Fig. 3.

MEGAs Tree Explorer ( A ) is a feature-rich, versatile viewer of phylogenies

MEGAs Tree Explorer (A) is a feature-rich, versatile viewer of phylogenies that provides many interactive exploration and customization facilities. In MEGA11, the new side toolbar of Tree Explorer makes formatting, rearrangement, and tree exploration tools more accessible and intuitive. Instead of a thin toolbar with nameless buttons, we have opted for a wide toolbar with text labels identifying each tool. The toolbar can be moved to either side of the window, and it can be toggled in and out of view. To organize related tools by groups and accommodate limited vertical space, collapsible panels are used. With the new toolbar, formatting tools previously displayed in external dialogs are readily accessible, and formats are applied instantly instead of after the user closes the external dialog. In addition to the updated toolbar, there are now options for auto-collapsing of nodes containing clusters of taxa belonging to the same group, user-specified cluster size, or by the branch length difference. For very large trees with many similar sequences, this feature can greatly facilitate the visualization of evolutionary events at a glance. An option has been added to export pairwise patristic distances between taxa to a text file for phylogenies and timetrees. For maximum likelihood and maximum parsimony trees where ancestral sequences are present, an option has been added to navigate through sites where a change in the estimated ancestral state differs between the parent and child on the currently selected branch. The tree information box (B) has been updated for timetrees to show branch- and node-specific information, such as earliest and latest sample times in the currently selected subtree, days elapsed between the divergence time for a selected node and the latest sample time, the nearest and furthest tip from a selected node, clade size and clade taxa, and spatiotemporal information if available.

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MEGA11: Molecular Evolutionary Genetics Analysis Version 11

F ig . 2.

( A ) Timetree inferred in MEGA6 and shown in the Tree Explorer

(A) Timetree inferred in MEGA6 and shown in the Tree Explorer, where it is displayed with divergence times and their respective 95% confidence intervals. A scale bar for absolute divergence times is shown. (B) An information panel that can be made visible by pressing the icon marked with an i. When focused on a tree node (left side), it shows the internal node identifier, and absolute or relative divergence time as appropriate; when focused on a branch (right side), it displays the local clock rate as well as the relative branch length. (C) A timetable exported using the displayed timetree, which shows the ancestordescendant relationship along with relative node times, relative branch rates, absolute divergence times, and confidence intervals. Users can display internal node identifiers in the Tree Explorer as well as internal node names, which can be provided in the input topology file. On pressing the Caption in the Tree Explorer menu bar, MEGA produces the following text to inform the user about the methods, choices, and data used. Caption: The timetree shown was generated using the RelTime method. Divergence times for all branching points in the user-supplied topology were calculated using the Maximum Likelihood method based on the General Time Reversible model. Relative times were optimized and converted to absolute divergence times (shown next to branching points) based on user-supplied calibration constraints. Bars around each node represent 95% confidence intervals which were computed using the method described in Tamura et al. (2013). The estimated log likelihood value of the topology shown is 247671.60. A discrete Gamma distribution was used to model evolutionary rate differences among sites (4 categories, +G, parameter = 38.07). The tree is drawn to scale, with branch lengths measured in the relative number of substitutions per site. The analysis involved 446 nucleotide sequences. All positions with less than 95% site coverage were eliminated. That is, fewer than 5% alignment gaps, missing data, and ambiguous bases were allowed at any position. There were a total of 1,048 positions in the final data set. Evolutionary analyses were conducted in MEGA6 (Tamura et al. 2013).

Continued here:
MEGA6: Molecular Evolutionary Genetics Analysis version 6.0

The American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology announced today the winners of its annual awards. Colleagues and other leaders in the field nominated the winners for making significant contributions to biochemistry and molecular biology and to the training of emerging scientists.

The recipients will give talks about their work at the societys2023 annual meeting, Discover BMB, slated for March 2528 in Seattle.

In addition to cash prizes ranging from $500 to $35,000, each ASBMB award consists of a plaque and transportation expenses to the ASBMB annual meeting.

