570 Biowissenschaften; Biologie
Refine
Has Fulltext
- no (239) (remove)
Year of publication
- 2018 (239) (remove)
Document Type
- Article (186)
- Doctoral Thesis (19)
- Review (16)
- Other (15)
- Habilitation Thesis (3)
Keywords
- Arabidopsis (5)
- Arabidopsis thaliana (4)
- plasticity (4)
- strategic growth adjustments (4)
- Africa (3)
- Germany (3)
- Metabolomics (3)
- Review (3)
- ancient DNA (3)
- body height (3)
- palaeogenomics (3)
- phototaxis (3)
- priming (3)
- Aquatic ecosystems (2)
- Biofilms (2)
- CCM (2)
- Chlamydomonas (2)
- Cyanobacteria (2)
- DNA (2)
- DNA methylation (2)
- Dielectrophoresis (2)
- Eco-evolutionary dynamics (2)
- Electropolymerization (2)
- Ethnobotany (2)
- Eutrophication (2)
- Gene expression (2)
- Global change (2)
- Lepus europaeus (2)
- Life history (2)
- Mechanotransduction (2)
- Metabolism (2)
- Microcystis aeruginosa (2)
- Microorganisms (2)
- Microplastics (2)
- Modeling (2)
- Molecularly imprinted polymers (2)
- Monoclonal antibodies (2)
- Myodes glareolus (2)
- Population genetics (2)
- Rice (2)
- Scopoletin (2)
- Senescence (2)
- Tanzania (2)
- adaptation (2)
- angiogenesis (2)
- biodiversity (2)
- biomarker (2)
- centriole (2)
- centrosome (2)
- chromatin (2)
- climate change (2)
- community effect on height (2)
- competition (2)
- competitive growth (2)
- epigenetics (2)
- exposure (2)
- forestREplot (2)
- inheritance (2)
- life cycle (2)
- light pollution (2)
- mammals (2)
- metabolomics (2)
- microbial ecology (2)
- microtubules (2)
- neurodegeneration (2)
- nitrogen deposition (2)
- paleogenomics (2)
- predator-prey dynamics (2)
- rodent (2)
- senescence (2)
- short-read mapping (2)
- wild mammal species (2)
- 16S rRNA Illumina amplicon sequencing (1)
- A. thaliana (1)
- AC electrokinetics (1)
- ALAN (1)
- Achillea millefolium (1)
- Adolescence (1)
- Afrika (1)
- Age (1)
- Agricultural fertilization (1)
- Agricultural landscapes (1)
- Alignment (1)
- Allelopathy (1)
- Alternative growth regulators (1)
- Ambrosia artemisiifolia (1)
- Anatolia (1)
- Ancient forest (1)
- Angiosperms (1)
- Anolis (1)
- Antibiotic resistance (1)
- Aphis fabae (1)
- Arabia (1)
- Arabien (1)
- Arionidae (1)
- Aromatic amino acids (1)
- Arsenic speciation (1)
- Arsenic-containing hydrocarbons (1)
- Arsenolipids (1)
- Artificial light (1)
- Artificial light at night (ALAN) (1)
- Astrobiologie (1)
- AtD-CGS (1)
- Auxin (1)
- Auxin transport (1)
- BEMOVI (1)
- BRUSHY1 (1)
- Bacterial community composition (1)
- Baltic Sea (1)
- Behavior (1)
- Bet-hedging (1)
- Bioaccumulation (1)
- Biodiversity (1)
- Biofilm (1)
- Biogeography (1)
- Biomarker (1)
- Biomimetic sensors (1)
- Biosignaturen (1)
- Blood-Brain Barrier (1)
- Body height (1)
- Boreal forests (1)
- Brachionus calyciflorus (1)
- Branched chain amino acids (1)
- Bray Curtis dissimilarity (1)
- Buds (1)
- C sequestration (1)
- CDS (1)
- CSF (1)
- CWSI (1)
- CYSTATHIONINE GAMMA-SYNTHASE (1)
- Caffeine (1)
- Camelid antibodies (1)
- Camelid single domain antibodies (1)
- Canalization (1)
- Canopy (1)
- Capsella (1)
- Carabidae (1)
- Carbon (1)
- Carbon cycling (1)
- Cardiomyocyte proliferation (1)
- Cell death (1)
- Cellular phosphorus (1)
- Cervidae (1)
- Cetaceans (1)
- Charophytes (1)
- Child growth (1)
- Chlorophyll (1)
- Chromatin-based mechanisms (1)
- Chronic exposure (1)
- Chronic stress (1)
- Chronosequence (1)
- Chytridiomycota (1)
- Climate-change ecology (1)
- Co-evolution (1)
- Coexistence mechanisms (1)
- Colonization (1)
- Community ecology (1)
- Community effects on growth (1)
- Competitive growth (1)
- Conservation (1)
- Corms (1)
- Cover abundance (1)
- Cultivation (1)
- Cylindrospermopsis raciborskii (1)
- Cytochrome P450 (1)
- DDT (1)
- DNA nanostructure (1)
- DNRA (1)
- DUF300 proteins (1)
- Dangeardia mamillata (1)
- Daphnia (1)
- Degradation (1)
- Denitrifiers (1)
- Desiccation (1)
- Determination of crystallinity (1)
- Determination of hydration (1)
- Developing brain (1)
- Developmental evolution (1)
- Dictyostelium (1)
- Differential gene expression (1)
- Disease monitoring (1)
- Dormancy phases (1)
- Dryland (1)
- E. coil (1)
- EARLY STARVATION1 (1)
- ERK5 (1)
- Eco-hydrological model (1)
- EcoHyD (1)
- Ecohydrological model (1)
- Ecology (1)
- Ecosystem functioning (1)
- Ecotoxicology (1)
- Elapidae (1)
- Electrodes (1)
- Electrokinetics (1)
- Electroosmosis (1)
- Endocoenobium eudorinae (1)
- Endothelial cells (1)
- Endothelial integrity (1)
- Environmental risk (1)
- EphA2 (1)
- Eurasian lynx (1)
- European brown hare (1)
- European rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus) (1)
- Evolution (1)
- Exotic (1)
- Extreme environment (1)
- Facilitation (1)
- Fat Patterning (1)
- Fatty acids (1)
- Fire (1)
- Fitness (1)
- Fitness landscape and frequency-dependent selection (1)
- Flower (1)
- Fluorescence (1)
- Foraging (1)
- Forest age (1)
- Forest understorey (1)
- Fragmentation (1)
- Freshwater microalgae (1)
- Frühwarn-System (1)
- Functional diversity (1)
- Functional trait diversity (1)
- GC/MS (1)
- GFLASSO (1)
- GPS (1)
- GPS tracking (1)
- GWA (1)
- Gene duplication (1)
- Genetic architecture (1)
- Genotypic variation (1)
- Global DNA methylation (1)
- Global environmental change (1)
- Glutathione (1)
- Growth signaling (1)
- GxE interaction (1)
- Gynogenesis (1)
- H3K4 methylation (1)
- HGT (1)
- HPLC (1)
- HSF (1)
- Habitabilität (1)
- Hamiltonella defensa (1)
- Hangman porphyrin (1)
- Hantavirus (1)
- Hantavirus-Erkrankung (1)
- Harmful algal bloom (1)
- Harmful algal blooms (1)
- Health risk assessment (1)
- Heart development (1)
- Heavy-chain only antibodies (1)
- Hepatitis E virus (1)
- Herb layer (1)
- Heterotrophic activity (1)
- Hill numbers (1)
- Hippocampal neurogenesis (1)
- Historic literature (1)
- Home range (1)
- Home range size (1)
- Homeostasis (1)
- HopZ1a (1)
- Horizontal gene transfer (1)
- Host adaptation (1)
- Host-plant quality (1)
- Human used-drugs (1)
- Humans (1)
- Hybrid speciation (1)
- Hydrogen peroxide (1)
- Hypoxis (1)
- IC (1)
- Immune evasion cluster (1)
- Immunity (1)
- Indicator species (1)
- Individual-based model (1)
- Individual-based models (1)
- Inner-city area (1)
- Insect herbivore (1)
- Integrated environmental modelling (1)
- Integrative taxonomy (1)
- Interdigitated electrodes (1)
- Interdisciplinary links (1)
- Intervertebral disc (1)
- Ion leakage (1)
- Iron toxicity (1)
- Island colonization (1)
- Isolation (1)
- Japan (1)
- KLF2 (1)
- Killer whale (1)
- LC/MS (1)
- LED (1)
- Label-free imaging (1)
- Laccase (1)
- Land-use history (1)
- Landscape connectivity (1)
- Landscape of fear (1)
- Larch (1)
- Latitudinal gradient (1)
- Leaf senescence (1)
- Leaf shape (1)
