Doctors strike work demanding safe work environment
A resident doctor at Sion Hospital was allegedly assaulted on Saturday by the relatives of a patient who died a few hours after being admitted.A resident doctor in Dhule civil hospital was brutally attacked when he suggested a patient brought with head injury be taken to another hospital since they lacked neurosurgeon’s expertise. Forty-nine doctors have been attacked in Maharashtra alone since 2015. There is even an online petition in change.org seeking safe work environment for doctors. Doctors in Maharashtra launched a state-wide protest since the Sion Hospital incident and they’ve been getting support from their medical fraternity across the nation.As doctors were on mass leave, thousands of patients at public hospitals are inconvinienced. Surgeries were cancelled, several patients were turned away from Out Patient Departments (OPD) and only emergency cases are being handled.
The call for a State-wide bandh issued by a new farmers’ faction within the Kisan Kranti Morcha on Monday received lukewarm response as the flow of milk and vegetable supplies remained largely unaffected in most parts of Maharashtra. But the farmers claimed the bandh was “a resounding success.”Barring Ahmednagar, Kolhapur and Nashik districts, the shutdown came a cropper in urban centres like Mumbai and Pune. Police was deployed in large numbers to prevent untoward incidents. The Nashik ‘core committee’ has called for a meeting in Mumbai on June 7. A final decision on the agitation on June 8 will be taken at a State-level conclave to be held in the district. Political entities such as the Shiv Sena, Raju Shetti’s Swabhimani Shetkari Sanghatana (both allies of the ruling BJP) and the Sambhaji Brigade threw their weight behind the bandh. Nashik witnessed agitations against the BJP government. Nineteen wholesale markets in the district were shut. In Ahmednagar district, the shutdown affected milk and vegetable supplies. In Rahuri, there were reports of agitators torching a milk container truck on Sunday night. In Kolhapur district, activists of the Swabhimani Paksha attempted to shut down marketplaces and dairies while Shiv Sena activists staged a demonstration along the Pune-Bengaluru highway. There were reports of Swabhimani activists clashing with traders who refused to support the shutdown. The activists also disrupted the livestock bazaar in the district’s Peth-Vadgaon area. Widening splitIn the Marathwada region, Beed and Hingoli were also hit by the shutdown. The increasingly widening split within the core committee leading the statewide farmers’ agitation led to farmers being unsure about supporting the agitation as it had been called off on Saturday. This resulted in prices of vegetables and fruits remaining high in Pune and Mumbai, despite the flow of supplies.In Pune, market committee sources that it would take 72 hours for prices to stabilise; prices in the retail market continued to remain 30% higher than average with onions selling at Rs. 30 a kilo and tomato at ₹60 a kilo. The Gultekdi market yard reported arrival of 90% of vegetables. “The shutdown has not really affected business. Most market committees have decided not to join the bandh,” said Dilip Khaire, secretary, Pune APMC.
The Goods and Services Tax, the country’s biggest tax reform since Independence, will help speed up India’s economy and prepare it to compete with top countries, BJP president Amit Shah said here on Saturday.Mr. Shah, who is on a two-day visit to Goa, said efforts made to malign the GST had failed. Whether in Kashmir, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat or Assam, there will be a common tax structure, he said.Mr. Shah is in Goa to plan the strategy for the the 2019 general elections, strengthen the party’s organisational structure and interact with industrialists, hoteliers, professionals and builders, said BJP sources.Soon after the Parliament session, Mr. Shah said the concept of “one nation, one market, one tax” had been fulfilled.