Learn more about the ASBMB awards.

Regina Stevens-Truss

Recognizes an individual who encourages effective teaching and learning of biochemistry and molecular biology.

Regina StevensTruss is a professor at Kalamazoo College in Michigan who has served in numerous leadership positions at the ASBMB. She has been a member of the societys Education and Professional Development Committee and Minority Affairs Committee (now Maximizing Access Committee). She is a past member of the steering committee that created the concept-driven teaching strategies that laid the foundation for the ASBMBs certification exam. She was the principal investigator in 2012 on a National Science Foundation grant that supported a STEM K-12 outreach initiative by the society called Hands-on Outreach to Promote Engagement in Science (HOPES for short).

Squire Booker

Recognizes outstanding contributions to research in biochemistry and molecular biology.

Squire J. Bookeris an Evan Pugh professor of chemistry and of biochemistry and molecular biology and the Eberly Family distinguished chair in science at The Pennsylvania State University. He is also an investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. His lab studies catalytic mechanisms of redox enzymes involved in natural product biosynthesis and human health. He is deputy editor of ACS Bio & Med Chem Au, an open-access journal of the American Chemical Society, and an executiveassociate editor of the ACS journal Biochemistry. He becamean inaugural fellowof the ASBMB in 2021. He also won this years Ruth Kirschstein Diversity in Science Award. (See below.)

Russell DeboseBoyd

Recognizes outstanding research contributions in the area of lipids.

Russell DeBoseBoydis the Beatrice and Miguel Elias distinguished chair in biomedical science and professor of molecular genetics at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas. DeBoseBoyds lab studies regulatory mechanisms governing feedback regulation of HMG-CoA reductase, the rate-limiting enzyme in cholesterol synthesis. He is an associate editor for the Journal of Lipid Research and an editorial board member for the Journal of Biological Chemistry, both ASBMB journals. Readour Q&Awith DeBoseBoyd.

Erica Saphire

Awarded to an established scientist for outstanding accomplishments in basic biomedical research.

Erica Ollmann Saphire is a professor and the president and chief executive officer of the La Jolla Institute for Immunology. Saphires lab has solved structures of key proteins of the Ebola, Marburg, rabies and Lassa viruses and explained how they remodel these structures as they drive themselves into cells, how their proteins suppress immune function and where human antibodies can defeat these viruses. She used this information to galvanize two international consortia of former competitors to advance antibody therapeutics together. Saphire is a two-time ASBMB award winner. In 2015, she won the ASBMB Young Investigator Award.

Eytan Ruppin

Given to a scientist forthemost accessible and innovative development or application of computer technology to enhance researchin the life sciencesat the molecular level.

Eytan Ruppin is a computational biologist and chief of the Cancer and Data Science Laboratory in the Center for Cancer Research at the National Cancer Institute. His lab develops computational approaches for the integration of multiomics data to understand better the pathogenesis and treatment of cancer. His research focuses on basic and translational studies aimed at broadening the scope of precision oncology to the realm of tumor transcriptomics.

Scott Dixon

Awarded to a scientist with 10 years or less of post-postdoctoral experience.

Scott Dixonis an associate professor in the biology department at Stanford University.His labstudies cell death and lipid metabolism using small-molecule screening, biochemical analysis of protein function, and model organism genetics. Dixon is a member of theprogram planning committeefor Discover BMB, the societys annual meeting.

Anne Kenworthy

Recognizes and honors scientists at all stages of their careers who have made substantial advances in understanding biological chemistry using innovative physical approaches.

Anne Kenworthy is a professor of molecular physiology and biological physics at the University of Virginia and the assistant director of its Center for Membrane and Cell Physiology. Her lab studies membrane nanodomains, such as lipid rafts and caveolae, to learn how they assemble and function in health and disease. (Read about her recent high-content analysis of membrane vesicles.)Together with collaborators at the University of Michigan and Vanderbilt University, her group also recently provided the first glimpse into molecular architecture of an essential building block of caveolae oligomeric complexes formed by the membrane protein caveolin-1.

