Cancer is a prevalent disease among humans and animals, affecting millions of lives across the globe. It can be caused in a variety of ways and can affect virtually every part of our bodies, ranging from skin cancer caused by prolonged exposure to the sun’s harmful UV rays to lung cancer that results from carcinogenic substances smokers inhale. However, plants do not die of cancer despite sometimes being exposed to the sun for over a thousand years – and they do not use any sunscreens!

Humans and animals who live to a certain age are very likely to get cancer one day. We see this situation mostly in our pets which have been specially bred and protected from predators and diseases. Cancer has become part of our lives and remains a top world health priority. The probability of prostate cancer is roughly 80% in 80-year-olds, 90% in 90-year-olds, and 100% in 100-year-olds. However, these statistics yet again do not apply to trees.

What is cancer?

Cancer is a disease caused by the uncontrolled growth of cells that have become abnormal in a part of the body. These abnormal cells are not foreign invaders that have entered our bodies from outside but are instead our own cells. However, in time, various factors such as radiation, viruses, and chemical substances that they are exposed to cause the accumulation of errors, or mutations, in the genetic codes of cells. Some of them then acquire very different characteristics and become alien to their own body.

With old age, errors arise in the genetic code in an increased rate when our cells divide by copying their own DNA. External factors, such as “free radicals” and various radiations that affect our DNA, play a role in these errors. For young people, when there are too many errors in a cell’s genome, a process called “apoptosis” takes place after which faulty cells die before they can multiply in a potentially cancerous manner and forming a tumor. However, sometimes these accumulated errors cause the cell’s growth process to become stuck in the “on” position, and the cell begins to grow and divide continuously. Cells that emerge with out-of-control divisions ignore the commands coming from the healthy cells of the body, continue to grow and reproduce according to the erroneous commands from the cell’s disrupted genome. This situation lasts until death.

What is a tumor?

Cell growths that result from defective genome proliferation will eventually form a mass called a tumor. Some cells grow very slowly and stop at a certain size after a while and do not spread anymore and are called benign tumors. Masses formed by fast-growing, defective (cancerous) cells are known as malignant tumors. Cells that detach from malignant tumors and grow rapidly can attach to another organ where they will begin to grow again when they enter the bloodstream. The process by which cancerous cells start from a tumor and spread all over the body to different organs is known as metastasis.

Why does this process not happen in plants?

One of the most destructive features of cancer when it enters metastasis is the mobility of malignant cells to varying degrees according to their type. Blood vessels, i.e. the transportation pathways of the circulatory system, act like a highway for cancer cells. As the blood vessels surround the entire body, a single cancerous cell can travel to and settle almost anywhere in the body, from the toes to the head.

Plant cells have a vital feature that is different from human and animal cells. In plants, cells do not change their locations because their cells are surrounded by a very rigid, strong, and impenetrable wall outside of normal plasma membranes. Cell walls are made of cellulose, which constitutes the main substance of plants, and form the wooden structures that ensure the plants stand upright and harden while at the same time locking each cell in place and preventing it from migrating within the organism.

Another important difference that is unique to plants is that they do not have blood circulation in which cells are carried; they have a circulatory system in which only water and food are carried. This system is often used to pump water from the roots to the leaves and to transport organic products such as sugar, which is a product of photosynthesis, from the leaves down. Therefore, there are no blood cells or immune system cells in these carrier channels, which are known as wood and roe tubes (xylem and phloem), in plants.

In addition, animal cells are specifically employed in tissues and organs such as muscle, bone, liver, and skin during embryonic development. Thus, when they divide only new cells of the same type are created. Tumors that occur in animal tissues can metastasize into different tissues and disrupt different organs. We can think of animal and human biology as a very complex system in which each cell, tissue, and organ has a task and purpose. In such a system, all elements work in cooperation for the continuation of life. This system is of a kind of irreducible complexity. A human being cannot live without organs like brain, heart, or lungs, while plants, on the other hand, have fewer simpler internal structures which are not as vital. When plant cells divide, they retain their ability to form new cells of any type. This is called totipotency.

In plants, every necessary structure can be recreated from the few tissues they have. For this reason, a gardener can grow new plants from the roots, branches, or leaf parts of a plant.

Plants are equipped with very powerful antioxidants to protect them from the sun’s harmful rays and mutations that may be caused by radiation. Therefore, tumors can develop only due to bacteria, viruses, fungi, parasites, and insects. For example, in a situation that we can call “information confusion” that occurs when Agrobacterium Tumefaciens bacteria insert some of its DNA into the plant’s DNA, an anomaly occurs in the plant’s genome. Cells that go through a rapid growth process and form tumors are not normally classified as cancer, since they simply remain in that area and cannot be transported elsewhere. Since the tumors cannot spread to the whole plant, they may cause only minor distress at most in a specific area rather than a fatal disease such as cancer. Just as the plant continues to grow around a rock that it encounters, it grows around the tumor as well. The tumor can continue to grow for years, but does not spread to the rest of the plant, meaning there is no metastasis.

In summary, plants can also be cancerous, but a cancerous tumor is not a deadly threat to a plant, as its cells are immobile and do not have vital and complex organs like humans and animals. Thanks to the cellulose walls gifted to the them, plants continue their role in the ecosystem by continuing to grow with healthy cells around the tumor as if nothing had happened.

References

• Luis Villazon. “Can a plant die of cancer?” www.sciencefocus.com/nature/can-a-plant-die-of-cancer
• Sam Westreich. “Do Plants Get Cancer?” medium.com/@westwise/do-plants-get-cancer-60eb435c6d1a
• Stuart Thompson. “Plants couldn’t run away from Chernobyl—but that’s what saved them. Why plants don’t get cancer.” www.popsci.com/chernobyl-plants-radiation-cancer

Truffles are potato-shaped underground mushrooms that grow in all kinds of different environments ranging from high-rise forests of pine, oak, linden, fir and wild hazelnut to scrubs, under bushes, and in steppes and deserts. They maintain a symbiotic relationship by attaching to the roots of certain herbaceous plants and have a unique aroma with a sharp odor. Some cultures nickname truffles as bingos or buckthorns. There is also the belief that the mushrooms sprout faster under lightning or thunder thus earning them the nickname “daughters of thunder.”

Symbiotic association between truffles and plants

Nature thrives in a harmony that is based upon assistance and solidarity. Truffles have a special place in this harmony. For example, as plant seeds germinate and begin to grow into roots, the hyphae of truffles wrap around the plant roots, just like a glove does around fingers, and help the emergence of a special structure called “mycorrhiza” which facilitates food exchange between truffles and plants. Approximately 90% of plants coexist with different types of mushrooms, and some plants even need truffles to survive. Unable to photosynthesize, truffles need plants for organic nutrients, and plants need truffles, especially for the intake of more water and minerals from barren and arid soil.

