| 1. |
- Achberger, Christine, 1968, et al.
(author)
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State of the Climate in 2011
- 2012
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In: Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society. - 0003-0007. ; 93:7
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Large-scale climate patterns influenced temperature and weather patterns around the globe in 2011. In particular, a moderate-to-strong La Nina at the beginning of the year dissipated during boreal spring but reemerged during fall. The phenomenon contributed to historical droughts in East Africa, the southern United States, and northern Mexico, as well the wettest two-year period (2010-11) on record for Australia, particularly remarkable as this follows a decade-long dry period. Precipitation patterns in South America were also influenced by La Nina. Heavy rain in Rio de Janeiro in January triggered the country's worst floods and landslides in Brazil's history. The 2011 combined average temperature across global land and ocean surfaces was the coolest since 2008, but was also among the 15 warmest years on record and above the 1981-2010 average. The global sea surface temperature cooled by 0.1 degrees C from 2010 to 2011, associated with cooling influences of La Nina. Global integrals of upper ocean heat content for 2011 were higher than for all prior years, demonstrating the Earth's dominant role of the oceans in the Earth's energy budget. In the upper atmosphere, tropical stratospheric temperatures were anomalously warm, while polar temperatures were anomalously cold. This led to large springtime stratospheric ozone reductions in polar latitudes in both hemispheres. Ozone concentrations in the Arctic stratosphere during March were the lowest for that period since satellite records began in 1979. An extensive, deep, and persistent ozone hole over the Antarctic in September indicates that the recovery to pre-1980 conditions is proceeding very slowly. Atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations increased by 2.10 ppm in 2011, and exceeded 390 ppm for the first time since instrumental records began. Other greenhouse gases also continued to rise in concentration and the combined effect now represents a 30% increase in radiative forcing over a 1990 baseline. Most ozone depleting substances continued to fall. The global net ocean carbon dioxide uptake for the 2010 transition period from El Nino to La Nina, the most recent period for which analyzed data are available, was estimated to be 1.30 Pg C yr(-1), almost 12% below the 29-year long-term average. Relative to the long-term trend, global sea level dropped noticeably in mid-2010 and reached a local minimum in 2011. The drop has been linked to the La Nina conditions that prevailed throughout much of 2010-11. Global sea level increased sharply during the second half of 2011. Global tropical cyclone activity during 2011 was well-below average, with a total of 74 storms compared with the 1981-2010 average of 89. Similar to 2010, the North Atlantic was the only basin that experienced above-normal activity. For the first year since the widespread introduction of the Dvorak intensity-estimation method in the 1980s, only three tropical cyclones reached Category 5 intensity level-all in the Northwest Pacific basin. The Arctic continued to warm at about twice the rate compared with lower latitudes. Below-normal summer snowfall, a decreasing trend in surface albedo, and above-average surface and upper air temperatures resulted in a continued pattern of extreme surface melting, and net snow and ice loss on the Greenland ice sheet. Warmer-than-normal temperatures over the Eurasian Arctic in spring resulted in a new record-low June snow cover extent and spring snow cover duration in this region. In the Canadian Arctic, the mass loss from glaciers and ice caps was the greatest since GRACE measurements began in 2002, continuing a negative trend that began in 1987. New record high temperatures occurred at 20 m below the land surface at all permafrost observatories on the North Slope of Alaska, where measurements began in the late 1970s. Arctic sea ice extent in September 2011 was the second-lowest on record, while the extent of old ice (four and five years) reached a new record minimum that was just 19% of normal. On the opposite pole, austral winter and spring temperatures were more than 3 degrees C above normal over much of the Antarctic continent. However, winter temperatures were below normal in the northern Antarctic Peninsula, which continued the downward trend there during the last 15 years. In summer, an all-time record high temperature of -12.3 degrees C was set at the South Pole station on 25 December, exceeding the previous record by more than a full degree. Antarctic sea ice extent anomalies increased steadily through much of the year, from briefly setting a record low in April, to well above average in December. The latter trend reflects the dispersive effects of low pressure on sea ice and the generally cool conditions around the Antarctic perimeter.
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| 2. |
- Santangelo, James S., et al.
(author)
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Global urban environmental change drives adaptation in white clover
- 2022
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In: Science. - : American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). - 0036-8075 .- 1095-9203. ; 375
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Urbanization transforms environments in ways that alter biological evolution. We examined whether urban environmental change drives parallel evolution by sampling 110,019 white clover plants from 6169 populations in 160 cities globally. Plants were assayed for a Mendelian antiherbivore defense that also affects tolerance to abiotic stressors. Urban-rural gradients were associated with the evolution of clines in defense in 47% of cities throughout the world. Variation in the strength of clines was explained by environmental changes in drought stress and vegetation cover that varied among cities. Sequencing 2074 genomes from 26 cities revealed that the evolution of urban-rural dines was best explained by adaptive evolution, but the degree of parallel adaptation varied among cities. Our results demonstrate that urbanization leads to adaptation at a global scale.
