Февраль 2024 г.

Российская наука и мир (по материалам зарубежной электронной прессы)

CONTENTS / ОГЛАВЛЕНИЕ


• Automatic calculation of H-score on histological slides via artificial intelligence
• Researchers discover possible signs of hypertension
• Russian scientists experiment with quantum technologies for cancer diagnosis
• Siberia may yield trillion cubic meters of gas
• The twists and turns of helicity studies
• How do chronic inflammation and physical inactivity affect age-related changes in gene and protein expression in skeletal muscle?
• Vietnam library inaugurated in Moscow research institute
• Russian scientists have created transparent electrodes for smart windows, optoelectronics and solar panels
• Impairments in sound processing linked to speech problems in Rett
• How salt shapes algae growth in a Siberian soda lake over time

Российские ученые научили искусственный интеллект проводить анализ результатов иммуногистохимических реакций методом гистологического счета (H-score), используемого для определения патологических изменений в тканях. Сейчас это делается практически вручную, а потому возможны ошибки и неправильные диагнозы.

To determine pathological changes in tissues, immunohistochemical studies are used. This is a microscopic examination, for which a thin histological section is made, which is treated with a special substance - an antibody. It interacts with the desired substance in the tissue - for example, protein - and colors it.
This approach is widely used, for example, in oncology, to detect and classify a tumor. The analysis of sections is carried out almost by hand. The histopathologist analyzes the sample and assigns an H-score - a numerical value that reflects the amount of the substance being sought. Even the most experienced professional cannot rule out the possibility of an erroneous diagnosis.
RUDN University doctors, together with the Institute of System Programming of the Russian Academy of Sciences and the Kulakov National Medical Research Center for Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Perinatology, have developed a neural network that will help pathologists quickly and effectively determine the H-score on histological preparations of the endometrium. The study is published in Informatics.
"Analysis of immunohistochemical staining of the endometrium is an extremely important problem. Especially for patients who have suffered miscarriages, infertility, and unsuccessful IVF attempts. The best available tool for this is immunohistochemistry. The immunohistochemical H-score is used to assess the amount and distribution of certain proteins in tissues.
"To do this, the intensity of staining is analyzed and the percentage of stained nuclei is estimated. H-score is widely used but is time-consuming and limited in terms of accuracy. Computer methods can help overcome these limitations and increase the efficiency of pathologists," Polina Vishnyakova, Ph.D., Associate Professor of the Department of Histology, Cytology and Embryology of the RUDN University said.
The model proposed by doctors was named EndoNet. The first part of the name reflects the focus on the endometrium, but the model is not limited to it. EndoNet consists of two parts. The first is a model that predicts important segments of the centers of cell nuclei - this is the detection part of the system. The second part calculates the H-score, for this, it uses the average values from the pixels of previously detected key points.
The model was trained and tested on 1,780 examples of endometrial histological samples measuring 100 by 100 micrometers. On the test data set, the model gave an average accuracy of 77%. For the stroma - the basis of the organ from unformed connective tissue - the accuracy was above 85%.
"The automated H-score calculation system not only speeds up the process but also compensates for errors that may arise, for example, due to different immunostaining approaches. Such a system will also reduce data scattering resulting from different pathologists' calculation biases. EndoNet is a universal algorithm for implementation in any histology department," said Vishnyakova.

В Институте цитологии и генетики СО РАН составили «метаболический портрет» специальной линии крыс с наследственной стресс-чувствительной гипертензией, очень схожей с артериальной гипертонией у людей. Результаты таких исследований позволят по анализу крови определять индивидуальные причины заболевания и подбирать терапию для конкретного пациента.

