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  • 1
    Publication Date: 2017-10-10
    Description: Arctic permafrost caps vast amounts of old, geologic methane (CH4) in subsurface reservoirs. Thawing permafrost opens pathways for this CH4 to migrate to the surface. However, the occurrence of geologic emissions and their contribution to the CH4 budget in addition to recent, biogenic CH4 is uncertain. Here we present a high-resolution (100 m × 100 m) regional (10,000 km²) CH4 flux map of the Mackenzie Delta, Canada, based on airborne CH4 flux data from July 2012 and 2013. We identify strong, likely geologic emissions solely where the permafrost is discontinuous. These peaks are 13 times larger than typical biogenic emissions. Whereas microbial CH4 production largely depends on recent air and soil temperature, geologic CH4 was produced over millions of years and can be released year-round provided open pathways exist. Therefore, even though they only occur on about 1% of the area, geologic hotspots contribute 17% to the annual CH4 emission estimate of our study area. We suggest that this share may increase if ongoing permafrost thaw opens new pathways. We conclude that, due to permafrost thaw, hydrocarbon-rich areas, prevalent in the Arctic, may see increased emission of geologic CH4 in the future, in addition to enhanced microbial CH4 production.
    Repository Name: EPIC Alfred Wegener Institut
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  • 2
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    Nature Publishing Group
    In:  EPIC3Scientific Reports, Nature Publishing Group, 7(2542), ISSN: 2045-2322
    Publication Date: 2019-03-07
    Description: Sponges (Porifera) are abundant and diverse members of benthic filter feeding communities in most marine ecosystems, from the deep sea to tropical reefs. A characteristic feature is the associated dense and diverse prokaryotic community present within the sponge mesohyl. Previous molecular genetic studies revealed the importance of host identity for the community composition of the sponge-associated microbiota. However, little is known whether sponge host-specific prokaryotic community patterns observed at 97% 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity are consistent at high taxonomic ranks (from genus to phylum level). In the present study, we investigated the prokaryotic community structure and variation of 24 sponge specimens (seven taxa) and three seawater samples from Sweden. Results show that the resemblance of prokaryotic communities at different taxonomic ranks is consistent with patterns present at 97% operational taxonomic unit level.
    Repository Name: EPIC Alfred Wegener Institut
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  • 3
    Publication Date: 2019-03-08
    Description: The Southern Ocean houses a diverse and productive community of organisms. Unicellular eukaryotic diatoms are the main primary producers in this environment, where photosynthesis is limited by low concentrations of dissolved iron and large seasonal fluctuations in light, temperature and the extent of sea ice. How diatoms have adapted to this extreme environment is largely unknown. Here we present insights into the genome evolution of a cold-adapted diatom from the Southern Ocean, Fragilariopsis cylindrus based on a comparison with temperate diatoms. We find that approximately 24.7 per cent of the diploid F. cylindrus genome consists of genetic loci with alleles that are highly divergent from those of temperate diatoms (15.1 megabases of the total genome size of 61.1 megabases). These divergent alleles were differentially expressed across environmental conditions, including darkness, low iron, freezing, elevated temperature and increased CO2. Alleles with the largest ratio of non-synonymous to synonymous nucleotide substitutions also show the most pronounced condition-dependent expression, suggesting a correlation between diversifying selection and allelic differentiation. Divergent alleles may be involved in adaptation to environmental fluctuations in the Southern Ocean.
    Repository Name: EPIC Alfred Wegener Institut
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  • 4
    Publication Date: 2017-07-21
    Description: Reproducible climate reconstructions of the Common Era (1 CE to present) are key to placing industrial-era warming into the context of natural climatic variability. Here we present a community-sourced database of temperature-sensitive proxy records from the PAGES2k initiative. The database gathers 692 records from 648 locations, including all continental regions and major ocean basins. The records are from trees, ice, sediment, corals, speleothems, documentary evidence, and other archives. They range in length from 50 to 2000 years, with a median of 547 years, while temporal resolution ranges from biweekly to centennial. Nearly half of the proxy time series are significantly correlated with HadCRUT4.2 surface temperature over the period 1850–2014. Global temperature composites show a remarkable degree of coherence between high- and low-resolution archives, with broadly similar patterns across archive types, terrestrial versus marine locations, and screening criteria. The database is suited to investigations of global and regional temperature variability over the Common Era, and is shared in the Linked Paleo Data (LiPD) format, including serializations in Matlab, R and Python.
    Repository Name: EPIC Alfred Wegener Institut
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  • 5
    Publication Date: 2022-05-25
    Description: © The Author(s), 2017. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Scientific Reports 7 (2017): 1321, doi:10.1038/s41598-017-01483-z.
    Description: We provide a model for the genesis of Holocene coralligenous buildups occurring in the northwestern Adriatic Sea offshore Venice at 17–24 m depth. High-resolution geophysical surveys and underwater SCUBA diving reconnaissance revealed meandering shaped morphologies underneath bio-concretionned rocky buildups. These morphologies are inferred to have been inherited from Pleistocene fluvial systems reactivated as tidal channels during the post- Last Glacial Maximum transgression, when the study area was a lagoon protected by a sandy barrier. The lithification of the sandy fossil channel-levee systems is estimated to have occurred at ca. 7 cal. ka BP, likely due to the interaction between marine and less saline fluids related to onshore freshwater discharge at sea through a sealed water-table. The carbonate-cemented sandy layers served as nucleus for subsequent coralligenous buildups growth.
    Description: Funded by the Italian Ministry of Education, University and Research within the National Research Program 2011–2013.
    Repository Name: Woods Hole Open Access Server
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  • 6
    Publication Date: 2022-05-25
    Description: © The Author(s), 2017. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Scientific Reports 7 (2017): 1772, doi:10.1038/s41598-017-01919-6.
    Description: Mississippi River floods rank among the costliest climate-related disasters in the world. Improving flood predictability, preparedness, and response at seasonal to decadal time-scales requires an understanding of the climatic controls that govern flood occurrence. Linking flood occurrence to persistent modes of climate variability like the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) has proven challenging, due in part to the limited number of high-magnitude floods available for study in the instrumental record. To augment the relatively short instrumental record, we use output from the Community Earth System Model (CESM) Last Millennium Ensemble (LME) to investigate the dynamical controls on discharge extremes of the lower Mississippi River. We show that through its regional influence on surface water storage, the warm phase of ENSO preconditions the lower Mississippi River to be vulnerable to flooding. In the 6–12 months preceding a flood, El Niño generates a positive precipitation anomaly over the lower Mississippi basin that gradually builds up soil moisture and reduces the basin’s infiltration capacity, thereby elevating the risk of a major flood during subsequent rainstorms. Our study demonstrates how natural climate variability mediates the formation of extreme floods on one of the world’s principal commercial waterways, adding significant predictive ability to near- and long-term forecasts of flood risk.
    Description: This work was funded through the Postdoctoral Scholar Program of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and the Voss Environmental Postdoctoral Fellows Program at Brown University.
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  • 7
    Publication Date: 2022-05-25
    Description: © The Author(s), 2017. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Nature Communications 8 (2017): 15595, doi:10.1038/ncomms15595.
    Description: Although increasing atmospheric nitrous oxide (N2O) has been linked to nitrogen loading, predicting emissions remains difficult, in part due to challenges in disentangling diverse N2O production pathways. As coastal ecosystems are especially impacted by elevated nitrogen, we investigated controls on N2O production mechanisms in intertidal sediments using novel isotopic approaches and microsensors in flow-through incubations. Here we show that during incubations with elevated nitrate, increased N2O fluxes are not mediated by direct bacterial activity, but instead are largely catalysed by fungal denitrification and/or abiotic reactions (e.g., chemodenitrification). Results of these incubations shed new light on nitrogen cycling complexity and possible factors underlying variability of N2O fluxes, driven in part by fungal respiration and/or iron redox cycling. As both processes exhibit N2O yields typically far greater than direct bacterial production, these results emphasize their possibly substantial, yet widely overlooked, role in N2O fluxes, especially in redox-dynamic sediments of coastal ecosystems.
    Description: D.D.B. acknowledges support from the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology. This work was supported by the National Science Foundation grants to W.Z. and S.D.W. (OCE-1260373) and to S.D.W. (EAR-1252161).
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  • 8
    Publication Date: 2022-05-25
    Description: © The Author(s), 2016. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in The ISME Journal 11 (2017): 186–200, doi:10.1038/ismej.2016.95.
    Description: Reef-building corals are well regarded not only for their obligate association with endosymbiotic algae, but also with prokaryotic symbionts, the specificity of which remains elusive. To identify the central microbial symbionts of corals, their specificity across species and conservation over geographic regions, we sequenced partial SSU ribosomal RNA genes of Bacteria and Archaea from the common corals Stylophora pistillata and Pocillopora verrucosa across 28 reefs within seven major geographical regions. We demonstrate that both corals harbor Endozoicomonas bacteria as their prevalent symbiont. Importantly, catalyzed reporter deposition–fluorescence in situ hybridization (CARD–FISH) with Endozoicomonas-specific probes confirmed their residence as large aggregations deep within coral tissues. Using fine-scale genotyping techniques and single-cell genomics, we demonstrate that P. verrucosa harbors the same Endozoicomonas, whereas S. pistillata associates with geographically distinct genotypes. This specificity may be shaped by the different reproductive strategies of the hosts, potentially uncovering a pattern of symbiont selection that is linked to life history. Spawning corals such as P. verrucosa acquire prokaryotes from the environment. In contrast, brooding corals such as S. pistillata release symbiont-packed planula larvae, which may explain a strong regional signature in their microbiome. Our work contributes to the factors underlying microbiome specificity and adds detail to coral holobiont functioning.
    Description: This research was supported by a KAUST-WHOI Post-doctoral Partnership Award to MN and a KAUST-WHOI Special Academic Partnership Funding Reserve Award to CRV and AA. Research in this study was further supported by baseline research funds to CRV by KAUST and NSF award OCE-1233612 to AA. RR was supported by the ct-PIRE Project, Robert Lemelson Fellowship, Graduate Research Award (UCLA), Women Divers Hall of Fame—Sister Fund Conservation Award and a Betty and E. P. Franklin Grant in Tropical Biology and Conservation.
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  • 9
    Publication Date: 2022-05-25
    Description: © The Author(s), 2017. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Scientific Reports 7 (2017): 45476, doi:10.1038/srep45476.
    Description: The influence of aerosols on climate is highly dependent on the particle size distribution, concentration, and composition. In particular, the latter influences their ability to act as cloud condensation nuclei, whereby they impact cloud coverage and precipitation. Here, we simultaneously measured the concentration of aerosols from sea spray over the North Atlantic on board the exhaust-free solar-powered vessel “PlanetSolar”, and the sea surface physico-chemical parameters. We identified organic-bearing particles based on individual particle fluorescence spectra. Organic-bearing aerosols display specific spatio-temporal distributions as compared to total aerosols. We propose an empirical parameterization of the organic-bearing particle concentration, with a dependence on water salinity and sea-surface temperature only. We also show that a very rich mixture of organic aerosols is emitted from the sea surface. Such data will certainly contribute to providing further insight into the influence of aerosols on cloud formation, and be used as input for the improved modeling of aerosols and their role in global climate processes.
    Description: We gratefully acknowledge the financial support by the H. Dudley Wright and the Henri Moser Foundations, the Rector’s Office and the Institute for Environmental Sciences at the University of Geneva, as well as a generous anonymous donator.
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  • 10
    Publication Date: 2022-05-25
    Description: © The Author(s), 2017. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Nature Communications 8 (2017): 772, doi:10.1038/s41467-017-00759-2.
    Description: In sunlit waters, photochemical alteration of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) impacts the microbial respiration of DOC to CO2. This coupled photochemical and biological degradation of DOC is especially critical for carbon budgets in the Arctic, where thawing permafrost soils increase opportunities for DOC oxidation to CO2 in surface waters, thereby reinforcing global warming. Here we show how and why sunlight exposure impacts microbial respiration of DOC draining permafrost soils. Sunlight significantly increases or decreases microbial respiration of DOC depending on whether photo-alteration produces or removes molecules that native microbial communities used prior to light exposure. Using high-resolution chemical and microbial approaches, we show that rates of DOC processing by microbes are likely governed by a combination of the abundance and lability of DOC exported from land to water and produced by photochemical processes, and the capacity and timescale that microbial communities have to adapt to metabolize photo-altered DOC.
    Description: Funding for this work was provided by NSF grants OPP 1023270, 1022876, CAREER 1351745, DEB 1147378, 1347042, 0639790, 1147336, 1026843, PLR 1504006, DOE-JGI-CSP 1782, and the Camille and Henry Dreyfus Foundation Postdoctoral Program in Environmental Chemistry.
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  • 11
    Publication Date: 2022-05-25
    Description: © The Author(s), 2017. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Scientific Reports 7 (2017): 7271, doi:10.1038/s41598-017-07400-8.
    Description: Although experience-dependent changes in brain inhibitory circuits are thought to play a key role during the “critical period” of brain development, the nature and timing of these changes are poorly understood. We examined the role of sensory experience in sculpting an inhibitory circuit in the primary somatosensory cortex (S1) of mice by using optogenetics to map the connections between parvalbumin (PV) expressing interneurons and layer 2/3 pyramidal cells. Unilateral whisker deprivation decreased the strength and spatial range of inhibitory input provided to pyramidal neurons by PV interneurons in layers 2/3, 4 and 5. By varying the time when sensory input was removed, we determined that the critical period closes around postnatal day 14. This yields the first precise time course of critical period plasticity for an inhibitory circuit.
    Description: This work was supported by a fellowship from NUS to SQL, A*STAR intramural funding for the Integrative Neuroscience Programme, Singapore Institute for Clinical Sciences for JCGS, and a Competitive Research Programme (CRP) grant from the National Research Foundation of Singapore (NRF Grant Number 2008 NRF-CRP 002-082).
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  • 12
    Publication Date: 2022-05-25
    Description: © The Author(s), 2017. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Scientific Reports 7 (2017): 6040, doi:10.1038/s41598-017-05590-9.
    Description: Selection of microorganisms in marine sediment is shaped by energy-yielding electron acceptors for respiration that are depleted in vertical succession. However, some taxa have been reported to reflect past depositional conditions suggesting they have experienced weak selection after burial. In sediments underlying the Arabian Sea oxygen minimum zone (OMZ), we performed the first metagenomic profiling of sedimentary DNA at centennial-scale resolution in the context of a multi-proxy paleoclimate reconstruction. While vertical distributions of sulfate reducing bacteria and methanogens indicate energy-based selection typical of anoxic marine sediments, 5–15% of taxa per sample exhibit depth-independent stratigraphies indicative of paleoenvironmental selection over relatively short geological timescales. Despite being vertically separated, indicator taxa deposited under OMZ conditions were more similar to one another than those deposited in bioturbated intervals under intervening higher oxygen. The genomic potential for denitrification also correlated with palaeo-OMZ proxies, independent of sediment depth and available nitrate and nitrite. However, metagenomes revealed mixed acid and Entner-Dourdoroff fermentation pathways encoded by many of the same denitrifier groups. Fermentation thus may explain the subsistence of these facultatively anaerobic microbes whose stratigraphy follows changing paleoceanographic conditions. At least for certain taxa, our analysis provides evidence of their paleoenvironmental selection over the last glacial-interglacial cycle.
