#4 Living Robot Babies, The Secret Job of The Red Blood Cell and The Four Giraffes.
Scientists have built the first living robots with the ability to reproduce, red blood cells may have a hidden function and a whole genome sequence points to just 4 species.
🤖 Living Robots can Now Reproduce?
Scientists have built AI designed Xenobots with a new form of biological self replication…
The biological definition of a species is a group of organisms that can reproduce with one another in nature and produce fertile offspring.
Scientists at US universities have engineered an AI based, entirely new form of biological reproduction. This has been applied and used to create the world’s first, self replicating robots.
These Xenobots robots “came to life” last year as a result of research and development into the embryo of frogs. Under the right external stimuli and artificial conditions setup in the lab, some of the cells were able to form small structure which would move in groups and importantly, sense their environment. The same team has now discovered another aspect to these interesting living robots.
The AI designed organisms have the capability to swim out of their tiny dish and replicate themselves through the collation of free, single cells. Xenobots gather hundreds of these cells within their “mouth”, after a few days these cells become new Xenobots that are identical to the original Xenobots in both look and movement. These then go out and repeat the process over and over. The cells used to create these organisms would otherwise specialise into skin cells. Their previous functions included keeping out pathogens and redistributing mucus whilst located on the outside of the tadpole. The novel applications that these cells are now being used for could be key in the future of regenerative medicine.
One of the main reasons that this discovery is so profound, is not just at the creation itself, but rather the fact we have had the frog genome all along and yet still had no idea of this possibility. These Xenobots have the genome of a frog, however are freed from their original role. They have a collective intelligence; a plasticity, that was previously completely unknown. Furthermore, they are the only organism known to replicate this way, no plants nor animals replicate in this new method. However, on their own Xenobots do struggle to reproduce. The Xenobot parent is made of roughly 3000 cells in a sphere like shape. The system normally dies out shortly after “children” are made. With an AI programme, an evolutionary algorithm is able to test billions of shapes in simulation to find the cells that are best suited to this type of kinematic replication.
A Pac-man resembling shape was eventually identified. These were then built which is what has allowed the formation of multiple Xenobot generations. Kinematic replication is brand new in terms of whole cells and organisms however has been seen before at a molecular level. As we briefly touched on, one of the more exciting aspects of this is that we don’t know further applications of the frog cells directly but more so, the applications of other species or other “Xenobots” out there.
🩸The Secret Role of Red Blood Cells
Red blood cells may have a relatively unknown role in terms of infection and injury…
Red blood cells are key in oxygen transportation, containing a protein called haemoglobin they are well suited to carrying oxygen from the lungs to all parts of the body. There are roughly 25 trillion red blood cells in your body right now, carrying out their integral function. According to new findings they may be completing another role… scanning for signs of infection and injury.
This new research suggest that these cells are also involved in snaring suspect DNA fragments from both microbial invaders and pathogens, or damaged tissue and resultantly warning the immune system of the danger. This potential new branch of red blood cells functionality could be key, like a lot of modern discoveries, in medical applications. The immune role is linked to the anaemia that often affects people with sepsis, COVID-19 and other conditions.
Human red blood cells are unlike other cells and are highly adapted to complete their role. Mature cells have no DNA or organelles and are stripped down to essentially carry just haemoglobin. Previously human and mammal red blood cells have never been proven to be involved in the immune system however in fish and birds, they are enlisted in a defence role. Red blood cells would be well suited to a “career in defence” not only due to their vast number, but due to their access across the whole body, to more or less every tissue.
One of the research teams first discoveries was back in 2018 where they found a molecular sensor known as toll-like receptor 9 (TLR9), that attaches to DNA molecules that contain the nucleotide bases cytosine and guanine. These bases are released when the human cells are damaged in addition to being present in bacterial DNA and other pathogens. They were reported to incite a strong immune system reaction that researchers initially assigned to white blood cells. In more recent research, the same team suggested that red blood cells are involved in the reaction as well. The red blood cell could be involved in a couple of ways. These could be alerting the immune system to foreign DNA or tissue damage or directly driving a less beneficial immune response. The team gave red blood cells that had bonded to CpG-containing DNA to mice, this triggered body wide inflammation. In humans this is an indicator of sepsis and can flare up due to injuries or other illnesses such as COVID-19.
