134,445 research outputs found
Development of University Life-Science Programs and University-Industry Joint Research in Japan
How does the establishment of new university educational programs promote university-industry joint research? To study this question for the fields of life sciences and biotechnology, we first compile the data on the establishment of new undergraduate and graduate programs in these fields in Japanese universities since the 1950s. We then analyze statistically whether and how such establishment contributed to the occurrence and frequency of university-industry joint research in biotechnology. The results suggest that, first, the expansion of such university programs in fact contributed to the promotion of university-industry joint research and, second, these collaborations increased following the 1998 legislation to promote technology transfer from universities (the so-called TLO Act) and the 1999 legislation to allow universities to retain rights on their inventions made with government research funds (the so-called Japanese Bayh-Dole Act).
Gene content evolution in the arthropods
Arthropods comprise the largest and most diverse phylum on Earth and play vital roles in nearly every ecosystem. Their diversity stems in part from variations on a conserved body plan, resulting from and recorded in adaptive changes in the genome. Dissection of the genomic record of sequence change enables broad questions regarding genome evolution to be addressed, even across hyper-diverse taxa within arthropods. Using 76 whole genome sequences representing 21 orders spanning more than 500 million years of arthropod evolution, we document changes in gene and protein domain content and provide temporal and phylogenetic context for interpreting these innovations. We identify many novel gene families that arose early in the evolution of arthropods and during the diversification of insects into modern orders. We reveal unexpected variation in patterns of DNA methylation across arthropods and examples of gene family and protein domain evolution coincident with the appearance of notable phenotypic and physiological adaptations such as flight, metamorphosis, sociality, and chemoperception. These analyses demonstrate how large-scale comparative genomics can provide broad new insights into the genotype to phenotype map and generate testable hypotheses about the evolution of animal diversity
Origin of life in a digital microcosm
While all organisms on Earth descend from a common ancestor, there is no
consensus on whether the origin of this ancestral self-replicator was a one-off
event or whether it was only the final survivor of multiple origins. Here we
use the digital evolution system Avida to study the origin of self-replicating
computer programs. By using a computational system, we avoid many of the
uncertainties inherent in any biochemical system of self-replicators (while
running the risk of ignoring a fundamental aspect of biochemistry). We
generated the exhaustive set of minimal-genome self-replicators and analyzed
the network structure of this fitness landscape. We further examined the
evolvability of these self-replicators and found that the evolvability of a
self-replicator is dependent on its genomic architecture. We studied the
differential ability of replicators to take over the population when competed
against each other (akin to a primordial-soup model of biogenesis) and found
that the probability of a self-replicator out-competing the others is not
uniform. Instead, progenitor (most-recent common ancestor) genotypes are
clustered in a small region of the replicator space. Our results demonstrate
how computational systems can be used as test systems for hypotheses concerning
the origin of life.Comment: 20 pages, 7 figures. To appear in special issue of Philosophical
Transactions of the Royal Society A: Re-Conceptualizing the Origins of Life
from a Physical Sciences Perspectiv
The role of climate and plant functional trade-offs in shaping global biome and biodiversity patterns
Aim: Two of the oldest observations in plant geography are the increase in plant diversity from the poles towards the tropics and the global geographic distribution of vegetation physiognomy (biomes). The objective of this paper is to use a process-based vegetation model to evaluate the relationship between modelled and observed global patterns of plant diversity and the geographic distribution of biomes.Location: The global terrestrial biosphere.Methods: We implemented and tested a novel vegetation model aimed at identifying strategies that enable plants to grow and reproduce within particular climatic conditions across the globe. Our model simulates plant survival according to the fundamental ecophysiological processes of water uptake, photosynthesis, reproduction and phenology. We evaluated the survival of an ensemble of 10,000 plant growth strategies across