    Description: his work was primarily supported by NSF MGG Grant #1357017 to MJLC, VG, and LG, and the KAUST-WHOI Special Academic Partnership Program OCRF-SP-WHOI-2013 (grants 7000000463 to XI and 7000000464 to MJLC). Additional financial support was provided via a C-DEBI grant #OCE-0939564 to WDO.
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  • 13
    Publication Date: 2022-05-25
    Description: © The Author(s), 2017. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Nature Communications 8 (2017): 832, doi:10.1038/s41467-017-00890-0.
    Description: Colonially-breeding seabirds have long served as indicator species for the health of the oceans on which they depend. Abundance and breeding data are repeatedly collected at fixed study sites in the hopes that changes in abundance and productivity may be useful for adaptive management of marine resources, but their suitability for this purpose is often unknown. To address this, we fit a Bayesian population dynamics model that includes process and observation error to all known Adélie penguin abundance data (1982–2015) in the Antarctic, covering 〉95% of their population globally. We find that process error exceeds observation error in this system, and that continent-wide “year effects” strongly influence population growth rates. Our findings have important implications for the use of Adélie penguins in Southern Ocean feedback management, and suggest that aggregating abundance across space provides the fastest reliable signal of true population change for species whose dynamics are driven by stochastic processes.
    Description: H.J.L., C.C.-C., G.H., C.Y., and K.T.S. gratefully acknowledge funding provided by US National Aeronautics and Space Administration Award No. NNX14AC32G and U.S. National Science Foundation Office of Polar Programs Award No. NSF/OPP-1255058. S.J., L.L., M.M.H., Y.L., and R.J. gratefully acknowledge funding provided by US National Aeronautics and Space Administration Award No. NNX14AH74G. H.J.L., C.Y., S.J., Y.L., and R.J. gratefully acknowledge funding provided by U.S. National Science Foundation Office of Polar Programs Award No. NSF/PLR-1341548. S.J. gratefully acknowledges support from the Dalio Explore Fund.
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  • 14
    Publication Date: 2022-05-25
    Description: © The Author(s), 2017. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Scientific Reports 7 (2017): 13460, doi:10.1038/s41598-017-13359-3.
    Description: Given new distribution patterns of the endangered North Atlantic right whale (NARW; Eubalaena glacialis) population in recent years, an improved understanding of spatio-temporal movements are imperative for the conservation of this species. While so far visual data have provided most information on NARW movements, passive acoustic monitoring (PAM) was used in this study in order to better capture year-round NARW presence. This project used PAM data from 2004 to 2014 collected by 19 organizations throughout the western North Atlantic Ocean. Overall, data from 324 recorders (35,600 days) were processed and analyzed using a classification and detection system. Results highlight almost year-round habitat use of the western North Atlantic Ocean, with a decrease in detections in waters off Cape Hatteras, North Carolina in summer and fall. Data collected post 2010 showed an increased NARW presence in the mid-Atlantic region and a simultaneous decrease in the northern Gulf of Maine. In addition, NARWs were widely distributed across most regions throughout winter months. This study demonstrates that a large-scale analysis of PAM data provides significant value to understanding and tracking shifts in large whale movements over long time scales.
    Description: This research was funded and supported by many organizations, specified by projects as follows: Data recordings from region 1 were provided by K. Stafford and this research effort was funded by the National Science Foundation #NSF-ARC 0532611. Region 2 data were provided by D. K. Mellinger and S. Nieukirk, funded by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency (NOAA) and the Office of Naval Research (ONR) #N00014–03–1–0099, NOAA #NA06OAR4600100, US Navy #N00244-08-1-0029, N00244-09-1-0079, and N00244-10-1-0047.
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  • 15
    Publication Date: 2022-05-25
    Description: © The Author(s), 2017. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Scientific Reports 7 (2017): 1267, doi:10.1038/s41598-017-01260-y.
    Description: Changes in plant phenology affect the carbon flux of terrestrial forest ecosystems due to the link between the growing season length and vegetation productivity. Digital camera imagery, which can be acquired frequently, has been used to monitor seasonal and annual changes in forest canopy phenology and track critical phenological events. However, quantitative assessment of the structural and biochemical controls of the phenological patterns in camera images has rarely been done. In this study, we used an NDVI (Normalized Difference Vegetation Index) camera to monitor daily variations of vegetation reflectance at visible and near-infrared (NIR) bands with high spatial and temporal resolutions, and found that the infrared camera based NDVI (camera-NDVI) agreed well with the leaf expansion process that was measured by independent manual observations at Harvard Forest, Massachusetts, USA. We also measured the seasonality of canopy structural (leaf area index, LAI) and biochemical properties (leaf chlorophyll and nitrogen content). We found significant linear relationships between camera-NDVI and leaf chlorophyll concentration, and between camera-NDVI and leaf nitrogen content, though weaker relationships between camera-NDVI and LAI. Therefore, we recommend ground-based camera-NDVI as a powerful tool for long-term, near surface observations to monitor canopy development and to estimate leaf chlorophyll, nitrogen status, and LAI.
    Description: This research was supported by US Department of Energy Office of Biological and Environmental Research Grant DE-SC0006951, National Science Foundation Grants DBI-959333 and AGS-1005663, and the University of Chicago and the MBL Lillie Research Innovation Award to J.T. and China Scholarship Council (CSC) to H.Y.
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  • 16
    Publication Date: 2022-05-25
    Description: © The Author(s), 2017. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Nature Communications 8 (2017): 172, doi:10.1038/s41467-017-00197-0.
    Description: Upwelling of global deep waters to the sea surface in the Southern Ocean closes the global overturning circulation and is fundamentally important for oceanic uptake of carbon and heat, nutrient resupply for sustaining oceanic biological production, and the melt rate of ice shelves. However, the exact pathways and role of topography in Southern Ocean upwelling remain largely unknown. Here we show detailed upwelling pathways in three dimensions, using hydrographic observations and particle tracking in high-resolution models. The analysis reveals that the northern-sourced deep waters enter the Antarctic Circumpolar Current via southward flow along the boundaries of the three ocean basins, before spiraling southeastward and upward through the Antarctic Circumpolar Current. Upwelling is greatly enhanced at five major topographic features, associated with vigorous mesoscale eddy activity. Deep water reaches the upper ocean predominantly south of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current, with a spatially nonuniform distribution. The timescale for half of the deep water to upwell from 30° S to the mixed layer is ~60–90 years.
    Description: V.T., L.D.T., and M.R.M. were supported by NSF OCE-1357072. A.K.M., H.F.D., and W.W. were supported by the RGCM program of the US Department of Energy under Contract DE-SC0012457. J.L.S. acknowledges NSF’s Southern Ocean Carbon and Climate Observations and Modeling project under NSF PLR-1425989, which partially supported L.D.T. and M.R.M. as well. C.O.D was supported by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) under Award NNX14AL40G and by the Princeton Environmental Institute Grand Challenge initiative. A.R.G. was supported by a Climate and Global Change Postdoctoral Fellowship from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). S.M.G. acknowledges the ongoing support of NOAA/GFDL for high-end ocean and climate-modeling activities. J.W. acknowledges support from NSF OCE-1234473.
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  • 17
    Publication Date: 2022-05-25
    Description: © The Author(s), 2017. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Scientific Reports 7 (2017): 1030, doi:10.1038/s41598-017-01224-2.
    Description: Mangrove wetlands provide ecosystem services for millions of people, most prominently by providing storm protection, food and fodder. Mangrove wetlands are also valuable ecosystems for promoting carbon (C) sequestration and storage. However, loss of mangrove wetlands and these ecosystem services are a global concern, prompting the restoration and creation of mangrove wetlands as a potential solution. Here, we investigate soil surface elevation change, and its components, in created mangrove wetlands over a 25 year developmental gradient. All created mangrove wetlands were exceeding current relative sea-level rise rates (2.6 mm yr−1), with surface elevation change of 4.2–11.0 mm yr−1 compared with 1.5–7.2 mm yr−1 for nearby reference mangroves. While mangrove wetlands store C persistently in roots/soils, storage capacity is most valuable if maintained with future sea-level rise. Through empirical modeling, we discovered that properly designed creation projects may not only yield enhanced C storage, but also can facilitate wetland persistence perennially under current rates of sea-level rise and, for most sites, for over a century with projected medium accelerations in sea-level rise (IPCC RCP 6.0). Only the fastest projected accelerations in sea-level rise (IPCC RCP 8.5) led to widespread submergence and potential loss of stored C for created mangrove wetlands before 2100.
    Description: Funding for this research was provided by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Gulf Ecology Division; U.S. Geological Survey, Climate and Land Use Change R&D Program; and U.S. Geological Survey, Environments Program.
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  • 18
    Publication Date: 2022-05-25
    Description: © The Author(s), 2017. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in ISME Journal 11 (2017): 2090–2101, doi:10.1038/ismej.2017.74.
    Description: Trichodesmium is a genus of marine diazotrophic colonial cyanobacteria that exerts a profound influence on global biogeochemistry, by injecting ‘new’ nitrogen into the low nutrient systems where it occurs. Colonies of Trichodesmium ubiquitously contain a diverse assemblage of epibiotic microorganisms, constituting a microbiome on the Trichodesmium host. Metagenome sequences from Trichodesmium colonies were analyzed along a resource gradient in the western North Atlantic to examine microbiome community structure, functional diversity and metabolic contributions to the holobiont. Here we demonstrate the presence of a core Trichodesmium microbiome that is modulated to suit different ocean regions, and contributes over 10 times the metabolic potential of Trichodesmium to the holobiont. Given the ubiquitous nature of epibionts on colonies, the substantial functional diversity within the microbiome is likely an integral facet of Trichodesmium physiological ecology across the oligotrophic oceans where this biogeochemically significant diazotroph thrives.
    Description: This research was funded by grants from the National Science Foundation to STD (OCE-1332912) and BASVM (OCE-1332898).
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  • 19
    Publication Date: 2022-05-25
    Description: © The Author(s), 2017. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Scientific Reports 7 (2017): 5476, doi:10.1038/s41598-017-05745-8.
    Description: The lost Saraswati River mentioned in the ancient Indian tradition is postulated to have flown independently of the Indus River into the Arabian Sea, perhaps along courses of now defunct rivers such as Ghaggar, Hakra and Nara. The persistence of such a river during the Harappan Bronze Age and the Iron Age Vedic period is strongly debated. We drilled in the Great Rann of Kachchh (Kutch), an infilled gulf of the Arabian Sea, which must have received input from the Saraswati, if active. Nd and Sr isotopic measurements suggest that a distinct source may have been present before 10 ka. Later in Holocene, under a drying climate, sediments from the Thar Desert probably choked the signature of an independent Saraswati-like river. Alternatively, without excluding a Saraswati-like secondary source, the Indus and the Thar were the dominant sources throughout the post-glacial history of the GRK. Indus-derived sediment accelerated the infilling of GRK after ~6 ka when the Indus delta started to grow. Until its complete infilling few centuries ago, freshwater input from the Indus, and perhaps from the Ghaggar-Hakra-Nara, probably sustained a productive marine environment as well as navigability toward old coastal Harappan and historic towns in the region.
    Description: The drilling effort and subsequent study of the cores was funded by Department of Science and Technology (DST), Government of India sponsored research project to DMM (Project No. SR/S4/ES-21/Kachchh Window/P1) under the science of Shallow Subsurface Programme (SSS). N. Khonde gratefully acknowledges Indo-US Post-doctoral Fellowship sponsored by SERB-IUSSTF for research work at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.
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  • 20
    Publication Date: 2022-05-25
    Description: © The Author(s), 2017. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Nature Communications 8 (2017): 844, doi:10.1038/s41467-017-00853-5.
    Description: Authigenic clay minerals formed on or in the seafloor occur in every type of marine sediment. They are recognized to be a major sink of many elements in the ocean but are difficult to study directly due to dilution by detrital clay minerals. The extremely low dust fluxes and marine sedimentation rates in the South Pacific Gyre (SPG) provide a unique opportunity to examine relatively undiluted authigenic clay. Here, using Mg isotopes and element concentrations combined with multivariate statistical modeling, we fingerprint and quantify the abundance of authigenic clay within SPG sediment. Key reactants include volcanic ash (source of reactive aluminium) and reactive biogenic silica on or shallowly buried within the seafloor. Our results, together with previous studies, suggest that global reorganizations of biogenic silica burial over the Cenozoic reduced marine authigenic clay formation, contributing to the rise in seawater Mg/Ca and decline in atmospheric CO2 over the past 50 million years.
    Description: Funding for this research was provided by the U.S. National Science Foundation to R.W.M. (OCE1130531) and to J.A.H. (OCE1654571).
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  • 21
    Publication Date: 2022-05-25
    Description: © The Author(s), 2017. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Scientific Reports 7 (2017): 12942, doi:10.1038/s41598-017-13380-6.
    Description: Penguin guano provides favorable conditions for production and emission of greenhouse gases (GHGs). Many studies have been conducted to determine the GHG fluxes from penguin colonies, however, at regional scale, there is still no accurate estimation of total GHG emissions. We used object-based image analysis (OBIA) method to estimate the Adélie penguin (Pygoscelis adeliae) population based on aerial photography data. A model was developed to estimate total GHG emission potential from Adélie penguin colonies during breeding seasons in 1983 and 2012, respectively. Results indicated that OBIA method was effective for extracting penguin information from aerial photographs. There were 17,120 and 21,183 Adélie penguin breeding pairs on Inexpressible Island in 1983 and 2012, respectively, with overall accuracy of the estimation of 76.8%. The main reasons for the increase in Adélie penguin populations were attributed to increase in temperature, sea ice and phytoplankton. The average estimated CH4 and N2O emissions tended to be increasing during the period from 1983 to 2012 and CH4 was the main GHG emitted from penguin colonies. Total global warming potential (GWP) of CH4 and N2O emissions was 5303 kg CO2-eq in 1983 and 6561 kg CO2-eq in 2012, respectively.
    Description: This work was supported by the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (Grant No. 312231103), the Chinese Arctic and Antarctic Administration, National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos 41676176 and 41676182), the Chinese Polar Environment Comprehensive Investigation, Assessment Program.
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  • 22
    Publication Date: 2022-05-25
    Description: © The Author(s), 2017. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Nature Communications 8 (2017): 1114, doi:10.1038/s41467-017-01228-6.
    Description: Little is known about evolutionary drivers of microbial populations in the warm subseafloor of deep-sea hydrothermal vents. Here we reconstruct 73 metagenome-assembled genomes (MAGs) from two geochemically distinct vent fields in the Mid-Cayman Rise to investigate patterns of genomic variation within subseafloor populations. Low-abundance populations with high intra-population diversity coexist alongside high-abundance populations with low genomic diversity, with taxonomic differences in patterns of genomic variation between the mafic Piccard and ultramafic Von Damm vent fields. Populations from Piccard are significantly enriched in nonsynonymous mutations, suggesting stronger purifying selection in Von Damm relative to Piccard. Comparison of nine Sulfurovum MAGs reveals two high-coverage, low-diversity MAGs from Piccard enriched in unique genes related to the cellular membrane, suggesting these populations were subject to distinct evolutionary pressures that may correlate with genes related to nutrient uptake, biofilm formation, or viral invasion. These results are consistent with distinct evolutionary histories between geochemically different vent fields, with implications for understanding evolutionary processes in subseafloor microbial populations.
    Description: R.E.A. was supported by a NASA Postdoctoral Fellowship with the NASA Astrobiology Institute. This work was supported by a NASA Astrobiology Science and Technology for Exploring Planets (ASTEP) grant NNX-327 09AB75G and a grant from Deep Carbon Observatory's Deep Life Initiative to J.A.H. and J.S.S., and the NSF Science and Technology Center for Dark Energy Biosphere Investigations (C-DEBI). Ship and vehicle time in 2012 was supported by the NSF-OCE grant OCE-1061863 to J.S.S.
