TY - JOUR A1 - Weisse, Thomas A1 - Moser, Michael A1 - Scheffel, Ulrike A1 - Stadler, Peter A1 - Berendonk, Thomas U. A1 - Weithoff, Guntram A1 - Berger, Helmut T1 - Systematics and species-specific response to pH of Oxytricha acidotolerans sp nov and Urosomoida sp (Ciliophora, Hypotricha) from acid mining lakes JF - European journal of protistology N2 - We investigated the morphology, phylogeny of the 18S rDNA, and pH response of Oxytricha acidotolerans sp. nov. and Urosomoida sp. (Ciliophora, Hypotricha) isolated from two chemically similar acid mining lakes (pH similar to 2.6) located at Langau, Austria, and in Lusatia, Germany. Oxytricha acidotolerans sp. nov. from Langau has 18 frontal-ventral-transverse cirri but a very indistinct kinety 3 fragmentation so that the assignment to Oxytricha is uncertain. The somewhat smaller species from Lusatia has a highly variable cirral pattern and the dorsal kineties arranged in the Urosomoida pattern and is, therefore, preliminary designated as Urosomoida sp. The pH response was measured as ciliate growth rates in laboratory experiments at pH ranging from 2.5 to 7.0. Our hypothesis was that the shape of the pH reaction norm would not differ between these closely related (3% difference in their SSU rDNA) species. Results revealed a broad pH niche for O. acidotolerans, with growth rates peaking at moderately acidic conditions (pH 5.2). Cyst formation was positively and linearly related to pH. Urosomoida sp. was more sensitive to pH and did not survive at circumneutral pH. Accordingly, we reject our hypothesis that similar habitats would harbour ciliate species with virtually identical pH reaction norm. KW - Acid mining lakes KW - Growth rates KW - pH response KW - Oxytricha KW - SSU rDNA KW - Urosomoida Y1 - 2013 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejop.2012.08.001 SN - 0932-4739 VL - 49 IS - 2 SP - 255 EP - 271 PB - Elsevier CY - Jena ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Weisse, Thomas A1 - Laufenstein, Nicole A1 - Weithoff, Guntram T1 - Multiple environmental stressors confine the ecological niche of the rotifer Cephalodella acidophila JF - Freshwater biology N2 - 1The planktonic food web in extremely acidic mining lakes is restricted to a few species that are either acidophilic or acidotolerant. Common metazoans inhabiting acidic mining lakes with a pH below 3 include rotifers in the genera Cephalodella and Elosa. 2The life history response of Cephalodella acidophila to three environmental key factors, pH (2, 3.5, 5.0 and 7.0), temperature (10, 17.5 and 25 degrees C) and food concentration (10000, 35000 and 50000algal cells per mL), was investigated in a full factorial design using life-table experiments. 3The effect of each of the three environmental variables investigated on the rotifer life cycle parameters (life span, fecundity and population growth rate) differed. C.acidophila is a stenoecious species with a pH optimum in the range 34 and a comparably high food threshold. Combining the laboratory results with field data, we conclude that C.acidophila is severely growth limited in its natural habitat. However, low pH alone is not harmful as long as temperatures are moderate to warm and food is abundant. 4The population of C.acidophila in the field is maintained mainly due to release from competitors and predators. KW - acid lakes KW - Cephalodella acidophila KW - life-table experiments KW - pH KW - rotifers Y1 - 2013 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1111/fwb.12104 SN - 0046-5070 VL - 58 IS - 5 SP - 1008 EP - 1015 PB - Wiley-Blackwell CY - Hoboken ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Watanabe, Mutsumi A1 - Balazadeh, Salma A1 - Tohge, Takayuki A1 - Erban, Alexander A1 - Giavalisco, Patrick A1 - Kopka, Joachim A1 - Müller-Röber, Bernd A1 - Fernie, Alisdair A1 - Höfgen, Rainer T1 - Comprehensive dissection of spatiotemporal metabolic shifts in primary, secondary, and lipid metabolism during developmental senescence in arabidopsis JF - Plant physiology : an international journal devoted to physiology, biochemistry, cellular and molecular biology, biophysics and environmental biology of plants N2 - Developmental senescence is a coordinated physiological process in plants and is critical for nutrient redistribution from senescing leaves to newly formed sink organs, including