Learning from Chemical Coping Behaviors of Wildlife to Discover New Approaches for Pest Management

Pests, such as parasites and pathogens, persist throughout time and space as threats to public health and food security. The need for novel and sustainable approaches to managing these threats are in high demand. The current approach of discovering and developing chemical treatments to manage pests is tedious, not efficient, and often outpaced by traits of resistance in pests. Here, we propose a new approach to discovering new chemical pest management solutions by observing chemical coping behaviors in wildlife. We define a chemical coping behavior as the exploitation of naturally occurring chemicals within a host’s environment to manage pests. Specifically, the use of greenery in nests by avian species may provide clues to plants that can deter ectoparasites. Plants use chemical defenses to cope with their own parasites, pathogens, and herbivores, which avian hosts can exploit to combat pests in nests. A local host-pest-plant interaction was investigated to discover the potential chemical diversity and bioactivity of greenery found in nests of golden eagles (Aquila chrysaetos). We found that each plant offered unique chemicals, but that the plant species underrepresented in nests compared to availability in the landscape provided greater diversity in volatile chemicals whereas overrepresented plant species provided greater diversity in water-soluble chemicals compared to other plants. Furthermore, we tested how concentration and diversity of volatile and water-soluble chemicals in plant species found in nests of golden eagles affected the behavior of a hematophagous parasite (Cimex lectularius, the common bed bug). We found that bed bugs spent less time resting and transitioned from grooming to exploration at an increased frequency with high concentration and diversity of volatiles from plants found in nests of golden eagles. Observing the chemical coping behaviors in the wild could provide a sustainable framework for discovering diverse and robust sources of chemicals and modes of action that can used to manage pests of human concern

Unifying Community Detection Across Scales from Genomes to Landscapes

Biodiversity science encompasses multiple disciplines and biological scales from molecules to landscapes. Nevertheless, biodiversity data are often analyzed separately with discipline-specific methodologies, constraining resulting inferences to a single scale. To overcome this, we present a topic modeling framework to analyze community composition in cross-disciplinary datasets, including those generated from metagenomics, metabolomics, field ecology and remote sensing. Using topic models, we demonstrate how community detection in different datasets can inform the conservation of interacting plants and herbivores. We show how topic models can identify members of molecular, organismal and landscape-level communities that relate to wildlife health, from gut microbes to forage quality. We conclude with a future vision for how topic modeling can be used to design cross-scale studies that promote a holistic approach to detect, monitor and manage biodiversity

Solar System Exploration Research Virtual Institute: Year Three Annual Report 2016

NASA's Solar System Exploration Research Virtual Institute (SSERVI) is pleased to present the 2016 Annual Report. Each year brings new scientific discoveries, technological breakthroughs, and collaborations. The integration of basic research and development, industry and academic partnerships, plus the leveraging of existing technologies, has further opened a scientific window into human exploration. SSERVI sponsorship by the NASA Science Mission Directorate (SMD) and Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate (HEOMD) continues to enable the exchange of insights between the human exploration and space science communities, paving a clearer path for future space exploration. SSERVI provides a unique environment for scientists and engineers to interact within multidisciplinary research teams. As a virtual institute, the best teaming arrangements can be made irrespective of the geographical location of individuals or laboratory facilities. The interdisciplinary science that ensues from virtual and in-person interactions, both within the teams and across team lines, provides answers to questions that many times cannot be foreseen. Much of this research would not be accomplished except for the catalyzing, collaborative environment enabled by SSERVI. The SSERVI Central Office, located at NASA Ames Research Center in Silicon Valley, California, provides the leadership, guidance and technical support that steers the virtual institute. At the start of 2016, our institute had nine U.S. teams, each mid-way through their five-year funding cycle, plus nine international partnerships. However, by the end of the year we were well into the selection of four new domestic teams, selected through NASA's Cooperative Agreement Notice (CAN) process, and a new international partnership. Understanding that human and robotic exploration is most successful as an international endeavor, international partnerships collaborate with SSERVI domestic teams on a no-exchange of funds basis, but they bring a richness to the institute that is priceless. The international partner teams interact with the domestic teams in a number of ways, including sharing students, scientific insights, and access to facilities. We are proud to introduce our newest partnership with the Astrophysics and Planetology Research Institute (IRAP) in Toulouse, France. In 2016, Principal Investigator Dr. Patrick Pinet assembled a group of French researchers who will contribute scientific and technological expertise related to SSERVI research. SSERVI's domestic teams compete for five-year funding opportunities through proposals to a NASA CAN every few years. Having overlapping proposal selection cycles allows SSERVI to be more responsive to any change in direction NASA might experience, while providing operational continuity for the institute. Allowing new teams to blend with the more seasoned teams preserves corporate memory and expands the realm of collaborative possibilities. A key component of SSERVI's mission is to grow and maintain an integrated research community focused on questions related to the Moon, Near-Earth asteroids, and the moons of Mars. The strong community response to CAN-2 demonstrated the health of that effort. NASA Headquarters conducted the peer-review of 22 proposals early in 2017 and, based on recommendations from the SSERVI Central Office and NASA SSERVI program officers, the NASA selecting officials determined the new teams in the spring of 2017. We are pleased to welcome the CAN-2 teams into the institute, and look forward to the collaborations that will develop with the current teams. The new teams are: The Network for Exploration and Space Science (NESS) team (Principal Investigator (PI) Prof. Jack Burns/U. Colorado); the Exploration Science Pathfinder Research for Enhancing Solar System Observations (ESPRESSO) team (PI Dr. Alex Parker/Southwest Research Institute); the Toolbox for Research and Exploration (TREX) team (PI Dr. Amanda Hendrix/ Planetary Science Institute); and the Radiation Effects on Volatiles and Exploration of Asteroids & Lunar Surfaces (REVEALS) team (PI Prof. Thomas Orlando/ Georgia Institute of Technology). In this report, you will find an overview of the 2016 leadership activities of the SSERVI Central Office, reports prepared by the U.S. teams from CAN-1, and achievements from several of the SSERVI international partners. Reflecting on the past year's discoveries and advancements serves as a potent reminder that there is still a great deal to learn about NASA's target destinations. Innovation in the way we access, sample, measure, visualize, and assess our target destinations is needed for further discovery. At the same time, let us celebrate how far we have come, and strongly encourage a new generation that will make the most of future opportunities

