Epigenetics: How Evolution Is Evolving

For me, epigenetics has to be one of the most exciting developments in genetics recently, its elegant and complex, its an amazing reminder of how our own actions will effect others in the future (an excellent metaphor) and also how often scientists will all too quickly dismiss (and sadly, mock) a theory (in this case Lamarckism) only to revist the ideas a century later and find truth and value in some aspects of the original work...-MA

from the National Geographic blog
By ANDREW HOWLEY

Ever since the 1940s, the "modern synthesis" has presented evolution as the result of random mutations to DNA creating altered versions of living creatures that live and reproduce or die childless based on how well they happen to fit into their environment. This idea has served well in many ways for the generations since then, but now there's a new kid in town.

Meet the "New" Kid
"Epigenetics" addresses the increasing evidence that things other than DNA can control the appearance and function of living things, can be passed on to future generations, and most importantly, can arise in direct response to external environmental conditions. It's been covered in Science and TIME, on NOVA, Science Daily, and in an exposé-like series of articles from Scoop.co.nz.

This means that scientists should make room in the pantheon next to Darwin for the often ridiculed "stretch-your-neck-to-become-a-giraffe" Lamarck, who proposed that organisms change throughout their lives and pass on acquired traits to their offspring.

A closer look at history shows we also need to make a little more room next to Darwin for... Darwin himself.

The modern synthesis included certain of Darwin's theories, but discarded others, including that of "pangenesis," his idea that each body part somehow contributes "gemmules" of information to the sex cells to pass on traits acquired through use or disuse in the parent's life.

Tiny Prions, Major Changes
Recent work is showing that Darwin was more correct than he's been given credit for. In "Epigenetics in the Extreme" from the October 29 Science magazine special issue on epigenetics, Randal Halfmann and Susan Lindquist discuss protein molecules called prions, which turn out to be remarkably similar to his hypothetical gemmules.

The magic happens when prions interact with the rest of the cell.

Prions are found inside cells and can take on different shapes, based on environmental conditions such as temperature or the presence of certain chemicals. Once altered, these proteins can bump into other prions and cause them to take on the new shape as well. When the cell divides, both daughter cells will contain prions of both states, and the chain reaction can keep occurring in that new generation.

The magic happens when prions interact with the rest of the cell, and even with DNA itself. The different shapes can cause different proteins to be made, or different parts of the DNA to be read or ignored, which can then trigger different actions or developments in the cell or the whole organism. If the external conditions change though, the other form of the prion will take precedence, and once again perform the original function.

Some may actually become incorporated into the DNA.

Halfmann and Lindquist even state that "these traits can ultimately become hardwired by subsequent genetic changes," meaning some prion alterations may actually become incorporated into the DNA, thus blurring the line between genetics and epigenetics and raising intriguing chicken-and-egg type questions.

Whale-Size Implications
The broader implication of prions on epigenetic inheritance and evolution in general is that the ability to form different structures or perform different functions can be selected for at one time, and then kept around though unexpressed for generations, just waiting for the appropriate environmental trigger to reappear. When it is next expressed, other changes to the species may cause the original effect to take on slightly new forms, thus the organism responds to the environment with an existing toolkit, but continues to take on new appearances.

As a purely hypothetical example, the appearance of webbed fin-like appendages in birds or mammals in aquatic environments could thus be a result of the ancient fish-fin programming being kicked into a new usage as a result of a return to an ancestral environment.

Evidence of epigenetic adaptation and inheritance opens up many new doors of speculation about evolution. In early whales for example, could the particular effects of limb use for paddling, or simply living in a more buoyant environment have had epigenetic influences on the cells of adults or developing offspring? (

Time for a More Modern Synthesis?

The overriding significance of these discoveries is that we now see concrete illustrations of how living things actively adapt to their environment even at a cellular level and can in at least some cases pass on those adaptations to their offspring. While theorized by many in the past, this is fairly new ground for modern discussions of evolution.

Prevailing view now clearly too narrow
The prevailing view that variation in a species is simply the result of a DNA program locked off from the world and altered only through random errors in transcription is now clearly too narrow. The study of epigenetics shows us that life and evolution are dynamic processes, based on the complex back-and-forth relationships between organisms and their entire environment.

And a Hint of Mind-Blowing Context
Finally, while these experiments and observations have been made mostly with single-celled organisms like yeast, or simpler animals like fruit flies, it's important to remember that even the most advanced organisms are still made up of individual cells. Most remarkably, you yourself started out life as a single-celled organism, developing in an environment rich in chemical inputs and signals being produced by your mother in ever-changing response to her environment.