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  • 23
    Publication Date: 2022-05-25
    Description: © The Author(s), 2017. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Nature Communications 8 (2017): 16107, doi:10.1038/ncomms16107.
    Description: The hydrothermal alteration of mantle rocks (referred to as serpentinization) occurs in submarine environments extending from mid-ocean ridges to subduction zones. Serpentinization affects the physical and chemical properties of oceanic lithosphere, represents one of the major mechanisms driving mass exchange between the mantle and the Earth’s surface, and is central to current origin of life hypotheses as well as the search for microbial life on the icy moons of Jupiter and Saturn. In spite of increasing interest in the serpentinization process by researchers in diverse fields, the rates of serpentinization and the controlling factors are poorly understood. Here we use a novel in situ experimental method involving olivine micro-reactors and show that the rate of serpentinization is strongly controlled by the salinity (water activity) of the reacting fluid and demonstrate that the rate of serpentinization of olivine slows down as salinity increases and H2O activity decreases.
    Description: This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant OCE-1459433 to R.J.B. and E.M.S. Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología (CONACyT), the Virginia Tech Department of Geosciences and Virginia Tech Graduate School provided partial funding to HML during this study. F.K. was supported by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Endowed Fund for Innovative Research.
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  • 24
    Publication Date: 2022-05-25
    Description: © The Author(s), 2017. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Scientific Reports 7 (2017): 8350, doi:10.1038/s41598-017-07676-w.
    Description: Although it is known that seals can use their whiskers (vibrissae) to extract relevant information from complex underwater flow fields, the underlying functioning of the system and the signals received by the sensors are poorly understood. Here we show that the vibrations of seal whiskers may provide information about hydrodynamic events and enable the sophisticated wake-tracking abilities of these animals. We developed a miniature accelerometer tag to study seal whisker movement in situ. We tested the ability of the tag to measure vibration in excised whiskers in a flume in response to laminar flow and disturbed flow. We then trained a seal to wear the tag and follow an underwater hydrodynamic trail to measure the whisker signals available to the seal. The results showed that whiskers vibrated at frequencies of 100–300 Hz, with a dynamic response. These measurements are the first to capture the incoming signals received by the vibrissae of a live seal and show that there are prominent signals at frequencies where the seal tactogram shows good sensitivity. Tapping into the mechanoreceptive interface between the animal and the environment may help to decipher the functional basis of this extraordinary hydrodynamic detection ability.
    Description: Funding was provided by the NSF GRFP and NISE section 219 to C. Murphy and by the Office of Naval Research (N000141910468) to B. Calhoun.
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  • 25
    Publication Date: 2022-05-26
    Description: © The Author(s), 2017. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Scientific Reports 7 (2017): 38, doi:10.1038/s41598-017-00074-2.
    Description: The Gulf of Aqaba transform plate boundary is a source of destructive teleseismic earthquakes. Seismicity is concentrated in the central sub-basin and decreases to both the north and south. Although principally a strike-slip plate boundary, the faulted margins of the Gulf display largely dip-slip extensional movement and accompanying footwall uplift. We have constrained rates of this uplift by measurements of elevated Pleistocene coral terraces. In particular the terrace that formed during the last interglacial (~125 ka) is found discontinuously along the length of the Gulf at elevations of 3 to 26 m. Global sea level was ~7 m higher than today at 125 ka indicating net maximum tectonic uplift of ~19 m with an average rate of ~0.015 cm/yr. Uplift has been greatest adjacent to the central sub-basin and like the seismicity decreases to the north and south. We suggest that the present pattern of a seismically active central region linked to more aseismic areas in the north and south has therefore persisted for at least the past 125 kyr. Consequently the potential for future destructive earthquakes in the central Gulf is greater than in the sub-basins to the north and south.
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  • 26
    Publication Date: 2022-05-26
    Description: © The Author(s), 2017. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Scientific Reports 7 (2017): 41095, doi:10.1038/srep41095.
    Description: Adenosine-to-inosine RNA editing in transcripts encoding the voltage-gated potassium channel Kv1.1 converts an isoleucine to valine codon for amino acid 400, speeding channel recovery from inactivation. Numerous Kv1.1 mutations have been associated with the human disorder Episodic Ataxia Type-1 (EA1), characterized by stress-induced ataxia, myokymia, and increased prevalence of seizures. Three EA1 mutations, V404I, I407M, and V408A, are located within the RNA duplex structure required for RNA editing. Each mutation decreased RNA editing both in vitro and using an in vivo mouse model bearing the V408A allele. Editing of transcripts encoding mutant channels affects numerous biophysical properties including channel opening, closing, and inactivation. Thus EA1 symptoms could be influenced not only by the direct effects of the mutations on channel properties, but also by their influence on RNA editing. These studies provide the first evidence that mutations associated with human genetic disorders can affect cis-regulatory elements to alter RNA editing.
    Description: This work was supported by the Vanderbilt Molecular Endocrinology Training Program (T32DK007563; E.A.F.K.), a Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award (F31NS087911; E.A.F.K), a Vanderbilt Dissertation Enhancement Grant (E.A.F.K.), and the Vanderbilt Joel G. Hardman Chair in Pharmacology (R.B.E). Additional support for J.J.C.R. included NINDS (R0111223855, R01NS64259) and the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation Therapeutics (Rosent14XXO). Infrastructural support for J.J.C.R. was provided by NIGMS (P20GM103642), NIMH (G12-MD007600), and NSF (DBI 0115825, DBI 1337284).
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  • 27
    Publication Date: 2022-05-26
    Description: © The Author(s), 2017. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Nature Communications 8 (2017): 14197, doi:10.1038/ncomms14197.
    Description: It is an open question whether turbulent mixing across density surfaces is sufficiently large to play a dominant role in closing the deep branch of the ocean meridional overturning circulation. The diapycnal and isopycnal mixing experiment in the Southern Ocean found the turbulent diffusivity inferred from the vertical spreading of a tracer to be an order of magnitude larger than that inferred from the microstructure profiles at the mean tracer depth of 1,500 m in the Drake Passage. Using a high-resolution ocean model, it is shown that the fast vertical spreading of tracer occurs when it comes in contact with mixing hotspots over rough topography. The sparsity of such hotspots is made up for by enhanced tracer residence time in their vicinity due to diffusion toward weak bottom flows. The increased tracer residence time may explain the large vertical fluxes of heat and salt required to close the abyssal circulation.
    Description: Financial support for A.M. and R.F. under the US National Science Foundation grant OCE-1233832 is gratefully acknowledged. A.M. also acknowledges support from an NSERC PDF award.
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  • 28
    Publication Date: 2022-05-26
    Description: © The Author(s), 2017. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Scientific Reports 7 (2017): 10129, doi:10.1038/s41598-017-10974-y.
    Description: Transports of suspended particulate (POCsusp) and dissolved (DOC) organic carbon are inferred from a box-model covering the eastern boundary of the North Atlantic subtropical gyre. Corresponding net respiration rates (R) are obtained from a net organic carbon budget that is based on the transport estimates, and includes both vertical and lateral fluxes. The overall R in the mesopelagic layer (100–1500 m) is 1.6 ± 0.4 mmol C m−2 d−1. DOC accounts for up to 53% of R as a result of drawdown of organic carbon within Eastern North Atlantic Central Water (ENACW) that is entrained into sinking Mediterranean Overflow Water (MOW) that leads to formation of Mediterranean water (MW) at intermediate depths (~900 m). DOC represents 90% of the respired non-sinking organic carbon. When converted into oxygen units, the computed net respiration rate represents less than half the oxygen utilization rates (OUR) reported for the mesopelagic waters of the subtropical North Atlantic. Mesoscale processes in the area, not quantified with our approach, could account in part for the OUR differences observed between our carbon budget and other published studies from the North Atlantic, although seasonal or interannual variability could also be responsible for the difference in the estimates.
    Description: This research was supported by projects ORCA (CTM2005-04701-CO2-01), Malaspina (CSD2008-00077), HOTMIX (CTM2011-30010-C02) and FLUXES (CTM2015-69392-C3), financed by the Spanish “Plan Nacional de I + D”. YSF was supported by a Spanish fellowship from the Agencia Canaria de Investigación, Innovación y Sociedad de la Información (ACIISI). EM has been partially supported by the Copernicus Marine Environment Monitoring Service (CMEMS) MedSUB project, and a post-doctoral grant from the Conselleria d’Educació, Cultura i Universitats del Govern de les Illes Balears (Mallorca, Spain) and the European Social Fund.
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  • 29
    Publication Date: 2022-05-26
    Description: © The Author(s), 2017. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Scientific Reports 7 (2017): 11914, doi::10.1038/s41598-017-12138-4.
    Description: Coastal wetlands are sites of rapid carbon (C) sequestration and contain large soil C stocks. Thus, there is increasing interest in those ecosystems as sites for anthropogenic greenhouse gas emission offset projects (sometimes referred to as “Blue Carbon”), through preservation of existing C stocks or creation of new wetlands to increase future sequestration. Here we show that in the globallywidespread occurrence of diked, impounded, drained and tidally-restricted salt marshes, substantial methane (CH4) and CO2 emission reductions can be achieved through restoration of disconnected saline tidal flows. Modeled climatic forcing indicates that tidal restoration to reduce emissions has a much greater impact per unit area than wetland creation or conservation to enhance sequestration. Given that GHG emissions in tidally-restricted, degraded wetlands are caused by human activity, they are anthropogenic emissions, and reducing them will have an effect on climate that is equivalent to reduced emission of an equal quantity of fossil fuel GHG. Thus, as a landuse-based climate change intervention, reducing CH4 emissions is an entirely distinct concept from biological C sequestration projects to enhance C storage in forest or wetland biomass or soil, and will not suffer from the non-permanence risk that stored C will be returned to the atmosphere.
    Description: Research supported by the USGS Coastal & Marine Geology Program, USGS Land Carbon Program, and NOAA Science Collaborative grant #NA09NOS4190153.
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  • 30
    Publication Date: 2022-05-26
    Description: © The Author(s), 2017. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Nature Communications 8 (2017): 1452, doi:10.1038/s41467-017-01250-8.
    Description: Light-sheet fluorescence microscopy (LSFM) enables high-speed, high-resolution, and gentle imaging of live specimens over extended periods. Here we describe a technique that improves the spatiotemporal resolution and collection efficiency of LSFM without modifying the underlying microscope. By imaging samples on reflective coverslips, we enable simultaneous collection of four complementary views in 250 ms, doubling speed and improving information content relative to symmetric dual-view LSFM. We also report a modified deconvolution algorithm that removes associated epifluorescence contamination and fuses all views for resolution recovery. Furthermore, we enhance spatial resolution (to 〈300 nm in all three dimensions) by applying our method to single-view LSFM, permitting simultaneous acquisition of two high-resolution views otherwise difficult to obtain due to steric constraints at high numerical aperture. We demonstrate the broad applicability of our method in a variety of samples, studying mitochondrial, membrane, Golgi, and microtubule dynamics in cells and calcium activity in nematode embryos.
    Description: This work was supported by the Intramural Research Program of the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering at the National Institutes of Health. P.L. and H.S. acknowledge summer support from the Marine Biological Laboratory at Woods Hole, through the Whitman- and Fellows- program. P.L. acknowledges support from NIH National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) under grant number R01EB017293. C.S. acknowledges funding from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences of NIH under Award Number R25GM109439 (Project Title: University of Chicago Initiative for Maximizing Student Development [IMSD]) and NIBIB under grant number T32 EB002103. Partial funding for the computation in this work was provided by NIH grant numbers S10 RRO21039 and P30 CA14599. A.U. and I.R.-S. were supported by the NSF grant number 1607645.
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  • 31
    Publication Date: 2022-05-26
    Description: © The Author(s), 2017. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Nature Communications 8 (2017): 520, doi:10.1038/s41467-017-00577-6.
    Description: Contrasting Greenland and Antarctic temperatures during the last glacial period (115,000 to 11,650 years ago) are thought to have been driven by imbalances in the rates of formation of North Atlantic and Antarctic Deep Water (the ‘bipolar seesaw’). Here we exploit a bidecadally resolved 14C data set obtained from New Zealand kauri (Agathis australis) to undertake high-precision alignment of key climate data sets spanning iceberg-rafted debris event Heinrich 3 and Greenland Interstadial (GI) 5.1 in the North Atlantic (~30,400 to 28,400 years ago). We observe no divergence between the kauri and Atlantic marine sediment 14C data sets, implying limited changes in deep water formation. However, a Southern Ocean (Atlantic-sector) iceberg rafted debris event appears to have occurred synchronously with GI-5.1 warming and decreased precipitation over the western equatorial Pacific and Atlantic. An ensemble of transient meltwater simulations shows that Antarctic-sourced salinity anomalies can generate climate changes that are propagated globally via an atmospheric Rossby wave train.
    Description: This work was funded by the Australian Research Council (FL100100195, DP170104665 and SR140300001) and the Natural Environment Research Council (NE/H009922/1 and NE/H007865/1).
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  • 32
    Publication Date: 2022-05-26
    Description: © The Author(s), 2017. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Scientific Reports 7 (2017): 14131, doi:10.1038/s41598-017-13301-7.
    Description: Bisphenol A (BPA) is widely used in the manufacture of plastics and epoxy resins and is prevalent in the aquatic environment. BPA disrupts endocrine pathways in fish, but the long-term developmental implications are unknown. We demonstrate that BPA deposition in the eggs of rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss), an ecologically and economically important species of fish, reprograms liver metabolism in the offspring and alters the developmental growth trajectory in two generations. Specifically, BPA reduces growth during early development, followed by a catch-up growth post-juveniles. More importantly, we observed a developmental shift in the liver transcriptome, including an increased propensity for protein breakdown during early life stages to lipid and cholesterol synthesis post- juveniles. The liver molecular responses corresponded with the transient growth phenotypes observed in the F1 generation, and this was also evident in the F2 generation. Altogether, maternal and/or ancestral embryonic exposure to BPA affects liver metabolism leading to development-distinct effects on growth, underscoring the need for novel risk assessment strategies for this chemical in the aquatic environment. This is particularly applicable to migratory species, such as salmon, where distinct temporal changes in growth and physiology during development are critical for their spawning success.
    Description: This study was supported by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) Discovery and Strategic Project Grants to MMV. Drs. Neel Aluru and Oana Birceanu received a NSERC post-doctoral fellowship and Canada Graduate Scholarship.
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  • 33
    Publication Date: 2022-05-26
    Description: © The Author(s), 2017. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Nature Communications 8 (2017): 1342, doi:10.1038/s41467-017-01229-5.
    Description: Geochemical analyses of sedimentary barites (barium sulfates) in the geological record have yielded fundamental insights into the chemistry of the Archean environment and evolutionary origin of microbial metabolisms. However, the question of how barites were able to precipitate from a contemporary ocean that contained only trace amounts of sulfate remains controversial. Here we report dissolved and particulate multi-element and barium-isotopic data from Lake Superior that evidence pelagic barite precipitation at micromolar ambient sulfate. These pelagic barites likely precipitate within particle-associated microenvironments supplied with additional barium and sulfate ions derived from heterotrophic remineralization of organic matter. If active during the Archean, pelagic precipitation and subsequent sedimentation may account for the genesis of enigmatic barite deposits. Indeed, barium-isotopic analyses of barites from the Paleoarchean Dresser Formation are consistent with a pelagic mechanism of precipitation, which altogether offers a new paradigm for interpreting the temporal occurrence of barites in the geological record.