Sometime last week, dozens of seriously-ill children at Gorakhpur’s Baba Raghav Das Medical College Hospital were starved of oxygen from the ventilators that were keeping them alive. News reports say this happened because the hospital didn’t pay its oxygen vendor.This image of babies being suffocated because someone didn’t get their cash is an obscene one.Unusual suspectBut the story of why the babies were in the hospital in the first place is equally worrying — it’s one of medical researchers not looking beyond the obvious while investigating the three-decade old scourge at Gorakhpur.Even though this recurring epidemic has killed over 5,000 people since 2010, its primary cause wasn’t identified until early this year. Now, researchers have learnt that a majority of the children being admitted to BRD have scrub typhus — a mite-borne disease endemic in U.P. Because they weren’t treated during early stages of the disease, the scrub typhus triggered brain inflammation, which can be very hard to cure.This means that some of the children at the hospital didn’t have much of a chance anyway — a fact the Yogi Adityanath government is citing as a defence of its incompetence.The confused history of research into the Gorakhpur pestilence begins in 1978, when the epidemic first broke out. Within a few years, doctors at the sentinel hospital confirmed that the outbreak of encephalitis, or brain inflammation, was mainly due to the Japanese encephalitis (JE) virus. Today, researchers suspect that Japanese encephalitis wasn’t the only cause even then. Scrub typhus was hiding in the encephalitis burden during the seventies as well.Wrong approachWhy did it take so long to pinpoint scrub typhus? First, because we were too focused on the usual suspects to look beyond them. Over the past few decades, organisations such as the National Institute of Virology and the National Centre for Disease Control, visited BRD Hospital repeatedly and ran lab tests for dozens of pathogens known to cause encephalitis, such as enteroviruses, the chikungunya, herpes simplex and dengue viruses, and the malaria parasite. But researchers like Govindakarnavar Arunkumar of the Manipal Institute of Virus Research, who first found scrub typhus in BRD’s encephalitis wards, say this was the wrong approach.The scientists should have studied the symptoms of each patient in detail, logging data such as the length of fever before encephalitis, and involvement of organs other than the brain, like the liver and the spleen.These symptoms would have revealed that the epidemic wasn’t due to typical viruses, but the scrub-typhus bacterium that is not known to trigger encephalitis outbreaks.Instead, the focus remained on lab testing, allowing the disease to continue killing, unseen.Deaf to dataThe second lapse was that the U.P. administration wasn’t listening to the scientists, who were finding that the Gorakhpur outbreak had changed over the years. Once Japanese encephalitis vaccinations began in 2007, incidence of this disease at the hospital fell to less than 20%, but encephalitis cases kept coming. It was obvious to researchers that something other than Japanese encephalitis was at work.For a brief period, doctors at BRD suspected that enteroviruses, a class of viruses to which the poliovirus belongs, were the top cause for the epidemic. But research didn’t bear out this suspicion either. Yet, even today, the Yogi Adityanath government is talking of poor sanitation as the reason behind the pestilence at the hospital (enteroviruses spread through contaminated water). And while pushing Japanese encephalitis vaccination campaigns is crucial, as the government is doing, this won’t make a dent in the hospital’s burden.The government can’t ignore the science for a number of reasons. First, it’s going to take a miraculous effort by the government to weed out scrub typhus in the State. Most patients who develop fever, the first sign of scrub typhus, go to private healthcare practitioners and not government hospitals. So, these private practitioners, many of whom aren’t medically qualified, must be targeted in training programmes. Unless they suspect scrub typhus in children and treat it before it advances to encephalitis, children will keep coming to BRD. The hospital will be able to do precious little then.The real danger is that if the government ignores scrub typhus, children will continue to die, and we’ll never know if the science pointing to scrub typhus bears out. Dumping the hypothesis without testing it fully is the most criminal thing the administration can do. But Yogi Adityanath’s statements raise the very real fear that this will happen.(Priyanka Pulla is a freelance science and medical journalist.)
The Kaziranga National Park, home to the one-horned rhinoceros and a UNESCO World Heritage site, will be thrown open to visitors on Monday, one month ahead of the usual November 1 dateline. The park which suffered extensive damage in the floods in Assam this year was closed to the public in May. Nearly 200 animals, including rhinos and swamp deer, died in the floods in July and August. PTI, quoting park officials, said the Agoratoli Range, which attracts many migratory birds, will remain closed because of the devastation caused by flood waters. Kaziranga National Park’s forest officer Rohini Ballav Saikia said domestic and international tourists are likely to be in the first group of a 14-member elephant safari that will be kicked off from Mihimukh under the Kohora range. The picture shows rhinos and their calves standing on elevated land in the flooded park in July. The floods became worse in August and at least seven rhinos drowned in the rising waters; at least six calves were rescued by forest officials.
Congress president Rahul Gandhi has appointed former Lok Sabha MP from Gondia-Bhandara constituency in Maharashtra, Nana Patole, as the vice-president of the party’s state unit. The announcement was made by the All India Congress Committee on Thursday evening.Mr. Patole had left the BJP and resigned from his Lok Sabha seat just before the Gujarat Assembly elections last year, citing “failure” of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis to address farmers’ issues.In 2014, Mr. Patole contested the Lok Sabha election from Gondia-Bhandara on a BJP ticket and defeated senior NCP leader Praful Patel by a large margin.The appointment of Mr. Patole is likely to give a fresh boost to the Congress, especially in the Vidarbha region. He has already announced his plan to embark on a tour of Vidarbha.
