Medicine Nobel 2024 awarded for discovery of microRNA

Context:

• The Nobel Prize for 2024 in Medicine or Physiology has been awarded to Victor Ambros and Gary Ruvkun

News:

• Victor Ambros and Gary Ruvkun have been jointly awarded the Nobel Prize for Physiology 2024.
• They were awarded the prestigious prize for the discovery of microRNA and its role in post-transcriptional gene regulation.

More info:

• Victor Ambros and Gary Ruvkun were interested in how different cell types develop.
• They discovered microRNA, a new class of tiny RNA molecules that play a crucial role in gene regulation.
• Ambros and Ruvkun’s groundbreaking discovery, revealed a completely new principle of gene regulation that turned out to be essential for multicellular organisms, including humans.
• It is now known that the human genome codes for over one thousand microRNAs.

• Note: Understanding the regulation of gene activity has been an important goal for many decades. If gene regulation goes awry, it can lead to serious diseases such as cancer, diabetes, or autoimmunity.
• Their surprising discovery revealed an entirely new dimension to gene regulation.
• MicroRNAs are proving to be fundamentally important for how organisms develop and function.
• This year’s Nobel Prize focuses on the discovery of a vital regulatory mechanism used in cells to control gene activity.
• Genetic information flows from DNA to messenger RNA (mRNA), via a process called transcription, and then on to the cellular machinery for protein production.
• There, mRNAs are translated so that proteins are made according to the genetic instructions stored in DNA.
• Since the mid-20th century, several of the most fundamental scientific discoveries have explained how these processes work.
• Victor Ambros and Gary Ruvkun were studied a relatively unassuming 1 mm long roundworm, C. elegans.
• Despite its small size, C. elegans possesses many specialized cell types such as nerve and muscle cells also found in larger, more complex animals, making it a useful model for investigating how tissues develop and mature in multicellular organisms.
• Ambros and Ruvkun were interested in genes that control the timing of activation of different genetic programs, ensuring that various cell types develop at the right time.

• Note: MicroRNA genes have evolved and expanded within the genomes of multicellular organisms for over 500 million years.
• Today, we know that there are more than a thousand genes for different microRNAs in humans, and that gene regulation by microRNA – discovered by this year’s medicine laureates – is universal among multicellular organisms.

About Nobel Prize:

• The Nobel Prize was created by wealthy Swedish inventor Alfred Nobel, who in his will dictated that his estate should be used to fund “prizes to those who, during the preceding year, have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind”.
• The prizes carry a cash award of 10 million Swedish kronor (nearly $900,000) and will be awarded on December 10.
• The Prize for Physiology or Medicine kicks off a week of Nobel Prize announcements.
• Last year the Nobel Prize for Physiology was jointly awarded to Katalin Karikó and Drew Weissman for their “discoveries concerning nucleoside base modification that enabled the development of effective mRNA vaccines against COVID-19”.

India, UAE investment promotion, protection treaty

Context:

• India, UAE investment promotion, protection treaty comes into effect from August 31: Finance ministry

News:

• The government said bilateral investment treaty (BIT) signed between India and the UAE has been enforced from August 31 this year.
• The BIT was signed on February 13 this year at Abu Dhabi, UAE, and it entered into force with effect from August 31, 2024, the finance ministry said.

Key features of the pact:

• Enforcement of this pact with the UAE gives continuity of investment protection to investors of both the countries, as the earlier Bilateral Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement (BIPPA) between India and the UAE signed in December 2013 expired on September 12 this year.
• As per the treaty, the UAE investors must have to exhaust domestic remedies (for at least three years) before commencing arbitration under the BIT.
• The time period earlier was five years.
• The other key features of the pact included provisions of closed asset-based definition of investment with coverage of portfolio investment; treatment of investment with obligation for no denial of justice, no fundamental breach of due process, no targeted discrimination and no manifestly abusive or arbitrary treatment.
• It also includes the scope carved out for measures such as those related to taxation, local government, government procurement, subsidies or grants and compulsory license; and no investor claim in case investments is involved with corruption, fraud, round tripping.
• However, while providing investor and investment protection, balance has been maintained with regard to the state’s right to regulate and, thereby providing adequate policy space.
• The treaty provides for protection to investments from expropriation, provides for transparency, transfers, and compensation for losses.

India-UAE economic relations:

• The UAE is the seventh largest with a share of 3 per cent in the total foreign direct investment (FDI) received in India, with cumulative investment of about USD 19 billion from April 2000-June 2024.
• India also made 5% of its total overseas direct investments in the UAE to the tune of USD 15.26 billion from April 2000-August 2024.
• India-UAE BIT is expected to increase the comfort level and boost the confidence of the investors by assuring minimum standard of treatment and non-discrimination while providing for an independent forum for dispute settlement by arbitration.
• The treaty is expected to pave the way for increased bilateral investments, benefiting businesses and economies in both countries.
• Both countries have also implemented a free trade agreement, which came into force on May 1, 2021.