The Institute of Cytology and Genetics of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences (ICiG SB RAS) has compiled a "metabolic portrait" of hereditary stress-sensitive hypertensive rats.
This unique rat strain, the ISIAH, models the type of hypertension most commonly found in humans; it combines a hereditary predisposition and sensitivity to stress. According to scientists, this is a step towards the discovery of markers of various mechanisms of blood pressure increase in people. The results were published in the Vavilov Journal of Genetics and Breeding.
As per researchers, in the future, the results of such studies will enable to determine the individual series of causes of the disease and individualized therapy by analyzing human blood, without resorting to the "trial and error" method. In addition, according to their estimates, "metabolic portraits," which characterize the pathological state of the body from different perspectives, will help determine priority areas for the development of new drugs.
The ICiG SB RAS scientists took blood serum samples from rats and determined the concentrations of metabolites - i.e. chemical compounds that are intermediate or end products of metabolism in cells - in 56 samples using NMR spectroscopy.
"Of the 56 metabolites detected, we identified those whose content was increased or decreased compared to the control group (which included rats with normal blood pressure). Then we analyzed their role in the body and discovered those metabolites that are somehow involved in pressure regulation mechanisms," explained Alisa Seryapina, a researcher at the laboratory of evolutionary genetics at the ICiG SB RAS.
According to her, those metabolites, the levels of which differ in hypertensive rats, can be called potential biomarkers of hypertension.
"The results showed that some amino acids (valine, leucine, isoleucine) and myo-inositol are involved in the regulation of glucose metabolism; betaine and tryptophan are also indicators of the presence of an inflammatory process. Our results require further confirmation and clarification, so it is too early to talk about the implementation of metabolomics analysis in clinical practice; So far, the received data are informative," Seryapina added.

Российские ученые начали эксперименты с квантовыми технологиями для диагностики и лечения рака.

Russian scientists have started experiments with quantum technologies for the diagnosis and treatment of cancer, local media reported on Tuesday, citing a report from the Future Technologies Forum 2024.
"The potential of quantum technologies in general and quantum computers, in particular, is not yet fully revealed, but they will definitely find their use in medicine," says the analytical report titled "Quantum Technologies for Medicine."
The two-day forum, which kicked off in Moscow on Tuesday, will focus on the future of medicine.
"The method of genome assembly using quantum algorithms, developed by the Russian Quantum Center, the company Quboard and the company Genotek, significantly facilitated the study of new species and structural changes in DNA, which cannot be detected by mapping, and genomic rearrangements in cancer cells," said the report.
"The potential of quantum machine learning can be used to discover new biomarkers for cancer treatment. Several studies in the field of quantum machine learning are aimed at studying genetic diseases - quantum algorithms have been developed that can classify genomic data much faster than a conventional computer," it said.
The report also named highly sensitive quantum magnetic field sensors among the most promising areas. "With the help of quantum sensors, it is possible to measure and visualize biomagnetic fields, which in the future will make it possible to diagnose brain tumors, epilepsy and Alzheimer's syndrome non-invasively and with greater accuracy than existing methods such as EEG and MRI," it added.
However, quantum technologies also pose new threats, particularly related to access to personal data. To protect information in the conditions of the existence of a quantum computer, it is necessary to introduce post-quantum cryptographic algorithms, which will keep secret the data over which calculations are performed, the authors emphasize.

Ученые Института нефтегазовой геологии и геофизики СО РАН определили восемь потенциальных районов для разведки нефти и газа на юге Восточной Сибири.

Russian scientists have identified eight potential areas for oil and gas exploration in the south of Eastern Siberia, the Russian news agency TASS reported on Wednesday.
Located in the interfluve of the Yenisei and Angara rivers, the potential areas could produce up to 1 trillion cubic meters of gas in the next 15 to 20 years, said the report.
Most of this territory, with an area of about 175 thousand square kilometers, still requires detailed study with seismic exploration and deep drilling, according to Igor Gubin, a geologist from the Institute of Petroleum Geology and Geophysics of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
The territory of the Siberian Platform, the oldest block of the earth’s crust with an age of up to 2.5-3.5 billion years, covers the territory of Eastern Siberia and the Far East and is relatively poorly studied by geological exploration.
About one-third of this territory, with a total area of about 3.5 million square kilometers, has not even been studied by seismic surveys due to poorly developed infrastructure, lack of settlements, roads, and railways, as well as harsh climatic conditions, according to TASS.

