ALBERT

Description: Coral reefs face a crisis due to local and global anthropogenic stressors. A large proportion of the ~50% coral loss on the Great Barrier Reef has been attributed to outbreaks of the crown-of-thorns-seastar (COTS). A widely assumed cause of primary COTS outbreaks is increased larval survivorship due to higher food availability, linked with anthropogenic runoff . Our experiment using a range of algal food concentrations at three temperatures representing present day average and predicted future increases, demonstrated a strong influence of food concentration on development is modulated by temperature. A 2°C increase in temperature led to a 4.2–4.9 times (at Day 10) or 1.2–1.8 times (Day 17) increase in late development larvae. A model indicated that food was the main driver, but that temperature was an important modulator of development. For instance, at 5000 cells ml−1 food, a 2°C increase may shorten developmental time by 30% and may increase the probability of survival by 240%. The main contribution of temperature is to ‘push’ well-fed larvae faster to settlement. We conclude that warmer sea temperature is an important co-factor promoting COTS outbreaks. Scientific Reports 5 doi: 10.1038/srep08402

Description: Detection, immobilization and purification of carbohydrates can be done using molecular probes that specifically bind to targeted carbohydrate epitopes. Carbohydrate-binding modules (CBMs) are discrete parts of carbohydrate-hydrolyzing enzymes that can be engineered to bind and detect specifically a number of carbohydrates. Design and engineering of CBMs have benefited greatly from structural studies that have helped us to decipher the basis for specificity in carbohydrate–protein interactions. However, more studies are needed to predict which modifications in a CBM would generate probes with predetermined binding properties. In this report, we present the crystal structures of two highly related engineered CBMs with different binding specificity profiles: X-2, which is specific for xylans and the L110F mutant of X-2, which binds xyloglucans and β-glucans in addition to xylans. The structures of the modules were solved both in the apo form and complexed with oligomers of xylose, as well as with an oligomer of glucose in the case of X-2 L110F. The mutation, leucine to phenylalanine, converting the specific module into a cross-reactive one, introduces a crucial hydrogen– interaction that allows the mutant to retain glucan-based ligands. The cross-reactivity of X-2 L110F is furthermore made possible by the plasticity of the protein, in particular, of residue R142, which permits accommodation of an extra hydroxymethyl group present in cellopentaose and not xylopentaose. Altogether, this study shows, in structural detail, altered protein–carbohydrate interactions that have high impact on the binding properties of a carbohydrate probe but are introduced through simple mutagenesis.

Description: Data from large-scale debris-flow experiments are combined with modeling of particle-size segregation to explain the formation of lateral levees enriched in coarse grains. The experimental flows consisted of 10 m3 of water-saturated sand and gravel, which traveled ∼80 m down a steeply inclined flume before forming an elongated leveed deposit 10 m long on a nearly horizontal runout surface. We measured the surface velocity field and observed the sequence of deposition by seeding tracers onto the flow surface and tracking them in video footage. Levees formed by progressive downslope accretion approximately 3.5 m behind the flow front, which advanced steadily at ∼2 m s−1 during most of the runout. Segregation was measured by placing ∼600 coarse tracer pebbles on the bed, which, when entrained into the flow, segregated upwards at ∼6–7.5 cm s−1. When excavated from the deposit these were distributed in a horseshoe-shaped pattern that became increasingly elevated closer to the deposit termination. Although there was clear evidence for inverse grading during the flow, transect sampling revealed that the resulting leveed deposit was strongly graded laterally, with only weak vertical grading. We construct an empirical, three-dimensional velocity field resembling the experimental observations, and use this with a particle-size segregation model to predict the segregation and transport of material through the flow. We infer that coarse material segregates to the flow surface and is transported to the flow front by shear. Within the flow head, coarse material is overridden, then recirculates in spiral trajectories due to size-segregation, before being advected to the flow edges and deposited to form coarse-particle-enriched levees.