It is estimated that the mushroom hyphae can be as long as 1 km in the forest soil is estimated to be more than 1 km. Truffles help to increase the contact surface of the tree roots with the soil hundreds of times while ingesting the water and minerals from remote areas where plant roots cannot reach. In this way, as soon as a drop of rain falls on the soil, it is relayed to the benefit of plants with hyphae that are invisibly thin and kilometers long. If this partnership did not exist between truffles and plants then the giant trees that we see in forests would not be able to grow tall enough and would possibly remain as bushes due to a lack of water and minerals from the soil.

Truffles and wildlife

A similar relationship exists between truffles and animals in the forest. Since they are generally active at night and cannot benefit from sunlight sufficiently, wild animals meet their vitamin D needs especially from truffles, an important food source. Recent studies show that some wild animal species survive solely on truffles. A large number of mice, squirrels, bears, deer, rabbits, hedgehogs, and bird species in the US eat truffles along with some monkeys, kangaroos, and bird species in Australia.

While the toadstools in the open can spread their billions of spores to the environment, the spores of underground mushrooms remain confined in their tissues. It is thanks to animals that can spot and extract the mushrooms that these spores spread from their tissues into the rest of the environment. Wild animals can locate, dig up, and eat underground truffles due to the strong and attractive aroma of the mushrooms. On the other hand, the spores that are expelled from the animals’ digestive systems lead to the production of fresh hyphae to partner with new plants via germination. This allows underground mushrooms to have the opportunity to sustain their generation and expand their natural habitat.

The conservation of animal species that face extinction also depends on the preservation of the variety of truffle species. From this point of view, truffles in the natural habitats are the sustenance of wild animals. Bediuzzaman Said Nursi (d. 1960), a renown Turkish religious scholar, said: “Our share is in vineyards and gardens. God Almighty allocated our sustenance there. These wild fruits are the sustenance for the wild animals. We should not touch their portion.” It is also known that Bediuzzaman discouraged his students who came across plenty of apple and pear trees on the mountains from eating those fruits. This approach also sums up a guiding insight about sustainable forestry and ecosystem.

Nutritional value and medical benefits

Truffles are richer in protein and minerals than other mushrooms. Their nutritional value consists of 53-76% water, 9% protein, 7% carbohydrates, and 8% minerals. Although they have high nutritional value, the most important feature making truffles superior to other mushrooms is their distinctive aromatic compounds. Due to their unique aroma, truffles attract the attention of many gourmets. It is no surprise that truffles have an exceptional place in exclusive cuisines.

Since ancient times, the medical benefits of truffles have been frequently reported. For example, Ibn Sina (Avicenna) is known to have recommended truffles for healing weakness, nausea, pain, and wounds.

Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, said, “Truffle is a sustenance like manna. Its sap is also a cure for the eyes.”

The belief in the nutritional value of truffles is also common in the Christian world. Between 827 and 844, Pope Gregory IV had advised the consumption of truffles to gain strength in battles.

Current studies have found that truffles contain several compounds that are essential for human health. A study published in 2016 is an important step for chronicling the fact that the extract obtained from truffle mushrooms proved to be useful in healing eye infections.

Economic value

The number of commercial-value truffles collected from natural habitats constantly decreases worldwide: it has dropped from 2000 tons in 1884 to 100 tons in 1990. Today, it is around 40 tons. The main factors of this decline are the destruction of oak forests, climate change, environmental pollution, global warming, and uncontrolled picking.

Despite the dramatic decrease in the number of truffles collected from natural habitats, they are sold between $250 and $4,000 per kilo depending on the type and quality.

Growing truffles

Under current conditions, truffles have to be grown by special means. People must grow the types of truffles that they wish to consume.

The first idea for the production of truffles came from a French farmer named Joseph Talon. At the beginning of the 19th century, Talon planted fresh seeds in the oak patches where truffles grew naturally. The existing truffle hyphae in the soil infiltrated the roots of new oak saplings and led to an increase in the production of truffles in the natural habitat. In the following years, Talon created new truffle production areas by planting the saplings he had already produced in other patches. Talon’s method is still used today.

In the 1960s, a period when there was a great decrease in the production of truffles in natural habitats, studies were conducted to find new methods. The methods developed by French and Italian scientists in the 1970s led to a massive success in truffle production. Truffle spores were inoculated at the root of oak saplings and plants were grown in greenhouses to develop only the desired truffle mycorrhizal system in tree roots. Having ensured that mycorrhiza had settled in the roots, the first truffle began to be harvested four or five years after planting the oak saplings in open areas. These methods have allowed truffle production in countries such as Australia, the USA, and New Zealand where truffles are not grown naturally.

Commercial truffle types

It is estimated that there are about 10,000 different types of truffles in the world with different sizes, colors, structures, and aromas. These mushrooms, which are now listed in restaurant menus and stocked on the shelves of luxury food suppliers, are only some of the truffles numbered in thousands.

Some of the commercial types are listed below:

Tuber magnatum: Known as the white truffle of Italy, it grows in the Alba region as attached on the roots of oak, hornbeam, pine and poplar trees. It is different from all species by its peculiarly pungent aroma. It is known as the most expensive food in the world because it grows in a very limited area and cannot be grown as a cultivated mushroom.

Tuber melanosporum: Known as the winter black truffle, it grows during winter by attaching to the roots of oak, hazelnut, and pine trees in Italy, France, Spain, and the Balkans. It has a distinctive aroma and has a wider growth area as compared to the white truffle. It is the most cultivated type of truffle in different continents of the world.

Tuber aestivum: Known as the summer black truffle, it grows by attaching to the roots of oak, nut, and pine trees in a wide geography spanning from Portugal to Azerbaijan, Morocco to Poland, and Sweden to Afghanistan. It bears lower economic value because it is widely grown and has an easily extracted culture and a lower-density aroma.

Terfezia claveryi: It grows in the spring across steppes and deserts by attaching onto the roots of herbaceous plant species belonging to the genus Helianthemum. It has a unique aroma and has a huge market in the Arab countries. Its culture has started to be extracted in recent years.

Oregon truffle: It grows in winter as attached on the roots of fir trees in Oregon, Washington, and Vancouver. It has white and black types. It has an important market in the U.S despite not being as valuable as the black and white species found in Europe. No results have been obtained from cultural studies yet.

Harvest of truffle

Picking truffles is like picking apples from a tree with the difference that truffles are collected from the root of the tree. It is difficult to understand whether the truffle underground has ripened or not. If the extracted truffle is not ripe enough then its economic value immediately suffers. That is why special dogs are bred to locate truffles. Sensitive to the truffle aroma, these dogs lead their owners by simply pointing out to the places where ripe truffles are found. These dogs are motivated by rewards and are encouraged with better rewards for finding higher quality, larger, and more ripe truffles.

