From anecdotes to evidence: Environmental DNA detection of Arctic charr (Salvelinus alpinus L.) at the southern limit of its circumpolar range.

The urgency of rapid species monitoring is at an all-time high due to the increasing threat of climate change to global ecosystems, in particular freshwater habitats. Fish such as Arctic charr, Salvelinus alpinus, are particularly vulnerable to increasing water temperatures and changes in land use due to their dependence on cold waters and confinement to lacustrine environments. Nonetheless, current monitoring practices, relying on physical capture of organisms, are hindered by resource constraints, desire to manage habitats for recreational fishing, and restricted access to sites.

Pilot study of a ketogenic diet in bipolar disorder: a process evaluation.

Background: Bipolar disorder is a serious mental illness, which requires new strategies for prevention and management. Recent evidence suggests that a ketogenic diet may be an effective intervention. This research aimed to explore the feasibility and acceptability of a ketogenic diet intervention for bipolar disorder, fidelity to its behavioural components and the experiences of the participants and research clinicians involved.

Resolution of oncogene-induced senescence markers in HPV-infected cervical cancer tissue.

Background: Oncogene-Induced Senescence (OIS) is a form of senescence that occurs as a consequence of oncogenic overstimulation and possibly infection by oncogenic viruses. Whether senescence plays a role in the pathogenesis of cervical cancer (CC) is not well understood. Moreover, whether cervical epithelial cells that are part of the premalignant cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN), exhibit markers of OIS in Human Papillomavirus (HPV)-infected tissue, has not been investigated.

Appendix.

Since the first Chapter dealt with the well-known charge-charge interactions familiar to biologists, this concluding Chapter introduces some key electrical forces, probably much less familiar, perhaps even unknown. LLPS (liquid liquid phase separation) which we have seen involved in so much of cell biology depends on multivalent, π-π and cation-π electrical forces. How these arise is dealt with here and may be especially useful as an aide memoir to return to when such issues arise within the bulk of the text.

Electrical Forces Improve Memory in Old Age.

This penultimate chapter is based on a single paper published in Nature in 2022. I have used it specifically as an exemplar, in this case to show that memory improvement in old age may be regulated by a multiplicity of electrical forces. However, I include it because I believe that one could pick almost any other substantial single paper and show that a completely disparate set of biological mechanisms similarly depend crucially on multiple electrical forces.

Electric Forces and ATP Synthesis.

ATP synthase is a rotary motor enzyme that drives the formation of ATP from ADP and P and uses multiple electrical forces to do this. This chapter outlines the exquisite use of these electrical forces to generate the high energy phosphates on which all our lives depend. Vacuolar ATPases and the ADP/ATP carrier also are explored.

Crucial Roles of Electricity in Virology.

Packaging of DNA into viruses in some cases involves remarkably sophisticated electrical control mechanisms. One example is how the T4 bacteriophage uses an electrostatically driven motor to pump DNA into the viral capsid.

SARS-CoV-2 Is an Electricity-Driven Virus.

One of the most important and challenging biological events of recent times has been the pandemic caused by SARS-CoV-2. Since the underpinning argument behind this book is the ubiquity of electrical forces driving multiple disparate biological events, consideration of key aspects of the SARS-CoV-2 structural proteins is included. Electrical regulation of spike protein, nucleocapsid protein, membrane protein, and envelope protein is included, with several of their activities regulated by LLPS and the multivalent and π-cation and π-π electrical forces that drive phase separation.

Synaptic Physiology Depends on Electrical Forces and Liquid-Liquid Phase Separation.

Pre- and post-synaptic events are regulated by liquid-liquid phase separation and this phenomenon requires multiple electrical forces. Both axonal transport and the organization of postsynaptic excitatory and inhibitory receptors are regulated by LLPS, with its mandatory electrical drivers ultimately determining our cognitive health and capacity.

Neurological Diseases can be Regulated by Phase Separation.

Several neurological diseases arise from abnormal protein aggregation within neurones and this is closely regulated by phase separation. One such is motor neurone disease and aberrant aggregation of superoxide dismutase. Again these events are regulated by electrical forces that are examined.

Epigenetic Regulation Via Electrical Forces.

