Beyond prebiotic chemistry

Summary: How can matter transition from the nonliving to the living state? The answer is essential for understanding the origin of life on Earth and for identifying promising targets in the search for life on other planets. Most studies have focused on the likely chemistry of RNA (1), protein (2), lipid, or metabolic “worlds” (3) and autocatalytic sets (4), including attempts to make life in the lab. But these efforts may be too narrowly focused on the biochemistry of life as we know it today. A radical rethink is necessary, one that explores not just plausible chemical scenarios but also new physical processes and driving forces. Such investigations could lead to a physical understanding not only of the origin of life but also of life itself, as well as to new tools for designing artificial biology

Robust monomer-distribution biosignatures in evolving digital biota

Because organisms synthesize component molecules at rates that reflect those molecules' adaptive utility, we expect a population of biota to leave a distinctive chemical signature on their environment that is anomalous given the local (abiotic) chemistry. We observe the same effect in the distribution of computer instructions used by an evolving population of digital organisms, and characterize the robustness of the evolved signature with respect to a number of different changes in the system's physics. The observed instruction abundance anomaly has features that are consistent over a large number of evolutionary trials and alterations in system parameters, which makes it a candidate for a non-Earth-centric life-diagnosticComment: 22 pages, 4 figures, 1 table. Supplementary Material available from C

Contribution of nitrification and denitrification to N2O emissions from urine patches

Urine deposition by grazing livestock causes an immediate increase in nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions, but the responsible mechanisms are not well understood. A nitrogen-15 (15N) labelling study was conducted in an organic grass-clover sward to examine the initial effect of urine on the rates and N2O loss ratio of nitrification (i.e. moles of N2O-N produced per moles of nitrate produced) and denitrification (i.e. moles of N2O produced per moles of N2O + N2 produced). The effect of artificial urine (52.9 g N m-2) and ammonium solution (52.9 g N m-2) was examined in separate experiments at 45 and 35% water-filled pore space (WFPS), respectively, and in each experiment a water control was included. The N2O loss derived from nitrification or denitrification was determined in the field immediately after application of 15N-labelled solutions. During the next 24 h, gross nitrification rates were measured in the field, whereas the denitrification rates were measured in soil cores in the laboratory. Compared with the water control, urine application increased the N2O emission from 3.9 to 42.3 μg N2O-N m-2 h-1, whereas application of ammonium increased the emission from 0.9 to 6.1 μg N2O-N m-2 h-1. In the urine-affected soil, nitrification and denitrification contributed equally to the N2O emission, and the increased N2O loss resulted from a combination of higher rates and higher N2O loss ratios of the processes. In the present study, an enhanced nitrification rate seemed to be the most important factor explaining the high initial N2O emission from urine patches deposited on well-aerated soils

The process of infection with bacteriophage phiX174, XXII. Synthesis of progeny single-stranded DNA

In a previous article,(1) it was demonstrated that of the labeled thymidine incorporated into the replicative form (RF) of phiX-DNA during the period of RF replication (3-12 or 15 min after infection), approximately half was transferred to virus during the subsequent period of single-strand DNA synthesis, while half remained in RF molecules. In this paper experiments are presented which permit a definition of the label remaining in the RF and which clarify the role of the RF in the synthesis of the progeny single-stranded DNA

Window into the mind:Advanced handheld spectroscopic eye-safe technology for point-of-care neurodiagnostic

Traumatic brain injury (TBI), a major cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide, is hard to diagnose at the point of care with patients often exhibiting no clinical symptoms. There is an urgent need for rapid point-of-care diagnostics to enable timely intervention. We have developed a technology for rapid acquisition of molecular fingerprints of TBI biochemistry to safely measure proxies for cerebral injury through the eye, providing a path toward noninvasive point-of-care neurodiagnostics using simultaneous Raman spectroscopy and fundus imaging of the neuroretina. Detection of endogenous neuromarkers in porcine eyes' posterior revealed enhancement of high-wave number bands, clearly distinguishing TBI and healthy cohorts, classified via artificial neural network algorithm for automated data interpretation. Clinically, translating into reduced specialist support, this markedly improves the speed of diagnosis. Designed as a hand-held cost-effective technology, it can allow clinicians to rapidly assess TBI at the point of care and identify long-term changes in brain biochemistry in acute or chronic neurodiseases.</p

Transcriptomic responses of the olive fruit fly Bactrocera oleae and its symbiont Candidatus Erwinia dacicola to olive feeding

The olive fruit fly, Bactrocera oleae, is the most destructive pest of olive orchards worldwide. The monophagous larva has the unique capability of feeding on olive mesocarp, coping with high levels of phenolic compounds and utilizing non-hydrolyzed proteins present, particularly in the unripe, green olives. On the molecular level, the interaction between B. oleae and olives has not been investigated as yet. Nevertheless, it has been associated with the gut obligate symbiotic bacterium Candidatus Erwinia dacicola. Here, we used a B. oleae microarray to analyze the gene expression of larvae during their development in artificial diet, unripe (green) and ripe (black) olives. The expression profiles of Ca. E. dacicola were analyzed in parallel, using the Illumina platform. Several genes were found overexpressed in the olive fly larvae when feeding in green olives. Among these, a number of genes encoding detoxification and digestive enzymes, indicating a potential association with the ability of B. oleae to cope with green olives. In addition, a number of biological processes seem to be activated in Ca. E. dacicola during the development of larvae in olives, with the most notable being the activation of amino-acid metabolism