- Leptospira spp (1)
- Lesser antilles (1)
- Life history strategies (1)
- Light pollution (1)
- Limnology (1)
- Littoral (1)
- Lolium perenne (1)
- Lutra lutra (1)
- Lysiphlebus fabarum (1)
- Lythrum salicaria (1)
- MLST (1)
- MOBAK 1 (1)
- Macroclimatic gradient (1)
- Manganese (1)
- Marine mammals (1)
- Maschinelles-Lernen (1)
- Mate choice (1)
- Maternal relationships (1)
- Meat storage (1)
- Mechanical stimulation (1)
- Mechanically-induced stress (1)
- Mechanoperception (1)
- Mechanosensing (1)
- Medicinal plants (1)
- Meiosis (1)
- Menarche (1)
- Mercury (1)
- Metal Metabolism (1)
- Methanogenic archaea (1)
- Microarrays (1)
- Microbial ecology (1)
- Microcystins (1)
- Microcystis sp (1)
- Microplastics (MP) (1)
- Microsatellite (1)
- Microsatellite analysis (1)
- Migration (1)
- Mitochondrial DNA (1)
- Modelling functional diversity (1)
- Modern pollen-vegetation relationships (1)
- Molecularly imprinted polymer (1)
- Moment closure (1)
- Monogononta (1)
- Morphogenesis (1)
- Morphological evolution (1)
- Multi-functionality index (1)
- Multi-scale analysis (1)
- Multilocus phylogeny (1)
- Multiple-Sklerose (1)
- Mushrooms (1)
- Mutualism (1)
- NAB (1)
- NRPS (1)
- Nagetiere (1)
- Naja guineensis sp nov. (1)
- Naja melanoleuca (1)
- Naja savannula sp nov. (1)
- Namibia (1)
- Neogen (1)
- Neurotoxicity (1)
- Nitrogen (1)
- Nitrogen deposition (1)
- Nitrogen-limitation hypothesis (1)
- Nonindigenous (1)
- Noninvasive sampling (1)
- Nonlinear optical microscopy (1)
- Normal and beta distribution (1)
- North Sea (1)
- Nutrients (1)
- Nyquist-shannon sampling theorem (1)
- Offspring weight (1)
- Organic matter mineralization (1)
- Ornamental plants (1)
- Oryza sativa ssp japonica cv. taipei 309 (1)
- PATELLIN (1)
- PBDE (1)
- PBS1 (1)
- PC-3 cells (1)
- PCB (1)
- PKS (1)
- PacBio and Illumina (1)
- Paläontologie (1)
- Parkinson's disease (1)
- Parkinson-Krankheit (1)
- Paternity analysis (1)
- Peptide mass fingerprinting (1)
- Periphyton (1)
- Personality (1)
- Phenobarbital (1)
- Phenotypic plasticity (1)
- Phosphate limitation (1)
- Phosphoproteomik (1)
- Phylogeography (1)
- Physiology (1)
- Phytoplankton (1)
- Planetensimulation (1)
- Plant coexistence (1)
- Plant development (1)
- Plant functional type (1)
- Plant growth regulation (1)
- Plant-pollinator interactions (1)
- Plants (1)
- Poecilia formosa (1)
- Poecilia latipinna (1)
- Poecilia mexicana (1)
- Populationsdynamik (1)
- Porphyra (1)
- Post mortem chemistry (1)
- Predator-prey interactions (1)
- Prediction (1)
- Preterminfants (1)
- Protein adsorption (1)
- Protein imprinting (1)
- Proteins (1)
- Prunus avium L. (1)
- Pseudomonas (1)
- Pseudomonas syringae (1)
- QTL (1)
- R programing language (1)
- R software packages (1)
- RAMseq (1)
- RAPD (1)
- RNAseq (1)
- ROCK (1)
- RRBS (1)
- Rainfall variability (1)
- Range expansion (1)
- Rearing experiment (1)
- Redox marker (1)
- Refeeding (1)
- Regression (1)
- Remorin (1)
- Reproduction (1)
- Research needs (1)
- Resource availability (1)
- Resource variability (1)
- Rickettsia helvetica (1)
- Risk taking (1)
- Rodent (1)
- Rubbing tree (1)
- Rural habitat (1)
- S. cerevisiae (1)
- SLST (1)
- SNARC effect (1)
- SPB (1)
- SUB1A (1)
- SWL (1)
- Sailfin molly (1)
- Sarcomere (1)
- Savanna ecology (1)
- Savanna-grassland bistability (1)
- Scirpus maritimus (1)
- Season (1)
- Secondary antibodies (1)
- Seepage (1)
- Seleniferous area (1)
- Selenium (1)
- Senescence-associated genes (SAGs) (1)
- Sexual selection (1)
- Shinorine (1)
- Shrub encroachment (1)
- Simulated microgravity (1)
- Simulation (1)
- Skewed and peaked trait distributions (1)
- Social environment (1)
- Soil texture (1)
- Solidago gigantea (1)
- Source population (1)
- Spatiotemporal resurvey data (1)
- Species age (1)
- Species turnover (1)
- Staphylococcus aureus (1)
- Stochastic differential equations (1)
- Stoffwechsel (1)
- Strategic growth adjustment (1)
- Stretching (1)
- Structural determination (1)
- Stunting (1)
- Submergence tolerance (1)
- Subsoil (1)
- Sulfate (1)
- Sundaland (1)
- Sunscreen (1)
- Supplements (1)
- Survival success (1)
- Säugetiere (1)
- TMAO reductase (1)
- TRP channels (1)
- Target of Rapamycin kinase (1)
- Telemetry (1)
- Temperate forest (1)
- Total P (1)
- Total biomass (1)
- Trabeculation (1)
- Trade chain (1)
- Traditional medicine (1)
- Trait (1)
- Trait diversity (1)
- Trait interaction (1)
- Traits (1)
- Transcription factors (1)
- Transferrin (1)
- Transporters (1)
- Tree defence (1)
- Tree regeneration (1)
- Tropical reservoir (1)
- Tundra-taiga transition (1)
- Turkey (1)
- Tylomelania sarasinorum (1)
- UV irradiation (1)
- UV response (1)
- Undernutrition (1)
- Ursus arctos (1)
- Vaccination (1)
- Vegetable (1)
- Visible yellowing (1)
- Wachstumssignale (1)
- Water resources (1)
- Wild mice (1)
- Zea mays (1)
- Zoonosis (1)
- aberrations (1)
- activation of oxygen species (1)
- admixture (1)
- adolescence (1)
- agriculture (1)
- alignment sensitivity / specificity (1)
- alignment sensitivity/specificity (1)
- allocation (1)
- alpha diversity (1)
- amino acid (1)
- ancestral area reconstruction (1)
- ancestral biogeographic region reconstruction (1)
- animal movement (1)
- animal personality (1)
- antagonism (1)
- aphids (1)
- apoptosis (1)
- apple (1)
- arable land (1)
- assessment (1)
- associative learning (1)
- astrobiology (1)
- basal body (1)
- behavioural syndrome (1)
- benzimidazoles (1)
- bio-optical modeling (1)
- biodiversity change (1)
- biogeography (1)
- biological control (1)
- biological engineering (1)
- biosignatures (1)
- biotic resistance (1)
- botanical gardens (1)
- brassinosteroid signaling (1)
- calcium (1)
- carbon labeling (1)
- cardiomyogenic differentiation (1)
- cetaceans (1)
- childhood (1)
- chimeric enzyme (1)
- chitin synthase (1)
- cholesterol (1)
- cilium (1)
- click chemistry (1)
- cloud (1)
- coevolution (1)
- coexistence (1)
- cold (1)
- community (1)
- community assembly (1)
- community effect (1)
- competition–defense trade‐off (1)
- computer tomography (1)
- conservation (1)
- conservation evaluation (1)
- conservation genetics (1)
- cord blood (1)
- corrinoid-containing enzymes (1)
- critical thermal maximum (1)
- cryptic species (1)
- crystal structure (1)
- cyanobacteria (1)
- cytokine release (1)
- data reduction (1)
- de novo hybrid assembly (1)
- defense against predation (1)
- defensive symbiosis (1)
- demography (1)
- density-driven suppression (1)
- developmental plasticity (1)
- dielectric (1)
- disturbance regime (1)
- disturbed areas (1)
- diversity (1)
- dominance (1)
- dwarf males (1)
- early warning system (1)
- eco-evolutionary experience (1)
- eco-physiology (1)
