Science's top ten scientific breakthroughs in 2022 were announced, and the achievements of Chinese scholars were selected

On December 16, Science magazine announced the top ten scientific breakthroughs
of 2022.
The top ten scientific breakthroughs in Science this year are the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), among other things, organisms include: a huge microorganism nearly 5,000 times larger than many bacterial cells; development of perennial rice varieties; how the Black Death changed the genes of Europeans; ancient ecosystems reconstructed by environmental DNA from 2 million years ago; respiratory syncytial virus vaccine; and viruses
that can cause multiple sclerosis.

JWST

After countless setbacks, 20 years of development, a huge cost of $10 billion, and a perilous 1.
5 million kilometers of space travel, the new James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has finally opened its golden infrared eyes to glimpse the universe and its unfathomable past
in stunning and unprecedented detail.
To commemorate this feat, Science magazine selected JWST's flight as the top
of the 2022 scientific breakthrough.

Unhindered by Earth's atmosphere, space telescopes provide an undisturbed view
of the universe around Earth.
However, unlike its predecessor, the Hubble Space Telescope, the JWST captures infrared light, including light emitted from the first stars and galaxies
.
Within days of taking to heaven in late June 2022, researchers began discovering thousands of new galaxies that are more distant and older than any galaxy previously recorded, some of which may predate the oldest galaxy discovered by Hubble by more than 150 million years
.
What's more, JWST is able to collect enough light from celestial bodies, from born stars to exoplanets, to reveal what they're made of and how they move
through space.
The data has begun to reveal in great detail the atmospheric composition of planets hundreds of light-years from Earth, opening up the possibility
of studying their ability to support life.

Perennial rice, which is expected to be easier to grow

The world's main food crops, rice, wheat and maize, must be replanted
after each harvest.
This is a tough job for farmers and can lead to environmental problems
such as soil erosion.
Being able to survive and produce perennial grains year after year can ease the burden, but cultivating plants that live long enough and yield well has always been a challenge
.
This year, researchers in China showed that perennial rice can meet these standards, saving farmers hard work
.

Hu Fengyi's research team at Yunnan University has developed perennial rice varieties
that can be used for actual production.
The results were published in Nature Sustainability in a paper on Sustained productivity and agronomic potential of perennial rice
.

The research team used perennial wild rice to cross with annual cultivated rice, and after multiple self-breeding screenings, a series of perennial rice strains were cultivated, and finally three rice varieties passed the national examination
.
Perennial rice can be continuously planted for 4 years, harvested 2 crops per year, and the average mu yield is slightly higher than that of annual rice
.
Perennial rice can omit the cultivation links such as seedling cultivation and planting, and can save about 50% of the production input
overall.
The cultivation of perennial rice has good ecological benefits
such as improving the soil structure of the cultivation layer and increasing the soil organic matter content.
This strain of rice can be cultivated in rice cultivation
areas where the minimum monthly average temperature is not less than 13.
5 °C and the duration is less than 4 °C for no more than 5 days (between 40 degrees north and south latitudes).

At present, Hu Fengyi's team has successfully bred a number of perennial rice varieties, including perennial rice 23, Yunda 25, Yunda 107, etc.
, which have been successfully tested and promoted
in China and many surrounding countries.
Among them, perennial rice 23 (PR23) passed the variety approval in 2018, which has the characteristics of wide adaptability, high and stable yield, and strong perennial, which is a milestone event
in the field of cultivation of perennial food crops based on interspecific hybridization.
Perennial rice planting once, can be continuously no-till harvest for 3-4 years, that is, since the second season, there is no need to buy seeds, seedlings, ploughing and transplanting and other production links, only need field management and harvesting two production links, save production costs, reduce labor, is a light, simplified, green and sustainable rice production method
.

This study not only bred perennial rice varieties with a wide range of applications, but also had certain reference significance
for the genetic improvement of other perennial crops and perennial forages.

