Permanence can be Defended

In donation after the circulatory‐respiratory determination of death (DCDD), the dead donor rule requires that the donor be dead before organ procurement can proceed. Under the relevant limb of the Uniform Determination of Death Act 1981 (USA), a person is dead when the cessation of circulatory‐respiratory function is ‘irreversible’. Critics of current practice in DCDD have argued that the donor is not dead at the time organs are procured, and so the procurement of organs from these donors violates the dead donor rule. We offer a new argument here in defence of current DCDD practice, and, in particular, of the interpretation of the requirement of ‘irreversibility’ as permanence.     

The Photosynthesis and Cell Shape Rhythms can be Naturally Uncoupled from the Biological Clock in Euglena gracilis

A naturally occurring population of Euglena (Klebs Strain Z)cells, with unusual biological clock properties, has been isolated.The photosynthesis reactions, which are usually controlled bythe biological clock, are uncoupled from the clock in the newpopulation. The rate of oxygen evolution is influenced predominantlyby the environmental growth parameters instead of the biologicalclock. In addition, the rhythm in cellular shape has a differenttiming from the control population and can be temporarily uncoupledfrom the clock by lowering the light intensity used for growth Key words: Biological clock, photosynthesis, Euglena     

Ignorance can be evolutionarily beneficial

Information is increasingly being viewed as a resource used by organisms to increase their fitness. Indeed, it has been formally shown that there is a sensible way to assign a reproductive value to information and it is non‐negative. However, all of this work assumed that information collection is cost‐free. Here, we account for such a cost and provide conditions for when the reproductive value of information will be negative. In these instances, counterintuitively, it is in the interest of the organism to remain ignorant. We link our results to empirical studies where Bayesian behavior appears to break down in complex environments and provide an alternative explanation of lowered arousal thresholds in the evolution of sleep.     

Ribavirin can be mutagenic for arenaviruses

Arenaviruses include several important human pathogens, and there are very limited options of preventive or therapeutic interventions to combat these viruses. An off-label use of the purine nucleoside analogue ribavirin (1-β-d-ribofuranosyl-1-H-1,2,4-triazole-3-carboxamide) is the only antiviral treatment currently available for arenavirus infections. However, the ribavirin antiviral mechanism action against arenaviruses remains unknown. Here we document that ribavirin is mutagenic for the prototypic arenavirus lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus (LCMV) in cell culture. The mutagenic activity of ribavirin on LCMV was observed under single- and multiple-passage regimes and could not be accounted for by a decrease of the intracellular GTP pool promoted by ribavirin-mediated inhibition of inosine monophosphate dehydrogenase (IMPDH). Our findings suggest that the antiviral activity of ribavirin on arenaviruses might be exerted, at least partially, by lethal mutagenesis. Implications for antiarenavirus therapy are discussed.