- ecoevolutionary dynamics (1)
- ecological speciation (1)
- efficient (1)
- eicosapentaenoic acid (1)
- electro-polymerization (1)
- electrochemical biosensor (1)
- elephantid evolution (1)
- embodied cognition (1)
- endangered species (1)
- endoparasites (1)
- environment (1)
- environmental genomics (1)
- ephrin (1)
- evolution (1)
- exploitative competition (1)
- expression (1)
- facilitation (1)
- fast and slow learner (1)
- fatty acid (1)
- fish (1)
- flux modeling (1)
- food quality (1)
- formaldehyde assimilation (1)
- freshwater (1)
- functional response (1)
- fungal parasites (1)
- gastropoda (1)
- gene flow (1)
- gene regulatory networks (1)
- gene responsiveness (1)
- genetic adaptation (1)
- genetic circuit (1)
- genetic monitoring (1)
- genome assembly (1)
- genomics (1)
- genomics/proteomics (1)
- glacial refuges (1)
- global and regional change (1)
- glucan (1)
- glycoprotein GP2 (1)
- growth of migrants (1)
- growth selection (1)
- habitability (1)
- habitat (1)
- habitat selection (1)
- hantavirus (1)
- hantavirus disease (1)
- heat (1)
- heat stress (1)
- heat tolerance (1)
- height of Turkish migrants (1)
- heparan sulfate (1)
- herbaceous layer (1)
- herpes simplex virus (1)
- heterogeneous catalysis (1)
- heterosis (1)
- hexamer (1)
- hidden markov model (1)
- high-throughput sequencing (1)
- horticulture (1)
- hub genes (1)
- human introduction (1)
- hybrid model (1)
- hybridization (1)
- hybridization capture (1)
- hyena (1)
- hyperspectral measurements (1)
- illuminance (1)
- immobilization (1)
- in silico (1)
- in vitro (1)
- in-situ (1)
- inbreeding depression (1)
- indirect facilitation (1)
- indirubin-3-monoxime (1)
- individual differences (1)
- individual-based model (1)
- inducible defense (1)
- inland water (1)
- instrument (1)
- integrated assessments (1)
- inter- and intra-species interactions (1)
- interactions (1)
- interference competition (1)
- intransitivity (1)
- intraspecific trait variation (1)
- invasion (1)
- inversion (1)
- inversions (1)
- invertebrates (1)
- kernel density estimation (1)
- killer whale (1)
- kinase pathway (1)
- lake monitoring (1)
- last glacial maxima (1)
- leaf morphology (1)
- leptospirosis (1)
- life history (1)
- light spectrum (1)
- lipid limitation thresholds (1)
- lipid metabolism (1)
- local adaptation (1)
- local convex hull (1)
- lumpy coexistence (1)
- machine-learning (1)
- machinelearning (1)
- macrophytes (1)
- male Daphnia (1)
- maltooligosaccharides (1)
- mammoth (1)
- management intensity (1)
- management zone (1)
- mate-pairs (1)
- mecC (1)
- melanoma (1)
- memory (1)
- menopause (1)
- mental arithmetic (1)
- mental number line (1)
- metabolic engineering (1)
- metabolism (1)
- metagenomics (1)
- metagenomics 2.0 (1)
- methylotrophy (1)
- microbial communities (1)
- migration (1)
- minimum convex polygon (1)
- mitochondrial remodelling (1)
- mitosis (1)
- mixed cultures (1)
- model coupling (1)
- molecular diversity (1)
- molecular evolution (1)
- molybdoenzyme (1)
- motor competence (1)
- mtDNA (1)
- multi-lake snapshot surveys (1)
- multiple sclerosis (1)
- multivalence (1)
- multivalent (1)
- nanoparticles (1)
- naturalised plants (1)
- neighbor correlation (1)
- nematodes (1)
- neogene (1)
- neuroinflammation (1)
- neutrality (1)
- nocturnal epigeal insect (1)
- noncoding RNA (1)
- nonmodel species (1)
- novelty (1)
- nucleosome remodelling (1)
- nucleus-associated body (1)
- numerical cognition (1)
- nutrient stoichiometry (1)
- nutrition (1)
- omics (1)
- ornamental plants (1)
- outbreeding depression (1)
- oxidative stress (1)
- paleogenetics (1)
- paleontology (1)
- parasitoid (1)
- partial correlation (1)
- participatory research (1)
- particle-associated bacteria (1)
- pathways (1)
- permittivity (1)
- petrous bone (1)
- pflanzliches Immunsystem (1)
- phage (1)
- phenotypic plasticity (1)
- phosphoglucan (1)
- phosphoproteomics (1)
- phylogeny (1)
- physical and physiological dormancy (1)
- physical education (1)
- phytoplankton (1)
- phytoplankton ecology (1)
- planetary simulation (1)
- plant adaptation (1)
- plant functional traits (1)
- plant immune system (1)
- plant invasions (1)
- plant nurseries (1)
- plants (1)
- plasma (1)
- plasmid (1)
- plastidial phosphorylase (1)
- polycomb (1)
- polyglycerol (1)
- polymer-based biomaterials (1)
- polyunsaturated fatty acids (1)
- population (1)
- population dynamics (1)
- population genomics (1)
- positive selection (1)
- post-glacial recolonization (1)
- preadaptation (1)
- precision agriculture (1)
- predator–prey cycles (1)
- primary metabolism (1)
- principal component analysis (1)
- progenitor cells (1)
- prokaryotes (1)
- promiscuous (1)
- protein (1)
- protein and amino acid degradation (1)
- protein-protein interactions (1)
- radula (1)
- range distribution (1)
- redox (1)
- reductive dehalogenase (1)
- regulation (1)
- remote sensing (1)
- resistance (1)
- respiration (1)
- restoration (1)
- ribulose monophosphate cycle (1)
- rodents (1)
- rotifers (1)
- salinity (1)
- scaffolding (1)
- secular trend (1)
- seed mixtures (1)
- seed provisioning (1)
- seed quality (1)
- selection system (1)
- sensory system (1)
- sexual reproduction (1)
- shell (1)
- shotgun sequencing (1)
- shrew (1)
- single nucleotide polymorphism (1)
- sister species (1)
- skeletal breadth measurement (1)
- social dominance (1)
- social growth adjustment (1)
- social identification (1)
- solar powered light-emitting diode (1)
- space use (1)
- space-for-time substitution (1)
- species divergence (1)
- species supersaturated assemblages (1)
- spectral irradiance (1)
- spectroscopy (1)
- speed-accuracy trade-off (1)
- spindle pole body (1)
- stability (1)
- starch biosynthesis (1)
- starch granule biogenesis (1)
- starch granule surface (1)
- starch phosphorylation (1)
- starch synthase (1)
- stat 3 (1)
- stature (1)
- sterols (1)
- stunting (1)
- surface reflection (1)
- sustainability science (1)
- swimming modes (1)
- synchronization (1)
- synthetic biology (1)
- systematics (1)
- telemetry (1)
- telomere dysfunction (1)
- temperament (1)
- temperature (1)
- time lag (1)
- tonoplast (1)
- top-down control (1)
- tracking data (1)
- trade (1)
- transcriptional memory (1)
- transcriptome (1)
- transcripts (1)
- transient dynamics (1)
- trimethylamine N-oxide (TMAO) (1)
- trithorax (1)
- twin-arginine translocation (1)
- undernutrition (1)
- untargeted metabolomics (1)
- vacuole integrity (1)
- variance (1)
- variant detection (1)
- vegetation height (1)
- vegetation resurvey (1)
- vertical transmission (1)
- virus infection (1)
- vitamin B-12 (1)
- water dikinase (1)
- weeds (1)
- white light (1)
- wood anemone (1)
- zinc fingers (1)