В издательстве Wiley вышла монография Helicities in Geophysics, Astrophysics, and Beyond, в которой исследуется фундаментальная роль спиральности в различных астрофизических и геофизических явлениях, а также представлены последние достижения и открытия в исследованиях спиральности в рамках различных научных дисциплин. Журнал EOS публикует интервью с авторами и редакторами книги: Кириллом Кузаняном (ИЗМИРАН), Нобумицу Йокои (Токийский университет), Манолисом Георгулисом (Афинская академия наук) и Родионом Степановым (Пермский федеральный исследовательский центр УрО РАН).

Helicities are known to play essential roles in several geophysical, astrophysical, and space plasma phenomena and are thus studied by means of diverse methods from various disciplinary viewpoints. A book recently published in AGU’s Geophysical Monograph Series, Helicities in Geophysics, Astrophysics, and Beyond, discusses the importance of helicities to an array of scientific disciplines and explores how they relate to real world issues. We asked the book’s editors to explain helicities, their significance and applications, and the features of their book.
How would you describe helicities in very simple terms to a non-specialist?
For any vector field in mathematics or physics, one can define its rotation, or curl. Helicity, in general, quantifies the alignment between the vector field and its curl and indicates how twisted and tangled the original vector field is.
There is magnetic helicity (vector potential and curl-generated magnetic field), current helicity (magnetic field vector and curl-generated electric current density), kinetic helicity (velocity field and curl-generated vorticity) and other kinds of helicity. Magnetic helicity, in particular, is crucial from geophysics all the way to cosmology due to its fundamental conservation property under certain conditions.
Helicity of any kind can be easily visualized as left- or right-handed depending on the dominant direction of tangling, like a left- or a right-handed screw. The helical shape above and featured on the book’s cover, for example, is achieved by a right-handed turn applied to the original, untwisted lamina.
Why are helicities significant?
Helicities as quantities neatly summarize vector field complexity because they are scalar values. More importantly, helicities are conserved quantities at the limit of vanishing viscosity and resistivity, namely, when the original vector field is ideal.
In several physical systems, including the basic physical equations describing the universe, forms of helicity are as important as forms of energy. Nonzero helicities (i.e., not perfect canceling between left- and right-handed contributions) globally in a physical system reflect a broken symmetry in the system. Helicities affect the statistical and dynamical properties of the system under study. For instance, the presence of helicities in turbulence leads to formation and suppression of individual structures, as energy aims to homogenize the system through enhanced transport. Think of the oppositely helical wingtip vortices in airplane wake, for example. In brief, helicities can be viewed as complementary, but equally fundamental, to the relevant forms of energy.
Which scientific disciplines are engaged in the study of different aspects of helicities and helicity-related phenomena?
Various scientific disciplines are engaged including:
• mathematics, e.g., topology and geometry of the fields
• astrophysics and geophysics through dynamo processes, e.g., magnetic-field generation and sustainment mechanisms, and vorticity generation
• fundamental physics, e.g., left-right skewness of neutrino, vortex entanglement in quantum superfluid, spontaneous structure formation in a rotating system, zonal flow generation in fusion plasmas
• biology, e.g., double helical structure of DNA, ventral nodal flow in the formation of the left-right asymmetry in human body
• engineering, e.g., swirling flow in the combustion chamber
How did you structure this book to cover such a broad topic with many different perspectives?
The volume is structured in three parts. Part I "Helicity Essentials: Basic and Fundamental Concepts" looks at mathematical and field theoretical treatment of helicities. Part II "Helicity Manifestations in Nature and their Observations" presents observations of helicities in solar physics, space physics, and atmospheric science, and helical properties from biophysics to solar physics.
Part III "Theoretical and Numerical Helicity Modeling" explores helicity in particle physics and dynamos, stability and relaxation analysis involving helicity, theory and numerical simulations of structure and sunspot formation with helicity, as well as helicity transport and spatiotemporal evolution of helicity.
Our book is by no means an exhaustive treatise on helicity, but we hope that it will provide the interested reader with valuable information, meaningful clues, and further references for the continuation of their study.
What have been some of the most interesting advances in helicity studies over recent years?
Recently not only volume-integrated helicity but also several theoretical helicity frameworks have been investigated, with special emphasis on spatiotemporal evolution in global and local scales (i.e., local density of helicities). In addition, high-resolution, data-driven numerical simulations of helicities in the Sun have been extensively and intensively performed.
In recent years, the discipline of space weather, with Sun-induced space weather agents such as solar flares and coronal mass ejections, seems to have a crucial relevance to magnetic, current, and kinetic helicity. To understand solar eruptions, several results imply magnetic helicity and its fundamental conservation principle as key aspects. There are several theoretical and numerical challenges in fully revealing the impact of helicities, but diverse communities attest to their central importance.
What do you imagine will be the latest developments in helicity studies reported in another book 10 years from now?
More work will be done to advance recent developments in theoretical, numerical, and observational investigations of magnetic helicity. Other helicity forms, such as current helicity and cross helicity (i.e., magnetic field and electric current density correlation), as well as generalized helicity in Hall magnetohydrodynamics, will be more extensively investigated too.
Helicity is about complexity and broken symmetries, and the countless forms of complexity have led to fascinating and formidable topics of study in the last few centuries, not just decades. Finding meaningful ways to deal with complexity, involving helicity, may well lead to developments that are hard to predict as we speak, even within the next 10 or 20 years.
Is this book accessible to someone new to helicity studies or for advanced readers only?
There is something for everyone in the book: the newcomer fascinated by helicity should focus more on Part I of the book before delving into the next parts. With the fundamental knowledge one can then look into key examples and manifestations of helicity in Part II.
Part III is for more advanced readers who wish to ponder on potential future directions and some existing applications that might enable, or even spearhead, future developments.
We aimed toward a mixed and healthy balance, in full understanding that helicity studies cannot be exhausted by any single volume.

