TY - JOUR A1 - Adel, Mustafa A1 - Elbehery, Ali H. A. A1 - Aziz, Sherry K. A1 - Aziz, Ramy K. A1 - Grossart, Hans-Peter A1 - Siam, Rania T1 - Viruses-to-mobile genetic elements skew in the deep Atlantis II brine pool sediments JF - Scientific reports N2 - The central rift of the Red Sea has 25 brine pools with different physical and geochemical characteristics. Atlantis II (ATIID), Discovery Deeps (DD) and Chain Deep (CD) are characterized by high salinity, temperature and metal content. Several studies reported microbial communities in these brine pools, but few studies addressed the brine pool sediments. Therefore, sediment cores were collected from ATIID, DD, CD brine pools and an adjacent brine-influenced site. Sixteen different lithologic sediment sections were subjected to shotgun DNA pyrosequencing to generate 1.47 billion base pairs (1.47 x 10(9) bp). We generated sediment-specific reads and attempted to annotate all reads. We report the phylogenetic and biochemical uniqueness of the deepest ATIID sulfur-rich brine pool sediments. In contrary to all other sediment sections, bacteria dominate the deepest ATIID sulfur-rich brine pool sediments. This decrease in virus-to-bacteria ratio in selected sections and depth coincided with an overrepresentation of mobile genetic elements. Skewing in the composition of viruses-to-mobile genetic elements may uniquely contribute to the distinct microbial consortium in sediments in proximity to hydrothermally active vents of the Red Sea and possibly in their surroundings, through differential horizontal gene transfer. Y1 - 2016 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1038/srep32704 SN - 2045-2322 VL - 6 SP - 8882 EP - 8888 PB - Nature Publ. Group CY - London ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Ali, Tahir A1 - Runge, Fabian A1 - Dutbayev, Ayan A1 - Schmuker, Angelika A1 - Solovyeva, Irina A1 - Nigrelli, Lisa A1 - Buch, Ann-Katrin A1 - Xia, Xiaojuan A1 - Ploch, Sebastian A1 - Orren, Ouria A1 - Kummer, Volker A1 - Paule, Juraj A1 - Celik, Ali A1 - Vakhrusheva, Ljudmila A1 - Gabrielyan, Ivan A1 - Thines, Marco T1 - Microthlaspi erraticum (Jord.) T. Ali et Thines has a wide distribution, ranging from the Alps to the Tien Shan JF - Flora : morphology, distribution, functional ecology of plants N2 - Microthlaspi is a predominantly Eurasian genus which also occurs in the northernmost parts of Africa (Maghreb). The most widespread species of the genus is M. perfoliatum, which can be found from Sweden to Algeria and from Portugal to China. The other species are thought to have much more confined distribution ranges, often covering only a few hundred kilometres. This is also believed for the diploid M. erraticum, which was recently re-appraised as a taxon independent from the tetra- to hexaploid M. perfoliatum. Previously, M. erraticum was believed to be present only in Central Europe, from the East of France to Slovenia. In order to gain a deeper understanding of the ecology, evolution and migration history of Microthlaspi it was the focus of the current study to investigate, if M. erraticum is present in habitats outside Central Europe, but with microclimates similar to Central Europe. It is demonstrated that M. erraticum is much more widespread than previously thought, while other lineages apart from M. perfoliatum s.str. and M. erraticum seem to have restricted distribution ranges. The latter species was observed from the Alps and their foreland, the Balkans, the mountainous areas around the Black Sea, Southern Siberia, as well as the Altai and Tien Shan mountains. This demonstrates a widespread occurrence of this easily-overlooked species. (C) 2016 Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved. KW - Biogeography KW - Coluteocarpeae KW - Noccaea KW - Phylogeny KW - Species complex KW - Thlaspi perfoliatum Y1 - 2016 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.flora.2016.09.008 SN - 0367-2530 SN - 1618-0585 VL - 225 SP - 76 EP - 81 PB - American Chemical Society CY - Jena ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Allu, Annapurna Devi A1 - Brotman, Yariv A1 - Xue, Gang-Ping A1 - Balazadeh, Salma T1 - Transcription factor ANAC032 modulates JA/SA signalling in response to Pseudomonas syringae infection JF - EMBO reports N2 - Responses to pathogens, including host transcriptional reprogramming, require partially antagonistic signalling pathways dependent on the phytohormones salicylic (SA) and jasmonic (JA) acids. However, upstream factors modulating the interplay of these pathways are not well characterized. Here, we identify the transcription factor ANAC032 from Arabidopsis thaliana as one such regulator in response to the bacterial pathogen Pseudomonas syringae pv. tomato DC3000 (Pst). ANAC032 directly represses MYC2 activation upon Pst attack, resulting in blockage of coronatine-mediated stomatal reopening which restricts entry of bacteria into plant tissue. Furthermore, ANAC032 activates SA signalling by repressing NIMIN1, a key negative regulator of SA-dependent defence. Finally, ANAC032 reduces expression of JA-responsive genes, including PDF1.2A. Thus, ANAC032 enhances resistance to Pst by generating an orchestrated transcriptional output towards key SA- and JA-signalling genes coordinated through direct binding of ANAC032 to the MYC2, NIMIN1 and PDF1.2A promoters. KW - Arabidopsis KW - jasmonic acid KW - pathogens KW - salicylic acid KW - transcription factor Y1 - 2016 U6 - https://doi.org/10.15252/embr.201642197 SN - 1469-221X SN - 1469-3178 VL - 17 SP - 1578 EP - 1589 PB - Wiley-Blackwell CY - Hoboken ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Almathen, Faisal A1 - Charruau, Pauline A1 - Mohandesan, Elmira A1 - Mwacharo, Joram M. A1 - Orozco-terWengel, Pablo A1 - Pitt, Daniel A1 - Abdussamad, Abdussamad M. A1 - Uerpmann, Margarethe A1 - Uerpmann, Hans-Peter A1 - De Cupere, Bea A1 - Magee, Peter A1 - Alnaqeeb, Majed A. A1 - Salim, Bashir A1 - Raziq, Abdul A1 - Dessie, Tadelle A1 - Abdelhadi, Omer M. A1 - Banabazi, Mohammad H. A1 - Al-Eknah, Marzook A1 - Walzer, Chris A1 - Fayer, Bernard A1 - Hofreiter, Michael A1 - Peters, Joris A1 - Hanotte, Olivier A1 - Burger, Pamela A. T1 - Ancient and modern DNA reveal dynamics of domestication and cross-continental dispersal of the dromedary JF - Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America N2 - Dromedaries have been fundamental to the development of human societies in arid landscapes and for long-distance trade across hostile hot terrains for 3,000 y. Today they continue to be an important livestock resource in marginal agro-ecological zones. However, the history of dromedary domestication and the influence of ancient trading networks on their genetic structure have remained elusive. We combined ancient DNA sequences of wild and early-domesticated dromedary samples from arid regions with nuclear microsatellite and mitochondrial genotype information from 1,083 extant animals collected across the species’ range. We observe little phylogeographic signal in the modern population, indicative of extensive gene flow and virtually affecting all regions except East Africa, where dromedary populations have remained relatively isolated. In agreement with archaeological findings, we identify wild dromedaries from the southeast Arabian Peninsula among the founders of the domestic dromedary gene pool. Approximate Bayesian computations further support the “restocking from the wild” hypothesis, with an initial domestication followed by introgression from individuals from wild, now-extinct populations. Compared with other livestock, which show a long history of gene flow with their wild ancestors, we find a high initial diversity relative to the native distribution of the wild ancestor on the Arabian Peninsula and to the brief coexistence of early-domesticated and wild individuals. This study also demonstrates the potential to retrieve ancient DNA sequences from osseous remains excavated in hot and dry desert environments. KW - anthropogenic admixture KW - Camelus dromedarius KW - demographic history KW - paleogenetics KW - wild dromedary Y1 - 2016 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1519508113 SN - 0027-8424 VL - 113 SP - 6707 EP - 6712 PB - National Acad. of Sciences CY - Washington ER - TY - THES A1 - Armarego-Marriott, Tegan T1 - From dark to light BT - an overexpression and systems biology approach to investigate the development of functional thylakoid membranes Y1 - 2016 ER - TY - THES A1 - Avcilar-Kucukgoze, Irem T1 - Effect of tRNA Aminoacylation and Cellular Resources Allocation on the Dynamics of Translation in Escherichia coli Y1 - 2016 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Avcilar-Kucukgoze, Irem A1 - Bartholomäus, Alexander A1 - Varela, Juan A. Cordero A1 - Kaml, Robert Franz-Xaver A1 - Neubauer, Peter A1 - Budisa, Nediljko A1 - Ignatova, Zoya T1 - Discharging tRNAs: a tug of war between translation and detoxification in Escherichia coli JF - Nucleic acids research N2 - Translation is a central cellular process and is optimized for speed and fidelity. The speed of translation of a single codon depends on the concentration of aminoacyl-tRNAs. Here, we used microarray-based approaches to analyze the charging levels of tRNAs in Escherichia coli growing at different growth rates. Strikingly, we observed a non-uniform aminoacylation of tRNAs in complex media. In contrast, in minimal medium, the level of aminoacyl-tRNAs is more uniform and rises to approximately 60%. Particularly, the charging level of tRNA(Ser), tRNA(Cys), tRNA(Thr) and tRNA(His) is below 50% in complex medium and their aminoacylation levels mirror the degree that amino acids inhibit growth when individually added to minimal medium. Serine is among the most toxic amino acids for bacteria and tRNAs(Ser) exhibit the lowest charging levels, below 10%, at high growth rate although intracellular serine concentration is plentiful. As a result some serine codons are among the most slowly translated codons. A large fraction of the serine is most likely degraded by L-serine-deaminase, which competes with the seryl-tRNA-synthetase that charges the tRNAs(Ser). These results indicate that the level of aminoacylation in complex media might be a competition between charging for translation and degradation of amino acids that inhibit growth. Y1 - 2016 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1093/nar/gkw697 SN - 0305-1048 SN - 1362-4962 VL - 44 SP - 8324 EP - 8334 PB - Oxford Univ. Press CY - Oxford ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Ayllon, Daniel A1 - Railsback, Steven Floyd A1 - Vincenzi, Simone A1 - Groeneveld, Juergen A1 - Almodoevar, Ana A1 - Grimm, Volker T1 - InSTREAM-Gen: Modelling eco-evolutionary dynamics of trout populations under anthropogenic environmental change JF - Ecological modelling : international journal on ecological modelling and engineering and systems ecolog N2 - Current rates of environmental change are exceeding the capacity of many populations to adapt to new conditions and thus avoid demographic collapse and ultimate extinction. In particular, cold-water freshwater fish species are predicted to experience strong selective pressure from climate change and a wide range of interacting anthropogenic stressors in the near future. To implement effective management and conservation measures, it is crucial to quantify the maximum rate of change that cold-water freshwater fish populations can withstand. Here, we present a spatially explicit eco-genetic individual-based model, inSTREAM-Gen, to predict the eco-evolutionary dynamics of stream-dwelling trout under anthropogenic environmental change. The model builds on a well-tested demographic model, which includes submodels of river dynamics, bioenergetics, and adaptive habitat selection, with a new genetic module that allows exploration of genetic and life-history adaptations to new environments. The genetic module models the transmission of two key traits, size at emergence and maturity size threshold. We parameterized the model for a brown trout (Salmo trutta L.) population at the warmest edge of its range to validate it and analyze its sensitivity to parameters under contrasting thermal profiles. To illustrate potential applications of the model, we analyzed the population's demographic and evolutionary dynamics under scenarios of (1) climate change-induced warming, and (2) warming plus flow reduction resulting from climate and land use change, compared to (3) a baseline of no environmental change. The model predicted severe declines in density and biomass under climate warming. These declines were lower than expected at range margins because of evolution towards smaller size at both emergence and maturation compared to the natural evolution under the baseline conditions. Despite stronger evolutionary responses, declining rates were substantially larger under the combined warming and flow reduction scenario, leading to a high probability of population extinction over contemporary time frames. Therefore, adaptive responses could not prevent extinction under high rates of environmental change. Our model demonstrates critical elements of next generation ecological modelling aiming at predictions in a changing world as it accounts for spatial and temporal resource heterogeneity, while merging individual behaviour and bioenergetics with microevolutionary adaptations. KW - Individual-based model KW - Eco-genetic modelling KW - Eco-evolution KW - Climate change KW - Brown trout KW - Next-generation modelling Y1 - 2016 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolmodel.2015.07.026 SN - 0304-3800 SN - 1872-7026 VL - 326 SP - 36 EP - 53 PB - Elsevier CY - Amsterdam ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Babalola, Jonathan Oyebamiji A1 - Omorogie, Martins Osaigbovo A1 - Babarinde, Adesola Abiola A1 - Unuabonah, Emmanuel Iyayi A1 - Oninla, Vincent Olukayode T1 - OPTIMIZATION OF THE BIOSORPTION OF Cr3+, Cd2+ AND Pb2+ USING A NEW BIOWASTE: Zea mays SEED CHAFF JF - Environmental engineering and management journal N2 - This study highlights the potential use of yellow Zea mays seed chaff (YZMSC) biomass as a biosorbent for the removal of Cr3+, Cd2+ and Pb2+ ions from aqueous solutions. Fourier transformed Infrared analysis of the biomass suggests that YZMSC biomass is basically composed of cellulose and methyl cellulose. The biosorption capacities, q(max), of YZMSC biomass for Cr3+, Cd2+ and Pb2+ are 14.68, 121.95 and 384.62 mg/g respectively. Biosorption equilibrium was achieved at 20, 30 and 60 min for Cr3+, Cd2+ and Pb2+ respectively. YZMSC biomass was found to have higher biosorption capacity and overall kinetic rate of uptake for Pb2+ than for Cd2+ and Cr3+. However, Cr3+ had better initial kinetic rate of uptake by the biomass than Pb2+ and Cd2+. The Freundlich equilibrium isotherm model was found to describe equilibrium data better than Langmuir model suggesting that biosorption of these metal ions could be on more than one active site on the surface of YZMSC biomass. Kinetic study predicted the pseudo-second kinetic model as being able to better describe kinetic data obtained than either modified pseudo-first order or Bangham kinetic models. Biosorption of Cr3+, Cd2+ and Pb2+ onto YZMSC biomass was endothermic in nature with large positive entropy values. Biosorption of these metal ions onto YZMSC biomass was observed to be feasible and spontaneous above 283 K. Optimization of biomass weight for the removal of these metal ions suggest that 384 kg, 129 kg and 144 kg of YZMSC biomass is required for the removal of 95% of Cr3+, Cd2+ and Pb2+ metal ions respectively from 100 mg/L of metal ions in 10 tonnes of aqueous solutions. KW - biomass KW - biosorption KW - optimization KW - yellow Zea mays Y1 - 2016 SN - 1582-9596 SN - 1843-3707 VL - 15 SP - 1571 EP - 1580 PB - Gh. Asachi Universitatea Tehnică IaÅŸi CY - Iasi ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Bader, Denise A1 - Klier, Dennis Tobias A1 - Hettrich, C. A1 - Bier, Frank Fabian A1 - Wessig, Pablo T1 - Detecting carbohydrate-lectin interactions using a fluorescent probe based on DBD dyes JF - Analytical methods : advancing methods and applications N2 - Herein we present an efficient synthesis of a biomimetic probe with modular construction that can be specifically bound by the mannose binding FimH protein - a surface adhesion protein of E. coli bacteria. The synthesis combines the new and interesting DBD dye with the carbohydrate ligand mannose via a Click reaction. We demonstrate the binding to E. coli bacteria over a large concentration range and also present some special characteristics of those molecules that are of particular interest for the application as a biosensor. In particular, the mix-and-measure ability and the very good photo-stability should be highlighted here. Y1 - 2016 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1039/c5ay02991k SN - 1759-9660 SN - 1759-9679 VL - 8 SP - 1235 EP - 1238 PB - Royal Society of Chemistry CY - Cambridge ER - TY - THES A1 - Barahimipour, Rouhollah T1 - Optimization of transgene expression in the nuclear genome of Chlamydomonas reinhardtii and characterization of Chlamydomonas expression strains Y1 - 2016 ER - TY - THES A1 - Bartholomäus, Alexander T1 - Analyzing Transcriptional and Translational Control in E. coli using Deep-Seq Data Y1 - 2016 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Bartholomäus, Alexander A1 - Fedyunin, Ivan A1 - Feist, Peter A1 - Sin, Celine A1 - Zhang, Gong A1 - Valleriani, Angelo A1 - Ignatova, Zoya T1 - Bacteria differently regulate mRNA abundance to specifically respond to various stresses JF - Geology N2 - Environmental stress is detrimental to cell viability and requires an adequate reprogramming of cellular activities to maximize cell survival. We present a global analysis of the response of Escherichia coli to acute heat and osmotic stress. We combine deep sequencing of total mRNA and ribosome-protected fragments to provide a genome-wide map of the stress response at transcriptional and translational levels. For each type of stress, we observe a unique subset of genes that shape the stress-specific response. Upon temperature upshift, mRNAs with reduced folding stability up-and downstream of the start codon, and thus with more accessible initiation regions, are translationally favoured. Conversely, osmotic upshift causes a global reduction of highly translated transcripts with high copy numbers, allowing reallocation of translation resources to not degraded and newly synthesized mRNAs. KW - transcription KW - translation KW - deep sequencing KW - Escherichia coli KW - copy numbers Y1 - 2016 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1098/rsta.2015.0069 SN - 1364-503X SN - 1471-2962 VL - 374 PB - Royal Society CY - London ER - TY - GEN A1 - Batsios, Petros A1 - Ren, Xiang A1 - Baumann, Otto A1 - Larochelle, Denis A. A1 - Gräf, Ralph T1 - Src1 is a Protein of the Inner Nuclear Membrane Interacting with the Dictyostelium Lamin NE81 N2 - The nuclear envelope (NE) consists of the outer and inner nuclear membrane (INM), whereby the latter is bound to the nuclear lamina. Src1 is a Dictyostelium homologue of the helix-extension-helix family of proteins, which also includes the human lamin-binding protein MAN1. Both endogenous Src1 and GFP-Src1 are localized to the NE during the entire cell cycle. Immuno-electron microscopy and light microscopy after differential detergent treatment indicated that Src1 resides in the INM. FRAP experiments with GFP-Src1 cells suggested that at least a fraction of the protein could be stably engaged in forming the nuclear lamina together with the Dictyostelium lamin NE81. Both a BioID proximity assay and mis-localization of soluble, truncated mRFP-Src1 at cytosolic clusters consisting of an intentionally mis-localized mutant of GFP-NE81 confirmed an interaction of Src1 and NE81. Expression GFP-Src11–646, a fragment C-terminally truncated after the first transmembrane domain, disrupted interaction of nuclear membranes with the nuclear lamina, as cells formed protrusions of the NE that were dependent on cytoskeletal pulling forces. Protrusions were dependent on intact microtubules but not actin filaments. Our results indicate that Src1 is required for integrity of the NE and highlight Dictyostelium as a promising model for the evolution of nuclear architecture. T3 - Zweitveröffentlichungen der Universität Potsdam : Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftliche Reihe - 263 KW - Dictyostelium KW - HeH-protein KW - LEM-domain protein KW - lamin KW - nuclear lamina KW - nucleolus KW - nucleus Y1 - 2016 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-97033 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Batsios, Petros A1 - Ren, Xiang A1 - Baumann, Otto A1 - Larochelle, Denis A. A1 - Gräf, Ralph T1 - Src1 is a Protein of the Inner Nuclear Membrane Interacting with the Dictyostelium Lamin NE81 JF - Cells N2 - The nuclear envelope (NE) consists of the outer and inner nuclear membrane (INM), whereby the latter is bound to the nuclear lamina. Src1 is a Dictyostelium homologue of the helix-extension-helix family of proteins, which also includes the human lamin-binding protein MAN1. Both endogenous Src1 and GFP-Src1 are localized to the NE during the entire cell cycle. Immuno-electron microscopy and light microscopy after differential detergent treatment indicated that Src1 resides in the INM. FRAP experiments with GFP-Src1 cells suggested that at least a fraction of the protein could be stably engaged in forming the nuclear lamina together with the Dictyostelium lamin NE81. Both a BioID proximity assay and mis-localization of soluble, truncated mRFP-Src1 at cytosolic clusters consisting of an intentionally mis-localized mutant of GFP-NE81 confirmed an interaction of Src1 and NE81. Expression GFP-Src11–646, a fragment C-terminally truncated after the first transmembrane domain, disrupted interaction of nuclear membranes with the nuclear lamina, as cells formed protrusions of the NE that were dependent on cytoskeletal pulling forces. Protrusions were dependent on intact microtubules but not actin filaments. Our results indicate that Src1 is required for integrity of the NE and highlight Dictyostelium as a promising model for the evolution of nuclear architecture. KW - Dictyostelium KW - lamin KW - nuclear lamina KW - nucleus KW - nucleolus KW - HeH-protein KW - LEM-domain protein Y1 - 2016 U6 - https://doi.org/10.3390/cells5010013 SN - 2073-4409 VL - 5 IS - 1 PB - MDPI CY - Basel ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Baylis, Alastair M. M. A1 - Kowalski, Gabriele Joanna A1 - Voigt, Christian C. A1 - Orben, Rachael A. A1 - Trillmich, Fritz A1 - Staniland, Iain J. A1 - Hoffman, Joseph I. T1 - Pup Vibrissae Stable Isotopes Reveal Geographic Differences in Adult Female Southern Sea Lion Habitat Use during Gestation JF - PLoS one N2 - Individuals within populations often differ substantially in habitat use, the ecological consequences of which can be far reaching. Stable isotope analysis provides a convenient and often cost effective means of indirectly assessing the habitat use of individuals that can yield valuable insights into the spatiotemporal distribution of foraging specialisations within a population. Here we use the stable isotope ratios of southern sea lion (Otaria flavescens) pup vibrissae at the Falkland Islands, in the South Atlantic, as a proxy for adult female habitat use during gestation. A previous study found that adult females from one breeding colony (Big Shag Island) foraged in two discrete habitats, inshore (coastal) or offshore (outer Patagonian Shelf). However, as this species breeds at over 70 sites around the Falkland Islands, it is unclear if this pattern is representative of the Falkland Islands as a whole. In order to characterize habitat use, we therefore assayed carbon (delta C-13) and nitrogen (delta N-15) ratios from 65 southern sea lion pup vibrissae, sampled across 19 breeding colonies at the Falkland Islands. Model-based clustering of pup isotope ratios identified three distinct clusters, representing adult females that foraged inshore, offshore, and a cluster best described as intermediate. A significant difference was found in the use of inshore and offshore habitats between West and East Falkland and between the two colonies with the largest sample sizes, both of which are located in East Falkland. However, habitat use was unrelated to the proximity of breeding colonies to the Patagonian Shelf, a region associated with enhanced biological productivity. Our study thus points towards other factors, such as local oceanography and its influence on resource distribution, playing a prominent role in inshore and offshore habitat use. Y1 - 2016 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0157394 SN - 1932-6203 VL - 11 SP - 1824 EP - 1835 PB - PLoS CY - San Fransisco ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Beenken, Ludwig A1 - Sainge, Moses N. A1 - Kocyan, Alexander T1 - Lactarius