- Ökophysiologie (1)
Institute
- Institut für Biochemie und Biologie (239) (remove)
Cyanobacterial mass developments impact the community composition of heterotrophic microorganisms with far-reaching consequences for biogeochemical and energy cycles of freshwater ecosystems including reservoirs. Here we sought to evaluate the temporal stability of methanogenic archaea in the water column and further scrutinize their associations with cyanobacteria. Monthly samples were collected from October 2009 to December 2010 in hypereutrophic Pampulha reservoir with permanently blooming cyanobacteria, and from January to December 2011 in oligotrophic Volta Grande reservoir with only sporadic cyanobacteria incidence. The presence of archaea in cyanobacterial cultures was investigated by screening numerous strains of Microcystis spp. from these reservoirs as well as from lakes in Europe, Asia, and North-America. We consistently determined the occurrence of archaea, in particular methanogenic archaea, in both reservoirs throughout the year. However, archaea were only associated with two strains (Microcystis sp. UFMG 165 and UFMG 175) recently isolated from these reservoirs. These findings do not implicate archaea in the occurrence of methane in the epilimnion of inland waters, but rather serve to highlight the potential of microhabitats associated with particles, including phytoplankton, to shelter unique microbial communities.
Microplastics (MP) provide a unique and extensive surface for microbial colonization in aquatic ecosystems. The formation of microorganism-microplastic complexes, such as biofilms, maximizes the degradation of organic matter and horizontal gene transfer. In this context, MP affect the structure and function of microbial communities, which in turn render the physical and chemical fate of MP. This new paradigm generates challenges for microbiology, ecology, and ecotoxicology. Dispersal of MP is concomitant with that of their associated microorganisms and their mobile genetic elements, including antibiotic resistance genes, islands of pathogenicity, and diverse metabolic pathways. Functional changes in aquatic microbiomes can alter carbon metabolism and food webs, with unknown consequences on higher organisms or human microbiomes and hence health. Here, we examine a variety of effects of MP pollution from the microbial ecology perspective, whose repercussions on aquatic ecosystems begin to be unraveled. (C) 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
For successful growth and development, plants constantly have to gauge their environment. Plants are capable to monitor their current environmental conditions, and they are also able to integrate environmental conditions over time and store the information induced by the cues. In a developmental context, such an environmental memory is used to align developmental transitions with favourable environmental conditions. One temperature-related example of this is the transition to flowering after experiencing winter conditions, that is, vernalization. In the context of adaptation to stress, such an environmental memory is used to improve stress adaptation even when the stress cues are intermittent. A somatic stress memory has now been described for various stresses, including extreme temperatures, drought, and pathogen infection. At the molecular level, such a memory of the environment is often mediated by epigenetic and chromatin modifications. Histone modifications in particular play an important role. In this review, we will discuss and compare different types of temperature memory and the histone modifications, as well as the reader, writer, and eraser proteins involved.
Intraspecific trait variation (ITV) is thought to play a significant role in community assembly, but the magnitude and direction of its influence are not well understood. Although it may be critical to better explain population persistence, species interactions, and therefore biodiversity patterns, manipulating ITV in experiments is challenging. We therefore incorporated ITV into a trait‐ and individual‐based model of grassland community assembly by adding variation to the plants’ functional traits, which then drive life‐history tradeoffs. Varying the amount of ITV in the simulation, we examine its influence on pairwise‐coexistence and then on the species diversity in communities of different initial sizes. We find that ITV increases the ability of the weakest species to invade most, but that this effect does not scale to the community level, where the primary effect of ITV is to increase the persistence and abundance of the competitively‐average species. Diversity of the initial community is also of critical importance in determining ITV's efficacy; above a threshold of interspecific diversity, ITV does not increase diversity further. For communities below this threshold, ITV mainly helps to increase diversity in those communities that would otherwise be low‐diversity. These findings suggest that ITV actively maintains diversity by helping the species on the margins of persistence, but mostly in habitats of relatively low alpha and beta diversity.
For the first time, an enzyme-based electrochemical biosensor system for determination of trimethylamine N-oxide (TMAO) is described. It employs an active chimeric variant of TorA in combination with an enzymatically deoxygenating system and a low-potential mediator for effective regeneration of the enzyme and cathodic current generation. TMAO reductase (TorA) is a molybdoenzyme found in marine and most enterobacteria that specifically catalyzes the reduction of TMAO to trimethylamine (TMA). The chimeric TorA, named TorA-FDH, corresponds to the apoform of TorA from Escherichia coli reconstituted with the molybdenum cofactor from formate dehydrogenase (FDH). Each enzyme, TorA and TorA-FDH, was immobilized on the surface of a carbon electrode and protected with a dialysis membrane. The biosensor operates at an applied potential of -0.8V [vs. Ag/AgCl (1M KCl)] under ambient air conditions thanks to an additional enzymatic O-2-scavenger system. A comparison between the two enzymatic sensors revealed a much higher sensitivity for the biosensor with immobilized TorA-FDH. This biosensor exhibits a sensitivity of 14.16nA/M TMAO in a useful measuring range of 2-110M with a detection limit of LOD=2.96nM (S/N=3), and was similar for TMAO in buffer and in spiked serum samples. With a response time of 16 +/- 2 s, the biosensor is stable over prolonged daily measurements (n=20). This electrochemical biosensor provides suitable applications in detecting TMAO levels in human serum.