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References
Halfmann R and Lindquist S (2010) Epigenetics in the Extreme: Prions and the Inheritance of Environmentally Acquired Traits. Science 330 (6004): 629 - 632 DOI: 10.1126/science.1191081

ABSTRACT
Prions are an unusual form of epigenetics: Their stable inheritance and complex phenotypes come about through protein folding rather than nucleic acid–associated changes. With intimate ties to protein homeostasis and a remarkable sensitivity to stress, prions are a robust mechanism that links environmental extremes with the acquisition and inheritance of new traits.

Bonobos!

So much happened yesterday and I was all tied up so lots of posts today - visit the facebook page or the blog to make sure you didn't miss anything. First up, a double post on bonobos, a quick book review and a new movie. Have a great weekend everyone- MA


I FINALLY found time to read Vanessa Wood's book "bonobo handshake" a few weeks ago. I posted about the book and Vanessa and Brian Hare's work with bonobos HERE and HERE and knowing Vanessa and her hysterical yet informative writing style I knew I would love it. I am so happy to say that the book is AMAZING! Anyone who has worked in a developing and war-torn country I am sure will really enjoy it. Its not only about bonobos, research and conservation as you might expect. Vanessa writes about the doubts and fears a "city girl" experiences working under these conditions. Its about love and relationships and there is also the perfect amount of information on the history of conflict in DRC and its neighbouring countries. The book is beyond charming and I cannot recommend it enough. I am sure anyone who reads this blog would really enjoy it. - MA

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“Bonobos” will hit french cinema screens on the 6th of April 2011
From the Lola Ya bonobo blog on wildlife direct
Alain Tixier and his team came back to Lola to shoot the last sequences for the cinema documentary film “BONOBOS”. The adventure started over two years ago and the film will finally be released on the big screen next spring… in 3D! A few more pics can be seen on the blog

'Altruism Gene' Associated With Higher Willingness to Donate

From Science Daily

Do you like to do good things for other people? If so, your genes might be responsible for this. At least, the results of a study conducted by researchers of the University of Bonn suggest this. According to the study, a minute change in a particular gene is associated with a significantly higher willingness to donate. People with this change gave twice as much money on average to a charitable cause as did other study subjects. The results have now been published in the journal Social Cognitive & Affective Neuroscience.

The researchers working with the psychologist Professor Dr. Martin Reuter invited their students to take a "retention test": The roughly 100 participants were to memorize series of numbers and then repeat them as correctly as possible. They received the sum of five Euros for doing this. Afterwards, they could either take their hard-earned money home or donate any portion of it to a charitable cause. This decision was made freely and in apparent anonymity. "However, we always knew how much money was in the cash box beforehand and could therefore calculate the amount donated," explains Reuter.

The scientists had asked their study subjects to undergo a cheek swab beforehand. They were able to extract DNA for genetic analyses from the cells thus sampled. In these analyses, they focused on one gene, the so-called COMT gene. It contains the building instructions for an enzyme which inactivates certain messengers in the brain. The most well-known of these messengers is dopamine.

It has been known for nearly 15 years that there are two different variants of the COMT gene: COMT-Val and COMT-Met. Both versions, which occur in the population with approximately equal frequency, differ in only a single building block. In the case of people with the COMT-Val variant, the associated enzyme works up to four times more effectively. Thus considerably more dopamine is inactivated in the brain of a person with this variant.

Mini-Mutation Affects Behavior
This mini-mutation also has effects on behavior: "Students with the COMT-Val gene donated twice as much money on average as did fellow students with the COMT-Met variant," explains Reuter. This is the first time that researchers have been able to establish a connection between a particular gene and altruistic deeds. However, it was already known from studies on twins that altruistic behavior is also partly influenced by our genes.

There is a good reason why the Bonn scientists focused their analysis on the COMT gene: For several years, it has been known that dopamine is involved in controlling social behavior in animals and humans. Thus the messenger, together with substances such as the neuropeptide vasopressin, influences sexuality and bonding. In addition, dopamine is linked with positive emotionality. Even the characteristic of being motivated by stimuli is controlled by this important neurotransmitter.