The western Odisha town of Burla received 622 mm of rainfall over 24 hours ending Sunday morning, shattering a 36-year-old rainfall record of the State as floodwaters continued to inundate many areas.Three persons died and three fishermen were missing as torrential rain pounded many parts of the State. The master control room at Hirakud Dam Project, Burla, recorded the highest ever rainfall received at a particular place in a single day in the State.The average rainfall of the State recorded during the last 24 hours was 81.3 mm. “Although we have received widespread heavy rain, there is no threat of a major flood in the State. Localised inundations have affected people. We are evacuating people to safer place and providing cooked food,” a senior officer said. 11 fishermen rescuedEleven members of a 17-member fishermen team that had gone to sea for fishing from Kirtania Jetty in Balasore district were rescued on Saturday. Two fishermen swam to safety on Sunday, while the body of one was traced. Three fishermen are still missing. A woman was swept away by swirling floodwaters near Kalimati gram panchayat in Sambalpur district.
The State unit of the BJP has appealed to the Kolkata Police to grant permission to fly a drone for mass surveillance during party president Amit Shah’s rally in the city on August 11.The party, which has become wary after a tent collapsed at Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Midnapore rally in June, also appealed to the police to allow the use of walkie-talkies during Saturday’s rally.Over 90 people were injured after a section of a tent caved in during Mr. Modi’s speech on June 16.“We have applied for permission from the Kolkata Police for using one drone during Amit Shahji’s rally on Saturday. Drones will help us in keeping an eye on the proceedings in and around the rally area. This is merely for security reasons,” West Bengal BJP president Dilip Ghosh said.The party is trying to take precautionary measures to avoid another untoward event, he said. “We have also sought permission for walkie-talkies as it would help in keeping a tab on the ground situation,” Mr. Ghosh added.Not decided yetA senior officer of Kolkata Police, however, said nothing has been decided on the issue.“We are yet to make a decision on the request made by the BJP. A detailed report, stating the reasons, is required before granting permission for drone use,” the officer said.The Kolkata Police will provide foolproof security arrangements during Saturday’s rally, keeping in mind Mr. Shah’s stature as a political leader, he stated.There will be two daises at the rally venue on Mayo Road, in the heart of the city, the officer said, taking a cue from the rally arrangement plans submitted by the BJP to the Kolkata Police.“One will be for Mr. Shah and senior leaders of the party while the second one will be for other functionaries. We are taking all forms of security measures for it,” he stressed.The BJP had earlier alleged that the administration denied it permission to hold a rally at Rani Rashmoni Avenue in central Kolkata.Amid speculation, Mr. Shah, too, had said he does not need the Bengal government’s permission to come to Kolkata and dared the State administration to arrest him.Refuting the allegation, the Kolkata Police clarified that it did not receive any application for any rally at Rani Rashmoni Avenue.“Some unwarranted speculation on social media about denial of permission to a political party on 11 August has come to our notice. It is to clarify that on request permission for meeting has already been granted,” it had said in a tweet.
A total of 44 people from a village in Odisha’s Kalahandi district have tested positive for dengue, an official said on Monday, adding that the number of cases is likely to go up. “We have come across several dengue patients in Ladugaon village, located in Koksara Block of the district. Of the 218 blood samples sent for analysis, 44 tested positive for dengue,” said Saroj Kumar Tihadi, Chief District Medical Officer. Five teams of doctors have been deployed at Ladugaon to treat patients. The condition of one patient is said to be critical. Dr. Tihadi said the number of vector-borne cases is likely to go up as poor hygiene is conducive to mosquito breeding. Cross infection is also going on, he said. “We are conducting a door-to-door survey,” said Dr. Tihadi.
