Editorial 1 : This worm develops food habits and its offspring ‘inherit’ them
Context
Researchers from Princeton University have reported that after the Caenorhabditis elegans worms ate a disease-causing strain of bacteria, its progeny were born with the ‘knowledge’ to avoid making the same mistake for up to four generations
Caenorhabditis elegans
- Researchers fondly call the roundworm Caenorhabditis elegans “the worm” because of its widespread use in research to understand neuronal and molecular biology.
- It was the first multicellular organism to have its full genome sequenced and neural wiring mapped.
- C. elegans grows within 3-5 days from a fertilised egg to a millimetre-long adult, and it has informed profound insights into the human body, as well as biology more broadly.
Message in a bottle
- Pseudomonas vranovensis is a disease-causing bacterium found in C. elegans’s natural environment.
- The researchers found that P. vranovensis makes a small RNA molecule called sRNA.
- When the worms ingest this strain, they also take in the sRNA. The sRNA then altered the worm’s feeding behaviour such that, from that point on, the worms ‘know’ to avoid feeding on this bacterium and save themselves from getting sick.
- Remarkably, this learned avoidance behaviour was found to be transmitted to the trained worm’s progeny, grand-progeny, great-grand progeny, and great-great-grand progeny. The ability decayed only from the fifth generation.
- The same team of researchers had previously discovered this trans-generational ability in C. elegans worms against P. aeruginosa bacteria (which also cause disease in humans).
Understanding RNA, large and small
- A DNA molecule is like a big ladder. Its two side rails, or strands, are made of a long series of alternating units of phosphate and the sugar deoxyribose molecules.
- Each sugar unit is attached to one of four chemical bases: adenine (A), cytosine (C), guanine (G), and thymine (T).
- The As and Cs on one strand are bonded with Ts and Cs on the other by hydrogen bonds. These bonds form the rungs that hold the strands together.
- In contrast to DNA, the RNA molecule is like a half-ladder or a comb. Its spine is made up of alternating units of phosphate and the sugar ribose.
- Each ribose molecule is attached to one of four bases: A, C, G or uridine (U), which jut out from the strand like the comb’s tines.
- A cell copies the sequence of As, Ts, Cs, and Gs in a gene in the DNA into the sequence of Us, As, Gs, and Cs in an RNA molecule.
- This RNA is called the messenger (mRNA). The length of this mRNA is comparable to that of the gene from which it is derived. The mRNA moves to structures called ribosomes, where the cell assembles the corresponding protein.
Diet control
- But not all genes encode mRNAs and proteins. The end product of some genes, especially small genes that are only about a tenth as long (~100-200 rungs), is sRNA.
- These sRNA bind to other proteins and RNAs, and either enhance or reduce the expression of other genes.
- This sRNA reduced the expression of a gene in the worm called maco-1, which plays an important neurological role. As it happens, maco-1 is also found in humans.
- C. elegans worms on a diet of Escherichia coli bacteria.
Good ‘memory loss’
- Another Pseudomonas bacterium, P. mendocina, is also present in the worm’s habitat but it doesn’t cause disease.
- Instead, P. mendocina is a source of nutrition. C. elegans worms trained to avoid the pathogenic P. vranovensis strain avoided feeding on the non-pathogenic P. mendocina as well.
- The sRNA that triggered learned avoidance behaviour came initially from the bacteria and was taken up by the worm that fed on them.
- Thereafter, the sRNA was maintained in the worms’ bodies, transmitted to their descendants, and maintained in them. This happened through a mechanism called RNA interference — which scientists first discovered by studying C. elegans worms.
Conclusion
In fact, discoveries based on studying C. elegans were recognised by Nobel Prizes in 2002, 2006, and 2008. This tiny worm has played an outsized role in the advancement of scientific and medical research. So a question arises: whether our bodies can also take up sRNA molecules from the microbes in our gut, mouth or vagina, and whether they can modify our behaviour, and possibly the behaviour of our children and later generations.
Editorial 2 : Investment lessons from the India-EFTA trade deal
Context
India’s free trade agreement (FTA) negotiations with countries such as the United Kingdom and the European Union (EU) seem to be on ice due to the ongoing parliamentary elections in India.
India and EFTA
- However, before election fever gripped the country, India managed to clinch a historic trade deal, in March, with the European Free Trade Association (EFTA), comprising Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland.
- The newly minted Trade and Economic Partnership Agreement (which we refer to as FTA) between India and EFTA is expected to give a much-needed leg-up to the low levels of extant trade between the two sides.
- The FTA between India and EFTA is also important because, as India has agreed to include issues such as environment and labour, which it has traditionally opposed incorporating in trade agreements.
On investment
- Another reason sets this FTA apart from those India signed recently with countries such as Australia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and Mauritius.
- The India-EFTA FTA includes a somewhat detailed investment chapter, which is missing in the other recent Indian FTAs.
- This chapter focuses on investment facilitation issues, not investment protection.
- But it has a remarkable and unprecedented characteristic. India has managed to extract a promise from the EFTA countries that they shall “aim to” increase foreign direct investment (FDI) to India to $50 billion within 10 years of the FTA coming into force, followed by another $50 billion in the succeeding five years.
- Likewise, EFTA states shall “aim to” facilitate the generation of one million jobs in India.
- In legal terms, these articles codify what is known as an obligation of conduct — an obligation to make an honest endeavour towards achieving a goal, notwithstanding the outcome or the result.
- This differs from an obligation of result, which would require achieving a specified outcome.
- In other words, the EFTA countries are legally obligated to make an honest effort to invest $100 billion and generate one million jobs in India.
- Nonetheless, the Indian negotiators need to be complimented for incorporating such path-breaking specified obligations of conduct in the investment chapter, which are typically not found in FTAs or investment treaties
- Notably, this creates a template worth emulating in the ongoing negotiations with the U.K., the EU, and other countries.
Trade and investment
- Economic theory has long demonstrated the inextricable linkage between trade and investment. This is truer in a world where the production process is scattered along global supply/value chains, a function of trade and investment.
- Thus, unsurprisingly, FTAs routinely contain binding rules on both trade and investment.
- India’s FTAs signed in the first decade of this century with countries such as Japan, Korea, Malaysia and Singapore are based on this economic logic.
- In addition to binding trade rules, they all contain an investment chapter with provisions for protecting investment. However, India departed from this model as part of its FTA 2.0 approach.
- In other words, India decoupled international trade law from international investment law. This is evident in its FTAs with Australia, Mauritius, and the UAE which contain binding trade but not investment rules
- India’s approach seems to be to have separate agreements on trade and investment with the same country. This is most markedly seen in the case of the UAE.
FTA 3.0
- India needs a clear FTA policy, especially in dealing with international trade and foreign investment laws.
- Suppose India expects not just trade but also higher investment flows from a particular country, which is undoubtedly true with most of its FTA-negotiating partners.
- In that case, two critical elements must be incorporated into its FTA policy. First, India should negotiate trade and investment as part of one comprehensive economic treaty. Decoupling trade from investment is not a good idea. Combining the two would give India a clear negotiating leverage to strike a beneficial deal.
- Second, India should consider expanding the scope of investment issues from mere facilitation to effective protection, with an efficacious dispute settlement mechanism under international law. Providing enforceable legal protection to foreign investors under international law will boost their confidence.
Conclusion
This is critical at a time when foreign direct investment levels in India have dropped. A clear and comprehensive FTA policy is imperative for launching India to a higher economic growth trajectory.