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| 3. |
- Lewin, Harris A., et al.
(author)
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The Earth BioGenome Project 2020 : Starting the clock
- 2022
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In: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. - : Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). - 0027-8424 .- 1091-6490. ; 119:4
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Journal article (other academic/artistic)
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| 4. |
- Nowak-Sliwinska, Patrycja, et al.
(author)
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Consensus guidelines for the use and interpretation of angiogenesis assays
- 2018
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In: Angiogenesis. - : Springer. - 0969-6970 .- 1573-7209. ; 21:3, s. 425-532
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Research review (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The formation of new blood vessels, or angiogenesis, is a complex process that plays important roles in growth and development, tissue and organ regeneration, as well as numerous pathological conditions. Angiogenesis undergoes multiple discrete steps that can be individually evaluated and quantified by a large number of bioassays. These independent assessments hold advantages but also have limitations. This article describes in vivo, ex vivo, and in vitro bioassays that are available for the evaluation of angiogenesis and highlights critical aspects that are relevant for their execution and proper interpretation. As such, this collaborative work is the first edition of consensus guidelines on angiogenesis bioassays to serve for current and future reference.
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| 5. |
- Schafer, J C, et al.
(author)
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XBX-1 encodes a dynein light intermediate chain required for retrograde intraflagellar transport and cilia assembly in Caenorhabditis elegans
- 2003
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In: Molecular Biology of the Cell. - 1059-1524 .- 1939-4586. ; 14:5, s. 2057-2070
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Intraflagellar transport (IFT) is a process required for flagella and cilia assembly that describes the dynein and kinesin mediated movement of particles along axonemes that consists of an A and a B complex, defects in which disrupt retrograde and anterograde transport, respectively. Herein, we describe a novel Caenorhabditis elegans gene, xbx-1, that is required for retrograde IFT and shares homology with a mammalian dynein light intermediate chain (D2LIC). xbx-1 expression in ciliated sensory neurons is regulated by the transcription factor DAF-19, as demonstrated previously for genes encoding IFT complex B proteins. XBX-1 localizes to the base of the cilia and undergoes anterograde and retrograde movement along the axoneme. Disruption of xbx-1 results in cilia defects and causes behavioral abnormalities observed in other cilia mutants. Analysis of cilia in xbx-1 mutants reveals that they are shortened and have a bulb like structure in which IFT proteins accumulate. The role of XBX-1 in IFT was further confirmed by analyzing the effect that other IFT mutations have on XBX-1 localization and movement. In contrast to other IFT proteins, retrograde XBX-1 movement was detected in complex A mutants. Our results suggest that the DLIC protein XBX-1 functions together with the CHE-3 dynein in retrograde IFT, downstream of the complex A proteins.
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| 6. |
- Winkelbauer, M E, et al.
(author)
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The C-elegans homologs of nephrocystin-1 and nephrocystin-4 are cilia transition zone proteins involved in chemosensory perception
- 2005
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In: Journal of Cell Science. - : The Company of Biologists. - 0021-9533 .- 1477-9137. ; 118:23, s. 5575-5587
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Nephronophthisis (NPH) is a cystic kidney disorder that causes end-stage renal failure in children. Five nephrocystin (nephrocystin-1 to nephrocystin-5) genes, whose function is disrupted in NPH patients, have been identified and data indicate they form a complex at cell junctions and focal adhesions. More recently, the nephrocystin proteins have also been identified in cilia, as have multiple other cystic kidney disease related proteins. Significant insights into this cilia and cystic kidney disease connection have come from analyses in simpler eukaryotic organisms such as Caenorhabditis elegans. In this regard, we became interested in the C elegans homologs of nephrocystin-1 (nph-1) and nephrocystin-4 (nph-4) from a database screen to identify genes coordinately regulated by the ciliogenic transcription factor DAF-19. Here we show that expression of nph-1 and nph-4 is DAF-19 dependent, that their expression is restricted to ciliated sensory neurons, and that both NPH-1 and NPH-4 concentrate at the transition zones at the base of the cilia, but are not found in the cilium axoneme. In addition, NPH-4 is required for the localization of NPH-1 to this domain. Interestingly, nph-1 or nph-4 mutants have no obvious cilia assembly defects; however, they do have abnormalities in cilia-mediated sensory functions as evidenced by abnormal chemotaxis and lifespan regulation. Our data suggest that rather than having a ciliogenic role, the NPH proteins play an important function as part of the sensory or signaling machinery of this organelle. These findings suggest that the defects in human NPH patients may not be the result of aberrant ciliogenesis but abnormal cilia-sensory functions.
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