CRITTERBASE, a science-driven data warehouse for marine biota

Data on marine biota exist in many formats and sources, such as published literature, data repositories, and unpublished material. Due to this heterogeneity, information is difficult to find, access and combine, severely impeding its reuse for further scientific analysis and its long-term availability for future generations. To address this challenge, we present CRITTERBASE, a publicly accessible data warehouse and interactive portal that currently hosts quality-controlled and taxonomically standardized presence/absence, abundance, and biomass data for 18,644 samples and 3,664 benthic taxa (2,824 of which at species level). These samples were collected by grabs, underwater imaging or trawls in Arctic, North Sea and Antarctic regions between the years 1800 and 2014. Data were collated from literature, unpublished data, own research and online repositories. All metadata and links to primary sources are included. We envision CRITTERBASE becoming a valuable and continuously expanding tool for a wide range of usages, such as studies of spatio-temporal biodiversity patterns, impacts and risks of climate change or the evidence-based design of marine protection policies

Autochthonous heritage languages and social media:writing and bilingual practices in Low German on Facebook

This article analyses how speakers of an autochthonous heritage language (AHL) make use of digital media, through the example of Low German, a regional language used by a decreasing number of speakers mainly in northern Germany. The focus of the analysis is on Web 2.0 and its interactive potential for individual speakers. The study therefore examines linguistic practices on the social network site Facebook, with special emphasis on language choice, bilingual practices and writing in the autochthonous heritage language. The findings suggest that social network sites such as Facebook have the potential to provide new mediatized spaces for speakers of an AHL that can instigate sociolinguistic change

Abstracts from the 8th International Conference on cGMP Generators, Effectors and Therapeutic Implications

This work was supported by a restricted research grant of Bayer AG

Exploring Polar Marine Invertebrate Biodiversity: CRITTERBASE – the Solution to the FAIR Biodiversity Data Challenge

In times of rapidly increasing multiple anthropogenic impacts on polar marine ecosystems and biodiversity, understanding, sustainable-use management and protection of these biotas is a matter of great concern. Research on marine biotas and their interactions with each other and the environment is fundamental in that regard, but available data are still diverse and scattered, as they exist in many formats and sources, such as published literature, data repositories, and unpublished material. Due to this heterogeneity, information is difficult to find, access and combine, severely impeding its reuse for further scientific analysis and its long-term availability for future generations. Scientists, decision makers, and the public require a versatile tool to compile, synthesize and manage biodiversity data in a transparent, efficient and comprehensible way and with high-level quality assurance. To address this challenge, we developed, implemented and utilize CRITTERBASE (https://critterbase.awi.de), a publicly accessible data warehouse and interactive portal that complies with the FAIR principles (Findability, Accessibility, Interoperability and Reusability of data). Its purpose is to complement long-term data storage repositories by providing powerful but easy-to-use data ingest, retrieval and exploration tools, thus facilitating the analysis of biodiversity data across multiple spatial and temporal scales and in wider contexts. Currently, it hosts quality-controlled and taxonomically standardized presence/absence, abundance, and biomass data from Arctic, North Sea and Antarctic regions, collated from the literature, unpublished data, own research and online repositories (with all metadata and links to primary sources included), for 3,173 polar benthic taxa (2,444 of which at species level) from 12,209 samples collected with grabs, underwater imaging or trawls between 1800 and 2014. CRITTERBASE is currently holding benthic biodiversity data only but because of its comprehensive and flexible data model it is suited to include information about further biotas and habitats. Therefore, we envision it becoming a valuable and continuously expanding tool for a wide range of usages, such as studies of spatio-temporal biodiversity patterns, impacts and risks of climate change or the evidence-based design of marine protection policies

Optimized and far-red emitting variants of fluorescent protein eqFP611

Fluorescent proteins (FPs) emitting in the far-red region of the spectrum are highly advantageous for whole-body imaging applications because scattering and absorption of long-wavelength light is markedly reduced in tissue. We characterized variants of the red fluorescent protein eqFP611 with bright fluorescence emission shifted up to 639 nm. The additional red shift is caused by a trans-cis isomerization of the chromophore. The equilibrium between the trans and cis conformations is strongly influenced by amino acid residues 143 and 158. Pseudo monomeric tags were obtained by further genetic engineering. For the red chromophores of eqFP611 variants, molar extinction coefficients of up to 150,000 were determined by an approach that is not affected by the presence of molecules with nonfunctional red chromophores. The bright fluorescence makes the red-shifted eqFP611 variants promising lead structures for the development of near-infrared fluorescent markers. The red fluorescent proteins performed well in cell biological applications, including two-photon imaging.<br/