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Complex truth about Junk DNA + Illegal cannabis farms infringe on key animal habitat

#1
C C Offline
The complex truth about ‘Junk DNA’
https://www.quantamagazine.org/the-compl...-20210901/

EXCERPTS: Imagine the human genome as a string stretching out for the length of a football field, with all the genes that encode proteins clustered at the end near your feet. Take two big steps forward; all the protein information is now behind you.

The human genome has three billion base pairs in its DNA, but only about 2% of them encode proteins. The rest seems like pointless bloat, a profusion of sequence duplications and genomic dead ends often labeled “junk DNA.” This stunningly thriftless allocation of genetic material isn’t limited to humans: Even many bacteria seem to devote 20% of their genome to noncoding filler.

Many mysteries still surround the issue of what noncoding DNA is, and whether it really is worthless junk or something more. Portions of it, at least, have turned out to be vitally important biologically. But even beyond the question of its functionality (or lack of it), researchers are beginning to appreciate how noncoding DNA can be a genetic resource for cells and a nursery where new genes can evolve.

“Slowly, slowly, slowly, the terminology of ‘junk DNA’ [has] started to die,” said Cristina Sisu, a geneticist at Brunel University London.

Scientists casually referred to “junk DNA” as far back as the 1960s, but they took up the term more formally in 1972 [...] Technological advances in sequencing, particularly in the past two decades, have done a lot to shift how scientists think about noncoding DNA and RNA, Sisu said. Although these noncoding sequences don’t carry protein information, they are sometimes shaped by evolution to different ends. As a result, the functions of the various classes of “junk” — insofar as they have functions — are getting clearer.

[...] Seth Cheetham thinks that dogma about “junk DNA” has weighed down inquiry into the question of how much of it deserves that description. “It’s basically discouraged people from even finding out whether there is a function or not,” he said. On the other hand, because of improved sequencing and other methods, “we’re in a golden age of understanding noncoding DNA and noncoding RNA,” said Zhaolei Zhang, a geneticist at the University of Toronto who studies the role of the sequences in some diseases.

In the future, researchers may be less and less inclined to describe any of the noncoding sequences as junk because there are so many other more precise ways of labeling them now. For Sisu, the field’s best way forward is to keep an open mind when assessing the eccentricities of noncoding DNA and RNA and their biological importance. People should “take a step back and realize that one person’s trash is another person’s treasure,” she said... (MORE - missing details)


Illegal cannabis farms infringe on crucial habitat for sensitive birds and mammals
https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/926672

RELEASE: Sites favored by illegal cannabis farmers on the West Coast of the United States overlap with the habitat ranges of three threatened predators, potentially exposing them to toxic pesticides, according to a study by Greta Wengert at the Integral Ecology Research Center in California and colleagues, publishing September 1 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE.

Illegal cannabis cultivation is often associated with the rampant use of pesticides, such as rodenticides, which can be passed up the food chain and accumulate in predators’ bodies.

In a unique collaboration between law enforcement and wildlife biologists, researchers used location data on 1469 illegal cannabis cultivation sites discovered between 2007 and 2014 to map the likely distribution of grow sites in forested regions of California and southern Oregon. They compared these maps with habitat distribution models for two carnivorous mammals: the endangered Pacific fisher (Pekania pennanti) and the threatened Humboldt marten (Martes caurina humboldtensis), and one bird of prey: the threatened northern spotted owl (Strix occidentalis caurina).

The model predicted 21,000 square kilometers of forest with a high-likelihood of cannabis cultivation, and ground-truthing located sixteen previously undetected cannabis farms, suggesting that illegal cultivation may be widespread in the study region.

The analysis revealed overlap between predicted cannabis cultivation sites and suitable habitat for the three species of conservation concern - nearly 48% of spotted owl habitat, 45% of fisher habitat, and 40% of Humboldt marten habitat overlapped with high likelihood areas for illegal cultivation. In the southern Sierra Nevada, 100% of female fisher home ranges overlapped high likelihood cultivation areas, suggesting this population may be particularly at risk of toxic pesticide exposure from illegal cannabis farms. Locating and cleaning up contaminated grow sites should be high priority for conservationists and land managers, the authors say.

The authors add: “The results of our study and its validation support concerns that the problem of trespass cannabis cultivation is more extensive than previously thought. The study solidifies our belief that the environmental impacts of this illicit activity adversely affect the recovery of these three sensitive forest predators in ways that we haven’t yet begun to address.”
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#2
Yazata Online
It isn't just animals. Here in California it's often Mexican drug cartels running the cultivation sites, which are often located in open space preserves. So hiking has become increasingly dangerous because hikers are apt to be confronted by heavily armed men guarding the grow sites.

The media doesn't like to report on that, but when its animals in danger, it's a different story I guess.
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