scholarly journals Ice and Ivory: the cryopolitics of mammoth de-extinction

2021 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Charlotte A. Wrigley
Keyword(s):  
Genetic Material ◽  
Commodity Chains ◽  
Genetic Technology ◽  
Siberian Region ◽  
Human Control ◽  
Genetic Level ◽  
Thawing Permafrost ◽  
Planetary Processes ◽  
Warming World ◽  
Woolly Mammoth

Woolly mammoth tusk hunting has become a black-market industry in the Siberian region of Yakutia, where thawing permafrost due to climate change is revealing the bodies of thousands of mammoths. They are often in a state of incredible preservation, and their accompanying tusks can be sold to China where they are carved into ornaments as a marker of status. Alongside tusk hunting, another potential industry has emerged: de-extinction. Many of the mammoths found on the tundra have potentially viable DNA that might be used to resurrect a mammoth through genetic technology. Mammoth de-extinction is a cryopolitical process – a focus on the preservation and production of life at a genetic level through cold storage. 'Cryobanks' have emerged as a way to safeguard endangered and extinct species' genetic material, and forms part of a turn towards pre-empting conservation crises during what some scholars are calling the 'sixth great extinction.' The mammoth's body is broken down into pieces – tusks form luxury commodity chains, whilst flesh and blood is parceled into frozen genes and cells. The mammoth in the freezer is indicative of a reorganization of cold life in a warming world, with the specific cryopolitics found in the cryobank an attempt at extending human control over planetary processes that are now seemingly out of control. Drawing on fieldwork undertaken at the Mammoth Museum in Yakutsk, Siberia, and at the Natural History Museum's cryobank in London, I follow the mammoth from permafrost, to freezer, to back outside, and consider how her de-extinction is a response to a particular sort of future crisis –that of our own extinction.

scholarly journals Anabiosis and the Liminal Geographies of De/extinction

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 321-345
Author(s):  
Adam Searle
Keyword(s):  
Synthetic Biology ◽  
Science Fiction ◽  
Genetic Material ◽  
Turn Of The Millennium ◽  
Suspended Animation ◽  
Work In Progress ◽  
Iberian Ibex ◽  
Dead State ◽  
Recent Developments ◽  
Woolly Mammoth

Abstract The spectacle of de-extinction is often forward facing at the interface of science fiction and speculative fact, haunted by extinction’s pasts. Missing from this discourse, however, is a robust theorization of de-extinction in the present. This article presents recent developments in the emergent fields of resurrection biology and liminality to conceptualize the anabiotic (not living nor dead) state of de/extinction. Through two stories, this article explores the epistemological perturbation caused by the suspended animation of genetic material. Contrasting the genomic stories of the bucardo, a now extinct subspecies of Iberian ibex whose genome was preserved before the turn of the millennium, and the woolly mammoth, whose genome is still a work in progress, the author poses questions concerning the existential authenticity of this genomic anabiosis. They serve as archetypal illustrations of salvaged and synthesized anabiotic creatures. De/extinction is presented as a liminal state of being, both living and dead, both fact and fiction, a realm that we have growing access to through the proliferation of synthetic biology and cryopreservation. The article concludes through a presentation of anabiotic geographies, postulating on the changing biocultural significances we attach to organisms both extinct and extant, and considering their implications for the contemporary extinction crisis.

scholarly journals Genetic Learning: A New Conceptual Framework for Studying the Impact of the Environment on Changes in Genetic Behavior

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sean Hughes ◽  
Jan De Houwer
Keyword(s):  
Genetic Material ◽  
Research Area ◽  
Behavior Changes ◽  
Genetic Activity ◽  
Genetic Level ◽  
Nature And Nurture ◽  
Living Organisms ◽  
New Research ◽  
Future Work ◽  
The Impact

Research shows that genetic material and environment are engaged in an ongoing conversation, one that dictates both physiology and psychology. In this paper we argue that genetic material and environment are not engaged in a single conversation but rather multiple types of conversations, and offer researchers a set of conceptual tools to better understand what nature and nurture are saying to one another. In Part I we highlight three types of activity that can be studied: behavior, changes in behavior, and learning. We define what it means to say that learning has taken place and highlight different ways in which living organisms do so. In Part II we apply this analysis to the genetic level. We argue that until now, the life and social sciences have primarily focused on two types of genetic activity (genetic behavior and changes in genetic behavior), while a third (genetic learning) is still waiting to be explored systematically. In Part III we consider how our approach better organizes past, present, and future work on genetic activity (heuristic value) and opens up a new research area centered on genetic learning (generative value).