Squire Booker

Honors an outstanding scientist who has shown a strong commitment to the encouragement of scientists from historically marginalized groups.

This is the second award this year forSquire J. Booker, a professor and distinguished chair at The Pennsylvania State University. (See the ASBMBMerck Award above.) Booker is a past chair of the ASBMBs Minority Affairs Committee and established the ASBMBgrant-writing workshop, which now is known as the Interactive Mentoring Activities for Grantsmanship Enhancement workshop. He also co-organized the 2016 ASBMB annual meeting. He now serves on the Finance and Nominating committees.

Itay Budin

Recognizes outstanding research contributions in the area of lipids by a young investigator.

Itay Budin is an assistant professor of chemistry and biochemistry at the University of California San Diego. His laboratory uses approachesranging from membrane biophysics to synthetic biology to investigate lipid function. Current areas of focus in his lab include the inner mitochondrial membrane and lipid adaptation for life in extreme conditions. In 2017, Budin received a Journal of Biological Chemistry/Herbert Tabor Young Investigator Award.

Catherine Drennan

Recognizes outstanding contributions to biochemical and molecular biological research and a demonstrated commitment to the training of younger scientists.

Catherine Drennanis a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator.Drennans labstudies the structural biology of metalloenzymes. Her teams targets have included multiple enzymes that depend on metal cofactors, such as ribonucleotide reductase, an early enzyme in DNA biosynthesis. She is a former member of the ASBMB Education and Professional Development Committee. As a postdoctoral fellow, she started the undergraduate poster competition at the ASBMBs annual meeting. Her pedagogical work includes research into best practices for active lectures and the development of resources that help undergraduates appreciate the value of chemical principles in biology and medicine. She was a member of the ASBMBsinaugural classof fellows in 2021.

Gira Bhabha

Recognizes individuals with a strong commitment to advancing the careers of women in biochemistry and molecular biology along with demonstrated excellence in research and/or service.

Gira Bhabhais an assistant professor at the NYU Grossman School of Medicine, where she began her independent career in 2017. The Bhabha lab works closely with the lab of Damian Ekiert; since their inception, the two labs have functioned synergistically as a single group. TheBhabha and Ekiert labsstudy structural mechanisms and cell biology of microbes and their interactions with hosts, using integrative approaches including X-ray crystallography, cryo-electron microscopy, cryo-electron tomography, optical microscopy, biochemistry, microbiology and cell biology techniques.

Kerry-Ann Rye

Recognizes individuals with a strong commitment to advancing the careers of women in biochemistry and molecular biology along with demonstrated excellence in research and/or service.

Kerry-Anne Rye is a professor at the University of New South Wales in Sydney and co-editor-in-chief of the ASBMBs Journal of Lipid Research. Before taking the helm at the JLR in 2020, she had been an associate editor since 2008. She has been a research professor since 2013 at UNSW, where she serves as the deputy head of the School of Medical Sciences and studies atherosclerosis and diabetes. Rye was a member of the inaugural class of ASBMB fellows in 2021. She wrote an essay earlier this year about being a member of the society.

Dyann Wirth

Keith Matthews

Recognizes established investigators who are making seminal contributions to the field of molecular parasitology.

Dyann Wirth is a professor at Harvard Universitys T.H. Chan School of Public Health and the Broad Institute. Her lab studies the Plasmodium genus, members of which commonly infect humans with malaria. Her team is working on methods for molecular genetic manipulation of protozoan parasites to analyze genes important for their virulence and resistance to drugs.

Keith Matthewsis a professor at the University of Edinburgh.His laboratorystudies African trypanosomes, parasites spread by the tsetse fly, and the changes they undergo in the fly, using targeted reverse genetic approaches, global RNA and protein analysis, and other strategies.

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ASBMB names 2023 award winners - ASBMB Today

Shortly before an 18-year-old white supremacist entered a supermarket in a Black neighborhood of Buffalo, N.Y., and shot 13 shoppers and employees with an assault rifle bearing a racist epithet, he posted an online diatribe. Other white nationalist terrorists have done that, but this one was different: It cited a considerable quantity of scientific research to support its authors racist claims and actions.