Multiple epigenetic modulations occur to chromatin rather than to DNA itself and these influence gene expression or gene silencing profoundly. Both the creation of these post-translational modifications and the mechanisms of their readout are regulated significantly by electrical forces several of which are discussed. They are also influenced by phase separation which itself is driven by electrical forces.

Spatially Regulated Electrical Forces for Biological Catalysis.

It is now well-recognized that biological catalysis depends crucially on spatially regulated electrical forces for optimal efficiency. Several examples of the mechanisms underpinning this will be covered, as will the experimental evidence that oriented electrical fields can enhance specific chemical reactions.

Making Proteins with Electricity.

Ribosomes use multiple electrical forces to regulate new protein construction, to ensure efficient protein cotranslation, chaperoning, and folding. When these electrical regulatory forces are disrupted as in point charge mutations, specific disease occurs from aberrantly folded proteins. α1 antitrypsin deficiency is perhaps the best-known misfolded protein disease and is covered in some detail.

Nucleic Acids and Electrical Signals.

Nucleic acids are highly charged, and electrical forces are involved heavily in how our DNA is compacted and packaged into such a small space, how chromosomes are formed, and how DNA damage is repaired. In addition, electrical forces are crucial to the formation of non-canonical DNA structures called G-Quadruplexes which play multiple biological roles.

How Electricity Prevents Us from Bleeding to Death.

Rapid tissue repair is also needed in the event of damage to blood vessels. Most of the essential steps that prevent us from bleeding to death involve the functions of Von Willebrand factor (VWF) and many of these are dependent on electrical forces.

Electrical Forces Regulate Single-Cell Wound Healing.

Damage to the cell membrane can be life threatening for single-celled organisms. Several mechanisms of single-cell wound healing occur and aspects of these are regulated by electrical forces.

Membrane Surface Charge, Phospholipids, and Protein Localization.

Cell membranes contain multiple charged lipids that bind proteins dynamically and their spatial organization on the inner/outer membrane leaflet, or in spatially localized areas has considerable biological importance. Myristoylated alanine-rich C kinase substrate (MARCKS) proteins and their roles as electrostatic switches are one example covered. Cell surface charge needs to be monitored and regulated continually and the roles of lipid flippases and scramblases and their electrical regulation also are considered.

The Link between Oxygen and Basement Membranes.

Epithelial tissues and the basement membranes they sit on did not appear for billions of years. Their appearance was delayed most likely by a lack of oxygen, which is required for collagen synthesis, and which only began to build up following the Great Oxygenation Event ~ 2.4 billion years ago.

Electrical Forces in Lumen Formation.

Epithelial sheets evolved the capacity to fold and reform to create a lumen and therefore new environments. For humans, forming a lumen during gastrulation has been viewed as perhaps the most crucial biological process of our life and it is regulated by multiple electrical forces.

Epithelia Are Scaffolds for Electricity-Dependent Molecular Interactions.

Once multicellularity was thriving, a key development involved the emergence of epithelial layers that separated "inside" from "outside". Most epithelia then generate their own transepithelial electrical signals. So electrical forces were instrumental in the development of epithelial tissues, which themselves generate further electrical signals.

Multicellularity and Electrical Forces.

Multiple single-celled life forms existed for millennia before some individual cells found ways of gathering together to form multicellular organisms. Several of the key elements that drove this step-change in life on Earth involved electrical forces.

Long-Distance Electron Transport in Unicellular Organisms and Biofilms.

Electrical forces are widespread in single-celled organisms and underpin sophisticated communication systems. Bacterial biofilm colonies, for example, attract new members electrically. Bacteria also join together end to end and engage in long-distance electron transport along bacterial filaments over centimetres.

Electricity in the Creation of Life.

How did life come into existence? How was the first membrane formed on Earth? And where? What were the conditions that promoted membrane creation and how were electrical forces essential for this to occur?

Electricity in Space and on Earth.

This covers the roles of electrical forces in space, in creating planets, including the Earth and in creating the conditions on Earth that make life possible.

Electrical Forces in Biology Across Distances.

This first chapter covers essentials needed to understand the multiple roles of electrical forces that impinge on biology, over very different distances. Other less familiar electrical forces are also covered in the last chapter.