We can now say that red blood cells do hold an immune function. Whilst a large proportion of the time they simply act through basic clean up duties, sweeping up potentially harmful DNA, an infection or injury can lead to the cells sacrificing themselves, alerting the immune system and triggering inflammation.
🦒Potentially Just Four Giraffes?
Genome sequencing from across Africa has researchers arguing over the existence of four distinct giraffe species…
A recent report has been released following the largest giraffe genome sequence data recording. 51 Giraffes from across Africa were recorded in the aim to pin down a more definitive species number.
Having this state of the art genetic data on such a scale is great news for biological and conservation research. However, the contentious issue which is the number of giraffe species, is still relatively unknown. Before the age of genetic sequencing it was believed that there was just a single species of giraffe. Since, their have been numerous suggestions ranging from three to eight with a higher number of sub species. Humans like to classify things and the lack of definitive classification of the iconic giraffe, has been a heated and remains a contentious issue within the community.
The aim of this recent genomic survey was to definitively answer the question. The research team created a “reference” genome by which more than 50 whole giraffe genomes were compared against. Of these species, 43 came from wild populations from 17 different locations across Africa with the remaining species being captive animals. Comparative sequence analysis that examined nearly 200,000 single nucleotides in the animals genome confirmed the teams hypothesis that the their were four distinct clusters. This study was significantly advanced in comparison to the last study which compared just seven genomic loci together with mitochondrial sequences. In addition to the proposed four clusters, the team believed that the four lineages had evolved separately with no significant evidence of hybridisation. Whilst we are aware that hybridisation can occur in captivity, there were no reported signs of hybridisation in the wild and no indication of cross breeding, further supporting the definition of a species.
However, other members of the scientific community believe that hybridisation does occur between two of the 4 proposed species making them members of the same species. A suggested issue with the recent research and analysis is that only a single wild population of a particular subspecies was included within the genomic analysis. It is believed that should they have included another population that was in a different geographic location and as a result, conclusions drawn may have been vastly different. This poses a potential error in the sampling methods applied. As we said this is a contentious and heated issue with other scientists claiming there are more than just 4 species. Due to the precise locations of sampled animals not being released, some members may be of the same family and so genetically similar. Natural populations may be more diverse with more species and subspecies than the study shows.
One interesting takeaway from this study may be the strength of conservation effort. If there are deemed to be four species as opposed to one, each species may be given their own conservation status which would benefit conservation as a whole.
Weekly Topics
As always, take some things with a pinch of salt and be analytical! 🧂
🏞️ Environmental
Warm water habitats are key for cold water fish?
Camera trap placement for evaluating species richness, abundance and activity
Heat, no food and deadly weather - the ultimate assassin
🐼 Conservation
How we can save corals by utilising the stock market
Forests for sale - Bolivia’s protected areas
80% of threatened species lack protection
🦠 Disease and Illness
Over 600 people set to benefit from new lung cancer treatment
HIV suppression rates are too low amongst children…
Development of promising vaccine for a recurring UTI
😷 COVID
What do we know about omicron?
Omicron COVID booster on the way
🧪 Biochemistry
Organic solar cells processed from green solvents
Tackling the biochemistry of SARS-CoV-2
New cell components discovered?
🔬 Evolution
Stronger Net Selection on Male Animals
5 cryptic species of ancient algae
Variations in Earth’s orbit have affected evolution
🧬 Genetics
Dissection of the shared genetic architecture of psychiatric disorders and suicide attempts
Cancer research - genetic linkage
The past and future of genetic editing
📷 Weekly Camera Roll
Here we have 5 images with linked caption. If the picture interests you, click to keep reading!
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