In Tanzania, about 10% of the reported 12,000 species of higher plants are estimated to be used as medicine for treating different human health problems. Most of the medicinal plants are collected from wild populations, but their trade and quantities are not properly recorded. Monitoring of trade in wild-harvested medicinal plants is challenging asmostmaterials are traded in various processed forms and most vendors practice informal trade. Yet, monitoring is important for conservation and sustainability. This study aims to assess the trade of wild-harvested medicinal plant species in local markets of Tanzania and its implications for conservation. Semi-structured interviews were used to record frequency, volume of trade and uses of wild-harvested medicinal plants in Arusha, Dodoma, Mbeya, Morogoro and Mwanza regions. Relative frequency of citation and informant consensus factor were calculated for each species and mentioned use category. Forty vendors were interviewed, and 400 out of 522 collected market samples were identified to 162 species from herbarium-deposited collections. Plant parts with the largest volume of trade were roots (3818 kg), bark (1163 kg) and leaves (492 kg). The most frequently traded species were Zanthoxylum chalybaeum Engl., Albizia anthelmintica Brongn., Zanha africana (Radlk.) Exell, Warburgia stuhlmannii and Vachellia nilotica (L.) P.J.H. Hurter & Mabb. The most popular medicinal plants in the markets are connected to local health problems including malaria, libido disorders or infertility. The high diversity of commercialized plants used for medicinal issues mainly relies on wild stock for local consumption and international trade, and this has significant implications for conservation concerns. (C) 2018 SAAB. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
The corms of different Hypoxis species (Hypoxidaceae) are used for the treatment and management of a variety of human ailments and disorders in African traditional medicine. However, the used corms are morphologically similar and it is not known whether this has resulted in different species being harvested, prescribed and sold as the same species. Ethnomedicinal information regarding its use in Tanzania is scanty and the available ethnobotanical information about the plants is mostly from various studies done outside Tanzania. The objective of the study was to document the diverse uses of Hypoxis in Tanzania and study what species are used and whether preferences exist for specific species. Focus group discussions and in depth interviews with informants were done in 15 regions of Tanzania to document local uses of Hypoxis species and collect vouchers for identification. Traditional practitioners use Hypoxis to manage a variety of human illness in Tanzania, and appear to use different species indiscriminately for medicine, socio-cultural applications and for food. Medicinal uses include treatment of benign prostate hypertrophy, cancer, diabetes, gout, headache, HIV/AIDS, infertility, ringworms, stomachache, and urinary tract infections. In Tanzania, different Hypoxis species are used indiscriminately for a range of sociocultural and medicinal purposes. The reported medicinal uses could aid testing and evaluation of traditional herbal medicine and more research is needed to test their pharmacological effects. (C) 2018 SAAB. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Home range estimation is routine practice in ecological research. While advances in animal tracking technology have increased our capacity to collect data to support home range analysis, these same advances have also resulted in increasingly autocorrelated data. Consequently, the question of which home range estimator to use on modern, highly autocorrelated tracking data remains open. This question is particularly relevant given that most estimators assume independently sampled data. Here, we provide a comprehensive evaluation of the effects of autocorrelation on home range estimation. We base our study on an extensive data set of GPS locations from 369 individuals representing 27 species distributed across five continents. We first assemble a broad array of home range estimators, including Kernel Density Estimation (KDE) with four bandwidth optimizers (Gaussian reference function, autocorrelated‐Gaussian reference function [AKDE], Silverman's rule of thumb, and least squares cross‐validation), Minimum Convex Polygon, and Local Convex Hull methods. Notably, all of these estimators except AKDE assume independent and identically distributed (IID) data. We then employ half‐sample cross‐validation to objectively quantify estimator performance, and the recently introduced effective sample size for home range area estimation ( N̂ area
) to quantify the information content of each data set. We found that AKDE 95% area estimates were larger than conventional IID‐based estimates by a mean factor of 2. The median number of cross‐validated locations included in the hold‐out sets by AKDE 95% (or 50%) estimates was 95.3% (or 50.1%), confirming the larger AKDE ranges were appropriately selective at the specified quantile. Conversely, conventional estimates exhibited negative bias that increased with decreasing N̂ area. To contextualize our empirical results, we performed a detailed simulation study to tease apart how sampling frequency, sampling duration, and the focal animal's movement conspire to affect range estimates. Paralleling our empirical results, the simulation study demonstrated that AKDE was generally more accurate than conventional methods, particularly for small N̂ area. While 72% of the 369 empirical data sets had >1,000 total observations, only 4% had an N̂ area >1,000, where 30% had an N̂ area <30. In this frequently encountered scenario of small N̂ area, AKDE was the only estimator capable of producing an accurate home range estimate on autocorrelated data.
Agricultural land-use practices have intensified over the last decades, leading to population declines of various farmland species, including the European hare (Lepus europaeus). In many European countries, arable fields dominate agricultural landscapes. Compared to pastures, arable land is highly variable, resulting in a large spatial variation of food and cover for wildlife over the course of the year, which potentially affects habitat selection by hares. Here, we investigated within-home-range habitat selection by hares in arable areas in Denmark and Germany to identify habitat requirements for their conservation. We hypothesized that hare habitat selection would depend on local habitat structure, that is, vegetation height, but also on agricultural field size, vegetation type, and proximity to field edges. Active hares generally selected for short vegetation (1-25 cm) and avoided higher vegetation and bare ground, especially when fields were comparatively larger. Vegetation >50 cm potentially restricts hares from entering parts of their home range and does not provide good forage, the latter also being the case on bare ground. The vegetation type was important for habitat selection by inactive hares, with fabaceae, fallow, and maize being selected for, potentially providing both cover and forage. Our results indicate that patches of shorter vegetation could improve the forage quality and habitat accessibility for hares, especially in areas with large monocultures. Thus, policymakers should aim to increase areas with short vegetation throughout the year. Further, permanent set-asides, like fallow and wildflower areas, would provide year-round cover for inactive hares. Finally, the reduction in field sizes would increase the density of field margins, and farming different crop types within small areas could improve the habitat for hares and other farmland species.
Ribulose Monophosphate Shunt Provides Nearly All Biomass and Energy Required for Growth of E. coli
(2018)
The ribulose monophosphate (RuMP) cycle is a highly efficient route for the assimilation of reduced one-carbon compounds. Despite considerable research, the RuMP cycle has not been fully implemented in model biotechnological organisms such as Escherichia coli, mainly since the heterologous establishment of the pathway requires addressing multiple challenges: sufficient formaldehyde production, efficient formaldehyde assimilation, and sufficient regeneration of the formaldehyde acceptor, ribulose 5-phosphate. Here, by efficiently producing formaldehyde from sarcosine oxidation and ribulose 5-phosphate from exogenous xylose, we set aside two of these concerns, allowing us to focus on the particular challenge of establishing efficient formaldehyde assimilation via the RuMP shunt, the linear variant of the RuMP cycle. We have generated deletion strains whose growth depends, to different extents, on the activity of the RuMP shunt, thus incrementally increasing the selection pressure for the activity of the synthetic pathway. Our final strain depends on the activity of the RuMP shunt for providing the cell with almost all biomass and energy needs, presenting an absolute coupling between growth and activity of key RuMP cycle components. This study shows the value of a stepwise problem solving approach when establishing a difficult but promising pathway, and is a strong basis for future engineering, selection, and evolution of model organisms for growth via the RuMP cycle.
Plants encounter biotic and abiotic stresses many times during their life cycle and this limits their productivity. Moderate heat stress (HS) primes a plant to survive higher temperatures that are lethal in the naïve state. Once temperature stress subsides, the memory of the priming event is actively retained for several days preparing the plant to better cope with recurring HS. Recently, chromatin regulation at different levels has been implicated in HS memory. Here, we report that the chromatin protein BRUSHY1 (BRU1)/TONSOKU/MGOUN3 plays a role in the HS memory in Arabidopsis thaliana. BRU1 is also involved in transcriptional gene silencing and DNA damage repair. This corresponds with the functions of its mammalian orthologue TONSOKU‐LIKE/NFΚBIL2. During HS memory, BRU1 is required to maintain sustained induction of HS memory‐associated genes, whereas it is dispensable for the acquisition of thermotolerance. In summary, we report that BRU1 is required for HS memory in A. thaliana, and propose a model where BRU1 mediates the epigenetic inheritance of chromatin states across DNA replication and cell division.