References

• Alhussaini S.M., Saadabi A.M., Hashim K., Al-Ghanayem A.A. (2016). Efficacy of the Desert Truffle Terfezia claveryi to Cure Trachoma Disease with Special Emphasis on Its Antibacterial Bioactivity, Trends in Medical Research, doi: 10.3923/tmr.2016.28.342016, Volume: 11, Issue: 1, pp. 28–34.
• Bukhari, 5708; Muslim, 2049; Abu Dawood, Tibb, 12; Ibn Majah, Tibb, 8.
• Hall I.R., Brown G., Zambonelli A. (2008). Taming the Truffle: The History, Lore, and Science of the Ultimate Mushroom, Timber Press.
• Sahiner Necmeddin, Son Sahitler, Istanbul: Nesil Yayinlari, 2011, Volume 1, pp. 113.
• Trappe M, Claridge AW (2010). “The Hidden Life of Truffles”. Scientific American. April 2010: 78–84.
• Wedén C. (2008). Tryffel. Infotain &Infobooks Sweden AB, Stockholm.

Being a native Indian tree, the Moringa also grows in tropical countries, such as Nigeria. Although its leaves have long been eaten or brewed for health benefits, its effectiveness has not yet been recognized in other parts of the world. Often called the “miracle plant,” there has been a significant amount of research done on the therapeutic properties of the moringa, and this research will hopefully spread knowledge of its healing qualities.

The literature mentions its antioxidant, anticancer, anti-inflammatory, antidiabetic, and antimicrobial properties. Its leaves contain high-quality protein, and the seeds have lipid (fat) in abundance [1]. That is why moringa has a great deal of calcium, potassium, sodium, and iron [2]. It is claimed that moringa has twelve times more vitamin C than oranges, ten times more vitamin A than carrots, seventeen times more calcium than milk, nine times more protein than yogurt, and twenty-five times more iron than spinach.

Moringa is used to treat more than 300 illnesses, especially in Africa. The ancient Egyptians used it as skin cream. Since then, more and more of its cosmetic benefits have been discovered, and it has found a unique place among health-care products today [3]. Moringa is used to accelerate hair growth; treat illnesses such as excessive hair oil, dandruff, and inflammation of the scalp; treat skin wrinkles, blackheads, and pimples in the skin; and to manage eczema and psoriasis. To determine the plant’s ultimate effectiveness, more research and lab work are needed.

After oil extraction, moringa’s seeds and leftovers are used as an organic fertilizer which increases farming efficiency [4]. The seeds, leaves, oil, sap, shells, roots, and flowers are also used for cooking and treatment. The leaves of the plant can be brewed as tea and can be eaten raw as a vegetable.

More than 400 studies carried out over many years have looked into moringa’s effects on illnesses [5]. The significant findings can be summarized as follows: it has been shown to strongly reduce [6] cholesterol and blood fat as well as the atherosclerotic plaques; this effect can even be achieved with the oral consumption of the plant. When peeled, the moringa fruit’s shell reveals a soft white seed, like a chickpea-sized cotton. The seed can be consumed by swallowing it. The moringa’s roots and branches can be grounded and used as powder.

The studies have also revealed that moringa’s usage can help with improving numerous conditions, including but not limited to liver infections such as hepatitis [7], lowering the glucose levels in blood in patients with Diabetes Type-2 [8], various gastrointestinal problems, increasing milk production in nursing mothers, regulating kidney functions, Parkinson’s disease [9], and atopic dermatitis [10].

Some of the studies carried out examine how safe moringa is. People have a general inclination towards consuming natural plants without paying attention to how much they intake. Unfortunately, there are many life threatening and poisonous plants – and other plants that can be dangerous when taken in large quantities. Trying to identify the safety range of moringa, a study that lasted for 14 days examined the effects of it on mice that had depression and used anti-depressants. Researchers found out that moringa does not cause toxicity, provided that the dose does not exceed 2 grams per 2.2 pounds of weight [11]. It would be wise to utilize this plant after the testing process has been completed on humans, and a guide is prepared to show the types of illnesses and the corresponding doses.

Illness is a fact of life. Thankfully, the universe has been created with plants like moringa, which can be used to ease our pains and illnesses. We owe it to ourselves, and to other humans, to study all facets of the universe, including the moringa plant.

References

1. Stohs SJ, Hartman MJ. Review of the Safety and Efficacy of Moringa oleifera. Phytother Res. 2015 Jun;29(6):796-804.
2. Raimunda S, Nogueira B, Jamille AS et al. Research advances on the multiple uses of Moringa oleifera: A sustainable alternative for socially neglected population. Asian Pac J Trop Med 2017;10:621-30.
3. Fahey J. Moringa oleifera: a review of the medical evidence for its nutritional, therapeutic, and prophylactic properties. Trees Life J 2005;1:1-33.
4. Emmanuel SA, Emmanuel BS, Zaku, SG, Thomas SA. Biodiversity and agricultural productivity enhancement in Nigeria: Application of processed Moringa oleifera seeds for improved organic farming. Biol J N Am 2011;2:867-71.
5. Matic I1, Guidi A2, Kenzo M3, Mattei M2, Galgani A2, Investigation of medicinal plants traditionally used as dietary supplements: A review on Moringa oleifera. J Public Health Afr. 2018 Dec 21;9(3):841. doi: 10.4081/jphia.2018.841. eCollection 2018 Dec 21.
6. Chumark P, Khunawat P, Sanvarinda Y, et al. The in vitro and ex vivo antioxidant properties, hypolipidaemic and antiatherosclerotic activities of water extract of Moringa oleifera Lam. leaves. J Ethnopharmacol 2008;116:439-46.
7. Almatrafi MM, Vergara-Jimenez M, Murillo AG, et al. Moringa Leaves Prevent Hepatic Lipid Accumulation and Inflammation in Guinea Pigs by Reducing the Expression of Genes Involved in Lipid Metabolism. Int J Mol Sci 2017;18:E1330.
8. Kumari DJ. Hypoglycaemic effect of Moringa oleifera and Azadirachta indica in type 2 diabees mellitus. Bioscan 2010;5:211-4.
9. Giacoppo S, Rajan TS, De Nicola GR, et al. The Isothiocyanate Isolated from Moringa oleifera Shows Potent Anti- Inflammatory Activity in the Treatment of Murine Subacute Parkinson’s Disease. Rejuvenation Res 2017;20:50-63.
10. Choi EJ, Debnath T, Tang Y, et al. Topical application of Moringa oleifera leaf extract ameliorates experimentally induced atopic dermatitis by the regulation of Th1/Th2/Th17 balance. Biomed Pharmacother 2016;84:870- 7.
11. Kaur G1, Invally M1, Sanzagiri R1, Buttar HS2. Evaluation of the antidepressant activity of Moringa oleifera alone and in combination with fluoxetine. J Ayurveda Integr Med. 2015 Oct-Dec;6(4):273-9. doi: 10.4103/0975-9476.172384.

We live in a magnificent world inhabited by approximately 8,700,000 species. This number includes only general species, not subspecies. Scientists discover around 2,500 new species every year, and the number is soon estimated to reach 10 million.

All living organisms are blessed with unique bodies, systems, and organs, defense and protection mechanisms to survive and protect themselves, and special features to help them forage for food.

