@phdthesis{Schulte2022,
  author    = {Schulte, Luise},
  title     = {Dynamics of Larix (Mill.) species in Siberia during the last 50,000 years inferred from sedimentary ancient DNA},
  doi       = {10.25932/publishup-55878},
  url       = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-558782},
  school      = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam},
  pages     = {xi, 121},
  year      = {2022},
  abstract  = {The deciduous needle tree larch (Larix Mill.) covers more than 80\% of the Asian boreal forests. Only a few Larix species constitute the vast forests and these species differ markedly in their ecological traits, most importantly in their ability to grow on and stabilize underlying permafrost. The pronounced dominance of the summergreen larches makes the Asian boreal forests unique, as the rest of the northern hemisphere boreal forests is almost exclusively dominated by evergreen needle-leaf forests. Global warming is impacting the whole world but is especially pronounced in the arctic and boreal regions. Although adapted to extreme climatic conditions, larch forests are sensitive to varying climatic conditions. By their sheer size, changes in Asian larch forests as range shifts or changes in species composition and the resulting vegetation-climate feedbacks are of global relevance. It is however still uncertain if larch forests will persist under the ongoing warming climate or if they will be replaced by evergreen forests. It is therefore of great importance to understand how these ecosystems will react to future climate warmings and if they will maintain their dominance. One step in the better understanding of larch dynamics is to study how the vast dominant forests developed and why they only established in northern Asia. A second step is to study how the species reacted to past changes in the climate. The first objective of this thesis was to review and identify factors promoting Asian larch dominance. I achieved this by synthesizing and comparing reported larch occurrences and influencing components on the northern hemisphere continents in the present and in the past. The second objective was to find a possibility to directly study past Larix populations in Siberia and specifically their genetic variation, enabling the study of geographic movements. For this, I established chloroplast enrichment by hybridization capture from sedimentary ancient DNA (sedaDNA) isolated from lake sediment records. The third objective was to use the established method to track past larch populations, their glacial refugia during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) around 21,000 years before present (ka BP), and their post-glacial migration patterns. To study larch promoting factors, I compared the present state of larch species ranges, areas of dominance, their bioclimatic niches, and the distribution on different extents and thaw depths of permafrost. The species comparison showed that the bioclimatic niches greatly overlap between the American and Asian species and that it is only in the extremely continental climates in which only the Asian larch species can persist. I revealed that the area of dominance is strongly connected to permafrost extent but less linked to permafrost seasonal thaw depths. Comparisons of the paleorecord of larch between the continents suggest differences in the recolonization history. Outside of northern Asia and Alaska, glacial refugial populations of larch were confined to the southern regions and thus recolonization could only occur as migration from south to north. Alaskan larch populations could not establish wide-range dominant forest which could be related to their own genetically depletion as separated refugial population. In Asia, it is still unclear whether or not the northern refugial populations contributed and enhanced the postglacial colonization or whether they were replaced by populations invading from the south in the course of climate warming. Asian larch dominance is thus promoted partly by adaptions to extremely continental climates and by adaptations to grow on continuous permafrost but could be also connected to differences in glacial survival and recolonization history of Larix species. Except for extremely rare macrofossil findings of fossilized cones, traditional methods to study past vegetation are not able to distinguish between larch species or populations. Within the scope of this thesis, I therefore established a method to retrieve genetic information of past larch populations to distinguish between species. Using the Larix chloroplast genome as target, I successfully applied the method of DNA target enrichment by hybridization capture on sedaDNA samples