Senior Women Web

Author: SeniorWomenWeb

  • Women’s Experiences of Sexual Assault and Harassment Linked With High Blood Pressure

     

    Sexual violence may have compound effects on women’s cardiovascular healthwoman have blood pressure taken

    Women who had ever experienced sexual violence in their lifetime — including sexual assault and workplace sexual harassment — were more likely to develop high blood pressure over a seven-year follow-up period, according to findings from a large, longitudinal study of women in the United States. The research, funded by the National Institutes of Health and published in the Journal of the American Heart Association, indicated that sexual violence was a common experience, affecting more than 20% of the women in the sample.

    “Our results showed that women who reported experiencing both sexual assault and workplace sexual harassment had the highest risk of hypertension, suggesting potential compounding effects of multiple sexual violence exposures on women’s cardiovascular health,” said Rebecca B. Lawn, Ph.D.(link is external), of the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, lead author on the study.

    Lawn and colleagues analyzed associations between lifetime exposure to sexual violence and blood pressure while accounting for the possible impacts of exposure to other types of trauma. For data, the researchers used the Nurses’ Health Study II (NHS II), a longitudinal study of adult women in the U.S. that began in 1989 with 115,000 nurses enrolled.

    Over time, the NHS II has collected data on a wide range of sociodemographic, medical, and behavioral variables. As part of a 2008 NHS II sub-study, a subgroup of participants reported whether they had ever experienced sexual harassment at work (either physical or verbal) and whether they had ever experienced unwanted sexual contact. They also reported exposure to other traumas, such as an accident, disaster, or unexpected death of a loved one.

    Lawn and colleagues analyzed the NHS II sub-study data, excluding those participants who already had a diagnosis of high blood pressure or were taking medication for high blood pressure from their analyses. They also excluded women who had a history of cardiovascular or cerebrovascular disease. The final sample consisted of 33,127 women who were ages 43 to 64 in 2008.

    The NHS II data indicated that experiences of sexual violence were common: about 23% of the women had experienced sexual assault at some point in their life and 12% had experienced workplace sexual harassment. About 6% of women had experienced both.

    About 21% of the women reported developing high blood pressure over the follow-up period, from 2008 to 2015.

  • High Inflation and the Outlook for Monetary Policy By Federal Reserve Governor Michelle W. Bowman

    February 21, 2022

    High Inflation and the Outlook for Monetary PolicyFed res Michelle W Bowman

    Governor Michelle W. Bowman

    At the American Bankers Association Community Banking Conference, Palm Desert, California

    Before we get to our conversation on community banking, I would like to briefly discuss my outlook for the U.S. economy and my view of appropriate monetary policy.1 As I see it, the main challenge for monetary policy now is to bring inflation down without harming the ongoing economic expansion.

    Inflation is much too high. Last year I noted that inflationary pressures associated with strong demand and constrained supply could take longer to subside than many expected. Since then, those problems have persisted and inflation has broadened, reaching the highest rate that Americans have faced in forty years. High inflation is a heavy burden for all Americans, but especially for those with limited means who are forced to pay more for everyday items, delay purchases, or put off saving for the future. I intend to support prompt and decisive action to lower inflation, and today I will explain how the Fed is pursuing this goal.

    In the near term, I expect that uncomfortably high inflation will persist at least through the first half of 2022. We may see signs of inflation easing in the second half of the year, but there is a substantial risk that high inflation could persist. In January, the Consumer Price Index rose to a 12-month rate of 7.5 percent, which, consistent with other recent monthly readings, was even higher than expected. Employment costs for businesses, as measured by average hourly wages, also rose last month. And continued tightness in the labor market indicates that upward pressure on wages and other employment compensation is not likely to moderate soon.

    My base case is that inflation will moderate later this year, which will depend, in part, on appropriate actions by the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC). But with wage growth lagging behind inflation for the past year, many families may find it challenging to make ends meet and continued rising home prices will likely prevent many from entering the housing market. In addition, rising costs and hiring difficulties continue to be burdens for small businesses.