Description: Journal of the American Chemical Society DOI: 10.1021/ja501635u

Description: Some landslides move imperceptibly downslope, whereas others accelerate catastrophically. Experimental landslides triggered by rising pore water pressure moved at sharply contrasting rates due to small differences in initial porosity. Wet sandy soil with porosity of about 0.5 contracted during slope failure, partially liquefied, and accelerated within 1 second to speeds over 1 meter per second. The same soil with porosity of about 0.4 dilated during failure and slipped episodically at rates averaging 0.002 meter per second. Repeated slip episodes were induced by gradually rising pore water pressure and were arrested by pore dilation and attendant pore pressure decline.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Iverson, R M -- Reid, M E -- Iverson, N R -- LaHusen, R G -- Logan, M -- Mann, J E -- Brien, D L -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2000 Oct 20;290(5491):513-6.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉U.S. Geological Survey, 5400 MacArthur Boulevard, Vancouver, WA 98661, USA.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11039931" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: In spite of recent breakthroughs in understanding limb patterning, the genetic factors determining the differences between the forelimb and the hindlimb have not been understood. The genes Pitx1 and Tbx4 encode transcription factors that are expressed throughout the developing hindlimb but not forelimb buds. Misexpression of Pitx1 in the chick wing bud induced distal expression of Tbx4, as well as HoxC10 and HoxC11, which are normally restricted to hindlimb expression domains. Wing buds in which Pitx1 was misexpressed developed into limbs with some morphological characteristics of hindlimbs: the flexure was altered to that normally observed in legs, the digits were more toe-like in their relative size and shape, and the muscle pattern was transformed to that of a leg.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Logan, M -- Tabin, C J -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 1999 Mar 12;283(5408):1736-9.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Department of Genetics, Harvard Medical School, 200 Longwood Avenue, Boston, MA 02115, USA.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10073939" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: We describe a simple process for the fabrication of ultrathin, transparent, optically homogeneous, electrically conducting films of pure single-walled carbon nanotubes and the transfer of those films to various substrates. For equivalent sheet resistance, the films exhibit optical transmittance comparable to that of commercial indium tin oxide in the visible spectrum, but far superior transmittance in the technologically relevant 2- to 5-micrometer infrared spectral band. These characteristics indicate broad applicability of the films for electrical coupling in photonic devices. In an example application, the films are used to construct an electric field-activated optical modulator, which constitutes an optical analog to the nanotube-based field effect transistor.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Wu, Zhuangchun -- Chen, Zhihong -- Du, Xu -- Logan, Jonathan M -- Sippel, Jennifer -- Nikolou, Maria -- Kamaras, Katalin -- Reynolds, John R -- Tanner, David B -- Hebard, Arthur F -- Rinzler, Andrew G -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2004 Aug 27;305(5688):1273-6.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Department of Physics, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611, USA.