Latest news with #RyoHarada
Business Insider
12-07-2025
- Business
- Business Insider
Positive Report for Sumitomo Electric Industries (SMTOF) from Goldman Sachs
Goldman Sachs analyst Ryo Harada upgraded Sumitomo Electric Industries to a Buy on July 8 and set a price target of Yen4,300.00. The company's shares closed last Wednesday at $21.91. Elevate Your Investing Strategy: Take advantage of TipRanks Premium at 50% off! Unlock powerful investing tools, advanced data, and expert analyst insights to help you invest with confidence. Make smarter investment decisions with TipRanks' Smart Investor Picks, delivered to your inbox every week. According to TipRanks, Harada is a 4-star analyst with an average return of 18.3% and a 71.43% success rate. Harada covers the Industrials sector, focusing on stocks such as Furukawa Electric Co, Fujikura Ltd, and Hitachi,Ltd.. Sumitomo Electric Industries has an analyst consensus of Moderate Buy, with a price target consensus of $20.49.
Time of India
03-07-2025
- Science
- Time of India
Meet the organism which hangs somewhere between life and death
Scientists have discovered Sukunaarchaeum mirabile, a unique archaeon residing within marine plankton, challenging traditional definitions of life. This microbe possesses a stripped-down genome, enabling protein production but lacking metabolic pathways, blurring the lines between cellular life and viruses. Its discovery prompts a reevaluation of life's boundaries and evolutionary origins. Scientists have long debated what truly counts as 'alive.' On one side of the spectrum lie conscious animals and self-replicating single-celled organisms, whereas on the other side are viruses, which are the biological entities that can only function once they hijack a host. Viruses don't grow, reproduce independently, or generate their own energy, so they're usually excluded from the tree of life. But life's boundaries aren't always clear-cut. New discoveries are challenging the binary notion of 'living' versus 'non-living.' A recently discovered organism is a surprising microbe that shares traits with both viruses and cellular life. It can construct its own ribosomes and messenger RNA, yet it lacks most metabolic pathways and relies heavily on its host. So this brings us to some unanswered questions like, what defines life? Where do we draw the line? And could this microbe represent a missing link in evolutionary biology? Researchers led by Ryo Harada at Dalhousie University uncovered an unusual archaeal organism within the marine plankton Citharistes regius. While studying the plankton's bacterial genome, they discovered a circular DNA fragment that didn't match any known species. Detailed analysis showed the scientists that it belongs to the Archaea domain and is provisionally named Sukunaarchaeum mirabile, inspired by a tiny Japanese deity. This virus can produce its own proteins! Surprisingly, its genome is just 2,38,000 base pairs, which is about half the size of the smallest previously known archaeal genome, which was 490 kbp. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Искате да научите повече за новото BMW 2 Gran Coupe? BMW Научете повече Undo 'Its genome is profoundly stripped‑down, lacking virtually all recognizable metabolic pathways, and primarily encoding the machinery for its replicative core: DNA replication, transcription, and translation,' the team of researchers revealed in the study. This minimal genome means an undefined metabolic dependence on its host. Still, Sukunaarchaeum retains key machinery most viruses lack, like the genes for building ribosomes, transfer RNA, and messenger RNA. Unlike viruses, which rely fully on host machinery, this archaeon can perform fundamental cellular processes. The team says, 'Sukunaarchaeum may represent the closest cellular entity discovered to date that approaches a viral strategy of existence'. This virus belongs to an old branch of a family tree Study also reveals that the scientists found that Sukunaarchaeum mirabile belongs to a very old and unique branch of the Archaea family tree, which is so unique that it may come from a group of microbes that have never been observed before. Even though researchers have done tons of environmental DNA sequencing over the years, this strange little organism stayed hidden inside plankton DNA until now. Its tiny, simplified genome is making scientists rethink how we define life. Sukunaarchaeum blurs the line between the smallest living cells and complex viruses. It can copy its own DNA and make proteins, things that viruses usually can't do on their own, but it still relies completely on its host to survive because it can't produce its own energy. In short, this organism sits in a gray area between life as we know it and the strange, parasitic world of viruses.
Yahoo
25-06-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Strange Cellular Entity Challenges Very Definition of Life Itself
Within a tiny plankton, an even smaller cell has been found living an unexpectedly virus-like existence, challenging what it means to be alive. The line between living and inanimate has traditionally and controversially been drawn before viruses, and the newly discovered organism, provisionally named Sukunaarchaeum mirabile, skates awfully close to it. Dalhousie University genomicist Ryo Harada and colleagues stumbled across the odd parasite while they were trying to catalog the DNA of the plankton species Citharistes regius and its symbiotic bacteria. A strange, tiny loop of DNA suggested the presence of another entity – one that didn't neatly fit into known categories. "Sukunaarchaeum may represent the closest cellular entity discovered to date that approaches a viral strategy of existence," the researchers write in their paper. "This extreme specialization… challenges our fundamental understanding of the minimal requirements for cellular life." Related: Sukunaarchaeum only has 238,000 base pairs of DNA, yet some viruses reach 735,000 base pairs or even 2.5 million. Like viruses, Sukunaarchaeum delegates most of its biological functions, including metabolism, to its host. And also like viruses, most of the cell's genes are dedicated to one thing: replicating itself. "Its genome is profoundly stripped-down, lacking virtually all recognizable metabolic pathways, and primarily encoding the machinery for its replicative core," Harada and team explain. "This suggests an unprecedented level of metabolic dependence on a host, a condition that challenges the functional distinctions between minimal cellular life and viruses." Unlike viruses, however, Sukunaarchaeum still has the genes to create its own DNA replication proteins, including ribosomes, messenger RNA, and transfer RNA. Whereas, viruses hijack their hosts' replication machinery. What's more, Sukunaarchaeum produces proteins that are likely involved in forming a membrane to house its tiny circle of DNA, potentially helping with its interactions with its plankton host. Shared genes suggest Sukunaarchaeum belongs to archaea, the domain of life from which our group, eukaryotes, evolved. Its circular chromosome resembles the genetic material of bacteria and archaea. With no genes for metabolism, Sukunaarchaeum doesn't appear to offer anything in return for the biological functions it commandeers from the plankton. Viruses are generally not considered alive in part because they can't replicate or sustain themselves without machinery provided by their host. Sukunaarchaeum can replicate, but not sustain itself, making that line between life and non-life even more precarious. This research has been uploaded onto bioRxiv and has yet to be peer reviewed. Sharks Do Something Bizarre When Turned Upside Down, And We Don't Know Why Orcas' Strange Beauty Routine Revealed by Scientists For The First Time New Discovery of Deep Sea 'Spiders' Is Unlike Anything We've Seen Before