    Turning to the labor market, which continues to tighten, indications are that the Omicron infection surge earlier this year has not left a negative imprint on the economy or slowed job creation. I expect to see continued strength in the job market this year, with further gains in employment, and my hope is that more Americans return to the labor force and find work. The strength in job creation is a big positive for those seeking employment and for their families. Even with the improving labor market, I still hear from businesses that qualified workers are difficult to find, and labor shortages remain a drag on hiring and on economic growth.

    Now let me turn to the implications of this outlook for monetary policy. In my view, conditions in the labor market have been and are currently consistent with the FOMC’s goal of maximum employment, and as such, my focus has been on the persistently high inflation. In part, the high inflation reflects supply chain disruptions associated with the economic effects of the pandemic and efforts made to contain it. Unfortunately, monetary policy isn’t well-suited to address supply issues. But strong demand and a very tight labor market have also contributed to inflation pressures, and the FOMC can help alleviate those pressures by removing the extraordinary monetary policy accommodation that is no longer needed.

  • Study: Natural hazards Compound Covid-19 Impacts Disproportionately on Businesses Run by Minorities, Women and Vets

    Small business image

    Editor’s note: This story was adapted from the news release issued by NIST

    By many measures, 2020 — a year dominated by an emerging pandemic and overrun with natural disasters — was bad for business. A multitude of variables affected the ability of businesses to adapt, but according to new research, socio-economic vulnerabilities intensified impacts on small businesses.

    A study by researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) revealed that businesses run by minorities, women and veterans, were dealt a much worse hand by the pandemic than other businesses. What’s more, the team saw that these businesses reported harsher downturns from COVID-19 alone than even other small businesses that were struck by natural disasters on top of COVID-19.

    The findings, published in the International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction, stress the severity of the resilience gap between historically underrepresented group operators (HUGO) and non-HUGO businesses and highlight the need for additional interventions to HUGO businesses in areas where there is a high likelihood of overlapping natural disasters and other incidents. 

    “It is critical that we understand how climate events amplify existing social and economic vulnerabilities,” said Ariela Zycherman, a co-author of the paper in NOAA’s Climate Program Office. “For HUGO populations in particular, research like this demonstrates the ways pre-existing social inequities threaten resilience. This information is essential for supporting just climate futures across communities.”

    The researchers initially developed the survey to learn about the combined impact of the pandemic and extreme weather events, including sudden disasters, such as hurricanes, earthquakes and wildfires, and longer-lasting events, such as droughts and winter storms. By collecting that information, the researchers sought to potentially uncover opportunities for federal agencies and other institutions to offer support effectively. 

  • Jo Freeman Reviews There is Nothing For You Here by Fiona Hill

    There Is Nothing For You Here
     

    Review of

    There Is Nothing For You Here: Finding Opportunity In The 21st Century
    By Fiona Hill
    New York:  Mariner Books, 2021, ix + 422 pages, $30
     
     
    This fascinating book is both a personal memoir and an analysis of social mobility in three countries: the UK, the US, and Russia.  Born in 1965, the author was raised in the UK. She came to the US on a scholarship in 1989 in order to become a policy expert on the Soviet Union, just as it began its dissolution.  After getting her Ph.D. from Harvard she became a foreign policy fellow at the Brookings Institution, eventually becoming a US citizen.
     
    Her three countries have a lot in common.  All have significant regions which suffered from deindustrialization which in turn led to a decline of opportunity.  Loss of jobs and homes created civil unrest, spreading further and further.  Indeed, it led to the collapse of the Soviet Union. Hill sees class and education as the primary divides, even in  Russia. Nonetheless, she is well aware that race goes deeper than class in the US, and being of the female gender closes doors in all three.
     
    Hill has gone farther than anyone would have predicted from her humble origins — she says it was a fluke — but gender still held her back.  She writes about the gender pay gap in a chapter on Women’s Work but makes major observations throughout the book.  She doesn’t call herself a feminist, but she sees the world as one.  It’s hard not to when you are assumed to be a secretary or a servant or called the “Russia bitch.”
     