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REFERENCE
M. Reuter, C. Frenzel, N. T. Walter, S. Markett, C. Montag. Investigating the genetic basis of altruism: the role of the COMT Val158Met polymorphism. Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, 2010; DOI: 10.1093/scan/nsq083

ABSTRACT
Findings from twin studies yield heritability estimates of 0.50 for prosocial behaviours like empathy, cooperativeness and altruism. First molecular genetic studies underline the influence of polymorphisms located on genes coding for the receptors of the neuropeptides, oxytocin and vasopressin. However, the proportion of variance explained by these gene loci is rather low indicating that additional genetic variants must be involved. Pharmacological studies show that the dopaminergic system interacts with oxytocin and vasopressin. The present experimental study tests a dopaminergic candidate polymorphism for altruistic behaviour, the functional COMT Val158Met SNP. N  = 101 healthy Caucasian subjects participated in the study. Altruism was assessed by the amount of money donated to a poor child in a developing country, after having earned money by participating in two straining computer experiments. Construct validity of the experimental data was given: the highest correlation between the amount of donations and personality was observed for cooperativeness (r = 0.32, P ≤ 0.001). Carriers of at least one Val allele donated about twice as much money as compared with those participants without a Val allele (P = 0.01). Cooperativeness and the Val allele of COMT additively explained 14.6% of the variance in donation behaviour. Results indicate that the Val allele representing strong catabolism of dopamine is related to altruism.

More Art: Giant drunken monkey made of flip fops

Go to Geekologie.com or Zeutch.com for lots more pics!



From Geekologie:

This is a giant passed-out monkey sculpture made out of flip-flops in São Paulo, Brazil, to celebrate Pixel Show, an international art and design conference. Because if there are two things that go hand in hand in this world, it's drunk monkeys and art.

Amazing Gorilla Tattoo

I've posted on bush warrior's tattoo of the day blog before but today's tattoo was so gorgeous I have to give it a shout out again. Check out their facebook page here. The tattoo is by Mike Devries you can see more of his work at his website -MA

From Newsweek: The Lazy Person’s Guide to Being Ecofriendly

From Newsweek.com
Think you don’t have time to be green? Here are seven small things you can do that have a big impact.
by IAN YARRET

The recent election probably quashed the chances for far-reaching climate or clean-energy legislation at the federal level, and with the Republican takeover of the House, even the EPA’s ability to regulate greenhouse-gas emissions may be in jeopardy. In other words, the pressure is on for states, localities, and individuals to do their part to lighten America’s footprint. Now, nobody expects the average person to save the planet. First, it takes time. Second, a lot of us often tell ourselves “someone else will do it.” But even if both are true, there are things individuals can do without breaking a sweat. So if you happen to be on the fence about whether you can easily be a greener guy or gal, we’d like to respond with a resounding “yes you can.” Here are seven ways to get started.

Turn the Knob
Plain and simple, laundry day is a heat sucker. It turns out that 90 percent of the energy used to wash clothes goes to heating the water. Our solution: wash your clothes in cold water. The benefits are threefold. You end up with clean clothes, you reduce that nasty carbon footprint of yours, and you could save more than $100 a year. Not bad for a turn of the washing-machine knob.

Feast on This
Apples should not have to travel roughly 1,726 miles to get to your supermarket, which is what an Iowa State University report found. A local apple, on the other hand, travels about 61 miles. Why does this matter? Local fruits and vegetables are generally fresher and, consequently, higher in nutrients. They aren’t transported across the country or the world, and thereby don’t result in needless greenhouse-gas emissions. Also, buying them supports local farmers and your local economy. So pick the local apples over the South American bananas next time you have the choice.

Stay Eco-Clean
Typical soaps—including hand soap, dishwashing detergent, and laundry detergent—are petroleum based, and usually contain unhealthy chemicals that can potentially harm people and the environment. But alternatives abound and make more of a difference than you might think. In fact, if every household in the U.S. replaced just one bottle of petroleum-based laundry detergent with an equivalent plant-derived product, 466,000 barrels of oil could be saved, according to Seventh Generation, a leading manufacturer of ecofriendly household goods. Not sure how to pick the right soap? The GoodGuide iPhone app can help you choose. It lets you scan product bar codes on the spot to get easy-to-understand ratings of an item’s health, environmental, and social impacts.

Be Fish-Friendly
If you’re a new or aspiring saltwater aquarist, consider the ecological impact of your next fish purchase. Ornamental fish are often captured from reefs using cyanide, which is dumped into the water to stun the fish and make them float to the surface for easy collection. The fish that survive are sold to aquarium suppliers, but the majority don’t make it. The cyanide also damages coral (which is already threatened worldwide by the impacts of climate change) and the marine life that depend on reefs for survival. The good news is that captive-raised fish are widely available, so it’s not hard to find fish that were collected without damage to natural coral-reef ecosystems. Reef Protection International puts out a guide to sustainable aquarium fish, and you can also look for Marine Aquarium Council (MAC) certification.