Eco-physiological processes are expressing the interaction of organisms within an environmental context of their habitat and their degree of adaptation, level of resistance as well as the limits of life in a changing environment. The present study focuses on observations achieved by methods used in this scientific discipline of “Ecophysiology” and to enlarge the scientific context in a broader range of understanding with universal character. The present eco-physiological work is building the basis for classifying and exploring the degree of habitability of another planet like Mars by a bio-driven experimentally approach. It offers also new ways of identifying key-molecules which are playing a specific role in physiological processes of tested organisms to serve as well as potential biosignatures in future space exploration missions with the goal to search for life. This has important implications for the new emerging scientific field of Astrobiology. Astrobiology addresses the study of the origin, evolution, distribution and future of life in the universe. The three fundamental questions which are hidden behind this definition are: how does life begin and evolve? Is there life beyond Earth and, if so, how can we detect it? What is the future of life on Earth and in the universe? It means that this multidisciplinary field encompasses the search for habitable environments in our Solar System and habitable planets outside our Solar System. It comprises the search for the evidence of prebiotic chemistry and life on Mars and other bodies in our Solar System like the icy moons of the Jovian and Saturnian system, laboratory and field research into the origins and early evolution of life on Earth, and studies of the potential for life to adapt to challenges on Earth and in space. For this purpose an integrated research strategy was applied, which connects field research, laboratory research allowing planetary simulation experiments with investigation enterprises performed in space (particularly performed in the low Earth Orbit.
This cumulative habilitation thesis presents new work on the systematics, paleoecology, and evolution of antelopes and other large mammals, focusing mainly on the late Miocene to Pleistocene terrestrial fossil record of Africa and Arabia. The studies included here range from descriptions of new species to broad-scale analyses of diversification and community evolution in large mammals over millions of years. A uniting theme is the evolution, across both temporal and spatial scales, of the environments and faunas that characterize modern African savannas today. One conclusion of this work is that macroevolutionary changes in large mammals are best characterized at regional (subcontinental to continental) and long-term temporal scales. General views of evolution developed on records that are too restricted in spatial and temporal extent are likely to ascribe too much influence to local or short-lived events. While this distinction in the scale of analysis and interpretation may seem trivial, it is challenging to implement given the geographically and temporally uneven nature of the fossil record, and the difficulties of synthesizing spatially and temporally dispersed datasets. This work attempts to do just that, bringing together primary fossil discoveries from eastern Africa to Arabia, from the Miocene to the Pleistocene, and across a wide range of (mainly large mammal) taxa. The end result is support for hypotheses stressing the impact of both climatic and biotic factors on long-term faunal change, and a more geographically integrated view of evolution in the African fossil record.
Um das Immunsystem der Pflanze zu manipulieren translozieren gram-negative pathogene Bakterien Typ-III Effektorproteine (T3E) über ein Typ-III Sekretionssystem (T3SS) in die pflanzliche Wirtszelle. Dort lokalisieren T3Es in verschiedenen subzellulären Kompartimenten, wo sie Zielproteine modifizieren und so die Infektion begünstigen. HopZ1a, ein T3E des Pflanzenpathogens Pseudomonas syringae pv. syringae, ist eine Acetyltransferase und lokalisiert über ein Myristolierungsmotiv an der Plasmamembran der Wirtszelle. Obwohl gezeigt wurde, dass HopZ1a die frühe Signalweiterleitung an der Plasmamembran stört, wurde bisher kein mit der Plasmamembran assoziiertes Zielprotein für diesen T3E identifiziert. Um bisher unbekannte HopZ1a-Zieleproteine zu identifizieren wurde im Vorfeld dieser Arbeit eine Hefe-Zwei-Hybrid-Durchmusterung mit einer cDNA-Bibliothek aus Tabak durchgeführt, wobei ein nicht näher charakterisiertes Remorin als Interaktor gefunden wurde.
Bei dem Remorin handelt es sich um einen Vertreter der Gruppe 4 der Remorin-Familie, weshalb es in NbREM4 umbenannt wurde. Durch den Einsatz verschiedener Interaktionsstudien konnte demonstriert werden, dass HopZ1a mit NbREM4 in Hefe, in vitro und in planta wechselwirkt. Es wurde ferner deutlich, dass HopZ1a auf spezifische Weise mit dem konservierten C-Terminus von NbREM4 interagiert, das Remorin jedoch in vitro nicht acetyliert. Analysen mittels BiFC haben zudem ergeben, dass NbREM4 in Homodimeren an der Plasmamembran lokalisiert, wo auch die Interaktion mit HopZ1a stattfindet.
Eine funktionelle Charakterisierung von NbREM4 ergab, dass das Remorin eine spezifische Rolle im Immunsystem der Pflanze einnimmt. Die transiente Expression in N. benthamiana induziert die Expression von Abwehrgenen sowie einen veränderten Blattphänotyp. In A. thaliana wird HopZ1a über das Decoy ZED1 und das R-Protein ZAR1 erkannt, was zur Auslösung einer starken Hypersensitiven Antwort (HR von hypersensitive response) führt. Es konnte im Rahmen dieser Arbeit gezeigt werden, dass ZAR1 in N. benthamiana konserviert ist, NbREM4 jedoch nicht in der ETI als Decoy fungiert. Mit Hilfe einer Hefe-Zwei-Hybrid-Durchmusterung mit NbZAR1 als Köder konnten zwei Proteine, die Catalase CAT1 und der Protonenpumpeninteraktor PPI1, als Interaktoren von NbZAR1 identifiziert werden, welche möglicherweise in der Regulation der HR eine Rolle spielen.
Aus Voruntersuchungen war bekannt, dass NbREM4 mit weiteren, nicht näher charakterisierten Proteinen aus Tabak interagieren könnte. Eine phylogenetische Einordnung hat gezeigt, dass es sich um die bekannte Immun-Kinase PBS1 sowie zwei E3-Ubiquitin-Ligasen, NbSINA1 und NbSINAL3, handelt. PBS1 interagiert mit NbREM4 an der Plasmamembran und phosphoryliert das Remorin innerhalb des intrinsisch ungeordneten N-Terminus. Mittels Massenspektrometrie konnten die Serine an Position 64 und 65 innerhalb der Aminosäuresequenz von NbREM4 als PBS1-abhängige Phosphorylierungsstellen identifiziert wurden.
NbSINA1 und NbSINAL3 besitzen in vitro Ubiquitinierungsaktivität, bilden Homo- und Heterodimere und interagieren ebenfalls mit dem N-terminalen Teil von NbREM4, wobei sie das Remorin in vitro nicht ubiquitinieren.
Aus den in dieser Arbeit gewonnenen Ergebnissen lässt sich ableiten, dass der bakterielle T3E HopZ1a gezielt mit dem Tabak-Remorin NbREM4 an der Plasmamembran interagiert und über einen noch unbekannten Mechanismus mit dem Immunsystem der Pflanze interferiert, wobei NbREM4 möglicherweise eine Rolle als Adapter- oder Ankerprotein zukommt, über welches HopZ1a mit weiteren Immunkomponenten interagiert. NbREM4 ist Teil eines größeren Immunnetzwerkes, zu welchem die bekannte Immun-Kinase PBS1 und zwei E3-Ubiquitin-Ligasen gehören. Mit NbREM4 konnte damit erstmalig ein membranständiges Protein mit einer Funktion im Immunsystem der Pflanze als Zielprotein von HopZ1a identifiziert werden.