When people get ill due to environmental effects or malnutrition they usually consult a doctor. They try to find a cure by using the medicine prescribed by doctors. However, animals living in the wild don’t have this option. When animals living in nature or on the street get ill what can they do if nobody takes them to a vet? How do millions of species get well and find cures for their ailments?

You might think that animals who become sick in the wild must simply live with their symptoms, but this is not the case. In fact, we have given a clue at the introduction: each organism is equipped with features to lead a self-sustaining life. Either their bodily functions perfectly enable them to live in their habitat or their unique metabolisms protect them from harmful external factors. Animals also can use some plants whose health benefits have only recently been discovered by humans.

In recent decades, there has been a growing interest for herbal products such as walnut leaf, cherry stalk tangerine rind, grenadine red, and celery root to find cure for diseases.

Animals perform amazing tasks with mind-blowing adroitness as if each were an expert chemist. Wondrous mechanisms are activated when a need arises to protect animals from harm.

Some plants with healing properties:

Lupine, quassia, bitter wood, hemlock, fishberry, roselle, henbane, giant fennel root, pistachio, resin, pine turpentine, mistletoe, cumin, hibiscus, hibiscus flower, alkanet, flos elaeagni, camphor, cardamom, St John’s wort, French lavender, Flaxseed, linseed oil, henna tree, quillaia, wall germander, cranberry, aspand, daffodil, water lily, common balm and eucalyptus.

Animals have been consuming and finding cures in these plants since the dawn of time. They are also equipped with many surviving capabilities under extremely severe conditions. Here are a few examples:

Antibiotics expert

With a height of up to five meters, the giraffe is the tallest land animal. Scientists who investigated the scent emitted by the giraffe found 11 separate chemical substances in its fur. The chemicals turned out to have antibiotic properties, having an increased efficiency when combined. Only after a series of experiments can these incredibly complex chemicals be extracted in the laboratory. The giraffe has been using these chemicals to prevent fungi and bacteria, repel ticks, and stop the growth of germs. Where did these tall creatures study chemistry to know how to produce antibiotics such as indole?

The stubborn doctor

The bezoar ibex is a type of mountain goat native to Turkey, Iran, Turkmenistan and Pakistan. It has a motley coat of black, brown, grey, reddish-gold, and white. Both the male and female have horns and a goatee. The name means “cure” in Persian, and the locals must have noticed its habit of eating spurge whenever bitten by a snake. Scientists have identified the substance called euphorbone in the spurge plant. Amazingly, an analysis of this substance reveals that certain chemical reactions triggered by euphorbone neutralize the effects of venom. The poisoned creature looks for splurge from among the vegetation, self-medicates, and treats itself free of charge. It sure is no wonder when one realizes that the goat, the snake, and the plant are all created by the same hand.

The master of diving

Divers who ascend too quickly to the surface run the high risk of experiencing the bends, an intense pain that is likely to kill because of the gasses coming out of the bloodstream. But how do billions of creatures that lack oxygen tubes lead their entire lives in the sea without experiencing the bends?

Dolphins and whales, for example, descend to depths humans can’t reach on their own and then rise like it is no big deal. Human lungs cannot endure the pressure under such depths, but the bronchi and air sacs in the lungs of dolphins, however, are placed inside a protective cover of special cartilage. To avoid suffering the bends, dolphins release all the air in their lungs before diving deep. But how then do they breathe? The answer is hidden in their muscles, or rather in the myoglobin protein that is available in much higher amounts than in humans. These proteins have the ability to hold in high amounts of oxygen molecules. The much needed oxygen is provided from this source, enabling dolphins and whales to dive as deep as possible.

Poison for one, food for another

The macaw is an inhabitant of American tropical regions with an average wing span of 80 cm. It is known to be a tough creature that lives as long as 60 years. The macaw feeds on plants that produce a chemical called strychnine (C₂₁H₂₂N₂O₂), a powerful poison intended to ward off enemies. How can a substance that kills some living things nourish others? Immediately after eating the nutritious but poisonous seeds, the macaw flies to the rocky cliffs in a certain area. When they get there, they gnaw at and swallow some clay-based rock pieces. The fact that the bird ingests clay without any apparent reason is quite an interesting behavior. The reason was revealed only after research into the origins of the behavior. It turns out that the rocks that have clay in them include a substance called kaolinite (Al₂O₃.2SiO₂.2H₂O) that can absorb the poison in the seeds. The macaw can digest the normally poisonous seeds thanks to this absorption and live on with its life safely. There is no way the macaw can know about the substances present in the clay, so how does it know to eat the clay that can eliminate toxins?

The antifreeze expert

The arctic beetle survives against the inhospitable cold of the arctic thanks to a type of alcohol produced in its body that works as antifreeze. The glycerol (C₃H₈O₃), also called glycerin, produced by the insect prevents the blood and other fluid molecules from freezing and thus ice crystals from killing the cells and destroying cellular bonds. Furthermore, the shorter the days and the colder the weather, the more resistant the bodily mechanisms of the arctic beetle become. As the temperature drops, the volume of water in their body is reduced and antifreeze substances such as glycerol and sorbitol are produced in greater amounts. Research on this amazing creature has revealed that it can survive in temperatures as low as -87 degrees Celsius due to glycerol. It is beyond reason to expect an insect to know how to produce an organic compound with the complex formula of C₃H₈O₃ and thus protect itself from extreme cold.

The radiation expert

Scientists analyzed a surviving scorpion after an atomic bomb test, yet they couldn’t find a satisfying answer to how this animal survived the radiation shower that exterminated all other living organisms. Note that scorpions which came into existence millions of years ago are basically living fossils. Thanks to the protective system they are blessed with, in the past they have survived more powerful solar explosions and harmful radiation from outer space and the sun, and handed down these features to future generations.

The creature that never feels cold

The tardigrade, or water bear, is one of the most resistant organisms in nature.

The size of a pinhead, these microorganisms have pin-shaped hoses in their mouth.  These microorganisms have a brain, a pair of eyes, and a digestion system, but they do not have a heart or lungs.  600 different subspecies of the animal have been discovered so far. They feed mostly on moss and lichens and can survive in any environment including space.

They have been observed to survive a temperature of 120 ⁰C and a pressure of 1000 atm. In dry environments they contract, causing the water in their tissues to evaporate. During this process, the oxygen consumption of the tardigrade virtually stops. The wind carries the dried tardigrades to other places and when they find a suitable environment (wet moss or humid places) they can come back to life again.

According to Ingemar Jönsson from Kristianstadt University in Sweden who participated in studies on this organism, it is a mystery how these animals survive even when they are subjected to conditions in outer space.

Animals perform amazing tasks with mind-blowing adroitness as if each were an expert chemist. Wondrous mechanisms are activated when a need arises to protect animals from harm. It is wondrous to see how animals can carry out these complex chemical procedures as if they have been instructed at birth.

Why do plants live such long lives? And could the cure to many illnesses be found in their secrets?