Результаты исследования, проведенного в Институте медико-биологических проблем РАН, показывают, что длительное отсутствие физической активности и хронические воспалительные процессы влияют на проявление молекулярных и клеточных признаков старения в скелетных мышцах человека больше, чем собственно само первичное старение организма.

New research indicates that some age-related changes in gene and protein expression in the skeletal muscles of older individuals may be affected more by physical inactivity and chronic inflammation than primary aging, or intrinsic maturational processes.
Physical inactivity and chronic inflammation are the most important drivers of secondary aging, or changes over time that are caused by extrinsic factors such as diseases or poor health practices.
In the Aging Cell study that included 15 young healthy people and 8 young and 37 older patients with knee or hip osteoarthritis (who suffered from long-term inactivity and chronic inflammation), investigators found that age-related changes in the expression of approximately 4,000 genes regulating various processes such as mitochondrial function, protein balance, immune, and inflammatory responses were related to physical inactivity and inflammation rather than primary aging. The team also identified fewer genes (approximately 200) where the opposite was true, as their expression was related to primary aging rather than other factors.
"The set of putative primary aging genes identified in this study can be used as a resource for further mechanistic studies examining the role of individual genes in the emergence of the senescent cell phenotype in skeletal muscle and other tissues," said co-corresponding author Daniil V. Popov, PhD, of the Institute of Biomedical Problems of the Russian Academy of Sciences. "This is important for developing approaches to slow aging by regulating the expression of these genes."

22 февраля в Институте Китая и современной Азии РАН состоялось открытие Библиотеки Вьетнама. Ее основными функциями станут распространение современных научных материалов о Вьетнаме, а также организация культурных мероприятий, направленных на развитие российско-вьетнамских отношений.