In the weeks since the mid-May shooting, journalists and scientists have discussed what to make of the Buffalo terrorists references to science. Overwhelmingly, these discussions describe the diatribe as relying on pseudoscience or discredited science and co-opting or misreading mainstream science.

But this framing doesnt do enough to hold scientists and the institutions of science accountable for the societal consequences of racist science and scientific racism.

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The term pseudoscience, as used in media descriptions of the Buffalo terrorists diatribe, obscures more than it reveals. Historian of science Michael Gordin has explained that pseudoscience is not a real thing. Rather, the term is a negative category, always ascribed to somebody elses beliefs, not to characterize a doctrine one holds dear oneself. The invocation of pseudoscience in reports about the Buffalo shooting serves mainly to distance science from this horrific massacre, producing the false impression that real science cant be racist.

But real science can be racist. A century ago, racist science was the norm rather than the exception, and the legacy of scientific racism continues to reverberate through the institutions of science. To be sure, some of the research cited by the Buffalo terrorist is outdated and has been discredited, meaning that it is no longer widely accepted as valid. The key words here are no longer this research was once regular, acceptable science until other scientists began to question and critique it.

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The discredited science from the Buffalo terrorists diatribe that is referenced most frequently in the press was produced by J. Philippe Rushton and Richard Lynn, psychologists whose research was heavily supported by the openly racist Pioneer Fund. From the 1980s to the 2010s, these men produced a raft of scientific articles and books that supposedly demonstrated the biological inferiority of people of African descent, purporting to show that they are innately less intelligent and more prone to crime and sexual promiscuity than people of European or Asian descent.

Its important to note that Rushton and Lynn werent pseudoscientists working in pseudoscience labs or institutions. They were tenured professors, Rushton at the University of Western Ontario until his death in 2012 and Lynn at Ulster University until he was finally stripped of his title in 2018. They published in reputable journals, such as the International Journal of Neuroscience and Psychological Science, though they also published in shadier outlets, such as Mankind Quarterly and Personality and Individual Differences. Lynn was a member of the editorial board of the journal Intelligence until 2018. Rushton was a fellow of the Canadian Psychological Association and the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. His work was praised and defended by Edward O. Wilson, one of the most celebrated biologists of the late 20th and early 21st centuries.

Although much of Rushton and Lynns research is now widely recognized as racist garbage, it is still available through the journals in which they originally published, in print and online, and does not come with any kind of warning label. An unwitting student searching Google Scholar for race and intelligence could easily stumble upon their work, or a wide variety of similar research, and get no indication it is not to be trusted: It looks like science because it was and in many cases still is science.

Rushton and Lynn are just the most visible edge of a much larger phenomenon, the majority of which hasnt come under the same scrutiny as these men and their work. Racist science is still regularly published in seemingly reputable scientific venues. A case in point is Michael Woodley, a scientist whose affiliation with the Vrije Universiteit Brussel was suspended only after a reference to one of his many racist publications appeared in the Buffalo terrorists diatribe, inspiring a petition by an international group of genetics researchers.

Openly racist research is not the only problem. The Buffalo terrorist also cited cutting-edge research in molecular genetics that is not explicitly racist. Most notable is a 2018 meta-analysis published in Nature Genetics that identifies genomic correlates of educational attainment in white people of European genetic ancestry. UCLAs Daniel Benjamin, a co-founder of the Social Science Genetic Association Consortium, which coordinated the study, described himself as horrified by how the Buffalo terrorist used his groups research. Indeed, their study says little about race other than that the genetic variants that predict educational attainment in white Americans do not predict educational attainment in Black Americans.

