No 12 (2023)

Primitive salamanders found in the Lower Cretaceous localities of Shestakovo 1 (Kemerovo Oblast) and Teete (Republic of Sakha (Yakutia)) are relict forms for the Early Cretaceous. These salamanders are an important component of the unique fauna of the Early Cretaceous “Great Siberian Refugium”, a vast northeastern part of the Asian continent with numerous relict vertebrates of Jurassic origin. A possible reason for the existence of “Great Siberian Refugium” was the absence of serious climatic changes and catastrophic events in this area in the Late Jurassic — Early Cretaceous.

In nature, a host plant is affected not by a specific pathogen of faunal or floral origin, but by a mixed infection. The soil community of pathogen organisms is mostly represented by necrotrophs: imperfect fungi, nonseptate mycelia of lower fungi, and putrefactive bacteria. On the contrary, vegetative organs of plants are attacked by specialized pathogenic organisms that are spread in the form of spores or, in a case of a viral infection, by insect vectors. The spectrum of pathogens also depends on the phase of plant development. The consideration of positive and negative effects of pathogens from a mixed infection at the level of interference of immune response signaling pathways is important for creation of various immunization schedules.

The new Nobel Prize in Physics honors the pioneers of attophysics, Pierre Agostini, Ferenc Krausz and Anne L’Huillier. Their work on the experimental and theoretical study of the nonlinear interaction of high-power laser radiation with gas atoms made it possible to advance into the area of much shorter time intervals compared to previous femtosecond ones, to attosecond intervals. The generation of pulses of electromagnetic radiation on this time scale provides possibility to study the dynamics of processes occurring in atoms, molecules, and solids with electrons — for example, to monitor the dynamics of photoionization.

The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2023 was awarded to American researchers Katalin Karikó and Drew Weissman “for their discoveries concerning nucleoside base modifications that enabled the development of effective mRNA vaccines against COVID-19.” The laureates for decades have been searching for strategies to create mRNA-based vaccines and drugs. A method of RNA modification, described by them in 2005, made the creation of mRNA vaccines and mRNA drugs possible. The resulted technology made it possible to use mRNA as a tool for delivering genetic information into cells and into the body. This breakthrough became the basis for the creation of mRNA-based vaccines, which have shown high effectiveness in the fight against infectious diseases and opened the prospect of creating individual anti-cancer mRNA vaccines. The work of Katalin Karikó and Drew Weissman formed the basis of the most widespread vaccines against COVID-19 from Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna. Although the latest pandemic facilitated creation of a whole set of eff ective vaccines (for example, Sputnik-V), the mRNA vaccines are considered the most innovative and technologically advanced.