Uspehi sovremennoj biologii

Domestic goats remain important as farm animals, whose health influences the quality and yield of livestock products. Animal health depends on housing conditions and nutrition, including effective digestion, which is significantly influenced by microorganisms inhabiting the pathways of the gastrointestinal tract. Ruminants, such as goats, host a unique community of bacteria, that varies depending on age and region of residence. One major challenge is identifying the normal members of the goat gut microbiome, and distinguishing these from members that may vary in goats without indicating disease. This study synthesizes available published data to address this issue.

The article describes a new characteristic that is important in the process of evolution of vertebrates – the quality of activity. This is a set of properties that primarily describes the motor activity of animals, and manifests itself in the energy supply of activity and work of the nervous system (and at all levels – from oxidation in the mitochondria to the basic metabolism of the whole organism), in speed, coordination and accuracy of movements, in optimizing purposeful, expedient behavior due to the activity of the central nervous system, in endurance and other properties that give animals selective advantages in competition with other animal groups, create prerequisites for their ecological and evolutionary success. This characteristic is important primarily for vertebrates. Improving the quality of activity is the most important direction in the evolution of vertebrates. It indirectly includes the evolutionary characteristics of a multitude of internally interconnected functional systems of the body (musculoskeletal system, energy system from molecular to ecological levels, circulatory and respiratory systems, central nervous system, behavior, etc.), and is thus an integral characteristic responsible for the interrelation of the vital activity of the body with the external environment, its adaptations, for its interaction with cenoses of different levels. In our opinion, the quality of activity is a key characteristic, which ultimately is the “axis” around which the evolution of the complex of vertebrates is formed, and which is the basis, the direction of natural selection in this group of animals, ensuring the improvement of all other functionally interconnected internal systems of the body. This crucial characteristic requires further study and development.

Genome editing has many potential applications in green building and forestry by altering genome sequences that control tree growth and development, stress response, and resistance to diseases and pests. Using tools such as CRISPR/Cas9 targeted changes in genomes can improve desired quantitative and qualitative traits. Genome editing has great potential to solve problems in silviculture: by manipulating genes associated with lignin biosynthesis, researchers have successfully reduced the lignin content of poplar wood, increasing the efficiency of fiber production; genome editing applied to increase cellulose production has resulted in increased biomass productivity; various genome editing techniques have been used to control poplar blooms, allowing sterile forms to be bred, preventing the spread of genetically modified traits among non-target populations.

E.D. Sverdlov, Doctor of Chemical Sciences, Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences, provided a review of a series of articles, published in the journal “Advances in Current Biology” in 2024. The reviewer believes, that the presented 4 parts of the article “Theory of the evolutionary role of inherited tumors (carcino-evo-devo): history of development and current state” (Kozlov, 2024) summarize the enormous work of Andrei P. Kozlov, and his colleagues on proving the concept of the role of hereditary tumors in evolution put forward by A.P. Kozlov. This theory, called by the author the theory of carcino-evo-devo, may become a unifying biological theory.

The analytical article critically examines some aspects of the theory of carcino-evo-devo, testing its strength, which is known to be useful for strengthening and improving both new and long-established ideas in the scientific world.