    Description: This research was made possible with support from the National Science Foundation Division of Ocean Sciences (OCE-PRF 1421196, OCE-1430015, and OCE-1443577), The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Endowed Fund for Innovative Research, and the Agouron Institute Geobiology Postdoctoral Fellowship Program.
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  • 34
    Publication Date: 2022-05-26
    Description: © The Author(s), 2017. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Nature Communications 8 (2017): 1835, doi:10.1038/s41467-017-01776-x.
    Description: Subterranean estuaries extend inland into density-stratified coastal carbonate aquifers containing a surprising diversity of endemic animals (mostly crustaceans) within a highly oligotrophic habitat. How complex ecosystems (termed anchialine) thrive in this globally distributed, cryptic environment is poorly understood. Here, we demonstrate that a microbial loop shuttles methane and dissolved organic carbon (DOC) to higher trophic levels of the anchialine food web in the Yucatan Peninsula (Mexico). Methane and DOC production and consumption within the coastal groundwater correspond with a microbial community capable of methanotrophy, heterotrophy, and chemoautotrophy, based on characterization by 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing and respiratory quinone composition. Fatty acid and bulk stable carbon isotope values of cave-adapted shrimp suggest that carbon from methanotrophic bacteria comprises 21% of their diet, on average. These findings reveal a heretofore unrecognized subterranean methane sink and contribute to our understanding of the carbon cycle and ecosystem function of karst subterranean estuaries.
    Description: Funding for T.M.I. and D.B. was provided by TAMU-CONACYT (project no: 2015-049). D.B. was supported by Research-in-Residence program (NSF award #1137336, Inter-University Training in Continental-scale Ecology), Cave Research Foundation Graduate Student Grant, Cave Conservancy Foundation PhD Fellowship, Ralph W. Stone Fellowship (National Speleological Society), Grants-in-Aid of Graduate Student Research Award (Texas Sea Grant College Program), and Boost Fellowship (Texas A&M University at Galveston). Additional financial support was provided by NSF DEB-1257424 (M.B.L. and M.C.L.), the Postdoctoral Program at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and U.S. Geological Survey (K.W.B.).
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  • 35
    Publication Date: 2022-05-26
    Description: © The Author(s), 2017. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Scientific Reports 7 (2017): 44586, doi:10.1038/srep44586.
    Description: A 2°C increase in global temperature above pre-industrial levels is considered a reasonable target for avoiding the most devastating impacts of anthropogenic climate change. In June 2015, sea surface temperature (SST) of the South China Sea (SCS) increased by 2 °C in response to the developing Pacific El Niño. On its own, this moderate, short-lived warming was unlikely to cause widespread damage to coral reefs in the region, and the coral reef “Bleaching Alert” alarm was not raised. However, on Dongsha Atoll, in the northern SCS, unusually weak winds created low-flow conditions that amplified the 2°C basin-scale anomaly. Water temperatures on the reef flat, normally indistinguishable from open-ocean SST, exceeded 6°C above normal summertime levels. Mass coral bleaching quickly ensued, killing 40% of the resident coral community in an event unprecedented in at least the past 40 years. Our findings highlight the risks of 2°C ocean warming to coral reef ecosystems when global and local processes align to drive intense heating, with devastating consequences.
    Description: This research was funded by the National Science Foundation (OCE-1031971 and OCE-1605365 to A.L.C), the Sustainability Science Research Program of the Academia Sinica (G.T.F.W. and A.L.C), a Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Coastal Ocean Institute award to T.M.D., and a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship awarded to T.M.D.
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  • 36
    Publication Date: 2022-05-26
    Description: © The Author(s), 2017. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Nature Communications 8 (2017): 1870, doi:10.1038/s41467-017-01610-4.
    Description: Peridotite carbonation represents a critical step within the long-term carbon cycle by sequestering volatile CO2 in solid carbonate. This has been proposed as one potential pathway to mitigate the effects of greenhouse gas release. Most of our current understanding of reaction mechanisms is based on hand specimen and laboratory-scale analyses. Linking laboratory-scale observations to field scale processes remains challenging. Here we present the first geophysical characterization of serpentinite carbonation across scales ranging from km to sub-mm by combining aeromagnetic observations, outcrop- and thin section-scale magnetic mapping. At all scales, magnetic anomalies coherently change across reaction fronts separating assemblages indicative of incipient, intermittent, and final reaction progress. The abundance of magnetic minerals correlates with reaction progress, causing amplitude and wavelength variations in associated magnetic anomalies. This correlation represents a foundation for characterizing the extent and degree of in situ ultramafic rock carbonation in space and time.
    Description: This project was supported by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Independent Study Award (Tivey and Tominaga) and by NASA Astrobiology Institute NNA15BB02A (Tominaga). M.T. and A.B. are grateful to B. Jamtveit and H. Austrheim (University of Oslo) for their support during the 2011 and 2013 field campaigns. B.W. and E.A.L. thank the National Science Foundation grant DMS-1521765 and Thomas F. Peterson, Jr for generous support.
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  • 37
    Publication Date: 2022-05-26
    Description: © The Author(s), 2017. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 114 (2017): 13114-13119, doi: 10.1073/pnas.1702143114.
    Description: During the Mid-Pleistocene Transition (MPT; 1,200–800 kya), Earth’s orbitally paced ice age cycles intensified, lengthened from ∼40,000 (∼40 ky) to ∼100 ky, and became distinctly asymmetrical. Testing hypotheses that implicate changing atmospheric CO2 levels as a driver of the MPT has proven difficult with available observations. Here, we use orbitally resolved, boron isotope CO2 data to show that the glacial to interglacial CO2 difference increased from ∼43 to ∼75 μatm across the MPT, mainly because of lower glacial CO2 levels. Through carbon cycle modeling, we attribute this decline primarily to the initiation of substantive dust-borne iron fertilization of the Southern Ocean during peak glacial stages. We also observe a twofold steepening of the relationship between sea level and CO2-related climate forcing that is suggestive of a change in the dynamics that govern ice sheet stability, such as that expected from the removal of subglacial regolith or interhemispheric ice sheet phase-locking. We argue that neither ice sheet dynamics nor CO2 change in isolation can explain the MPT. Instead, we infer that the MPT was initiated by a change in ice sheet dynamics and that longer and deeper post-MPT ice ages were sustained by carbon cycle feedbacks related to dust fertilization of the Southern Ocean as a consequence of larger ice sheets.
    Description: Research was supported by National Environmental Research Council (NERC) Studentship NE/I528626/1 (to T.B.C.); NERC Grant NE/P011381/1 (to T.B.C., M.P.H., G.L.F., E.J.R., and P.A.W.); NERC Fellowships NE/K00901X/1 (to M.P.H.), NE/I006346/1 (to G.L.F. and R.D.P), and NE/H006273/1 (to R.D.P.); Royal Society Wolfson Awards (to G.L.F. and P.A.W.); Australian Research Council Laureate Fellowship FL1201000050 (to E.J.R.); Swiss National Science Foundation Grant PP00P2-144811 (to S.L.J.); ETH Research Grant ETH-04 11-1 (to S.L.J.); European Research Council Consolidator Grant (ERC CoG) Grant 617462 (to H.P.); and NERC UK IODP Grant NE/F00141X/1 (to P.A.W.).
    Keywords: Boron isotopes ; MPT ; Geochemistry ; Carbon dioxide ; Paleoclimate
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  • 38
    Publication Date: 2022-05-26
    Description: © The Author(s), 2017. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Nature Communications 8 (2017): 1602, doi:10.1038/s41467-017-01774-z.
    Description: Land-atmosphere exchanges influence atmospheric CO2. Emphasis has been on describing photosynthetic CO2 uptake, but less on respiration losses. New global datasets describe upper canopy dark respiration (Rd) and temperature dependencies. This allows characterisation of baseline Rd, instantaneous temperature responses and longer-term thermal acclimation effects. Here we show the global implications of these parameterisations with a global gridded land model. This model aggregates Rd to whole-plant respiration Rp, driven with meteorological forcings spanning uncertainty across climate change models. For pre-industrial estimates, new baseline Rd increases Rp and especially in the tropics. Compared to new baseline, revised instantaneous response decreases Rp for mid-latitudes, while acclimation lowers this for the tropics with increases elsewhere. Under global warming, new Rd estimates amplify modelled respiration increases, although partially lowered by acclimation. Future measurements will refine how Rd aggregates to whole-plant respiration. Our analysis suggests Rp could be around 30% higher than existing estimates.
    Description: C.H. acknowledges the NERC CEH National Capability fund. The support of the Australian Research Council to O.K.A. and P.M. (DP130101252, CE140100008, FT0991448, FT110100457) is acknowledged, as are awards DE-FG02-07ER64456 from the US Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of Biological and Environmental Research and DEB-1234162 from the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) Long-Term Ecological Research Program (to P.B.R.); and National Science Foundation International Polar Year Grant (to K.L.G.). L.M.M. acknowledges the support of the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) South American Biomass Burning Analysis (SAMBBA) project grant code NE/J010057/1.
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  • 39
    Publication Date: 2022-05-26
    Description: © The Author(s), 2017. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Nature Communications 8 (2017): 2047, doi:10.1038/s41467-017-01848-y.
    Description: Integrin αβ heterodimer cell surface receptors mediate adhesive interactions that provide traction for cell migration. Here, we test whether the integrin, when engaged to an extracellular ligand and the cytoskeleton, adopts a specific orientation dictated by the direction of actin flow on the surface of migrating cells. We insert GFP into the rigid, ligand-binding head of the integrin, model with Rosetta the orientation of GFP and its transition dipole relative to the integrin head, and measure orientation with fluorescence polarization microscopy. Cytoskeleton and ligand-bound integrins orient in the same direction as retrograde actin flow with their cytoskeleton-binding β-subunits tilted by applied force. The measurements demonstrate that intracellular forces can orient cell surface integrins and support a molecular model of integrin activation by cytoskeletal force. Our results place atomic, Å-scale structures of cell surface receptors in the context of functional and cellular, μm-scale measurements.
    Description: Supported by the Lillie Research award from Marine Biological Laboratory and the University of Chicago (C.M.W., T.A.S., S.M., T.T.), NIH 5R13GM085967 grant to the Physiology Course at Marine Biological Laboratory, HHMI Summer Institute at Marine Biological Laboratory (S.M.), NIH CA31798 (T.A.S., P.N., T.I.M.), NIH GM100160 (T.T., S.M.), NIH GM092802 (D.B., N.K.), NIH GM114274 (R.O., S.M.) National Center for Biological Sciences-Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (S.M., J.M.K.), J.C. Bose Fellowship and HFSP Grant RGP0027/2012 (S.M.), NHLBI Division of Intramural Research (C.M.W., V.S.), Swedish Research Council VR 524-2011-891 Fellowship (P.N.), Swedish Society for Medical Research SSMF Fellowship (P.N.), Crafoord Foundation (P.N.).
    Keywords: Actin ; Integrin signalling ; Integrins ; Molecular imaging ; Polarization microscopy
    Repository Name: Woods Hole Open Access Server
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  • 40
    Publication Date: 2017-11-13
    Description: Legionella pneumophilais the causative agent of a severe pneumonia called Legionnaires’ disease. A single strain ofL. pneumophilaencodes a repertoire of over 300 different effector proteins that are delivered into host cells by the Dot/Icm type IV secretion system during infection. The large number ofL. pneumophilaeffectors has been a limiting factor in assessing the importance of individual effectors for virulence. Here, a transposon insertion sequencing technology called INSeq was used to analyze replication of a pool of effector mutants in parallel both in a mouse model of infection and in cultured host cells. Loss-of-function mutations in genes encoding effector proteins resulted in host-specific or broad virulence phenotypes. Screen results were validated for several effector mutants displaying different virulence phenotypes using genetic complementation studies and infection assays. Specifically, loss-of-function mutations in the gene encoding LegC4 resulted in enhancedL. pneumophilain the lungs of infected mice but not within cultured host cells, which indicates LegC4 augments bacterial clearance by the host immune system. The effector proteins RavY and Lpg2505 were important for efficient replication within both mammalian and protozoan hosts. Further analysis of Lpg2505 revealed that this protein functions as a metaeffector that counteracts host cytotoxicity displayed by the effector protein SidI. Thus, this study identified a large cohort of effectors that contribute toL. pneumophilavirulence positively or negatively and has demonstrated regulation of effector protein activities by cognate metaeffectors as being critical for host pathogenesis.
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  • 41
    Publication Date: 2017-05-15
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  • 42
    Publication Date: 2017-07-27
    Description: Nuclear hormone receptors (NRs) regulate physiology by sensing lipophilic ligands and adapting cellular transcription appropriately. A growing understanding of the impact of circadian clocks on mammalian transcription has sparked interest in the interregulation of transcriptional programs. Mammalian clocks are based on a transcriptional feedback loop featuring the transcriptional activators circadian locomotor output cycles kaput (CLOCK) and brain and muscle ARNT-like 1 (BMAL1), and transcriptional repressors cryptochrome (CRY) and period (PER). CRY1 and CRY2 bind independently of other core clock factors to many genomic sites, which are enriched for NR recognition motifs. Here we report that CRY1/2 serve as corepressors for many NRs, indicating a new facet of circadian control of NR-mediated regulation of metabolism and physiology, and specifically contribute to diurnal modulation of drug metabolism.
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  • 43
    Publication Date: 2017-07-31
    Description: Homodimeric KIF17 and heterotrimeric KIF3AB are processive, kinesin-2 family motors that act jointly to carry out anterograde intraflagellar transport (IFT), ferrying cargo along microtubules (MTs) toward the tips of cilia. How IFT trains attain speeds that exceed the unloaded rate of the slower, KIF3AB motor remains unknown. By characterizing the motility properties of kinesin-2 motors as a function of load we find that the increase in KIF3AB velocity, elicited by forward loads from KIF17 motors, cannot alone account for the speed of IFT trains in vivo. Instead, higher IFT velocities arise from an increased likelihood that KIF3AB motors dissociate from the MT, resulting in transport by KIF17 motors alone, unencumbered by opposition from KIF3AB. The rate of transport is therefore set by an equilibrium between a faster state, where only KIF17 motors move the train, and a slower state, where at least one KIF3AB motor on the train remains active in transport. The more frequently the faster state is accessed, the higher the overall velocity of the IFT train. We conclude that IFT velocity is governed by (i) the absolute numbers of each motor type on a given train, (ii) how prone KIF3AB is to dissociation from MTs relative to KIF17, and (iii) how prone both motors are to dissociation relative to binding MTs.
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  • 44
    Publication Date: 2017-03-06
    Description: Riboswitches are RNAs that form complex, folded structures that selectively bind small molecules or ions. As with certain groups of protein enzymes and receptors, some riboswitch classes have evolved to change their ligand specificity. We developed a procedure to systematically analyze known riboswitch classes to find additional variants that have altered their ligand specificity. This approach uses multiple-sequence alignments, atomic-resolution structural information, and riboswitch gene associations. Among the discoveries are unique variants of the guanine riboswitch class that most tightly bind the nucleoside 2′-deoxyguanosine. In addition, we identified variants of the glycine riboswitch class that no longer recognize this amino acid, additional members of a rare flavin mononucleotide (FMN) variant class, and also variants of c-di-GMP-I and -II riboswitches that might recognize different bacterial signaling molecules. These findings further reveal the diverse molecular sensing capabilities of RNA, which highlights the potential for discovering a large number of additional natural riboswitch classes.