Giant microorganisms

In February, scientists discovered the largest bacterium ever seen with the naked eye without a microscope, Thiomargarita magnifica, which can grow up to 2 centimeters and is shaped like a string, the size of a peanut or a fly, and 5,000 times
larger than many other microbes.

In addition to subverting ideas about how big and complex microbes can become, the bacteria "may be the missing link in the evolution of complex cells,"
scientists say.

See: Redefining Prokaryotic Cells! The largest bacteria to date are unexpectedly complex

RSV vaccine

Large-scale clinical trials of two vaccines against respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) have conclusively proven that they can safely protect the two groups most affected by this common infection: infants and the elderly
.
Both vaccines prevent serious disease in people, are effective in people over 60 years old, and do not cause serious side effects
.
One of them also protects babies in the third trimester for 6 months
.

RSV usually causes only mild cold symptoms, but in babies, the virus inflames the small airways in the lungs, and in older people, it worsens existing lung and heart conditions
.
More than 50 years ago, after a clinical trial of an experimental vaccine candidate killed two children and 80 percent of vaccinated people were hospitalized, development of the RSV vaccine has been stalled for decades
.
The scientists then figured out the key reason: The vaccine, made from chemically inactivated whole virus, elicitated only relatively weak antibodies, which not only failed to stop the virus, but helped RSV damage the airways
through a little-known mechanism.

In 2013, Barney Graham and colleagues at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases made a key advance that the new vaccine avoided the problem
.
A viral surface protein used in the vaccine changes shape after docking with a cell receptor, and the virus fuses with the cell, thus forming an infection
.
Led by Graham, now at the Morehouse School of Medicine, the team figured out how to lock the protein into its pre-fusion state
.
As a result, vaccination elicits higher levels of potent antibodies
.

The good news of this year's trials conducted by GlaxoSmithKline and Pfizer proves the validity of this strategy
.
More results are coming: Janssen Pharmaceuticals and Bavarian Nordic are conducting efficacy trials
of RSV vaccines for the elderly.
Both vaccines performed well
in the early stages of development.

Researchers remain uneasy because of past failures: GlaxoSmithKline stopped its parent RSV vaccine
in February after an unspecified "safety signal" appeared in clinical trials.
But so far, none of the other studies have reported red flags, and some of these vaccine candidates could be approved
by regulators around the world next year.

How the Black Death changed the genes of Europeans

Ever since the Black Death killed more than a third of Europe's population 700 years ago, researchers have wondered how the deadly plague left its mark on survivors
.
Such a devastating pandemic must be a powerful selective force in favor of people
with particularly effective immune defenses.
But because our immune genes frequently change in response to new pathogens, testing its legacy in a living person is impossible
.

This year, using tools to study ancient DNA, researchers looked at differences in immune genes in people who lived and died during the plague and identified a significant effect
.
The team analyzed ancient DNA
from the bones of more than 500 people buried before, during and after the Black Death in London and Denmark.
In October, they reported in Nature that survivors were more likely to carry genetic variants that enhanced their immune response
to Yersinia pestis.
Yersinia pestis is a bacterium transmitted by fleas that causes plague
.

After the Black Death in London, the frequency of 245 gene variants increased or decreased; Four of them also altered the ancient DNA
of the Danes.
One of the genes that stands out in particular is ERAP2
.
It encodes a protein called endoplasmic reticulum aminopeptidase 2, which has been shown to help immune cells recognize and fight threatening viruses
.

The team found two variants of ERAP2 that differ by only one letter
in their genetic code.
One produces full-size proteins and the other produces truncated proteins
.
People who inherited two copies of the variant encoding the full-size protein were twice as likely to survive the plague as people who inherited two copies of the other variant
.
The researchers also cultured 25 modern Britons of immune cells in the lab and found that cells with full-size protective ERAP2 produced more immune system proteins
when exposed to Y.
pestis.