Using Chemicals in Plants to Disrupt Antennal Grooming in Bedbugs

Many insects rely on complex olfactory systems to find food, mates, and aggregate. Disruption of olfaction can therefore affect fitness in species like bedbugs (Cimex lectularius). The common bedbug has plagued humans for centuries, causing itching, lesions, sleep deprivation, anemia and severe anxiety as well as creates an economic burden. As such, there is great need to identify novel approaches to deter and repel bedbugs. One approach is to use volatile chemicals that interfere with the olfactory system of bedbugs. Our objective was to test synergistic effects of whole leaves versus extracts of whole leaves to determine if plant chemicals interact with olfactory structures and, potentially compromise the function of bedbugs. Grooming is a common way for bedbugs remove foreign materials, including chemicals, and improve olfactory acuity. We hypothesized that extracts, rather than whole leaves, would have the greatest effect on bedbug antennal grooming due to the volatility of extracts. Alternatively, the complex mixtures of whole plants may have greater and more diverse activity against bedbugs. Discovering chemicals from natural sources that hinder bedbug host-seeking patterns could be used in future development of deterrents or repellents

Golden Eagle Selection of Green Nest Material for Ectoparasite Control

Ectoparasite infestation of nests and nestlings can induce physiological stress, anemia, higher risk of infection, and, in extreme cases, premature fledging and mortality for many avian species. Utilizing green nesting material (GNM) containing volatile, secondary metabolites to reduce ectoparasitism is a behavioral adaptation observed in some birds. Golden Eagles (Aquila chrysaetos) in southwestern Idaho have been observed to decorate their nests with green plant material. We proposed that Golden Eagles select plant species with secondary metabolites from their territories to combat ectoparasite infestation of nests, particularly by Mexican Chicken Bugs (Haematosiphon indorous). To evaluate this, we identified GNM to species and estimated species-specific nest coverage, analyzed the concentration of polyphenolics and terpenes in GNM samples, and surveyed plant composition within territories to determine plant availability. This is the first project studying the ecology of Golden Eagles, GNM selection, and ectoparasitism

Degradation of Plant Secondary Metabolites in Green Nest Material Used by Golden Eagles

Golden Eagles (Aquila chrysaetos) have been observed lining their nests with green nesting material (GNM) that is known to have high levels of plant secondary metabolites (PSMs). The ‘nest protection hypothesis’ predicts that use of GNM containing cytotoxic PSMs deters infestation of parasites. Parasitic infestations can have critical consequences for nest occupants which may range from dehydration to nest abandonment. To better understand if GNM has an anti-parasite function, we observed the stability of PSMs (specifically terpenes and phenolics) from selected plant species found in nests under different exposure levels to sunlight in a simulated nest environment. GNM was analyzed every two days to determine the rate of degradation of PSMs. We predicted a decrease in PSMs over time with terpenes degrading more quickly than phenolics due to volatility. The rate of degradation of PSMs will influence the anti-parasitic activity of GNM and potentially how frequently eagles must collect fresh GNM