megalopterus, a new angiocarpous species from a tropical rainforest in Central Africa, shows adaptations to endozoochorous spore dispersal JF - Mycological progress : international journal of the German Mycological Society N2 - A new sequestrate Lactarius species was found in a humid evergreen tropical rainforest dominated by Fabaceae of the subfamily Caesalpinioideae in Cameroon, Central Africa. It is described here as new to science and is named Lactarius megalopterus, referring to its spore ornamentation of extraordinarily high wings. Anatomical characters and molecular systematic analyses confirm its relationship to Lactarius subgenus Plinthogali. Phylogenetic analyses based on two nuclear DNA regions revealed its close relationship to Lactarius angiocarpus, which is also an angiocarpous species from Zambia in Africa. Molecular studies have shown that tuber-like, sequestrate sporocarps evolved independently in several lineages of Basidiomycota. The findings of sequestrate fungi in tropical rainforests raise questions regarding the evolutionary benefit of enclosing the spore-producing hymenium. The enclosure of spore-producing tissue has often been associated with the protection of the delicate hymenium against desiccation in arid habitats or against frost in cold habitats. However, these cannot be the selective factors in warm and humid areas like the tropics. This controversy is exemplarily studied and discussed in the family of Russulaceae, especially in the genus Lactarius. Characters shown by the angiocarpous sporocarp of the new Lactarius, such as thick-walled statismospores, an aromatic smell and mild taste, can be interpreted as adaptations to endozoochorous spore dispersal by mammals. Therefore, here we prefer the alternative hypothesis that sequestrate sporocarps are the result of adaptation to endozoochorous spore dispersal. KW - Russulaceae KW - Lactarius subgenus Plinthogali KW - Mycophagy KW - Endozoochory syndrome KW - Cameroon Y1 - 2016 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1007/s11557-016-1198-4 SN - 1617-416X SN - 1861-8952 VL - 15 SP - 158 EP - 173 PB - Springer CY - Heidelberg ER - TY - THES A1 - Beine-Golovchuk, Olga T1 - Characterization and functional complementation of the arabidopsis ribosomal Reil1 - 1Reil2-1 double mutant Y1 - 2016 ER - TY - THES A1 - Beltran, Juan Camilo Moreno T1 - Characterization of the Clp protease complex and identification of putative substrates in N. tabacum Y1 - 2016 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Bergmann, Joana A1 - Verbruggen, Erik A1 - Heinze, Johannes A1 - Xiang, Dan A1 - Chen, Baodong A1 - Joshi, Jasmin Radha A1 - Rillig, Matthias C. T1 - The interplay between soil structure, roots, and microbiota as a determinant of plant-soil feedback JF - Ecology and evolution N2 - Plant-soil feedback (PSF) can influence plant community structure via changes in the soil microbiome. However, how these feedbacks depend on the soil environment remains poorly understood. We hypothesized that disintegrating a naturally aggregated soil may influence the outcome of PSF by affecting microbial communities. Furthermore, we expected plants to differentially interact with soil structure and the microbial communities due to varying root morphology. We carried out a feedback experiment with nine plant species (five forbs and four grasses) where the training phase consisted of aggregated versus disintegrated soil. In the feedback phase, a uniform soil was inoculated in a fully factorial design with soil washings from conspecific- versus heterospecific-trained soil that had been either disintegrated or aggregated. This way, the effects of prior soil structure on plant performance in terms of biomass production and allocation were examined. In the training phase, soil structure did not affect plant biomass. But on disintegrated soil, plants with lower specific root length (SRL) allocated more biomass aboveground. PSF in the feedback phase was negative overall. With training on disintegrated soil, conspecific feedback was positively correlated with SRL and significantly differed between grasses and forbs. Plants with higher SRL were likely able to easily explore the disintegrated soil with smaller pores, while plants with lower SRL invested in belowground biomass for soil exploration and seemed to be more susceptible to fungal pathogens. This suggests that plants with low SRL could be more limited by PSF on disintegrated soils of early successional stages. This study is the first to examine the influence of soil structure on PSF. Our results suggest that soil structure determines the outcome of PSF mediated by SRL. We recommend to further explore the effects of soil structure and propose to include root performance when working with PSF. KW - arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi KW - biomass allocation KW - plant functional traits KW - plant-soil (belowground) interactions KW - soil aggregation KW - specific root length KW - succession KW - water-stable aggregates Y1 - 2016 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.2456 SN - 2045-7758 VL - 6 SP - 7633 EP - 7644 PB - Wiley-Blackwell CY - Hoboken ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Bilton, Mark C. A1 - Metz, Johannes A1 - Tielboerger, Katja T1 - Climatic niche groups: A novel application of a common assumption predicting plant community response to climate change JF - Perspectives in plant ecology, evolution and systematics N2 - Defining species by their climatic niche is the simple and intuitive principle underlying Bioclimatic Envelope Model (BEM) predictions for climate change effects. However, these correlative models are often criticised for neglecting many ecological processes. Here, we apply the same niche principle to entire communities within a medium/long-term climate manipulation study, where ecological processes are inherently included. In a nine generation study in Israel, we manipulated rainfall (Drought -30%; Irrigation +30%; Control natural rainfall) at two sites which differ chiefly in rainfall quantity and variability. We analysed community responses to the manipulations by grouping species based on their climatic rainfall niche. These responses were compared to analyses based on single species, total densities, and commonly used taxonomic groupings. Climate Niche Groups yielded clear and consistent results: within communities, those species distributed in drier regions performed relatively better in the drought treatment, and those from wetter climates performed better when irrigated. In contrast, analyses based on other principles revealed little insight into community dynamics. Notably, most relationships were weaker at the drier, more variable site, suggesting that enhanced adaptation to variability may buffer climate change impacts. We provide robust experimental evidence that using climatic niches commonly applied in BEMs is a valid approach for eliciting community changes in response to climate change. However, we also argue that additional empirical information needs to be gathered using experiments in situ to correctly assess community vulnerability. Climatic Niche Groups used in this way, may therefore provide a powerful tool and directional testing framework to generalise and compare climate change impacts across habitats. (C) 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier GmbH. KW - Annual plant communities KW - Bioclimatic envelope modelling KW - Climate change manipulations KW - Experimental evidence KW - Plant functional groups KW - Rainfall niche Y1 - 2016 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ppees.2016.02.006 SN - 1433-8319 VL - 19 SP - 61 EP - 69 PB - Elsevier CY - Jena ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Binzer, Amrei A1 - Guill, Christian A1 - Rall, Björn C. A1 - Brose, Ulrich T1 - Interactive effects of warming, eutrophication and size structure: impacts on biodiversity and food-web structure JF - Global change biology N2 - Warming and eutrophication are two of the most important global change stressors for natural ecosystems, but their interaction is poorly understood. We used a dynamic model of complex, size-structured food webs to assess interactive effects on diversity and network structure. We found antagonistic impacts: Warming increases diversity in eutrophic systems and decreases it in oligotrophic systems. These effects interact with the community size structure: Communities of similarly sized species such as parasitoid-host systems are stabilized by warming and destabilized by eutrophication, whereas the diversity of size-structured predator-prey networks decreases strongly with warming, but decreases only weakly with eutrophication. Nonrandom extinction risks for generalists and specialists lead to higher connectance in networks without size structure and lower connectance in size-structured communities. Overall, our results unravel interactive impacts of warming and eutrophication and suggest that size structure may serve as an important proxy for predicting the community sensitivity to these global change stressors. KW - complex food webs KW - extinctions KW - generalists KW - global change KW - size structure KW - specialists Y1 - 2016 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.13086 SN - 1354-1013 SN - 1365-2486 VL - 22 SP - 220 EP - 227 PB - Wiley-Blackwell CY - Hoboken ER - TY - THES A1 - Bolger, Anthony T1 - Sequencing the Genome of the stress-tolerant wild tomato Solanum pennellii and Novel Algorithms motivated thereby Y1 - 2016 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Bookers, Anke A1 - Jacob, Louis A1 - Bohlken, Jens A1 - Rapp, Michael Armin A1 - Kostev, Karel T1 - Persistence with antipsychotics in dementia patients in Germany JF - International journal of clinical pharmacology and therapeutics N2 - Background/Aims: To analyze the duration of treatment with antipsychotics in German dementia patients. Methods: This study included patients aged 60 years and over with dementia who received a first-time antipsychotic prescription by psychiatrists between 2009 and 2013. The main outcome measure was the treatment rate for more than 6 months following the index date. Results: A total of 12,979 patients with dementia (mean age 82 years, 52.1% living in nursing homes) were included. After 2 years of follow-up, 54.8%, 57.2%, 61.1%, and 65.4% of patients aged 60 - 69, 70 - 79, 80 - 89, and 90 - 99 years, respectively, received antipsychotic prescriptions. 63.9% of subjects living in nursing homes and 55.0% of subjects living at home also continued their treatment (p-value < 0.001). Conclusion: The percentage of dementia patients treated with anti psychotics is very high. KW - persistence KW - antipsychotics KW - dementia Y1 - 2016 U6 - https://doi.org/10.5414/CP202631 SN - 0946-1965 VL - 54 SP - 835 EP - 840 PB - Dustri-Verlag Dr. Karl Feistle CY - Deisenhofen-München ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Borgia, Alessandro A1 - Zheng, Wenwei A1 - Buholzer, Karin A1 - Borgia, Madeleine B. A1 - Schüler, Anja A1 - Hofmann, Hagen A1 - Soranno, Andrea A1 - Nettels, Daniel A1 - Gast, Klaus A1 - Grishaev, Alexander A1 - Best, Robert B. A1 - Schuler, Benjamin T1 - Consistent View of Polypeptide Chain Expansion in Chemical Denaturants from Multiple Experimental Methods JF - Journal of the American Chemical Society N2 - There has been a long-standing controversy regarding the effect of chemical denaturants on the dimensions of unfolded and intrinsically disordered proteins: A wide range of experimental techniques suggest that polypeptide chains expand with increasing denaturant concentration, but several studies using small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) have reported no: such increase of the radius of gyration (R-g). This inconsistency challenges our current understanding of the mechanism of chemical denaturants, which are widely employed to investigate protein folding and stability. Here, we use a combination Of single-molecule Forster resonance energy transfer (FRET), SAXS, dynamic light scattering (DLS), and two-focus fluorescence correlation spectroscopy (2f-FCS) to characterize the denaturant dependence of the unfolded state of the spectrin domain R17 and the intrinsically disordered protein ACTR in two different denaturants. Standard analysis of the primary data clearly indicates an expansion of the unfolded state with increasing denaturant concentration irrespective of the protein, denaturant, or experimental method used. This is the first case in which SAXS and FRET have yielded even qualitatively consistent results regarding expansion in denaturant when applied to the same proteins. To more directly illustrate this self-consistency, we used both SAXS and FRET data in a Bayesian procedure to refine structural ensembles representative of the observed unfolded state. This analysis demonstrates that both of these experimental probes are compatible with a common ensemble of protein configurations for each denaturant concentration. Furthermore, the resulting ensembles reproduce the trend of increasing hydrodynamic radius, with denaturant concentration obtained by 2f-FCS,and DLS. We were thus able to reconcile the results from all four experimental techniques quantitatively, to obtain a comprehensive structural picture of denaturant;induced unfolded state expansion, and to identify the Most likely sources of earlier discrepancies. Y1 - 2016 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1021/jacs.6b05917 SN - 0002-7863 VL - 138 SP - 11714 EP - 11726 PB - American Chemical Society CY - Washington ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Brentrup, Jennifer A. A1 - Williamson, Craig E. A1 - Colom-Montero, William A1 - Eckert, Werner A1 - de Eyto, Elvira A1 - Großart, Hans-Peter A1 - Huot, Yannick A1 - Isles, Peter D. F. A1 - Knoll, Lesley B. A1 - Leach, Taylor H. A1 - McBride, Chris G. A1 - Pierson, Don A1 - Pomati, Francesco A1 - Read, Jordan S. A1 - Rose, Kevin C. A1 - Samal, Nihar R. A1 - Staehr, Peter A. A1 - Winslow, Luke A. T1 - The potential of high-frequency profiling to assess vertical and seasonal patterns of phytoplankton dynamics in lakes: an extension of the Plankton Ecology Group (PEG) model JF - Inland waters : journal of the International Society of Limnology N2 - The use of high-frequency sensors on profiling buoys to investigate physical, chemical, and biological processes in lakes is increasing rapidly. Profiling buoys with automated winches and sensors that collect high-frequency chlorophyll fluorescence (ChlF) profiles in 11 lakes in the Global Lake Ecological Observatory Network (GLEON) allowed the study of the vertical and temporal distribution of ChlF, including the formation of subsurface chlorophyll maxima (SSCM). The effectiveness of 3 methods for sampling phytoplankton distributions in lakes, including (1) manual profiles, (2) single-depth buoys, and (3) profiling buoys were assessed. High-frequency ChlF surface data and profiles were compared to predictions from the Plankton Ecology Group (PEG) model. The depth-integrated ChlF dynamics measured by the profiling buoy data revealed a greater complexity that neither conventional sampling nor the generalized PEG model captured. Conventional sampling techniques would have missed SSCM in 7 of 11 study lakes. Although surface-only ChlF data underestimated average water column ChlF, at times by nearly 2-fold in 4 of the lakes, overall there was a remarkable similarity between surface and mean water column data. Contrary to the PEG model’s proposed negligible role for physical control of phytoplankton during the growing season, thermal structure and light availability were closely associated with ChlF seasonal depth distribution. Thus, an extension of the PEG model is proposed, with a new conceptual framework that explicitly includes physical metrics to better predict SSCM formation in lakes and highlight when profiling buoys are especially informative. KW - chlorophyll fluorescence KW - Global Lake Ecological Observatory Network (GLEON) KW - high-frequency sensors KW - PEG model KW - phytoplankton KW - profiling buoys KW - subsurface chlorophyll maximum Y1 - 2016 U6 - https://doi.org/10.5268/IW-6.4.890 SN - 2044-2041 SN - 2044-205X VL - 6 SP - 565 EP - 580 PB - Freshwater Biological Association CY - Ambleside ER - TY - THES A1 - Breuer, David T1 - The plant cytoskeleton as a transportation network T1 - Modellierung des pflanzliche Zytoskeletts als Transportnetzwerk N2 - The cytoskeleton is an essential component of living cells. It is composed of different types of protein filaments that form complex, dynamically rearranging, and interconnected networks. The cytoskeleton serves a multitude of cellular functions which further depend on the cell context. In animal cells, the cytoskeleton prominently shapes the cell's mechanical properties and movement. In plant cells, in contrast, the presence of a rigid cell wall as well as their larger sizes highlight the role of the cytoskeleton in long-distance intracellular transport. As it provides the basis for cell growth and biomass production, cytoskeletal transport in plant cells is of direct environmental and economical relevance. However, while knowledge about the molecular details of the cytoskeletal transport is growing rapidly, the organizational principles that shape these processes on a whole-cell level remain elusive. This thesis is devoted to the following question: How does the complex architecture of the plant cytoskeleton relate to its transport functionality? The answer requires a systems level perspective of plant cytoskeletal structure and transport. To this end, I combined state-of-the-art confocal microscopy, quantitative digital image analysis, and mathematically powerful, intuitively accessible graph-theoretical approaches. This thesis summarizes five of my publications that shed light on the plant cytoskeleton as a transportation network: (1) I developed network-based frameworks for accurate, automated quantification of cytoskeletal structures, applicable in, e.g., genetic or chemical screens; (2) I showed that the actin cytoskeleton displays properties of efficient transport networks, hinting at its biological design principles; (3) Using multi-objective optimization, I demonstrated that different plant cell types sustain cytoskeletal networks with cell-type specific and near-optimal organization; (4) By investigating actual transport of organelles through the cell, I showed that properties of the actin cytoskeleton are predictive of organelle flow and provided quantitative evidence for a coordination of transport at a cellular level; (5) I devised a robust, optimization-based method to identify individual cytoskeletal filaments from a given network representation, allowing the investigation of single filament properties in the network context. The developed methods were made publicly available as open-source software tools. Altogether, my findings and proposed frameworks provide quantitative, system-level insights into intracellular transport in living cells. Despite my focus on the plant cytoskeleton, the established combination of experimental and theoretical approaches is readily applicable to different organisms. Despite the necessity of detailed molecular studies, only a complementary, systemic perspective, as presented here, enables both understanding of cytoskeletal function in its evolutionary context as well as its future technological control and utilization. N2 - Das Zytoskelett ist ein notwendiger Bestandteil lebender Zellen. Es besteht aus verschiedenen Arten von Proteinfilamenten, die ihrerseits komplexe, sich dynamisch reorganisierende und miteinander verknüpfte Netzwerke bilden. Das Zytoskelett erfüllt eine Vielzahl von Funktionen in der Zelle. In Tierzellen bestimmt das Aktin-Zytoskelett maßgeblich die mechanischen Zelleigenschaften und die Zellbewegung. In Pflanzenzellen hingegen kommt dem Aktin-Zytoskelett eine besondere Bedeutung in intrazellulären Transportprozessen zu, bedingt insbesondere durch die starre pflanzliche Zellwand sowie die Zellgröße. Als wesentlicher Faktor für Zellwachstum und somit auch die Produktion von Biomasse, ist Zytoskelett-basierter Transport daher von unmittelbarer ökologischer und ökonomischer Bedeutung. Während das Wissen über die molekularen Grundlagen Zytoskelett-basierter Transportprozesse beständig wächst, sind die zugrunde liegenden Prinzipien zellweiter Organisation bisher weitgehend unbekannt. Diese Dissertation widmet sich daher folgender Frage: Wie hängt die komplexe Architektur des pflanzlichen Zytoskeletts mit seiner intrazellulären Transportfunktion zusammen? Eine Antwort auf diese Frage erfordert eine systemische Perspektive auf Zytoskelettstruktur und -transport. Zu diesem Zweck habe ich Mikroskopiedaten mit hoher raumzeitlicher Auflösung sowie Computer-gestützte Bildanalysen und mathematische Ansätzen der Graphen- und Netzwerktheorie kombiniert. Die vorliegende Dissertation umfasst fünf meiner Publikationen, die sich einem systemischen Verständnis des pflanzlichen Zytoskeletts als Transportnetzwerk widmen: (1) Dafür habe ich Bilddaten-basierte Netzwerkmodelle entwickelt, die eine exakte und automatisierte Quantifizierung der Architektur des Zytoskeletts ermöglichen. Diese Quantifizierung kann beispielsweise in genetischen oder chemischen Versuchen genutzt werden und für eine weitere Erforschung der genetischen Grundlagen und möglicher molekularer Interaktionspartner des Zytoskeletts hilfreich sein; (2) Ich habe nachgewiesen, dass das pflanzliche Aktin-Zytoskelett Eigenschaften effizienter Transportnetzwerk aufweist und Hinweise auf seine evolutionären Organisationsprinzipien liefert; (3) Durch die mathematische Optimierung von Transportnetzwerken konnte ich zeigen, dass unterschiedliche Pflanzenzelltypen spezifische und optimierte Organisationsstrukturen des Aktin-Zytoskeletts aufweisen; (4) Durch quantitative Analyse des Transports von Organellen in Pflanzenzellen habe ich nachgewiesen, dass sich Transportmuster ausgehend von der Struktur des Aktin-Zytoskeletts vorhersagen lassen. Dabei spielen sowohl die Organisation des Zytoskeletts auf Zellebene als auch seine Geometrie eine zentrale Rolle. (5) Schließlich habe ich eine robuste, optimierungs-basierte Methode entwickelt, die es erlaubt, individuelle Filamente eines Aktin-Netzwerks zu identifizieren. Dadurch ist es möglich, die Eigenschaften einzelner Zytoskelettfilamente im zellulären Kontext zu untersuchen. Die im Zuge dieser Dissertation entwickelten Methoden wurden frei und quelloffen als Werkzeuge zur Beantwortung verwandter Fragestellung zugänglich gemacht. Insgesamt liefern die hier präsentierten Ergebnisse und entwickelten Methoden quantitative, systemische Einsichten in die Transportfunktion des Zytoskeletts. Die hier etablierte Kombination von experimentellen und theoretischen Ansätzen kann, trotz des Fokusses auf das pflanzliche Zytoskelett, direkt auf andere Organismen angewendet werden. Als Ergänzung molekularer Studien bildet ein systemischer Blickwinkel, wie er hier entwickelt wurde, die Grundlage für ein Verständnis sowohl des evolutionären Kontextes als auch zukünftiger Kontroll- und Nutzungsmöglichkeiten des pflanzlichen Zytoskeletts. KW - systems biology KW - mathematical modeling KW - cytoskeleton KW - plant science KW - graph theory KW - image analysis KW - Systembiologie KW - mathematische Modellierung KW - Zytoskelett KW - Zellbiologie KW - Graphtheorie KW - Bildanalyse Y1 - 2016 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-93583 ER - TY - THES A1 - Brzezinka, Krzysztof T1 - Chromatin dynamics during heat stress memory in plants Y1 - 2016 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Brzezinka, Krzysztof A1 - Altmann, Simone A1 - Czesnick, Hjördis A1 - Nicolas, Philippe A1 - Gorka, Michal A1 - Benke, Eileen A1 - Kabelitz, Tina A1 - Jähne, Felix A1 - Graf, Alexander A1 - Kappel, Christian A1 - Bäurle, Isabel T1 - Arabidopsis FORGETTER1 mediates stress-induced chromatin memory through nucleosome remodeling JF - eLife N2 - Plants as sessile organisms can adapt to environmental stress to mitigate its adverse effects. As part of such adaptation they maintain an active memory of heat stress for several days that promotes a more efficient response to recurring stress. We show that this heat stress memory requires the activity of the FORGETTER1 (FGT1) locus, with fgt1 mutants displaying reduced maintenance of heat-induced gene expression. FGT1 encodes the Arabidopsis thaliana orthologue of Strawberry notch (Sno), and the protein globally associates with the promoter regions of actively expressed genes in a heat-dependent fashion. FGT1 interacts with chromatin remodelers of the SWI/ SNF and ISWI families, which also display reduced heat stress memory. Genomic targets of the BRM remodeler overlap significantly with FGT1 targets. Accordingly, nucleosome dynamics at loci with altered maintenance of heat-induced expression are affected in fgt1. Together, our results suggest that by modulating nucleosome occupancy, FGT1 