Genetic code of bloodsucking tsetse fly cracked

VIENNA: Scientists said Thursday they have cracked the genetic code of the tsetse fly, potentially helping to tackle one of sub-Saharan Africa´s most devastating livestock diseases as well as human sleeping sickness.

"Decoding the tsetse fly´s DNA is a major scientific breakthrough," said Kostas Bourtzis from a joint body of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization and the International Atomic Energy Agency which sequenced the genome in a 10-year international effort.

He said it "opens the way for more effective control of trypanosomiasis, which is good news for millions of herders and farmers in sub-Saharan Africa".

Found only in Africa, bloodsucking tsetse flies are vectors for the parasites that cause trypanosomiasis, or nagana, an often-lethal disease that affects some three million animals each year.

It leads to a debilitating chronic condition that reduces fertility, weight gain and milk production, and makes livestock too weak for ploughing or transport, which in turn makes it harder for farmers to grow crops.

Humans bitten by carrier flies can develop African sleeping sickness, which can be fatal without treatment.

No vaccine exists for livestock or humans because the parasite is able to evade mammals´ immune systems, so control methods primarily involve trapping, pesticides and sterilising male flies using radiation.

The sequencing of the genome will allows scientists to better study the fly´s genes and their functions, knowledge that should open the door for researching ways to control the insect, Bourtzis said in a statement.

"Detection and treatment of trypanosomiasis is currently expensive, difficult and dangerous for the livestock as it often involves toxic drugs," he said.

"But this new knowledge will accelerate research on tsetse control methods and help scientists develop new and complementary strategies to reduce the use of costly drugs and insecticides."

The FAO and IAEA´s Division of Nuclear Techniques in Food and Agriculture is currently helping 14 African countries to control tsetse populations using sterilisation and other methods, with the fly already eradicated on the island of Zanzibar and progress being made in Ethiopia and Senegal.

A first set of findings on the tsetse fly genome was due to be published in the journal Science on Friday. (AFP)

Fundraiser auction offers chance to fly with Shah Rukh Khan on his private jet

 

The auction list also includes invitation for dinner at Kiran Rao and Aamir Khan's home. 

 

A starry fundraising auction will offer a chance to fly with superstar Shah Rukh Khan on his private jet, win a dinner date with heartthrob Ranbir Kapoor and spend an entire day with Bollywood diva Priyanka Chopra.

Swades Foundation, founded by former UTV boss Ronnie and wife Zarina Screwvala, which works towards upliftment of people living in rural India, is organising the fundraiser gala evening on April 10.

The event to be hosted by filmmaker Karan Johar will also be attended by Bollywood megastar Amitabh Bachchan, who is the guest of honour along with his wife Jaya.

The evening will feature an auction gala where other unique experiences and products from luxury and art will go under the hammer to raise funds for the charity.

“I am very excited as well as nervous to be organising a fundraiser of this magnitude. We have a perfect blend of films, fashion and art at the auction table. It is an interesting mix of things. And I would call them ‘Money Can’t Buy’ experiences,” Zarina.

  

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The auction list also includes invitation for dinner at Kiran Rao and Aamir Khan’s home, a retreat in Jaipur for two, hosted by the Royal Family, invite for the Pucci Fashion Show as their VIP guest in Milano, holiday in Champagne (France) and an opportunity to get a portrait done by Jaideep Mehrotra.

“The who’s who from the world of films, fashion, business are set to attend the event. We have made special efforts and promise it is going to be a unique experience,” Zarina added.

will also be unique fashion show with leading personalities from Bollywood who will walk the ramp along with villagers of Raigadh, where Swades works.

Celebrities like Sonakshi Sinha, Bipashsa Basu, Neha Dhupia, Dia Mirza, Malaika Arora Khan, Shiamak Davar, Leander Paes, Ayan Mukherjee among others will walk the ramp wearing ace designer Vikram Phadnis’ creations.

Mysterious prehistoric reptiles fly into New York

NEW YORK: An international exhibition in New York explores the fascinating world of prehistoric flying reptiles, the pterosaurs which ruled the skies when dinosaurs ruled the earth millions of years ago.

"Pterosaurs: Flight in the Age of Dinosaurs," opens on Saturday and runs until January 2015 at the American Museum of Natural History, co-curated with an expert from Brazil.