One of the underlying reasons behind research into the life spans of living things is that researchers hope to find out how to extend human life. It is widely accepted that the fundamental biochemical and metabolic workings of aging are encoded in the human genome, some lines of which we are familiar with. For example, we know that reducing calorie intake extends life, vegetarians outlive non-vegetarians (on average), and the shortening of telomeres at the ends of chromosomes parallels aging. It should still be remembered that there are many unknowns about human life span.

Many plants live far longer than animals. Herbaceous plants, which are generally annuals or biennials, have soft anatomical structures. As can be understood from their lack of woody tissues, they are not given a long life. Still, there are controversies about the life spans of certain herbaceous species. For example, the plants presumed dead after withering in autumn have roots underground which blossom again in the spring. Is this blossoming the creation of a new plant or is it the re-emergence of the plant whose roots were hidden underground?

When the life spans of shrub-like plants, whose roots run deeper, are examined, it can be seen that annual flowers are not created individually, as are animals. Rather, some of their parts wither during the winter, while the plant as a whole, which has retreated for a while, simply re-blooms.

Summer flowers and vegetables are annual plants, living from spring to autumn. Plants with tubers, such as turnips and certain orchids, can live two years or more. Although their roots may remain underground for several years, the visible flowers remain alive for the summer only.

Trees, on the other hand, are hardwired both anatomically and physiologically to live long lives. They have stems made of strong wood tissues and root systems that can spread across a wide area. Yet there are considerable differences between tree species. They have to obey the life spans dictated by their genetic programming.

Plants that have long life spans

The oldest known tree was a spruce discovered in Sweden in 2004 by Leif Kullmann. Radioactive carbon isotope testing showed that it was 9,550 years old. There is also Pinus aistata, a pine species living in California that has withstood the test of natural elements. Longaeva is 5,066 years old. The ages of certain trees cannot be confirmed, such as that of the Tamrit cypresses in Algeria, which are considered to be 4,000-5,000 years old, and the Japanese cedar, some of which are thought to be 7,000 years old.

Why is it that some plants can only live five to eight years, including the life of their seeds? In contrast, the beech (Fagus) can live 500-1,000 years; the common yew (Taxus baccata) for 100-3,000 years; the oak (Ouercus) for 500-1,300 years; the Bristlecone pine (Pinus aristata) for 4,900 years; the great sequoia (Sequoiadendron giganteum) for 4,000 years; the coast redwood (Sequoia sempervirens) for 2,100 years; the cedar (Cedrus) for 1000 years; and the cypress (Cupressus) for 2000 years.

Scientific studies into the Huon pines (Lagarostrobos franklinii), which grow on a mountain northwest of Tasmania, show that they have descended from a parent tree through cloning to form the group of trees in the area. The oldest of this group of Huon pines is estimated to be 2,000 years old, and the group to be 10,500 years old. As the root system has developed since the ancient times, those that reached the age of 2,000 have died, but the descendants – which have the same genetic structure – have maintained the existence of these trees.

In 2009, a research team led by Jeffrey Ross-Ibarra of the University of California stumbled upon a shrub oak called Quercus palmeri that has survived by cloning from the same root for 13,000 years. The researchers claimed that the plant, which has survived since the ice age, was now accustomed to heat and drought. New sprouts that develop slowly from the stems of this plant can grow higher than 20 meters. This tree can be even 10,000 years older than the oldest California sequoia tree.

The genome is the book where our biological codes for the color of our eyes, shape of our ears and noses are written. The same goes for plants, too. It is more likely that a plant will live longer if it is equipped with the genetic hardware that can withstand factors such as cold, heat, and disease.

Durable plants need only water, minerals, and air to survive. The physiological processes that are activated according to the genetic codes give rise to mind-boggling strategies for protection against the harshest weather conditions. These strategies are very complex and imply so high a level of consciousness that needs to take environmental conditions into account and develop tactics to stay alive against any harm that may come from insects or to prevent them from cracking open in the cold. If a plant cannot get water, it coils slowly, withers, sags, and loses its leaves. None of these, however, means the immediate death of the plant, which can maintain life for a long time through numerous metabolic changes. When it finds water, it comes back to life.

Plants lie at the heart of life on Earth. Plants function like laboratories in which the carbon dioxide in the air is converted into basic foodstuff like sugar, and then into fat, protein, or starch by using sunlight. They also release oxygen into the air and help animals and humans breathe.

In humans and many animals, nutrients are transported via the rhythmic beats of the heart, which acts like a pump. In plants, no organ is present to pump water and nutrients. Despite this, nutrients are transported non-stop through their bodies. How?

This movement is enabled via perfectly planned biochemical and physical laws. Nutrients that are obtained from the environment or synthesized in cells are transported in their own vascular channels. Minerals, vitamins, fructose, and hormones are delivered by these vessels to cells, sometimes hundreds of meters away.

The different parts of trees have different mechanisms for keeping them healthy. The rigid, long, powerful support tissue (sclerenchyma) and the ground vascular capillaries (parenchyma) assist with the support and transport of materials in the trunk. Thick and meter wide trunks, made of hard, lengthy fibers can withstand winds and storms for thousands of years due to their special architecture, which delivers organic materials to the entire organism.

The process begins in the roots, which have very critical tasks, as well as morphological and physiological specifications. The root tip advances deep into the soil, using its regenerative, cone-shaped, protective tissue (the calyptra). Damaged and lost cells at the tip are replaced. The upper tissue layer has absorbent hairs (Epidermic cells) that take in water and minerals from the soil after differentiating according to their genetic program.

After being absorbed through the roots, nutrients and water are taken into the plant’s “vessels.” These vessels are lifeless ligneous ducts that can quickly transport water and many minerals via long and sturdy channels (xylem). Living channels with filter-like porous walls (phloem) slowly transport organic materials to the necessary tissues. In these porous cells, the nuclei and some membranous organelles are eliminated to facilitate material transport.

Nearby companion cells help support metabolism. This kind of cooperation and communication are routinely observed in the natural world, showing an incredible compassion between cells and organisms through electromagnetic, ionic, and nuclear forces of molecules.

The xylem and phloem vessels feature the finest forms of the arts of endurance, decoration, distribution, architecture and design, and they are produced from reproductive and differentiating cells (called Meristem tissue). They exist in tree trunks that are hundreds of meters high, and also in tiny ferns. The roots of perennial plants are as robust as the columns holding up a sea platform. This architectural feature helps support the plant’s body in the best way.

Another part of the process, and one of the most important features of plants, is the synthesis of organic food material with the help of sun rays and photosynthesis. The transport of nutrients generated via photosynthesis inside the vascular tissue is fascinating. Elements of the vascular tissue carry out different tasks; cooperation is once again key: the porous channels carry organic material and the ligneous tubes carry water. Vascular bundles transport these nutrients from one leaf towards the root cell via diffusion, active transport, and fluidic pressure. Bark, on the outer part of a tree’s trunk, is merely protective – much as skin is for humans.