young leaves and developing seeds. Progress has been made concerning the genes involved and the regulatory networks controlling senescence. The resulting complex metabolome changes during senescence have not been investigated in detail yet. Therefore, we conducted a comprehensive profiling of metabolites, including pigments, lipids, sugars, amino acids, organic acids, nutrient ions, and secondary metabolites, and determined approximately 260 metabolites at distinct stages in leaves and siliques during senescence in Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana). This provided an extensive catalog of metabolites and their spatiotemporal cobehavior with progressing senescence. Comparison with silique data provides clues to source-sink relations. Furthermore, we analyzed the metabolite distribution within single leaves along the basipetal sink-source transition trajectory during senescence. Ceramides, lysolipids, aromatic amino acids, branched chain amino acids, and stress-induced amino acids accumulated, and an imbalance of asparagine/aspartate, glutamate/glutamine, and nutrient ions in the tip region of leaves was detected. Furthermore, the spatiotemporal distribution of tricarboxylic acid cycle intermediates was already changed in the presenescent leaves, and glucosinolates, raffinose, and galactinol accumulated in the base region of leaves with preceding senescence. These results are discussed in the context of current models of the metabolic shifts occurring during developmental and environmentally induced senescence. As senescence processes are correlated to crop yield, the metabolome data and the approach provided here can serve as a blueprint for the analysis of traits and conditions linking crop yield and senescence. Y1 - 2013 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1104/pp.113.217380 SN - 0032-0889 VL - 162 IS - 3 SP - 1290 EP - 1310 PB - American Society of Plant Physiologists CY - Rockville ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Wasof, Safaa A1 - Lenoir, Jonathan A1 - Gallet-Moron, Emilie A1 - Jamoneau, Aurelien A1 - Brunet, Jörg A1 - Cousins, Sara A. O. A1 - De Frenne, Pieter A1 - Diekmann, Martin A1 - Hermy, Martin A1 - Kolb, Annette A1 - Liira, Jaan A1 - Verheyen, Kris A1 - Wulf, Monika A1 - Decocq, Guillaume T1 - Ecological niche shifts of understorey plants along a latitudinal gradient of temperate forests in north-western Europe JF - Global ecology and biogeography : a journal of macroecology N2 - Aim In response to environmental changes and to avoid extinction, species may either track suitable environmental conditions or adapt to the modified environment. However, whether and how species adapt to environmental changes remains unclear. By focusing on the realized niche (i.e. the actual space that a species inhabits and the resources it can access as a result of limiting biotic factors present in its habitat), we here examine shifts in the realized-niche width (i.e. ecological amplitude) and position (i.e. ecological optimum) of 26 common and widespread forest understorey plants across their distributional ranges. Location Temperate forests along a ca. 1800-km-long latitudinal gradient from northern France to central Sweden and Estonia. Methods We derived species' realized-niche width from a -diversity metric, which increases if the focal species co-occurs with more species. Based on the concept that species' scores in a detrended correspondence analysis (DCA) represent the locations of their realized-niche positions, we developed a novel approach to run species-specific DCAs allowing the focal species to shift its realized-niche position along the studied latitudinal gradient while the realized-niche positions of other species were held constant. Results None of the 26 species maintained both their realized-niche width and position along the latitudinal gradient. Few species (9 of 26: 35%) shifted their realized-niche width, but all shifted their realized-niche position. With increasing latitude, most species (22 of 26: 85%) shifted their realized-niche position for soil nutrients and pH towards nutrient-poorer and more acidic soils. Main conclusions Forest understorey plants shifted their realized niche along the latitudinal gradient, suggesting local adaptation and/or plasticity. This macroecological pattern casts doubt on the idea