ALBERT

Description: Background: The alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH) gene family uniquely illustrates the concept of enzymogenesis. In vertebrates, tandem duplications gave rise to a multiplicity of forms that have been classified in eight enzyme classes, according to primary structure and function. Some of these classes appear to be exclusive of particular organisms, such as the frog ADH8, a unique NADP+-dependent ADH enzyme. This work describes the ADH system of Xenopus, as a model organism, and explores the first amphibian and reptilian genomes released in order to contribute towards a better knowledge of the vertebrate ADH gene family. Results: Xenopus cDNA and genomic sequences along with expressed sequence tags (ESTs) were used in phylogenetic analyses and structure-function correlations of amphibian ADHs. Novel ADH sequences identified in the genomes of Anolis carolinensis (anole lizard) and Pelodiscus sinensis (turtle) were also included in these studies. Tissue and stage-specific libraries provided expression data, which has been supported by mRNA detection in Xenopus laevis tissues and regulatory elements in promoter regions. Exon-intron boundaries, position and orientation of ADH genes were deduced from the amphibian and reptilian genome assemblies, thus revealing syntenic regions and gene rearrangements with respect to the human genome. Our results reveal the high complexity of the ADH system in amphibians, with eleven genes, coding for seven enzyme classes in Xenopus tropicalis. Frogs possess the amphibian-specific ADH8 and the novel ADH1-derived forms ADH9 and ADH10. In addition, they exhibit ADH1, ADH2, ADH3 and ADH7, also present in reptiles and birds. Class-specific signatures have been assigned to ADH7, and ancestral ADH2 is predicted to be a mixed-class as the ostrich enzyme, structurally close to mammalian ADH2 but with class-I kinetic properties. Remarkably, many ADH1 and ADH7 forms are observed in the lizard, probably due to lineage-specific duplications. ADH4 is not present in amphibians and reptiles. Conclusions: The study of the ancient forms of ADH2 and ADH7 sheds new light on the evolution of the vertebrate ADH system, whereas the special features showed by the novel forms point to the acquisition of new functions following the ADH gene family expansion which occurred in amphibians.

Description: Integrated Ocean Drilling Program Expedition 315 recovered cores from accretionary units, which are overlain by cover sequences, at a site on the hanging wall of the mega-splay fault (C0001), and at a seaward margin of a forearc basin (C0002) in Nankai Trough off Kumano, Japan. In order to investigate the amount and the style of deformation and shortening direction of the accretionary prism units, anisotropy of magnetic susceptibility (AMS) of cored samples were measured. AMS of the late Pliocene to late Miocene accretionary prism at C0001 reveals a deformed magnetic ellipsoid (prolate type), and a restored direction of the AMS orientation indicates northwest–southeast shortening which is the same as the present-day stress field measured by borehole breakout. The older Miocene accretionary prism cored beneath the forearc basin at C0002 does not show a typical prolate type but more oblate feature in parallel to plunged bedding planes. This type can be interpreted as an intermediate type between prolate and oblate types, by indicatives of AMS parameters, which was formed under a bedding vertical loading and a relatively weakly lateral compaction. The restored AMS orientation of the accretionary prism beneath the forearc basin also indicates the northwest-southeast shortening which is different from the present-day principal horizontal stress orientations at C0002. It is supposed that the shortening direction had been recorded in Pliocene time probably when the sequence was sited in the outer wedge. The northwest–southeast directions of AMS in the Pliocene time agree with the past subducting direction of the Philippine Sea Plate since the Pliocene.

Description: Article Two-electron redox cycles are the basis for much of the synthetic utility of noble metals in organic chemistry, but these mechanisms have not been explored for silver. Here, the authors show a silver(I)/silver(III) catalytic cycle operating in cross-coupling reactions. Nature Communications doi: 10.1038/ncomms5373 Authors: Marc Font, Ferran Acuña-Parés, Teodor Parella, Jordi Serra, Josep M Luis, Julio Lloret-Fillol, Miquel Costas, Xavi Ribas