The Institute of China and Contemporary Asia (ICCA) under the Russian Academy of Sciences inaugurated a Vietnam library in Moscow on February 22.
Speaking at the inauguration ceremony, ICCA Director Kirill Vladimirovich Babaev said the inauguration of the library opens up a new period in the history of scientific and cultural relations between Russia and Vietnam.
According to Babaev, the fact that the library is located in the ICCA, which gathers leading experts on Vietnamese studies in Russia, will help promote the research of the Vietnamese culture as well as understanding of Vietnam.
He expressed his hope that the Vietnam library will become a starting point for many quality scientific articles, new books, research projects, as well as new breakthrough ideas. Babaev also thanked the Vietnamese Embassy in Russia and the "Tradition and Friendship" fund for supporting the initiative.
Vietnamese Ambassador to Russia Dang Minh Khoi said that the library will provide useful information for readers and researchers who want to learn about the country and people of Vietnam. It is also a venue to host cultural events and exchanges, thereby contributing to fostering Vietnam - Russia relations, especially in research collaboration and knowledge sharing in the field of social sciences.
On this occasion, the ambassador presented the book "Building and developing a comprehensive, modern Vietnamese foreign policy and diplomacy, imbued with the identity of "Vietnamese bamboo" by Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong to the institute.

Ученые Института автоматики и процессов управления ДвО РАН разработали и апробировали технологию производства прозрачных электродов на основе дигерманида кальция. Электроды остаются прозрачными в широком диапазоне длин световых волн без потери электропроводности - совместить эти два свойства до сих пор не удавалось. Разработку можно использовать в оптоэлектронике, в составе солнечных батарей и «умного» остекления - например, окно с таким покрытием не будет замерзать и запотевать.

Scientists from the Institute of Automation and Control Processes of the Far Eastern Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences (Vladivostok) developed and tested technology for the production of transparent electrodes with an impressive range of properties. The electrodes remain simultaneously transparent over a wide wavelength range without loss of electrical conductivity. Usually either the first or the second is possible. The development will be of interest for productive optoelectronics, photogeneration and smart glazing.
Research results published in the magazine ACS Applied Electronic Materials. In fact, Russian researchers were the first to develop electrodes based on calcium digermanide (CaGe2) is a compound consisting of alternating two-dimensional layers of calcium and germanium atoms. Scientists grew the thinnest films of this material by depositing calcium and germanium in a vacuum chamber onto an aluminum oxide substrate and subjecting them to temperature treatment at 750-850 °C.
The transparency of the obtained samples, mainly in the infrared range from 1000 to 4000 nm, was found to be 78%. Then a certain technological technique was used - the sample was "perforated" using a laser, creating something like a checkered pattern on it. This immediately increased the transparency of the electrode to an impressive 90% while simultaneously extending the transparency range into the visible light region. The electrode acquired transparency in the range from 400 to 7000 nm. What is important is that the resistance practically did not increase, although the volume of conductive material decreased significantly.
The authors of the study tested the operation of new electrodes as part of a germanium photodetector. The experiment showed that the sensitivity of such a device based on calcium digermanide electrodes is 85% higher than its commercial counterparts. In addition, the sensor was able to capture a wider range of light wavelengths: 800-2200 nm compared to 800-1900 nm for other similar devices.
"The most obvious and direct application of the results obtained is the development of the instrument base of telecommunication technologies. The photodetectors and electrodes we studied are more sensitive than their analogues, and also capture a wider range of wavelengths. Therefore, they will help improve optical communication lines, for example, transmitting Internet traffic over fiber optics," - said project participant Alexander Shevlyagin, Candidate of Physical and Mathematical Sciences, senior researcher at the Laboratory of Optics and Electrophysics at the Institute of Automation and Control Processes, Far Eastern Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
In addition to being used in optical receivers and transmitters, as well as as part of solar cells, the development could be a boon for smart glazing. For example, a window with such a coating can be freed from ice and fogging by simply passing current across its surface, which will improve the energy efficiency of rooms in cold and damp seasons.