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15333836" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: To understand the biology and evolution of ruminants, the cattle genome was sequenced to about sevenfold coverage. The cattle genome contains a minimum of 22,000 genes, with a core set of 14,345 orthologs shared among seven mammalian species of which 1217 are absent or undetected in noneutherian (marsupial or monotreme) genomes. Cattle-specific evolutionary breakpoint regions in chromosomes have a higher density of segmental duplications, enrichment of repetitive elements, and species-specific variations in genes associated with lactation and immune responsiveness. Genes involved in metabolism are generally highly conserved, although five metabolic genes are deleted or extensively diverged from their human orthologs. The cattle genome sequence thus provides a resource for understanding mammalian evolution and accelerating livestock genetic improvement for milk and meat production.〈br /〉〈br /〉〈a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2943200/" target="_blank"〉〈img src="https://static.pubmed.gov/portal/portal3rc.fcgi/4089621/img/3977009" border="0"〉〈/a〉   〈a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2943200/" target="_blank"〉This paper as free author manuscript - peer-reviewed and accepted for publication〈/a〉〈br /〉〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Bovine Genome Sequencing and Analysis Consortium -- Elsik, Christine G -- Tellam, Ross L -- Worley, Kim C -- Gibbs, Richard A -- Muzny, Donna M -- Weinstock, George M -- Adelson, David L -- Eichler, Evan E -- Elnitski, Laura -- Guigo, Roderic -- Hamernik, Debora L -- Kappes, Steve M -- Lewin, Harris A -- Lynn, David J -- Nicholas, Frank W -- Reymond, Alexandre -- Rijnkels, Monique -- Skow, Loren C -- Zdobnov, Evgeny M -- Schook, Lawrence -- Womack, James -- Alioto, Tyler -- Antonarakis, Stylianos E -- Astashyn, Alex -- Chapple, Charles E -- Chen, Hsiu-Chuan -- Chrast, Jacqueline -- Camara, Francisco -- Ermolaeva, Olga -- Henrichsen, Charlotte N -- Hlavina, Wratko -- Kapustin, Yuri -- Kiryutin, Boris -- Kitts, Paul -- Kokocinski, Felix -- Landrum, Melissa -- Maglott, Donna -- Pruitt, Kim -- Sapojnikov, Victor -- Searle, Stephen M -- Solovyev, Victor -- Souvorov, Alexandre -- Ucla, Catherine -- Wyss, Carine -- Anzola, Juan M -- Gerlach, Daniel -- Elhaik, Eran -- Graur, Dan -- Reese, Justin T -- Edgar, Robert C -- McEwan, John C -- Payne, Gemma M -- Raison, Joy M -- Junier, Thomas -- Kriventseva, Evgenia V -- Eyras, Eduardo -- Plass, Mireya -- Donthu, Ravikiran -- Larkin, Denis M -- Reecy, James -- Yang, Mary Q -- Chen, Lin -- Cheng, Ze -- Chitko-McKown, Carol G -- Liu, George E -- Matukumalli, Lakshmi K -- Song, Jiuzhou -- Zhu, Bin -- Bradley, Daniel G -- Brinkman, Fiona S L -- Lau, Lilian P L -- Whiteside, Matthew D -- Walker, Angela -- Wheeler, Thomas T -- Casey, Theresa -- German, J Bruce -- Lemay, Danielle G -- Maqbool, Nauman J -- Molenaar, Adrian J -- Seo, Seongwon -- Stothard, Paul -- Baldwin, Cynthia L -- Baxter, Rebecca -- Brinkmeyer-Langford, Candice L -- Brown, Wendy C -- Childers, Christopher P -- Connelley, Timothy -- Ellis, Shirley A -- Fritz, Krista -- Glass, Elizabeth J -- Herzig, Carolyn T A -- Iivanainen, Antti -- Lahmers, Kevin K -- Bennett, Anna K -- Dickens, C Michael -- Gilbert, James G R -- Hagen, Darren E -- Salih, Hanni -- Aerts, Jan -- Caetano, Alexandre R -- Dalrymple, Brian -- Garcia, Jose Fernando -- Gill, Clare A -- Hiendleder, Stefan G -- Memili, Erdogan -- Spurlock, Diane -- Williams, John L -- Alexander, Lee -- Brownstein, Michael J -- Guan, Leluo -- Holt, Robert A -- Jones, Steven J M -- Marra, Marco A -- Moore, Richard -- Moore, Stephen S -- Roberts, Andy -- Taniguchi, Masaaki -- Waterman, Richard C -- Chacko, Joseph -- Chandrabose, Mimi M -- Cree, Andy -- Dao, Marvin Diep -- Dinh, Huyen H -- Gabisi, Ramatu Ayiesha -- Hines, Sandra -- Hume, Jennifer -- Jhangiani, Shalini N -- Joshi, Vandita -- Kovar, Christie L -- Lewis, Lora R -- Liu, Yih-Shin -- Lopez, John -- Morgan, Margaret B -- Nguyen, Ngoc Bich -- Okwuonu, Geoffrey O -- Ruiz, San Juana -- Santibanez, Jireh -- Wright, Rita A -- Buhay, Christian -- Ding, Yan -- Dugan-Rocha, Shannon -- Herdandez, Judith -- Holder, Michael -- Sabo, Aniko -- Egan, Amy -- Goodell, Jason -- Wilczek-Boney, Katarzyna -- Fowler, Gerald R -- Hitchens, Matthew Edward -- Lozado, Ryan J -- Moen, Charles -- Steffen, David -- Warren, James T -- Zhang, Jingkun -- Chiu, Readman -- Schein, Jacqueline E -- Durbin, K James -- Havlak, Paul -- Jiang, Huaiyang -- Liu, Yue -- Qin, Xiang -- Ren, Yanru -- Shen, Yufeng -- Song, Henry -- Bell, Stephanie Nicole -- Davis, Clay -- Johnson, Angela Jolivet -- Lee, Sandra -- Nazareth, Lynne V -- Patel, Bella Mayurkumar -- Pu, Ling-Ling -- Vattathil, Selina -- Williams, Rex Lee Jr -- Curry, Stacey -- Hamilton, Cerissa -- Sodergren, Erica -- Wheeler, David A -- Barris, Wes -- Bennett, Gary L -- Eggen, Andre -- Green, Ronnie D -- Harhay, Gregory P -- Hobbs, Matthew -- Jann, Oliver -- Keele, John W -- Kent, Matthew P -- Lien, Sigbjorn -- McKay, Stephanie D -- McWilliam, Sean -- Ratnakumar, Abhirami -- Schnabel, Robert D -- Smith, Timothy -- Snelling, Warren M -- Sonstegard, Tad S -- Stone, Roger T -- Sugimoto, Yoshikazu -- Takasuga, Akiko -- Taylor, Jeremy F -- Van Tassell, Curtis P -- Macneil, Michael D -- Abatepaulo, Antonio R R -- Abbey, Colette A -- Ahola, Virpi -- Almeida, Iassudara G -- Amadio, Ariel F -- Anatriello, Elen -- Bahadue, Suria M -- Biase, Fernando H -- Boldt, Clayton R -- Carroll, Jeffery A -- Carvalho, Wanessa A -- Cervelatti, Eliane P -- Chacko, Elsa -- Chapin, Jennifer E -- Cheng, Ye -- Choi, Jungwoo -- Colley, Adam J -- de Campos, Tatiana A -- De Donato, Marcos -- Santos, Isabel K F de Miranda -- de Oliveira, Carlo J F -- Deobald, Heather -- Devinoy, Eve -- Donohue, Kaitlin E -- Dovc, Peter -- Eberlein, Annett -- Fitzsimmons, Carolyn J -- Franzin, Alessandra M -- Garcia, Gustavo R -- Genini, Sem -- Gladney, Cody J -- Grant, Jason R -- Greaser, Marion L -- Green, Jonathan A -- Hadsell, Darryl L -- Hakimov, Hatam A -- Halgren, Rob -- Harrow, Jennifer L -- Hart, Elizabeth A -- Hastings, Nicola -- Hernandez, Marta -- Hu, Zhi-Liang -- Ingham, Aaron -- Iso-Touru, Terhi -- Jamis, Catherine -- Jensen, Kirsty -- Kapetis, Dimos -- Kerr, Tovah -- Khalil, Sari S -- Khatib, Hasan -- Kolbehdari, Davood -- Kumar, Charu G -- Kumar, Dinesh -- Leach, Richard -- Lee, Justin C-M -- Li, Changxi -- Logan, Krystin M -- Malinverni, Roberto -- Marques, Elisa -- Martin, William F -- Martins, Natalia F -- Maruyama, Sandra R -- Mazza, Raffaele -- McLean, Kim L -- Medrano, Juan F -- Moreno, Barbara T -- More, Daniela D -- Muntean, Carl T -- Nandakumar, Hari P -- Nogueira, Marcelo F G -- Olsaker, Ingrid -- Pant, Sameer D -- Panzitta, Francesca -- Pastor, Rosemeire C P -- Poli, Mario A -- Poslusny, Nathan -- Rachagani, Satyanarayana -- Ranganathan, Shoba -- Razpet, Andrej -- Riggs, Penny K -- Rincon, Gonzalo -- Rodriguez-Osorio, Nelida -- Rodriguez-Zas, Sandra L -- Romero, Natasha E -- Rosenwald, Anne -- Sando, Lillian -- Schmutz, Sheila M -- Shen, Libing -- Sherman, Laura -- Southey, Bruce R -- Lutzow, Ylva Strandberg -- Sweedler, Jonathan V -- Tammen, Imke -- Telugu, Bhanu Prakash V L -- Urbanski, Jennifer M -- Utsunomiya, Yuri T -- Verschoor, Chris P -- Waardenberg, Ashley J -- Wang, Zhiquan -- Ward, Robert -- Weikard, Rosemarie -- Welsh, Thomas H Jr -- White, Stephen N -- Wilming, Laurens G -- Wunderlich, Kris R -- Yang, Jianqi -- Zhao, Feng-Qi -- 062023/Wellcome Trust/United Kingdom -- 077198/Wellcome Trust/United Kingdom -- BBS/B/13438/Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council/United Kingdom -- BBS/B/13446/Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council/United Kingdom -- P30 DA018310/DA/NIDA NIH HHS/ -- U54 HG003273/HG/NHGRI NIH HHS/ -- U54 HG003273-04/HG/NHGRI NIH HHS/ -- U54 HG003273-04S1/HG/NHGRI NIH HHS/ -- U54 HG003273-05/HG/NHGRI NIH HHS/ -- U54 HG003273-05S1/HG/NHGRI NIH HHS/ -- U54 HG003273-05S2/HG/NHGRI NIH HHS/ -- U54 HG003273-06/HG/NHGRI NIH HHS/ -- U54 HG003273-06S1/HG/NHGRI NIH HHS/ -- U54 HG003273-06S2/HG/NHGRI NIH HHS/ -- U54 HG003273-07/HG/NHGRI NIH HHS/ -- U54 HG003273-08/HG/NHGRI NIH HHS/ -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2009 Apr 24;324(5926):522-8. doi: 10.1126/science.1169588.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19390049" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: Biochemistry DOI: 10.1021/bi301608p

Description: Journal of the American Chemical Society DOI: 10.1021/jacs.7b12160