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  • 45
    Publication Date: 2017-11-21
    Description: This paper evaluates current stakeholder involvement (SI) practices in science through a web-based survey among scholars and researchers engaged in sustainability or transition research. It substantiates previous conceptual work with evidence from practice by building on four ideal types of SI in science. The results give an interesting overview of the varied landscape of SI in sustainability science, ranging from the kinds of topics scientists work on with stakeholders, over scientific trade-offs that arise in the field, to improvements scientists wish for. Furthermore, the authors describe a discrepancy between scientists’ ideals and practices when working with stakeholders. On the conceptual level, the data reflect that the democratic type of SI is the predominant one concerning questions on the understanding of science, the main goal, the stage of involvement in the research process, and the science–policy interface. The fact that respondents expressed agreement to several types shows they are guided by multiple and partly conflicting ideals when working with stakeholders. We thus conclude that more conceptual exchange between practitioners, as well as more qualitative research on the concepts behind practices, is needed to better understand the stakeholder–scientist nexus.
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  • 46
    Publication Date: 2017-06-26
    Description: Foundry-based routes to transient silicon electronic devices have the potential to serve as the manufacturing basis for “green” electronic devices, biodegradable implants, hardware secure data storage systems, and unrecoverable remote devices. This article introduces materials and processing approaches that enable state-of-the-art silicon complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) foundries to be leveraged for high-performance, water-soluble forms of electronics. The key elements are (i) collections of biodegradable electronic materials (e.g., silicon, tungsten, silicon nitride, silicon dioxide) and device architectures that are compatible with manufacturing procedures currently used in the integrated circuit industry, (ii) release schemes and transfer printing methods for integration of multiple ultrathin components formed in this way onto biodegradable polymer substrates, and (iii) planarization and metallization techniques to yield interconnected and fully functional systems. Various CMOS devices and circuit elements created in this fashion and detailed measurements of their electrical characteristics highlight the capabilities. Accelerated dissolution studies in aqueous environments reveal the chemical kinetics associated with the underlying transient behaviors. The results demonstrate the technical feasibility for using foundry-based routes to sophisticated forms of transient electronic devices, with functional capabilities and cost structures that could support diverse applications in the biomedical, military, industrial, and consumer industries.
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  • 47
    Publication Date: 2017-04-10
    Description: G protein-coupled receptor (GPCR) signaling occurs in complex spatiotemporal patterns that are difficult to probe using standard pharmacological and genetic approaches. A powerful approach for dissecting GPCRs is to use light-controlled pharmacological agents that are tethered covalently and specifically to genetically engineered receptors. However, deficits in our understanding of the mechanism of such photoswitches have limited application of this approach and its extension to other GPCRs. In this study, we have harnessed the power of bioorthogonal tethering to SNAP and CLIP protein tags to create a family of light-gated metabotropic glutamate receptors (mGluRs). We define the mechanistic determinants of photoswitch efficacy, including labeling efficiency, dependence on photoswitch structure, length dependence of the linker between the protein tag and the glutamate ligand, effective local concentration of the glutamate moiety, and affinity of the receptor for the ligand. We improve the scheme for photoswitch synthesis as well as photoswitch efficiency, and generate seven light-gated group II/III mGluRs, including variants of mGluR2, 3, 6, 7, and 8. Members of this family of light-controlled receptors can be used singly or in specifically labeled, independently light-controlled pairs for multiplexed control of receptor populations.
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  • 48
    Publication Date: 2017-05-01
    Description: Root hair polar growth is endogenously controlled by auxin and sustained by oscillating levels of reactive oxygen species (ROS). These cells extend several hundred-fold their original size toward signals important for plant survival. Although their final cell size is of fundamental importance, the molecular mechanisms that control it remain largely unknown. Here we show that ROS production is controlled by the transcription factor RSL4, which in turn is transcriptionally regulated by auxin through several auxin response factors (ARFs). In this manner, auxin controls ROS-mediated polar growth by activating RSL4, which then up-regulates the expression of genes encoding NADPH oxidases (also known as RESPIRATORY BURST OXIDASE HOMOLOG proteins) and class III peroxidases, which catalyze ROS production. Chemical or genetic interference with ROS balance or peroxidase activity affects root hair final cell size. Overall, our findings establish a molecular link between auxin and ROS-mediated polar root hair growth.
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  • 49
    Publication Date: 2017-10-16
    Description: A number of domestication hypotheses suggest that dogs have acquired a more tolerant temperament than wolves, promoting cooperative interactions with humans and conspecifics. This selection process has been proposed to resemble the one responsible for our own greater cooperative inclinations in comparison with our closest living relatives. However, the socioecology of wolves and dogs, with the former relying more heavily on cooperative activities, predicts that at least with conspecifics, wolves should cooperate better than dogs. Here we tested similarly raised wolves and dogs in a cooperative string-pulling task with conspecifics and found that wolves outperformed dogs, despite comparable levels of interest in the task. Whereas wolves coordinated their actions so as to simultaneously pull the rope ends, leading to success, dogs pulled the ropes in alternate moments, thereby never succeeding. Indeed in dog dyads it was also less likely that both members simultaneously engaged in other manipulative behaviors on the apparatus. Different conflict-management strategies are likely responsible for these results, with dogs’ avoidance of potential competition over the apparatus constraining their capacity to coordinate actions. Wolves, in contrast, did not hesitate to manipulate the ropes simultaneously, and once cooperation was initiated, rapidly learned to coordinate in more complex conditions as well. Social dynamics (rank and affiliation) played a key role in success rates. Results call those domestication hypotheses that suggest dogs evolved greater cooperative inclinations into question, and rather support the idea that dogs’ and wolves’ different social ecologies played a role in affecting their capacity for conspecific cooperation and communication.
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  • 50
    Publication Date: 2017-04-03
    Description: Possible transition between two phases of supercooled liquid water, namely the low- and high-density liquid water, has been only predicted to occur below 230 K from molecular dynamics (MD) simulation. However, such a phase transition cannot be detected in the laboratory because of the so-called “no-man’s land” under deeply supercooled condition, where only crystalline ices have been observed. Here, we show MD simulation evidence that, inside an isolated carbon nanotube (CNT) with a diameter of 1.25 nm, both low- and high-density liquid water states can be detected near ambient temperature and above ambient pressure. In the temperature–pressure phase diagram, the low- and high-density liquid water phases are separated by the hexagonal ice nanotube (hINT) phase, and the melting line terminates at the isochore end point near 292 K because of the retracting melting line from 292 to 278 K. Beyond the isochore end point (292 K), low- and high-density liquid becomes indistinguishable. When the pressure is increased from 10 to 600 MPa along the 280-K isotherm, we observe that water inside the 1.25-nm-diameter CNT can undergo low-density liquid to hINT to high-density liquid reentrant first-order transitions.
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  • 51
    Publication Date: 2017-01-30
    Description: Rotaviruses (RVs) are highly important pathogens that cause severe diarrhea among infants and young children worldwide. The understanding of the molecular mechanisms underlying RV replication and pathogenesis has been hampered by the lack of an entirely plasmid-based reverse genetics system. In this study, we describe the recovery of recombinant RVs entirely from cloned cDNAs. The strategy requires coexpression of a small transmembrane protein that accelerates cell-to-cell fusion and vaccinia virus capping enzyme. We used this system to obtain insights into the process by which RV nonstructural protein NSP1 subverts host innate immune responses. By insertion into the NSP1 gene segment, we recovered recombinant viruses that encode split-green fluorescent protein–tagged NSP1 and NanoLuc luciferase. This technology will provide opportunities for studying RV biology and foster development of RV vaccines and therapeutics.
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  • 52
    Publication Date: 2017-01-31
    Description: Mammalian intrinsic apoptosis requires activation of the initiator caspase-9, which then cleaves and activates the effector caspases to execute cell killing. The heptameric Apaf-1 apoptosome is indispensable for caspase-9 activation by together forming a holoenzyme. The molecular mechanism of caspase-9 activation remains largely enigmatic. Here, we report the cryoelectron microscopy (cryo-EM) structure of an apoptotic holoenzyme and structure-guided biochemical analyses. The caspase recruitment domains (CARDs) of Apaf-1 and caspase-9 assemble in two different ways: a 4:4 complex docks onto the central hub of the apoptosome, and a 2:1 complex binds the periphery of the central hub. The interface between the CARD complex and the central hub is required for caspase-9 activation within the holoenzyme. Unexpectedly, the CARD of free caspase-9 strongly inhibits its proteolytic activity. These structural and biochemical findings demonstrate that the apoptosome activates caspase-9 at least in part through sequestration of the inhibitory CARD domain.
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  • 53
    Publication Date: 2017-02-08
    Description: TheTrypanosoma cruziascorbate peroxidase is, by sequence analysis, a hybrid type A member of class I heme peroxidases [TcAPx-cytochromecperoxidase (CcP)], suggesting both ascorbate (Asc) and cytochromec(Cc) peroxidase activity. Here, we show that the enzyme reacts fast with H2O2(k= 2.9 × 107M−1⋅s−1) and catalytically decomposes H2O2using Cc as the reducing substrate with higher efficiency than Asc (kcat/Km= 2.1 × 105versus 3.5 × 104M−1⋅s−1, respectively). Visible-absorption spectra of purified recombinantTcAPx-CcP after H2O2reaction denote the formation of a compound I-like product, characteristic of the generation of a tryptophanyl radical-cation (Trp233•+). Mutation of Trp233to phenylalanine (W233F) completely abolishes the Cc-dependent peroxidase activity. In addition to Trp233•+, a Cys222-derived radical was identified by electron paramagnetic resonance spin trapping, immunospin trapping, and MS analysis after equimolar H2O2addition, supporting an alternative electron transfer (ET) pathway from the heme. Molecular dynamics studies revealed that ET between Trp233and Cys222is possible and likely to participate in the catalytic cycle. Recognizing the ability ofTcAPx-CcP to use alternative reducing substrates, we searched for its subcellular localization in the infective parasite stages (intracellular amastigotes and extracellular trypomastigotes).TcAPx-CcP was found closely associated with mitochondrial membranes and, most interestingly, with the outer leaflet of the plasma membrane, suggesting a role at the host–parasite interface.TcAPx-CcP overexpressers were significantly more infective to macrophages and cardiomyocytes, as well as in the mouse model of Chagas disease, supporting the involvement ofTcAPx-CcP in pathogen virulence as part of the parasite antioxidant armamentarium.
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  • 54
    Publication Date: 2017-04-11
    Description: There is a growing effort in creating chiral transport of sound waves. However, most approaches so far have been confined to the macroscopic scale. Here, we propose an approach suitable to the nanoscale that is based on pseudomagnetic fields. These pseudomagnetic fields for sound waves are the analogue of what electrons experience in strained graphene. In our proposal, they are created by simple geometrical modifications of an existing and experimentally proven phononic crystal design, the snowflake crystal. This platform is robust, scalable, and well-suited for a variety of excitation and readout mechanisms, among them optomechanical approaches.
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  • 55
    Publication Date: 2017-04-24
    Description: Kin selection theory predicts that, where kin discrimination is possible, animals should typically act more favorably toward closer genetic relatives and direct aggression toward less closely related individuals. Contrary to this prediction, we present data from an 18-y study of wild banded mongooses, Mungos mungo, showing that females that are more closely related to dominant individuals are specifically targeted for forcible eviction from the group, often suffering severe injury, and sometimes death, as a result. This pattern cannot be explained by inbreeding avoidance or as a response to more intense local competition among kin. Instead, we use game theory to show that such negative kin discrimination can be explained by selection for unrelated targets to invest more effort in resisting eviction. Consistent with our model, negative kin discrimination is restricted to eviction attempts of older females capable of resistance; dominants exhibit no kin discrimination when attempting to evict younger females, nor do they discriminate between more closely or less closely related young when carrying out infanticidal attacks on vulnerable infants who cannot defend themselves. We suggest that in contexts where recipients of selfish acts are capable of resistance, the usual prediction of positive kin discrimination can be reversed. Kin selection theory, as an explanation for social behavior, can benefit from much greater exploration of sequential social interactions.
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  • 56
    Publication Date: 2017-07-03
    Description: In biology, last names have been used as proxy for genetic relatedness in pioneering studies of neutral theory and human migrations. More recently, analyzing the last name distribution of Italian academics has raised the suspicion of nepotism, with faculty hiring their relatives for academic posts. Here, we analyze three large datasets containing the last names of all academics in Italy, researchers from France, and those working at top public institutions in the United States. Through simple randomizations, we show that the US academic system is geographically well-mixed, whereas Italian academics tend to work in their native region. By contrasting maiden and married names, we can detect academic couples in France. Finally, we detect the signature of nepotism in the Italian system, with a declining trend. The claim that our tests detect nepotism as opposed to other effects is supported by the fact that we obtain different results for the researchers hired after 2010, when an antinepotism law was in effect.
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  • 57
    Publication Date: 2017-10-23
    Description: Skin tissues, in particular the epidermis, are severely affected by zinc deficiency. However, the zinc-mediated mechanisms that maintain the cells that form the epidermis have not been established. Here, we report that the zinc transporter ZIP10 is highly expressed in the outer root sheath of hair follicles and plays critical roles in epidermal development. We found that ZIP10 marked epidermal progenitor cell subsets and that ablating Zip10 caused significant epidermal hypoplasia accompanied by down-regulation of the transactivation of p63, a master regulator of epidermal progenitor cell proliferation and differentiation. Both ZIP10 and p63 are significantly increased during epidermal development, in which ZIP10-mediated zinc influx promotes p63 transactivation. Collectively, these results indicate that ZIP10 plays important roles in epidermal development via, at least in part, the ZIP10–zinc–p63 signaling axis, thereby highlighting the physiological significance of zinc regulation in the maintenance of skin epidermis.
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  • 58
    Publication Date: 2017-02-06
    Description: Intrinsically disordered regions (IDRs) are characterized by their lack of stable secondary or tertiary structure and comprise a large part of the eukaryotic proteome. Although these regions play a variety of signaling and regulatory roles, they appear to be rapidly evolving at the primary sequence level. To understand the functional implications of this rapid evolution, we focused on a highly diverged IDR inSaccharomyces cerevisiaethat is involved in regulating multiple conserved MAPK pathways. We hypothesized that under stabilizing selection, the functional output of orthologous IDRs could be maintained, such that diverse genotypes could lead to similar function and fitness. Consistent with the stabilizing selection hypothesis, we find that diverged, orthologous IDRs can mostly recapitulate wild-type function and fitness inS. cerevisiae. We also find that the electrostatic charge of the IDR is correlated with signaling output and, using phylogenetic comparative methods, find evidence for selection maintaining this quantitative molecular trait despite underlying genotypic divergence.