Neuroinflammatory and neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson's (PD) and multiple sclerosis (MS) often result in a severe impairment of the patient´s quality of life. Effective therapies for the treatment are currently not available, which results in a high socio-economic burden. Due to the heterogeneity of the disease subtypes, stratification is particularly difficult in the early phase of the disease and is mainly based on clinical parameters such as neurophysiological tests and central nervous imaging. Due to good accessibility and stability, blood and cerebrospinal fluid metabolite markers could serve as surrogates for neurodegenerative processes. This can lead to an improved mechanistic understanding of these diseases and further be used as "treatment response" biomarkers in preclinical and clinical development programs. Therefore, plasma and CSF metabolite profiles will be identified that allow differentiation of PD from healthy controls, association of PD with dementia (PDD) and differentiation of PD subtypes such as akinetic rigid and tremor dominant PD patients. In addition, plasma metabolites for the diagnosis of primary progressive MS (PPMS) should be investigated and tested for their specificity to relapsing-remitting MS (RRMS) and their development during PPMS progression.
By applying untargeted high-resolution metabolomics of PD patient samples and in using random forest and partial least square machine learning algorithms, this study identified 20 plasma metabolites and 14 CSF metabolite biomarkers. These differentiate against healthy individuals with an AUC of 0.8 and 0.9 in PD, respectively. We also identify ten PDD specific serum metabolites, which differentiate against healthy individuals and PD patients without dementia with an AUC of 1.0, respectively. Furthermore, 23 akinetic-rigid specific plasma markers were identified, which differentiate against tremor-dominant PD patients with an AUC of 0.94 and against healthy individuals with an AUC of 0.98. These findings also suggest more severe disease pathology in the akinetic-rigid PD than in tremor dominant PD. In the analysis of MS patient samples a partial least square analysis yielded predictive models for the classification of PPMS and resulted in 20 PPMS specific metabolites. In another MS study unknown changes in human metabolism were identified after administration of the multiple sclerosis drug dimethylfumarate, which is used for the treatment of RRMS. These results allow to describe and understand the hitherto completely unknown mechanism of action of this new drug and to use these findings for the further development of new drugs and targets against RRMS.
In conclusion, these results have the potential for improved diagnosis of these diseases and improvement of mechanistic understandings, as multiple deregulated pathways were identified. Moreover, novel Dimethylfumarate targets can be used to aid drug development and treatment efficiency. Overall, metabolite profiling in combination with machine learning identified as a promising approach for biomarker discovery and mode of action elucidation.
The highly conserved protein complex containing the Target of Rapamycin (TOR) kinase is known to integrate intra- and extra-cellular stimuli controlling nutrient allocation and cellular growth. This thesis describes three studies aimed to understand how TOR signaling pathway influences carbon and nitrogen metabolism in Chlamydomonas reinhardtii. The first study presents a time-resolved analysis of the molecular and physiological features across the diurnal cycle. The inhibition of TOR leads to 50% reduction in growth followed by nonlinear delays in the cell cycle progression. The metabolomics analysis showed that the growth repression is mainly driven by differential carbon partitioning between anabolic and catabolic processes. Furthermore, the high accumulation of nitrogen-containing compounds indicated that TOR kinase controls the carbon to nitrogen balance of the cell, which is responsible for biomass accumulation, growth and cell cycle progression. In the second study the cause of the high accumulation of amino acids is explained. For this purpose, the effect of TOR inhibition on Chlamydomonas was examined under different growth regimes using stable 13C- and 15N-isotope labeling. The data clearly showed that an increased nitrogen uptake is induced within minutes after the inhibition of TOR. Interestingly, this increased N-influx is accompanied by increased activities of nitrogen assimilating enzymes. Accordingly, it was concluded that TOR inhibition induces de-novo amino acid synthesis in Chlamydomonas. The recognition of this novel process opened an array of questions regarding potential links between central metabolism and TOR signaling. Therefore a detailed phosphoproteomics study was conducted to identify the potential substrates of TOR pathway regulating central metabolism. Interestingly, some of the key enzymes involved in carbon metabolism as well as amino acid synthesis exhibited significant changes in the phosphosite intensities immediately after TOR inhibition. Altogether, these studies provide a) detailed insights to metabolic response of Chlamydomonas to TOR inhibition, b) identification of a novel process causing rapid upshifts in amino acid levels upon TOR inhibition and c) finally highlight potential targets of TOR signaling regulating changes in central metabolism. Further biochemical and molecular investigations could confirm these observations and advance the understanding of growth signaling in microalgae.
Starch is the primary storage carbohydrate in most photosynthetic organisms and allows the accumulation of carbon and energy in form of an insoluble and semi-crystalline particle. In the last decades large progress, especially in the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana, was made in understanding the structure and metabolism of starch and its conjunction. The process underlying the initiation of starch granules remains obscure, although this is a fundamental process and seems to be strongly regulated, as in Arabidopsis leaves the starch granule number per chloroplast is fixed with 5-7. Several single, double, and triple mutants were reported in the last years that showed massively alterations in the starch granule number per chloroplast and allowed further insights in this important process. This mini review provides an overview of the current knowledge of processes involved in the initiation and formation of starch granules. We discuss the central role of starch synthase 4 and further proteins for starch genesis and affecting metabolic factors.
Background
Contiguous genome assemblies are a highly valued biological resource because of the higher number of completely annotated genes and genomic elements that are usable compared to fragmented draft genomes. Nonetheless, contiguity is difficult to obtain if only low coverage data and/or only distantly related reference genome assemblies are available.
Findings
In order to improve genome contiguity, we have developed Cross-Species Scaffolding—a new pipeline that imports long-range distance information directly into the de novo assembly process by constructing mate-pair libraries in silico.
Conclusions
We show how genome assembly metrics and gene prediction dramatically improve with our pipeline by assembling two primate genomes solely based on ∼30x coverage of shotgun sequencing data.
Biological invasions are the dispersal and following establishment of species outside their native habitat. Due to globalisation, connectivity of regions and climate changes the number of invasive species and their successful establishment is rising. The impact of these species is mostly negative, can induce community and habitat alterations, and is one main cause for biodiversity loss. This impact is particularly high and less researched in aquatic systems and microbial organisms and despite the high impact, the knowledge about overall mechanisms and specific factors affecting invasions are not fully understood. In general, the characteristics of the habitat, native community and invader determine the invasiveness.
In this thesis, I aimed to provide a better understanding of aquatic invasions focusing on the invader and its traits and identity. This thesis used a set of 12 strains of the invasive cyanobacterium <i>Cylindrospermopsis raciborskii</i> to examine the effect and impact of the invaders’ identity and genetic diversity. Further, the effect of timing on the invasion potential and success was determined, because aquatic systems in particular undergo seasonal fluctuations.
Most studies revealed a higher invasion success with increasing genetic diversity. Here, the increase of the genetic diversity, by either strain richness or phylogenetic dissimilarity, is not firstly driving the invasion, but the strain-identity. The high variability among the strains in traits important for invasions led to the highly varying strain-specific invasion success. This success was most dependent on nitrogen uptake and efficient resource use. The lower invasion success into communities comprising further N-fixing species indicates <i>C. raciborskii</i> can use this advantage only without the presence of competitive species. The relief of grazing pressure, which is suggested to be more important in aquatic invasions, was only promoting the invasion when unselective and larger consumers were present. High abundances of unselective consumers hampered the invasion success.
This indicates a more complex and temporal interplay of competitive and consumptive resistance mechanisms during the invasion process. Further, the fluctuation abundance and presence of competitors (= primary producers) and consumers (= zooplankton) in lakes can open certain ‘invasion windows’.
Remarkably, the composition of the resident community was also strain-specific affected and altered, independent of a high or low invasion success. Prior, this was only documented on the species level. Further, investigations on the population of invasive strains can reveal more about the invasion patterns and how multiple strain invasions change resident communities.