The sub-categorisation of Other Backward Class quota is turning into a hot potato for the BJP in Uttar Pradesh with its allies turning on the heat over the issue amid a clash of interests.The Apna Dal (S), led by Union Minister of State for Health Anupriya Patel, on Monday accused the Yogi Adityanath government of trying to divide the OBCs and creating a rift among them. Addressing a meeting of the party’s national office-bearers in Lucknow, Ms. Patel demanded that the Adityanath government conduct a caste census of OBCs before it decides to implement sub-categorisation of the quota. She dared the State government to reveal the population of each caste under the OBC in U.P. Her statement came with reference to the silence maintained by the Adityanath government over the report submitted by a four-member Social Justice Committee formed to review the situation of different castes under OBC.“If the U.P. government has not done any such study [caste census], then on what basis is the SJC carrying out the sub-categorisation? You cannot snatch one’s share and give it to another,” Ms. Patel said, accusing the State government of “injustice” towards the OBCs. The Apna Dal (S) is based on Kurmi (an OBC caste) support. The BJP’s other ally, Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party, issued a 100-day ultimatum to Mr. Adityanath to implement the sub-categorisation, or else it would consider separation from the National Democratic Alliance ahead of the Lok Sabha elections. Om Prakash Rajbhar, SBSP president and Cabinet Minister in the Adityanath government, has threatened to contest all 80 Lok Sabha seats in the State alone.Report complicationsThe SJC report, which was seen as a move to mobilise the most-backward castes against the dominant Yadavs, commonly associated with the Samajwadi Party, led to complications when it tagged the Yadavs in the same category as the Kurmis and Jats, two communities the BJP does not want to politically antagonise. While the report has still not been made public or tabled in the Assembly despite being sent to the government in October, a leaked copy of it suggests the panel has recommended a split of the 27% OBC quota into three categories. The panel headed by retired Allahabad High Court judge Raghavendra Kumar has listed 79 sub-castes under the OBC category. Of these, nine fall under Backward Class, 37 under More Backward and 33 under Most Backward categories. Listed under the Backward Class — those who will be restricted to 7% quota — are castes like Yadav, Kurmi and Jat. The panel says that these castes are socially, economically and culturally “strong” and have been recruited in government jobs more than the ratio of their population, while also enjoying influential political representation.”They have not been socially oppressed and feel proud in telling their caste,” reads the 400-plus page report. The More Backward category includes castes like Gurjar, Kushwaha-Maurya-Shakya, Prajapati, Gaderia-Pal, Baghel, Sahu, Kumhar, Teli and Lodh. The panel says these castes may not face cultural exclusion, but they have poor representation politically and economically. Their employment rate is only 50% in comparison to their population and some specific castes among them have been getting more employment in comparison to the rest leading to emergence of a new middle class, says the report. The third category, the Most Backward, consists of the most deprived castes whose members are mostly employed either in grade 3 and 4 services or have zero representation. Their political drawing power is also limited, the report notes. They include riverine castes like Mallah, Nishad, Kewat, Kashyap and Kahar, apart from Bind, Rajbhar, Bhar, Loniya Chauhan, Dheevar and Ghosi.
Uttar Pradesh Minister and Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party chief Om Prakash Rajbhar on Wednesday took a dig at his Cabinet colleagues for taking a dip in the Sangam, saying they had gone there to wash off their sins.Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and his ministerial colleagues took a dip in the Sangam on Tuesday after holding a Cabinet meeting in Allahabad. “The Ministers in the Yogi Adityanath government had gone for a holy dip at the Sangam on Tuesday for washing their sins… going back on promises made to the public is also a sin and the Ministers have tried to wash it through a dip in the Sangam,” Mr. Rajbhar said.
The Foreigners’ Tribunals in Assam have in the last three years sent 1,490 people in detention centres in the State, out of nearly 8,992 cases they received to determine citizenship, the Rajya Sabha was informed on Wednesday. Later on, 691 people were released from these centres after judicial process. Union Minister of State for Home Kiren Rijiju said that according to the information made available by the State government, 2,764 people were referred to the tribunals in 2016, 4,223 people in 2017 and 2,005 people in 2018.To ascertain citizenship These people were referred to the tribunals to ascertain whether they were Indians or foreigners in terms of the provisions contained in the Foreigners’ (Tribunal) Order, 1964, he said in a written reply to a question. The Foreigners’ Tribunals had decided to send 236 people to the detention centres in 2016, 826 people in 2017 and 428 people in 2018.Mr. Rijiju said among the people who were ordered to be kept in detention centres in last three years, 111 people in 2016 were either released on the basis of the opinion given by the tribunals or by the higher courts or repatriated to their native country, 453 people in 2017 and 127 people in 2018.