    Her description of Donald Trump and his dysfunctional administration is consistent with that of other authors.  Trump was addicted to flattery and adulation.  A chapter section is called “Me, Me, Me.”  Hill says he suffered from “autocrat envy.”   He didn’t just admire Putin; he wanted to be like him.  Trump was angered by mere rumors that someone had said something negative about him.  He wanted to just snuff them out, with the alacrity of Putin and other autocrats.
     
    An acute observer and a copious note-taker, she illustrates her points with “you are there” precision.  Her two years in the Trump administration sound pretty gruesome.  Any sane person aspiring to work in the White House should be persuaded to not go there.
     
    Hill offers insight into Trump’s populist appeal by comparing it to the United Kingdom.  The election of Trump and the Brexit referendum followed similar patterns in the same year.  “Forgotten people” in “forgotten places” turned out in droves to follow a charismatic figure who promised to bring back the comforts and glories of their past.  That chapter is aptly entitled “Me, the People.”
     
    Although Hill worked for the Bush, Obama, and Trump administrations, we only get details about Trump.  Since it’s not a short book, perhaps the publisher didn’t think reading about the earlier Presidents would generate sales.  Too bad.  Her other comparisons are illuminating; how these three men ran their domains should be as well.
     
    This is a captivating book by a superb writer.  I’m sorry I never met her during the 15 years I used the Brookings Institution library.
     
    © 2022 by Jo Freeman
     
     
     

  • Justice Department Issues Guidance on Ballot Drop Box Accessibility Requirements Under the Americans with Disabilities Act

    Ballot Boxes in Berkeley

     

    Department of Justice
    Office of Public Affairs
    FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
    Tuesday, February 15, 2022

     

    The Justice Department announced today it has issued guidance under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) on how to ensure that ballot drop boxes are accessible to voters with disabilities. The publication, “Ballot Drop Box Accessibility, the Americans with Disabilities Act,” is intended to help election officials understand the ADA’s requirements, including the physical accessibility standards applicable to ballot drop boxes, and for voters with disabilities to understand their rights under federal law.

    “The right to vote is the fundamental right upon which our democracy is built,” said Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. “For too long in our history, many voters with disabilities have faced barriers in exercising their voting rights. Many of these barriers continue even today, including physical barriers that prevent them from entering polling places or accessing a ballot drop box. The ADA requires election officials to select and provide accessible ballot drop box locations so that voters with disabilities can have the same voting opportunities as other voters. The Justice Department is fully committed to vigorous enforcement of the ADA to ensure that voters with disabilities no longer face discrimination in the election process.”

    The publication covers the elements and features of a ballot drop box that election officials should consider meeting the ADA’s accessibility requirements. The publication discusses the requirements for an accessible route to a ballot drop box, such as a level walkway without gaps and steps. It also discusses accessibility features of a ballot drop box such as a handle or lever that can be operated with one hand and without tight grasping, pinching or twisting of the wrist. The guidance includes a checklist of the accessibility standards used to assess a ballot dropbox.

    The ballot drop box guidance is intended to be used together with the department’s “ADA Checklist for Polling Places,” a guidance document that discusses local governments’ obligations under the ADA to provide polling places that are physically accessible to voters with disabilities. The ADA Checklist for Polling Places covers the accessibility requirements for features that may be present at a ballot drop box location, such as parking, passenger drop off areas and building entrances.

    The Ballot Drop Box Accessibility publication may be found at ADA.gov homepage; the ADA Checklist for Polling Places publication may be found at ADA Checklist for Polling Places. Those interested in learning more about the ADA may call the Justice Department’s toll-free ADA information line at 800-514-0301 or 800-514-0383 (TDD), or access its ADA website at www.ada.gov. ADA complaints may be filed online at Step 1: Contact – Contact the Civil Rights Division | Department of Justice. Information about the department’s enforcement of federal civil and criminal laws related to voting may be found at Voting | Department of Justice.