The present dissertation emphasises the importance of invader-addition experiments with a community context and the importance of the strain-level for microbial invasions and in general, e.g. for community assemblies and the outcome of experiments. The strain-specific community changes, also after days, may explain some sudden changes in communities, which have not been explained yet. This and further knowledge may also facilitate earlier and less cost-intensive management to step in, because these species are rarely tracked until they reach a high abundance or bloom, because of their small size.
Concluded for <i>C. raciborskii</i>, it shows that this species is no ‘generalistic’ invader and its invasion success depends more on the competitor presence than grazing pressure. This may explain its, still unknown, invasion pattern, as <i>C. raciborskii</i> is not found in all lakes of a region.
Objective
We investigated the potential role of indirect benefits for female mate preferences in a highly promiscuous species of live-bearing fishes, the sailfin molly Poecilia latipinna using an integrative approach that combines methods from animal behavior, life-history evolution, and genetics. Males of this species solely contribute sperm for reproduction, and consequently females do not receive any direct benefits. Despite this, females typically show clear mate preferences. It has been suggested that females can increase their reproductive success through indirect benefits from choosing males of higher quality.
Results
Although preferences for large body size have been recorded as an honest signal for genetic quality, this particular study resulted in female preference being unaffected by male body size. Nonetheless, larger males did sire more offspring, but with no effect on offspring quality. This study presents a methodical innovation by combining preference testing with life history measurements—such as the determination of the dry weight of fish embryos—and paternity analyses on single fish embryos.
It is well-known that prey species often face trade-offs between defense against predation and competitiveness, enabling predator-mediated coexistence. However, we lack an understanding of how the large variety of different defense traits with different competition costs affects coexistence and population dynamics. Our study focusses on two general defense mechanisms, that is, pre-attack (e.g., camouflage)and post-attack defenses (e.g., weaponry) that act at different phases of the predator—prey interaction. We consider a food web model with one predator, two prey types and one resource. One prey type is undefended, while the other one is pre-or post-attack defended paying costs either by a higher half-saturation constant for resource uptake or a lower maximum growth rate. We show that post-attack defenses promote prey coexistence and stabilize the population dynamics more strongly than pre-attack defenses by interfering with the predator’s functional response: Because the predator spends time handling “noncrackable” prey, the undefended prey is indirectly
facilitated. A high half-saturation constant as defense costs promotes coexistence more and stabilizes the dynamics less than a low maximum growth rate. The former imposes high costs at low resource concentrations but allows for temporally high growth rates at predator-induced resource peaks preventing the extinction of
the defended prey. We evaluate the effects of the different defense mechanisms and costs on coexistence under different enrichment levels in order to vary the importance of bottom-up and top-down control of the prey community.
The anatomically modern human Homo sapiens sapiens is distinguished by a high adaptability in physiology, physique and behaviour in short term changing environmental conditions. Since our environmental factors are constantly changing because of anthropogenic influences, the question arises as to how far we have an impact on the human phenotype in the very sensitive growth phase in children and adolescents. Growth and development of all children and adolescents follow a universal and typical pattern. This pattern has evolved as the result of trade-offs in the 6-7 million years of human evolution. This typically human growth pattern differs from that of other long-living social primate species. It can be divided into different biological age stages, with specific biological, cognitive and socio-cultural signs. Phenotypic plasticity is the ability of an organism to react to an internal or external environmental input with a change in the form, state, and movement rate of activity (West-Eberhard 2003). The plasticity becomes visible and measurable particularly when, in addition to the normal variability of the phenotypic characteristics within a population, the manifestation of this plasticity changes within a relatively short time. The focus of the present work is the comparison of age-specific dimensional changes. The basic of the presented studies are more than 75,000 anthropometric data-sets of children and adolescence from 1980 up today and historical data of height available in scientific literature. Due to reduced daily physical activity, today's 6-18 year-olds have lower values of pelvic and elbow breadths. The observed increase in body height can be explained by hierarchies in social networks of human societies, contrary to earlier explanations (influence of nutrition, good living conditions and genetics). A shift towards a more feminine fat distribution pattern in boys and girls is parallel to the increase in chemicals in our environment that can affect the hormone system. Changing environmental conditions can have selective effects over generations so that that genotype becomes increasingly prevalent whose individuals have a higher progeny rate than other individuals in this population. Those then form the phenotype which allows optimum adaptation to the changes of the environmental conditions. Due to the slow patterns of succession and the low progeny rate (Hawkes et al. 1998), fast visible in the phenotype due to changes in the genotype of a population are unlikely to occur in the case of Homo sapiens sapiens within short time. In the data sets on which the presented investigations are based, such changes appear virtually impossible. The study periods cover 5-30 to max.100 years (based on data from the body height from historical data sets).
High-throughput sequence data retrieved from ancient or other degraded samples has led to unprecedented insights into the evolutionary history of many species, but the analysis of such sequences also poses specific computational challenges. The most commonly used approach involves mapping sequence reads to a reference genome. However, this process becomes increasingly challenging with an elevated genetic distance between target and reference or with the presence of contaminant sequences with high sequence similarity to the target species. The evaluation and testing of mapping efficiency and stringency are thus paramount for the reliable identification and analysis of ancient sequences. In this paper, we present ‘TAPAS’, (Testing of Alignment Parameters for Ancient Samples), a computational tool that enables the systematic testing of mapping tools for ancient data by simulating sequence data reflecting the properties of an ancient dataset and performing test runs using the mapping software and parameter settings of interest. We showcase TAPAS by using it to assess and improve mapping strategy for a degraded sample from a banded linsang (Prionodon linsang), for which no closely related reference is currently available. This enables a 1.8-fold increase of the number of mapped reads without sacrificing mapping specificity. The increase of mapped reads effectively reduces the need for additional sequencing, thus making more economical use of time, resources, and sample material.
Background
The unisexual Amazon molly (Poecilia formosa) originated from a hybridization between two sexual species, the sailfin molly (Poecilia latipinna) and the Atlantic molly (Poecilia mexicana). The Amazon molly reproduces clonally via sperm-dependent parthenogenesis (gynogenesis), in which the sperm of closely related species triggers embryogenesis of the apomictic oocytes, but typically does not contribute genetic material to the next generation. We compare for the first time the gonadal transcriptome of the Amazon molly to those of both ancestral species, P. mexicana and P. latipinna.
Results
We sequenced the gonadal transcriptomes of the P. formosa and its parental species P. mexicana and P. latipinna using Illumina RNA-sequencing techniques (paired-end, 100 bp). De novo assembly of about 50 million raw read pairs for each species was performed using Trinity, yielding 106,922 transcripts for P. formosa, 115,175 for P. latipinna, and 133,025 for P. mexicana after eliminating contaminations. On the basis of sequence similarity comparisons to other teleost species and the UniProt databases, functional annotation, and differential expression analysis, we demonstrate the similarity of the transcriptomes among the three species. More than 40% of the transcripts for each species were functionally annotated and about 70% were assigned to orthologous genes of a closely related species. Differential expression analysis between the sexual and unisexual species uncovered 2035 up-regulated and 564 down-regulated genes in P. formosa. This was exemplary validated for six genes by qRT-PCR.
Conclusions
We identified more than 130 genes related to meiosis and reproduction within the apomictically reproducing P. formosa. Overall expression of these genes seems to be down-regulated in the P. formosa transcriptome compared to both ancestral species (i.e., 106 genes down-regulated, 29 up-regulated). A further 35 meiosis and reproduction related genes were not found in the P. formosa transcriptome, but were only expressed in the sexual species. Our data support the hypothesis of general down-regulation of meiosis-related genes in the apomictic Amazon molly. Furthermore, the obtained dataset and identified gene catalog will serve as a resource for future research on the molecular mechanisms behind the reproductive mode of this unisexual species.