There are assimilation cells in charge of photosynthesis in plant leaves. Traveling on these cells, water and solute material transit towards the major vascular bundles via cytoplasmic (the symplast) or cell wall channels (the apoplast). Conversely, the cells providing nutrients to photosynthetic, organic food synthesizing cells and demanding tissues, are source cells. By utilizing carbon dioxide, water, or nitrous salts together with energy coming from light, various foods are produced in the source cells. With the help of many chloroplast organelles, as well as the chlorophyll and enzymes inside the source cells, the organic materials which have been produced are conducted to companion cells. These nutrients pass into sieved, porous channels from the companion cells.

As nutrients pass into the semi-empty, living, porous parts of the cell walls, their fluid absorbing capacity also improves. By releasing some water from the neighboring lifeless, ligneous channel bundles, water pressure forms in the porous cells. The nutrient flow is maintained at a stable and sized speed thanks to the finest architecture of and rigidity found in the system.

Fructose, sucrose and other important nutrients easily pass towards the tissue cells from the porous cells as the fluid pressure grows. When necessary, the right amount of food is stored in preparation for winter or harsh weather.

The last part of the process enables the transfer of nutrients. Through active transport, diffusion, and pressure flow, the required organic nutrients can be transferred everywhere. The cells that enable the transfer are the pool cells. They generate a great osmotic pressure density at the roots.

During the processing of food, possible harmful substances like mud, or carbon dioxide taken from the air, are processed and converted into wonderful nutrients. Some of these nutrients are even converted into food for people and animals. In the pool cells, many delicious fruits like pomegranates, oranges, grapes, and cherries are produced. While plants consume the mud and carbon dioxide themselves, they offer the best of food to humans and animals in a beautiful program of art and creation.

The whole process is really quite miraculous when you look at the entire things:

Water and dissolved minerals are received from the soil by the absorption of the epidermis cells. By transpiration, the pull between the hydrogen atoms of the water molecules (cohesion) enables the transport of liquids in the ligneous tubes all the way to leaf tips. Water molecules in the capillary shaped ligneous tubes rise quickly, with a physical force. Water and salts obtained from the soil are, in a way, pumped to all organs with the assistance of the fluidic osmotic pressure in the roots. The transport of water to higher levels is better facilitated by a different attraction force (adhesion) between the vascular bundles and water molecules. In time, the pool cells take in and store organic nutrients with the help of their receptor structures, thus lowering the density of the porous channels. Due to the osmotic balance principle, the excess waters are returned back to the ligneous tubes. The material transport speeds up during the day because of transpiration and photosynthesis, and it slows down during the night.

Agrochemical control of plant water use via engineered abscisic acid receptors
Park et al. Nature, February 2015.

A recent breakthrough study reported that scientists successfully engineered drought-tolerant plants by adding a new piece of DNA to their genomes. Crops and many types of plants are increasingly challenged by hostile environmental conditions such as globally warming temperatures and diminishing water sources. Plants have very small openings called “stomata” that let carbon dioxide in and oxygen out. Each stoma is surrounded by two guard cells that control opening and closing using osmotic pressure. During daytime, the stomata lets plants allow carbon dioxide in and oxygen out. Since the air around the leaves is often drier than inside, water molecules also move out through the stomata – a process called transpiration. Under the stress of drought, plants produce a hormone called abscisic acid (ABA). When ABA is released, it makes guard cells close the stomata and in turn keeps the plant from losing the water. Scientists previously thought that if they could spray ABA on a whole field, plants would survive a drought. However, since ABA is very expensive and highly sensitive to light, this strategy never became an option. Then, scientists decided to take the commonly used fungicide mandipropamid and genetically engineered the plants to respond to mandipropamid as if it were ABA. By adding a new piece of DNA into genomes, plants ended up having slightly different ABA receptors, which can be efficiently activated by mandipropamid.  Researchers tried this approach on two different plants: tomatoes and Arabidopsis. When mandipropamid was sprayed, genetically engineered plants stopped transpiration, and hence were able to survive for 12 days without water. The next challenge is to test this strategy in real world crops. This approach potentially opens new avenues for crop improvement that could highly benefit a growing world population.

3D Vaccines to Cure the Cancer

Injectable, spontaneously assembling, inorganic scaffolds modulate immune cells in vivo and increase vaccine efficacy
Kim J et al. Nature Biotechnology, December 2014.

Cancer is a devastating disease.  The World Health Organization (WHO) predicts that global cancer incidence rates will grow by nearly 60% to 22 million cases per year over the next two decades. The effective cure for cancer has not been developed yet, mostly due to its ability to escape the body’s immune system. Unlike infectious reagents like bacteria and viruses, cancer cells are actually our own cells that are broken and misplaced; they cause trouble as they grow. Scientists have been trying hard to develop vaccines that activate the immune system to recognize tumor cells as foreign and attack them. In a recent study, scientists reported that they designed a “3D vaccine” to effectively provoke the immune system to fight cancer. The 3D vaccine is composed of many microsized, porous silica rods submersed in liquid, where any combination of tumor antigens and immune-stimulating reagents can be loaded into.  Once the 3D vaccine is injected under the skin, it forms into a dime-sized scaffold that creates an “infection-mimicking microenvironment.” The scaffold then attracts the dendritic cells that patrol the body for harmful pathogens. When the scaffold was tested in mice, it showed over a 90% survival rate in animals that would normally die from lymphoma within 25 days. Further analyses in mice showed that the 3D vaccine can recruit, house, and manipulate immune cells to initiate a powerful immune response against cancer. As much as the discovery is promising, one should keep in mind that much more evidence will be required to establish 3D vaccines as a feasible way of combating human cancer.

Smoking Shrinks the Brain

Cigarette smoking and thinning of the brain’s cortex
Karama S et al. Molecular Psychiatry, February 2015.

Smoking is regarded as the single most preventable cause of disease, disability, and death. Past studies strongly linked smoking to cancer and lung diseases. A recent study now shows that smokers have a thinner brain cortex than non-smokers. The cortex is the outer brain layer in which critical cognitive functions such as memory, language, and perception take place. It is well known that the cortex becomes thinner with normal aging and cortical thinning is associated with cognitive decline and dementia. The study found that smoking accelerates this thinning process. Researchers analyzed brain MRI scans of 244 males and 260 females with an average age of 73, around half of whom were former or current smokers. Participants who had given up smoking for the longest time had a thicker cortex compared with those who had given up recently. Researchers cautiously suggest that the cortex might regain some thickness once smokers quit but the recovery is very slow and incomplete. For example, heavy smokers who had quit more than 25 years before still had a thinner cortex.

Love is the bond between all things – the light and life of existence. We love ourselves, our families, the place we live, our nation, living things, the world, and the whole universe. We feel pleasure when people we love are happy, and we feel pain at their pain. Sometimes it is hard to see something as so valuable or wonderful, particularly when there is plenty of it to go around or when it happens all the time. We forget that every healthy baby born is a miracle. We are surprised by one that has seven toes, not the ones who are perfect. How many of us are grateful every time we swallow something, take a breath, sleep or even go to the bathroom? If somebody loses sleep, or loses a kidney, then they know how good it was when they had it. Maybe sometimes we should think in the negative to see how it is right now.