To suggest that this study shows any kind of systematic genetic difference between white and Black Americans that makes the former innately more intelligent than the latter is absolutely a misreading that was not intended by the studys authors. Such misreading, however, does not occur only in online white nationalist cesspools. Research in behavior genetics has been consistently misread in this way by scientists since the birth of the field in the 1960s. These scientists include Arthur Jensen, Richard Herrnstein, Charles Murray, Glayde Whitney, and Bo Winegard, all of whom have advanced this misinterpretation dubbed Jensenism in a deluge of popular and scientific books and articles that continue to be published in reputable outlets.

For these scientists, Jensenism appears to be justified by the research. If there are genetic variants that make people smarter (the fundamental tenet of behavior genetics), and if genetic variants are distributed differently in different populations (the fundamental tenet of population genetics), then differences between racial groups in intelligence or educational attainment must be rooted in genetic differences.

These basic premises, however, are false. Scientists have not identified any genetic variants that promote intelligence or education, and racial categories do not represent biological populations. To their credit, some behavior geneticists have publicly denounced the drawing of racist conclusions from their findings. Nonetheless, scientific articles and the books scientists write to popularize their findings too often oversell the research in ways that invite racist misreading, which other scientists are only too willing to provide.

Science is a vitally important social activity, contributing positively to all areas of life. Yet scientists are not always right and their work is not always beneficial. If scientists and the institutions of science are to maintain their credibility, they need to do a better job of confronting and addressing their own racism and the press needs to hold them to higher standards.

Emily Klancher Merchant is an assistant professor of science and technology studies at University of California, Davis and the author of Building the Population Bomb (Oxford University Press, 2021).

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Hold science to higher standards on racism - STAT

Dr. John H. Krystal, world-leading expert in alcoholism and depression, will serve on scientific advisory board

VANCOUVER, June 21, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Clearmind Medicine Inc. (CSE: CMND, OTC Pink: CMNDF, FSE: CWY0) (Clearmind or the "Company"), a biotech company focused on discovery and development of novel psychedelic-derived therapeutics to solve major undertreated health problems, today announced the appointment to its Scientific Advisory Board of John Krystal, Chair of the Psychiatry Department at Yale Universitys School of Medicine.

A leading expert on alcoholism, post-traumatic stress disorder, schizophrenia, and depression, Dr. Krystals work links psychopharmacology, neuroimaging, molecular genetics, and computational neuroscience to study the neurobiology and treatment of these disorders. He is best known for leading the discovery of the rapid antidepressant effects of ketamine.

"We are truly honored to add Dr. Krystal, one of the worlds most recognized experts in alcoholism, to our Scientific Advisory Board, said Dr. Adi Zuloff-Shani, Clearmind's Chief Executive Officer. Clearmind has emphasized collaboration with scientists and clinicians at the very best academic, medical and research institutions in the world, helping us bring innovative expertise to bear on some of the most pressing global health needs.

Dr. Krystal is a Professor of Translational Research; Psychiatry, Neuroscience, and Psychology; he chairs the Department of Psychiatry at Yale University; and he is Chief of Psychiatry and Behavioral Health at Yale-New Haven Hospital. He is a graduate of the University of Chicago and the Yale University School of Medicine

Among many other positions he holds or has held, Dr. Krystal is the Director of the NIAAA Center for the Translational Neuroscience of Alcoholism and the Clinical Neuroscience Division of the VA National Center for PTSD, co-director of the Neuroscience Forum of the U.S. National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine; and editor of Biological Psychiatry (IF=12.1). He is a member of the U.S. National Academy of Medicine and a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

We believe that the scientists on our Scientific Advisory Board, working closely with us to challenge, validate and guide our scientific agenda for developing breakthrough therapies that improve human mental-health at scale, increase access to care, reduce suffering and improve health outcomes around the world, said Zuloff-Shani.

About Clearmind Inc. (CSE: CMND), (OTC: CMNDF), (FSE:CWY0)

Clearmind is a new biotech company focused on the discovery and development of safe and novel psychedelic-derived therapeutics to treat alcohol use disorder and other pressing health challenges.

The Israeli Canadian company holds several patents for the non-hallucinogenic compound MEAI (5-methoxy-2-aminoindane, a novel psychoactive substance). The company intends to seek additional patents for its compounds whenever warranted and will remain opportunistic regarding the acquisition of additional intellectual property to build its portfolio.

