Nice Genes!

Preparing the Environment: Climate Special Part 1

In part 1 of our climate special, we revisit our oceans to look at the rocky atolls and reefs that are home to colourful world builders, coral!
Since the 1950’s the planet has lost half of its coral reefs due to degradation. With ocean temperatures rising and harmful environmental and human activities, how can we better protect essential ecosystems for communities and marine life alike?
Dr. Kaylee Byers sits down with Dr. Shayle Matsuda, a marine biologist looking into the effects of environmental stresses on coral reefs due to the climate crisis. And with the aid of genomic sequencing, Shayle wonders if we can utilize a clever symbiotic relationship found on these fascinating organisms to cultivate greater reef resilience into the future. Next, meet Ben Williams from the University of Exeter, who shares a unique acoustic invention to help restore reefs in Indonesia. And finally, researcher Madelyn Jones takes us through her work on the British Columbia coast to replenish the spiralling towers we call "kelp forests."
Click here for this episode's Learn-A-Long!

Resources:
1. The sound of recovery: Coral reef restoration success is detectable in the soundscape | British Ecological Society
2. Vital Signs: Ocean Warming | NASA
3. The Planet Has Lost Half of Its Coral Reefs Since 1950 | Smithsonian
4. Coral Reefs Could All Die Off by 2050 | EcoWatch
5. ‘Dire outlook’: scientists say Florida reefs have lost nearly 98% of coral | The Guardian
6. Report: Florida's Coral Reefs Among Most Damaged In U.S. | CBS Local News
7. HydroMoth: Testing a prototype low-cost acoustic recorder for aquatic environments | ZSL
8. What is a kelp forest? | National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
9. Canada’s kelp forests are at risk. A seaweed farmer is trying to save them | CBC Creator Network
10. Months after mass die-off of sea creatures in B.C. heat dome, researchers return in search of signs of life | CBC News
11. Coral Bleaching Susceptibility Is Predictive of Subsequent Mortality Within but Not Between Coral Species | Frontiers
12. Larval thermal conditioning does not improve post-settlement thermal tolerance in the dominant reef-building coral, Montipora capitata | Springer
13. Genome-powered classification of microbial eukaryotes: focus on coral algal symbionts | Science Direct
12. Do Coral Reefs Produce Oxygen? | Techie Scientist
14. What is coral spawning? | National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
15. Myth 5 - Genomics Can't Help Climate Change | Genome British Columbia

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Challenging our assumptions around fatness

ShantaQuilette Carter was in her late 30’s when she had her first stroke. It felt like death was lurking over her shoulder. But when her doctor suggests fending it off by using a drug she had never heard of before, a boatload of questions come to the surface.

Dr. Kaylee Byers sits down with experts to challenge the everyday assumptions we make about our health and weight. She speaks with professor and journalist Harriet Brown on the fact-finding mission she embarked on to help her daughter struggling with anorexia. Then, Dr. Michael Lyon, with the Obesity Medicine and Diabetes Institute, shares the scaly lizard origins of one of the world's most powerful tools in treating type 2 diabetes.

—

Highlights:

(06:57) The drug that changed her life, ShantaQuilette on struggling with weight

(09:00) How a lizard from Utah is saving lives, Dr. Michael Lyon explains the origins of Ozempic

(17:00) Harriet Brown on a mission to display assumptions on weight and health

—

Learn-A-Long: https://bit.ly/3QM7EPi

—

Resources:

Diabetes: Key Facts | The World Health Organization

How a Canadian scientist and a venomous lizard helped pave the way for Ozempic | Global News

I’m a Fat Activist. I Don’t Use the Word Fatphobia. Here’s Why | self.com

Shortage of diabetes, weight-loss drug Ozempic expected in Canada, says manufacturer | Canadian Broadcast Corporation

An Aggressive New Approach to Childhood Obesity | The New York Times

Body of Truth: By Harriet Brown | Da Capo Lifelong Books

Is Body Positivity Glamourising Obesity | The Wellness Insider

Why People Become Overweight | Harvard University

Here’s How Your Genes Impact Your Ability to Lose Weight | healthline

What Made Humans ‘the Fat Primate’ | Duke University

Genes and Obesity | Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

After his suicide, a man’s family says Ozempic should carry a warning label | ABC News

—

Credit:

Ozempic commercial TM | Ozempics TM

New Ozempic lawsuit over alleged 'stomach paralysis' | WNN | ABC News

Why Are Some Using Diabetes Drug Ozempic for Weight Loss? | Inside Edition

Jimmy Kimmel’s Oscars Monologue 2023 | Jimmy Kimmel Live

Indigenous Environmental Stewardship

Description:

The Indigenous peoples of what’s now known as Western Canada had a relationship of reciprocity with the land. But when explorers from Europe arrived eager to tame the land and absorb its vast natural resources these two world views came to a head. And caught in between an iconic species of the Pacific Northwest—the Gary Oak—has become threatened. So how can we reconcile the harmful assumptions of the past that overlooked other ways of managing ecosystems?

Dr. Kaylee Byers and Co-Host Dr. Lyana Patrick, look to the forests, rivers, and oceans of Turtle Island to uncover the various food systems and traditional stewardship practices that existed before colonization. Ethnobotonist, John Bradley Williams shares the traditional use of Garry Oaks and how they became systematically destroyed. Dr. Tabitha Robin from the University of British Columbia shares her experience working with and studying Indigenous Food Sovereignty. Lastly, Canadian Anthropologist and National Geographic explorer Dr. Wade Davis, through insights from his career visiting communities around the world shares how we can dismantle the prevailing biases that continue to threaten the health of our planet.