Human rights violation by both Central and State forces continues unabated in Bengal in this election season. Both sides have randomly picked up and intimidated people who belong to particular political parties or subscribe to specific ideologies. The Hindu has accessed some evidence, though the actual size of rights violations by the central forces, local police and political parties during the elections is allegedly very high.Among the evidence is a video clip from Sunday where a group men sitting on the ground in an enclosed area is seen being threatened by another group of men in uniform, carrying INSAS, an assault rifle used by the armed forces. ‘Encounter’ threatThe members of the forces are seen hitting the men on head with sticks and even slapping them. A commander in a blue T-shirt is heard saying that he will “encounter” them. “I have killed many here,” he is heard saying in the video clip. The unarmed men on the ground are asked to raise their hand and are hit repeatedly. The content of the video could not be independently verified but has been shared with the representatives of the Election Commission.The incident took place in Parbatipur Patit Pabani High School in Haldia under Tamluk constituency, according to sources who shared the video. BJP workers in Haldia said that the men “on the ground are Trinamool Congress supporters with bombs and guns”. Human rights activists, however, said no one “in custody of security forces can be tortured or made a witness against himself or herself”.“What the police officers are seen to be doing [in the video] to the boys in custody is a serious violation of basic dignity of human beings and not permitted by law or the Act that governs the force,” said Dhiraj Sengupta, general secretary of a civil rights group, Association for Protection of Democratic Rights. Probe orderedThe Special Police Observer of the EC, Vivek Dubey, said he has ordered a probe into the incident. “The point is well taken. I have requested for an enquiry and report. I would not be able to comment till I receive the report,” Mr. Dubey told The Hindu.Similar allegations of human rights violations have been levelled by both sides. The State police have been accused of continuing with their “brand of intimidation”. Sachindranath Sinha (64), an organising secretary of the Vishva Hindu Parishad, is one of the victims of such alleged “harassment”. Mr. Sinha’s house in Purba Medinipur’s Mobarakpur village was allegedly surrounded by more than two dozen policemen on Saturday night. The VHP leader was escorted to the local Bhagawanpore police station and interrogated throughout the night. He was not tortured or slapped with any charges. “They did not furnish any papers or warrant and released me the next day around 8 a.m. on a personal bond,” Mr. Sinha said. Superintendent of Police, Purba Medinipur, V. Solomon Neshakumar denied that Mr. Sinha was picked up from his residence. “Many people were found in the area after midnight and there was commotion. Several people were detained on suspicion and he [Mr. Sinha] was moving with them. They were taken to the police station, [their] antecedents were verified and they were released,” Mr. Solomon said. Mr. Sengupta said that culture of “tolerance is missing in the country”. “The BJP-RSS men are being threatened and detained as a result of this situation. Such detestable things are common to all who browbeat the [State] government. BJP-RSS is no exception. However, BJP-RSS do similar things in the States ruled by them,” he said.
Wood is strong, abundant, and cheap. But when it comes to the hot prospect of turning trees and agricultural waste into an energy source for cars and trucks, wood gets in the way. Now, scientists say they’ve found a possible solution to this difficulty, one that could dramatically reduce the cost of tomorrow’s fuels. The problem with wood is a component in its cell walls known as lignin, which confers rigidity. Engineers must first remove the lignin to get to the sugar-rich cellulose in plants, which they ferment into alcohol-based fuel. Researchers have been looking for ways to reduce the amount of lignin in trees and plants without harming their ability to grow.It’s no easy task. Lignin isn’t like other long-chain biological molecules. DNA and RNA, for example, are copied directly from molecular templates. Lignin’s structure, by contrast, is more haphazard. Plants generate a series of molecular building blocks called monomers that are sent to cellular reaction chambers. Here, the monomers link together in branching chains. But the exact structure depends on the concentration of the individual monomers, which varies slightly in different plant species. Ultimately, the branching lignin wraps around the sugar-rich cellulose fibers that make up the bulk of the plant, strengthening the cell walls and supporting the tubelike vessels that transport food and water up the stem.Sign up for our daily newsletterGet more great content like this delivered right to you!Country *AfghanistanAland IslandsAlbaniaAlgeriaAndorraAngolaAnguillaAntarcticaAntigua and BarbudaArgentinaArmeniaArubaAustraliaAustriaAzerbaijanBahamasBahrainBangladeshBarbadosBelarusBelgiumBelizeBeninBermudaBhutanBolivia, Plurinational State ofBonaire, Sint Eustatius and SabaBosnia and HerzegovinaBotswanaBouvet IslandBrazilBritish Indian Ocean TerritoryBrunei DarussalamBulgariaBurkina FasoBurundiCambodiaCameroonCanadaCape VerdeCayman IslandsCentral African RepublicChadChileChinaChristmas