  • Weekly Legislative Update, February 14, 2022: Bill To Permit Employees to Request Changes to Work Schedules Without Fear of Retaliation; Bill for Support of National Teen Dating Violence Awareness and Prevention Month”, Disaster Equipment in Emergencies

     support for Bipartisan Violence Against Women Act

    Above: Rep. Jennifer Wexton and support for the Bipartisan Violence Against Women Act

    Floor Action: 
     
    The Senate is in session this week. The House has a committee work period this week with no scheduled votes.  
     
    Appropriations — Bipartisan Violence Against Women Act This week, the Senate is expected to vote on a continuing resolution (CR) (H.R. 6617) to fund the government through March 11. The current CR expires on February 18. 
     
    Mark-Ups: 
     
    Small Business — On Tuesday, the Senate Small Business and Entrepreneurship Committee will mark up several bills, including S. 2042, the Interagency Committee on Women’s Business Enterprise Act of 2021. 

    BILLS INTRODUCED: FEBRUARY 7-11, 2022 

    Abortion 
     
    H.R. 6702 — Rep. Jackie Walorski (R-IN)/Energy and Commerce (2/9/22) — A bill to require more accurate reporting of abortion drug prescribing and related adverse events, and for other purposes. 
     
    Child Protection 
     
    S. 3594 — Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA)/Judiciary (2/8/22) — A bill to hold violent criminals and child predators accountable. 
     
    Employment 
     
    H.R. 6627 — Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL)/House Administration (2/7/22) — A bill to require the application of the administrative and judicial dispute-resolution procedures to registered lobbyists for claims alleging sexual harassment or sexual assault, and for other purposes. 
     
    H.R. 6670 — Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT)/Education and Labor; Administration; Oversight and Reform; Judiciary (2/9/22) — A bill to permit employees to request changes to their work schedules without fear of retaliation and to ensure that employers consider these requests, and to require employers to provide more predictable and stable schedules for employees in certain occupations with evidence of unpredictable and unstable scheduling practices that negatively affect employees, and for other purposes. 
     
    H.R. 6699 — Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL)/Education and Labor; House Administration; Oversight and Reform; Ways and Means (2/9/22) — A bill to extend protections to part-time workers in the areas of family and medical leave and pension plans, and to ensure equitable treatment in the workplace. 
     
    Health 
     
    S. 3601 — Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-IL)/Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs (2/9/22) — A bill to require the administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency to include breast pumps and other lactation supplies and equipment in disaster relief and emergency response. 
     
    Military 
     
    S. Res. 507 — Sen. Gary Peters (D-MI)/Considered and agreed to (2/9/22) — A resolution designating February 1, 2022, as “Blue Star Mother’s Day.” 
     
    Violence Against Women 
     
    S. 3623 — Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA)/Placed on Senate legislative calendar (2/9/22) — A bill to reauthorize the Violence Against Women Act of 1994, and for other purposes. 
     
    H. Res. 924 — Rep. Jennifer Wexton (D-VA)/Judiciary (2/9/22) — A resolution expressing support for designation of the month of February 2022 as “National Teen Dating Violence Awareness and Prevention Month.” 
     
    Women’s History 
     
    H.R. 6661 — Rep. Pete Aguilar (D-CA)/Oversight and Reform (2/9/22) — A bill to designate the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 1663 East Date Place in San Bernardino, California, as the “Dr. Margaret B. Hill Post Office Building.”  

    Editor’s Note: Our thanks to the Women’s Congressional Policy Institute: https://www.wcpinst.org/

     

  • Journal of the American Geriatrics Society: Changes in activity levels, physical functioning, and fall risk during the COVID-19 pandemic

    Journal of the American Geriatrics Society

    Clinical Investigation

    Free Access

    Changes in activity levels, physical functioning, and fall risk during the COVID-19 pandemic

    First published: 18 September 2021

     

    https://doi.org/10.1111/jgs.17477

    Funding information: AARP Foundation; Michigan Medicine; U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs

     

    Abstract

    Background

    Physical function worsens with older age, particularly for sedentary and socially isolated individuals, and this often leads to injuries. Through reductions in physical activity, the COVID-19 pandemic may have worsened physical function and led to higher fall-related risks.