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  • 59
    Publication Date: 2017-07-03
    Description: The plant hormone cytokinin affects a diverse array of growth and development processes and responses to the environment. How a signaling molecule mediates such a diverse array of outputs and how these response pathways are integrated with other inputs remain fundamental questions in plant biology. To this end, we characterized the transcriptional network initiated by the type-B ARABIDOPSIS RESPONSE REGULATORs (ARRs) that mediate the cytokinin primary response, making use of chromatin immunoprecipitation sequencing (ChIP-seq), protein-binding microarrays, and transcriptomic approaches. By ectopic overexpression of ARR10, Arabidopsis lines hypersensitive to cytokinin were generated and used to clarify the role of cytokinin in regulation of various physiological responses. ChIP-seq was used to identify the cytokinin-dependent targets for ARR10, thereby defining a crucial link between the cytokinin primary-response pathway and the transcriptional changes that mediate physiological responses to this phytohormone. Binding of ARR10 was induced by cytokinin with binding sites enriched toward the transcriptional start sites for both induced and repressed genes. Three type-B ARR DNA-binding motifs, determined by use of protein-binding microarrays, were enriched at ARR10 binding sites, confirming their physiological relevance. WUSCHEL was identified as a direct target of ARR10, with its cytokinin-enhanced expression resulting in enhanced shooting in tissue culture. Results from our analyses shed light on the physiological role of the type-B ARRs in regulating the cytokinin response, mechanism of type-B ARR activation, and basis by which cytokinin regulates diverse aspects of growth and development as well as responses to biotic and abiotic factors.
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  • 60
    Publication Date: 2017-11-20
    Description: Equations describing the rolling of a spherical ball on a horizontal surface are obtained, the motion being activated by an internal rotor driven by a battery mechanism. The rotor is modeled as a point mass mounted inside a spherical shell and caused to move in a prescribed circular orbit relative to the shell. The system is described in terms of four independent dimensionless parameters. The equations governing the angular momentum of the ball relative to the point of contact with the plane constitute a six-dimensional, nonholonomic, nonautonomous dynamical system with cubic nonlinearity. This system is decoupled from a subsidiary system that describes the trajectories of the center of the ball. Numerical integration of these equations for prescribed values of the parameters and initial conditions reveals a tendency toward chaotic behavior as the radius of the circular orbit of the point mass increases (other parameters being held constant). It is further shown that there is a range of values of the initial angular velocity of the shell for which chaotic trajectories are realized while contact between the shell and the plane is maintained. The predicted behavior has been observed in our experiments.
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  • 61
    Publication Date: 2017-09-11
    Description: Protein phosphorylation by cyclic AMP-dependent protein kinase (PKA) underlies key cellular processes, including sympathetic stimulation of heart cells, and potentiation of synaptic strength in neurons. Unrestrained PKA activity is pathological, and an enduring challenge is to understand how the activity of PKA catalytic subunits is directed in cells. We developed a light-activated cross-linking approach to monitor PKA subunit interactions with temporal precision in living cells. This enabled us to refute the recently proposed theory that PKA catalytic subunits remain tethered to regulatory subunits during cAMP elevation. Instead, we have identified other features of PKA signaling for reducing catalytic subunit diffusion and increasing recapture rate. Comprehensive quantitative immunoblotting of protein extracts from human embryonic kidney cells and rat organs reveals that regulatory subunits are always in large molar excess of catalytic subunits (average ∼17-fold). In the majority of organs tested, type II regulatory (RII) subunits were found to be the predominant PKA subunit. We also examined the architecture of PKA complexes containing RII subunits using cross-linking coupled to mass spectrometry. Quantitative comparison of cross-linking within a complex of RIIβ and Cβ, with or without the prototypical anchoring protein AKAP18α, revealed that the dimerization and docking domain of RIIβ is between its second cAMP binding domains. This architecture is compatible with anchored RII subunits directing the myristylated N terminus of catalytic subunits toward the membrane for release and recapture within the plane of the membrane.
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  • 62
    Publication Date: 2017-02-16
    Description: Neurons receive a multitude of synaptic inputs along their dendritic arbor, but how this highly heterogeneous population of synaptic compartments is spatially organized remains unclear. By measuringN-methyl-d-aspartic acid receptor (NMDAR)-driven calcium responses in single spines, we provide a spatial map of synaptic calcium signals along dendritic arbors of hippocampal neurons and relate this to measures of synapse structure. We find that quantal NMDAR calcium signals increase in amplitude as they approach a thinning dendritic tip end. Based on a compartmental model of spine calcium dynamics, we propose that this biased distribution in calcium signals is governed by a gradual, distance-dependent decline in spine size, which we visualized using serial block-face scanning electron microscopy. Our data describe a cell-autonomous feature of principal neurons, where tapering dendrites show an inverse distribution of spine size and NMDAR-driven calcium signals along dendritic trees, with important implications for synaptic plasticity rules and spine function.
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  • 63
    Publication Date: 2017-01-17
    Description: Aberrant activation of β-catenin through its activity as a transcription factor has been observed in a large proportion of human malignancies. Despite the improved understanding of the β-catenin signaling pathway over the past three decades, attempts to develop therapies targeting β-catenin remain challenging, and none of these targeted therapies have advanced to the clinic. In this study, we show that part of the challenge in antagonizing β-catenin is caused by its dual functionality as a cell adhesion molecule and a signaling molecule. In a mouse model of basal ErbB2 receptor tyrosine kinase 2 (ErbB2)-positive breast cancer (ErbB2KI), which exhibits aberrant β-catenin nuclear signaling, β-catenin haploinsufficiency induced aggressive tumor formation and metastasis by promoting the disruption of adherens junctions, dedifferentiation, and an epithelial to mesenchymal transition (EMT) transcriptional program. In contrast to the accelerated tumor onset observed in the haploid-insufficient ErbB2 tumors, deletion of both β-catenin alleles in the ErbB2KImodel had only a minor impact on tumor onset that further correlated with the retention of normal adherens junctions. We further showed that retention of adherens junctional integrity was caused by the up-regulation of the closely related family member plakoglobin (γ-catenin) that maintained both adherens junctions and the activation of Wnt target genes. In contrast to the ErbB2KIbasal tumor model, modulation of β-catenin levels had no appreciable impact on tumor onset in an ErbB2-driven model of luminal breast cancer [murine mammary tumor virus promoter (MMTV-NIC)]. These observations argue that the balance of junctional and nuclear β-catenin activity has a profound impact on tumor progression in this basal model of ErbB2-positive breast cancer.
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  • 64
    Publication Date: 2017-03-13
    Description: Life history events, such as traumatic stress, illness, or starvation, can influence us through molecular changes that are recorded in a pattern of characteristic chromatin modifications. These modifications are often associated with adaptive adjustments in gene expression that can persist throughout the lifetime of the organism, or even span multiple generations. Although these adaptations may confer some selective advantage, if they are not appropriately regulated they can also be maladaptive in a context-dependent manner. We show here that during periods of acute starvation in Caenorhabditis elegans larvae, the master metabolic regulator AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) plays a critical role in blocking modifications to the chromatin landscape. This ensures that gene expression remains inactive in the germ-line precursors during adverse conditions. In its absence, critical chromatin modifications occur in the primordial germ cells (PGCs) of emergent starved L1 larvae that correlate with compromised reproductive fitness of the generation that experienced the stress, but also in the subsequent generations that never experienced the initial event. Our findings suggest that AMPK regulates the activity of the chromatin modifying COMPASS complex (complex proteins associated with Set1) to ensure that chromatin marks are not established until nutrient/energy contingencies are satisfied. Our study provides molecular insight that links metabolic adaptation to transgenerational epigenetic modification in response to acute periods of starvation.
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  • 65
    Publication Date: 2017-12-18
    Description: The dopamine D2 receptor (D2R) is a major component of the dopamine system. D2R-mediated signaling in dopamine neurons is involved in the presynaptic regulation of dopamine levels. Postsynaptically, i.e., in striatal neurons, D2R signaling controls complex functions such as motor activity through regulation of cell firing and heterologous neurotransmitter release. The presence of two isoforms, D2L and D2S, which are generated by a mechanism of alternative splicing of the Drd2 gene, raises the question of whether both isoforms may equally control presynaptic and postsynaptic events. Here, we addressed this question by comparing behavioral and cellular responses of mice with the selective ablation of either D2L or D2S isoform. We establish that the presence of either D2L or D2S can support postsynaptic functions related to the control of motor activity in basal conditions. On the contrary, absence of D2S but not D2L prevents the inhibition of tyrosine hydroxylase phosphorylation and, thereby, of dopamine synthesis, supporting a major presynaptic role for D2S. Interestingly, boosting dopamine signaling in the striatum by acute cocaine administration reveals that absence of D2L, but not of D2S, strongly impairs the motor and cellular response to the drug, in a manner similar to the ablation of both isoforms. These results suggest that when the dopamine system is challenged, D2L signaling is required for the control of striatal circuits regulating motor activity. Thus, our findings show that D2L and D2S share similar functions in basal conditions but not in response to stimulation of the dopamine system.
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  • 66
    Publication Date: 2017-07-17
    Description: CD44 has been postulated as a cell surface coreceptor for augmenting receptor tyrosine kinase (RTK) signaling. However, how exactly CD44 triggers RTK-dependent signaling remained largely unclear. Here we report an unexpected mechanism by which the CD44s splice isoform is internalized into endosomes to attenuate EGFR degradation. We identify a CD44s-interacting small GTPase, Rab7A, and show that CD44s inhibits Rab7A-mediated EGFR trafficking to lysosomes and subsequent degradation. Importantly, CD44s levels correlate with EGFR signature and predict poor prognosis in glioblastomas. Because Rab7A facilitates trafficking of many RTKs to lysosomes, our findings identify CD44s as a Rab7A regulator to attenuate RTK degradation.
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  • 67
    Publication Date: 2017-07-05
    Description: Devoid of all known canonical actin-binding proteins, the prevalent parasiteGiardia lambliauses an alternative mechanism for cytokinesis. Unique aspects of this mechanism can potentially be leveraged for therapeutic development. Here, live-cell imaging methods were developed forGiardiato establish division kinetics and the core division machinery. Surprisingly,Giardiacytokinesis occurred with a median time that is ∼60 times faster than mammalian cells. In contrast to cells that use a contractile ring, actin was not concentrated in the furrow and was not directly required for furrow progression. Live-cell imaging and morpholino depletion of axonemal Paralyzed Flagella 16 indicated that flagella-based forces initiated daughter cell separation and provided a source for membrane tension. Inhibition of membrane partitioning blocked furrow progression, indicating a requirement for membrane trafficking to support furrow advancement. Rab11 was found to load onto the intracytoplasmic axonemes late in mitosis and to accumulate near the ends of nascent axonemes. These developing axonemes were positioned to coordinate trafficking into the furrow and mark the center of the cell in lieu of a midbody/phragmoplast. We show that flagella motility, Rab11, and actin coordination are necessary for proper abscission. Organisms representing three of the five eukaryotic supergroups lack myosin II of the actomyosin contractile ring. These results support an emerging view that flagella play a central role in cell division among protists that lack myosin II and additionally implicate the broad use of membrane tension as a mechanism to drive abscission.
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  • 68
    Publication Date: 2017-05-01
    Description: Photonic crystals (PCs) have emerged as one of the most widely used platforms for controlling light–matter interaction in solid-state systems. They rely on Bragg scattering from wavelength-sized periodic modulation in the dielectric environment for manipulating the electromagnetic field. A complementary approach to manipulate light–matter interaction is offered by artificial media known as metamaterials that rely on the average response of deep-subwavelength unit cells. Here we demonstrate a class of artificial photonic media termed “photonic hypercrystals” (PHCs) that combine the large broadband photonic density of states provided by hyperbolic metamaterials with the light-scattering efficiency of PCs. Enhanced radiative rate (20×) and light outcoupling (100×) from PHCs embedded with quantum dots is observed. Such designer photonic media with complete control over the optical properties provide a platform for broadband control of light–matter interaction.
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  • 69
    Publication Date: 2017-05-09
    Description: Applied pressure drives the heavy-fermion antiferromagnet CeRhIn5 toward a quantum critical point that becomes hidden by a dome of unconventional superconductivity. Magnetic fields suppress this superconducting dome, unveiling the quantum phase transition of local character. Here, we show that 5% magnetic substitution at the Ce site in CeRhIn5, either by Nd or Gd, induces a zero-field magnetic instability inside the superconducting state. This magnetic state not only should have a different ordering vector than the high-field local-moment magnetic state, but it also competes with the latter, suggesting that a spin-density-wave phase is stabilized in zero field by Nd and Gd impurities, similarly to the case of Ce0.95Nd0.05CoIn5. Supported by model calculations, we attribute this spin-density wave instability to a magnetic-impurity-driven condensation of the spin excitons that form inside the unconventional superconducting state.
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  • 70
    Publication Date: 2017-05-08
    Description: Microalgae have potential to help meet energy and food demands without exacerbating environmental problems. There is interest in the unicellular green alga Chromochloris zofingiensis, because it produces lipids for biofuels and a highly valuable carotenoid nutraceutical, astaxanthin. To advance understanding of its biology and facilitate commercial development, we present a C. zofingiensis chromosome-level nuclear genome, organelle genomes, and transcriptome from diverse growth conditions. The assembly, derived from a combination of short- and long-read sequencing in conjunction with optical mapping, revealed a compact genome of ∼58 Mbp distributed over 19 chromosomes containing 15,274 predicted protein-coding genes. The genome has uniform gene density over chromosomes, low repetitive sequence content (∼6%), and a high fraction of protein-coding sequence (∼39%) with relatively long coding exons and few coding introns. Functional annotation of gene models identified orthologous families for the majority (∼73%) of genes. Synteny analysis uncovered localized but scrambled blocks of genes in putative orthologous relationships with other green algae. Two genes encoding beta-ketolase (BKT), the key enzyme synthesizing astaxanthin, were found in the genome, and both were up-regulated by high light. Isolation and molecular analysis of astaxanthin-deficient mutants showed that BKT1 is required for the production of astaxanthin. Moreover, the transcriptome under high light exposure revealed candidate genes that could be involved in critical yet missing steps of astaxanthin biosynthesis, including ABC transporters, cytochrome P450 enzymes, and an acyltransferase. The high-quality genome and transcriptome provide insight into the green algal lineage and carotenoid production.
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  • 71
    Publication Date: 2017-05-08
    Description: Tumors of distinct tissues of origin and genetic makeup display common hallmark cellular phenotypes, including sustained proliferation, suppression of cell death, and altered metabolism. These phenotypic commonalities have been proposed to stem from disruption of conserved regulatory mechanisms evolved during the transition to multicellularity to control fundamental cellular processes such as growth and replication. Dating the evolutionary emergence of human genes through phylostratigraphy uncovered close association between gene age and expression level in RNA sequencing data from The Cancer Genome Atlas for seven solid cancers. Genes conserved with unicellular organisms were strongly up-regulated, whereas genes of metazoan origin were primarily inactivated. These patterns were most consistent for processes known to be important in cancer, implicating both selection and active regulation during malignant transformation. The coordinated expression of strongly interacting multicellularity and unicellularity processes was lost in tumors. This separation of unicellular and multicellular functions appeared to be mediated by 12 highly connected genes, marking them as important general drivers of tumorigenesis. Our findings suggest common principles closely tied to the evolutionary history of genes underlie convergent changes at the cellular process level across a range of solid cancers. We propose altered activity of genes at the interfaces between multicellular and unicellular regions of human gene regulatory networks activate primitive transcriptional programs, driving common hallmark features of cancer. Manipulation of cross-talk between biological processes of different evolutionary origins may thus present powerful and broadly applicable treatment strategies for cancer.