Clearmind has established a research collaboration with the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Bar Ilan University. The partnerships aim to expand its R&D capabilities and discover new candidate treatments for other mental health issues.

For further information, please contact:

Investor Relations

invest@clearmindmedicine.com

Telephone: (604) 260-1566

General Inquiries

Info@Clearmindmedicine.com

http://www.Clearmindmedicine.com

FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS:

This news release may contain forward-looking statements and information based on current expectations. These statements should not be read as guarantees of future performance or results. Such statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from those implied by such statements. Such statements include submission of the relevant documentation within the required timeframe to the satisfaction of the relevant regulators and raising sufficient financing to complete the Company's business strategy. There is no certainty that any of these events will occur. Although such statements are based on management's reasonable assumptions, there can be no assurance that such assumptions will prove to be correct. We assume no responsibility to update or revise them to reflect new events or circumstances.

Investing into early-stage companies inherently carries a high degree of risk, and investment into securities of the Company shall be considered highly speculative.

This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy, nor shall there be any sale of the securities in any province in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful. The securities issued, or to be issued, under the Private Placement have not been, and will not be, registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and may not be offered or sold in the United States absent registration or an applicable exemption from registration requirements.

Neither the Canadian Securities Exchange (the CSE) nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the CSE) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

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Yale's Department of Psychiatry Chair to Join Clearmind Medicine - The Bakersfield Californian

image:Dubbed thermotolerance 3, or TT3, the genetic module is the physical location in the cells genetic material containing the genes, TT3.1 and TT3.2, that interact to enhance rice thermotolerance. view more

Credit: Image credit to Science

Rice is one of the most important staple crops, on which more than half of the world's population depends. But as temperatures rise and extreme weather events increase, rice is becoming more vulnerable. Genetically modified strains can withstand some flooding, but few, if any, can survive the heat stress caused by the combination of high temperatures and draught. There may be hardier crops on the horizon, though, with the help of a molecular map that details the specific gene interactions that control how tolerant rice is to heat.

Published today in Science, the map may not lead to pirate treasure, according to the study authors, but it does lay the foundation for something far more valuable to far more people food security.

"During its lifecycle, rice is easily influenced by heat stress, and it's even more vulnerable under global warming," said corresponding author Lin Hongxuan, professor, National Key Laboratory of Plant Molecular Genetics, Chinese Academy of Science Centre for Excellence in Molecular Plant Sciences, Shanghai Institute of Plant Physiology and Ecology. "Improving the thermal tolerance of rice plays a key role in maintaining and increasing the yield of rice crops under high temperatures, ensuring supply for the food demand of the world population."

The thermal tolerance of rice is a quantitative trait that results from how multiple genes interact, as well as input from the environment. According to Lin, plants have multiple mechanism developed specifically to protect themselves against heat, but how the cells sense high temperatures and communicate that information internally has remained elusive until now.

In a series of experiments with African and Asian rice varieties, the researchers knocked out various genes and studied how that influenced the genetic make-up and physical manifestation of the resulting plants.

"We found that a genetic module in rice links heat signals from the cell's plasma membrane to its internal chloroplasts to protect them from heat-stress damage and increase grain yield under heat stress," Lin said.

Dubbed thermotolerance 3, or TT3, the genetic module is the physical location in the cells genetic material containing the genes, TT3.1 and TT3.2, that interact to enhance rice thermotolerance. A piece of TT3.1 appears to serve as a heat sensor, as it moves away from the plasma membrane to the cells transport pathway, where it tags its partner, TT3.2, to be degraded and removed by the cell. TT3.2 is involved in jeopardizing chloroplasts, and the cell can better protect against heat stress when the abundance of TT3.2 is decreased in chloroplasts, according to Lin.

In the plant analysis, the researchers found that TT3, whether it occurred naturally or was genetically edited, enhanced heat tolerance and reduce yield loss caused by heat stress.