For instance, let’s assume there wasn’t love in the world. Just think: nobody loved their spouses, their kids, their jobs, their country, employees, students, or friends. The trees feed themselves with muddy water, but feed their kids (fruit) with sugar, milk, and honey. What if they didn’t? What if they just became selfish? What if God didn’t love us? Didn’t listen to our prayers, and punished us with every little mistake we made? Would the sun still come up and smile at us in the morning? Would rain fall to give life to soil? Maybe not… The sun loves the plants, the plants love the sun. Animals like plants, and we love all of them. Love connects everything and everybody together. It forms families, turns a job or a class into fun, and makes labor pains bearable. It makes this big, scary, dark world, a home.

Whose faults do you see more clearly – those you love or those you don’t love? Doesn’t love hide all flaws and even turn flaws into something you might love later?

If I had to make a recipe for love, I would add more compassion than passion. Lots of relationships start with passionate love, but they will last longer when there is compassion. Love is not always looking at each other; sometimes it is simply looking in the same direction.

Our nature consists of a body and a soul. The body is to the soul what a purse is to the gold it holds. It is the spirit that matters, not the body. When the soul leaves the body, they do not let it stay at home. They bury it quickly. Our bodies are like a torch. Our reason, knowledge, and love are the light coming out of it. They light up our way. Remember that the two containers in us, the mind and the heart, never fill up. The more you learn, the more you can learn; the more you love, the more you can love. Our souls can also be compared to a pool. Our behaviors, habits, our five senses, and what we see, hear, and feel with them are like taps filling it up. What is in the pool depends on what flows from the taps. What do you want to fill it with? Love, hate, gossip, prayer, nice words, apps? You pick…

Love is the greatest motivator of all time. The wind and the sun argue about who is the strongest. The wind points to a guy on the street and says it will make the man lose his jacket. However, the mightier it blows, the harder the guy holds on to his jacket. When the sun shows its face, he takes it off willingly. Love and fear are two very strong feelings. You can make your kids eat healthy and you can make your students study; you can make your employees work hard and, in general, you can make people do things by intimidating them with harsh words, but this motivation is temporary. When you are not looking, they will go back to their old ways. But if it is in their heart, if they love it, you don’t have to be watching them all the time.

It is impossible to for me to not remember Rumi, the heart of the circle of guidance of his time, when thinking about love. People from all religions were drawn to him like spiritual butterflies drawn to light. He has been titled, “The Sultan of Lovers.” His is divine love, a fiery one with constant longing. During separation, he burns with fire. He shows no discontent though, because of the requirement for passion. Refraining from complaint is a sign of loyalty towards the beloved. For him, death is like a festival; it is a means for unity with the loved one. Rumi unifies the love of God with the love of humanity. He came to the conclusion that to love humans is to love God. A Turkish saying – we love all creation for we love the Creator – works in parallel with this.

Even if I don’t know what to say about love, I hope I can at least feel it and spread it. I hope all of us have lives filled with infinite love. Love that will make us love more, that will help us to be better people, and to really feel that we are alive. As Rumi says, “Every mortal will taste death, but only some will taste life.”

Balci holds M.S. in Microbiology and Molecular Biology. She is currently a Science teacher at Pinnacle Academy, VA.

You need to read “The Very Lonely Firefly,” a story book delighting children of all ages by Eric Carle (1) to get the answer. In the mean time, you can read this article to have better insight into the enchanting world of the firefly. Are they just a pleasure to our eyes, during their short lives in the summer, or do they live on in children’s books?

Fireflies, or lightning bugs, belong to the Lampyridae family. There are thousands of firefly species all over the world and none of them are actually flies. Then what are they? Well, they are beetles, who get the names “firefly” and “lightning bug” because of the flashes of light emanating from their bodies, a process called bioluminescence (2). This “cold light” does not heat up or burn its producer through infrared or ultraviolet frequencies, and is formed by the action of an enzyme called luciferase in the lower abdomen of the firefly. It may be yellow, green, or pale red, with wavelengths from 510 to 670 nanometers. The enzyme luciferase acts on the luciferin, in the presence of magnesium ions, ATP, and oxygen to produce light (3). According to Vieira et al., 2012, in the Journal of Photochemistry and Photobiology, the firefly’s luciferase is the most important and studied bioluminescence system in scientific research(4). The firefly luciferase was cloned and isolated for the purpose of constructing bioassay systems in the late 1980s (5). Since then, due to very interesting characteristics, this system has been used in numerous biomedical, pharmaceutical and bioanalytical applications (4).

In biomedical research, the ability to visualize a biological process is very important because it offers the most direct method to support or disprove any scientific claim (6). Therefore, firefly luciferase is very desirable as a reporter in this area. Typically, the luciferase gene is cloned with a DNA sequence of interest into cells and then the cells are assayed by measuring its bioluminescence. Fusing a protein with luciferase is like putting a reflective vest on a cyclist in the dark to be able to watch him. Because the firefly luciferase lights up, it helps screening for chemical biology and drug discovery applications in academia and the pharmaceutical industry (5). For example, the firefly luciferase gene was used as a reporter to screen tumor-specific promoters in lung cancer (7). Another example showing how beneficial the firefly is for scientific research is a rapid in vivo (Latin for within the living) assessment of drug efficacy against Mycobacterium tuberculosis, which is the causative agent of most cases of tuberculosis, using an improved firefly luciferase (8). In this study, Andreu et al., 2013, used a Mycobacterium tuberculosis strain carrying a red-shifted derivative of the firefly luciferase gene to infect mice, and they monitored disease progression in living animals by bioluminescence imaging before and after treatment with a frontline anti-tuberculosis drug. Furthermore, firefly luciferase was used in a research about anti-malaria drugs, an illness which affects about 5% of the world’s population and brings a death toll of 0.5–2.5 million each year (9).

Firefly luciferase is not only used in biomedical research, but also in molecular plant biology. In the early ’90s, plant scientists were already able to show the bioluminescence of a promoter fragment fused to the firefly luciferase gene and its regulation by phytochrome (a pigment that plants use to detect light) and the circadian clock (a roughly 24 hour cycle in the physiological processes of living beings) (10) in plants. Some examples for the great usage of this system among many others include a firefly luciferase complementation assay that was used to reveal the interacting partners of Open Stomata 1 protein, which is critical for plant drought responses in Brassica oleracea (cabbage) (11) and the characterization of the promoter region of an important gene encoding a copper chaperone for the copper/zinc superoxide dismutase that is involved in oxidative stress protection of the potato plant (12).

Scientists have found many ways to use the firefly light, but what is the function of it for its real owner? Marc Branham, an assistant professor in the department of entomology and nematology at the University of Florida, explains. “Fireflies seem to flash light for a variety of reasons. The larvae produce short glows and are primarily active at night, even though many species are subterranean (underground) or semi-aquatic. Fireflies produce defensive steroids in their bodies that make them unpalatable to predators. Larvae use their glows as warning displays to communicate their distastefulness. As adults, many fireflies have flash patterns distinctive to their species and use them to identify other members of their species as well as to discriminate between members of the opposite sex. Several studies have shown that female fireflies choose mates depending upon specific male flash pattern characteristics. Higher male flash rates, as well as increased flash intensity, have been shown to be more attractive to females in two different firefly species (13).”