Description: The earliest hominin occupation of Europe is one of the most debated topics in palaeoanthropology. However, the purportedly oldest of the Early Pleistocene sites in Eurasia lack precise age control and contain stone tools rather than human fossil remains. Here we report the discovery of a human mandible associated with an assemblage of Mode 1 lithic tools and faunal remains bearing traces of hominin processing, in stratigraphic level TE9 at the site of the Sima del Elefante, Atapuerca, Spain. Level TE9 has been dated to the Early Pleistocene (approximately 1.2-1.1 Myr), based on a combination of palaeomagnetism, cosmogenic nuclides and biostratigraphy. The Sima del Elefante site thus emerges as the oldest, most accurately dated record of human occupation in Europe, to our knowledge. The study of the human mandible suggests that the first settlement of Western Europe could be related to an early demographic expansion out of Africa. The new evidence, with previous findings in other Atapuerca sites (level TD6 from Gran Dolina), also suggests that a speciation event occurred in this extreme area of the Eurasian continent during the Early Pleistocene, initiating the hominin lineage represented by the TE9 and TD6 hominins.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Carbonell, Eudald -- Bermudez de Castro, Jose M -- Pares, Josep M -- Perez-Gonzalez, Alfredo -- Cuenca-Bescos, Gloria -- Olle, Andreu -- Mosquera, Marina -- Huguet, Rosa -- van der Made, Jan -- Rosas, Antonio -- Sala, Robert -- Vallverdu, Josep -- Garcia, Nuria -- Granger, Darryl E -- Martinon-Torres, Maria -- Rodriguez, Xose P -- Stock, Greg M -- Verges, Josep M -- Allue, Ethel -- Burjachs, Francesc -- Caceres, Isabel -- Canals, Antoni -- Benito, Alfonso -- Diez, Carlos -- Lozano, Marina -- Mateos, Ana -- Navazo, Marta -- Rodriguez, Jesus -- Rosell, Jordi -- Arsuaga, Juan L -- England -- Nature. 2008 Mar 27;452(7186):465-9. doi: 10.1038/nature06815.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Institut Catala de Paleoecologia Humana i Evolucio Social, Area de Prehistoria, Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Placa Imperial Tarraco 1, 43005 Tarragona, Spain. eudald.carbonell@urv.cat〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18368116" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: Seventeen Middle Pleistocene crania from the Sima de los Huesos site (Atapuerca, Spain) are analyzed, including seven new specimens. This sample makes it possible to thoroughly characterize a Middle Pleistocene hominin paleodeme and to address hypotheses about the origin and evolution of the Neandertals. Using a variety of techniques, the hominin-bearing layer could be reassigned to a period around 430,000 years ago. The sample shows a consistent morphological pattern with derived Neandertal features present in the face and anterior vault, many of which are related to the masticatory apparatus. This suggests that facial modification was the first step in the evolution of the Neandertal lineage, pointing to a mosaic pattern of evolution, with different anatomical and functional modules evolving at different rates.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Arsuaga, J L -- Martinez, I -- Arnold, L J -- Aranburu, A -- Gracia-Tellez, A -- Sharp, W D -- Quam, R M -- Falgueres, C -- Pantoja-Perez, A -- Bischoff, J -- Poza-Rey, E -- Pares, J M -- Carretero, J M -- Demuro, M -- Lorenzo, C -- Sala, N -- Martinon-Torres, M -- Garcia, N -- Alcazar de Velasco, A -- Cuenca-Bescos, G -- Gomez-Olivencia, A -- Moreno, D -- Pablos, A -- Shen, C-C -- Rodriguez, L -- Ortega, A I -- Garcia, R -- Bonmati, A -- Bermudez de Castro, J M -- Carbonell, E -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2014 Jun 20;344(6190):1358-63. doi: 10.1126/science.1253958.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Centro Mixto UCM-ISCIII de Evolucion y Comportamiento Humanos, Madrid, Spain. Departamento de Paleontologia, Facultad Ciencias Geologicas, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Spain. jlarsuaga@isciii.es. ; Area de Paleontologia, Departamento de Geologia, Geografia y Medio Ambiente, Universidad de Alcala, Spain.Centro Mixto UCM-ISCIII de Evolucion y Comportamiento Humanos, Madrid, Spain. ; Centro Nacional de Investigacion sobre la Evolucion Humana Burgos, Spain. School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, the Environment Institute, and the Institute for Photonics and Advanced Sensing (IPAS), University of Adelaide, Australia. ; Departamento Mineralogia y Petrologia, Facultad de Ciencia y Tecnologia, Universidad del Pais Vasco, Spain. ; Berkeley Geochronology Center, Berkeley, CA, USA. ; Department of Anthropology, Binghamton University (State University of New York), Binghamton, NY, USA. Division of Anthropology, American Museum of Natural History, New York, NY, USA.Centro Mixto UCM-ISCIII de Evolucion y Comportamiento Humanos, Madrid, Spain. ; Departement de Prehistoire, Museum National d'Histoire Naturelle, Paris, France. ; Centro Mixto UCM-ISCIII de Evolucion y Comportamiento Humanos, Madrid, Spain. Departamento de Paleontologia, Facultad Ciencias Geologicas, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Spain. ; U.S. Geological Survey, Menlo Park, CA,USA. ; Centro Nacional de Investigacion sobre la Evolucion Humana Burgos, Spain. ; Laboratorio de Evolucion Humana, Departamento de Ciencias Historicas y Geografia, Universidad de Burgos, Spain. ; Centro Nacional de Investigacion sobre la Evolucion Humana Burgos, Spain. Institute for Photonics and Advanced Sensing (IPAS), School of Chemistry and Physics, University of Adelaide, Australia. ; Area de Prehistoria, Departamento d'Historia i Historia de l'Art, Universitat Rovira i Virgili (URV), Tarragona, Spain. Institut Catala de Paleoecologia Humana i Evolucio Social, Tarragona, Spain.Centro Mixto UCM-ISCIII de Evolucion y Comportamiento Humanos, Madrid, Spain. ; Centro Mixto UCM-ISCIII de Evolucion y Comportamiento Humanos, Madrid, Spain. ; Paleontologia, Aragosaurus-IUCA and Facultad Ciencias, Universidad de Zaragoza, Spain. ; Centro Mixto UCM-ISCIII de Evolucion y Comportamiento Humanos, Madrid, Spain. Departement de Prehistoire, Museum National d'Histoire Naturelle, Paris, France. PAVE Research Group, Division of Biological Anthropology, Cambridge, UK. ; Departement de Prehistoire, Museum National d'Histoire Naturelle, Paris, France. Laboratorio de Evolucion Humana, Departamento de Ciencias Historicas y Geografia, Universidad de Burgos, Spain. ; Centro Mixto UCM-ISCIII de Evolucion y Comportamiento Humanos, Madrid, Spain. Centro Nacional de Investigacion sobre la Evolucion Humana Burgos, Spain. Laboratorio de Evolucion Humana, Departamento de Ciencias Historicas y Geografia, Universidad de Burgos, Spain. ; High-Precision Mass Spectrometry and Environment Change Laboratory (HISPEC), Department of Geosciences, National Taiwan University, Taiwan ROC. ; Institut Catala de Paleoecologia Humana i Evolucio Social, Tarragona, Spain. Area de Prehistoria, Departamento d'Historia i Historia de l'Art, Universitat Rovira i Virgili (URV), Tarragona, Spain. Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology of Beijing (IVPP), China.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24948730" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