Get Printer-Smart
“Think before you print,” and if you insist on putting something to paper, then take a minute to set your printer to print double-sided. Most office printers can do this automatically, and it’s easy to make this your computer’s—or printer’s—default setting. Americans use 50 million tons of paper each year, which takes more than 850 million trees to produce. Double-sided printing could reduce that impact by up to 50 percent. And less paper costs less money—the University of California, Davis, for instance, was able to save $68,000 a year through double-sided printing.

Slow Down
More important than what you drive is how you drive it. By driving aggressively (speeding, rapid acceleration, and frequent braking) on the highway, you could be lowering your gas mileage by as much as 33 percent—and by 5 percent if you’re driving around town. The mileage you get per tank of gas also decreases rapidly at speeds above 60mph, so slow it down—you know who you are. It will save you money and keep you safer. And don’t think buying a hybrid is a license to speed. Driving a hybrid aggressively, in fact, could be even less efficient than a gas-powered car, as demonstrated on the popular British TV show, Top Gear.

Bank on This
Do you really need a paper copy of every deposit slip, withdrawal slip, and statement from your bank? If you have a computer with an Internet connection, the answer is no. Taking your banking online also makes keeping records easier and cuts down on your footprint. Virtually all banks are offering paperless options now, but some go a step further and actually offer you incentives for going paperless. Citizens Bank, for example, has a program called GreenSense on its checking accounts, which pays you 10 cents each time you conduct a transaction without paper, like using your debit card and paying bills online, up to a maximum of $120 a year. As an added environmental bonus, GreenSense debit cards are also made out of recycled plastic. By their calculations, receiving 19 statements and paying seven bills online would save six pounds of paper, 4.5 gallons of gasoline, 63 gallons of water, and the greenhouse-gas equivalent of 176 miles of driving. Do you need more incentive than that?

Frommer's issues apology & no longer recommends Sea World

Thanks to Jen F for the link! To go directly to the article CLICK HERE

I Have Been Severely Admonished Over My Approval of SeaWorld Exhibits, and Apologize for My Former Positions
Posted by Arthur Frommer at 6/14/2010 1:47 PM EDT

Not simply last month, but several times in the past, I have said that to me, SeaWorld, in Orlando, Florida, was a better viewing experience than the other nearby theme parks because of its educational value for a young audience. I have particularly admired the display of a large whale, Shamu, who is trained to perform human-like tricks. And I mourned the recent tragedy in which a trainer was quite accidentally dashed to her death in that show.

In doing so, I was as heedless of our treatment of the animal world as most of us who traipse to zoos and never think of what it means for such cognizant animals to be contained behind bars or in tiny spaces. I received this past week a letter from an official of PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals), one Debbie Leahy, that makes such an irrefutable point that I, for one, am ashamed at the shallow perspective of my earlier reaction to SeaWorld. I am reprinting the major part of her letter below:

We were surprised and saddened to read your comments following the recent death of a trainer at SeaWorld Orlando in which you stated that despite this incident, SeaWorld was educational and recommended it as a tourist attraction ...

While orcas [whales] in the wild share intricate family relationships and swim distances of up to 100 miles each day, at SeaWorld they are forced to perform circus-style tricks for food; swim endless circles in small, barren concrete tanks; and typically live far short of the 60-year maximum life span that orcas enjoy in the wild. Experts agree that keeping intelligent, social animals in captivity for human entertainment in unacceptable. World-renowned oceanographer Jean-Michel Cousteau compared keeping orcas in tanks to "a person being blindfolded in a jail cell."

SeaWorld, which owns most of the captive orcas in the U.S., has an abysmal history of animal care. Twenty-one orcas died in U.S. SeaWorld facilities between 1986 and 2008 -- an average of nearly one each year -- and not one died of old age. Their deaths were caused by severe trauma, intestinal gangrene, acute hemorrhagic pneumonia, pulmonary abscesses, chronic kidney disease, chronic cardiovascular failure, septicemia, and influenza.

A true appreciation of wildlife cannot come from looking at bored, frustrated animals trapped in chemically treated tanks, with every aspect of their existence regulated. Marine mammal conservation and education can be achieved through efforts to abolish whaling, clean up our oceans, end driftnet fishing, and prohibit live captures -- not by confining these incredible ocean-dwelling animals to cramped pools.

... We urge you, for the sake of the animals, to reconsider your position of SeaWorld.

Ms. Leahy is clearly right, and I have reconsidered my position. I am ashamed, I apologize for my former statements, and I will no longer recommend that tourists patronize the various SeaWorld parks.
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From Jean-Michel Cousteau's Statement on Captive Orcas