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  • 72
    Publication Date: 2017-06-26
    Description: Since at least the 1920s, it has been reported that common chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) differ from humans in being capable of exceptional feats of “super strength,” both in the wild and in captive environments. A mix of anecdotal and more controlled studies provides some support for this view; however, a critical review of available data suggests that chimpanzee mass-specific muscular performance is a more modest 1.5 times greater than humans on average. Hypotheses for the muscular basis of this performance differential have included greater isometric force-generating capabilities, faster maximum shortening velocities, and/or a difference in myosin heavy chain (MHC) isoform content in chimpanzee relative to human skeletal muscle. Here, we show that chimpanzee muscle is similar to human muscle in its single-fiber contractile properties, but exhibits a much higher fraction of MHC II isoforms. Unlike humans, chimpanzee muscle is composed of ∼67% fast-twitch fibers (MHC IIa+IId). Computer simulations of species-specific whole-muscle models indicate that maximum dynamic force and power output is 1.35 times higher in a chimpanzee muscle than a human muscle of similar size. Thus, the superior mass-specific muscular performance of chimpanzees does not stem from differences in isometric force-generating capabilities or maximum shortening velocities—as has long been suggested—but rather is due in part to differences in MHC isoform content and fiber length. We propose that the hominin lineage experienced a decline in maximum dynamic force and power output during the past 7–8 million years in response to selection for repetitive, low-cost contractile behavior.
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  • 73
    Publication Date: 2017-05-30
    Description: We used whole-genome resequencing data from a population of Drosophila melanogaster to investigate the causes of the negative correlation between the within-population synonymous nucleotide site diversity (πS) of a gene and its degree of divergence from related species at nonsynonymous nucleotide sites (KA). By using the estimated distributions of mutational effects on fitness at nonsynonymous and UTR sites, we predicted the effects of background selection at sites within a gene on πS and found that these could account for only part of the observed correlation between πS and KA. We developed a model of the effects of selective sweeps that included gene conversion as well as crossing over. We used this model to estimate the average strength of selection on positively selected mutations in coding sequences and in UTRs, as well as the proportions of new mutations that are selectively advantageous. Genes with high levels of selective constraint on nonsynonymous sites were found to have lower strengths of positive selection and lower proportions of advantageous mutations than genes with low levels of constraint. Overall, background selection and selective sweeps within a typical gene reduce its synonymous diversity to ∼75% of its value in the absence of selection, with larger reductions for genes with high KA. Gene conversion has a major effect on the estimates of the parameters of positive selection, such that the estimated strength of selection on favorable mutations is greatly reduced if it is ignored.
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  • 74
    Publication Date: 2017-01-23
    Description: Long-standing racial differences in US life expectancy suggest that black Americans would be exposed to significantly more family member deaths than white Americans from childhood through adulthood, which, given the health risks posed by grief and bereavement, would add to the disadvantages that they face. We analyze nationally representative US data from the National Longitudinal Study of Youth (n= 7,617) and the Health and Retirement Study (n= 34,757) to estimate racial differences in exposure to the death of family members at different ages, beginning in childhood. Results indicate that blacks are significantly more likely than whites to have experienced the death of a mother, a father, and a sibling from childhood through midlife. From young adulthood through later life, blacks are also more likely than whites to have experienced the death of a child and of a spouse. These results reveal an underappreciated layer of racial inequality in the United States, one that could contribute to the intergenerational transmission of health disadvantage. By calling attention to this heightened vulnerability of black Americans, our findings underscore the need to address the potential impact of more frequent and earlier exposure to family member deaths in the process of cumulative disadvantage.
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  • 75
  • 76
    Publication Date: 2017-01-23
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  • 77
    Publication Date: 2017-10-30
    Description: Escherichia coli UvrD DNA helicase functions in several DNA repair processes. As a monomer, UvrD can translocate rapidly and processively along ssDNA; however, the monomer is a poor helicase. To unwind duplex DNA in vitro, UvrD needs to be activated either by self-assembly to form a dimer or by interaction with an accessory protein. However, the mechanism of activation is not understood. UvrD can exist in multiple conformations associated with the rotational conformational state of its 2B subdomain, and its helicase activity has been correlated with a closed 2B conformation. Using single-molecule total internal reflection fluorescence microscopy, we examined the rotational conformational states of the 2B subdomain of fluorescently labeled UvrD and their rates of interconversion. We find that the 2B subdomain of the UvrD monomer can rotate between an open and closed conformation as well as two highly populated intermediate states. The binding of a DNA substrate shifts the 2B conformation of a labeled UvrD monomer to a more open state that shows no helicase activity. The binding of a second unlabeled UvrD shifts the 2B conformation of the labeled UvrD to a more closed state resulting in activation of helicase activity. Binding of a monomer of the structurally similar Escherichia coli Rep helicase does not elicit this effect. This indicates that the helicase activity of a UvrD dimer is promoted via direct interactions between UvrD subunits that affect the rotational conformational state of its 2B subdomain.
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  • 78
    Publication Date: 2017-12-04
    Description: We here describe a selected reaction monitoring (SRM)-based approach for the discovery and validation of peptide biomarkers for cancer. The first stage of this approach is the direct identification of candidate peptides through comparison of proteolytic peptides derived from the plasma of cancer patients or healthy individuals. Several hundred candidate peptides were identified through this method, providing challenges for choosing and validating the small number of peptides that might prove diagnostically useful. To accomplish this validation, we used 2D chromatography coupled with SRM of candidate peptides. We applied this approach, called sequential analysis of fractionated eluates by SRM (SAFE-SRM), to plasma from cancer patients and discovered two peptides encoded by the peptidyl-prolyl cis–trans isomerase A (PPIA) gene whose abundance was increased in the plasma of ovarian cancer patients. At optimal thresholds, elevated levels of at least one of these two peptides was detected in 43 (68.3%) of 63 women with ovarian cancer but in none of 50 healthy controls. In addition to providing a potential biomarker for ovarian cancer, this approach is generally applicable to the discovery of peptides characteristic of various disease states.
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  • 79
    Publication Date: 2017-02-07
    Description: Fibroblasts are a main player in the tumor-inhibitory microenvironment. Upon tumor initiation and progression, fibroblasts can lose their tumor-inhibitory capacity and promote tumor growth. The molecular mechanisms that underlie this switch have not been defined completely. Previously, we identified four proteins overexpressed in cancer-associated fibroblasts and linked to Rho GTPase signaling. Here, we show that knocking out the Ras homolog family member A (RhoA) gene in normal fibroblasts decreased their tumor-inhibitory capacity, as judged by neighbor suppression in vitro and accompanied by promotion of tumor growth in vivo. This also induced PC3 cancer cell motility and increased colony size in 2D cultures. RhoA knockout in fibroblasts induced vimentin intermediate filament reorganization, accompanied by reduced contractile force and increased stiffness of cells. There was also loss of wide F-actin stress fibers and large focal adhesions. In addition, we observed a significant loss of α-smooth muscle actin, which indicates a difference between RhoA knockout fibroblasts and classic cancer-associated fibroblasts. In 3D collagen matrix, RhoA knockout reduced fibroblast branching and meshwork formation and resulted in more compactly clustered tumor-cell colonies in coculture with PC3 cells, which might boost tumor stem-like properties. Coculturing RhoA knockout fibroblasts and PC3 cells induced expression of proinflammatory genes in both. Inflammatory mediators may induce tumor cell stemness. Network enrichment analysis of transcriptomic changes, however, revealed that the Rho signaling pathway per se was significantly triggered only after coculturing with tumor cells. Taken together, our findings in vivo and in vitro indicate that Rho signaling governs the inhibitory effects by fibroblasts on tumor-cell growth.
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  • 80
    Publication Date: 2017-11-27
    Description: During the Mid-Pleistocene Transition (MPT; 1,200–800 kya), Earth’s orbitally paced ice age cycles intensified, lengthened from ∼40,000 (∼40 ky) to ∼100 ky, and became distinctly asymmetrical. Testing hypotheses that implicate changing atmospheric CO2 levels as a driver of the MPT has proven difficult with available observations. Here, we use orbitally resolved, boron isotope CO2 data to show that the glacial to interglacial CO2 difference increased from ∼43 to ∼75 μatm across the MPT, mainly because of lower glacial CO2 levels. Through carbon cycle modeling, we attribute this decline primarily to the initiation of substantive dust-borne iron fertilization of the Southern Ocean during peak glacial stages. We also observe a twofold steepening of the relationship between sea level and CO2-related climate forcing that is suggestive of a change in the dynamics that govern ice sheet stability, such as that expected from the removal of subglacial regolith or interhemispheric ice sheet phase-locking. We argue that neither ice sheet dynamics nor CO2 change in isolation can explain the MPT. Instead, we infer that the MPT was initiated by a change in ice sheet dynamics and that longer and deeper post-MPT ice ages were sustained by carbon cycle feedbacks related to dust fertilization of the Southern Ocean as a consequence of larger ice sheets.
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  • 81
    Publication Date: 2017-01-17
    Description: With-no-lysine kinase 4 (WNK4) regulates electrolyte homeostasis and blood pressure. WNK4 phosphorylates the kinases SPAK (Ste20-related proline alanine-rich kinase) and OSR1 (oxidative stress responsive kinase), which then phosphorylate and activate the renal Na-Cl cotransporter (NCC). WNK4 levels are regulated by binding to Kelch-like 3, targeting WNK4 for ubiquitylation and degradation. Phosphorylation of Kelch-like 3 by PKC or PKA downstream of AngII or vasopressin signaling, respectively, abrogates binding. We tested whether these pathways also affect WNK4 phosphorylation and activity. By tandem mass spectrometry and use of phosphosite-specific antibodies, we identified five WNK4 sites (S47, S64, S1169, S1180, S1196) that are phosphorylated downstream of AngII signaling in cultured cells and in vitro by PKC and PKA. Phosphorylation at S64 and S1196 promoted phosphorylation of the WNK4 kinase T-loop at S332, which is required for kinase activation, and increased phosphorylation of SPAK. Volume depletion induced phosphorylation of these sites in vivo, predominantly in the distal convoluted tubule. Thus, AngII, in addition to increasing WNK4 levels, also modulates WNK4 kinase activity via phosphorylation of sites outside the kinase domain.
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  • 82
    Publication Date: 2017-01-17
    Description: Arthropods transmit diverse infectious agents; however, the ways microbes influence their vector to enhance colonization are poorly understood.Ixodes scapularisticks harbor numerous human pathogens, includingAnaplasma phagocytophilum,the agent of human granulocytic anaplasmosis. We now demonstrate thatA. phagocytophilummodifies theI. scapularismicrobiota to more efficiently infect the tick.A. phagocytophiluminduces ticks to expressIxodes scapularisantifreeze glycoprotein (iafgp), which encodes a protein with several properties, including the ability to alter bacterial biofilm formation. IAFGP thereby perturbs the tick gut microbiota, which influences the integrity of the peritrophic matrix and gut barrier—critical obstacles forAnaplasmacolonization. Mechanistically, IAFGP binds the terminald-alanine residue of the pentapeptide chain of bacterial peptidoglycan, resulting in altered permeability and the capacity of bacteria to form biofilms. These data elucidate the molecular mechanisms by which a human pathogen appropriates an arthropod antibacterial protein to alter the gut microbiota and more effectively colonize the vector.
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  • 83
    Publication Date: 2017-08-07
    Description: Alkylated DNA lesions, induced by both exogenous chemical agents and endogenous metabolites, interfere with the efficiency and accuracy of DNA replication and transcription. However, the molecular mechanisms of DNA alkylation-induced transcriptional stalling and mutagenesis remain unknown. In this study, we systematically investigated how RNA polymerase II (pol II) recognizes and bypasses regioisomeric O2-, N3-, and O4-ethylthymidine (O2-, N3-, and O4-EtdT) lesions. We observed distinct pol II stalling profiles for the three regioisomeric EtdT lesions. Intriguingly, pol II stalling at O2-EtdT and N3-EtdT sites is exacerbated by TFIIS-stimulated proofreading activity. Assessment for the impact of the EtdT lesions on individual fidelity checkpoints provided further mechanistic insights, where the transcriptional lesion bypass routes for the three EtdT lesions are controlled by distinct fidelity checkpoints. The error-free transcriptional lesion bypass route is strongly favored for the minor-groove O2-EtdT lesion. In contrast, a dominant error-prone route stemming from GMP misincorporation was observed for the major-groove O4-EtdT lesion. For the N3-EtdT lesion that disrupts base pairing, multiple transcriptional lesion bypass routes were found. Importantly, the results from the present in vitro transcriptional studies are well correlated with in vivo transcriptional mutagenesis analysis. Finally, we identified a minor-groove–sensing motif from pol II (termed Pro-Gate loop). The Pro-Gate loop faces toward the minor groove of RNA:DNA hybrid and is involved in modulating the translocation of minor-groove alkylated DNA template after nucleotide incorporation opposite the lesion. Taken together, this work provides important mechanistic insights into transcriptional stalling, lesion bypass, and mutagenesis of alkylated DNA lesions.
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  • 84
    Publication Date: 2017-03-14
    Description: Chaperones are protein complexes that help to fold and disaggregate a cell’s proteins. It is not understood how four major chaperone systems of Escherichia coli work together in proteostasis: the recognition, sorting, folding, and disaggregating of the cell’s many different proteins. Here, we model this machine. We combine extensive data on chaperoning, folding, and aggregation rates with expression levels of proteins and chaperones measured at different growth rates. We find that the proteostasis machine recognizes and sorts a client protein based on two biophysical properties of the client’s misfolded state (M state): its stability and its kinetic accessibility from its unfolded state (U state). The machine is energy-efficient (the sickest proteins use the most ATP-expensive chaperones), comprehensive (it can handle any type of protein), and economical (the chaperone concentrations are just high enough to keep the whole proteome folded and disaggregated but no higher). The cell needs higher chaperone levels in two situations: fast growth (when protein production rates are high) and very slow growth (to mitigate the effects of protein degradation). This type of model complements experimental knowledge by showing how the various chaperones work together to achieve the broad folding and disaggregation needs of the cell.
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  • 85
    Publication Date: 2017-07-31
    Description: Adenylate cyclase toxin (ACT or CyaA) plays a crucial role in respiratory tract colonization and virulence of the whooping cough causative bacterium Bordetella pertussis. Secreted as soluble protein, it targets myeloid cells expressing the CD11b/CD18 integrin and on delivery of its N-terminal adenylate cyclase catalytic domain (AC domain) into the cytosol, generates uncontrolled toxic levels of cAMP that ablates bactericidal capacities of phagocytes. Our study deciphers the fundamentals of the heretofore poorly understood molecular mechanism by which the ACT enzyme domain directly crosses the host cell membrane. By combining molecular biology, biochemistry, and biophysics techniques, we discover that ACT has intrinsic phospholipase A (PLA) activity, and that such activity determines AC translocation. Moreover, we show that elimination of the ACT–PLA activity abrogates ACT toxicity in macrophages, particularly at toxin concentrations close to biological reality of bacterial infection. Our data support a molecular mechanism in which in situ generation of nonlamellar lysophospholipids by ACT–PLA activity into the cell membrane would form, likely in combination with membrane-interacting ACT segments, a proteolipidic toroidal pore through which AC domain transfer could directly take place. Regulation of ACT–PLA activity thus emerges as novel target for therapeutic control of the disease.
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  • 86
    Publication Date: 2017-10-09
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  • 87
    Publication Date: 2017-04-24
    Description: Local translation in neuronal processes is key to the alteration of synaptic strength necessary for long-term potentiation, learning, and memory. Here, we present evidence that regulated de novo protein synthesis occurs within distal, perisynaptic astrocyte processes. Astrocyte ribosomal proteins are found adjacent to synapses in vivo, and immunofluorescent detection of peptide elongation in acute slices demonstrates robust translation in distal processes. We have also developed a biochemical approach to define candidate transcripts that are locally translated in astrocyte processes. Computational analyses indicate that astrocyte-localized translation is both sequence-dependent and enriched for particular biological functions, such as fatty acid synthesis, and for pathways consistent with known roles for astrocyte processes, such as GABA and glutamate metabolism. These transcripts also include glial regulators of synaptic refinement, such as Sparc. Finally, the transcripts contain a disproportionate amount of a binding motif for the quaking RNA binding protein, a sequence we show can significantly regulate mRNA localization and translation in the astrocytes. Overall, our observations raise the possibility that local production of astrocyte proteins may support microscale alterations of adjacent synapses.