"After seven years of effort, we successfully finely mapped and cloned a newly identified thermotolerant rice module, comprising two genes, and revealed a new plant thermotolerant mechanism, Lin said. This study demonstrates that this genetic interaction can enhance the thermotolerance of rice, significantly reduce the yield loss caused by heat stress and maintain the stable yield of rice."

The researchers plan to continue identifying thermotolerant genes and developing genetic resources to integrate into crop breeding.

"The genes we have already identified are conserved in other major crops, such as maize and wheat," Lin said. "They are valuable resources for breeding highly heat stress-tolerant crops to address food security concerns caused by global warming."

Cells

A genetic module at one locus in rice protects chloroplasts to enhance thermotolerance

Disclaimer: AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert system.

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Gene interaction that contributes to rice heat tolerance identified - EurekAlert

Research analysts at HC Wainwright initiated coverage on shares of Mainz Biomed B.V. (NASDAQ:MYNZ Get Rating) in a research report issued on Tuesday, The Fly reports. The firm set a buy rating on the stock.

MYNZ stock opened at $8.98 on Tuesday. Mainz Biomed B.V. has a 1 year low of $7.80 and a 1 year high of $30.00. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $11.89 and a 200-day simple moving average of $13.34.

An institutional investor recently bought a new position in Mainz Biomed B.V. stock. Citadel Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Mainz Biomed B.V. (NASDAQ:MYNZ Get Rating) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 11,593 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $120,000.

Mainz Biomed B.V., a molecular genetics cancer diagnostic company, develops in-vitro diagnostic (IVD) and research use only tests for clinical diagnostics in human genetics. It offers ColoAlert, a colorectal cancer screening test; PancAlert, a product candidate for a pancreatic cancer screening test; GenoStrip to detect pathogens in environments on a molecular genetic basis; and research-use-only and IVD tests.

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Mainz Biomed B.V. (NASDAQ:MYNZ) Now Covered by Analysts at HC Wainwright - Defense World

Measuring how old a persons sperm is could help predict the chances of them getting pregnant, according to a new study. But sperms age isnt just how many birthdays its had. It takes about 64 days for a sperm cell to mature, and depending on how much sex youre having (or how much youre masturbating), its released into the world shortly thereafter. But a sperms age has nothing to do with that cycle. Instead, it has to do with the aging process that occurs at the cellular level. And that biological age is linked to how long it takes a couple to conceive.

Chronological age, or how much time a person has lived, is an important factor when it comes to pregnancy especially for pregnant people, who have a finite number of egg cells. But it doesnt tell the whole story.

All your friends from high school, they're the same age, right? says J. Richard Pilsner, Ph.D., director of Molecular Genetics and Infertility at Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan, and lead author of the study. But that number doesn't capture some of the genetic differences they have or environmental factors like smoking or exercising, which can have major impacts on the aging process, Pilsner says.

Chronological age is actually somewhat of an arcane way of thinking about aging. If we have a precise measurement of the biological age, that's going to give us more information, he says.

Thats why his team developed a novel technique to read the true biological age of sperm cells. They measured this age by reading how much DNA methylation a sperm cell has how many of a type of chemical called methyl groups are attached to the sperms DNA, which alters how its genes are expressed. The more methylation, the older the sperm. Using this method, the researchers can tell whether sperms biological age is up to nine years younger or older than its makers chronological age.

Pilsner and his team used this technique to analyze the sperm of 379 people from 16 different locations across the U.S. from 2005 to 2009, then followed the participant couples for up to 12 months or until they got pregnant. They compared the sperms biological age against the ability of the couple to get pregnant. Couples with older sperm took 17% longer to get pregnant than people with younger sperm.

17%

How much longer it took people with older sperm to get their partners pregnant compared to people with younger sperm.

A sperms biological age can match up with a persons chronological age, but it doesnt necessarily have to. A man could be 30 years old, but his sperm's epigenetic age may be 35, and that's causing a lower pregnancy probability, Pilsner says.

Lifestyle choices can advance the biological aging of sperm. For example, the study found that men who smoked had older sperm.