—

Highlights:

(3:53 - 8:55) An icon on the brink, J.B. Williams shares the origins and challenges of Garry Oak meadows

(11:24 - 14:50) Moving forward, Dr. Tabitha Robin shares the overlooked history of Indigenous food sovereignty

(18:45 - 23:20) How an academic divide threatens our planet, anthropology lessons from National Geographic's Dr. Wade Davis

—

Learn-A-Long: https://bit.ly/3GPwxnf

—

Resources:

Indians and Europeans on the Northwest Coast: Historical Context | Center for the Study of Pacific Northwest

The Strait of Juan de Fuca is mentioned for the first time in April 1596 | History Link

Purchas His Pilgrimes: Contayning a History of the World in Sea Voyages and Lande Travells by Englishmen and others | Center for the Study of Pacific Northwest

The Garry Oak Learning Meadow | Parks Canada

Harvesting strategies as evidence for 4000 years of camas (Camassia quamash) management in the North American Columbia Plateau | The Royal Society

Conservation status of native tree species in British Columbia | Global Ecology and Conservation

Seeing the garden through the trees: The Indigenous forest gardens of coastal B.C. | Canadian Geographic

Bison Bellows: Indigenous Hunting Practices | National Parks Service

Weir Fishing | Heritage Lower Saint Lawrence

Combining Genomic Insights and Traditional Indigenous Knowledge for the Conservation of Pacific Salmon | Genome British Columbia

Puyallup Tribe hosts c’abid (camas) harvest at PLU | Pacific Luthern University

Saving the planet means listening to Indigenous peoples: Wade Davis | CBC

Spatial and temporal assessments of genetic structure in an endangered Garry oak ecosystem on Vancouver Island | Canadian Science Publi...

Protecting Local Wildlife Icons

What do you get when you cross a polar bear and a grizzly... and why should you care?
In this episode of Nice Genes!, host Dr. Kaylee Byers and National Geographic explorer Dr. Christine Wilkinson look into the mysterious case of pizzly bears, a rare hybrid between polar bears and grizzlies. Together they speak with Dr. David Paetkau, whose team unravelled this strange genomic crossbreeding after receiving more and more sightings coming from the Arctic Circle. Is this hybridization occurring because of climate change? They also speak with Wiuikinuxv scientist Jennifer Walkus, who gained local notoriety for her efforts in ending the trophy hunt of grizzly bears in British Columbia.

Special thanks to Gaelen Krause, Captain of the Island Odyssey with Bluewater Adventures and Ellie Lamb, Naturalist and Hiking Guide.
Click here for this episode's Learn-A-Long!
Resources:
1. Lions, tigers, and Whatsitbears | zoohistories.com:
2. Recent Hybridization between a Polar Bear and Grizzly Bears in the Canadian Arctic | JSTOR
3. Arctic hybrids not a good sign, warn scientists | Canadian Broadcast Corporation (CBC)
4. "Bears Teach Us" -- Sharing With All Our Relations | Watershed Sentinel
5. DNA analysis of grizzly bears aligns with Indigenous languages | raincoast.org:
6. How Indigenous Knowledge is helping to protect Canada's grizzlies | National Geographic
7. Pizzly or grolar bear: grizzly-polar hybrid is a new result of climate change | The Guardian
8. Province ends controversial grizzly bear trophy hunt | Global News
9. Glacial ice supports a distinct and undocumented polar bear subpopulation persisting in late 21st-century sea-ice conditions | Science
10. Sockey salmon collapse due to lack of food, study says | Canadian Broadcast Corporation (CBC)
11. One Health Basics | Centers for Disease Control and Prevention:

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Cross-examining the origins of our base pairs

One of our most foundational assumptions is that ‘Our DNA is our own.’ But what if our DNA is stolen? There's a puzzling phenomenon called 'horizontal gene transfer' in which one organisms' genetics jumps to another. Dr. Kaylee Byers is joined by invertebrate specialists Dr. Anna Klompen from the Stowers Institute, and Dr. Jessica Goodheart, a marine biologist hunting for nudibranchs, "gene pirates" of the sea. And Dr. Ted Turlings will tell us how his trip to China led to an exciting discovery about the whitefly -- another common but crafty genetic thief. A final word of advice. Next time a goopy organism bumps into you in a crowd, make sure to check your genes!

A special thanks to the laboratory of Professor Youjun Zhang Department of Plant Protection, Institute of Vegetables and Flowers, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences in Beijing. Drs. Zhaojiang Guo, Jixing Xia, and Zezhong Yang.

—

Highlights:

(00:00) Finding the Transforming Principle

(11:34) A colorful and slick ocean pirate

(17:50) The hunt for a fluttering and destructive gene thief

—

Learn-A-Long: https://bit.ly/49qSB4T

—

Resources:

Frederick Griffith - British Bacteriologist | Britannica

Griffith’s Experiment - Progress in Molecular Biology and Transitional Science | Science Direct

20 Cool Genomics Facts - 13&14: Antibiotic resistance | Genome BC

Ancient viral DNA may help humans fight infections | National Institute of Health

Venom system variation and the division of labor in the colonial hydrozoan Hydractinia symbiolongicarpus | Science Direct

Nematocyst sequestration evolution | The Goodheart lab

A chromosome-level genome for the nudibranch gastropod Berghia stephanieae helps parse clade-specific gene expression in novel and conserved phenotypes | bioRxiv

First Report of Horizontal Gene Transfer Between Plant and Animal | The Scientist

Pretty Sly for a Whitefly | The Atlantic

First known gene transfer from plant to insect identified | Nature

Whiteflies stole a gene from plants to survive their lethal toxins | Earth.com

—

Credit:

Lady Margot Asquith on the outbreak of World War I Roman Styran