The rapid spread of this protective gene variant in Europe in the century after the Black Death is by far the most powerful example
of natural selection in the human genome.
The protective variant of ERAP2 is still found
in 45% of the British population today.
Its continued existence suggests that until recently it remained favored by natural selection, probably because the plague was endemic
in Europe and Asia until the early 19th century.
But that protection can come at a cost: The same variant also increases the risk of autoimmune diseases such as Crohn's disease and rheumatoid arthritis
.

See: Nature: How the Black Death Altered People's Immune Systems 

Viruses that can cause multiple sclerosis

This year, researchers showed that a common herpes virus is an important factor in multiple sclerosis (MS), a disease in which the immune system attacks neurons
.
The discovery could lead to new ways
to treat or prevent this mysterious disease.
In the 2.
8 million people worldwide, the disease causes some mild symptoms, including blurred vision, fatigue and numbness, but gradually makes it impossible for others to speak or walk
.

Long the prime suspect for multiple sclerosis was the Epstein-Barr virus, which infects most people in childhood and then lurks in
certain white blood cells.
The virus is mainly transmitted through saliva and can cause infectious mononucleosis, or "kissing disease"
, in newly infected adolescents and young adults.
Almost all people with multiple sclerosis have antibodies to the Epstein-Barr virus, but so do 95% of healthy adults, making it difficult to determine the cause
of the virus.

To establish the link, epidemiologists scoured the medical records of more than 10 million U.
S.
recruits for 20 years and analyzed some of their stored blood samples
.
Of the 801 soldiers with MS, all but one had previously tested positive
for Epstein-Barr virus.
The team reported in the January issue of Science that in soldiers who initially tested negative, subsequent infections increased the risk of MS by a factor of 32
.
This outweighs the increased
risk of lung cancer from smoking.

Other researchers have discovered a possible mechanism, reported a few days later in the journal Nature, that the hibernating virus may wake up and cause nerve damage
through so-called molecular mimicry.
A protein similar to that found in the brain and spinal cord in that Epstein-Barr apparently induces the immune system to attack the shells
surrounding nerve cells necessary for conducting electrical signals.
About 20 to 25 percent of people with MS have antibodies in their blood that bind these two proteins
.

These findings have spurred efforts to develop drugs to
treat MS by targeting the virus.
If one of the Epstein-Barr vaccines, which is currently undergoing clinical trials, proves effective and is used in children worldwide, MS could one day even be eradicated
like polio.

See: Science's evidence that common herpes virus causes multiple sclerosis

The earliest DNA to date reconstructs an ecosystem 2 million years ago

What was the world like 2 million years ago? By analyzing the earliest recovered ancient environmental DNA, scientists mapped what northern Greenland's ecosystem looked like about 2 million years ago, including animal and plant species
that once existed.
The results, published in the journal Nature on the 7th, allow an unprecedented degree of exploration and understanding of an ancient ecosystem, revealing an ecosystem
without modern equivalents.

The reconstruction site is a polar desert located in Peary Land in North Greenland
.
Previous studies have shown that the climate in the region was much warmer about 2 million to 3 million years ago, with temperatures 11-19 degrees Celsius warmer than today
.
However, due to the scarcity of vertebrate fossils, little is known
about the biomes that inhabited the Arctic at the time.

This time, researchers from the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom extracted and sequenced
41 samples of organic matter-enriched sediments collected from 5 different sites in the reconstruction site.
The team used this DNA to recreate what an ancient ecosystem looked like: an open boreal forest
of poplars, birches, cypresses, and a variety of arctic and northern shrubs and herbs.
DNA records confirm the presence of hares, and mitochondrial DNA from the site also reveals traces of the presence of other animals, including mastodons, reindeer, rodents and geese
.
The researchers also recovered ancient DNA from marine organisms that showed the existence of an Atlantic horseshoe crab population
.
The researchers believe this may mean that the region had a warmer surface water environment in the early Pleistocene, consistent with
previous predictions.

The researchers say their findings demonstrate the potential
to trace the evolution of biomes 2 million years ago using ancient environmental DNA.

(Biocom)