| 1. |
- Cirasuolo, M., et al.
(author)
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MOONS: the Multi-Object Optical and Near-infrared Spectrograph for the VLT
- 2014
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In: Ground-based and Airborne Instrumentation for Astronomy V. - : SPIE. - 0277-786X .- 1996-756X. ; 9147, s. 91470-91470
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Conference paper (peer-reviewed)abstract
- MOONS (the Multi-Object Optical and Near-infrared Spectrograph) has been selected by ESO as a third-generation instrument for the Very Large Telescope (VLT). The light grasp of the large collecting area offered by the VLT (8.2m diameter), combined with the large multiplex and wavelength coverage (optical to near-IR: 0.8 -1.8 mu m) of MOONS will provide the European astronomical community with a powerful, unique instrument able to pioneer a wide range of Galactic, extragalactic and cosmological studies, and it will provide crucial follow-up for major facilities such as Gaia, VISTA, Euclid and LSST. MOONS has the observational power needed to unveil galaxy formation and evolution over the entire history of the Universe, from stars in our Milky Way, through the redshift desert, and up to the epoch of very first galaxies and reionization of the Universe at redshifts of z > 8-9, just a few million years after the Big Bang. From five years of observations MOONS will provide high-quality spectra for > 3M stars in our Galaxy and the Local Group, and for 1-2M galaxies at z > 1 (for an SDSS-like survey), promising to revolutionize our understanding of the Universe. The baseline design consists of similar to 1000 fibres, deployable over a field-of-view of similar to 500 arcmin(2), the largest patrol field offered by the Nasmyth focus at the VLT. The total wavelength coverage is 0.8 -1.8 mu m with two spectral resolving powers: in the medium-resolution mode (R similar to 4,000-6,000) the entire wavelength range is observed simultaneously, while the high-resolution mode will cover three selected sub-regions simultaneously: one region with R similar to 8,000 near the Ca II triplet to measure stellar radial velocities, and two regions at R similar to 20,000 (one in each of the J- and H-bands), for precision measurements of chemical abundances.
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| 2. |
- Rottgering, H., et al.
(author)
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LOFAR and APERTIF Surveys of the Radio Sky: Probing Shocks and Magnetic Fields in Galaxy Clusters
- 2011
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In: Journal of Astrophysics and Astronomy. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 0250-6335 .- 0973-7758. ; 32:4, s. 557-566
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- At very low frequencies, the new pan-European radio telescope LOFAR is opening the last unexplored window of the electromagnetic spectrum for astrophysical studies. The revolutionary APERTIF-phased arrays that are about to be installed on the Westerbork radio telescope (WSRT) will dramatically increase the survey speed for the WSRT. Combined surveys with these two facilities will deeply chart the northern sky over almost two decades in radio frequency from similar to 15 up to 1400 MHz. Here we briefly describe some of the capabilities of these new facilities and what radio surveys are planned to study fun-damental issues related to the formation and evolution of galaxies and clusters of galaxies. In the second part we briefly review some recent observational results directly showing that diffuse radio emission in clusters traces shocks due to cluster mergers. As these diffuse radio sources are relatively bright at low frequencies, LOFAR should be able to detect thousands of such sources up to the epoch of cluster formation. This will allow addressing many question about the origin and evolution of shocks and magnetic fields in clusters. At the end we briefly review some of the first and very preliminary LOFAR results on clusters.
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| 3. |
- Suijkerbuijk, Saskia J E, et al.
(author)
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The vertebrate mitotic checkpoint protein BUBR1 is an unusual pseudokinase
- 2012
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In: Developmental Cell. - Cambridge, United States : Cell Press. - 1534-5807 .- 1878-1551. ; 22:6, s. 1321-1329
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Chromosomal stability is safeguarded by a mitotic checkpoint, of which BUB1 and Mad3/BUBR1 are core components. These paralogs have similar, but not identical, domain organization. We show that Mad3/BUBR1 and BUB1 paralogous pairs arose by nine independent gene duplications throughout evolution, followed by parallel subfunctionalization in which preservation of the ancestral, amino-terminal KEN box or kinase domain was mutually exclusive. In one exception, vertebrate BUBR1-defined by the KEN box-preserved the kinase domain but allowed nonconserved degeneration of catalytic motifs. Although BUBR1 evolved to a typical pseudokinase in some vertebrates, it retained the catalytic triad in humans. However, we show that putative catalysis by human BUBR1 is dispensable for error-free chromosome segregation. Instead, residues that interact with ATP in conventional kinases are essential for conformational stability in BUBR1. We propose that parallel evolution of BUBR1 orthologs rendered its kinase function dispensable in vertebrates, producing an unusual, triad-containing pseudokinase.
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| 4. |
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| 5. |
- Carneiro, Miguel, et al.
(author)
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Rabbit genome analysis reveals a polygenic basis for phenotypic change during domestication
- 2014
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In: Science. - : American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). - 0036-8075 .- 1095-9203. ; 345:6200, s. 1074-1079
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The genetic changes underlying the initial steps of animal domestication are still poorly understood. We generated a high-quality reference genome for the rabbit and compared it to resequencing data from populations of wild and domestic rabbits. We identified more than 100 selective sweeps specific to domestic rabbits but only a relatively small number of fixed (or nearly fixed) single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) for derived alleles. SNPs with marked allele frequency differences between wild and domestic rabbits were enriched for conserved noncoding sites. Enrichment analyses suggest that genes affecting brain and neuronal development have often been targeted during domestication. We propose that because of a truly complex genetic background, tame behavior in rabbits and other domestic animals evolved by shifts in allele frequencies at many loci, rather than by critical changes at only a few domestication loci.
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