Study documents extinction of 610 bird species

• The dodo, the famous flightless bird that inhabited the Indian Ocean island of Mauritius, is a case study in extinction caused by humans.
• Hunting, habitat destruction and the introduction of non-native species doomed it in under 80 years.
• New research has documented the extinction of 610 bird species over the past 130,000 years, coinciding with the global spread of our species Homo sapiens, an avian crisis that has only accelerated in recent years and decades.
• For instance, the Kauaʻi ʻōʻō, a Hawaiian songbird, was declared extinct just last year.
• The researchers also revealed the ecological consequences, as the disappearance of avian species erases functions they serve in innumerable ecosystems.
• Birds undertake a number of really important ecosystem functions, many of which we depend on, such as the dispersal of seeds, the consumption of insects, the recycling of dead material – for example, vultures – and pollination.
• If we lose species, then we lose these functions.
• A good example of this is on the islands of Mauritius and Hawaii, where all or almost all the native frugivores – birds that eat fruit – have gone extinct.
• The dodo and Kauaʻi ʻōʻō, believed to have had fruit as part of their diets, were among those.
• Frugivory is an important function, as in eating the fruits and then moving around, birds will disperse the seeds of the plants the fruits belong to.
• This can precipitate “secondary knock-on extinctions,” with Mauritius now having many threatened tree species.
• Most of the documented extinctions occurred on islands.
• Habitat loss can have huge effects given the isolation and reduced area involved, while the introduction of animals such as rats, cats and mice can have substantial impacts given the evolution of flightlessness among many island-endemic birds that left them unable to escape new predators.
• Human hunting was a big extinction driver in the past and remains problematic in certain regions.
• Capturing birds for the songbird trade is a big issue, particularly in Southeast Asia.
• Certain regions and species had more specific factors involved.
• For example, avian malaria, introduced by people, has triggered large numbers of extinctions in Hawaii – particularly among the endemic Hawaiian honeycreepers – where the birds possessed no natural immunity.
• The big unknown going forward is the role of anthropogenic climate change as a driver.
• The large flightless elephant birds endemic to Madagascar vanished after people arrived, including Aepyornis maximus, possibly the largest bird that ever existed, about 10 feet (3 meters) tall.
• The flightless moa birds endemic to New Zealand, including the South Island giant moa that rivaled the elephant birds in size, similarly disappeared after humans colonized the islands.
• North America’s migratory passenger pigeon numbered in the billions, but was hunted into oblivion.
• The 610 species combined represented 3 billion years of unique evolutionary history, the researchers said, with each lost species like chopping off a branch from the tree of life.
• The number 610 is “likely a large underestimate” of avian extinctions, because of a paucity of data from some locales and the fact some lost species may not have left behind skeletal remains to be found.
• Regardless of the true number, “the vast majority of extinctions over the last 50,000 years are attributable to human actions.”
• About 11,000 bird species now exist, occupying a dizzying array of ecological niches.
• The researchers projected future extinctions of more than 1,000 species over the next two centuries.
• So even if you don’t care about the moral and ethical concerns regarding the loss of species, these extinctions are important for other reasons, such as the loss of species that helped the environment to function effectively.

Hanuman Plover

Context:

• Presence of Hanuman Plover confirmed in Kerala

News:

• Wetland scientists and ornithologists have finally confirmed the presence in Kerala of the recently identified shorebird species which takes its name from the monkey god Hanuman of the epic Ramayana.

About Hanuman Plover:

• It is a shorebird in Eurasia and North Africa is one of the commonest winter visitors along the seashores of India.
• Hanuman Plover has been found in Sri Lanka and South India but not reported from Kerala so far.
• It is a regional endemic bird that was recently found to be breeding in the Gulf of Mannar.
• The common English name Hanuman Plover, was given to the bird by scientists because of its distribution in Sri Lanka and South India.
• Hanuman Plover has a smaller wing, beak, and tail in comparison with its relative, Kentish Plover, Further, the feet of Hanuman Plover is greyish black and that of Kentish is dark.
• Besides, the head of the male Hanuman plover has a distinct black stripe on its forehead missing it in the Kentish Plover.
• While we don’t know if the Hanuman Plover is threatened at the moment, it lives in an area which has one of the highest human population densities on the planet.
• Being a regional endemic resident bird, the Hanuman Plover should be included in the priority list of birds that deserve protection.

Shompen people

Context:

• Some members of the reclusive tribe voted in the 2024 election amidst fears that their forests on the Great Nicobar island will be destroyed by a proposed port and shipping container terminal project

Forest home in danger:

• According to the 2011 Census, there are only around 229 members of the Shompen tribe, which makes its home in the Nicobar Islands along with the much more numerous Nicobarese tribe.
• The Shompen, a semi-nomadic forest-dwelling tribe believed to have been resident in the Great Nicobar Island for at least 60,000 years, have historically preferred limited contact outside of their groups.
• In May 2024, seven of them voted in the general election, amidst a contentious plan to develop a trans-shipment container terminal, port, and solar power plant in the Great Nicobar Island.
• This will involve razing nearly a million trees in about 130 square km of rainforest, which are the primary source of sustenance to the forest-dwelling Shompen.
• Such projecs could have disastrous consequences for the Shompen.
• Living in the forest, in the way they want to, is their supreme concern.
• Such major infrastructure projects aren’t correct [in the Great Nicobar Island].
• They are virgin forests and part of it has already been destroyed.
• Unlike the Nicobarese who live along the coast stretches of the island, the Shompen live in the interiors, they hunt and fish in the rivers.
• Shompen and Nicobarese have lived in peace with each other though they maintain separate habitats.
• The tribes that have lived on the Nicobar Islands for millennia are links to humanity’s early history.
• The Shompen may be few in number but their knowledge of the forests in their islands is supreme.