Biotechnology team at University of Tübingen obtains valuable byproduct in protein production – Contribution to feeding a growing world population without livestock farming

To ensure that food proteins do not become scarce in the future despite extreme weather conditions and increasing environmental stress, six Fraunhofer Institutes are focusing on indoor farming systems in the lighthouse project „FutureProteins“ (alternative protein sources). How can wheatgrass, alfalfa, and potatoes be successfully grown indoors without soil, using only artificial lighting? And are these methods not only ecologically sustainable but also economically viable? Fraunhofer IWU is focused on this aspect, as the price tag is crucial for accepting product innovations in the food sector. In regions with significant poverty, high prices could make such products inaccessible.

A new study by the Berlin Institute for Population and Development shows the challenges young people in Africa face when it comes to realising their sexual and reproductive self-determination.

A multi-national European study provides the first comprehensive clinical and genomic data on the Mycobacterium avium complex from continental Europe. The data reveal the population structure of this group of pathogens and indicate that plasmids play a significant role in the their evolution and might contribute to resistance and virulence of these bacteria.

In a recent article published in the journal Nature Plants, the authors used simulation experiments to show that nitrogen fertilization in wheat cultivation will have to increase up to fourfold in the coming years to exploit the yield potential of the varieties and feed the growing world population. However, this increased amount of nitrogen would have a negative impact on ecosystems in the agricultural landscape. Researchers from the Leibniz Centre for Agricultural Landscape Research (ZALF) were involved in the study.

In the battle against climate change, mangroves are important allies – they store up to five times more carbon dioxide than other trees. A recently developed method from researchers in the member institutes of the U Bremen Research Alliance now provides more detailed information about the population of mangrove forests, which can help to protect these.

The approval of marijuana for medical use has had little effect on the mental health of the general population in the US. But legalization for therapeutic purposes does benefit those for whom it is intended. This is the conclusion of a study by researchers at the University of Basel.

A recent study led by researchers from the German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv), the Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg (MLU) and the non-profit conservation organization Re:wild shows that the threat of mining to the great ape population in Africa has been greatly underestimated. Their results have been published in Science Advances.

The local health authority is a central pillar for protecting the health of the population. Peo-ple in socially disadvantaged circumstances are an important target group for the public health service. Social inequality and health is the motto for this year’s Local Health Authority Day on 19 March. „Education, occupation and income also influence health opportunities and life expectancy in Germany,“ emphasises Prof. Dr Lars Schaade, President of the Robert Koch Institute. The social inequality of health opportunities and disease risks is also a focus of epidemiological research and health reporting at the Robert Koch Institute.

How a few soldier cells confer virulence to an entire bacterial population by sacrificing themselves

Bioinformatics: Publication in Cell Systems

Vaccine development aims at protecting as many people as possible from infections. Short protein fragments of pathogens, so-called epitopes, are seen as a promising new approach for vaccine development. In the scientific journal Cell Systems, bioinformaticians from Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf (HHU) now present a method for identifying those epitopes that promise safe immunisation across the broadest possible population group. They have also computed vaccine candidates against the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 using their HOGVAX tool.

It has long been known that people can form defenses and thus antibodies against viruses. But antibodies can also develop against polyethylene glycol (PEG), a substance used in cosmetics, food and medicine. These influence the effectiveness of drugs. A team of researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research has now investigated how widespread these antibodies already are in German society and how they might influence medical therapies using nanocarriers.

Nur die korrekte Analyse und Interpretation der stetig wachsenden Menge an medizinischen Daten kann zu wissenschaftlichen Durchbrüchen und essenziellen Therapien für Patient:innen verhelfen. Computerwissenschaftler:innen von Helmholtz Munich haben ein generatives Modell namens scPoli (single-cell population level integration) entwickelt, um die Datenintegration von hochauflösenden Einzelzell-Datensätzen durchzuführen. So können Referenzkarten des menschlichen Körpers auf Einzelzellebene, sogenannte Einzelzell-Atlanten, für die medizinische Forschung erstellt werden.

The increasing amount of data recorded in medical research can only lead to scientific breakthroughs and essential therapies for patients if interpreted and analyzed correctly. Computer scientists at Helmholtz Munich developed a generative model named scPoli (single-cell population level integration), that performs data integration of high-quality large-scale datasets of single cells to create valuable single-cell reference maps of the human body, so-called single-cell atlases, for medical research.