Pilsner will be conducting more research on what can speed up or slow down sperm aging in the coming months, but he notes that the basics of a healthy lifestyle, sleep, diet, and exercise are important for ensuring that your cells dont mature too quickly. Future research could also shed light on whether sperms age affects the babys health.

Knowing sperms true age could also help couples get pregnant faster. If a person has very old sperm, for example, they may decide to look into assisted reproductive technology sooner.

There's very little screening for male reproductive health, Pilsner says. He hopes that the new technique for determining sperms age could one day help doctors diagnose clinical infertility, given that the semen parameters currently used have been shown to be poor predictors of reproductive success. We need this new biomarker that really captures what's happening biologically within the cell, he says.

The next step? After validating these findings, Pilsners lab will run experiments on mice to see whether there could be pharmacological options for rejuvenating older sperm cells. One day, its possible that men having trouble getting their partners pregnant could turn back the clock on their sperm to increase their chances of getting pregnant.

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The "Age" Of Your Sperm Could Predict Your Chances Of Pregnancy - Fatherly

Exercise alters more than 9,800 molecules in your blood, a process that scientists have called a cellular symphony.

Youre getting such a dramatic change when you exercise and its something that permeates throughout your entire system, Michael Snyder, chairman of the genetics department at Stanford University, told TODAY. We think its a global regenerator, if you will there arent that many things that can give you that.

But not all of these molecules equally provide the benefits of physical activity. Last week, researchers primarily based out of Baylors College of Medicine and Stanfords School of Medicine reported that one in particular seems to play an outsized role. They detailed their find in the journal Nature.

The large team of more than two dozen scientists used a strategy called untargeted metabolomics to see what happens to molecules in mouse blood plasma after the critters ran on a treadmill to exhaustion. Conspicuously rising was a compound with the chemical formula C12H14NO4, which the researchers subsequently discovered to be N-lactoyl-phenylalanine, or Lac-Phe for short. The modified amino acid is synthesized from lactate (which is produced in abundance during intense exercise) and phenylalanine, one of the building blocks of proteins.

They replicated the mouse experiment in racehorses as well, finding Lac-Phe to be the most significantly induced circulating metabolite. Later, they watched Lac-Phe levels mightily rise in 36 human volunteers as they sprinted on a bicycle, lifted weights, or biked for endurance. The researchers noted that the data establish Lac-Phe as one of the top exercise-regulated metabolites in humans.

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So it seems that the blood is flooded with Lac-Phe during, and in the wake of, exercise, particularly when it is intense. Could it perhaps be responsible for imparting some of exercises miraculous effects on health?

To find out, the researchers injected obese mice with Lac-Phe, finding that it significantly lowered their appetite, reduced body fat, and improved glucose tolerance over the ten-day study period. Interestingly, Lac-Phe didnt grant these benefits to lean, healthy mice, even when administered at higher doses. Nor did it work when given orally, indicating that Lac-Phe may not work as a long-sought exercise pill.

The researchers found further empirical support that Lac-Phe regulates the salubrious effects of exercise in a trial in which they genetically engineered mice without an enzyme key to producing Lac-Phe. Compared to control mice, these mice lacking in Lac-Phe lost much less weight when engaging in an identical exercise program.

Mice administered Lac-Phe did not experience any apparent adverse effects, nor did the molecule interfere with other metabolic functions, an auspicious sign that human trials with the compound could start relatively soon. Long-term studies might reveal that Lac-Phe could reduce the severity of osteoporosis, heart disease, diabetes, cognitive decline, and other health problems that exercise is known to treat. Though a Lac-Phe drug could never capture all the benefits of exercise, even bottling some would make for a fantastic medication.

Next, the researchers intend to zero in on Lac-Phes effects on the brain. As they wrote:

Future work uncovering the downstream molecular and cellular mediators of Lac-Phe action in the brain may provide new therapeutic opportunities to capture the cardiometabolic benefits of physical activity for human health.

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Could the "exercise molecule" be made into an "exercise pill"? - Big Think