Unicellular Organisms are Capable of Learning, a New Study Has Revealed

After decades of research, biologists have finally made a significant breakthrough on the learning capabilities of unicellular organisms. Unicellular organisms, also known as single-celled organisms, are capable of learning, even with the absence of a nervous system.

According to the new study published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B, just like animals adapt behavior and learn from experiences while living in fluctuating and potentially dangerous environments, unicellular organisms also to adapt to change for survival.

Habituation

In bid to prove that single-celled organisms are also capable of learning, the biologists studied a protist known as Physarum polycephalum, which is also commonly known as Slime Mold. They referred to this type of learning as Habituation.

The decision to study slime mold was because this unicellular organism has previously been found to successfully avoid traps, solve mazes, and even carefully streamline nutrition for the purpose of survival.

The protist was put under study for 9 days where the biologists challenged two groups and another control group with a harmless obstacle (caffeine or quinine). For the two groups, they had to pass through a “bridge” containing either of the obstacles while the control group was made to pass through the bridge without the obstacle.

Initially, the mold in the two groups was reluctant to pass through the bridge. However, after a while, they realized that the obstacle was completely harmless and therefore crossed over to the food source. After about six days, the two groups were behaving just like the control group.

This showed clear proof of habituation, in that the mold eventually learnt that the obstacle was after all completely harmless after repeated encounters.

Back to Old Habits

After the 9-day experiment period was over and the process repeated all over again, the biologists made an interesting discovery. After the process was repeated, they discovered that the mold in the experimental groups still distrusted the obstacle just like in the first scenario. It seemed like the memory had already expired in such a short time.

They also discovered that in certain scenarios, the slime mold habituated to caffeine but not to quinine and vice versa.

Habituation is a form of learning that exists in all animals. Until now, it has never confirmed in unicellular organisms devoid of a nervous system. This was an intriguing discovery.

From this study, biologists have been able to unravel the mystery surrounding the evolution of complex organisms, more so on their ability to learn and most importantly, it answers the question on how simple organisms are capable of learning.

All You Need To Know About Gene Therapy

The human body is comprised of various organs that each have a specialized role in maintaining the proper health of a person. The brain is involved in thought, reasoning and, in general, controlling our actions; the heart sends blood around our body supplying all the organs with oxygen; the lungs oxygenate our blood thus providing the energy we need to function; the stomach, kidneys, liver, intestine and bladder extract nutrients from our diet and remove toxins. Each organ plays an essential and unique part keeping us alive.

To function correctly, an organ comprises billions of cells of different types, each arranged in tightly controlled structures that form the overall architecture of the body. It is the cells that are in point of fact responsible for the proper functioning of the organ. If an organ is malfunctioning, then to treat it, we must restore the smooth operation of these cells.

Basic Cell Biology

Most cells are made up of similar components: a nucleus, the part of the cell containing genetic information; a variety of organelles, small elements that carry out processes such as energy production, much like the way that different organs perform specific functions of the body (e.g. lysosome, mitochondrion, Golgi etc); the cytoplasm, the liquid medium that comprises the cell, and the plasma membrane, the element that gives the cell its shape.

The nucleus codes for all the information required to produce the cell. Each organelle and cellular makeup are made up of protein, sugars, and lipids (fatty compounds), and the nucleus not only encodes for the production of each of these components but also the information necessary for their correct assemblage and final position. This information is enclosed within the cell's DNA, which is the principal constituent of the nucleus and is tightly condensed in a highly organized manner in the nuclear membrane.

Our Genes

Within the nucleus, our DNA is arranged into 23 sets of chromosomes (or 22 pairs, and one X chromosome and Y chromosome if you are male). These 46 chromosomes are communally known as the human genome, as they contain all of the genes that act as the blueprint for the human body. We can imagine of our DNA as a long linear molecule that is split into 46 separate parts (i.e. the chromosomes). Within each chromosome, there are thousands of genes lined up one after the other one after another and split by intergenic regions. Each gene is a unit of DNA that encodes for a certain protein, with a unique function. It is the combination of many discrete proteins, and their actions on other molecules like sugars and lipids, that comprises the basis of the organelle, and by consequence, of the cell itself.

So one can imagine that in a pathological situation, where an organ is malfunctioning, we can time and again trace the dysfunction to a particular protein that is not working correctly. These protein malfunctions can either be genetic, or acquired in the course of

• An infection,
• An autoimmune reaction,
• Untimely tissue degeneration
• The formation of cancer.

So, in any condition where a disease can be traced to a malfunction of protein, or where a protein of known activity can restore the proper functioning of a cell, gene therapy can be used. This is just because we can now use the correct gene to deliver the exact type of the protein to the cell we want to fix. It is significant to note that by delivering genes exclusively into diseased cells, there is no opportunity of conveying this new genetic information in the future to our children. To do so, our germ cells would have to be the target for gene transfer, a process that is illegal, and extremely technically demanding.