the range of global climatic conditions. For the simulated regional plant assemblages we quantified functional richness, functional diversity and functional identity.Results: A strong relationship was found (correlation coefficient of 0.75) between the modelled and the observed plant diversity. Our approach demonstrates that plant functional dissimilarity increases and then saturates with increasing plant diversity. Six of the major Earth biomes were reproduced by clustering grid cells according to their functional identity (mean functional traits of a regional plant assemblage). These biome clusters were in fair agreement with two other global vegetation schemes: a satellite image classification and a biogeography model (kappa statistics around 0.4).Main conclusions: Our model reproduces the observed global patterns of plant diversity and vegetation physiognomy from the number and identity of simulated plant growth strategies. These plant growth strategies emerge from the first principles of climatic constraints and plant functional trade-offs. Our study makes important contributions to furthering the understanding of how climate affects patterns of plant diversity and vegetation physiognomy from a process-based rather than a phenomenological perspective
Campus Environment 2008: A National Report Card on Sustainability in Higher Education
Presents survey findings on national and regional trends among colleges in environmental leadership in management, academic courses in sustainability, and conservation efforts in operations. Profiles exemplary programs and notes areas for improvement
Cultural replication and microbial evolution
The aim of this paper is to argue that cultural evolution is in many ways much more similar
to microbial than to macrobial biological evolution. As a result, we are better off using
microbial evolution as the model of cultural evolution. And this shift from macrobial to microbial
entails adjusting the theoretical models we can use for explaining cultural evolution
CRISPR/Cas9-induced (CTGâ CAG)n repeat instability in the myotonic dystrophy type 1 locus: implications for therapeutic genome editing
Myotonic dystrophy type 1 (DM1) is caused by (CTGâ
CAG)n-repeat expansion within the DMPK gene and thought to be mediated by a toxic RNA gain of function. Current attempts to develop therapy for this disease mainly aim at destroying or blocking abnormal properties of mutant DMPK (CUG)n RNA. Here, we explored a DNA-directed strategy and demonstrate that single clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR)/Cas9-cleavage in either its 5âČ or 3âČ unique flank promotes uncontrollable deletion of large segments from the expanded trinucleotide repeat, rather than formation of short indels usually seen after double-strand break repair. Complete and precise excision of the repeat tract from normal and large expanded DMPK alleles in myoblasts from unaffected individuals, DM1 patients, and a DM1 mouse model could be achieved at high frequency by dual CRISPR/Cas9-cleavage at either side of the (CTGâ
CAG)n sequence. Importantly, removal of the repeat appeared to have no detrimental effects on the expression of genes in the DM1 locus. Moreover, myogenic capacity, nucleocytoplasmic distribution, and abnormal RNP-binding behavior of transcripts from the edited DMPK gene were normalized. Dual sgRNA-guided excision of the (CTGâ
CAG)n tract by CRISPR/Cas9 technology is applicable for developing isogenic cell lines for research and may provide new therapeutic opportunities for patients with DM1
New Michigan State Record for a Sphecine Wasp, \u3ci\u3ePodium Rufipes\u3c/i\u3e (Hymenoptera: Sphecidae)
Podium rufipes, previously unrecorded from Michigan, has been found occupy- ing trap nests in the southwestern lower peninsula
A conserved filamentous assembly underlies the structure of the meiotic chromosome axis.
The meiotic chromosome axis plays key roles in meiotic chromosome organization and recombination, yet the underlying protein components of this structure are highly diverged. Here, we show that 'axis core proteins' from budding yeast (Red1), mammals (SYCP2/SYCP3), and plants (ASY3/ASY4) are evolutionarily related and play equivalent roles in chromosome axis assembly. We first identify 'closure motifs' in each complex that recruit meiotic HORMADs, the master regulators of meiotic recombination. We next find that axis core proteins form homotetrameric (Red1) or heterotetrameric (SYCP2:SYCP3 and ASY3:ASY4) coiled-coil assemblies that further oligomerize into micron-length filaments. Thus, the meiotic chromosome axis core in fungi, mammals, and plants shares a common molecular architecture, and likely also plays conserved roles in meiotic chromosome axis assembly and recombination control
Deleterious consequences of antioxidant supplementation on lifespan in a wild-derived mammal
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