IslandCocos (Keeling) IslandsColombiaComorosCongoCongo, The Democratic Republic of theCook IslandsCosta RicaCote D’IvoireCroatiaCubaCuraçaoCyprusCzech RepublicDenmarkDjiboutiDominicaDominican RepublicEcuadorEgyptEl SalvadorEquatorial GuineaEritreaEstoniaEthiopiaFalkland Islands (Malvinas)Faroe IslandsFijiFinlandFranceFrench GuianaFrench PolynesiaFrench Southern TerritoriesGabonGambiaGeorgiaGermanyGhanaGibraltarGreeceGreenlandGrenadaGuadeloupeGuatemalaGuernseyGuineaGuinea-BissauGuyanaHaitiHeard Island and Mcdonald IslandsHoly See (Vatican City State)HondurasHong KongHungaryIcelandIndiaIndonesiaIran, Islamic Republic ofIraqIrelandIsle of ManIsraelItalyJamaicaJapanJerseyJordanKazakhstanKenyaKiribatiKorea, Democratic People’s Republic ofKorea, Republic ofKuwaitKyrgyzstanLao People’s Democratic RepublicLatviaLebanonLesothoLiberiaLibyan Arab JamahiriyaLiechtensteinLithuaniaLuxembourgMacaoMacedonia, The Former Yugoslav Republic ofMadagascarMalawiMalaysiaMaldivesMaliMaltaMartiniqueMauritaniaMauritiusMayotteMexicoMoldova, Republic ofMonacoMongoliaMontenegroMontserratMoroccoMozambiqueMyanmarNamibiaNauruNepalNetherlandsNew CaledoniaNew ZealandNicaraguaNigerNigeriaNiueNorfolk IslandNorwayOmanPakistanPalestinianPanamaPapua New GuineaParaguayPeruPhilippinesPitcairnPolandPortugalQatarReunionRomaniaRussian FederationRWANDASaint Barthélemy Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da CunhaSaint Kitts and NevisSaint LuciaSaint Martin (French part)Saint Pierre and MiquelonSaint Vincent and the GrenadinesSamoaSan MarinoSao Tome and PrincipeSaudi ArabiaSenegalSerbiaSeychellesSierra LeoneSingaporeSint Maarten (Dutch part)SlovakiaSloveniaSolomon IslandsSomaliaSouth AfricaSouth Georgia and the South Sandwich IslandsSouth SudanSpainSri LankaSudanSurinameSvalbard and Jan MayenSwazilandSwedenSwitzerlandSyrian Arab RepublicTaiwanTajikistanTanzania, United Republic ofThailandTimor-LesteTogoTokelauTongaTrinidad and TobagoTunisiaTurkeyTurkmenistanTurks and Caicos IslandsTuvaluUgandaUkraineUnited Arab EmiratesUnited KingdomUnited StatesUruguayUzbekistanVanuatuVenezuela, Bolivarian Republic ofVietnamVirgin Islands, BritishWallis and FutunaWestern SaharaYemenZambiaZimbabweI also wish to receive emails from AAAS/Science and Science advertisers, including information on products, services and special offers which may include but are not limited to news, careers information & upcoming events.Required fields are included by an asterisk(*)For the last decade, plant biochemists have thought they knew all there was to know about the steps involved in synthesizing lignin. For example, they thought that in one key process, a single enzyme carried out two different jobs. But when tests failed to lend conclusive support, Wout Boerjan, a molecular geneticist at Ghent University in Belgium, suspected there was more to the story.So Boerjan and his colleagues ran genetic screens of the genes expressed in Arabidopsis thaliana, a small plant commonly studied in biological laboratories. When the researchers determined which genes were active in plants that were making lignin, they noticed one that hadn’t been identified as central to lignin biosynthesis, a gene for an enzyme called caffeoyl shikimate esterase (CSE). They then engineered Arabidopsis plants so they didn’t have the CSE gene. As the researchers report online today in Science, the plants still grew. But they contained 36% less lignin and were about a third smaller than their unaltered counterparts. They also didn’t droop or fall over, though some of their vessels for transporting food and water collapsed. Still, when the shorter plants were dried, cut up, and processed, they yielded four times the amount of sugar-rich cellulose as did the unaltered plants. What’s more, they gave up this extra cellulose without the expensive high-temperature processing usually required to remove the lignin prior to fermenting biofuels.“That’s an extremely valuable observation,” says Clint Chapple, a biochemist at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana. The work provides hope that if the same gene-removal technique works in poplar trees and other biofuel crops, it could significantly decrease the cost of making fuel, he says. That, in turn, could obviate the need for making biofuels from corn, sugar, and other food crops and thereby reduce the need for using prime agricultural land to grow biofuels. Because lignin removal is also required when making paper and a variety of chemicals from plants, the new technique could reduce the costs of these processes as well, Boerjan says.Boerjan also suggests that lignin-modified trees and plants may be engineered to grow as well as their unmodified cousins. When lignin is reduced in the vessels that transport food and water, plants tend to be stunted or not grow at all. But other researchers have previously shown that it’s possible to engineer plants so that lignin remains high in the vessels but is reduced in plant cell walls, allowing these plants to grow just as tall as their unaltered cousins. By using genetic engineering to restore the plant’s vessel lignin, Boerjan thinks researchers may be able to produce plants that appear just as tall and vibrant as their unaltered cousins but that are far easier and cheaper to convert to biofuels, paper, and chemicals. If so, that would give the burgeoning bio-based economy, which is struggling to replace petroleum derived products with versions made from renewables, much needed support.