It is the largest exhibition ever mounted in the United States about these flying reptiles that have long captured popular imagination and which play a starring role in any dinosaur movie.

In a full interactive experience, visitors can even "pilot" two species of flying pterosaurs over prehistoric landscapes via a sensor programme that reproduces the human body's movements on a screen.

"Despite persistently captivating our popular imagination, pterosaurs are among the least well understood large animals from the age of dinosaurs," said museum president Ellen Futter.

They were the first vertebrates to fly, diversifying into more than 150 species ranging in size from a sparrow to a two-seater plane before becoming extinct 66 million years ago.

From the small Nemicolopterus crypticus of just 10 inches (25 centimetres), to the gigantic Quetzalcoatlus northropi of 10 yards (metres), the exhibition showcases many of the known pterosaurs through rare fossils and stunningly realistic models.

"It's just a fantastic exhibition, taking those bones and putting them into life," says co-curator Alexander Kellner, a paleontologist from Brazil's Museu Nacional in Rio de Janeiro.

The first pterosaur fossil ever found, a Pterodactylus antiquus, was part of a collection belonging to a German prince in the 18th century and had fascinated scientists for years.

Only in 1809 was it correctly identified by the French naturalist Georges Cuvier, who named it in reference to the Greek words "ptero" or wing and "dactyle," which means finger.

Pterosaurs had developed their characteristic long front limbs and fins adapted to flying by more than 200 million years ago.

Like other flying animals, they spent time on land, where the general consensus is that they moved on all fours.

For more than a hundred years paleontologists focused their searches on Bavaria in Germany, southern England and the US interior.

But in the last two decades, northeastern Brazil and northeast China have seen a "renaissance in terms of discovery."

"We had three places for over a hundred years. Now we have two more places that are even better than the other three," said Mark Norell, curator and chair of the museum's paleontology division.

"It's just exploded in terms of diversity as well as in number of specimens."

This revival is not only the result of new excavation sites, but also stems from "more support" for science in the two emerging economies of Brazil and China, said Kellner.

While Brazil is known for fossils preserved in "3D", in China there is "a lot of diversity", he said.

A sixth area, Transylvania in Romania, has more recently emerged as a new magnet for paleontologists, with the discovery of some "spectacular specimens", said Norell.

One of the fossils found in the region was of a species "even stronger and heavier than the Quetzalcoatlus northropi" and is still little known.

Ali Fazal to fly to Abu Dhabi to join ‘Fast & Furious 7′ gang

'Fast & Furious 7' was postponed after Paul Walker's death in a car crash in Washington.

The sudden demise of Paul Walker had put a question mark on the future of Fast & Furious 7. However the makers have decided to commence the shooting of the film, which had been postponed after Paul Walker’s death in a car crash in Washington, in Abu Dhabi.
Bollywood actor Ali Fazal, who is all set to be part of the thrilling saga says happily, “Yes, I will be joining the Fast & Furious gang soon. We have to finish the filming.”
Though the dates have not been sent to Ali Fazal, he has been told to keep himself ready to leave for Abu Dhabi at the end of this month. The shooting of ‘Fast & Furious 7′ resumes in the first week of April.
Ali Fazal also plays the romantic lead opposite Vidya Balan in ‘Bobby Jasoos’. Since he would be required in Mumbai for promoting the film which is expected to release around June (date not yet firmed in) he is hoping that the shooting schedules of ‘Fast & Furious 7′ don’t clash with his promotion of ‘Bobby Jasoos’.

Did Virat Fly To Sri Lanka To Meet Anushka?

Though Anushka Sharma claims to be just friends with the Indian cricketer Virat Kohli, the reports suggest otherwise. According to reports, Virat Kohli was spotted travelling on a flight from Sri Lanka. It is rumoured that Virat flew all the way to Sri Lanka to meet his lady love Anuskha, who is currently shooting for Anurag Kashyap's Bombay Velvet.

 

Earlier, the rumoured couple was caught together on the streets of Auckland. Anushka had allegedly flown down to Auckland to spend quality time with her Virat, who was then playing for the Test matches with team India in New Zealand. If reports are to be believed that the duo has been trying to catch up every time they get a chance.