipulated for monkeys six years younger. Why could it happen? The answer is very simple. Metformin stimulates brain cells to produce a protein called NRF2. This protein is protecting neurons from inflammation which is also seen as a trigger for aging process.


    Scientists admit their study is limited to the number of monkeys involved as well as the gender of them. The study included only males. The idea of slowing down the process of aging is also not new. But the results are worth to notice. Modern civilization brought to humans new conditions and diabetes is one of the major examples of it. Metformin can prolong lifespan of these people. Is it capable to delay aging of others? Chinese scientists enhance for longer and lager studies which will involve humans.

  • Sleepy history in our hippocampus. How cells in this part of brain recognize outside signals


    Surprise is not exactly what people like the most. We tend to assign better character to those we see more responsible for good outcome of interaction    .


    Is the most important for us what we can not see? The recent study proves it might be. Particularly in digesting information from outside environment and during social interactions. And, what’s more, the key in the way we interact with others may depend on two small structures of our brain – hippocampus located in the upper-head at the corner. How is this possible? Hippocampus is the course of our memories and emotions and thus latent causes of the process of identifying features of the environment. The outcome of the interaction very often depends on the pattern which has been already set. Moreover, the contribution to the outcome may not be equal and the perception of that is also determined by hippocampus activity. Scientists from Oxford examined blood flow in this part of the brain using imaging of functional magnetic resonance. Disruption of the prefrontal cortex activity impaired participants’ ability to update their estimate of the portion of the contribution during interaction and thus the responsibility for the outcome – state scientists with the leading role of Ali Mahmoodi. Hippocampal activity reflects interference of cause.

    What is the nature we like?


    Every day we interact with others. We observe other people, we observe the environment around us and we decide whether to deepen interactions of withdraw from them. We are learning from the experiences we obtain. But to learn we need to identify causes responsible for those experiences. And this is very important for our social life – identification of an event and even more – determinant which contributed to it. This underlines the outcome of the interaction. We are gathering feelings and results and they are stored in our hippocampus. Cortex updates estimated association between cause and outcome.


    But some causes of an event have to be discovered, yet. And the link between an observer of an event and the update does not need to be sequential. Instead it might occur simultaneously due to neural activity taking place at the same time in more than one part of the brain. What also is important in our social interactions we tend to assess more positively outcomes generated by people we consider as a good character. We see them more responsible for a positive outcome while people we see more negatively we consider to be more responsible for poor outcome. Of course we are able to update our estimates but usually we do it in a way the good character is gaining more while the bad character is losing more. Why?

    Mysterious cells


    Scientists confirmed the results in the study of activity of brain cells and choices made by participants. Because we prefer less surprising outcome we are connecting what is good with good and what is bad with bad. This is due we are able to store our experiences in our hippocampus. We are capable to learn though. When we observe or experience a bad outcome from certain interaction we will expect the next one is going to be the same. This is why we estimate the responsibility for worse outcome is larger for character previously linked to poor result. And opposite. We prefer to assign more positively outcome to people before responsible for the one. The update of our assessment is also more beneficial for character associated with positive outcome and more strict in the case of character considered responsible for poor outcome. And these are the hidden causes in a process of interaction. We are conscious of some of them as we remember our previous experiences and we may be not able to identify them despite they are stored in our brain cells.

    The study has been published in one of the top science and medical journal ,,Neuron”.

  • How single gene may trigger heart attack

    One single gene may activate mechanisms responsible for heart attack. An old cure may help.

    Every second cells building our body divide creating new cells and this is a very complicated process. The major goal of that is to create cells which will maintain functions. The ones already used, you can say, lose their validity or mileage. During this process as it takes some time and comprises many steps, mistakes may happen. These mistakes are mutations of genes passed from one cell to another. And such a mutation may be or innocuous either hamper some functions of the new cell, sometimes all of them, sometimes may lead to a future disease when wrong copies of the basic gene begin to be duplicated in further cells division.

    Heart attack is a very common incident throughout the world despite well-known wide range risks of this condition as well as more and more advanced interventions undertaken when it occurs along with measures against it. The most known risk factors include high blood pressure, obesity, high LDL cholesterol, diabetes and low physical activity. Particularly high cholesterol worries physicians as they see in it the main reason of atherosclerosis that can block blood vessels and this way contribute to lesions in the vessels as a consequence. And the true is that in many countries atherosclerosis due to high cholesterol is major reason of cardiovascular problems. But, as scientists from Spanish Centro Nacional de Investigaciones Cardiovasculares (CNIC) discovered there may be another cause of atherosclerosis. This cause is genetics which often makes us susceptible for problems with our health.

    Dangerous gene for our heart


    A single gene called TET2 wrong copy acquired during the division of blood stem cells may cause atherosclerosis. The blood vessels narrow slowing down the blood flow. This way it can lead to ischemia of heart and heart attack which is a sudden disruption of blood flow into the organ. The mechanism though is different than the one coming from an elevated level of cholesterol. The muted gene is stipulating a creation of subpopulation of blood cells which share the wrong copy of the gene and expand. The professional name of that is clonal hematopoiesis. The condition was linked to atherosclerosis but scientists were not clear whether it was a reason or consequence. It was also linked to the aging process and in fact it is one of biomarkers of aging. The condition is the most commonly shared by people after 50-ty in general population or sometimes before 20-ty in population of people with Down syndrome. Moreover, some sources link the somatic acquired mutation of the TET2 gene to cancer mutations among people in healthy population.

    Scientists point out that the only way to prevent a heart attack due to clonal hematopoiesis that the same as cholesterol may harm walls of vessels is blocking the effect. The formation of lesions in the arterial wall underlines most cardiovascular disorders. The cure is colchicine, a substance gained from a certain plant and used from thousands of years in traditional medicine. Nowdays medicine uses medicines based on the substance to treat inflammatory conditions such as goat.