Listening to Nature: Using Multi-Trophic Interactions to Inform Pest Management Strategies

Plants are reliable and exploitable resources of bioactive chemicals against pests in both people and wildlife. There is evidence that birds will include greenery in their nests that target pests. We used two types of chromatography to investigate the diversity of chemicals present in greenery found in nests of golden eagles. We found that available greenery had higher concentrations and diversity of chemicals than avian-preferred greenery, but all greenery contained bioactive compounds. Studying host-pest interactions may provide a novel and streamlined framework to discover bioactive compounds and help identify potential mechanisms of action to improve development of targeted natural products

Unifying community detection across scales from genomes to landscapes

Biodiversity science encompasses multiple disciplines and biological scales from molecules to landscapes. Nevertheless, biodiversity data are often analyzed separately with discipline-specific methodologies, constraining resulting inferences to a single scale. To overcome this, we present a topic modeling framework to analyze community composition in cross-disciplinary datasets, including those generated from metagenomics, metabolomics, field ecology and remote sensing. Using topic models, we demonstrate how community detection in different datasets can inform the conservation of interacting plants and herbivores. We show how topic models can identify members of molecular, organismal and landscape-level communities that relate to wildlife health, from gut microbes to forage quality. We conclude with a future vision for how topic modeling can be used to design cross-scale studies that promote a holistic approach to detect, monitor and manage biodiversity

On the origin & thermal stability of Arrokoth's and Pluto's ices

International audienceWe discuss in a thermodynamic, geologically empirical way the long-term nature of the stable majority ices that could be present in Kuiper Belt Object 2014 MU69 after its 4.6 Gyr residence in the EKB as a cold classical object. Considering the stability versus sublimation into vacuum for the suite of ices commonly found on comets, Centaurs, and KBOs at the average ~40K sunlit surface temperature of MU69 over Myr to Gyr, we find only 3 common ices that are truly refractory: HCN, CH3OH, and H2O (in order of increasing stability). NH3 and H2CO ices are marginally stable and may be removed by any positive temperature excursions in the EKB, as produced every 1e8 - 1e9 yrs by nearby supernovae and passing O/B stars. To date the NH team has reported the presence of abundant CH3OH and evidence for H2O on MU69s surface (Lisse et al. 2017, Grundy et al. 2020). NH3 has been searched for, but not found. We predict that future absorption feature detections will be due to an HCN or poly-H2CO based species. Consideration of the conditions present in the EKB region during the formation era of MU69 lead us to infer that it formed "in the dark", in an optically thick mid-plane, unable to see the nascent, variable, highly luminous Young Stellar Object-TTauri Sun, and that KBOs contain HCN and CH3OH ice phases in addition to the H2O ice phases found in their Short Period comet descendants. Finally, when we apply our ice thermal stability analysis to bodies/populations related to MU69, we find that methanol ice may be ubiquitous in the outer solar system; that if Pluto is not a fully differentiated body, then it must have gained its hypervolatile ices from proto-planetary disk sources in the first few Myr of the solar systems existence; and that hypervolatile rich, highly primordial comet C/2016 R2 was placed onto an Oort Cloud orbit on a similar timescale

A Predicted Dearth of Majority Hypervolatile Ices in Oort Cloud Comets

International audienceWe present new, ice species-specific New Horizons/Alice upper gas coma production limits from the 2019 January 1 MU69/Arrokoth flyby of Gladstone et al. and use them to make predictions about the rarity of majority hypervolatile (CO, N2, CH4) ices in Kuiper Belt objects and Oort Cloud comets. These predictions have a number of important implications for the study of the Oort Cloud, including the determination of hypervolatile-rich comets as the first objects emplaced into the Oort Cloud, the measurement of CO/N2/CH4 abundance ratios in the protoplanetary disk from hypervolatile-rich comets, and population statistical constraints on early (50 Myr) planetary migration driven emplacement of objects into the Oort Cloud. They imply that the phenomenon of ultradistant active comets like C/2017K2 should be rare, and thus not a general characteristic of all comets. They also suggest that interstellar object 2I/Borisov may not have originated in a planetary system that was inordinately CO rich, but rather could have been ejected onto an interstellar trajectory very early in its natal system's history