mediates stress-induced chromatin memory. Y1 - 2016 U6 - https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.17061 SN - 2050-084X VL - 5 PB - eLife Sciences Publications CY - Cambridge ER - TY - THES A1 - Brzezinka, Magdalena T1 - Investigation of novel proteins and polysaccharides associated with coccoliths of Emiliania huxleyi Y1 - 2016 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Bull, James K. A1 - Heurich, Marco A1 - Saveljev, Alexander P. A1 - Schmidt, Krzysztof A1 - Fickel, Jörns A1 - Förster, Daniel W. T1 - The effect of reintroductions on the genetic variability in Eurasian lynx populations: the cases of Bohemian-Bavarian and Vosges-Palatinian populations JF - Conservation genetics KW - Lynx KW - Microsatellites KW - Population history KW - Reintroduction Y1 - 2016 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1007/s10592-016-0839-0 SN - 1566-0621 SN - 1572-9737 VL - 17 SP - 1229 EP - 1234 PB - Springer CY - Dordrecht ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Cazelles, R. A1 - Lalaoui, N. A1 - Hartmann, Tobias A1 - Leimkühler, Silke A1 - Wollenberger, Ursula A1 - Antonietti, Markus A1 - Cosnier, S. T1 - Ready to use bioinformatics analysis as a tool to predict immobilisation strategies for protein direct electron transfer (DET) JF - Polymer : the international journal for the science and technology of polymers KW - Bioinformatic KW - Bioelectrocatalysis KW - Electron transfer KW - Dehydrogenase KW - Nicotinamide Y1 - 2016 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bios.2016.04.078 SN - 0956-5663 SN - 1873-4235 VL - 85 SP - 90 EP - 95 PB - Elsevier CY - Oxford ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Cepakova, Zuzana A1 - Hrouzek, Pavel A1 - Ziskova, Eva A1 - Nuyanzina-Boldareva, Ekaterina A1 - Sorf, Michal A1 - Kozlikova-Zapomelova, Eliska A1 - Salka, Ivette A1 - Grossart, Hans-Peter A1 - Koblizek, Michal T1 - High turnover rates of aerobic anoxygenic phototrophs in European freshwater lakes JF - Environmental microbiology N2 - Aerobic Anoxygenic Phototrophic (AAP) bacteria are bacteriochlorophyll (BChl) a -containing organisms which use light energy to supplement their predominantly heterotrophic metabolism. Here, we investigated mortality and growth rates of AAP bacteria in three different freshwater lakes in Central Europe: the mountain lake Plesne, the oligo-mesotrophic Lake Stechlin and the forest pond Huntov. The mortality of AAP bacteria was estimated from diel changes of BChl a fluorescence. Net and gross growth rates were calculated from the increases in AAP cell numbers. The gross growth rates of AAP bacteria ranged from 0.38 to 5.6 d(-1), with the highest values observed during summer months. Simultaneously, the rapidly growing AAP cells have to cope with an intense grazing pressure by both zooplankton and protists. The presented results document that during the day, gross growth usually surpased mortality. Our results indicate that AAP bacteria utilize light energy under natural conditions to maintain rapid growth rates, which are balanced by a generally intense grazing pressure. Y1 - 2016 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1111/1462-2920.13475 SN - 1462-2912 SN - 1462-2920 VL - 18 SP - 5063 EP - 5071 PB - Wiley-Blackwell CY - Hoboken ER - TY - THES A1 - Connor, Daniel Oliver T1 - Identifikation und Charakterisierung neuer immunogener Proteine und anschließende Generierung rekombinanter Antikörper mittels Phage Display T1 - Identification and characterisation of novel immunogenic proteins and subsequent generation of recombinant antibodies by phage display N2 - Seit der Einführung von Antibiotika in die medizinische Behandlung von bakteriellen Infektionskrankheiten existiert ein Wettlauf zwischen der Evolution von Bakterienresistenzen und der Entwicklung wirksamer Antibiotika. Während bis in die 80er Jahre verstärkt an neuen Antibiotika geforscht wurde, gewinnen multiresistente Keime heute zunehmend die Oberhand. Um einzelne Pathogene erfolgreich nachzuweisen und zu bekämpfen, ist ein grundlegendes Wissen über den Erreger unumgänglich. Bakterielle Proteine, die bei einer Infektion vorrangig vom Immunsystem prozessiert und präsentiert werden, könnten für die Entwicklung von Impfstoffen oder gezielten Therapeutika nützlich sein. Auch für die Diagnostik wären diese immundominanten Proteine interessant. Allerdings herrscht ein Mangel an Wissen über spezifische Antigene vieler pathogener Bakterien, die eine eindeutige Diagnostik eines einzelnen Erregers erlauben würden. Daher wurden in dieser Arbeit vier verschiedene Humanpathogene mittels Phage Display untersucht: Neisseria gonorrhoeae, Neisseria meningitidis, Borrelia burgdorferi und Clostridium difficile. Hierfür wurden aus der genomischen DNA der vier Erreger Bibliotheken konstruiert und durch wiederholte Selektion und Amplifikation, dem sogenannten Panning, immunogene Proteine isoliert. Für alle Erreger bis auf C. difficile wurden immunogene Proteine aus den jeweiligen Bibliotheken isoliert. Die identifizierten Proteine von N. meningitidis und B. burgdorferi waren größtenteils bekannt, konnten aber in dieser Arbeit durch Phage Display verifiziert werden. Für N. gonorrhoeae wurden 21 potentiell immunogene Oligopeptide isoliert, von denen sechs Proteine als neue zuvor unbeschriebene Proteine mit immunogenem Charakter identifiziert wurden. Von den Phagen-präsentierten Oligopeptide der 21 immunogenen Proteine wurden Epitopmappings mit verschiedenen polyklonalen Antikörpern durchgeführt, um immunogene Bereiche näher zu identifizieren und zu charakterisieren. Bei zehn Proteinen wurden lineare Epitope eindeutig mit drei polyklonalen Antikörpern identifiziert, von fünf weiteren Proteinen waren Epitope mit mindestens einem Antikörper detektierbar. Für eine weitere Charakterisierung der ermittelten Epitope wurden Alaninscans durchgeführt, die eine detaillierte Auskunft über kritische Aminosäuren für die Bindung des Antikörpers an das Epitop geben. Ausgehend von dem neu identifizierten Protein mit immunogenem Charakter NGO1634 wurden 26 weitere Proteine aufgrund ihrer funktionellen Ähnlichkeit ausgewählt und mithilfe bioinformatischer Analysen auf ihre Eignung zur Entwicklung einer diagnostischen Anwendung analysiert. Durch Ausschluss der meisten Proteine aufgrund ihrer Lokalisation, Membrantopologie oder unspezifischen Proteinsequenz wurden scFv-Antikörper gegen acht Proteine mittels Phage Display generiert und anschließend als scFv-Fc-Fusionsantikörper produziert und charakterisiert. Die hier identifizierten Proteine und linearen Epitope könnten einen Ansatzpunkt für die Entwicklung einer diagnostischen oder therapeutischen Anwendung bieten. Lineare Epitopsequenzen werden häufig für die Impfstoffentwicklung eingesetzt, sodass vor allem die in dieser Arbeit bestimmten Epitope von Membranproteinen interessante Kandidaten für weitere Untersuchungen in diese Richtung sind. Durch weitere Untersuchungen könnten möglicherweise unbekannte Virulenzfaktoren entdeckt werden, deren Inhibierung einen entscheidenden Einfluss auf Infektionen haben könnten. N2 - Since the advent of antibiotics into the field of medical therapy of bacterial infections, there has been a battle of effective antibiotics and the everlasting evolution of bacterial resistances. Until the 1980s many antibiotics were developed after invention of the first applied antibiotic penicillin in 1946. Since then, antibiotic research has been largely neglected resulting in the evolution of numerous strains from different bacteria with multiple resistances to available antibiotics. Therefore, extensive knowledge of a pathogen is crucial to detect and fight a particular disease. Hence, proteins that are processed and presented preferentially by the immune system during an infection could be beneficial for the development of vaccines and targeted therapeutic agents. Furthermore, immunodominant proteins could be interesting for the development of a diagnostic tool. However, many potential antigen targets of most pathogenic bacteria are still unknown. On this account, four human pathogens were examined in this work utilising phage display: Neisseria gonorrhoeae, Neisseria meningitidis, Borrelia burgdorferi und Clostridium difficile. Phage libraries were constructed from genomic DNA of the four pathogens. These libraries were used to isolate immunogenic proteins by panning through repetitive rounds of selection and amplification. Immunogenic proteins were successfully isolated for all pathogens except C. difficile. The identified proteins from N. meningitidis and B. burgdorferi had mostly been described before. However, they were verified by phage display in this work. Twenty-one potentially immunogenic oligopeptides were isolated from the N. gonorrhoeae library. Six of those were identified as novel proteins with an immunogenic character and validated also as full length proteins. Epitope mappings were conducted for all of the 21 phage presented oligopeptides with different polyclonal antibodies to identify and characterise the immunogenic regions. Linear epitopes were found unambiguously for ten proteins with the three applied antibodies. In addition, epitopes for five proteins were identified with at least one antibody. The determined epitopes were then further characterized by alanine scans to investigate the impact of each individual amino acid on the binding of the antibody to the antigen’s epitope. Based on the novel identified immunogenic protein NGO1634, 26 additional proteins were selected due to their functional resemblance. These proteins were analysed with bioinformatic tools and amongst others checked for their localisation, membrane topology and conservation of their protein sequence. Finally, scFv antibody fragments were isolated from a phage display library (HAL9/10) against eight proteins. The best antibodies were then produced as scFv-Fc fusion antibodies and their binding behaviour was further characterised. The identified proteins and linear epitopes could serve as a starting point for the development of diagnostic or therapeutic tools. Further studies could unveil unknown virulence factors. Inhibition of those virulence factors could possibly have a vital impact on countering infections. Furthermore, linear epitopes are commonly used for vaccine development. Novel epitopes of membrane proteins could be interesting candidates for further immunization studies. KW - Immunogene Proteine KW - Phage Display KW - Rekombinante Antikörper KW - Neisseria gonorrhoeae KW - Neisseria meningitidis KW - Clostridium difficile KW - Borrelia burgdorferi KW - Epitopmapping KW - Immunogenic Proteins KW - Recombinant Antibodies KW - Epitope mapping KW - Phage Display KW - Neisseria gonorrhoeae KW - Neisseria meningitidis KW - Clostridium difficile KW - Borrelia burgdorferi Y1 - 2016 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-104120 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Connor, Daniel Oliver A1 - Zantow, Jonas A1 - Hust, Michael A1 - Bier, Frank Fabian A1 - von Nickisch-Rosenegk, Markus T1 - Identification of Novel Immunogenic Proteins of Neisseria gonorrhoeae by Phage Display JF - PLoS one N2 - Neisseria gonorrhoeae is one of the most prevalent sexually transmitted diseases worldwide with more than 100 million new infections per year. A lack of intense research over the last decades and increasing resistances to the recommended antibiotics call for a better understanding of gonococcal infection, fast diagnostics and therapeutic measures against N. gonorrhoeae. Therefore, the aim of this work was to identify novel immunogenic proteins as a first step to advance those unresolved problems. For the identification of immunogenic proteins, pHORF oligopeptide phage display libraries of the entire N. gonorrhoeae genome were constructed. Several immunogenic oligopeptides were identified using polyclonal rabbit antibodies against N. gonorrhoeae. Corresponding full-length proteins of the identified oligopeptides were expressed and their immunogenic character was verified by ELISA. The immunogenic character of six proteins was identified for the first time. Additional 13 proteins were verified as immunogenic proteins in N. gonorrhoeae. Y1 - 2016 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0148986 SN - 1932-6203 VL - 11 PB - PLoS CY - San Fransisco ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Correia, Marcia A. S. A1 - Otrelo-Cardoso, Ana Rita A1 - Schwuchow, Viola A1 - Clauss, Kajsa G. V. Sigfridsson A1 - Haumann, Michael A1 - Romao, Maria Joao A1 - Leimkühler, Silke A1 - Santos-Silva, Teresa T1 - The Escherichia coli Periplasmic Aldehyde Oxidoreductase Is an Exceptional Member of the Xanthine Oxidase Family of Molybdoenzymes JF - ACS chemical biology N2 - The xanthine oxidase (XO) family comprises molybdenum-dependent enzymes that usually form homodimers (or dimers of heterodimers/trimers) organized in three domains that harbor two [2Fe-2S] clusters, one FAD, and a Mo cofactor. In this work, we crystallized an unusual member of the family, the periplasmic aldehyde oxidoreductase PaoABC from Escherichia coli. This is the first example of an E. coli protein containing a molybdopterin-cytosine-dinucleotide cofactor and is the only heterotrimer of the XO family so far structurally characterized. The crystal structure revealed the presence of an unexpected [4Fe-4S] cluster, anchored to an additional 40 residues subdomain. According to phylogenetic analysis, proteins containing this cluster are widely spread in many bacteria phyla, putatively through repeated gene transfer events. The active site of PaoABC is highly exposed to the surface with no aromatic residues and an arginine (PaoC-R440) making a direct interaction with PaoC-E692, which acts as a base catalyst. In order to understand the importance of R440, kinetic assays were carried out, and the crystal structure of the PaoC-R440H variant was also determined. Y1 - 2016 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1021/acschembio.6b00572 SN - 1554-8929 SN - 1554-8937 VL - 11 SP - 2923 EP - 2935 PB - American Chemical Society CY - Washington ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Coutinho, Renato Mendes A1 - Klauschies, Toni A1 - Gaedke, Ursula T1 - Bimodal trait distributions with large variances question the reliability of trait-based aggregate models JF - Theoretical ecology N2 - Functionally diverse communities can adjust their species composition to altered environmental conditions, which may influence food web dynamics. Trait-based aggregate models cope with this complexity by ignoring details about species identities and focusing on their functional characteristics (traits). They describe the temporal changes of the aggregate properties of entire communities, including their total biomasses, mean trait values, and trait variances. The applicability of aggregate models depends on the validity of their underlying assumptions that trait distributions are normal and exhibit small variances. We investigated to what extent this can be expected to work by comparing an innovative model that accounts for the full trait distributions of predator and prey communities to a corresponding aggregate model. We used a food web structure with well-established trade-offs among traits promoting mutual adjustments between prey edibility and predator selectivity in response to selection. We altered the shape of the trade-offs to compare the outcome of the two models under different selection regimes, leading to trait distributions increasingly deviating from normality. Their biomass and trait dynamics agreed very well for stabilizing selection and reasonably well for directional selection, under which different trait values are favored at different times. However, for disruptive selection, the results of the aggregate model strongly deviated from the full trait distribution model that showed bimodal trait distributions with large variances. Hence, the outcome of aggregate models is reliable under ideal conditions but has to be questioned when confronted with more complex selection regimes and trait distributions, which are commonly observed in nature. KW - Fitness gradient KW - Communities as complex adaptive systems KW - Moment closure for trait-based aggregate model approaches KW - Multimodal trait distributions KW - Lumpiness in pattern formation and self-organization KW - Shape of trade-offs and stabilizing and disruptive selection Y1 - 2016 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1007/s12080-016-0297-9 SN - 1874-1738 SN - 1874-1746 VL - 9 SP - 389 EP - 408 PB - Springer CY - Heidelberg ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Cuadrat, Rafael R. C. A1 - Ferrera, Isabel A1 - Großart, Hans-Peter A1 - Davila, Alberto M. R. T1 - Picoplankton Bloom in Global South? A High Fraction of Aerobic Anoxygenic Phototrophic Bacteria in Metagenomes from a Coastal Bay (Arraial do Cabo-Brazil) JF - OMICS : a journal of integrative biology N2 - Marine habitats harbor a great diversity of microorganism from the three domains of life, only a small fraction of which can be cultivated. Metagenomic approaches are increasingly popular for addressing microbial diversity without culture, serving as sensitive and relatively unbiased methods for identifying and cataloging the diversity of nucleic acid sequences derived from organisms in environmental samples. Aerobic anoxygenic phototrophic bacteria (AAP) play important roles in carbon and energy cycling in aquatic systems. In oceans, those bacteria are widely distributed; however, their abundance and importance are still poorly understood. The aim of this study was to estimate abundance and diversity of AAPs in metagenomes from an upwelling affected coastal bay in Arraial do Cabo, Brazil, using in silico screening for the anoxygenic photosynthesis core genes. Metagenomes from the Global Ocean Sample Expedition (GOS) were screened for comparative purposes. AAPs were highly abundant in the free-living bacterial fraction from Arraial do Cabo: 23.88% of total bacterial cells, compared with 15% in the GOS dataset. Of the ten most AAP abundant samples from GOS, eight were collected close to the Equator where solar irradiation is high year-round. We were able to assign most retrieved sequences to phylo-groups, with a particularly high abundance of Roseobacter in Arraial do Cabo samples. The high abundance of AAP in this tropical bay may be related to the upwelling phenomenon and subsequent picoplankton bloom. These results suggest a link between upwelling and light abundance and demonstrate AAP even in oligotrophic tropical and subtropical environments. Longitudinal studies in the Arraial do Cabo region are warranted to understand the dynamics of AAP at different locations and seasons, and the ecological role of these unique bacteria for biogeochemical and energy cycling in the ocean. Y1 - 2016 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1089/omi.2015.0142 SN - 1536-2310 SN - 1557-8100 VL - 20 SP - 76 EP - 87 PB - Liebert CY - New Rochelle ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Cui, Huanhuan A1 - Schlesinger, Jenny A1 - Schoenhals, Sophia A1 - Toenjes, Martje A1 - Dunkel, Ilona A1 - Meierhofer, David A1 - Cano, Elena A1 - Schulz, Kerstin A1 - Berger, Michael F. A1 - Haack, Timm A1 - Abdelilah-Seyfried, Salim A1 - Bulyk, Martha L. A1 - Sauer, Sascha A1 - Sperling, Silke R. T1 - Phosphorylation of the chromatin remodeling factor DPF3a induces cardiac hypertrophy through releasing HEY repressors from DNA JF - Nucleic acids research N2 - DPF3 (BAF45c) is a member of the BAF chromatin remodeling complex. Two isoforms have been described, namely DPF3a and DPF3b. The latter binds to acetylated and methylated lysine residues of histones. Here, we elaborate on the role of DPF3a and describe a novel pathway of cardiac gene transcription leading to pathological cardiac hypertrophy. Upon hypertrophic stimuli, casein kinase 2 phosphorylates DPF3a at serine 348. This initiates the interaction of DPF3a with the transcriptional repressors HEY, followed by the release of HEY from the DNA. Moreover, BRG1 is bound by DPF3a, and is thus recruited to HEY genomic targets upon interaction of the two components. Consequently, the transcription of downstream targets such as NPPA and GATA4 is initiated and pathological cardiac hypertrophy is established. In human, DPF3a is significantly up-regulated in hypertrophic hearts of patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy or aortic stenosis. Taken together, we show that activation of DPF3a upon hypertrophic stimuli switches cardiac fetal gene expression from being silenced by HEY to being activated by BRG1. Thus, we present a novel pathway for pathological cardiac hypertrophy, whose inhibition is a long-term therapeutic goal for the treatment of the course of heart failure. Y1 - 2016 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1093/nar/gkv1244 SN - 0305-1048 SN - 1362-4962 VL - 44 SP - 2538 EP - 2553 PB - Oxford Univ. Press CY - Oxford ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Cui, Pin A1 - Löber, Ulrike A1 - Alquezar-Planas, David E. A1 - Ishida, Yasuko A1 - Courtiol, Alexandre A1 - Timms, Peter A1 - Johnson, Rebecca N. A1 - Lenz, Dorina A1 - Helgen, Kristofer M. A1 - Roca, Alfred L. A1 - Hartman, Stefanie A1 - Greenwood, Alex D. T1 - Comprehensive profiling of retroviral integration sites using target enrichment methods from historical koala samples without an assembled reference genome JF - PeerJ N2 - Background. Retroviral integration into the host germline results in permanent viral colonization of vertebrate genomes. The koala retrovirus (KoRV) is currently invading the germline of the koala (Phascolarctos cinereus) and provides a unique opportunity for studying retroviral endogenization. Previous analysis of KoRV integration patterns in modern koalas demonstrate that they share integration sites primarily if they are related, indicating that the process is currently driven by vertical transmission rather than infection. However, due to methodological challenges, KoRV integrations have not been comprehensively characterized. Results. To overcome these challenges, we applied and compared three target enrichment techniques coupled with next generation sequencing (NGS) and a newly customized sequence-clustering based computational pipeline to determine the integration sites for 10 museum Queensland and New South Wales (NSW) koala samples collected between the 1870s and late 1980s. A secondary aim of this study sought to identify common integration sites across modern and historical specimens by comparing our dataset to previously published studies. Several million sequences were processed, and the KoRV integration sites in each koala were characterized. Conclusions. Although the three enrichment methods each exhibited bias in integration site retrieval, a combination of two methods, Primer Extension Capture and hybridization capture is recommended for future studies on historical samples. Moreover, identification of integration sites shows that the proportion of integration sites shared between any two koalas is quite small. KW - Integration sites KW - Retroviral endogenization KW - KoRV KW - Target enrichment KW - Clustering Y1 - 2016 U6 - https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.1847 SN - 2167-8359 VL - 4 PB - PeerJ Inc. CY - London ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Cuong Nguyen Huu, A1 - Kappel, Christian A1 - Keller, Barbara A1 - Sicard, Adrien A1 - Takebayashi, Yumiko A1 - Breuninger, Holger A1 - Nowak, Michael D. A1 - Bäurle, Isabel A1 - Himmelbach, Axel A1 - Burkart, Michael A1 - Ebbing-Lohaus, Thomas A1 - Sakakibara, Hitoshi A1 - Altschmied, Lothar A1 - Conti, Elena A1 - Lenhard, Michael T1 - Presence versus absence of CYP734A50 underlies the style-length dimorphism in primroses JF - eLife N2 - Heterostyly is a wide-spread floral adaptation to promote outbreeding, yet its genetic basis and evolutionary origin remain poorly understood. In Primula (primroses), heterostyly is controlled by the S-locus supergene that determines the reciprocal arrangement of reproductive organs and incompatibility between the two morphs. However, the identities of the component genes remain unknown. Here, we identify the Primula CYP734A50 gene, encoding a putative brassinosteroid-degrading enzyme, as the G locus that determines the style-length dimorphism. CYP734A50 is only present on the short-styled S-morph haplotype, it is specifically expressed in S-morph styles, and its loss or inactivation leads to long styles. The gene arose by a duplication specific to the Primulaceae lineage and shows an accelerated rate of molecular evolution. Thus, our results provide a mechanistic explanation for the Primula style-length dimorphism and begin to shed light on the evolution of the S-locus as a prime model for a complex plant supergene. Y1 - 2016 U6 - https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.17956 SN - 2050-084X VL - 5 PB - eLife Sciences Publications CY - Cambridge ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Czesnick, Hjördis A1 - Lenhard, Michael T1 - Antagonistic control of flowering time by functionally specialized poly(A) polymerases in Arabidopsis thaliana JF - The plant journal N2 - Polyadenylation is a critical 3-end processing step during maturation of pre-mRNAs, and the length of the poly(A) tail affects mRNA stability, nuclear export and translation efficiency. The Arabidopsis thaliana genome encodes three canonical nuclear poly(A) polymerase (PAPS) isoforms fulfilling specialized functions, as reflected by their different mutant phenotypes. While PAPS1 affects several processes, such as the immune response, organ growth and male gametophyte development, the roles of PAPS2 and PAPS4 are largely unknown. Here we demonstrate that PAPS2 and PAPS4 promote flowering in a partially redundant manner. The enzymes act antagonistically to PAPS1, which delays the transition to flowering. The opposite flowering-time phenotypes in paps1 and paps2 paps4 mutants are at least partly due to decreased or increased FLC activity, respectively. In contrast to paps2 paps4 mutants, plants with increased PAPS4 activity flower earlier than the wild-type, concomitant with reduced FLC expression. Double mutant analyses suggest that PAPS2 and PAPS4 act independently of the autonomous pathway components FCA, FY and CstF64. The direct polyadenylation targets of the three PAPS isoforms that mediate their effects on flowering time do not include FLC sense mRNA and remain to be identified. Thus, our results uncover a role for canonical PAPS isoforms in flowering-time control, raising the possibility that modulating the balance of the isoform activities could be used to fine tune the transition to flowering. Significance Statement The length of the poly(A) tail affects mRNA stability, nuclear export and translation efficiency. Arabidopsis has three isoforms of nuclear poly(A) polymerase (PAPS): PAPS1 plays a major role in organ growth and plant defence. Here we show that PAPS2 and PAPS4 redundantly promote flowering and act antagonistically to PAPS1, which delays flowering. We suggest that modulating the activity of these isoforms fine-tunes the transition to flowering. KW - polyadenylation KW - 3-end processing KW - poly(A) polymerase KW - flowering time KW - autonomous pathway KW - Arabidopsis thaliana Y1 - 2016 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1111/tpj.13280 SN - 0960-7412 SN - 1365-313X VL - 88 SP - 570 EP - 583 PB - Wiley-Blackwell CY - Hoboken ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Czolkos, Ilja A1 - Dock, Eva A1 - Tonning, Erik A1 - Christensen, Jakob A1 - Winther-Nielsen, Margrethe A1 - Carlsson, Charlotte A1 - Mojzikova, Renata A1 - Skladal, Petr A1 - Wollenberger, Ursula A1 - Norgaard, Lars A1 - Ruzgas, Tautgirdas A1 - Emneus, Jenny T1 - Prediction of wastewater quality using amperometric bioelectronic tongues JF - Marine policy N2 - Wastewater samples from a Swedish chemi-thermo-mechanical pulp (CTMP) mill collected at different purification stages in a wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) were analyzed with an amperometric enzyme-based biosensor array in a flow-injection system. In order to resolve the complex composition of the wastewater, the array consists of several sensing elements which yield a multidimensional response. We used principal component analysis (PCA) to decompose the array's responses, and found that wastewater with different degrees of pollution can be differentiated. With the help of partial least squares regression (PLS-R), we could link the sensor responses to the toxicity parameter, as well as to global organic pollution parameters (COD, BOD, and TOC). From investigating the influences of individual sensors in the array, it was found that the best models were in most cases obtained when all sensors in the array were included in the PLS-R model. We find that fast simultaneous determination of several global environmental parameters characterizing wastewaters is possible with this kind of biosensor array, in particular because of the link between the sensor responses and the biological effect onto the ecosystem into which the wastewater would be released. In conjunction with multivariate data analysis tools, there is strong potential to reduce the total time until a result is yielded from days to a few minutes. KW - Biosensor array KW - Electronic tongue KW - Amperometric sensor KW - Screen-printed electrode KW - Multivariate data analysis KW - Chemometrics KW - Wastewater KW - Toxicity KW - Phenolic compounds Y1 - 2016 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bios.2015.08.055 SN - 0956-5663 SN - 1873-4235 VL - 75 SP - 375 EP - 382 PB - Elsevier CY - Oxford ER - TY - JOUR A1 - de Vinuesa, Amaya Garcia A1 - Abdelilah-Seyfried, Salim A1 - Knaus, Petra A1 - Zwijsen, An A1 - Bailly, Sabine T1 - BMP signaling in vascular biology and dysfunction JF - New journal of physics : the open-access journal for physics N2 - The vascular system is critical for developmental growth, tissue homeostasis and repair but also for tumor development. Bone morphogenetic protein (BMP) signaling has recently emerged as a fundamental pathway of the endothelium by regulating cardiovascular and lymphatic development and by being causative for several vascular dysfunctions. Two vascular disorders have been directly linked to impaired BMP signaling: pulmonary arterial hypertension and hereditary hemorrhagic telangiectasia. Endothelial BMP signaling critically depends on the cellular context, which includes among others vascular heterogeneity, exposure to flow, and the intertwining with other signaling cascades (Notch, WNT, Hippo and hypoxia). The purpose of this review is to highlight the most recent findings illustrating the clear need for reconsidering the role of BMPs in vascular biology. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. KW - Bone morphogenetic proteins (BMP) KW - Signaling KW - Vasculature KW - Development KW - Disease Y1 - 2016 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cytogfr.2015.12.005 SN - 1359-6101 SN - 1879-0305 VL - 27 SP - 65 EP - 79 PB - Elsevier CY - Oxford ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Dejonghe, Wim A1 - Kuenen, Sabine A1 - Mylle, Evelien A1 - Vasileva, Mina A1 - Keech, Olivier A1 - Viotti, Corrado A1 - Swerts, Jef A1 - Fendrych, Matyas A1 - Ortiz-Morea, Fausto Andres A1 - Mishev, Kiril A1 - Delang, Simon A1 - Scholl, Stefan A1 - Zarza, Xavier A1 - Heilmann, Mareike A1 - Kourelis, Jiorgos A1 - Kasprowicz, Jaroslaw A1 - Nguyen, Le Son Long A1 - Drozdzecki, Andrzej A1 - Van Houtte, Isabelle A1 - Szatmari, Anna-Maria A1 - Majda, Mateusz A1 - Baisa, Gary A1 - Bednarek, Sebastian York A1 - Robert, Stephanie A1 - Audenaert, Dominique A1 - Testerink, Christa A1 - Munnik, Teun A1 - Van Damme, Daniel A1 - Heilmann, Ingo A1 - Schumacher, Karin A1 - Winne, Johan A1 - Friml, Jiri A1 - Verstreken, Patrik A1 - Russinova, Eugenia T1 - Mitochondrial uncouplers inhibit clathrin-mediated endocytosis largely through cytoplasmic acidification JF - Nature Communications N2 - ATP production requires the establishment of an electrochemical proton gradient across the inner mitochondrial membrane. Mitochondrial uncouplers dissipate this proton gradient and disrupt numerous cellular processes, including vesicular trafficking, mainly through energy depletion. Here we show that Endosidin9 (ES9), a novel mitochondrial uncoupler, is a potent inhibitor of clathrin-mediated endocytosis (CME) in different systems and that ES9 induces inhibition of CME not because of its effect on cellular ATP, but rather due to its protonophore activity that leads to cytoplasm acidification. We show that the known tyrosine kinase inhibitor tyrphostinA23, which is routinely used to block CME, displays similar properties, thus questioning its use as a specific inhibitor of cargo recognition by the AP-2 adaptor complex via tyrosine motif-based endocytosis signals. Furthermore, we show that cytoplasm acidification dramatically affects the dynamics and recruitment of clathrin and associated adaptors, and leads to reduction of phosphatidylinositol 4,5-biphosphate from the plasma membrane. Y1 - 2016 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms11710 SN - 2041-1723 VL - 7 SP - 1959 EP - 1968 PB - Nature Publ. Group CY - London ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Dellinger, Agnes S. A1 - Essl, Franz A1 - Hojsgaard, Diego A1 - Kirchheimer, Bernhard A1 - Klatt, Simone A1 - Dawson, Wayne A1 - Pergl, Jan A1 - Pysek, Petr A1 - van Kleunen, Mark A1 - Weber, Ewald A1 - Winter, Marten A1 - Hoerandl, Elvira A1 - Dullinger, Stefan T1 - Niche dynamics of alien species do not differ among sexual and apomictic flowering plants JF - New phytologist : international journal of plant science N2 - We compiled global occurrence data sets of 13 congeneric sexual and apomictic species pairs, and used principal components analysis (PCA) and kernel smoothers to compare changes in climatic niche optima, breadths and unfilling/expansion between native and alien ranges. Niche change metrics were compared between sexual and apomictic species. All 26 species showed changes in niche optima and/or breadth and 14 species significantly expanded their climatic niches. However, we found no effect of the reproductive system on niche dynamics. Instead, species with narrower native niches showed higher rates of niche expansion in the alien ranges. Our results suggest that niche shifts are frequent in plant invasions but evolutionary potential may not be of major importance for such shifts. Niche dynamics rather appear to be driven by changes of the realized niche without adaptive change of the fundamental climatic niche. KW - adaptation KW - asexual reproduction KW - niche shifts KW - plant invasion KW - reproductive system KW - species distribution modelling Y1 - 2016 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1111/nph.13694 SN - 0028-646X SN - 1469-8137 VL - 209 SP - 1313 EP - 1323 PB - Wiley-Blackwell CY - Hoboken ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Dongmo, Saustin A1 - Leyk, Janina A1 - Dosche, Carsten A1 - Richter-Landsberg, Christiane A1 - Wollenberger, Ursula A1 - Wittstock, Gunther T1 - Electrogeneration of O-2(center dot-) and H2O2 Using Polymer-modified Microelectrodes in the Environment of Living Cells JF - Electroanalysis : an international journal devoted to fundamental and practical aspects of electroanalysis N2 - Microelectrodes modified with electropolymerized plumbagin (PLG) were used for the generation of superoxide radical (O-2(center dot-)) and hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) during oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) in an aqueous medium, specifically in serum-free cell culture media. This is enabled by the specific design of a polymer film on the microelectrode. The generation and diffusion of O-2(center dot-) during electrocatalytic ORR at a positionable PLG polymer-modified microelectrode was followed by fluorescence microscopy with the selective dye 4-chloro-7-nitrobenzo-2-oxa-1,3-diazole (NBD-Cl) and by amperometric detection using a cytochrome c-modified electrode at + 0.13 V. H2O2 production, either by direct oxygen reduction or as product of O-2(center dot-) disproportionation, was monitored by the reaction with Amplex UltraRed. The PLG polymer-modified microelectrodes were used to expose mammalian B6-RPE07 retinal cells to defined local fluxes of reactive oxygen species (ROS), and cellular responses and morphological alterations were observed. The use of a controllable source of ROS opens many possibilities to study how living cells respond to the presence of a certain flux of specific ROS. KW - reactive oxygen species KW - microelectrode KW - scanning electrochemical microscopy KW - biosensor KW - polymer-modified electrode KW - oxygen reduction reaction Y1 - 2016 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1002/elan.201600267 SN - 1040-0397 SN - 1521-4109 VL - 28 SP - 2400 EP - 2407 PB - Wiley-VCH CY - Weinheim ER - TY - THES A1 - Dotzek, Jana T1 - Mitochondria in the genus Oenothera - Non-Mendelian inheritance patterns, in vitro structure and evolutionary dynamics Y1 - 2016 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Drygala, Frank A1 - Korablev, Nikolay A1 - Ansorge, Hermann A1 - Fickel, Jörns A1 - Isomursu, Marja A1 - Elmeros, Morten A1 - Kowalczyk, Rafal A1 - Baltrunaite, Laima A1 - Balciauskas, Linas A1 - Saarma, Urmas A1 - Schulze, Christoph A1 - Borkenhagen, Peter A1 - Frantz, Alain C. T1 - Homogenous Population Genetic Structure of the Non-Native Raccoon Dog (Nyctereutes procyonoides) in Europe as a Result of Rapid Population Expansion JF - PLoS one N2 - The extent of gene flow during the range expansion of non-native species influences the amount of genetic diversity retained in expanding populations. Here, we analyse the population genetic structure of the raccoon dog (Nyctereutes procyonoides) in north-eastern and central Europe. This invasive species is of management concern because it is highly susceptible to fox rabies and an important secondary host of the virus. We hypothesized that the large number of introduced animals and the species’ dispersal capabilities led to high population connectivity and maintenance of genetic diversity throughout the invaded range. We genotyped 332 tissue samples from seven European countries using 16 microsatellite loci. Different algorithms identified three genetic clusters corresponding to Finland, Denmark and a large ‘central’ population that reached from introduction areas in western Russia to northern Germany. Cluster assignments provided evidence of long-distance dispersal. The results of an Approximate Bayesian Computation analysis supported a scenario of equal effective population sizes among different pre-defined populations in the large central cluster. Our results are in line with strong gene flow and secondary admixture between neighbouring demes leading to reduced genetic structuring, probably a result of its fairly rapid population expansion after introduction. The results presented here are remarkable in the sense that we identified a homogenous genetic cluster inhabiting an area stretching over more than 1500km. They are also relevant for disease management, as in the event of a significant rabies outbreak, there is a great risk of a rapid virus spread among raccoon dog populations. Y1 - 2016 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0153098 SN - 1932-6203 VL - 11 SP - 933 EP - 938 PB - PLoS CY - San Fransisco ER - TY - THES A1 - Ebrahimian Motlagh, Saghar T1 - Functional characterization of stress-responsive transcription factors and their gene regulatory networks in Arabidopsis thaliana Y1 - 2016 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Edlich, Alexander A1 - Gerecke, Christian A1 - Giulbudagian, Michael A1 - Neumann, Falko A1 - Hedtrich, Sarah A1 - Schaefer-Korting, Monika A1 - Ma, Nan A1 - Calderon, Marcelo A1 - Kleuser, Burkhard T1 - Specific uptake mechanisms of well-tolerated thermoresponsive polyglycerol-based nanogels in antigen-presenting cells of the skin JF - European Journal of Pharmaceutics and Biopharmaceutics N2 - Engineered nanogels are of high value for a targeted and controlled transport of compounds due to the ability to change their chemical properties by external stimuli. As it has been indicated that nanogels possess a high ability to penetrate the stratum corneum, it cannot be excluded that nanogels interact with dermal dendritic cells, especially in diseased skin. In this study the potential crosstalk of the thermore-sponsive nanogels (tNGs) with the dendritic cells of the skin was investigated with the aim to determine the immunotoxicological properties of the nanogels. The investigated tNGs were made of dendritic polyglycerol (dPG) and poly(glycidyl methyl ether-co-ethyl glycidyl ether) (p(GME-co-EGE)), as polymer conferring thermoresponsive properties. Although the tNGs were taken up, they displayed neither cytotoxic and genotoxic effects nor any induction of reactive oxygen species in the tested cells. Interestingly, specific uptake mechanisms of the tNGs by the dendritic cells were depending on the nanogels cloud point temperature (Tcp), which determines the phase transition of the nanoparticle. The study points to caveolae-mediated endocytosis as being the major tNGs uptake mechanism at 37 degrees C, which is above the Tcp of the tNGs. Remarkably, an additional uptake mechanism, beside caveolae-mediated endocytosis, was observed at 29 degrees C, which is the Tcp of the tNGs. At this temperature, which is characterized by two different states of the tNGs, macropinocytosis was involved as well. In summary, our study highlights the impact of thermoresponsivity on the cellular uptake mechanisms which has to be taken into account if the tNGs are used as a drug delivery system. KW - Dendritic cells KW - Drug delivery systems KW - Nanogel KW - Nanoparticle KW - Nanoparticle uptake KW - Nanotoxicology Y1 - 2017 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejpb.2016.12.016 SN - 0939-6411 SN - 1873-3441 VL - 116 SP - 155 EP - 163 PB - Elsevier CY - Amsterdam ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Edlich-Muth, Christian A1 - Muraya, Moses M. A1 - Altmann, Thomas A1 - Selbig, Joachim T1 - Phenomic prediction of maize hybrids JF - Biosystems : journal of biological and information processing sciences N2 - Phenomic experiments are carried out in large-scale plant phenotyping facilities that acquire a large number of pictures of hundreds of plants simultaneously. With the aid of automated image processing, the data are converted into genotype-feature matrices that cover many consecutive days of development. Here, we explore the possibility of predicting the biomass of the fully grown plant from early developmental stage image-derived features. We performed phenomic experiments on 195 inbred and 382 hybrid maizes varieties and followed their progress from 16 days after sowing (DAS) to 48 DAS with 129 image-derived features. By applying sparse regression methods, we show that 73% of the variance in hybrid fresh weight of fully-grown plants is explained by about 20 features at the three-leaf-stage or earlier. Dry weight prediction explained over 90% of the variance. When phenomic features of parental inbred lines were used as predictors of hybrid biomass, the proportion of variance explained was 42 and 45%, for fresh weight and dry weight models consisting of 35 and 36 features, respectively. These models were very robust, showing only a small amount of variation in performance over the time scale of the experiment. We also examined mid-parent heterosis in phenomic features. Feature heterosis displayed a large degree of variance which resulted in prediction performance that was less robust than models of either parental or hybrid predictors. Our results show that phenomic prediction is a viable alternative to genomic and metabolic prediction of hybrid performance. In particular, the utility of early-stage parental lines is very encouraging. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved. KW - Hybrid prediction KW - LASSO KW - Regression KW - Maize KW - Phenomics Y1 - 2016 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biosystems.2016.05.008 SN - 0303-2647 SN - 1872-8324 VL - 146 SP - 102 EP - 109 PB - Elsevier CY - Oxford ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Eldridge, Tilly A1 - Langowski, Lukasz A1 - Stacey, Nicola A1 - Jantzen, Friederike A1 - Moubayidin, Laila A1 - Sicard, Adrien A1 - Southam, Paul A1 - Kennaway, Richard A1 - Lenhard, Michael A1 - Coen, Enrico S. A1 - Ostergaard, Lars T1 - Fruit shape diversity in the Brassicaceae is generated by varying patterns of anisotropy JF - Development : Company of Biologists N2 - Fruits exhibit a vast array of different 3D shapes, from simple spheres and cylinders to more complex curved forms; however, the mechanism by which growth is oriented and coordinated to generate this diversity of forms is unclear. Here, we compare the growth patterns and orientations for two very different fruit shapes in the Brassicaceae: the heart-shaped Capsella rubella silicle and the near-cylindrical Arabidopsis thaliana silique. We show, through a combination of clonal and morphological analyses, that the different shapes involve different patterns of anisotropic growth during three phases. These experimental data can be accounted for by a tissue level model in which specified growth rates vary in space and time and are oriented by a proximodistal polarity field. The resulting tissue conflicts lead to deformation of the tissue as it grows. The model allows us to identify tissue-specific and temporally specific activities required to obtain the individual shapes. One such activity may be provided by the valve-identity gene FRUITFULL, which we show through comparative mutant analysis to modulate fruit shape during post-fertilisation growth of both species. Simple modulations of the model presented here can also broadly account for the variety of shapes in other Brassicaceae species, thus providing a simplified framework for fruit development and shape diversity. KW - Brassicaceae KW - Capsella KW - Arabidopsis KW - Fruit shape KW - Modelling KW - Anisotropic growth Y1 - 2016 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1242/dev.135327 SN - 0950-1991 SN - 1477-9129 VL - 143 SP - 3394 EP - 3406 PB - Company of Biologists Limited CY - Cambridge ER - TY - GEN A1 - Eldridge, Tilly A1 - Łangowski, Łukasz A1 - Stacey, Nicola A1 - Jantzen, Friederike A1 - Moubayidin, Laila A1 - Sicard, Adrien A1 - Southam, Paul A1 - Kennaway, Richard A1 - Lenhard, Michael A1 - Coen, Enrico S. A1 - Østergaard, Lars T1 - Fruit shape diversity in the Brassicaceae is generated by varying patterns of anisotropy T2 - Postprints der Universität Potsdam : Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftliche Reihe N2 - Fruits exhibit a vast array of different 3D shapes, from simple spheres and cylinders to more complex curved forms; however, the mechanism by which growth is oriented and coordinated to generate this diversity of forms is unclear. Here, we compare the growth patterns and orientations for two very different fruit shapes in the Brassicaceae: the heart-shaped Capsella rubella silicle and the near-cylindrical Arabidopsis thaliana silique. We show, through a combination of clonal and morphological analyses, that the different shapes involve different patterns of anisotropic growth during three phases. These experimental data can be accounted for by a tissue level model in which specified growth rates vary in space and time and are oriented by a proximodistal polarity field. The resulting tissue conflicts lead to deformation of the tissue as it grows. The model allows us to identify tissue-specific and temporally specific activities required to obtain the individual shapes. One such activity may be provided by the valve-identity gene FRUITFULL, which we show through comparative mutant analysis to modulate fruit shape during post-fertilisation growth of both species. Simple modulations of the model presented here can also broadly account for the variety of shapes in other Brassicaceae species, thus providing a simplified framework for fruit development and shape diversity. T3 - Zweitveröffentlichungen der Universität Potsdam : Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftliche Reihe - 986 KW - Brassicaceae KW - Capsella KW - arabidopsis KW - fruit shape KW - modelling KW - anisotropic growth Y1 - 2020 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-438041 SN - 1866-8372 IS - 986 SP - 3394 EP - 3406 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Erdossy, Julia A1 - Horvath, Viola A1 - Yarman, Aysu A1 - Scheller, Frieder W. A1 - Gyurcsanyi, Robert E. T1 - Electrosynthesized molecularly imprinted polymers for protein recognition JF - Trends in Analytical Chemistry N2 - Molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs) for the recognition of proteins are expected to possess high affinity through the establishment of multiple interactions between the polymer matrix and the large number of functional groups of the target. However, while highly affine recognition sites need building blocks rich in complementary functionalities to their target, such units are likely to generate high levels of nonspecific binding. This paradox, that nature solved by evolution for biological receptors, needs to be addressed by the implementation of new concepts in molecular imprinting of proteins. Additionally, the structural variability, large size and incompatibility with a range of monomers made the development of protein MIPs to take a slow start. While the majority of MIP preparation methods are variants of chemical polymerization, the polymerization of electroactive functional monomers emerged as a particularly advantageous approach for chemical sensing application. Electropolymerization can be performed from aqueous solutions to preserve the natural conformation of the protein templates, with high spatial resolution and electrochemical control of the polymerization process. This review compiles the latest results, identifying major trends and providing an outlook on the perspectives of electrosynthesised protein-imprinted MIPs for chemical sensing. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. KW - Molecularly imprinted polymers KW - Proteins KW - Surface imprinting KW - Electropolymerization KW - Nanostructuring KW - Hybrid nanofilms Y1 - 2016 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.trac.2015.12.018 SN - 0165-9936 SN - 1879-3142 VL - 79 SP - 179 EP - 190 PB - Elsevier CY - Oxford ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Falk, Thomas A1 - Lohmann, Dirk A1 - Azebaze, Nadege T1 - Congruence of appropriation and provision in collective water provision in Central Namibia JF - International journal of the commons N2 - Achieving cooperation in natural resource management is always a challenge when incentives exist for an individual to maximise her short term benefits at the cost of a group. We study a public good social dilemma in water infrastructure provision on land reform farms in Namibia. In the context of the Namibian land reform, arbitrarily mixed groups of livestock farmers have to share the operation and maintenance of water infrastructure. Typically, water is mainly used for livestock production, and livestock numbers are subject to high fluctuations due to the given environmental conditions. Our paper assesses how alternative payment systems with differing congruence of provision and appropriation support the cooperation in the group given the ever-changing equilibria. In a first step, we conducted an exploratory overview of the social-ecological system of central Namibian land reform projects. The Social Ecological System (SES) Framework served as a guideline for this assessment (Ostrom 2009). Taking the complexity of the cooperation situation into account, in the second step we designed a role-play that is based on a social-ecological simulation model. The role-play simulates the real-life decision situations of land reform beneficiaries wherein equilibria are permanently changing. This approach helped us to not only better understand the cooperation challenges of Namibian land reform beneficiaries, but also supported stakeholders in their decision making and institution building. Our study provides evidence to support that land reform beneficiaries increase their contributions as they own more livestock and as other group members increase their payments. Nevertheless, only groups with relatively homogeneous livestock endowments manage to agree on payment rules. Interestingly, the dominant rule is an "equal payment per farmer" and not a "payment per head of livestock", though the latter would imply a higher congruence of provision and appropriation. KW - Land reform KW - Namibia KW - participatory ecological-economic modelling KW - public good KW - role play KW - savanna rangeland Y1 - 2016 U6 - https://doi.org/10.18352/ijc.583 SN - 1875-0281 VL - 10 SP - 71 EP - 118 PB - Brill CY - Urtrecht ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Feoktistova, Natalia A1 - Rose, Jürgen A1 - Prokopovic, Vladimir Z. A1 - Vikulina, Anna S. A1 - Skirtach, Andre A1 - Volodkin, Dmitry T1 - Controlling the Vaterite CaCO3 Crystal Pores. Design of Tailor-Made Polymer Based Microcapsules by Hard Templating JF - Langmuir N2 - The spherical vaterite CaCO3 microcrystals are nowadays widely used as sacrificial templates for fabrication of various microcarriers made of biopolymers (e.g., proteins, nucleic acids, enzymes) due to porous structure and mild template elimination conditions. Here, we demonstrated for the first time that polymer microcarriers with tuned internal nanoarchitecture can be designed by employing the CaCO3 crystals of controlled porosity. The layer-by-layer deposition has been utilized to assemble shell-like (hollow) and matrix-like (filled) polymer capsules due to restricted and free polymer diffusion through the crystal pores, respectively. The crystal pore size in the range of few tens of nanometers can be adjusted without any additives by variation of the crystal preparation temperature in the range 745 degrees C. The temperature-mediated growth mechanism is explained by the Ostwald ripening of nanocrystallites forming the crystal secondary structure. Various techniques including SEM, AFM, CLSM, Raman microscopy, nitrogen adsorptiondesorption, and XRD have been employed for crystal and microcapsule analysis. A three-dimensional model is introduced to describe the crystal internal structure and predict the pore cutoff and available surface for the pore diffusing molecules. Inherent biocompatibility of CaCO3 and a possibility to scale the porosity in the size range of typical biomacromolecules make the CaCO3 crystals extremely attractive tools for template assisted designing tailor-made biopolymer-based architectures in 2D to 3D targeted at drug delivery and other bioapplications. Y1 - 2016 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.langmuir.6b00717 SN - 0743-7463 VL - 32 SP - 4229 EP - 4238 PB - American Chemical Society CY - Washington ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Fer, Istem A1 - Tietjen, Britta A1 - Jeltsch, Florian T1 - High-resolution modelling closes the gap between data and model simulations for Mid-Holocene and present-day biomes of East Africa JF - Palaeogeography, palaeoclimatology, palaeoecology : an international journal for the geo-sciences N2 - East Africa hosts a striking diversity of terrestrial ecosystems, which vary both in space and time due to complex regional topography and a dynamic climate. The structure and functioning of these ecosystems under this environmental setting can be studied with dynamic vegetation models (DVMs) in a spatially explicit way. Yet, regional applications of DVMs to East Africa are rare and a comprehensive validation of such applications is missing. Here, we simulated the present-day and mid-Holocene vegetation of East Africa with the DVM, LPJ-GUESS and we conducted an exhaustive comparison of model outputs with maps of potential modern vegetation distribution, and with pollen records of local change through time. Overall, the model was able to reproduce the observed spatial patterns of East African vegetation. To see whether running the model at higher spatial resolutions (10′ × 10′) contribute to resolve the vegetation distribution better and have a better comparison scale with the observational data (i.e. pollen data), we run the model with coarser spatial resolution (0.5° × 0.5°) for the present-day as well. Both the area- and point-wise comparison showed that a higher spatial resolution allows to better describe spatial vegetation changes induced by the complex topography of East Africa. Our analysis of the difference between modelled mid-Holocene and modern-day vegetation showed that whether a biome shifts to another is best explained by both the amount of change in precipitation it experiences and the amount of precipitation it received originally. We also confirmed that tropical forest biomes were more sensitive to a decrease in precipitation compared to woodland and savanna biomes and that Holocene vegetation changes in East Africa were driven not only by changes in annual precipitation but also by changes in its seasonality. KW - Dynamic vegetation models KW - Biome KW - Mid-Holocene KW - Leaf area index KW - Climate change KW - East Africa Y1 - 2016 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.palaeo.2015.12.001 SN - 0031-0182 SN - 1872-616X VL - 444 SP - 144 EP - 151 PB - Elsevier CY - Amsterdam ER - TY - THES A1 - Fiedler, Dorothea T1 - Impact of Dissolved Organic Nitrogen on Freshwater Phytoplankton N2 - In freshwater sciences, nitrogen gained increasing attention in the past as an important resource potentially influencing phytoplankton growth and thus eutrophication. Most studies and all management approaches, however, are still restricted to dissolved inorganic nitrogen (DIN = nitrate + nitrite + ammonium) since dissolved organic nitrogen (DON) was considered to be refractory for most of the photoautotrophs. In the meantime this assumption has been disproved for all aquatic systems. While research on DON in marine ecosystems substantially increased, in freshwater a surprisingly small number of investigations has been carried out on DON utilization by phytoplankton or even the occurrence and seasonal development of total DON or its compounds in lakes. Therefore, our present knowledge on DON utilization by phytoplankton is often based on single species experiments using a sole, usually low molecular weight DON component, often in unnaturally high amounts mainly carried out with marine phytoplankton species. Thus, we know that some phytoplankton species can take up different DON fractions if they are available in high concentrations and as sole nitrogen source. This does not necessarily imply that phytoplankton would perform likewise in natural environments. In addition, it will be difficult to draw conclusions on the behavior of freshwater phytoplankton from experiments with marine phytoplankton since the nutrient regime in marine environments differs from that of freshwater. In the light of the parallel availability of inorganic and organic nitrogen species in natural freshwater ecosystems, several questions must be raised: "If inorganic nitrogen is available, would phytoplankton really rely on an organic nitrogen source? Could a connection be detected between the seasonal development of DON and changes in the phytoplankton community composition as found for inorganic nitrogen? And if we reduce the input of inorganic nitrogen in lakes and rivers would the importance of DON as nitrogen source for phytoplankton increase, counteracting all management efforts or even leading to undesired effects due to changes in phytoplankton physiology and biodiversity?" I experimentally addressed the questions whether those DON compounds differentially influence growth, physiology and composition of phytoplankton both as sole available nitrogen source and in combination with other nitrogen compounds. I hypothesized that all offered DON - compounds (urea, natural organic matter (NOM), dissolved free and combined amino acids (DFAA, DCAA)) could be utilized by phytoplankton at natural concentrations. However, I assumed that the availability would decrease with increasing compound complexity. I furthermore hypothesized that the occurrence of low DIN concentrations would not affect the utilization of DON negatively. The nitrogen source, whatsoever, would have an impact on phytoplankton physiology as well as community composition. To investigate these questions and assumptions I conducted bioassays with algae monocultures as well as phytoplankton communities testing the utilization of various DON compounds by several freshwater phytoplankton species. Especially the potential utilization of NOM, a complex DON compound mainly consisting of humic substances is of interest, since it is usually regarded to be refractory. In order to be able to use natural concentrations of DON - compounds for my experiments the concentration of total DON and some DON - compounds (urea, humic substances, heigh molecular weight substances) was assessed in Lake Müggelsee. All compounds were able to support algae growth in the low natural concentrations supplied. However, I found that the offered DON compounds differ in their availability to various algae species, both, as sole nitrogen source or in combination with low DIN concentrations. As expected, the availability decreased with increasing complexity of the nitrogen compound. Furthermore, I could show that changes in algal physiology (nitrogen storage, metabolism) occur depending on the utilized nitrogen source. Especially the secondary photosynthetic pigment composition, heterocyst frequency and C:N - ratio of the algae were affected. The uptake and usage of certain nitrogen compounds might be more costly, potentially resulting in those physiology changes. Whereas laboratory experiments with single species revealed strong effects of DON, algal responses to DON in a multi-species situation remain unclear. Experiments with phytoplankton communities from Lake Müggelsee revealed that the nitrogen pool composition does influence the phytoplankton community structure. The findings furthermore show that several species combined might utilize the supplied nitrogen completely different than monocultures in the laboratory. Thus, besides the actual ability of algae to use the offered nitrogen sources other factors, such as interspecific competition, may be of importance. I further investigated, if the results of the laboratory experiments, can be verified in the field. Here, I surveyed the seasonal development of several dissolved organic matter (DOM) components (urea, high molecular weight substances (HMWS), humic substances (HS)) and associated parameters (Specific UV-absorption (SUVA), C:N - ratio) in Lake Müggelsee between 2011 and 2013. Furthermore, data from the long term measurements series of Lake Müggelsee such as physical (temperature, light, pH, O2) and chemical parameters (nitrogen, phosphorous, silica, inorganic carbon), zooplankton and phytoplankton data were used to investigate how much of the variability of the phytoplankton composition in Lake Müggelsee can be explained by DON/DOM concentration and composition, relative to the other groups of explanatory variables. The results show that DON mainly consists of rather complex compounds such as humic substances and biopolymers (80 %) and that only slight seasonal trends are detectable. Using variance partitioning I could show, that the usually investigated nutrients (DIN, silica, inorganic carbon, phosphorous) and abiotic factors together explain most of the algae composition as was to be expected (57.1 % of modeled variance). However, DOM and the associated parameters uniquely explain 10.3 % of the variance and thus slightly more than zooplankton with 9.3 %. I could therefore prove, that the composition of DOM (nitrogen and carbon) is connected to the algae composition in an eutrophic lake such as Lake Müggelsee. DON - compounds such as urea, however, could not be correlated with the occurrence of specific phytoplankton species. Overall, the results of this study imply that DON can be a valuable nitrogen source for freshwater phytoplankton. DON is used by various species even when DIN is available in low concentrations. Through the reduction of DIN in lakes and rivers, the DON:DIN ratio might be changed, resulting even in an increased importance of DON as phytoplankton nitrogen source. My work suggests that not only N2-fixation but also DON utilization might compensate for reduced N - input. Changes from DIN to DON as main nitrogen source might also promote certain, potentially undesired algae species and influence the biodiversity of a limnic ecosystem through changes in the phytoplankton community structure. Thus, DON, especially urea, should be included in calculations concerning total available nitrogen and when determining nitrogen threshold values. Furthermore, the input-reduction of DON, for example from waste-water treatment plants should also be evaluated and the results of my thesis should find consideration when planning to reduce the nitrogen input in freshwater. N2 - Das Interesse an Stickstoff als potentielle Einflußgröße auf das Phytoplanktonwachstum und damit auch als Eutrophierungsfaktor hat in der Vergangenheit in der Limnologie stark zugenommen. Bisher ging man davon aus, das gelöster organischer Stickstoff (DON) für photoautotrophe Organismen refraktär, also nicht nutzbar ist. Dies führte dazu, dass der Großteil an Studien und Managementmaÿnahmen nur gelösten inorganischen Stickstoff (DIN = Nitrat + Nitrit + Ammonium) einbezieht. Mittlerweile wurde allerdings für alle aquatischen Systeme nachgewiesen, dass DON durchaus für Organismen verfügbar sein kann. Während die Forschung im marinen Bereich stark zugenommen hat, wurden in Binnengewässern nur sehr wenige Untersuchungen zur DON - Nutzung durch Phytoplankton oder auch nur das Vorkommen und die saisonale Entwicklung von DON oder seiner Komponenten durchgeführt. Dies resultiert darin, dass sich unser heutiges Wissen zur DON - Nutzung durch Pytoplankton hauptsächlich auf Experimente stützt, die mit einzelnen, überwiegend marinen Phytoplanktonarten und einer, üblicherweise niedermolekularen DON - Komponente in meist unnatürlich hohen Konzentrationen durchgeführt wurden. Demzufolge wissen wir nur, dass es einige Phytoplanktonarten gibt, die verschiedene DON - Fraktionen aufnehmen können, wenn sie in hohen Konzentrationen und als alleinige Stickstoffquelle vorliegen. Diese Ergebnisse spiegeln nicht das tatsächliche Verhalten von Phytoplankton in seiner natürlichen Umgebung wieder. Zudem ist es schwierig, von Experimenten mit marinen Phytoplanktonarten auf das Verhalten limnischer Phytoplankter zu schließen, da sich der Nährstoffhaushalt in marinen Systemen von dem in Binnengewässern stark unterscheidet. Im Hinblick auf die parallele Verfügbarkeit von inorganischem und organischem Stickstoff in natürlichen Binnengewässern stellen sich eine Vielzahl von Fragen: "Wie stark DON als Stickstoffquelle durch Phytoplankton genutzt wird, wenn auch inorganischer Stickstoff zur Verfügung steht. Gibt es eventuell eine Verbindung zwischen der saisonalen Entwicklung von DON und Änderungen in der Zusammensetzung der Phytoplanktongemeinschaft wie man es auch für inorganischen Stickstoff sowie andere biotische und abiotische Faktoren findet? Es ist bisher auch ungeklärt, ob durch eine Reduktion des Eintrags von inorganischem Stickstoff die Bedeutung von DON als Stickstoffquelle für Phytoplankton zunimmt. Würde so eventuell den Managmentmaßnahmen entgegengewirkt oder käme es zu ungewünschten Effekten durch Änderungen in Phytoplanktonphysiologie und Biodiversität?" Im Verlauf meiner Doktorarbeit habe ich mich mit einem Teil dieser offenen Fragen auseinandergesetzt. Meine Experimente dienten dazu herauszufinden, inwieweit sich verschiedene DON -Komponenten auf Wachstum, Physiologie und die Phytoplanktonzusammensetzung auswirken, wenn sie als einzige verfügbare Stickstoffquelle aber auch in Kombination mit anderen Stickstoffkomponenten zur Verfügung stehen. Hierbei stehen folgende Hypothesen und Annahmen im Vordergrund: a) alle angebotenen DON - Komponenten (Harnstoff, gelöste freie Aminosäuren (DFAA), gelöste gebundene Aminosäuren (DCAA) und natürliches organisches Material (NOM)) können in natürlicher Konzentration von Phytoplankton genutzt werden, b) die Verfügbarkeit nimmt mit zunehmender Komplexität des DON ab, c) geringe DIN - Konzentrationen haben keinen negativen Einfluss auf die Nutzung von DON durch das Phytoplankton, d) die Stickstoffquelle beeinflusst Phytoplanktonphysiologie sowie die Zusammensetzung der Phytoplanktongemeinschaft. Um mehr Informationen zur DON - Verfügbarkeit für Süßwasserphytoplankton zu erhalten, wurde zunächst die Nutzung verschiedener DON - Komponenten durch verschiedene Phytoplanktonspezies aus Binnengewässern sowie Phytoplanktongemeinschaften untersucht. Besonders die mögliche Nutzung von NOM, einer komplexen, hauptsächlich aus Huminstoffen bestehenden DON - Komponente war von Interesse, da sie überwiegend als refraktär eingeschätzt wird. Um die Verfügbarkeit diverser DON - Komponenten in natürlicher Konzentration zu testen, wurde zunächst die Konzentration von Gesamt - DON sowie einiger DON -Komponenten (Harnstoff, Huminstoffe, hochmolekulare Substanzen) im Müggelsee ermittelt. Alle DON - Komponenten ermöglichten ein Algenwachstum in der niedrigen natürlichen Konzentration, in der sie zur Verfügung gestellt wurden. Es konnte festgestellt werden, dass sich die unterschiedlichen DON - Komponenten in ihrer Verfügbarkeit für verschiedene Algenarten unterschieden, unabhängig davon, ob sie als alleinige Stickstoffquelle vorlagen oder in Kombination mit DIN in niedriger Konzentration. Wie erwartet nahm die Algenverfügbarkeit mit zunehmender Komplexität der Stickstoffkomponenten ab. Desweiteren konnte gezeigt werden, dass die verwendete Stickstoffquelle zu Änderungen in der Algenphysiologie (Metabolismus, Stickstoffspeicherung) führen kann. Vor allem die Zusammensetzung sekundärer Photosynthesepigmente, die Heterocystenhäufigkeit sowie das C:N - Verhältnis des Phytoplankton wurden beeinflusst. Auch wenn alle untersuchten Stickstoffquellen das Phytoplanktonwachstum ermöglichen, ist die Nutzung einiger Komponenten gegebenenfalls mit höheren Kosten z.B. für Transport, Aufschluß etc. verbunden, was wiederum in einer Änderungen der Phytoplanktonphysiologie resultieren kann. Während Experimente mit einzelnen Phytoplanktonarten im Labor starke Effekte von DON erkennen lassen, sind die Ergebnisse der Multi-Spezies-Versuche weniger eindeutig interpretierbar. Versuche mit Phytoplanktongemeinschaften aus dem Müggelsee zeigten, dass die Zusammensetzung des Stickstoffpools Auswirkungen auf die Struktur der Phytoplanktongemenschaft hat. Zudem nutzen verschiedene Arten zusammen den zur Verfügung gestellten Stickstoff anders, als Monokulturen im Labor. Demzufolge spielen neben der eigentlichen Fähigkeit der Algen, verschiedene Stickstoffkomponenten nutzen zu können noch andere Faktoren wie z.B. interspezifische Konkurrenz eine Rolle für die tatsächliche Nutzung im Gewässer. Im weiteren Teil meiner Doktorarbeit habe ich untersucht, inwieweit die Ergebnisse der Laborversuche im Feld verifiziert werden können. Dafür wurde die saisonale Entwicklung verschiedenen gelösten organischen Materials (DOM) (Harnstoff, hochmolekulare Substanzen (HMWS), Huminstoffe (HS)) und weitere assoziierte Parameter (spezifische UV-Absorption (SUVA), C:N - Verhältnis) im Müggelsee von 2011-2013 bestimmt. Desweiteren wurden Daten aus der Langzeitmessung vom Müggelsee verwendet, um herauszufinden, wieviel der Variabilität in der Phytoplanktonzusammensetzung im Müggelsee durch die DON / DOM Konzentration und Zusammensetzung erklärt werden, im Verhältnis zu den anderen potentiellen Einflussfaktoren. Hierzu zählen physikalische (Temperatur, Licht, pH, O2) und chemische Parameter (Stickstoff, Phosphor, Silikat, inorganischer Kohlenstoff), Zooplankton- und Phytoplanktondaten. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass sich DON hauptächlich aus komplexen Komponenten wie Huminstoffen und Biopolymeren (80 %) zusammensetzt und das nur ein geringer saisonaler Trend in der DON-Entwicklung festzustellen ist. Mittels Varianzpartitionierung konnte gezeigt werden, dass die üblicherweise untersuchten Nährstoffe (DIN, Silikat, inorganischer Kohlenstoff, Phosphor) und abiotische Faktoren zusammen den Großteil der Algenzusammensetzung erklären, wie zu erwarten war (57.1 %). DOM und die damit assoziierten Parameter konnten allein 10.3% der Varianz erklären und damit etwas mehr als Zooplankton, eine anerkannte Einflußgröße, mit 9.3%. Damit konnte gezeigt werden, dass auch die DOM - Zusammensetzung (Stickstoff und Kohlenstoff) als Einflussgröße der Algenzusammensetzung in einem eutrophen See wie dem Müggelsee berücksichtigt werden sollte. Zusammenfassend zeigen die Ergebnisse dieser Doktorarbeit, dass DON eine wichtige Stickstoffquelle für Phytoplankton aus Binnengewässern sein kann und von zahlreichen Arten genutzt wird, auch wenn DIN, zumindest in niedrigen Konzentrationen, verfügbar ist. Durch die Reduktion von DIN in Seen und Flüssen könnte es zu einer Änderung des DON / DIN - Verhältnisses kommen, was zu einer noch stärkeren Bedeutung von DON als Stickstoffquelle für Phytoplankton führen kann. Meine Arbeit legt nahe, dass nicht nur die N2 - Fixierung, sondern auch die Nutzung von DON eine Reduktion des Stickstoffeintrags kompensieren könnte. Ein Wechsel von DIN zu DON als Hauptstickstoffquelle für Phytoplankton fördert möglicherweise auch bestimmte unerwünschte Algenarten und beeinflusst die Biodiversität der Binnengewässer durch Änderungen in der Phytoplanktongemeinschaft. Aus diesen Gründen sollte DON, vor allem Harnstoff in Kalkulationen des gesamtverfögbaren Stickstoffs sowie bei der Ermittlung von Stickstoffgrenzwerten einbezogen werden. Bei der Planung von Maßnahmen zur Reduktion des Stickstoffeintrages in Binnengewässer zur Verbesserung der Wasserqualtät sollten die Ergebnisse dieser Doktorarbeit demzufolge in Betracht gezogen und auch eine Reduktion des DON - Eintrages, z. B. aus Klärwerken, erwogen werden. KW - DON KW - phytoplankton KW - natural organic matter KW - LC-OCD-OND Y1 - 2016 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Foti, Alessandro A1 - Hartmann, Tobias A1 - Coelho, Catarina A1 - Santos-Silva, Teresa A1 - Romao, Maria Joao A1 - Leimkühler, Silke T1 - Optimization of the Expression of Human Aldehyde Oxidase for Investigations of Single-Nucleotide Polymorphisms JF - Drug metabolism and disposition : the biological fate of chemicals N2 - Aldehyde oxidase (AOX1) is an enzyme with broad substrate specificity, catalyzing the oxidation of a wide range of endogenous and exogenous aldehydes as well as N-heterocyclic aromatic compounds. In humans, the enzyme’s role in phase I drug metabolism has been established and its importance is now emerging. However, the true physiologic function of AOX1 in mammals is still unknown. Further, numerous single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) have been identified in human AOX1. SNPs are a major source of interindividual variability in the human population, and SNP-based amino acid exchanges in AOX1 reportedly modulate the catalytic function of the enzyme in either a positive or negative fashion. For the reliable analysis of the effect of amino acid exchanges in human proteins, the existence of reproducible expression systems for the production of active protein in ample amounts for kinetic, spectroscopic, and crystallographic studies is required. In our study we report an optimized expression system for hAOX1 in Escherichia coli using a codon-optimized construct. The codon-optimization resulted in an up to 15-fold increase of protein production and a simplified purification procedure. The optimized expression system was used to study three SNPs that result in amino acid changes C44W, G1269R, and S1271L. In addition, the crystal structure of the S1271L SNP was solved. We demonstrate that the recombinant enzyme can be used for future studies to exploit the role of AOX in drug metabolism, and for the identification and synthesis of new drugs targeting AOX when combined with crystallographic and modeling studies. Y1 - 2016 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1124/dmd.115.068395 SN - 0090-9556 SN - 1521-009X VL - 44 SP - 1277 EP - 1285 PB - American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics CY - Bethesda ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Frickel, Jens A1 - Sieber, Michael A1 - Becks, Lutz T1 - Eco-evolutionary dynamics in a coevolving host-virus system JF - Ecology letters N2 - Eco-evolutionary dynamics have been shown to be important for understanding population and community stability and their adaptive potential. However, coevolution in the framework of eco-evolutionary theory has not been addressed directly. Combining experiments with an algal host and its viral parasite, and mathematical model analyses we show eco-evolutionary dynamics in antagonistic coevolving populations. The interaction between antagonists initially resulted in arms race dynamics (ARD) with selective sweeps, causing oscillating host-virus population dynamics. However, ARD ended and populations stabilised after the evolution of a general resistant host, whereas a trade-off between host resistance and growth then maintained host diversity over time (trade-off driven dynamics). Most importantly, our study shows that the interaction between ecology and evolution had important consequences for the predictability of the mode and tempo of adaptive change and for the stability and adaptive potential of populations. KW - Algae-virus KW - arms race KW - coevolution KW - eco-evolutionary dynamics KW - fluctuating selection KW - host-virus KW - infectivity KW - resistance KW - trade-off Y1 - 2016 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1111/ele.12580 SN - 1461-023X SN - 1461-0248 VL - 19 SP - 450 EP - 459 PB - Wiley-Blackwell CY - Hoboken ER - TY - THES A1 - Frieß, Fabian T1 - Shape-memory polymer micronetworks Y1 - 2016 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Gaubert, Philippe A1 - Patel, Riddhi P. A1 - Veron, Geraldine A1 - Goodman, Steven M. A1 - Willsch, Maraike A1 - Vasconcelos, Raquel A1 - Lourenco, Andre A1 - Sigaud, Marie A1 - Justy, Fabienne A1 - Joshi, Bheem Dutt A1 - Fickel, Jörns A1 - Wilting, Andreas T1 - Phylogeography of the Small Indian Civet and Origin of Introductions to Western Indian Ocean Islands JF - The journal of heredity : official journal of the American Genetic Association N2 - The biogeographic dynamics affecting the Indian subcontinent, East and Southeast Asia during the Plio-Pleistocene has generated complex biodiversity patterns. We assessed the molecular biogeography of the small Indian civet (Viverricula indica) through mitogenome and cytochrome b + control region sequencing of 89 historical and modern samples to (1) establish a time-calibrated phylogeography across the species’ native range and (2) test introduction scenarios to western Indian Ocean islands. Bayesian phylogenetic analyses identified 3 geographic lineages (East Asia, sister-group to Southeast Asia and the Indian subcontinent + northern Indochina) diverging 3.2–2.3 million years ago (Mya), with no clear signature of past demographic expansion. Within Southeast Asia, Balinese populations separated from the rest 2.6–1.3 Mya. Western Indian Ocean populations were assigned to the Indian subcontinent + northern Indochina lineage and had the lowest mitochondrial diversity. Approximate Bayesian computation did not distinguish between single versus multiple introduction scenarios. The early diversification of the small Indian civet was likely shaped by humid periods in the Late Pliocene–Early Pleistocene that created evergreen rainforest barriers, generating areas of intra-specific endemism in the Indian subcontinent, East, and Southeast Asia. Later, Pleistocene dispersals through drier conditions in South and Southeast Asia were likely, giving rise to the species’ current natural distribution. Our molecular data supported the delineation of only 4 subspecies in V. indica, including an endemic Balinese lineage. Our study also highlighted the influence of prefirst millennium AD introductions to western Indian Ocean islands, with Indian and/or Arab traders probably introducing the species for its civet oil. KW - Asia KW - biogeography KW - civet oil KW - mtDNA KW - Plio-Pleistocene KW - Viverridae Y1 - 2016 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1093/jhered/esw085 SN - 0022-1503 SN - 1465-7333 VL - 108 SP - 270 EP - 279 PB - Oxford Univ. Press CY - Cary ER - TY - THES A1 - Geyer, Juliane T1 - Adapting biodiversity conservation management to climate change Y1 - 2016 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Gietler, Marta A1 - Nykiel, Malgorzata A1 - Orzechowski, Slawomir A1 - Zagdanska, Barbara A1 - Fettke, Jörg T1 - Proteomic analysis of S-nitrosylated and S-glutathionylated proteins in wheat seedlings with different dehydration tolerances JF - Plant physiology and biochemistry : an official journal of the Federation of European Societies of Plant Physiology N2 - A loss of dehydration tolerance in wheat seedlings on the fifth day following imbibition is associated with a disturbance in cellular redox homeostasis, as documented by a shift of the reduced/oxidized glutathione ratio to a more oxidized state and a significant increase in the ratio of protein thiols to the total thiol group content. Therefore, the identification and characterization of redox-sensitive proteins are important steps toward understanding the molecular mechanisms of the loss of dehydration tolerance. In the present study, proteins that were differentially expressed between fully turgid (control), dehydrated tolerant (four-day-old) and dehydrated sensitive (six-day-old) wheat seedlings were analysed. Protein spots having at least a significant (p < 0.05) two-fold change in protein abundance were selected by Delta2D as differentially expressed, identified by MALDI-TOF and LC-MS/MS, and classified according to their function. The observed changes in the proteomic patterns of the differentially S-nitrosylated and S-glutathionylated proteins were highly specific in dehydration-tolerant and-sensitive wheat seedlings. The metabolic function of these proteins indicates that dehydration tolerance is mainly related to nucleic acids, protein metabolism, and energy metabolism. It has been proven that leaf-specific thionins BTH6 and DB4, chloroplastic 50S ribosomal protein L16, phospholipase A1-II delta, and chloroplastic thioredoxin M2 are both S-nitrosylated and S-glutathionylated upon water deficiency. Our results revealed the existence of interplay between S-nitrosylation and S-glutathionylation, two redox-regulated protein posttranslational modifications that could enhance plant defence mechanisms and/or facilitate the acclimation of plants to unfavourable environmental conditions. (C) 2016 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved. KW - Dehydration tolerance KW - Proteomics KW - Redox sensitive proteins KW - S-glutathionylation KW - S-nitrosylation KW - Triticum aestivum L. Y1 - 2016 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.plaphy.2016.08.017 SN - 0981-9428 VL - 108 SP - 507 EP - 518 PB - Elsevier CY - Paris ER - TY - JOUR A1 - González-Fortes, Gloria M. A1 - Kolbe, Ben A1 - Fernandes, Daniel A1 - Meleg, Ioana N. A1 - Garcia-Vazquez, Ana A1 - Pinto-Llona, Ana C. A1 - Constantin, Silviu A1 - de Torres, Trino J. A1 - Ortiz, Jose E. A1 - Frischauf, Christine A1 - Rabeder, Gernot A1 - Hofreiter, Michael A1 - Barlow, Axel T1 - Ancient DNA reveals differences in behaviour and sociality between brown bears and extinct cave bears JF - Molecular ecology N2 - Ancient DNA studies have revolutionized the study of extinct species and populations, providing insights on phylogeny, phylogeography, admixture and demographic history. However, inferences on behaviour and sociality have been far less frequent. Here, we investigate the complete mitochondrial genomes of extinct Late Pleistocene cave bears and middle Holocene brown bears that each inhabited multiple geographically proximate caves in northern Spain. In cave bears, we find that, although most caves were occupied simultaneously, each cave almost exclusively contains a unique lineage of closely related haplotypes. This remarkable pattern suggests extreme fidelity to their birth site in cave bears, best described as homing behaviour, and that cave bears formed stable maternal social groups at least for hibernation. In contrast, brown bears do not show any strong association of mitochondrial lineage and cave, suggesting that these two closely related species differed in aspects of their behaviour and sociality. This difference is likely to have contributed to cave bear extinction, which occurred at a time in which competition for caves between bears and humans was likely intense and the ability to rapidly colonize new hibernation sites would have been crucial for the survival of a species so dependent on caves for hibernation as cave bears. Our study demonstrates the potential of ancient DNA to uncover patterns of behaviour and sociality in ancient species and populations, even those that went extinct many tens of thousands of years ago. KW - ancient DNA KW - extinction KW - homing KW - sociality KW - Ursus arctos KW - Ursus spelaeus Y1 - 2016 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1111/mec.13800 SN - 0962-1083 SN - 1365-294X VL - 25 SP - 4907 EP - 4918 PB - Wiley-Blackwell CY - Hoboken ER - TY - THES A1 - Gopalakrishnan, Sathej T1 - Mathematical modelling of host-disease-drug interactions in HIV disease T1 - Mathematische Modellierung von Pathogen-Wirkstoff-Wirt-Interaktionen im Kontext der HIV Erkrankung N2 - The human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) has resisted nearly three decades of efforts targeting a cure. Sustained suppression of the virus has remained a challenge, mainly due to the remarkable evolutionary adaptation that the virus exhibits by the accumulation of drug-resistant mutations in its genome. Current therapeutic strategies aim at achieving and maintaining a low viral burden and typically involve multiple drugs. The choice of optimal combinations of these drugs is crucial, particularly in the background of treatment failure having occurred previously with certain other drugs. An understanding of the dynamics of viral mutant genotypes aids in the assessment of treatment failure with a certain drug combination, and exploring potential salvage treatment regimens. Mathematical models of viral dynamics have proved invaluable in understanding the viral life cycle and the impact of antiretroviral drugs. However, such models typically use simplified and coarse-grained mutation schemes, that curbs the extent of their application to drug-specific clinical mutation data, in order to assess potential next-line therapies. Statistical models of mutation accumulation have served well in dissecting mechanisms of resistance evolution by reconstructing mutation pathways under different drug-environments. While these models perform well in predicting treatment outcomes by statistical learning, they do not incorporate drug effect mechanistically. Additionally, due to an inherent lack of temporal features in such models, they are less informative on aspects such as predicting mutational abundance at treatment failure. This limits their application in analyzing the pharmacology of antiretroviral drugs, in particular, time-dependent characteristics of HIV therapy such as pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics, and also in understanding the impact of drug efficacy on mutation dynamics. In this thesis, we develop an integrated model of in vivo viral dynamics incorporating drug-specific mutation schemes learned from clinical data. Our combined modelling approach enables us to study the dynamics of different mutant genotypes and assess mutational abundance at virological failure. As an application of our model, we estimate in vivo fitness characteristics of viral mutants under different drug environments. Our approach also extends naturally to multiple-drug therapies. Further, we demonstrate the versatility of our model by showing how it can be modified to incorporate recently elucidated mechanisms of drug action including molecules that target host factors. Additionally, we address another important aspect in the clinical management of HIV disease, namely drug pharmacokinetics. It is clear that time-dependent changes in in vivo drug concentration could have an impact on the antiviral effect, and also influence decisions on dosing intervals. We present a framework that provides an integrated understanding of key characteristics of multiple-dosing regimens including drug accumulation ratios and half-lifes, and then explore the impact of drug pharmacokinetics on viral suppression. Finally, parameter identifiability in such nonlinear models of viral dynamics is always a concern, and we investigate techniques that alleviate this issue in our setting. N2 - Das Humane Immundefiecienz-Virus (HIV) widerstanden hat fast drei Jahrzehnten eff Orts targeting eine Heilung. Eine anhaltende Unterdrückung des Virus hat noch eine Herausforderung, vor allem aufgrund der bemerkenswerten evolutionären Anpassung, dass das Virus Exponate durch die Ansammlung von Medikamenten-resistenten Mutationen in seinem Genom. Aktuelle therapeutische Strategien zielen auf das Erreichen und die Erhaltung einer niedrigen virale Belastung und umfassen in der Regel mehrere Medikamente. Die Wahl der optimalen Kombinationen dieser Medikamente ist von entscheidender Bedeutung, besonders im Hintergrund der Behandlung Fehler eingetreten, die zuvor mit bestimmten anderen Medikamenten. Ein Verständnis für die Dynamik der viralen mutierten Genotypen Aids in die Bewertung der Behandlung Fehler mit einer bestimmten Kombination und der Erkundung potenzieller Bergung Behandlungsschemata. Mathematische Modelle für virale Dynamik haben sich als unschätzbar erwiesen hat im Verständnis der viralen Lebenszyklus und die Auswirkungen von antiretroviralen Medikamenten. Allerdings sind solche Modelle verwenden in der Regel simplified und grobkörnigen Mutation Regelungen, dass Aufkantungen den Umfang ihrer Anwendung auf Arzneimittel-ganz speziellec Mutation klinische Daten, um zu beurteilen, mögliche nächste-line Therapien. Statistische Modelle der Mutation Anhäufung gedient haben gut in präparieren Mechanismen der Resistenz Evolution durch Mutation Rekonstruktion Pathways unter verschiedenen Medikamenten-Umgebungen. Während diese Modelle führen gut in der Vorhersage der Ergebnisse der Behandlung durch statistische lernen, sie enthalten keine Droge E ffect mechanistisch. Darüber hinaus aufgrund einer innewohnenden Mangel an zeitlichen Funktionen in solchen Modellen, sie sind weniger informativ auf Aspekte wie die Vorhersage mutational Fülle an Versagen der Behandlung. Dies schränkt die Anwendung in der Analyse der Pharmakologie von antiretroviralen Medikamenten, insbesondere, Zeit-abhängige Merkmale der HIV-Therapie wie Pharmakokinetik und Pharmakodynamik, und auch in dem Verständnis der Auswirkungen von Drogen e fficacy auf Mutation Dynamik. In dieser Arbeit, die wir bei der Entwicklung eines integrierten Modells von In-vivo-virale Dynamik Einbeziehung drug-ganz speziellec Mutation Systeme gelernt aus den klinischen Daten. Unsere kombinierten Modellansatz ermöglicht uns die Untersuchung der Dynamik von diff schiedene mutierten Genotypen und bewerten mutational Fülle an virologischem Versagen. Als Anwendung unseres Modells schätzen wir In-vivo-fitness Merkmale der viralen Mutanten unter di fferent drug Umgebungen. Unser Ansatz erstreckt sich auch natürlich auf mehrere-Therapien. Weitere zeigen wir die Vielseitigkeit unseres Modells zeigen, wie es können Modified zu integrieren kürzlich aufgeklärt Mechanismen der Drug Action einschließlich Molekülen, dass target host Faktoren. Zusätzlich haben wir Adresse ein weiterer wichtiger Aspekt in der klinischen Management der HIV-Erkrankung, das heißt Drogen Pharmakokinetik. Es ist klar, dass die Zeit-abhängige Änderungen in In-vivo-Wirkstoffkonzentration könnten die Auswirkungen auf die antivirale E ffect und haben auch Einfluss auf die Entscheidungen über Dosierungsintervalle. Wir präsentieren ein Framework, bietet ein integriertes Verständnis der wichtigsten Merkmale von mehreren Dosierungsschemata einschließlich Kumulation Übersetzungen und Halbwertszeiten, und untersuchen Sie die Auswirkungen von Drogen auf die Pharmakokinetik Virussuppression. Schließlich, Parameter identifiFähigkeit in solchen nichtlineare Modelle der virale Dynamik ist immer ein Anliegen, und wir untersuchen Methoden, um dieses Problem in unserer Einstellung. KW - HIV KW - mathematical modelling KW - viral fitness KW - pharmacokinetics KW - parameter estimation KW - HIV Erkrankung KW - Pharmakokinetik KW - Fitness KW - mathematische Modellierung KW - Kombinationstherapie Y1 - 2016 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-100100 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Gorochowski, Thomas E. A1 - Aycilar-Kucukgoze, Irem A1 - Bovenberg, Roel A. L. A1 - Roubos, Johannes A. A1 - Ignatova, Zoya T1 - A Minimal Model of Ribosome Allocation Dynamics Captures Trade-offs in Expression between Endogenous and Synthetic Genes JF - ACS synthetic biology N2 - Cells contain a finite set of resources that must be distributed across many processes to ensure survival. Among them, the largest proportion of cellular resources is dedicated to protein translation. Synthetic biology often exploits these resources in executing orthogonal genetic circuits, yet the burden this places on the cell is rarely considered. Here, we develop a minimal model of ribosome allocation dynamics capturing the demands on translation when expressing a synthetic construct together with endogenous genes required for the maintenance of cell physiology. Critically, it contains three key variables related to design parameters of the synthetic construct covering transcript abundance, translation initiation rate, and elongation time. We show that model-predicted changes in ribosome allocation closely match experimental shifts in synthetic protein expression rate and cellular growth. Intriguingly, the model is also able to accurately infer transcript levels and translation times after further exposure to additional ambient stress. Our results demonstrate that a simple model of resource allocation faithfully captures the redistribution of protein synthesis resources when faced with the burden of synthetic gene expression and environmental stress. The tractable nature of the model makes it a versatile tool for exploring the guiding principles of efficient heterologous expression and the indirect interactions that can arise between synthetic circuits and their host chassis because of competition for shared translational resources. KW - protein biosynthesis KW - translation KW - synthetic biology KW - systems biology Y1 - 2016 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1021/acssynbio.6b00040 SN - 2161-5063 VL - 5 SP - 710 EP - 720 PB - American Chemical Society CY - Washington ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Gossner, Martin M. A1 - Lewinsohn, Thomas M. A1 - Kahl, Tiemo A1 - Grassein, Fabrice A1 - Boch, Steffen A1 - Prati, Daniel A1 - Birkhofer, Klaus A1 - Renner, Swen C. A1 - Sikorski, Johannes A1 - Wubet, Tesfaye A1 - Arndt, Hartmut A1 - Baumgartner, Vanessa A1 - Blaser, Stefan A1 - Blüthgen, Nico A1 - Börschig, Carmen A1 - Buscot, Francois A1 - Diekötter, Tim A1 - Jorge, Leonardo Re A1 - Jung, Kirsten A1 - Keyel, Alexander C. A1 - Klein, Alexandra-Maria A1 - Klemmer, Sandra A1 - Krauss, Jochen A1 - Lange, Markus A1 - Müller, Jörg A1 - Overmann, Jörg A1 - Pasalic, Esther A1 - Penone, Caterina A1 - Perovic, David J. A1 - Purschke, Oliver A1 - Schall, Peter A1 - Socher, Stephanie A. A1 - Sonnemann, Ilja A1 - Tschapka, Marco A1 - Tscharntke, Teja A1 - Türke, Manfred A1 - Venter, Paul Christiaan A1 - Weiner, Christiane N. A1 - Werner, Michael A1 - Wolters, Volkmar A1 - Wurst, Susanne A1 - Westphal, Catrin A1 - Fischer, Markus A1 - Weisser, Wolfgang W. A1 - Allan, Eric T1 - Land-use intensification causes multitrophic homogenization of grassland communities JF - Nature : the international weekly journal of science N2 - Land-use intensification is a major driver of biodiversity loss(1,2). Alongside reductions in local species diversity, biotic homogenization at larger spatial scales is of great concern for conservation. Biotic homogenization means a decrease in beta-diversity (the compositional dissimilarity between sites). Most studies have investigated losses in local (alpha)-diversity(1,3) and neglected biodiversity loss at larger spatial scales. Studies addressing beta-diversity have focused on single or a few organism groups (for example, ref. 4), and it is thus unknown whether land-use intensification homogenizes communities at different trophic levels, above-and belowground. Here we show that even moderate increases in local land-use intensity (LUI) cause biotic homogenization across microbial, plant and animal groups, both above- and belowground, and that this is largely independent of changes in alpha-diversity. We analysed a unique grassland biodiversity dataset, with abundances of more than 4,000 species belonging to 12 trophic groups. LUI, and, in particular, high mowing intensity, had consistent effects on beta-diversity across groups, causing a homogenization of soil microbial, fungal pathogen, plant and arthropod communities. These effects were nonlinear and the strongest declines in beta-diversity occurred in the transition from extensively managed to intermediate intensity grassland. LUI tended to reduce local alpha-diversity in aboveground groups, whereas the alpha-diversity increased in belowground groups. Correlations between the alpha-diversity of different groups, particularly between plants and their consumers, became weaker at high LUI. This suggests a loss of specialist species and is further evidence for biotic homogenization. The consistently negative effects of LUI on landscape-scale biodiversity underscore the high value of extensively managed grasslands for conserving multitrophic biodiversity and ecosystem service provision. Indeed, biotic homogenization rather than local diversity loss could prove to be the most substantial consequence of land-use intensification. Y1 - 2016 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1038/nature20575 SN - 0028-0836 SN - 1476-4687 VL - 540 SP - 266 EP - + PB - Nature Publ. Group CY - London ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Grimm, Volker A1 - Berger, Uta T1 - Robustness analysis: Deconstructing computational models for ecological theory and applications JF - Ecological modelling : international journal on ecological modelling and engineering and systems ecolog N2 - The design of computational models is path-dependent: the choices made in each step during model development constrain the choices that are available in the subsequent steps. The actual path of model development can be extremely different, even for the same system, because the path depends on the question addressed, the availability of data, and the consideration of specific expert knowledge, in addition to the experience, background, and modelling preferences of the modellers. Thus, insights from different models are practically impossible to integrate, which hinders the development of general