Conventional wisdom holds that consuming too much sodium chloride is bad for you. High-salt diets have been linked to high blood pressure, cardiovascular disease, and even autoimmune disorders. But a new study shows that dietary salt could also have immune-boosting effects. Researchers report that high levels of salt in skin help mice fight off bacteria and that humans may also stockpile salt at infection sites.“The idea that salt storage might have evolved for host defense is very exciting,” says Gwen Randolph, an immunologist at Washington University in St. Louis who was not involved in the study. “It’s almost so new that it’s hard to swallow. I think it will take some time for the immunology community to allow this concept to take hold.”Scientists only recently learned that the connective tissue of skin can serve as a reservoir for sodium ions when we consume large amounts of salt. When Jens Titze, a clinical pharmacologist at the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine in Nashville and the study’s principle author, was studying dietary salt intake in mice, he noticed that even mice on low-salt diets had unusually high salt concentrations in wounded skin. Titze and his colleagues realized that immune cells arriving in wounded skin to fight infections were entering a salty microenvironment. They hypothesized that the body was shuffling salt to infected skin to protect against invaders. In other words, “we are salting our cells in order to protect ourselves,” says Jonathan Jantsch, a microbiologist at the University of Regensburg in Germany and first author on the study, which appears in the current issue of Cell Metabolism.Sign up for our daily newsletterGet more great content like this delivered right to you!Country *AfghanistanAland IslandsAlbaniaAlgeriaAndorraAngolaAnguillaAntarcticaAntigua and BarbudaArgentinaArmeniaArubaAustraliaAustriaAzerbaijanBahamasBahrainBangladeshBarbadosBelarusBelgiumBelizeBeninBermudaBhutanBolivia, Plurinational State ofBonaire, Sint Eustatius and SabaBosnia and HerzegovinaBotswanaBouvet IslandBrazilBritish Indian Ocean TerritoryBrunei DarussalamBulgariaBurkina FasoBurundiCambodiaCameroonCanadaCape VerdeCayman IslandsCentral African RepublicChadChileChinaChristmas IslandCocos (Keeling) IslandsColombiaComorosCongoCongo, The Democratic Republic of theCook IslandsCosta RicaCote D’IvoireCroatiaCubaCuraçaoCyprusCzech RepublicDenmarkDjiboutiDominicaDominican RepublicEcuadorEgyptEl SalvadorEquatorial GuineaEritreaEstoniaEthiopiaFalkland Islands (Malvinas)Faroe IslandsFijiFinlandFranceFrench GuianaFrench PolynesiaFrench Southern TerritoriesGabonGambiaGeorgiaGermanyGhanaGibraltarGreeceGreenlandGrenadaGuadeloupeGuatemalaGuernseyGuineaGuinea-BissauGuyanaHaitiHeard Island and Mcdonald IslandsHoly See (Vatican City State)HondurasHong KongHungaryIcelandIndiaIndonesiaIran, Islamic Republic ofIraqIrelandIsle of ManIsraelItalyJamaicaJapanJerseyJordanKazakhstanKenyaKiribatiKorea, Democratic People’s Republic ofKorea, Republic ofKuwaitKyrgyzstanLao People’s Democratic RepublicLatviaLebanonLesothoLiberiaLibyan Arab JamahiriyaLiechtensteinLithuaniaLuxembourgMacaoMacedonia, The Former Yugoslav Republic ofMadagascarMalawiMalaysiaMaldivesMaliMaltaMartiniqueMauritaniaMauritiusMayotteMexicoMoldova, Republic ofMonacoMongoliaMontenegroMontserratMoroccoMozambiqueMyanmarNamibiaNauruNepalNetherlandsNew CaledoniaNew ZealandNicaraguaNigerNigeriaNiueNorfolk IslandNorwayOmanPakistanPalestinianPanamaPapua New GuineaParaguayPeruPhilippinesPitcairnPolandPortugalQatarReunionRomaniaRussian FederationRWANDASaint Barthélemy Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da CunhaSaint Kitts and NevisSaint LuciaSaint Martin (French part)Saint Pierre and MiquelonSaint Vincent and the GrenadinesSamoaSan MarinoSao Tome and PrincipeSaudi ArabiaSenegalSerbiaSeychellesSierra LeoneSingaporeSint Maarten (Dutch part)SlovakiaSloveniaSolomon IslandsSomaliaSouth AfricaSouth Georgia and the South Sandwich IslandsSouth SudanSpainSri LankaSudanSurinameSvalbard and Jan