    Methods

    A nationally representative online survey of 2006 U.S. adults aged 50–80 was conducted in January 2021 to assess changes in health behaviors (worsened physical activity and less daily time spent on feet), social isolation (lack of companionship and perceived isolation), physical function (mobility and physical conditioning), and falls (falls and fear of falling) since March 2020. Multivariable logistic regression was used to assess relationships among physical activity, social isolation, physical function, falls, and fear of falling.

    Results

    Among respondents, 740 (36.9%) reported reduced physical activity levels, 704 (35.1%) reported reduced daily time spent on their feet since March 2020, 712 (37.1%) reported lack of companionship, and 914 (45.9%) social isolation. In multivariable models, decreased physical activity (adjusted risk ratio, ARR: 2.92, 95% CI: 2.38, 3.61), less time spent on one’s feet (ARR: 1.95, 95% CI: 1.62, 2.34), and social isolation (ARR: 1.51, 95% CI: 1.30, 1.74) were associated with greater risks of worsened physical conditioning. Decreased physical activity, time spent daily on one’s feet, and social isolation were similarly associated with worsened mobility. Worsened mobility was associated with both greater risk of falling (ARR: 1.70, 95% CI: 1.35, 2.15) and worsened fear of falling (ARR: 2.02, 95% CI: 1.30, 3.13). Worsened physical conditioning and social isolation were also associated with greater risk of worsened fear of falling.

    Conclusion

    The COVID-19 pandemic was associated with worsened physical functioning and fall outcomes, with the greatest effect on individuals with reduced physical activity and social isolation. Public health actions to address reduced physical activity and social isolation among older adults are needed.

     

    Key Points

    • The COVID-19 pandemic was associated with worsened physical functioning and fall outcomes.
    • Poor fall outcomes reflected worsened physical functioning and reduced physical activity levels.

    Why Does this Paper Matter?

    Rapid deconditioning from the pandemic requires prompt policy responses.

    INTRODUCTION

    Sedentary behavior and social isolation increase risks of functional impairment and injury among older adults, threatening their independence and safety.1–5 During extended periods of reduced physical activity or isolation, such disablement may accelerate, causing a progressive loss of mobility and physical conditioning, and greater need for assistance from others for daily activities.6–9

    Although disability and functional trajectories have been extensively examined,10–13 it is less well understood how physical functioning of older adults has been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Some older adults may have maintained functional capacity through continued exercise, despite restrictions on physical and social engagement.14 For others, mobility and physical conditioning may have declined due to increased social isolation and sedentary behaviors, leading to higher risk for injuries such as falls.1–5

    Limited prior research has described decreases in physical activity among older adults during the COVID-19 pandemic.15 The current study adds to this literature by examining self-reported changes in physical function and fall-related injury, and whether these changes are influenced by sedentary behavior and social isolation. Specifically, it assesses whether physical activity and social isolation influenced physical functioning, and how activity levels and social isolation influenced fall injuries and the fear of falling. These findings can improve understanding of how older adults’ levels of physical disability and injury risk change under rapid shifts in opportunities for physical and social engagement.

  • Yale School of the Environment’s Study of Environment Found “Total Indirect Emissions from Electric Vehicles Pale in Comparison to the Indirect Emissions from Fossil Fuel-powered Vehicles”

    Plug-IN Hybrid Electric Car

    Editor’s Note: A year ago, we bought a used hybrid car,  following the path of one of our daughters, and have become increasingly interested in the science and, most importantly, the economic and environmental advantages accompanying that choice.

    With new major spending packages investing billions of dollars in electric vehicles in the US, some analysts have raised concerns over how green the electric vehicle industry actually is, focusing particularly on indirect emissions caused within the supply chains of the vehicle components and the fuels used to power electricity that charges the vehicles.