theory. We therefore suggest augmenting the current culture of communicating models as working just fine with a culture of presenting analyses in which we try to break models, i.e., model mechanisms explaining certain observations break down. We refer to the systematic attempts to break a model as “robustness analysis” (RA). RA is the systematic deconstruction of a model by forcefully changing the model's parameters, structure, and representation of processes. We discuss the nature and elements of RA and provide brief examples. RA cannot be completely formalized into specific techniques and instead corresponds to detective work that is driven by general questions and specific hypotheses, with strong attention focused on unusual behaviours. Both individual modellers and ecological modelling in general will benefit from RA because RA helps with understanding models and identifying “robust theories”, which are general principles that are independent of the idiosyncrasies of specific models. Integrating the results of RAs from different models to address certain systems or questions will then provide a comprehensive overview of when certain mechanisms control system behaviour and when and why this control ceases. This approach can provide insights into the mechanisms that lead to regime shifts in actual ecological systems. KW - Sensitivity analysis KW - Ecological theory KW - Computational modelling KW - Robustness KW - Model analysis KW - Understanding Y1 - 2016 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolmodel.2015.07.018 SN - 0304-3800 SN - 1872-7026 VL - 326 SP - 162 EP - 167 PB - Elsevier CY - Amsterdam ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Großart, Hans-Peter A1 - Rojas-Jimenez, Keilor T1 - Aquatic fungi: targeting the forgotten in microbial ecology JF - Current opinion in microbiology N2 - Fungi constitute important and conspicuous components of aquatic microbial communities, but their diversity and functional roles remain poorly characterized. New methods and conceptual frameworks are required to accurately describe their ecological roles, involvement in global cycling processes, and utility for human activities, considering both cultivation independent techniques as well as experiments in laboratory and in natural ecosystems. Here we highlight recent developments and extant knowledge gaps in aquatic mycology, and provide a conceptual model to expose the importance of fungi in aquatic food webs and related biogeochemical processes. Y1 - 2016 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mib.2016.03.016 SN - 1369-5274 SN - 1879-0364 VL - 31 SP - 140 EP - 145 PB - Elsevier CY - London ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Großart, Hans-Peter A1 - Wurzbacher, Christian A1 - James, Timothy Y. A1 - Kagami, Maiko T1 - Discovery of dark matter fungi in aquatic ecosystems demands a reappraisal of the phylogeny and ecology of zoosporic fungi JF - Fungal ecology N2 - Our knowledge of zoosporic fungal phylogeny, physiology, and ecological functions, in particular their role in aquatic food web dynamics and biogeochemistry, is limited. The recent discovery of numerous dark matter fungi (DMF), i.e., uncultured and poorly known taxa belonging to early diverging branches of the fungal tree (namely the Rozellomycota and Chytridiomycota) calls for reconsideration of the phylogeny and ecology of zoosporic fungi. In this opinion paper, we summarize the exploration of new, recently discovered lineages of DMF and their implications for the ecology, evolution, and biogeography of the rapidly growing fungal tree. We also discuss possible ecological roles of zoosporic fungi in relation to recent methodological developments including single cell genomics and cultivation efforts. Finally, we suggest linking explorative with experimental research to gain deeper insights into the physiology and ecological functioning of zoosporic fungi DMF in aquatic habitats. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd and The British Mycological Society. All rights reserved. KW - Dark matter fungi KW - Zoosporic fungi KW - Fungal tree KW - Chytridiomycota KW - Rozellomycota KW - Fungal physiology and ecology KW - Aquatic habitats Y1 - 2016 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.funeco.2015.06.004 SN - 1754-5048 SN - 1878-0083 VL - 19 SP - 28 EP - 38 PB - Elsevier CY - Oxford ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Grzesiuk, Malgorzata A1 - Wacker, Alexander A1 - Spijkerman, Elly T1 - Photosynthetic sensitivity of phytoplankton to commonly used pharmaceuticals and its dependence on cellular phosphorus status JF - Ecotoxicology N2 - Recently pharmaceuticals have become significant environmental pollutants in aquatic ecosystems, that could affect primary producers such as microalgae. Here we analyzed the effect of pharmaceuticals on the photosynthesis of microalgae commonly found in freshwater-two species of Chlorophyceae and a member of the Eustigmatophyceae, via PAM fluorometry. As pharmaceuticals, three medicines often consumed in households were chosen: (i) fluoxetine, an antidepressant, (ii) propranolol, a beta-blocker and (iii) ibuprofen, an anti-inflammatory and analgesic medicine. The EC50 for the quantum yield of photosystem II in phytoplankton acclimated to inorganic phosphorus (P-i)-replete and P-i-limited conditions was estimated. Acute toxicity experiments over a 5 h exposure revealed that Nannochloropsis limnetica was the least sensitive to pharmaceuticals in its photosynthetic yield out of all species tested. Although the estimation of sub-lethal effects can be vital in contrast to that of LC(50)s, the EC50 values in all species and for all medicines were orders of magnitude higher than concentrations found in polluted surface water. Chlamydomonas reinhardtii was the most sensitive to fluoxetine (EC50 of 1.6 mg L-1), and propranolol (EC50 of 3 mg L-1). Acutodesmus obliquus was most sensitive to ibuprofen (EC50 of 288 mg L-1). Additionally, the sensitivity to the pharmaceuticals changed under a P-i-limitation; the green algae became less sensitive to fluoxetine and propranolol. In contrast, P-i-limited algal species were more sensitive to ibuprofen. Our results suggest that the sensitivity of algae to pharmaceuticals is (i) highly compound- and species-specific and (ii) dependent on the cellular P status. KW - Freshwater algae KW - Medicine KW - EC50 KW - PAM fluorometry KW - Tolerance Y1 - 2016 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1007/s10646-016-1628-8 SN - 0963-9292 SN - 1573-3017 VL - 25 SP - 697 EP - 707 PB - Springer CY - Dordrecht ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Guardado-Calvo, Pablo A1 - Bignon, Eduardo A. A1 - Stettner, Eva A1 - Jeffers, Scott Allen A1 - Perez-Vargas, Jimena A1 - Pehau-Arnaudet, Gerard A1 - Tortoric, M. Alejandra A1 - Jestin, Jean-Luc A1 - England, Patrick A1 - Tischler, Nicole D. A1 - Rey, Felix A. T1 - Mechanistic Insight into Bunyavirus-Induced Membrane Fusion from Structure-Function Analyses of the Hantavirus Envelope Glycoprotein Gc JF - PLoS Pathogens N2 - Hantaviruses are zoonotic viruses transmitted to humans by persistently infected rodents, giving rise to serious outbreaks of hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome (HFRS) or of hantavirus pulmonary syndrome (HPS), depending on the virus, which are associated with high case fatality rates. There is only limited knowledge about the organization of the viral particles and in particular, about the hantavirus membrane fusion glycoprotein Gc, the function of which is essential for virus entry. We describe here the X-ray structures of Gc from Hantaan virus, the type species hantavirus and responsible for HFRS, both in its neutral pH, monomeric pre-fusion conformation, and in its acidic pH, trimeric post-fusion form. The structures confirm the prediction that Gc is a class II fusion protein, containing the characteristic beta-sheet rich domains termed I, II and III as initially identified in the fusion proteins of arboviruses such as alpha-and flaviviruses. The structures also show a number of features of Gc that are distinct from arbovirus class II proteins. In particular, hantavirus Gc inserts residues from three different loops into the target membrane to drive fusion, as confirmed functionally by structure-guided mutagenesis on the HPS-inducing Andes virus, instead of having a single "fusion loop". We further show that the membrane interacting region of Gc becomes structured only at acidic pH via a set of polar and electrostatic interactions. Furthermore, the structure reveals that hantavirus Gc has an additional N-terminal "tail" that is crucial in stabilizing the post-fusion trimer, accompanying the swapping of domain III in the quaternary arrangement of the trimer as compared to the standard class II fusion proteins. The mechanistic understandings derived from these data are likely to provide a unique handle for devising treatments against these human pathogens. Y1 - 2016 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.ppat.1005813 SN - 1553-7366 SN - 1553-7374 VL - 12 SP - 153 EP - 166 PB - PLoS CY - San Fransisco ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Guo, Tong A1 - Lohmann, Dirk A1 - Ratzmann, Gregor A1 - Tietjen, Britta T1 - Response of semi-arid savanna vegetation composition towards grazing along a precipitation gradient-The effect of including plant heterogeneity into an ecohydrological savanna model JF - Ecological modelling : international journal on ecological modelling and engineering and systems ecolog N2 - Ecohydrological models of savanna rangeland systems typically aggregate plant species to very broad plant functional types (PFTs), which are characterized by their trait combinations. However, neglecting trait variability within modelled PFTs may hamper our ability to understand the effects of climate or land use change on vegetation composition and thus on ecosystem processes. In this study we extended and parameterized the ecohydrological savanna model EcoHyD, which originally considered only three broad PFTs (perennial grasses, annuals and shrubs). We defined several sub-types of perennial grasses (sub-PFTs) to assess the effect of environmental conditions on vegetation composition and ecosystem functioning. These perennial sub-PFTs are defined by altering distinct trait values based on a trade-off approach for (i) the longevity of plants and (ii) grazing-resistance. We find that increasing grazing intensity leads to a dominance of the fast-growing and short-lived perennial grass type as well as a dominance of the poorly palatable grass type. Increasing precipitation dampens the magnitude of grazing-induced shifts between perennial grass types. The diversification of perennial grass PFTs generally increases the total perennial grass cover and ecosystem water use efficiency, but does not protect the community from shrub encroachment. We thus demonstrate that including trait heterogeneity into ecosystem models will allow for an improved representation of ecosystem responses to environmental change in savannas. This will help to better assess how ecosystem functions might be impacted under future conditions. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. KW - Plant functional types KW - Trait heterogeneity KW - Rangeland management KW - Precipitation gradient KW - Livestock KW - Ecosystem functioning Y1 - 2016 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolmodel.2016.01.004 SN - 0304-3800 SN - 1872-7026 VL - 325 SP - 47 EP - 56 PB - Elsevier CY - Amsterdam ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Haack, Timm A1 - Abdelilah-Seyfried, Salim T1 - The force within: endocardial development, mechanotransduction and signalling during cardiac morphogenesis JF - Development : Company of Biologists N2 - Endocardial cells are cardiac endothelial cells that line the interior of the heart tube. Historically, their contribution to cardiac development has mainly been considered from a morphological perspective. However, recent studies have begun to define novel instructive roles of the endocardium, as a sensor and signal transducer of biophysical forces induced by blood flow, and as an angiocrine signalling centre that is involved in myocardial cellular morphogenesis, regeneration and reprogramming. In this Review, we discuss how the endocardium develops, how endocardial-myocardial interactions influence the developing embryonic heart, and how the dysregulation of blood flowresponsive endocardial signalling can result in pathophysiological changes. KW - Endocardium KW - Cardiac development KW - Hemodynamics KW - Bmp KW - Kruppel-like factor 2 KW - Vegf KW - Mechanotransduction KW - Zebrafish KW - Mouse Y1 - 2016 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1242/dev.131425 SN - 0950-1991 SN - 1477-9129 VL - 143 SP - 373 EP - 386 PB - Company of Biologists Limited CY - Cambridge ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Han, Xiao Xia A1 - Li, Junbo A1 - Öner, Ibrahim Halil A1 - Zhao, Bing A1 - Leimkühler, Silke A1 - Hildebrandt, Peter A1 - Weidinger, Inez M. T1 - Nickel electrodes as a cheap and versatile platform for studying structure and function of immobilized redox proteins JF - Analytica chimica acta : an international journal devoted to all branches of analytical chemistry N2 - Practical use of many bioelectronic and bioanalytical devices is limited by the need of expensive materials and time consuming fabrication. Here we demonstrate the use of nickel electrodes as a simple and cheap solid support material for bioelectronic applications. The naturally nanostructured electrodes showed a surprisingly high electromagnetic surface enhancement upon light illumination such that immobilization and electron transfer reactions of the model redox proteins cytochrome b(5) (Cyt b(5)) and cytochrome c (Cyt c) could be followed via surface enhanced resonance Raman spectroscopy. It could be shown that the nickel surface, when used as received, promotes a very efficient binding of the proteins upon preservation of their native structure. The immobilized redox proteins could efficiently exchange electrons with the electrode and could even act as an electron relay between the electrode and solubilized myoglobin. Our results open up new possibility for nickel electrodes as an exceptional good support for bioelectronic devices and biosensors on the one hand and for surface enhanced spectroscopic investigations on the other hand. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. KW - Ni electrodes KW - Redox proteins KW - Surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy KW - Electron relay KW - Biocompatibility KW - Electron transfer Y1 - 2016 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aca.2016.08.053 SN - 0003-2670 SN - 1873-4324 VL - 941 SP - 35 EP - 40 PB - Elsevier CY - Amsterdam ER - TY - GEN A1 - Hanack, Katja A1 - Schloer, Anja A1 - Holzloehner, Pamela A1 - Listek, Martin A1 - Bauer, Cindy A1 - Butze, Monique A1 - Micheel, Burkhard A1 - Hentschel, Christian A1 - Sowa, Mandy A1 - Roggenbuck, Dirk A1 - Schierack, Peter A1 - Fuener, Jonas A1 - Schliebs, Erik A1 - Goihl, Alexander A1 - Reinhold, Dirk T1 - Camelid nanobodies specific to human pancreatic glycoprotein 2 T2 - The journal of immunology N2 - Pancreatic secretory zymogen-granule membrane glycoprotein 2 (GP2) has been identified to be a major autoantigenic target in Crohn’s disease patients. It was discussed recently that a long and a short isoform of GP2 exists whereas the short isoform is often detected by GP2-specific autoantibodies. In the outcome of inflammatory bowel diseases, these GP2-specific autoantibodies are discussed as new serological markers for diagnosis and therapeutic monitoring. To investigate this further, camelid nanobodies were generated by phage display and selected against the short isoform of GP2 in order to isolate specific tools for the discrimination of both isoforms. Nanobodies are single domain antibodies derived from camelid heavy chain only antibodies and characterized by a high stability and solubility. The selected candidates were expressed, purified and validated regarding their binding properties in different enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays formats, immunofluorescence, immunohistochemistry and surface plasmon resonance spectroscopy. Four different nanobodies could be selected whereof three recognize the short isoform of GP2 very specifically and one nanobody showed a high binding capacity for both isoforms. The KD values measured for all nanobodies were between 1.3 nM and 2.3 pM indicating highly specific binders suitable for the application as diagnostic tool in inflammatory bowel disease. Y1 - 2016 SN - 0022-1767 SN - 1550-6606 VL - 196 SP - 313 EP - 328 PB - American Assoc. of Immunologists CY - Bethesda ER - TY - THES A1 - Hanke-Gogokhia, Christin T1 - Small GTPase ARL3-GTP is key molecule in transition zone formation and trafficking of ciliary cargo in mouse photoreceptors Y1 - 2016 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Hanke-Gogokhia, Christin A1 - Wu, Zhijian A1 - Gerstner, Cecilia D. A1 - Frederick, Jeanne M. A1 - Zhang, Houbin A1 - Baehr, Wolfgang T1 - Arf-like Protein 3 (ARL3) Regulates Protein Trafficking and Ciliogenesis in Mouse Photoreceptors JF - The journal of biological chemistry N2 - Arf-like protein 3 (ARL3) is a ubiquitous small GTPase expressed in ciliated cells of plants and animals. Germline deletion of Arl3 in mice causes multiorgan ciliopathy reminiscent of Bardet-Biedl or Joubert syndromes. As photoreceptors are elegantly compartmentalized and have cilia, we probed the function of ARL3 (ADP-ribosylation factor (Arf)-like 3 protein) by generating rod photoreceptor-specific (prefix (rod)) and retina-specific (prefix (ret)) Arl3 deletions. In predegenerate (rod)Arl3(-/-) mice, lipidated phototransduction proteins showed trafficking deficiencies, consistent with the role of ARL3 as a cargo displacement factor for lipid-binding proteins. By contrast, (ret)Arl3(-/-) rods and cones expressing Cre recombinase during embryonic development formed neither connecting cilia nor outer segments and degenerated rapidly. Absence of cilia infers participation of ARL3 in ciliogenesis and axoneme formation. Ciliogenesis was rescued, and degeneration was reversed in part by subretinal injection of adeno-associated virus particles expressing ARL3-EGFP. The conditional knock-out phenotypes permitted identification of two ARL3 functions, both in the GTP-bound form as follows: one as a regulator of intraflagellar transport participating in photoreceptor ciliogenesis and the other as a cargo displacement factor transporting lipidated protein to the outer segment. Surprisingly, a farnesylated inositol polyphosphate phosphatase only trafficked from the endoplasmic reticulum to the Golgi, thereby excluding it from a role in photoreceptor cilia physiology. KW - animal model KW - gene knock-out KW - lipid-binding protein KW - photoreceptor KW - protein trafficking (Golgi) KW - retinal degeneration Y1 - 2016 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1074/jbc.M115.710954 SN - 0021-9258 SN - 1083-351X VL - 291 SP - 7142 EP - 7155 PB - American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology CY - Bethesda ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Hanke-Gogokhia, Christin A1 - Zhang, Houbin A1 - Frederick, Jeanne M. A1 - Baehr, Wolfgang ED - Rickman, CB ED - LaVail, MM ED - Anderson, RE ED - Grimm, C ED - Hollyfield, J ED - Ash, J T1 - The Function of Arf-like Proteins ARL2 and ARL3 in Photoreceptors JF - Retinal Degenerative Diseases : Mechanisms and Experimental Therapy N2 - Arf-like proteins (ARLs) are ubiquitously expressed small G proteins of the RAS superfamily. In photoreceptors, ARL2 and ARL3 participate in the trafficking of lipidated membrane-associated proteins and colocalize in the inner segment with UNC119A and PDE delta. UNC119A and PDE delta are acyl-and prenyl-binding proteins, respectively, involved in trafficking of acylated (transducin-alpha subunit, nephrocystin NPHP3) and prenylated proteins (GRK1, PDE6). Germline Arl3 knockout mice do not survive beyond postnatal day 21 and display ciliary defects in multiple organs (kidney, liver and pancreas) as well as retinal degeneration. Conditional knockouts will be necessary to delineate mechanisms of protein transport in retina disease. KW - Arf-like protein 3 (ARL3) KW - Arf-like protein 2 (ARL2) KW - Phosphodiesterase delta-subunit (PDE delta) KW - unc-119 homolog (C. elegans) (UNC119A) KW - Retinitis pigmentosa protein 2 (RP2) KW - Rod photoreceptor Y1 - 2016 SN - 978-3-319-17121-0; 978-3-319-17120-3 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-17121-0_87 SN - 0065-2598 VL - 854 SP - 655 EP - 661 PB - Springer International Publishing AG CY - Cham ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Hartmann, Bianca A1 - Wai, Timothy A1 - Hu, Hao A1 - MacVicar, Thomas A1 - Musante, Luciana A1 - Fischer-Zirnsak, Björn A1 - Stenzel, Werner A1 - Gräf, Ralph A1 - van den Heuvel, Lambert A1 - Ropers, Hans-Hilger A1 - Wienker, Thomas F. A1 - Hübner, Christoph A1 - Langer, Thomas A1 - Kaindl, Angela M. T1 - Homozygous YME1L1 Mutation Causes Mitochondriopathy with Optic Atrophy and Mitochondrial Network Fragmentation JF - eLife N2 - Mitochondriopathies often present clinically as multisystemic disorders of primarily high-energy consuming organs. Assembly, turnover, and surveillance of mitochondrial proteins are essential for mitochondrial function and a key task of AAA family members of metalloproteases. We identified a homozygous mutation in the nuclear encoded mitochondrial escape 1-like 1 gene YME1L1, member of the AAA protease family, as a cause of a novel mitochondriopathy in a consanguineous pedigree of Saudi Arabian descent. The homozygous missense mutation, located in a highly conserved region in the mitochondrial pre-sequence, inhibits cleavage of YME1L1 by the mitochondrial processing peptidase, which culminates in the rapid degradation of YME1L1 precursor protein. Impaired YME1L1 function causes a proliferation defect and mitochondrial network fragmentation due to abnormal processing of OPA1. Our results identify mutations in YME1L1 as a cause of a mitochondriopathy with optic nerve atrophy highlighting the importance of YME1L1 for mitochondrial functionality in humans. KW - YME1L1 KW - mitochondriopathy KW - intellectual disability KW - optic atrophy KW - OPA1 KW - mitochondrial fragmentation Y1 - 2016 U6 - https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.16078 SN - 2050-084X VL - 5 SP - 1156 EP - 1165 PB - eLife Sciences Publications CY - Cambridge ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Hartmann, Tobias A1 - Schrapers, Peer A1 - Utesch, Tillmann A1 - Nimtz, Manfred A1 - Rippers, Yvonne A1 - Dau, Holger A1 - Mroginski, Maria Andrea A1 - Haumann, Michael A1 - Leimkühler, Silke T1 - The Molybdenum Active Site of Formate Dehydrogenase Is Capable of Catalyzing C-H Bond Cleavage and Oxygen Atom Transfer Reactions JF - Biochemistry N2 - Formate dehydrogenases (FDHs) are capable of performing the reversible oxidation of formate and are enzymes of great interest for fuel cell applications and for the production of reduced carbon compounds as energy sources from CO2. Metal containing FDHs in general contain a highly conserved active site, comprising a molybdenum (or tungsten) center coordinated by two molybdopterin guanine dinucleotide molecules, a sulfido and a (seleno-)cysteine ligand, in addition to a histidine and arginine residue in the second coordination sphere. So far, the role of these amino acids in catalysis has not been studied in detail, because of the lack of suitable expression systems and the lability or oxygen sensitivity of the enzymes. Here, the roles of these active site residues is revealed using the Mo-containing FDH from Rhodobacter capsulatus. Our results show that the cysteine ligand at the Mo ion is displaced by the formate substrate during the reaction, the arginine has a direct role in substrate binding and stabilization, and the histidine elevates the pK(a) of the active site cysteine. We further found that in addition to reversible formate oxidation, the enzyme is further capable of reducing nitrate to nitrite. We propose a mechanistic scheme that combines both functionalities and provides important insights into the distinct mechanisms of C-H bond cleavage and oxygen atom transfer catalyzed by formate dehydrogenase. Y1 - 2016 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.biochem.6b00002 SN - 0006-2960 VL - 55 SP - 2381 EP - 2389 PB - American Chemical Society CY - Washington ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Hassan, Rabeay Y. A. A1 - Wollenberger, Ursula T1 - Mediated bioelectrochemical system for biosensing the cell viability of Staphylococcus aureus JF - Analytical and bioanalytical chemistry : a merger of Fresenius' journal of analytical chemistry and Analusis N2 - Staphylococcus aureus is one of the most dangerous human