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  • 88
    Publication Date: 2017-09-25
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  • 89
    Publication Date: 2017-11-27
    Description: Nacre, the iridescent material of the shells of pearl oysters and abalone, consists mostly of aragonite (a form of CaCO3), a brittle constituent of relatively low strength (≈10 MPa). Yet it has astonishing mean tensile strength (≈150 MPa) and fracture energy (≈350 to 1,240 J/m2). The reasons have recently become well understood: (i) the nanoscale thickness (≈300 nm) of nacre’s building blocks, the aragonite lamellae (or platelets), and (ii) the imbricated, or staggered, arrangement of these lamellea, bound by biopolymer layers only ≈25 nm thick, occupying 108 tests of specimens would be needed. Here we outline a statistical model of strength that resembles a fishnet pulled diagonally, captures the tail of pdf of strength and, importantly, allows analytical safety assessments of nacreous materials. The analysis shows that, in terms of safety, the imbricated lamellar structure provides a major additional advantage—∼10% strength increase at tail failure probability 10−6 and a 1 to 2 orders of magnitude tail probability decrease at fixed stress. Another advantage is that a high scatter of microstructure properties diminishes the strength difference between the mean and the probability tail, compared with the weakest link model. These advantages of nacre-like materials are here justified analytically and supported by millions of Monte Carlo simulations.
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  • 90
    Publication Date: 2017-06-05
    Description: Enzymes that can catalyze the macrocyclization of linear peptide substrates have long been sought for the production of libraries of structurally diverse scaffolds via combinatorial gene assembly as well as to afford rapid in vivo screening methods. Orbitides are plant ribosomally synthesized and posttranslationally modified peptides (RiPPs) of various sizes and topologies, several of which are shown to be biologically active. The diversity in size and sequence of orbitides suggests that the corresponding macrocyclases may be ideal catalysts for production of cyclic peptides. Here we present the biochemical characterization and crystal structures of the plant enzyme PCY1 involved in orbitide macrocyclization. These studies demonstrate how the PCY1 S9A protease fold has been adapted for transamidation, rather than hydrolysis, of acyl-enzyme intermediates to yield cyclic products. Notably, PCY1 uses an unusual strategy in which the cleaved C-terminal follower peptide from the substrate stabilizes the enzyme in a productive conformation to facilitate macrocyclization of the N-terminal fragment. The broad substrate tolerance of PCY1 can be exploited as a biotechnological tool to generate structurally diverse arrays of macrocycles, including those with nonproteinogenic elements.
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  • 91
    Publication Date: 2017-11-06
    Description: Shear-printing is a promising processing technique in organic electronics for microstructure/charge transport modification and large-area film fabrication. Nevertheless, the mechanism by which shear-printing can enhance charge transport is not well-understood. In this study, a printing method using natural brushes is adopted as an informative tool to realize direct aggregation control of conjugated polymers and to investigate the interplay between printing parameters, macromolecule backbone alignment and aggregation, and charge transport anisotropy in a conjugated polymer series differing in architecture and electronic structure. This series includes (i) semicrystalline hole-transporting P3HT, (ii) semicrystalline electron-transporting N2200, (iii) low-crystallinity hole-transporting PBDTT-FTTE, and (iv) low-crystallinity conducting PEDOT:PSS. The (semi-)conducting films are characterized by a battery of morphology and microstructure analysis techniques and by charge transport measurements. We report that remarkably enhanced mobilities/conductivities, as high as 5.7×/3.9×, are achieved by controlled growth of nanofibril aggregates and by backbone alignment, with the adjusted R2 (R2adj) correlation between aggregation and charge transport as high as 95%. However, while shear-induced aggregation is important for enhancing charge transport, backbone alignment alone does not guarantee charge transport anisotropy. The correlations between efficient charge transport and aggregation are clearly shown, while mobility and degree of orientation are not always well-correlated. These observations provide insights into macroscopic charge transport mechanisms in conjugated polymers and suggest guidelines for optimization.
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  • 92
    Publication Date: 2017-04-10
    Description: Imidazole glycerol phosphate synthase (IGPS) is a V-type allosteric enzyme, meaning that its catalytic rate is critically dependent on activation by its allosteric ligand, N′-[(5′-phosphoribulosyl)formimino]-5-aminoimidazole-4-carboxamide ribonucleotide (PRFAR). The allosteric mechanism of IGPS is reliant on millisecond conformational motions for efficient catalysis. We engineered four mutants of IGPS designed to disrupt millisecond motions and allosteric coupling to identify regions that are critical to IGPS function. Multiple-quantum Carr–Purcell–Meiboom–Gill (CPMG) relaxation dispersion experiments and NMR chemical shift titrations reveal diminished enzyme flexibility and a reshaping of the allosteric connectivity in each mutant construct, respectively. The functional relevance of the observed motional quenching is confirmed by significant reductions in glutaminase kinetic activity and allosteric ligand binding affinity. This work presents relevant conclusions toward the control of protein allostery and design of unique allosteric sites for potential enzyme inhibitors with regulatory or therapeutic benefit.
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  • 93
    Publication Date: 2017-01-17
    Description: It has been proposed that an “oxygen overshoot” occurred during the early Paleoproterozoic Great Oxidation Event (GOE) in association with the extreme positive carbon isotopic excursion known as the Lomagundi Event. Moreover, it has also been suggested that environmental oxygen levels then crashed to very low levels during the subsequent extremely negative Shunga–Francevillian carbon isotopic anomaly. These redox fluctuations could have profoundly influenced the course of eukaryotic evolution, as eukaryotes have several metabolic processes that are obligately aerobic. Here we investigate the magnitude of these proposed oxygen perturbations using selenium (Se) geochemistry, which is sensitive to redox transitions across suboxic conditions. We find that δ82/78Se values in offshore shales show a positive excursion from 2.32 Ga until 2.1 Ga (mean +1.03 ± 0.67‰). Selenium abundances and Se/TOC (total organic carbon) ratios similarly show a peak during this interval. Together these data suggest that during the GOE there was pervasive suboxia in near-shore environments, allowing nonquantitative Se reduction to drive the residual Se oxyanions isotopically heavy. This implies O2levels of 〉0.4 μM in these settings. Unlike in the late Neoproterozoic and Phanerozoic, when negative δ82/78Se values are observed in offshore environments, only a single formation, evidently the shallowest, shows evidence of negative δ82/78Se. This suggests that there was no upwelling of Se oxyanions from an oxic deep-ocean reservoir, which is consistent with previous estimates that the deep ocean remained anoxic throughout the GOE. The abrupt decline in δ82/78Se and Se/TOC values during the subsequent Shunga–Francevillian anomaly indicates a widespread decrease in surface oxygenation.
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  • 94
    Publication Date: 2017-01-04
    Description: After endocytosis, transmembrane cargo reaches endosomes, where it encounters complexes dedicated to opposing functions: recycling and degradation. Microdomains containing endosomal sorting complexes required for transport (ESCRT)-0 component Hrs [hepatocyte growth factor-regulated tyrosine kinase substrate (HGRS-1) in Caenorhabditis elegans] mediate cargo degradation, concentrating ubiquitinated cargo and organizing the activities of ESCRT. At the same time, retromer associated sorting nexin one (SNX-1) and its binding partner, J-domain protein RME-8, sort cargo away from degradation, promoting cargo recycling to the Golgi. Thus, we hypothesized that there could be important regulatory interactions between retromer and ESCRT that balance degradative and recycling functions. Taking advantage of the naturally large endosomes of the C. elegans coelomocyte, we visualized complementary ESCRT-0 and RME-8/SNX-1 microdomains in vivo and assayed the ability of retromer and ESCRT microdomains to regulate one another. We found in snx-1(0) and rme-8(ts) mutants increased endosomal coverage and intensity of HGRS-1–labeled microdomains, as well as increased total levels of HGRS-1 bound to membranes. These effects are specific to SNX-1 and RME-8, as loss of other retromer components SNX-3 and vacuolar protein sorting-associated protein 35 (VPS-35) did not affect HGRS-1 microdomains. Additionally, knockdown of hgrs-1 had little to no effect on SNX-1 and RME-8 microdomains, suggesting directionality to the interaction. Separation of the functionally distinct ESCRT-0 and SNX-1/RME-8 microdomains was also compromised in the absence of RME-8 and SNX-1, a phenomenon we observed to be conserved, as depletion of Snx1 and Snx2 in HeLa cells also led to greater overlap of Rme-8 and Hrs on endosomes.
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  • 95
    Publication Date: 2017-12-18
    Description: There is an urgent need for a vaccine to combat the hepatitis C virus (HCV) pandemic, and induction of broadly neutralizing monoclonal antibodies (bNAbs) against HCV is a major goal of vaccine development. Even within HCV genotype 1, no single bNAb effectively neutralizes all viral strains, so induction of multiple neutralizing monoclonal antibodies (NAbs) targeting distinct epitopes may be necessary for protective immunity. Therefore, identification of optimal NAb combinations and characterization of NAb interactions can guide vaccine development. We analyzed neutralization profiles of 12 human NAbs across diverse HCV strains, assigning the NAbs to two functionally distinct clusters. We then measured neutralizing breadth of 35 NAb combinations against genotype 1 isolates, with each combination including one NAb from each neutralization cluster. Many NAbs displayed complementary neutralizing breadth, forming combinations with greater neutralization across diverse strains than any individual bNAb. Remarkably, one of the most broadly neutralizing combinations of two NAbs, designated HEPC74/HEPC98, also displayed enhanced potency, with interactions matching the Bliss independence model, suggesting that these NAbs inhibit HCV infection through independent mechanisms. Subsequent experiments showed that HEPC74 primarily blocks HCV envelope protein binding to CD81, while HEPC98 primarily blocks binding to scavenger receptor B1 and heparan sulfate. Together, these data identify a critical vulnerability resulting from the reliance of HCV on multiple cell surface receptors, suggesting that vaccine induction of multiple NAbs with distinct neutralization profiles is likely to enhance the breadth and potency of the humoral immune response against HCV.
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  • 96
    Publication Date: 2017-02-13
    Description: Thyroid cancer development is driven by known point mutations or gene fusions found in ∼90% of cases, whereas driver mutations in the remaining tumors are unknown. The insulin-like growth factor 2 mRNA-binding protein 3 (IGF2BP3) plays an important role in cancer, yet the mechanisms of its activation in cancer cells remain poorly understood. Using whole-transcriptome and whole-genome analyses, we identified a recurrent fusion between the thyroid adenoma-associated (THADA) gene on chromosome 2 and the LOC389473 gene on chromosome 7 located 12 kb upstream of the IGF2BP3 gene. We show that THADA fusion to LOC389473 and other regions in the vicinity does not result in the formation of a chimeric protein but instead leads to strong overexpression of the full-length IGF2BP3 mRNA and protein, increased IGF2 translation and IGF1 receptor (IGF1R) signaling via PI3K and MAPK cascades, and promotion of cell proliferation, invasion, and transformation. THADA fusions and IGF2BP3 overexpression are found in ∼5% of thyroid cancers that lack any other driver mutations. We also find that strong IGF2BP3 overexpression via gene fusion, amplification, or other mechanisms occurs in 5 to 15% of several other cancer types. Finally, we provide in vitro and in vivo evidence that growth of IGF2BP3-driven cells and tumors may be blocked by IGF1R inhibition, raising the possibility that IGF2BP3 overexpression in cancer cells may predict an anti-IGF1R benefit.
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  • 97
    Publication Date: 2017-04-03
    Description: “Too much of a good thing” perfectly describes the dilemma that living organisms face with metals. The tight control of metal homeostasis in cells depends on the trafficking of metal transporters between membranes of different compartments. However, the mechanisms regulating the location of transport proteins are still largely unknown. Developing Arabidopsis thaliana seedlings require the natural resistance-associated macrophage proteins (NRAMP3 and NRAMP4) transporters to remobilize iron from seed vacuolar stores and thereby acquire photosynthetic competence. Here, we report that mutations in the pleckstrin homology (PH) domain-containing protein AtPH1 rescue the iron-deficient phenotype of nramp3nramp4. Our results indicate that AtPH1 binds phosphatidylinositol 3-phosphate (PI3P) in vivo and acts in the late endosome compartment. We further show that loss of AtPH1 function leads to the mislocalization of the metal uptake transporter NRAMP1 to the vacuole, providing a rationale for the reversion of nramp3nramp4 phenotypes. This work identifies a PH domain protein as a regulator of plant metal transporter localization, providing evidence that PH domain proteins may be effectors of PI3P for protein sorting.
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  • 98
    Publication Date: 2017-08-01
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  • 99
    Publication Date: 2017-12-04
    Description: The success of European plant species as aliens worldwide is thought to reflect their association with human-disturbed environments. However, an explicit test including all human-made, seminatural and natural habitat types of Europe, and their contributions as donor habitats of naturalized species to the rest of the globe, has been missing. Here we combine two databases, the European Vegetation Checklist and the Global Naturalized Alien Flora, to assess how human influence in European habitats affects the probability of naturalization of their plant species on other continents. A total of 9,875 native European vascular plant species were assigned to 39 European habitat types; of these, 2,550 species have become naturalized somewhere in the world. Species that occur in both human-made habitats and seminatural or natural habitats in Europe have the highest probability of naturalization (64.7% and 64.5% of them have naturalized). Species associated only with human-made or seminatural habitats still have a significantly higher probability of becoming naturalized (41.7% and 28.6%, respectively) than species confined to natural habitats (19.4%). Species associated with arable land and human settlements were recorded as naturalized in the largest number of regions worldwide. Our findings highlight that plant species’ association with native-range habitats disturbed by human activities, combined with broad habitat range, play an important role in shaping global patterns of plant invasions.
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  • 100
    Publication Date: 2017-12-19
    Description: Phenotypic plasticity is an evolvable property of biological systems that can arise from environment-specific regulation of gene expression. To better understand the evolutionary and molecular mechanisms that give rise to plasticity in gene expression, we quantified the effects of 235 single-nucleotide mutations in theSaccharomyces cerevisiae TDH3promoter (PTDH3) on the activity of this promoter in media containing glucose, galactose, or glycerol as a carbon source. We found that the distributions of mutational effects differed among environments because many mutations altered the plastic response exhibited by the wild-type allele. Comparing the effects of these mutations with the effects of 30PTDH3polymorphisms on expression plasticity in the same environments provided evidence of natural selection acting to prevent the plastic response inPTDH3activity between glucose and galactose from becoming larger. The largest changes in expression plasticity were observed between fermentable (glucose or galactose) and nonfermentable (glycerol) carbon sources and were caused by mutations located in the RAP1 and GCR1 transcription factor binding sites. Mutations altered expression plasticity most frequently between the two fermentable environments, with mutations causing significant changes in plasticity between glucose and galactose distributed throughout the promoter, suggesting they might affect chromatin structure. Taken together, these results provide insight into the molecular mechanisms underlying gene-by-environment interactions affecting gene expression as well as the evolutionary dynamics affecting natural variation in plasticity of gene expression.
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