    But a recent study from the Yale School of the Environment published in Nature Communications found that the total indirect emissions from electric vehicles pale in comparison to the indirect emissions from fossil fuel-powered vehicles. This is in addition to the direct emissions from combusting fossil fuels — either at the tailpipe for conventional vehicles or at the power plant smokestack for electricity generation — showing electric vehicles have a clear advantage emissions-wise over conventional vehicles.

    “The surprising element was how much lower the emissions of electric vehicles were,” says postdoctoral associate Stephanie Weber. “The supply chain for combustion vehicles is just so dirty that electric vehicles can’t surpass them, even when you factor in indirect emissions.”

    Weber was part of the study led by Paul Wolfram [Yale] ’21 PhD — now a postdoc with the Joint Global Change Research Institute at the University of Maryland — and that included YSE economics professor Ken Gillingham and Edgar Hertwich, an industrial ecologist from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology and a former YSE faculty member. The research team combined concepts from energy economics and industrial ecology — carbon pricing, life cycle assessment, and modeling energy systems — to find if carbon emissions were still reduced when indirect emissions from the electric vehicle supply chain were factored in.

    “A major concern about electric vehicles is that the supply chain, including the mining and processing of raw materials and the manufacturing of batteries, is far from clean,” says Gillingham. “So, if we priced the carbon embodied in these processes, the expectation is electric vehicles would be exorbitantly expensive. It turns out that’s not the case; if you level the playing field by also pricing the carbon in the fossil fuel vehicle supply chain, electric vehicle sales would actually increase.” 

    The study also considered future technological change, such as decarbonization of the electricity supply, and found this strengthened the result that electric vehicles dominate when indirect supply chain emissions are accounted for. 

  • National Institutes of Health-funded Study Suggests COVID-19 Increases Risk of Pregnancy Complications

    Monday, February 7, 2022Covid 19 study

    Pregnant women with COVID-19 appear to be at greater risk for common pregnancy complications — in addition to health risks from the virus — than pregnant women without COVID-19, suggests a study funded by the National Institutes of Health.

    Right: SARS-CoV-2 particles isolated from a patient.
    Credit: National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases

    The study, which included nearly 2,400 pregnant women infected with SARS-CoV-2, found that those with moderate to severe infection were more likely to have a cesarean delivery, to deliver preterm, to die around the time of birth, or to experience serious illness from hypertensive disorders of pregnancy, postpartum hemorrhage, or from infection other than SARS-CoV-2. They were also more likely to lose the pregnancy or to have an infant die during the newborn period. Mild or asymptomatic infection was not associated with increased pregnancy risks.

    “The findings underscore the need for women of child-bearing age and pregnant individuals to be vaccinated and to take other precautions against becoming infected with SARS-CoV-2,” said Diana Bianchi, M.D., director of NIH’s Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), which funded the study. “This is the best way to protect pregnant women and their babies.”

    The study was conducted by Torri D. Metz, M.D., of the University of Utah, Salt Lake City, and colleagues in the NICHD Maternal-Fetal Medicine Units Network. It appears in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Additional funding was provided by NIH’s National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences.

    The study included more than 13,000 pregnant individuals from 17 U.S. hospitals, approximately 2,400 of whom were infected with SARS-CoV-2. Participants delivered between March 1 and December 31 2020, before SARS-CoV-2 vaccination was available. The researchers compared outcomes among those with COVID-19 to those from uninfected patients, and tabulated the study results as a primary outcome — whether the patient had died from any cause or had a serious illness or condition related to common obstetric complications. They also evaluated the results in terms of several secondary outcomes, including cesarean delivery, preterm birth, and fetal and newborn death.

    Compared to uninfected patients, those with moderate to severe COVID-19 were more likely to experience the primary outcome, (26.1 vs 9.2%). They were also more likely to deliver by cesarean (45.4 vs 32.4%) or preterm (26.9 vs 14.1%) or to have a fetal or newborn death (3.5 vs 1.8%). Mild or asymptomatic COVID-19 was not associated with any of adverse outcomes.

    About the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD): NICHD leads research and training to understand human development, improve reproductive health, enhance the lives of children and adolescents, and optimize abilities for all. For more information, visit https://www.nichd.nih.gov.