    There is no major obstacle to its use for the prevention of cardiovascular disease in people with TET2 mutations.

    says dr María Ángeles Zuriaga, who conducted the experimental studies at the CNIC and is the first author of the study published in the European Heart Journal. 

    The medication is very cheap and available throughout the world. American FDA and European Medicine Agency  granted their approval to the drug in prevention of cardiovascular disease in people with mutation in TET2 gene. The substance slows the development of atherosclerosis and thus alleviates the effects of clonal hematopoiesis associated with acquired mutations in the gene. The article was published in ,,Nature Medicine”

  • Global warming is changing our DNA. But it may be an advantage

    Photo: Pete Linforth


    Evolutionary response to climate change accelerated in the past 20 years. But, as Spanish scientists claim, the fact may help in adaptation to ongoing transformation.


    Global warming becomes a new reality which impacts life on Earth. Now no one is questioning the ecological changes it brings and more and more often they are scaring. They are even called irreversible in the newly published in Springer Nature paper led by Fransisco Rodriguez-Treiles from University of Barcelona UAB. Many scientists pursue catastrophic visions along with the collapse of human civilization as such. But the study conducted on population of European fruit fly – Drosophila subobscura and its capacity to adapt to new conditions is optimistic. Evolution provides solutions beneficial for biological organisms what may allow all of us to survive. So what about the solutions?


    In accordance with the study on fruit flies that suffer the most from global warming and are the cutest organisms to study, the answer is genetic variation. What is that? This is an existing in DNA section of genes with certain, lets say, properties. Spanish scientists foresee the tolerance for higher temperatures in the case of European flies will take place by 2050. Central European form is to be replaced by Mediterranean form that obtained boosted tolerance for heat. And what is more the forecast has been done based on detailed examination of flies’ DNA which, in response to heat is triggering an old evolutionary mechanism of genetic variation that digs out chromosomal composition capable to cope with climate change.

    Biological response to warming


    Who is the looser? – someone may ask as in evolution it is easier to lose than to gain. Small populations with low genetic diversity i.e. these ones which are closed for genes inflows. But, as it has been stated in the study, the capacity to cope with global warming in the case of European fruit fly is to not be determined by novel genetic inversions. Evolution by mixing genes of various populations will just reward these sections of DNA compositions capable to survive in new environment. At the same time lines more homogeneous are to vanish. And this is the loss in the evolutionary shift towards boosted tolerance for heat.


    How is this possible? Very simple. DNA of each living organism is built from more or less the same biological material. Specified sections of DNA and chromosomes which determine our look and basic attitudes in our behavior repeat in the whole code. Scientists checked out sections putatively adapted to warming. They found that frequencies of low latitude inversions increased with the magnitude of global warming between the sample periods. So novel patterns of flies’ genes are emerging due to climate change caused by humans.


    What is more? Taking into account previous studies on European fly from France, Spain, Netherlands, Germany and Austria the lines of flies split into south and north regions. And having in mind studies conducted over a half century ago, the change in frequencies of DNA sections capable to adapt to heat accelerated. In late 60-ties they occurred average in every 30 years while now every 20 years.

    New phenotype expression?


    Scientists analyzed five chromosomes in collected 12 samples. Chromosomes are this part of DNA which is transmitting genetic information. Each chromosome comprises one nucleotide of DNA what is sugar, phosphate group molecule and one of four nitrate alkali. The way the information is being passed is crucial for condition of live organism and thus to its health and lifespan. A total of around 7 thousand chromosomes were scored for gene arrangements for the study purpose. The arrangements depend on genetic information transmission and thus work of chromosomes. And they are the key for functionality of each DNA. No newly discovered, previously unreported inversions were detected. At the same time higher temperature in living area of studied flies’ samples increased of warm-latitude of chromosome arrangements.


    The observed geographic heterogeneity in the timing of the genetic shift suggests that it is due in part to local adaptation rather than just to genetic drift or a northern migration of individuals from equatorial locations.


    says Fransisco Rodriguez-Treiles from University of Barcelona UAB.


    Genetic drift that is a fluctuation of a given gene variant which does not depends on mutation, migration or natural selection. Instead it comes from the population size what means the smaller group is more effective in eliminating certain allele (alternative form of a gene) or the specific allele becomes dominant among it. Spanish scientists explain that this is not the case on the way of European fruit fly adaptation to new conditions due to the large scale of the studied phenomenon – multiple populations shifting in the same direction across a wide geographic range – underlines Fransisco Rodriguez-Treiles. If, he adds, migration was responsible for adaptive to heat gene variants shift, frequencies of some sporadic inversions that are relatively common in North Africa should have also increased in Southern Europe, but this was not observed. What’s more, local adaptive variants are not homogeneous what stipulates that all five studied chromosomes of flies despite they started from similar levels of latitude differentiation individually contributed to the climate-driving shift. This suggests that the chromosomes differ in their effects on the thermal phenotype.

    Central European fly is changing the most and the fastest as the observed shifts were twice as high in relation to the southern part of the region. In line with expectations and findings, heatwave caused a surge in the frequency o the more tolerant genotypes in D. subobscura. -Therefore, the acceleration in the European fly rate of evolutionary response observed in the present study is probably driven not only by the gradual increase in average temperatures, but also by more-frequent and longer-duration heatwaves – conclude scientists. They add the fact indicates fly may have the potential to adapt to higher temperatures. In general, the study results suggest that species with broad geographic ranges, large population sizes and high genetic diversity may have the evolutionary potential to cope with climate change.

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