Während viele Arten gerade zahlenmäßig und hinsichtlich ihres Verbreitungsgebiets drastisch zurückgehen, scheinen andere gut zu gedeihen. So ist es beispielsweise einer Vogelart, den Großschwanzgrackeln, in den letzten Jahrzehnten gelungen, neue Populationen in ganz Nordamerika zu gründen. Forschende haben nun herausgefunden, dass der Schlüssel zum Erfolg der Tiere in ihrem Verhalten stecken könnte: Die Population am Rande des Verbreitungsgebiets ist beharrlicher und verfügt über eine größere Flexibilitätsvielfalt. Darüber hinaus hat die Vogelart ihren Lebensraum größtenteils in städtische, trockene Umgebungen verlagert.

Genfluss einer extinkten Gorilla-Population zu rezenten Berggorillas entdeckt

In view of a growing world population and the issue of global food security, the following number is staggering: According to the German Federal Ministry of Agriculture, 78 kilograms of food are thrown away per capita every year in Germany alone. Over 50 percent of global waste along the food value chain is generated in private households. People thus spend money on products that then end up in the garbage bin. But what is the background to this irrational behavior, which is more than a private decision in the face of resource scarcity?

In autumn 2022 and winter 2023, a total of 20 cheetahs from Namibia and South Africa were introduced to Kuno National Park in India to establish a free-ranging population – for the first time since their extinction in India 70 years ago. Although the idea may be commendable, getting it right is not so easy. Scientists of the Cheetah Research Project of Leibniz-IZW in Namibia see shortcomings in the reintroduction plan. The cheetah population density planned for Kuno National Park exceeds the usual population densities of cheetahs, the team argues in a letter in the scientific journal “Conservation Science and Practice”.

Im Herbst 2022 und Winter 2023 wurden insgesamt 20 Geparde aus Namibia und Südafrika im Kuno Nationalpark in Indien angesiedelt, um eine freilebende Population zu etablieren – zum ersten Mal seit ihrem Aussterben in Indien vor 70 Jahren. Obgleich die Idee zunächst großartig erscheint, ist die richtige Umsetzung nicht einfach. Wissenschaftler:innen des Gepardenforschungsprojekts des Leibniz-IZW in Namibia sehen Versäumnisse bei der Planung der Wiederansiedlung, die von zu hohen Bestandsdichten für die Geparde im Kuno-Nationalpark ausgehen.

The around 400 local health authorities in Germany – like local health authorities all over the world – are the backbone of all efforts to promote the health of the population. They also play a decisive role in prevention and health promotion, the motto for this year’s Local Health Authority Day on 19 March.

Daurian redstarts move their nesting sites closer to or even inside human settlements when cuckoos are around. In doing so, they actively protect their nest against brood parasitism, as cuckoos avoid human settlements. An international team of scientists showed both observational and experimental evidence for this anti-parasitism strategy in a population of Daurian redstarts in northeastern China. Their research illustrates how the breeding behavior of two interacting bird species co-evolves. It also gives us a glimpse on how urbanization can affect interspecific interactions.

Bark beetles use volatile fungal metabolites of plant defense substances as important chemical signals in their attack on spruce trees. A research team led by the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology shows that the insects have olfactory sensory neurons specialized for detecting these volatile compounds. The fungal metabolites likely provide important clues to the beetles about the presence of beneficial fungi, the defense status of the trees, and the population density of their conspecifics. The study highlights the importance of chemical communication in maintaining symbiosis between bark beetles and their fungal partners.

How picky should females and males be when they choose a mate? How fiercely should they compete for mates? And how much should they engage in raising their offspring? The answers to these questions largely depend on the ratio of adult females to males in the social group, population or species. This is the conclusion of a review by a scientific team with the participation of the German Primate Center – Leibniz Institute for Primate Research (DPZ), the Max Planck Institute for Biological Intelligence, in foundation, and the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research (Leibniz-IZW). The paper is published in the journal “Biological Reviews”.

An international team of scientists led by the Museum für Naturkunde Berlin and the University of Potsdam generated the first two nuclear genomes of the extinct blue antelope. At 9,950 years, one of the genomes is the oldest sequenced from the African continent to date. The genomic data provide insight into a species‘ extinction. The blue antelope is the only large African mammal species to have become extinct in historical times. The results of this study published in Molecular Biology and Evolution, show that, despite low population sizes, the blue antelope survived the climatic upheavals of the last 10,000 and more years, until the arrival of European settlers put an end to the species.

When different cell types compete in a confined space, those which remove debris faster have a better chance to dominate their environment. Researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization (MPI-DS) showed in their model that not only a higher net proliferation rate, but also the swift removal of dead cells provides a competitive advantage. They mixed two cell populations only differing in debris removal rate and showed that already after a few generations the population with the higher removal rate starts to dominate the confined space.