MayenSwazilandSwedenSwitzerlandSyrian Arab RepublicTaiwanTajikistanTanzania, United Republic ofThailandTimor-LesteTogoTokelauTongaTrinidad and TobagoTunisiaTurkeyTurkmenistanTurks and Caicos IslandsTuvaluUgandaUkraineUnited Arab EmiratesUnited KingdomUnited StatesUruguayUzbekistanVanuatuVenezuela, Bolivarian Republic ofVietnamVirgin Islands, BritishWallis and FutunaWestern SaharaYemenZambiaZimbabweI also wish to receive emails from AAAS/Science and Science advertisers, including information on products, services and special offers which may include but are not limited to news, careers information & upcoming events.Required fields are included by an asterisk(*)To find out if all that extra sodium chloride was harming or helping immunity, the researchers turned to macrophages, an immune cell that engulfs and digests invading pathogens. Activated macrophages kill off invaders by releasing microbe-slaying molecules called reactive oxygen species, and the team thought high salt concentrations might trigger the immune cells to produce these compounds. The team cultured macrophages from mice and sprinkled salt into the nutrient bath until the cells were growing in a sodium chloride concentration equivalent to what they’d seen in the rodents’ infected skin. Salt increased the microbe-killing capacity of the immune cells, the team reports; the macrophages exposed to high levels of sodium chloride released significantly more microbicidal molecules than those that grew in a culture medium without salt. Next, the team infected macrophages with the common pathogens Escherichia coli or Leishmania major. After 24 hours, the E. coli load in macrophages exposed to high sodium chloride levels was less than half of that of macrophages cultured without salt, and L. major infections were down as well.To test whether increased salt intake enhances immune defense in living mice, the researchers fed one group of mice a high-salt diet and the other group a low-salt diet for 2 weeks, then infected the skin on the rodents’ footpads with L. major. For the following 20 days, both groups of mice showed significant swelling in their footpads as the infection took hold, regardless of their diet. After that period, however, mice on the high-salt diet showed improved healing with fewer foot lesions and a lower parasite load than the group eating low-salt food.“[The experiments] demonstrate that extremes of salt intake result in additional salt accumulation in infected skin and boost immune defense experimentally,” Jantsch says.In humans, the group found evidence that salt accumulation may be localized to sites of infection. Using a new MRI technique that measures sodium in skin, the team found unusually high levels of salt accumulation in bacterial skin infections of people, whether they consumed a high-salt diet.Taken together, the group’s findings indicate that both mice and humans may be benefiting from a salt-driven boost in immune defense. But don’t start loading more salt on your fries just yet. “The one thing you don’t want to take away from this study is that it authorizes you to eat more salt to enhance immunity,” Randolph says. A high-salt diet may have been a useful way to fight infections in our ancestors, before antibiotics existed or we lived long enough to develop cardiovascular diseases, but today, the detrimental effects of a high-salt diet outweigh any potential immunological benefits, according to Jantsch. Increasing salt concentration in infected skin from outside the body—by loading tissues with salty intravenous fluids, wound gels, or dressings—may be a more realistic potential application of the findings, he says.Additional research is needed before such treatments are feasible, but the findings “do raise the possibility that this relatively simple mechanism might be able to enhance or promote immunity,” says Thomas Coffman, a nephrologist at Duke University Medical Center in Durham, North Carolina. “It is very provocative from that standpoint.”
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