pathogens and is the cause of numerous illnesses ranging from moderate skin infections to life-threatening diseases. Despite advances made in identifying microorganisms, rapid detection methods for the viability of bacteria are still missing. Here, we report a rapid electrochemical assay for cell viability combining the use of double redox mediators and multiwall carbon nanotubes-screen printed electrodes (MWCNTs-SPE), ferricyanide (FCN) and 2,6-dichlorophenolindophenol (DCIP), which served as electron shuttle to enable the bacterial-electrode communications. The current originating from the metabolically active cells was recorded for probing the activity of the intracellular redox centers. Blocking of the respiratory chain pathways with electron transfer inhibitors demonstrated the involvement of the electron transport chain in the reaction. A good correlation between the number of the metabolically active cells and the current was obtained. The proposed assay has been exploited for monitoring cell proliferation of S. aureus during the growth. The sensitivity of the detection method reached 0.1 OD600. Therefore, the technique described is promising for estimating the cell number, measuring the cell viability, and probing intracellular redox center(s). KW - Microbial electrochemistry KW - Pathogenic detection KW - Probing living Staphylococcus aureus KW - CNTs-based screen printed electrodes Y1 - 2016 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1007/s00216-015-9134-z SN - 1618-2642 SN - 1618-2650 VL - 408 SP - 579 EP - 587 PB - Springer CY - Heidelberg ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Havinga, Reinout A1 - Kool, Anneleen A1 - Achille, Frederic A1 - Bavcon, Joze A1 - Berg, Christian A1 - Bonomi, Costantino A1 - Burkart, Michael A1 - De Meyere, Dirk A1 - Havstrom, Mats A1 - Kessler, Paul A1 - Knickmann, Barbara A1 - Koester, Nils A1 - Martinez, Remy A1 - Ostgaard, Havard A1 - Ravnjak, Blanka A1 - Scheen, Anne-Cathrine A1 - Smith, Pamela A1 - Smith, Paul A1 - Socher, Stephanie A. A1 - Vange, Vibekke T1 - The Index Seminum: Seeds of change for seed exchange JF - Taxon N2 - Botanic gardens have been exchanging seeds through seed catalogues for centuries. In many gardens, these catalogues remain an important source of plant material. Living collections have become more relevant for genetic analysis and derived research, since genomics of non-model organisms heavily rely on living material. The range of species that is made available annually on all seed lists combined, provides an unsurpassed source of instantly accessible plant material for research collections. Still, the Index Seminum has received criticism in the past few decades. The current exchange model dictates that associated data is manually entered into each database. The amount of time involved and the human errors occurring in this process are difficult to justify when the data was initially produced as a report from another database. The authors propose that an online marketplace for seed exchange should be established, with enhanced search possibilities and downloadable accession data in a standardised format. Such online service should preferably be supervised and coordinated by Botanic Gardens Conservation International (BGCI). This manuscript is the outcome of a workshop on July 9th, 2015, at the European botanic gardens congress "Eurogard VII" in Paris, where the first two authors invited members of the botanic garden community to discuss how the anachronistic Index Seminum can be transformed into an improved and modern tool for seed exchange. KW - database KW - Index Seminum KW - information technology KW - living collections management KW - Nagoya-protocol KW - seed exchange Y1 - 2016 U6 - https://doi.org/10.12705/652.9 SN - 0040-0262 SN - 1996-8175 VL - 65 SP - 333 EP - 336 PB - International Association for Plant Taxonomy CY - Bratislava ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Heim, Olga A1 - Schröder, Assja A1 - Eccard, Jana A1 - Jung, Kirsten A1 - Voigt, Christian C. T1 - Seasonal activity patterns of European bats above intensively used farmland JF - The astrophysical journal : an international review of spectroscopy and astronomical physics ; Part 2, Letters N2 - Bats are top insect predators on farmland, yet they suffer from intensive farmland management. Here, we evaluated the seasonal activity patterns of European bats above large, arable fields and compared these patterns between ecologically distinct bat species. Using repeated passive acoustic monitoring on a total of 93 arable fields in 2 years in Brandenburg, Germany, we surveyed the activity of different bat species between early spring and autumn. We then used generalized additive mixed models to describe and compare the seasonal bat activity patterns between bat categories, which were build based on the affiliation to a functional group and migratory class, while controlling for local weather conditions. In general, the affiliation to a bat category in interaction with the season in addition to cloud cover and ambient air temperature explained a major part of bat activity. The season was also an important factor for the foraging activity of open-space specialists such as Nyctalus noctula but showed only a weak effect on species such as Pipistreilus nathusii which are adapted to edge-space habitats. Across the seasons, habitat use intensity was high during the period of swarming and migration and low during the energy demanding period of lactation. Seasonal patterns in foraging activity showed that open-space specialists foraged more intensively above agricultural fields during the migration period, while edge-space specialists foraged also during the energy demanding period of lactation. We conclude that the significant seasonal fluctuations in bat activity and significant differences between bat categories in open agricultural landscapes should be taken into consideration when designing monitoring schemes and management plans for bat species in regions dominated by agriculture. Also, management plans should be directed to improve the conditions on arable land especially for bat species which would be classified as narrow-space foragers such as Myotis species. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. KW - Agricultural intensification KW - Seasonality KW - European bat species KW - Functional bat group KW - Migration KW - AgroScapeLabs Y1 - 2016 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agee.2016.09.002 SN - 0167-8809 SN - 1873-2305 VL - 233 SP - 130 EP - 139 PB - Elsevier CY - Amsterdam ER - TY - THES A1 - Heinle, Karolin T1 - Identifizierung von Kohlenhydratbindungsstellen in β-Helix-Proteinen Y1 - 2016 ER - TY - THES A1 - Heinze, Johannes T1 - The impact of soil microbiota on plant species performance and diversity in semi-natural grasslands Y1 - 2016 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Heinze, Johannes A1 - Gensch, Sabine A1 - Weber, Ewald A1 - Joshi, Jasmin Radha T1 - Soil temperature modifies effects of soil biota on plant growth JF - Journal of plant ecology N2 - Aims Plants directly and indirectly interact with many abiotic and biotic soil components. Research so far mostly focused on direct, individual abiotic or biotic effects on plant growth, but only few studies tested the indirect effects of abiotic soil factors on plant growth. Therefore, we investigated how abiotic soil conditions affect plant performance, via changes induced by soil biota. Methods In a full-factorial experiment, we grew the widespread grass Dactylis glomerata either with or without soil biota and investigated the impact of soil temperature, fertility and moisture on the soil biota effects on plant growth. We measured biomass production, root traits and colonization by arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi as well as microbial respiration. Important Findings We found significant interaction effects between abiotic soil conditions and soil biota on plant growth for fertility, but especially for soil temperature, as an increase of 10 degrees C significantly changed the soil biota effects on plant growth from positive to neutral. However, if tested individually, an increase in soil temperature and fertility per se positively affected plant biomass production, whereas soil biota per se did not affect overall plant growth, but both influenced root architecture. By affecting soil microbial activity and root architecture, soil temperature might influence both mutualistic and pathogenic interactions between plants and soil biota. Such soil temperature effects should be considered in soil feedback studies to ensure greater transferability of results from artificial and experimental conditions to natural environmental conditions. KW - plant-soil interaction KW - soil biota KW - abiotic soil factors KW - root traits KW - plant growth Y1 - 2016 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1093/jpe/rtw097 SN - 1752-9921 SN - 1752-993X VL - 10 SP - 808 EP - 821 PB - Oxford Univ. Press CY - Oxford ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Heinze, Johannes A1 - Sitte, Mario A1 - Schindhelm, Anne A1 - Wright, J. A1 - Joshi, Jasmin Radha T1 - Plant-soil feedbacks: a comparative study on the relative importance of soil feedbacks in the greenhouse versus the field JF - Oecologia N2 - Interactions between plants and soil microorganisms influence individual plant performance and thus plant-community composition. Most studies on such plant-soil feedbacks (PSFs) have been performed under controlled greenhouse conditions, whereas no study has directly compared PSFs under greenhouse and natural field conditions. We grew three grass species that differ in local abundance in grassland communities simultaneously in the greenhouse and field on field-collected soils either previously conditioned by these species or by the general grassland community. As soils in grasslands are typically conditioned by mixes of species through the patchy and heterogeneous plant species’ distributions, we additionally compared the effects of species-specific versus non-specific species conditioning on PSFs in natural and greenhouse conditions. In almost all comparisons PSFs differed between the greenhouse and field. In the greenhouse, plant growth in species-specific and non-specific soils resulted in similar effects with neutral PSFs for the most abundant species and positive PSFs for the less abundant species. In contrast, in the field all grass species tested performed best in non-specific plots, whereas species-specific PSFs were neutral for the most abundant and varied for the less abundant species. This indicates a general beneficial effect of plant diversity on PSFs in the field. Controlled greenhouse conditions might provide valuable insights on the nominal effects of soils on plants. However, the PSFs observed in greenhouse conditions may not be the determining drivers in natural plant communities where their effects may be overwhelmed by the diversity of abiotic and biotic above- and belowground interactions in the field. KW - Grassland KW - Plant performance KW - Experimental environment KW - Community assembly KW - Plant diversity Y1 - 2016 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-016-3591-8 SN - 0029-8549 SN - 1432-1939 VL - 181 SP - 559 EP - 569 PB - Springer CY - New York ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Hermanussen, Michael A1 - Assmann, Christian A1 - Staub, K. A1 - Groth, Detlef T1 - Monte Carlo simulation of body height in a spatial network JF - European journal of clinical nutrition N2 - BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: Recent evidence suggests clustering of human body height. We want to assess the consequences of connectedness in a spatial network on height clustering in an artificial society. SUBJECTS/METHODS: We used an agent-based computer modelling technique (Monte Carlo simulation) and compared simulated height in a spatial network with characteristics of the observed geographic height distribution of three historic cohorts of Swiss military conscripts (conscripted in 1884-1891; 1908-1910; and 2004-2009). RESULTS: Conscript height shows several characteristic features: (1) height distributions are overdispersed. (2) Conscripts from districts with direct inter-district road connections tend to be similar in height. (3) Clusters of tall and clusters of short stature districts vary over time. Autocorrelations in height between late 19th and early 21st century districts are low. (4) Mean district height depends on the number of connecting roads and on the number of conscripts per district. Using Monte Carlo simulation, we were able to generate these natural characteristics in an artificial society. Already 5% height information from directly connected districts is sufficient to simulate the characteristics of natural height distribution. Very similar observations in regular rectangular networks indicate that the characteristics of Swiss conscript height distributions do not so much result from the particular Swiss geography but rather appear to be general features of spatial networks. CONCLUSIONS: Spatial connectedness can affect height clustering in an artificial society, similar to that seen in natural cohorts of military conscripts, and strengthen the concept of connectedness being involved in the regulation of human height. Y1 - 2016 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1038/ejcn.2016.45 SN - 0954-3007 SN - 1476-5640 VL - 70 SP - 671 EP - 678 PB - Nature Publ. Group CY - London ER - TY - GEN A1 - Hermanussen, Michael A1 - Ipsen, Josefin A1 - Mumm, Rebekka A1 - Assmann, Christian A1 - Quitmann, Julia A1 - Gomula, Aleksandra A1 - Lehmann, Andreas A1 - Jasch, Isabelle A1 - Tassenaar, Vincent A1 - Bogin, Barry A1 - Satake, Takashi A1 - Scheffler, Christiane A1 - Nunez, Javier A1 - Godina, Elena A1 - Hardeland, Ruediger A1 - Boldsen, Jesper L. A1 - El-Shabrawi, Mortada A1 - Elhusseini, Mona A1 - Barbu, Carmen Gabriela A1 - Pop, Ralucca A1 - Soederhaell, Jani A1 - Merker, Andrea A1 - Swanson, James A1 - Groth, Detlef T1 - Stunted Growth. Proceedings of the 23rd Aschauer Soiree, Held at Aschauhof, Germany, November 7th 2015 T2 - Pediatric Endocrinology Reviews N2 - Twenty-four scientists met at Aschauhof, Altenhof, Germany, to discuss the associations between child growth and development, and nutrition, health, environment and psychology. Meta-analyses of body height, height variability and household inequality, in historic and modern growth studies published since 1794, highlighting the enormously flexible patterns of child and adolescent height and weight increments throughout history which do not only depend on genetics, prenatal development, nutrition, health, and economic circumstances, but reflect social interactions. A Quality of Life in Short Stature Youth Questionnaire was presented to cross-culturally assess health-related quality of life in children. Changes of child body proportions in recent history, the relation between height and longevity in historic Dutch samples and also measures of body height in skeletal remains belonged to the topics of this meeting. Bayesian approaches and Monte Carlo simulations offer new statistical tools for the study of human growth. KW - Adolescent growth KW - Peer group KW - Growth hormone KW - Community effect KW - Body height Y1 - 2016 SN - 1565-4753 VL - 13 SP - 756 EP - 767 PB - Medical Media CY - Netanya ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Hermanussen, Michael A1 - Scheffler, Christiane T1 - Stature signals status: The association of stature, status and perceived dominance - a thought experiment JF - Journal of biological and clinical anthropology : Anthropologischer Anzeiger ; Mitteilungsorgan der Gesellschaft für Anthropologie N2 - Background: There is a common perception that tall stature results in social dominance. Evidence in meerkats suggests that social dominance itself may be a strong stimulus for growth. Relative size serves as the signal for individuals to induce strategic growth adjustments. Aim: We construct a thought experiment to explore the potential consequences of the question: is stature a social signal also in humans? We hypothesize that (1) upward trends in height in the lower social strata are perceived as social challenges yielding similar though attenuated upward trends in the dominant strata, and that (2) democratization, but also periods of political turmoil that facilitate upward mobility of the lower strata, are accompanied by upward trends in height. Material and methods: We reanalyzed large sets of height data of European conscripts born between 1856-1860 and 1976-1980; and annual data of German military conscripts, born between 1965 and 1985, with information on height and school education. Results: Taller stature is associated with higher socioeconomic status. Historic populations show larger height differences between social strata that tend to diminish in the more recent populations. German height data suggest that both democratization, and periods of political turmoil facilitating upward mobility of the lower social strata are accompanied by a general upward height spiral that captures the whole population. Discussion: We consider stature as a signal. Nutrition, health, general living conditions and care giving are essential prerequisites for growth, yet not to maximize stature, but to allow for its function as a lifelong social signal. Considering stature as a social signal provides an elegant explanation of the rapid height adjustments observed in migrants, of the hitherto unexplained clustering of body height in modern and historic cohorts of military conscripts, and of the parallelism between changes in political conditions, and secular trends in adult human height since the 19th century. KW - community effect on height KW - secular trend KW - body height KW - social signals KW - strategic growth adjustment Y1 - 2016 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1127/anthranz/2016/0698 SN - 0003-5548 VL - 73 SP - 265 EP - 274 PB - Schweizerbart CY - Stuttgart ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Hermanussen, Michael A1 - Stec, Karol A1 - Amann, Christian A1 - Meigen, Christof A1 - Van Buuren, Stef T1 - Synthetic Growth Reference Charts JF - American journal of human biology : the official journal of the Human Biology Council N2 - Objectives: To reanalyze the between-population variance in height, weight, and body mass index (BMI), and to provide a globally applicable technique for generating synthetic growth reference charts. Methods: Using a baseline set of 196 female and 197 male growth studies published since 1831, common factors of height, weight, and BMI are extracted via Principal Components separately for height, weight, and BMI. Combining information from single growth studies and the common factors using in principle a Bayesian rationale allows for provision of completed reference charts. Results: The suggested approach can be used for generating synthetic growth reference charts with LMS values for height, weight, and BMI, from birth to maturity, from any limited set of height and weight measurements of a given population. Conclusion: Generating synthetic growth reference charts by incorporating information from a large set of reference growth studies seems suitable for populations with no autochthonous references at hand yet. (C) 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Y1 - 2016 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1002/ajhb.22759 SN - 1042-0533 SN - 1520-6300 VL - 28 SP - 98 EP - 111 PB - Wiley-Blackwell CY - Hoboken ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Hilker, Monika A1 - Schwachtje, Jens A1 - Baier, Margarete A1 - Balazadeh, Salma A1 - Bäurle, Isabel A1 - Geiselhardt, Sven A1 - Hincha, Dirk K. A1 - Kunze, Reinhard A1 - Mueller-Roeber, Bernd A1 - Rillig, Matthias G. A1 - Rolff, Jens A1 - Schmülling, Thomas A1 - Steppuhn, Anke A1 - van Dongen, Joost A1 - Whitcomb, Sarah J. A1 - Wurst, Susanne A1 - Zuther, Ellen A1 - Kopka, Joachim T1 - Priming and memory of stress responses in organisms lacking a nervous system JF - Biological reviews KW - priming KW - stress signalling KW - epigenetics KW - memory KW - fitness KW - stress tolerance KW - defence KW - bet hedging Y1 - 2016 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1111/brv.12215 SN - 1464-7931 SN - 1469-185X VL - 91 SP - 1118 EP - 1133 PB - Wiley-Blackwell CY - Hoboken ER - TY - THES A1 - Hofferek, Vinzenz T1 - Starvation response of Drosophila melanogaster BT - a Lipidomic Approach Y1 - 2016 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Hoffman, J. I. A1 - Kowalski, Gabriele Joanna A1 - Klimova, A. A1 - Eberhart-Phillips, Luke J. A1 - Staniland, Iain J. A1 - Baylis, Alastair M. M. T1 - Population structure and historical demography of South American sea lions provide insights into the catastrophic decline of a marine mammal population JF - Royal Society Open Science N2 - Understanding the causes of population decline is crucial for conservation management. We therefore used genetic analysis both to provide baseline data on population structure and to evaluate hypotheses for the catastrophic decline of the South American sea lion (Otaria flavescens) at the Falkland Islands (Malvinas) in the South Atlantic. We genotyped 259 animals from 23 colonies across the Falklands at 281 bp of the mitochondrial hypervariable region and 22 microsatellites. A weak signature of population structure was detected, genetic diversity was moderately high in comparison with other pinniped species, and no evidence was found for the decline being associated with a strong demographic bottleneck. By combining our mitochondrial data with published sequences from Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Peru, we also uncovered strong maternally directed population structure across the geographical range of the species. In particular, very few shared haplotypes were found between the Falklands and South America, and this was reflected in correspondingly low migration rate estimates. These findings do not support the prominent hypothesis that the decline was caused by migration to Argentina, where large-scale commercial harvesting operations claimed over half a million animals. Thus, our study not only provides baseline data for conservation management but also reveals the potential for genetic studies to shed light upon long-standing questions pertaining to the history and fate of natural populations. KW - population structure KW - anthropogenic exploitation KW - historical demography KW - phylogeography KW - pinniped Y1 - 2016 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.160291 SN - 2054-5703 VL - 3 SP - 505 EP - 517 PB - Royal Society CY - London ER - TY - THES A1 - Hoffmann, Stefan T1 - In vivo Selection of Switchable DNA-Binding Proteins Y1 - 2016 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Hoffmann, Stefan A. A1 - Kruse, Sabrina M. A1 - Arndt, Katja Maren T1 - Long-range transcriptional interference in E-coli used to construct a dual positive selection system for genetic switches JF - Nucleic acids research N2 - We have investigated transcriptional interference between convergent genes in E. coli and demonstrate substantial interference for inter-promoter distances of as far as 3 kb. Interference can be elicited by both strong σ70 dependent and T7 promoters. In the presented design, a strong promoter driving gene expression of a ‘forward’ gene interferes with the expression of a ‘reverse’ gene by a weak promoter. This arrangement allows inversely correlated gene expression without requiring further regulatory components. Thus, modulation of the activity of the strong promoter alters expression of both the forward and the reverse gene. We used this design to develop a dual selection system for conditional operator site binding, allowing positive selection both for binding and for non-binding to DNA. This study demonstrates the utility of this novel system using the Lac repressor as a model protein for conditional DNA binding, and spectinomycin and chloramphenicol resistance genes as positive selection markers in liquid culture. Randomized LacI libraries were created and subjected to subsequent dual selection, but mispairing IPTG and selection cues in respect to the wild-type LacI response, allowing the isolation of a LacI variant with a reversed IPTG response within three rounds of library generation and dual selection. Y1 - 2016 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1093/nar/gkw125 SN - 0305-1048 SN - 1362-4962 VL - 44 PB - Oxford Univ. Press CY - Oxford ER - TY - GEN A1 - Holzlöhner, Pamela A1 - Butze, Monique A1 - Hebel, Nicole A1 - Weschke, Daniel A1 - Schliebs, E. A1 - Naumann, F. A1 - Füner, J. A1 - Micheel, Burkhard A1 - Hanack, Katja T1 - Monoclonal mouse antibodies against PBMC subpopulations of New World camelides T2 - European journal of immunology Y1 - 2016 SN - 0014-2980 SN - 1521-4141 VL - 46 SP - 1175 EP - 1175 PB - Wiley-Blackwell CY - Hoboken ER -