that the realized niche is stable in space and time, which is a key assumption of species distribution models used to predict the future of biodiversity, hence raising concern about predicted extinction rates. KW - Beta diversity KW - climate change KW - detrended correspondence analyses KW - Ellenberg indicator values KW - forest understorey plant species KW - niche optimum KW - niche width KW - plant community KW - realized niche Y1 - 2013 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1111/geb.12073 SN - 1466-822X VL - 22 IS - 10 SP - 1130 EP - 1140 PB - Wiley-Blackwell CY - Hoboken ER - TY - THES A1 - Wang, Ting T1 - A novel R2R3 MYB-like transcription factor regulates ABA mediated stress response and leaf growth in Arabidopsis Y1 - 2013 CY - Potsdam ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Wang, Jing A1 - Fritzsch, Claire A1 - Bernarding, Johannes A1 - Krause, Thomas A1 - Mauritz, Karl-Heinz A1 - Brunetti, Maddalena A1 - Dohle, Christian T1 - Cerebral activation evoked by the mirror illusion of the hand in stroke patients compared to normal subjects JF - Neurorehabilitation : an interdisciplinary journal N2 - BACKGROUND: Mirror therapy (MT) was found to improve motor function after stroke, but its neural mechanisms remain unclear, especially in single stroke patients. OBJECTIVES: The following imaging study was designed to compare brain activation patterns evoked by the mirror illusion in single stroke patients with normal subjects. METHODS: Fifteen normal volunteers and five stroke patients with severe arm paresis were recruited. Cerebral activations during movement mirroring by means of a video chain were recorded with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Single-subject analysis was performed using SPM 8. RESULTS: For normal subjects, ten and thirteen subjects displayed lateralized cerebral activations evoked by the mirror illusion while moving their right and left hand respectively. The magnitude of this effect in the precuneus contralateral to the seen hand was not dependent on movement speed or subjective experience. Negative correlation of activation strength with age was found for the right hand only. The activation pattern in stroke patients is comparable to that of normal subjects and present in four out of five patients. CONCLUSIONS: In summary, the mirror illusion can elicit cerebral activation contralateral to the perceived hand in the majority of single normal subjects, but not in all of them. This is similar even in stroke patients with severe hemiparesis. KW - Movement KW - mirror illusion KW - imaging KW - mirror therapy KW - stroke Y1 - 2013 U6 - https://doi.org/10.3233/NRE-130999 SN - 1053-8135 SN - 1878-6448 VL - 33 IS - 4 SP - 593 EP - 603 PB - IOS Press CY - Amsterdam ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Wagner, Nicole D. A1 - Hillebrand, Helmut A1 - Wacker, Alexander A1 - Frost, Paul C. T1 - Nutritional indicators and their uses in ecology JF - Ecology letters N2 - The nutrition of animal consumers is an important regulator of ecological processes due to its effects on their physiology, life-history and behaviour. Understanding the ecological effects of poor nutrition depends on correctly diagnosing the nature and strength of nutritional limitation. Despite the need to assess nutritional limitation, current approaches to delineating nutritional constraints can be non-specific and imprecise. Here, we consider the need and potential to develop new complementary approaches to the study of nutritional constraints on animal consumers by studying and using a suite of established and emerging biochemical and molecular responses. These nutritional indicators include gene expression, transcript regulators, protein profiling and activity, and gross biochemical and elemental composition. The potential applications of nutritional indicators to ecological studies are highlighted to demonstrate the value that this approach would have to future studies in community and ecosystem ecology. KW - Ecological stoichiometry KW - lipid profiling KW - metabolism KW - nutrient-stress KW - nutrition KW - proteomics KW - transcriptomics Y1 - 2013 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1111/ele.12067 SN - 1461-023X VL - 16 IS - 4 SP - 535 EP - 544 PB - Wiley-Blackwell CY - Hoboken ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Voss, Björn