Коллектив ученых Института высшей нервной деятельности и нейрофизиологии РАН и НИКИ педиатрии и детской хирургии имени ак. Ю.Е.Вельтищева провел исследование нейрофизиологических механизмов слухового восприятия у детей с синдромом Ретта - нарушением развития нервной системы, вызванным мутациями гена MECP2. Рассматривались две реакции: слуховой устойчивый ответ (ASSR), отражающий пороги слышимости, и устойчивая волна (SW), связанная с комплексной обработкой слухового сигнала. Результаты исследования позволили предположить, что нарушения ASSR могут влиять на развитие речи у детей с синдромом.

Sound processing - part of a complex system in the brain - is impaired in girls with Rett syndrome, and those impairments correlate with deficiencies in the children’s speech skills, a new study found.
In their work with more than 40 children with Rett, a team of researchers in Russia used two noninvasive parameters - auditory steady-state response, called ASSR, and sustained wave, or SW - that assess distinct brain electrical changes in response to sound. While ASSR assesses hearing thresholds following a stimulus, SW is associated with processing of the auditory signal.
The team found that ASSR impairments are tied to developing speech abnormalities in Rett children. "These processes are important for speech comprehension and when impaired might affect speech development," the scientists wrote. Altogether, the team said, "we assume that these impairments may play a role in abnormal speech development in children with [Rett]." The study, "Atypical brain responses to 40-Hz click trains in girls with Rett syndrome: Auditory steady-state response and sustained wave," was published in the journal Psychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences.
Investigating 2 processes - ASSR and SW - specifically in Rett
Rett syndrome is chiefly caused by mutations in the MECP2 gene, which codes for MeCP2 - a protein that regulates the activity of other genes that play a critical role in brain function and development. Symptoms of Rett include difficulties in learning, speech, mood, movement, and breathing.
Past studies suggest that the processing of sound is affected in Rett, and that this may contribute to difficulties in speech perception, hampering the ability of girls with the condition to acquire new vocabulary. Now, a team led by a scientist from the Russian Academy of Science, in Moscow, evaluated the ability of Rett patients to process sound stimuli triggered by 40 Hertz auditory stimulation.
"The aim of this study is to investigate two neurophysiological responses to rhythmic stimulation - ASSR and SW - in children with [Rett]. We hypothesize that they are impaired and connected with the level of speech development, age, and/or disease progression," the investigators wrote.
Though previous research had reported that ASSR and SW are attenuated overall in people with neurodevelopmental disorders, which would include Rett, neither parameter had been investigated specifically in children with this rare condition. "Studying both of these mechanisms will allow us to shed light on broader aspects of auditory mechanisms in [Rett]," the team wrote.
The team used an electroencephalogram, commonly called an EEG, to record the electrical activity of the brain in girls with Rett versus children with a typical normal development, who served as controls. A total of 43 girls with Rett, with a mean age of 8.19 years, and 43 age-matched children - including 26 girls - were involved in the study. The Rett patients all had MECP2 gene mutations. During the study, children were sitting in a comfortable chair and watching a muted video while sound stimuli were delivered to both ears using headphones.
The severity of Rett symptoms was assessed using a modified version of the Rett Syndrome Severity Scale, which assesses motor function, seizures, respiratory irregularities, spine curvature, speech, and sleep quality. On this scale, higher scores indicate more severe symptoms. Also, clinicians with experience in Rett described the speech development of each patient.
Among the 43 participants with Rett, 21 had no speech, 15 were able to pronounce sound patterns or syllables, and seven were able to pronounce words; the average number varied between three and 10.
Sound processing found to be decreased in Rett vs. healthy children
The analyses revealed that both ASSR and the SW were decreased in children with Rett compared with controls. SW differences between Rett children and controls were seen since early childhood, and decreased as the children got older, according to the team.
"Even very young children with [Rett] have diminished SW compared with their peers," the researchers wrote. SW amplitude increases with increasing stimulation frequency. "Girls with [Rett] have problems in coding … which hampers their speech perception," the team noted. In the case of ASSR, the differences were negligible in early childhood. However, with time, ASSR increased in the typically developing group, but not in those with Rett.
The researchers then assessed SW and ASSR when children were divided according to their level of speech development - "no speech," "sound patterns or syllables," or "words." The results revealed significant differences for ASSR between the groups, but not for SW. Specifically, ASSR correlated with speech skills in that the highest values were found in the words group, followed by the sound patterns or syllables group.
Overall, "ASSR and SW show promise as noninvasive electrophysiological biomarkers of auditory processing that have clinical relevance and can shed light onto the link between genetic impairment and the RTT [clinical presentation]," the scientists concluded.
The team noted there could potentially be concern regarding the inclusion of boys in the control group. "However, based on previous literature and our additional analysis, we believe it did not affect our results and allowed our [control] group to be more representative of the general population," the researchers noted.