Application of Genetic Therapy

Effectual gene transfer into human cells is known to be the major challenge the Gene Therapy. Gene transfer vector have to be safe, introduce its DNA cargo into a satisfactorily large amount of cells to create a biological response and mediate transcription of the desired gene for a long duration. Identifying a vector that meets these criteria has proven to be a testing task.

Gene Therapy is more often than not used in pathologic conditions where A cells of a distinct organ or system do not function correctly because they do not have the right protein WHICH is required to perform the desired task.

Brain Is Designed To Forget Unimportant Details On Purpose

Brain is defined as the central organ of the human nervous system. The brain together with the spinal cord makes the central nervous system; its main function is to control the motor function and body balance. It also interprets information sent to it by various body organs i.e. eyes, ears, and other sensory organs.

Recent studies from the University of Basel in Switzerland tend to suggest that our brains are designed to constantly and actively forget unimportant details on purpose while in normal circumstances it should improve human memory recall of experiences for ultimate survival. In a general note, memory formation entails registering, processing, storing and retrieving information for later reference.

The following factors have been confirmed to contribute the above scenario.

Attention

Attention guides a human being’s focus into identifying what is relevant and what is not; as a result, we pay much attention to intriguing occurrences which are mind boggling and surprising. A human brain knows how to identify and categorize these occurrences. Unimportant events or occurrences will not be given much attention therefore easily lost in the brain.

Consolidation of memory

A human brain is divided into long and short term memory compartments. Most of the information that the brain picks is always forgotten and never makes it to long term memory compartment. When a brain encounters complex situations e.g. solving mathematical equations, it will free up its short term memory so as to take in the new information, simultaneously the short term memory will be lost on purpose.

Memory recall

Painful emotional occurrences are categorized into physical and emotional pain. In the human brains, emotional pain tends to remain in the memory for quite a long time than physical pain; as a result, an instance of physical pain may be forgotten quickly than an instance of emotional pain.

Blanking Out

Stressful conditions can lead to memory loss or deficit i.e. mental blanking during strength draining conditions like examination, thinking and worrying too much about an expected outcome will create anxiety which in turns will hamper your decision making capabilities. In this case the brain may forget most of its recent memory additions.

In simple terms, forgetting is the inability to remember already encoded and stored details in the brain. Psychologists and medical practitioners agree that forgetting is not a medical condition and may be as a result of the factors discussed above. It is a known fact that human beings cannot retain all that they have learnt or seen, much is forgotten. In some instances, what we think is forgotten may not be true, but just lack of coordination of sense organs.

Synthetic Biology - A Possible Future Niche

There are constant strives and innovations going on in the medical world. One of the latest ideas is synthetic biology, which is quite a scientific subject matter. Some of the top scientists in the field are still a little unsure of exactly how synthetic biology will work, but it is not stopping the medical field from advancing in the field. Simply put, synthetic biology is the process of shuffling genes around to make human cells from scratch without actually using any natural cells.

It is thought that this type of biology can be used to make T-cells, which may be able to fight cancers and other diseases which are typically incurable. There is of course controversy over making human cells out of nonhuman materials. There is the argument that it is an unnatural process and that it should not be attempted even if it does have its benefits. It is the benefits however that scientists and other medical professionals are fighting for. Some countries have even gone as far as banning synthetic biology because they are afraid of the technology falling into the wrong hands.

At this point, the studies are only studies, and nothing concrete has invented or implemented. Even though synthetic cells have created in labs, these cells have not been used in any current medical treatments. It could be years or even decades before the public would see any benefit from the study of synthetic biology, but this is a direction that medicine is keeping an eye out for.

Synthetic Biology - The Future of Chemical Manufacturers

Advancing technology and new uses for old substances may substantially change the future for chemical manufacturers. Synthetic biology as a factor of applied biotechnology will produce some innovative new ways for manufacturing facilities to produce the vast amount of chemicals required by various industries.

Chemical Manufacturing in the Past

In the past, plant matter supplied the raw material to produce chemicals. It was not until petroleum came along that a wider variety of plastics and other substances were invented. Indeed, this was viewed as one of the greatest advances in the 20th century.

Now, due to advances in genetic engineering, new possibilities exist for the manufacture of chemicals through the use of synthetic biology.

How It Works

The purpose of the synthetic biologist is to build an animal from injury. They are using an appearance comparable to that of others type of engineering in the design and construction of systems that will support this new technology.

Algae group are fed biomass made from natural material such as sugarcane in the deep, bioengineering that allow the algae to produce oil outgoing in the process of photosynthesis.

There is no doubt synthetic biology still has a long way to go toward becoming the new replacement for non-renewable sources used by chemical manufacturers. However, the possibilities are exciting, and this modern field offers hope for the creation of cheaper, sustainable materials.