生物与医学2019pnas.org
维生素 B1 缺乏是一桩环境谜团的核心
Vitamin B1 deficiency at the heart of an environmental mystery
入门 · 约 45 分钟读完前置知识：基础生物化学、海洋生态学常识
导读
这篇 PNAS 论文探讨海洋生态中一个环境谜团：野生动物（如鱼类种群）中出现的硫胺素（维生素 B1）缺乏问题。文章指出 B1 缺乏可能是相关种群衰退现象的核心原因，并讨论了其可能的成因。
HN 关注点：这一反直觉的发现——维生素缺乏竟成为海洋环境危机的关键线索，讨论延伸到汞污染、化肥和营养元素失衡等可能成因。
HN 评论精选
这几条评论里：质疑 1 补充 3
补充推测汞污染可能是海洋野生动物 B1 缺乏的诱因之一
上周我看了一个关于维生素 B1 的视频，提到了酒精性科尔萨科夫综合征，一些重度饮酒者会经历这种 B1 缺乏。年龄、酗酒、化疗、透析、极端节食和遗传因素也会导致该综合征。最重要的治疗（除戒酒外）是补充硫胺素（即维生素 B1）。维基百科的病因部分提到汞中毒也可导致科尔萨科夫综合征——也许汞污染是海洋野生动物硫胺素缺乏的另一个因素。
tcj_phx查看英文原文
Last week I watched a video about Vitamin B1. The term Alcoholic Korsakoff syndrome [0] was mentioned. This form of vitamin B1 deficiency is experienced by some heavy drinkers. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcoholic_Korsakoff_syndrome Age, alcoholism, chemotherapy, dialysis, extreme dieting, and genetic factors also contribute to the development of this syndrome. The most important treatment (aside from cessation of alcohol use) is some form of thiamine (vitamin B1) supplementation - injection/IV/oral. The causes section of that wikipedia entry says "Mercury poisoning can also lead to Korsakoff's syndrome." Maybe mercury contamination is another factor in the thiamine deficiencies observed in ocean wildlife. Edit: added the clarification that thiamine and Vitamin B1 are synonymous.
补充猜测昆虫减少可能与营养缺乏有关，或属长周期自然波动
我很好奇最近报道的昆虫大量死亡是否也与这类营养缺乏有关。想到各种代谢物的稀缺性，以及它们如何在长时间尺度上在不同种群和物种间富集，真是令人惊叹。也许这些现象是我们刚刚开始有能力科学观测到的长周期振荡。
jboggan查看英文原文
I wonder if the insect die-offs that have been reported lately are linked to a nutrient deficiency such as this. It's amazing to think about the scarcity of various metabolites and how they might become concentrated in different populations and species over long time scales. I wonder if these phenomena are long scale oscillations that we are just scientifically observant enough to begin noticing.
补充以 Vegemite 为例说明酵母是 B1 的丰富来源，并幽默补充
Vegemite（澳洲酵母酱）富含维生素 B，据说是用酿造啤酒剩下的酵母制成的。所以有个老说法：喝醉的人吃 Vegemite 吐司就能避免硫胺素缺乏的问题。（当然，我觉得没法靠给浮游动物喂 Vegemite 来解决自然界的问题。）
ggm查看英文原文
Vegemite, rich source of Vitamin B. said to have been made from the yeast remaining after brewing. Thus the old wives tale that if a beer-drunk eats vegemite toast, they avoid the problems of thiamine deficient diet. (I don't think we can fix this problem in nature by feeding zoo plankton vegemite btw)
质疑认为化肥造成的元素失衡是营养缺乏的可能根源
化肥的广泛使用可能是原因。我们可能并不了解所有必需的营养素，结果造成失衡——某些元素过量而另一些缺失。近视和肥胖流行可能也与此有关：在化肥中使用镧系元素的国家肥胖率更低、精神疾病更少、衰老更慢、智商更高。铁过量也是许多地区的问题，过量的铁会取代其他金属，尤其是锰。许多与衰老相关的疾病其实可能由这种过量引起，与衰老本身无关。
PavlikPaja查看英文原文
The widespread use of fertilizers could be the case. The thing is, we possibly don't know all the necessary nutrients, and causing an imbalance as the result, where some elements are supplied in excess and others are missing. The myopia and obesity epidemics could also be the result - countries that use lanthanides in fertilizers show lower levels of obesity, minimal rates of mental illness, slower aging and higher IQ, regardless of wealth. Iron toxicity is also a problem in many places, as the excess iron replaces other metals, especially manganese. Many diseases associated with aging are actually caused by this excess and may have nothing to do with aging at all. Many people are mentally retarded because of irresponsible attempts to increase intake despite inadequate research. (Iron increases the number of D2 and D1 dopamine receptors in the brain, which makes them psychotic, people who don't suffer from this are told to have "high functioning autism". The supposedly neuroptypical people are people who suffer from thought insertions - they can see you're lying, mean something else than what you say etc. and apparently accept it as perfectly normal that each of them interprets the same situation differently. They also hear voices and call it their inner monologue.) These replacements are the reason why the deficiencies are hard to notice - the protein will usually accept some other metal when the appropriate metal ion is not found, so that the protein may be known to bind to e.g. calcium, when a rare earth element would be preferable.
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