    About the National Institutes of Health (NIH): NIH, the nation’s medical research agency, includes 27 Institutes and Centers and is a component of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. NIH is the primary federal agency conducting and supporting basic, clinical, and translational medical research, and is investigating the causes, treatments, and cures for both common and rare diseases. For more information about NIH and its programs, visit www.nih.gov.

    NIH…Turning Discovery Into Health®

    References

    Metz TD, et al. Association of SARS-CoV-2 infection with serious maternal morbidity and mortality from obstetric complications, (link is external). Journal of the American Medical Association. 2022.

  • Reconstructing the Chromosomes of the Earliest Animals on Earth; In Marine Invertebrates Chromosomes Have Remained Largely the Way They Were In the Earliest Common Ancestor of All Animals

    By Robert Sanders, Media relations, UC Berkeley; FEBRUARY 4, 2022

     
    a flame jellyfish, with red-orange arms, in an aquarium with other jellyfish in the backgroun

    A fire or flame jellyfish (Rhopilema esculentum) photographed at the Monterey Bay Aquarium. These jellyfish, a popular food in Japan, are native to the warm temperate waters of the Pacific Ocean. (Credit: Bill Abbott, Creative Commons License)

    Many of today’s marine invertebrates, including sponges and jellyfish, have chromosomes with the same ancient structure they inherited from their primitive ancestors more than 600 million years ago, according to a new study.

    The surprise finding is a reminder that evolution is conservative — it keeps things that work well, like the organization of genes on a chromosome — and provides a key link between creatures alive today, including humans, and our very distant ancestors.

    “It emphasizes that even in something as fundamental as their chromosomes, diverse animals resemble each other,” said the study’s senior author, Daniel Rokhsar, the Marthella Foskett Brown Chair in the Department of Molecular and Cell Biology at the University of California, Berkeley. “That’s one of the reasons why we can learn so much about human biology from studying fruit flies, nematode worms, jellyfish and other ‘simple’ model systems — it’s because of the underlying unity of all animals. What we learn about animal diversity affects how we think about ourselves.”

    The findings were published Feb. 2 in the journal Science Advances.

    three lancelets sticking up out of the sand

    The lancelet, or amphioxus, is an invertebrate, but has a similar body plan to a vertebrate. (Credit: Vincent Moncorgé)

    The new analysis predicts that the first multicellular animals carried their genes in 29 pairs of ancient chromosomal units. As the first animals arose in the oceans and evolved into diverse invertebrates, from sponges to worms to humans, many of these chromosomes have remained intact for half a billion years.

    For comparison, humans now have 23 pairs of chromosomes, for a total of 46, the result of two duplications and multiple mergers and chromosomal rearrangements since the earliest animals.

    The study, led by Rokhsar and Oleg Simakov of the University of Vienna in Austria, is the first to compare the chromosomal position of genes from diverse animals, such as sponges, jellyfish, sea scallops and other aquatic invertebrates, allowing the ancestral organization to be inferred and rare changes in chromosome organization to be studied. Though this kind of analysis has been done for fruit flies and many vertebrates, including humans, it is only recently that the chromosome-scale genomes of diverse invertebrates have been determined.

    Evolution is conservative

    Because of increasingly advanced techniques for identifying which genes are close to one another when the chromosome is curled up inside the nucleus, scientists over the past few years have begun assigning genes to chromosomes in several invertebrates: the Florida lancelet, Branchiostoma floridae, a dainty, quill-like sea creature also known as amphioxus; a scallop, Patinopecten yessoensis; a fresh water sponge, Ephydatia muelleri; and the fire jellyfish, Rhopilema esculentum, a cnidarian. Rokhsar, Simakov and their team extended this set by determining the chromosomal sequences of a fifth animal, a hydra, Hydra vulgaris, another type of cnidarian.

    a hydra waving its six arms

    Hydra vulgaris is a freshwater species of cnidarians. (Credit: Courtesy of the Smithsonian)