from lake records and showed that it is able to distinguish between larch species. I then used the method on samples from lake records from across Siberia dating back up to 50 ka BP. The results allowed me to address the question of glacial survival and post-glacial recolonization mode in Siberian larch species. The analyzed pattern showed that LGM refugia were almost exclusively constituted by L. gmelinii, even in sites of current L. sibirica distribution. For included study sites, L. sibirica migrated into its extant northern distribution area only in the Holocene. Consequently, the post-glacial recolonization of L. sibirica was not enhanced by northern glacial refugia. In case of sites in extant distribution area of L. gmelinii, the absence of a genetic turn-over point to a continuous population rather than an invasion of southern refugia. The results suggest that climate has a strong influence on the distribution of Larix species and that species may also respond differently to future climate warming. Because species differ in their ecological characteristics, species distribution is also relevant with respect to further feedbacks between vegetation and climate. With this thesis, I give an overview of present and past larch occurrences and evaluate which factors promote their dominance. Furthermore, I provide the tools to study past Larix species and give first important insights into the glacial history of Larix populations.},
  language  = {en}
}
@phdthesis{Fleischmann2012,
  author    = {Fleischmann, Tobias},
  title     = {Deletion plastid{\"a}rer ribosomaler Proteine in Nicotiana tabacum im Kontext reduktiver Genomevolutionund Entwicklung einer Hochdurchsatzplattform zur Analysevon miRNAs in Chlamydomonas reinhardtii},
  url       = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-60393},
  school      = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam},
  year      = {2012},
  abstract  = {Im Rahmen des ersten Teils der vorliegenden Doktorarbeit konnten zwei nicht-essentielle (rps15, rpl36) und f{\"u}nf essentielle (rps3, rps16, rpl22, rpl23, rpl32) im Plastom von Nicotiana tabacum kodierte Proteine des plastid{\"a}ren Ribosoms bez{\"u}glich ihrer Essentialit{\"a}t charakterisiert werden. Diese Gene wurden durch gezielte Knockout-Experimente inaktiviert und die resultierenden Effekte untersucht. Die Ergebnisse lassen einen R{\"u}ckschluss auf die Lokalisation der Gene der insgesamt sieben untersuchten ribosomalen Proteine zu, die im Plastom mehrerer parasitischer, Plastiden-besitzender Spezies nicht mehr nachweisbar sind. Im Fall von rps15 k{\"o}nnte tats{\"a}chlich ein Verlust des Genes stattgefunden haben, im Fall der restlichen Gene ist eher mit einem Transfer in den Nukleus zu rechnen (rpl36 ausgenommen). Dies w{\"u}rde bedeuten, dass die Geschwindigkeit der erfolgreichen Etablierung eines Gentransfers in vielen parasitischen Spezies gegen{\"u}ber gr{\"u}nen Pflanzen stark erh{\"o}ht ist. Alle in E. coli nicht-essentiellen Proteine mit Homologen in Plastiden (rps15, rpl33, rpl36) sind auch dort, trotz ~1,5 Milliarden Jahren getrennter Evolution, nicht essentiell. Dieses Ergebnis best{\"a}tigt den schon fr{\"u}her festgestellten hohen Konservierungsgrad der bakteriellen und plastid{\"a}ren Translationsmaschinerien. Die Ph{\"a}notypen der KO-Pflanzen der nicht-essentiellen Gene (rps15, rpl36) weisen auf eine interessante Rolle von S15 w{\"a}hrend der Ribosomenassemblierung hin und im Fall von L36 auf eine wichtige funktionelle Rolle im Plastiden-Ribosomen sowie auf eine Involvierung der Plastidentranslation in der Generierung eines retrograden Signals, welches die Blattform zu beeinflussen im Stande ist. Des Weiteren konnte eine Verbindung der Translationsaktivit{\"a}t mit der Ausbildung von Seitentrieben hergestellt werden, die vermutlich auf ver{\"a}nderte Auxinsynthese im Chloroplast zur{\"u}ckzuf{\"u}hren ist. Aus dem Folgeprojekt, bei dem Doppel-KO-Pflanzen nicht-essentieller ribosomaler Proteine erzeugt wurden, l{\"a}sst sich auf eine relativ große Plastizit{\"a}t der Architektur von Plastidenribosomen schließen. Im zweiten Teil der Arbeit konnte erfolgreich ein Hochdurchsatz-Screeningsystem zur semiquantitativen Analyse von 192 verschiedenen miRNAs aus Chlamydomonas reinhardtii etabliert werden. Es gelang durch die Untersuchung von 23 verschiedenen Wachstums- und Stressbedingungen sowie Entwicklungsstadien mehrere miRNAs zu identifizieren, die eine differenzielle Expression zeigen sowie unter allen untersuchten Bedingungen konstant bleibende miRNAs nachzuweisen. Dadurch konnten mehrere vielversprechende Kandidaten-miRNAs ausgemacht werden, die nun eingehender untersucht werden k{\"o}nnen.},
  language  = {de}
}