The zoonotic potential of bat-borne coronaviruses

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (4) ◽  
pp. 365-381
Author(s):  
Ny Anjara Fifi Ravelomanantsoa ◽  
Sarah Guth ◽  
Angelo Andrianiaina ◽  
Santino Andry ◽  
Anecia Gentles ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Genetic Material ◽  
Field Research ◽  
Sympatric Species ◽  
Animal Origin ◽  
Mammalian Host ◽  
Past Century ◽  
The Past ◽  
Novel Host ◽  
Horseshoe Bat ◽  
Human Infections

Seven zoonoses — human infections of animal origin — have emerged from the Coronaviridae family in the past century, including three viruses responsible for significant human mortality (SARS-CoV, MERS-CoV, and SARS-CoV-2) in the past twenty years alone. These three viruses, in addition to two older CoV zoonoses (HCoV-229E and HCoV-NL63) are believed to be originally derived from wild bat reservoir species. We review the molecular biology of the bat-derived Alpha- and Betacoronavirus genera, highlighting features that contribute to their potential for cross-species emergence, including the use of well-conserved mammalian host cell machinery for cell entry and a unique capacity for adaptation to novel host environments after host switching. The adaptive capacity of coronaviruses largely results from their large genomes, which reduce the risk of deleterious mutational errors and facilitate range-expanding recombination events by offering heightened redundancy in essential genetic material. Large CoV genomes are made possible by the unique proofreading capacity encoded for their RNA-dependent polymerase. We find that bat-borne SARS-related coronaviruses in the subgenus Sarbecovirus, the source clade for SARS-CoV and SARS-CoV-2, present a particularly poignant pandemic threat, due to the extraordinary viral genetic diversity represented among several sympatric species of their horseshoe bat hosts. To date, Sarbecovirus surveillance has been almost entirely restricted to China. More vigorous field research efforts tracking the circulation of Sarbecoviruses specifically and Betacoronaviruses more generally is needed across a broader global range if we are to avoid future repeats of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Relationship Between Personality and Self-Report Abilities

2011 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
pp. 47-53 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julie Aitken Schermer ◽  
Andrew M. Johnson ◽  
Philip A. Vernon ◽  
Kerry L. Jang
Keyword(s):  
Interpersonal Relationships ◽  
Self Report ◽  
Personality Factors ◽  
Personality Factor ◽  
Factor Scores ◽  
Environmental Correlations ◽  
Ability Factor ◽  
Genetic Level ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Common Environmental Factor

The relationship between self-report abilities and personality was examined at both the phenotypic (zero-order) level as well as at the genetic and environmental levels. Twins and siblings (N = 516) completed self-report ability and personality questionnaires. A factor analysis of the ability questions revealed 10 factors, including politics, interpersonal relationships, practical tasks, intellectual pursuits, academic skills, entrepreneur/business, domestic skills, vocal abilities, and creativity. Five personality factors were examined, including extraversion, conscientiousness, dependence, aggression, and openness. At the phenotypic level, the correlations between the ability factor scores and personality factor scores ranged from 0 to .60 (between political abilities and extraversion). The relationship between the two areas at the genetic level was found to range between –.01 and .60; the environmental correlations ranged from –.01 to .48. The results suggest that some of the self-report ability scores are related to self-report personality, and that some of these observed relationships may have a common genetic basis while others are from a common environmental factor.

E-Market of State Purchases in Russia

2005 ◽  
pp. 121-130 ◽  
Author(s):  
V. Ryabtsun
Keyword(s):  
Electronic State ◽  
Legal Basis ◽  
Siberian Region ◽  
Federal Target Program ◽  
Target Program

Legal basis and development of systems of electronic state purchases in Russia with special attention to the federal target program "Electronic Russia (2002-2010)" are considered in the article. The level of development of such systems is examined within the case of their functioning in the Ural-Siberian region. The results of the work of state purchases e-market in Novosibirsk and Chelyabinsk are presented.

Evaluation of radiation-induced genotoxicity on hu-man melanoma cells (SK-MEL-37) by flow cytometry

2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (2A) ◽  
Author(s):  
Leticia Bonfim ◽  
Luma Ramirez de Carvalho ◽  
Daniel Perez Vieira
Keyword(s):  
Genetic Material ◽  
Micronucleus Assay ◽  
Melanoma Cells ◽  
Dead Cell ◽  
Genotoxic Damage ◽  
Sytox Green ◽  
60Co Source ◽  
Radiation Induced ◽  
Death And Loss ◽  
Cell Fractions

Micronucleus assay is a test used to evaluate genotoxic damage in cells, which can be caused by various factors, like ionizing radiation. Interactions between radiation energies and DNA can cause breakage, leading to use chromosomal mutations or loss of genetic material, important events that could be induced in solid tumors to mitigate its expansion within human body.  Melanoma has been described as a tumor with increased radio resistance.  This work evaluated micronuclei percentages (%MN) in human melanoma cells (SK-MEL-37), irradiated by gamma radiation, with doses between 0 and 16Gy.  Cell suspensions were irradiated in PBS by a 60Co source in doses between 0 and 16Gy, and incubated by 48h.  Then cell membranes were lysed in the presence of SYTOX Green and EMA dyes, preserving nuclear membranes.  Using this method, EMA-stained nuclei could be discriminated as those derived from dead cells, and SYTOX nuclei and micronuclei could be quantified.  Micronuclei percentages were found to be proportional to dose, (R2 = 0.997).  Only the highest dose (16Gy) could induce statistically significant increase of MN (p<0.0001), although cultures irradiated by 4, 8 and 16Gy showed significant increase of dead cell fractions.  Calculation of the nuclei-to-beads ratio showed that 8 and 16Gy could reduce melanoma cell proliferation.  Results showed that although cell death and loss of proliferative capacity could be observed on cultures irradiated at lower doses, genotoxic damage could be induced only on a higher dose. Resistance to radiation-induced genotoxicity could explain a relatively high radio resistance of melanoma tumors.

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