A1 - Bolhuis, Henk A1 - Fewer, David P. A1 - Kopf, Matthias A1 - Möke, Fred A1 - Haas, Fabian A1 - El-Shehawy, Rehab A1 - Hayes, Paul A1 - Bergman, Birgitta A1 - Sivonen, Kaarina A1 - Dittmann-Thünemann, Elke A1 - Scanlan, Dave J. A1 - Hagemann, Martin A1 - Stal, Lucas J. A1 - Hess, Wolfgang R. T1 - Insights into the physiology and ecology of the brackish-water-adapted cyanobacterium nodularia spumigena CCY9414 based on a genome-transcriptome analysis JF - PLoS one N2 - Nodularia spumigena is a filamentous diazotrophic cyanobacterium that dominates the annual late summer cyanobacterial blooms in the Baltic Sea. But N. spumigena also is common in brackish water bodies worldwide, suggesting special adaptation allowing it to thrive at moderate salinities. A draft genome analysis of N. spumigena sp. CCY9414 yielded a single scaffold of 5,462,271 nucleotides in length on which genes for 5,294 proteins were annotated. A subsequent strand-specific transcriptome analysis identified more than 6,000 putative transcriptional start sites (TSS). Orphan TSSs located in intergenic regions led us to predict 764 non-coding RNAs, among them 70 copies of a possible retrotransposon and several potential RNA regulators, some of which are also present in other N2-fixing cyanobacteria. Approximately 4% of the total coding capacity is devoted to the production of secondary metabolites, among them the potent hepatotoxin nodularin, the linear spumigin and the cyclic nodulapeptin. The transcriptional complexity associated with genes involved in nitrogen fixation and heterocyst differentiation is considerably smaller compared to other Nostocales. In contrast, sophisticated systems exist for the uptake and assimilation of iron and phosphorus compounds, for the synthesis of compatible solutes, and for the formation of gas vesicles, required for the active control of buoyancy. Hence, the annotation and interpretation of this sequence provides a vast array of clues into the genomic underpinnings of the physiology of this cyanobacterium and indicates in particular a competitive edge of N. spumigena in nutrient-limited brackish water ecosystems. Y1 - 2013 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0060224 SN - 1932-6203 VL - 8 IS - 3 PB - PLoS CY - San Fransisco ER - TY - JOUR A1 - von der Lippe, Moritz A1 - Bullock, James M. A1 - Kowarik, Ingo A1 - Knopp, Tatjana A1 - Wichmann, Matthias T1 - Human-mediated dispersal of seeds by the airflow of vehicles JF - PLoS one N2 - Human-mediated dispersal is known as an important driver of long-distance dispersal for plants but underlying mechanisms have rarely been assessed. Road corridors function as routes of secondary dispersal for many plant species but the extent to which vehicles support this process remains unclear. In this paper we quantify dispersal distances and seed deposition of plant species moved over the ground by the slipstream of passing cars. We exposed marked seeds of four species on a section of road and drove a car along the road at a speed of 48 km/h. By tracking seeds we quantified movement parallel as well as lateral to the road, resulting dispersal kernels, and the effect of repeated vehicle passes. Median distances travelled by seeds along the road were about eight meters for species with wind dispersal morphologies and one meter for species without such adaptations. Airflow created by the car lifted seeds and resulted in longitudinal dispersal. Single seeds reached our maximum measuring distance of 45 m and for some species exceeded distances under primary dispersal. Mathematical models were fit to dispersal kernels. The incremental effect of passing vehicles on longitudinal dispersal decreased with increasing number of passes as seeds accumulated at road verges. We conclude that dispersal by vehicle airflow facilitates seed movement along roads and accumulation of seeds in roadside habitats. Dispersal by vehicle airflow can aid the spread of plant species and thus has wide implications for roadside ecology, invasion biology and nature conservation. Y1 - 2013 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0052733 SN - 1932-6203 VL - 8 IS - 1 PB - PLoS CY - San Fransisco ER - TY - THES A1 - Verhounig, Andreas T1 - Riboswitche für die konditionale Genexpression in Bakterien und Plastiden Y1 - 2013 CY - Potsdam ER -