Analysis of sequence databases reveals novel circular RNA genomes belonging to “obelisks”

As they collect and analyze massive amounts of genetic sequences from plants, animals, and microbes, biologists keep encountering surprises, including some that may challenge the very definition of life. The latest, reported this week in a preprint, is a new kind of viruslike entity that inhabits bacteria dwelling in the human mouth and gut. These “obelisks,” as they’re called by the Stanford University team that unearthed them, have genomes seemingly composed of loops of RNA and sequences belonging to them have been found around the world.

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Each fall, the program hosts a group of UNC-Chapel Hill undergraduate students at the Coastal Studies Institute in Wanchese, North Carolina, where they spend the semester taking classes in ecology and environmental policy, engaging in research, and completing internships with local organizations.

The internships align with each student’s field of study. Montes de Oca was one of three biology majors last year, and her project assessed pollinator health. The other two — Drew Huffman and Ella Hennessey — also completed internships focused on biodiversity across the islands.

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It’s 5 p.m. and the sun is starting to set. But Savannah Ryburn’s workday is just beginning. A doctoral student in the College of Arts and Sciences’ environment, ecology and energy program, Ryburn has dedicated the last five years to researching the diet of juvenile blacktip and scalloped hammerhead sharks in the Galapagos Islands.

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Science-based artwork of varied colors, sizes and subjects — from the Black Death to the Great Dismal Swamp —hung along the walls of the Genome Sciences Building lobby for a one-day exhibition on Friday evening.

The show, “Artist/Scientist: Printmaking and Biology,” displayed works by students in Studio Art 409: Art and Science: Merging Printmaking and Biology. The undergraduate honors course was co-taught in the fall by art professor Beth Grabowski and biology professor Bob Goldstein.

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Using technology developed by UNC-affiliated startup Mizar Imaging, scientists can transform traditional microscopes into high-resolution instruments that let them see the inner workings of living organisms and cells in ways that weren’t previously possible. How did this startup survive an early entrepreneurial scare and a pandemic to build a company that now advances science in labs across the world? READ MORE

A new paper published in the Annual Review of Ecology, Evolution and Systematics emphasizes an unusual approach to researching climate change within marine ecosystems: focusing on variance in addition to trends in ocean temperatures to make more accurate climate change projections.

According to Jon Witman, a professor of biology at the University and one of the paper’s authors, studying variability in ocean temperature is important because it is an “unrecognized area of marine climate change studies” and “has a huge influence” on the resiliency of ecosystems.

John Bruno PhD ’00, a professor of biology at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill and another author of the paper, noted that a particularly relevant example of this variability is “what are called marine heat waves: a temperature anomaly where it gets really warm in the ocean, just like when you have a heat wave on the land.” READ MORE

Thanks to the funding of a Center for Galapagos Studies seed grant, Senay Yitbarek, Peter Thacher Grauer Fellow and assistant professor in the department of biology in the College of Arts and Sciences, traveled to the Galapagos this summer to conduct research on host-pathogen dynamics on San Cristobal Island. READ MORE

WRAL Investigates bought dozens of pieces of sushi to see if the description on the menu is the same fish you get on your plate. Check out the story and video HERE.