Are there other creatures like fireflies producing light? “Besides fireflies, many other organisms, especially marine creatures, use bioluminescence for sexual selection, attracting prey and as a means of camouflage, and it has been estimated that about 90 percent of deep-sea animals are bioluminescent, according to the Scripps Institution of Oceanography,” says Remy Melina, a staff writer for “Life’s Little Mysteries.”(14)

A firefly’s glow is a theme of summer nights, romantic poems, and childhood adventures and books. However, when you enjoy a firework show done by fireflies next time, please look at them more carefully by thinking that they have more than that to offer humanity, including thrilling scientific inventions done with just a single protein from them. Who knows what else they have waiting to be discovered by us? How amazing it is that, like everything else created on earth, a firefly is also a very precious art piece decorated with intricate features, and even though it is very tiny, its service to humanity is, in many ways, enormous.

References

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/sample/read/9780399227745
National Wildlife Federation
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firefly
Vieira J, Pinto da Silva L, Esteves da Silva JC (2012) Advances in the knowledge of light emission by firefly luciferin and oxyluciferin. J Photochem Photobiol B. 117:33-9.
Thorne N, Inglese J, Auld DS (2010) Illuminating insights into firefly luciferase and other bioluminescent reporters used in chemical biology. Chem Biol. 17(6):646-57>
Brogan J, Li F, Li W, He Z, Huang Q, Li CY (2012) Imaging molecular pathways: reporter genes Radiat Res. 177(4):508-13.
Xu R, Guo LJ, Xin J, Li WM, Gao Y, Zheng YX, Guo YH, Lin YJ, Xie YH, Wu YQ, Xu RA (2013) Luciferase assay to screen tumour-specific promoters in lung cancer.Asian Pac J Cancer Prev. 14(11):6557-62.
Andreu N, Zelmer A, Sampson SL, Ikeh M, Bancroft GJ, Schaible UE, Wiles S, Robertson BD (2013) Rapid in vivo assessment of drug efficacy against Mycobacterium tuberculosis using an improved firefly luciferase. J Antimicrob Chemother. 68(9):2118-27.
Che P, Cui L, Kutsch O, Cui L, Li Q (2012) Validating a firefly luciferase-based high-throughput screening assay for antimalarial drug discovery. Assay Drug Dev Technol. 10(1):61-8.
Millar AJ, Short SR, Chua NH, Kay SA (1992) A novel circadian phenotype based on firefly luciferase expression in transgenic plants. Plant Cell.4(9):1075-87.
Wang M, Yuan F, Hao H, Zhang Y, Zhao H, Guo A, Hu J, Zhou X, Xie CG (2013) BolOST1, an ortholog of Open Stomata 1 with alternative splicing products in Brassica oleracea, positively modulates drought responses in plants. Biochem Biophys Res Commun. 442(3-4):214-20.
Trindade LM, Horvath BM, Bergervoet MJ, Visser RG (2003) Isolation of a gene encoding a copper chaperone for the copper/zinc superoxide dismutase and characterization of its promoter in potato. Plant Physiol. 133(2):618-29.
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-and-why-do-fireflies/
http://www.livescience.com/32677-what-makes-fireflies-light-up.html

Astronomers have discovered a planet with the longest known orbital period. Exoplanet Kepler-421b has been identified through the Kepler observatory, a space-based telescope. It circles its star once every 704 days. More than 1800 exoplanets have been discovered so far, but compared to Kepler-421b, those had much shorter orbital periods, like a few weeks or even a few days. The host star for Kepler-421b is much like the sun, but it is little bit smaller and relatively cooler. With an orbital distance of 177 million kilometers, Kepler-421b gets about one-fourth the light from the host star as the Earth receives from the sun, which makes the exoplanet as cold as -100 °C. The unusual orbit places Kepler-421b beyond the “snow line,” which is accepted as the dividing line between rocky and gaseous planets. Outside of the snow line, water condenses into ice grains that stick together to build planets known as “gas giants.” Since gas giant planets are very close to their stars, theorists believe that many exoplanets migrate inward early in their history. However, Kepler-421b is the first example of why such migration may not be necessary.

Sunflowers’ internal clock

Plants are known to grow toward the sun to maximize the amount of energy they absorb. Sunflowers (Helianthus annuus) show the most fascinating behavior during summer, when they follow the sun as it rises in the east every morning and sets in the west every evening. In a recent study, scientists challenged the obvious explanation for this plant’s behavior: are flowers solely responding to sunlight or are there other unknown mechanisms at work? They designed a clever yet simple experiment where they grew sunflowers in chambers with a fixed overhead light that was continuously on. Surprisingly, for several days, the sunflowers under constant light kept moving as if the sun were rising in the east and setting in the west. This unexpected result suggests that sunflowers were not responding only to the direction of the light but also to an internal biological clock. Furthermore, they discovered that sunflowers bend when one side of the stem grows faster than the other. For example, the west side of the stem seems to grow faster to bend the plant towards the east in the morning. Scientists now hope to understand how an internal biological clock in sunflowers has the opposite effects on opposite sides of the stem. Sunflowers are not the only plants performing this diurnal dance; other agriculturally important crops such as soybeans and cotton exhibit the very same behavior. Solar tracking is known to boost plant yield and discovering the mechanisms of how plants track the sunlight might have important implications for improving global agricultural yields.

Friends linked by genes

It is a common observation that close friends look alike. Even centuries ago, Plato noted the tendency that good friends usually have similar appearances. Recently, a group of geneticists took this idea even further and suggest that people on average tend to choose friends who are genetically similar. The study provided convincing evidence that we have more DNA sequences in common with the people we pick as friends than we do with strangers in the same population. Researchers performed a genome-wide analysis of approximately 1.5 million markers of gene variations from 1,932 subjects of the Framingham Heart Study, which is one of the most comprehensive genetic databases. They identified 1300 pairs of non-relative friends and compared their genetic information to each other. The analyses showed that friends share similar genetic variations (around 1% genomewide), to the degree that it is as if they have the same great-great-great-grandparent – in other words, as if they were fourth cousins. Notably, friend pairs seem to have the greatest similarity in the genes that are responsible for a sense of smell and they show the most difference in immunity-related genes. Friendship entails spending a lot of time together and looking out for each other. Odors are strong behavioral cues in human psychology and people with similar olfactory preferences might like to prefer living or hanging out in similar environments. Likewise, it is potentially a big advantage that friends don’t get infected from the same microbes at the same times, so that one of them can take care of the other. As much as these anthropological implications are merely speculations with many caveats – and despite there being many obvious social, ethnical, and cultural factors that help determine friendships – the genetic basis of friendship and other social interactions may hold answers to at least some of the mysteries of human behavior.