Исследование, проведенное в Институте микробиологии имени С.Н.Виноградского РАН, проливает свет на то, как солнечная активность влияет на экосистемы в сибирских содовых озерах. На примере озера Танатар VI в Кулундинской степи ученые проследили, как на протяжении 12 лет в зависимости от фазы солнечного цикла менялись площадь поверхности озера, уровень солености воды и состав обитающих в озере микробных сообществ.

In the vast dry steppe of southwestern Siberia, a series of lakes are subject to the whims of climate, their waters rising and falling with the ebb and flow of solar activity. These fluctuations are not merely a matter of water levels; they are a crucible for microbial life, shaping the very fabric of these aquatic ecosystems. A recent study by the Winogradsky Institute of Microbiology, Russian Academy of Sciences, has shed light on how these changes impact the microscopic communities that call these lakes home, particularly in the shallow soda lake Tanatar VI.
The study spans over a decade, from 2011 to 2022, and intertwines hydrochemical observations with satellite data and records of solar activity. The focus is on the lake's phototrophic microbial communities - organisms that, like plants, harness light to fuel their existence. These include various cyanobacteria, chlorophytes (green algae), and anoxygenic phototrophic bacteria, which do not produce oxygen as a byproduct of their photosynthesis.
Throughout the 12-year period, the lake's surface area and salinity levels oscillated dramatically, a dance that mirrored the solar activity cycles. High salinity phases (100-250 g/L) occurred from 2011 to 2014, followed by medium (60 g/L) in 2015-2016, extremely low (13-16 g/L) from 2017 to 2020, and low (23-34 g/L) in 2021-2022. Each phase brought its own cast of microbial characters, with 33 different cyanobacteria morphotypes, two chlorophyte morphotypes, and four anoxygenic phototrophic bacteria morphotypes making appearances at various times.
This study is significant because it connects solar activity to the salinity of a Siberian soda lake, which in turn dictates the microbial life present. It's a clear demonstration of dynamic stability, where the ecosystem undergoes cyclical changes yet maintains its overall function and resilience.
The findings resonate with earlier research that has explored climate variability and stability under past 'greenhouse' conditions. The Cretaceous period, for example, saw similar solar influences on climate, with millennial-scale drought events affecting continental areas. The study of Tanatar VI provides a modern parallel, suggesting that solar activity continues to be a potent force in shaping climate and, by extension, the biosphere.
Moreover, the study complements advances in DNA metabarcoding, a technique used to assess biodiversity in aquatic systems. While the Siberian study relied on traditional morphological identification, DNA metabarcoding has been shown to provide consistent richness estimates and could potentially reveal even more about the microbial diversity in such fluctuating environments.
The research also ties into the understanding of cyanobacteria, particularly the 'marine Geitlerinema' cluster. While the Siberian study did not specifically address this group, it highlights the importance of taxonomy and ecology in understanding microbial responses to environmental changes.
Lastly, the study indirectly informs our knowledge of methanogenesis in saline aquatic systems. While the Siberian research did not focus on methane production, the presence and activity of microbial communities in fluctuating salinity conditions are relevant to understanding biogeochemical cycles in similar environments.
In conclusion, the study from the Winogradsky Institute of Microbiology not only provides a window into the microbial life of a Siberian soda lake but also underscores the broader implications of solar activity on our planet's ecosystems. It's a reminder that even the smallest organisms are participants in the grand cycles that govern our world.

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