Imma Perfetto
Cosmos science journalist
Your cup of Joe’s genome sequenced
About 60% of coffee products worldwide come from the species Coffea arabica. It is thought to be the first species of coffee ever cultivated.
An international team has now sequenced Arabica’s entire genome, which could help us breed new coffees that can grow better in a wider range of environments.
The new research appears in Nature Genetics.
“Now that we understand the origins of Arabica coffee and its domestication, it provides perspective on how we arrived at our modern coffee varieties,” says co-author of the study Robert Henry, from the University of Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation in Australia.
“A wider genetic range of coffee would allow us to combat the threat posed by climate change. The cooler high-altitude areas where high quality coffee is produced are declining, so those environments are not as favourable as they once were.”
A new project will look to sequence the more than 30 species within the coffee genus.
Cities might be getting taller rather than wider
Cities have expanded vertically more than they have horizontally since the 1990s, according to an analysis of global satellite data published in Nature Cities.
“By combining datasets for 1,550+ cities from several space-borne sensors … we find profound shifts in how cities expanded from the 1990s to the 2010s,” the authors write in their study.
They used satellite data that maps the footprint of cities from space in 2-dimensions with satellite data that uses the reflections of beamed microwaves to define their 3D footprint.
The researchers found a “shift from lateral urban expansion to more vertical urban development” a transition that happened “in different decades and to different extents across the world’s cities.”
They say this shift in growth has important positive and negative implications in terms of sustainable futures.
“Cities with taller built structure tend to have higher population densities, but these must be co-located with higher job densities to support public transportation to lower per capita emissions and create more walkability.
“Emissions aside, more land can be saved for nature with denser cities.”
Gene behind muscle disease discovered
Researchers have discovered the genetic cause of a rare, inherited disease that causes muscle weakness, droopy eyelids and difficulty swallowing.
The study, published in Nature Communications, is the first to identify the mutation responsible for oculopharyngodistal myopathy (OPDM) in people of European descent.
Genes associated with OPDM had only been identified previously in Asian populations.
“It is so important to study genetic variations across different populations,” says Gina Ravenscroft of the Harry Perkins Institute of Medical Research in Australia, who co-led the research.
“Discovering that the ABCD3 gene was the cause of OPDM in Europeans adds to the understanding of this disease and opens the door for researchers to explore potential treatments for this and similar muscle diseases.”
