Thick-billed Murre Hunting in West Greenland, 1988-89

Thick-billed murre (Uria lomyia) hunting by Inuit of West Greenland was surveyed during the winter and spring of 1988/89. Kill toll levels and age structure of the kill were determined for districts between Upernavik (73 degrees N) and Nanortalik (60 degrees N). Based on counts of the numbers of birds available for purchase at markets and on information from processing companies, an estimated 100,000 murres were killed for commercial trading purposes in 1988/89. Non-commercial hunting is harder to assess, but estimates based on the number of licences issued and the mean number of murres killed per day by non-commercial hunters indicate that between 190,000 and 293,000 murres are killed per annum. Thus the total kill toll is estimated to be between 283,000 and 386,000 murres annually. In Central West and Southwest Greenland the peak hunting period was November and December, but hunting continued to 15 March or until ice conditions prevented sailing. Age distribution of the kill was determined by classifying 6278 murres as "first-year" or "older" by the development of the cranium. In Southwest Greenland the proportion of older birds in the kill was always below 9%, whereas in Central West Greenland (Nuuk) the value increased from 27.5% in October to 75.8% old birds in March. About 90% of the murres killed in spring near major breeding colonies in Upernavik were adult breeding birds, and hunting near the breeding grounds is considered the major cause for population reductions. Murres shot in winter are mostly birds from colonies outside Greenland, but though it has yet to be proved, the immense kill of murres during the winter hunt probably affects the populations involved.Key words: thick-billed murre, Uria lomvia, Greenland, Inuit, hunting, seabirds, population structure, resource management, hunting legislationRÉSUMÉ. Au cours de l’hiver et de l’été de 1988-89, on a effectué des relevés portant sur la chasse à la marmette de Brünnich (Uria lomvia) par les Inuit de l’ouest du Groenland. Le taux des oiseaux abattus et leur structure d’âge ont été déterminés pour les districts situés entre Upernavik (73” N.) et Nanortalik (60’ N.). En s’appuyant sur le comptage du nombre d’oiseaux mis en vente sur les marchés ainsi que sur l’information obtenue auprès des compagnies de conditionnement, on a évalué à 100 000 le nombre de marmettes de Brünnich tuées à des fins commerciales en 1988-89. La chasse non commerciale est plus difficile à évaluer, mais les estimations fondées sur le nombre de permis issus et la moyenne de marmettes tuées chaque jour par des chasseurs non commerciaux indiquent qu’entre 190 000 et 293 000 marmettes sont tuées chaque année. Le nombre total de marmettes tuées annuellement se situerait donc entre 283 000 et 386 000. Dans le centre-ouest et le sud-ouest du Groenland, la saison de chasse battait son plein en novembre et décembre, mais la chasse continuait jusqu’au 15 mars ou jusqu’à ce que les conditions des glaces empêchent la navigation. On a déterminé la distribution d’âge des oiseaux tués en classant 6278 marmettes dans deux catégories, soit <<première année>> ou <<plus âgée>>, d’après le développement de la boîte cranienne. Dans le sud-ouest du Groenland, la proportion d’oiseaux plus âgés parmi les oiseaux tués était toujours inférieure à 9 p. cent, tandis que dans le centre-ouest du Groenland (Nuuk), la proportion augmentait de 273 p. cent en octobre à 75,8 p. cent au mois de mars. Près de 90 p. cent des marmettes de Brünnich tuées au printemps à proximité d’importantes colonies reproductrices à Upemavik étaient des adultes en âge de se reproduire, et c’est la chasse près des sites de nidification qui serait tenue en grande partie responsable de la diminution de leur population. Les marmettes abattues en hiver sont surtout des oiseaux venant de colonies situées hors du Groenland, mais, bien que cela reste encore à prouver, l’abattage massif des marmettes durant la chasse hivernale affecte probablement les populations concernées. Les recommandations en vue d’améliorer la gestion des populations de marmettes de Brünnich au Groenland comprennent des programmes éducatifs et l’application stricte des lois, la réduction du nombre de chasseurs et le raccourcissement de la saison de chasse hivernale. D’autres recherches sont nécessaires concernant l’ampleur et la variation de la chasse non commerciale, une surveillance détaillée de la population reproductrice et la provenance des oiseaux tués.Mots clés: marmette de Briinnich, Uria lomvia, Groenland, Inuit, chasse, oiseaux marins, structure de la population, gestion des ressources, législation concernant la chass

A nanobody modulates the p53 transcriptional program without perturbing its functional architecture

The p53 transcription factor plays an important role in genome integrity. To perform this task, p53 regulates the transcription of genes promoting various cellular outcomes including cell cycle arrest, apoptosis or senescence. The precise regulation of this activity remains elusive as numerous mechanisms, e.g. posttranslational modifications of p53 and (non-)covalent p53 binding partners, influence the p53 transcriptional program. We developed a novel, non-invasive tool to manipulate endogenous p53. Nanobodies (Nb), raised against the DNA-binding domain of p53, allow us to distinctively target both wild type and mutant p53 with great specificity. Nb3 preferentially binds ‘structural’ mutant p53, i.e. R175H and R282W, while a second but distinct nanobody, Nb139, binds both mutant and wild type p53. The co-crystal structure of the p53 DNA-binding domain in complex with Nb139 (1.9 Å resolution) reveals that Nb139 binds opposite the DNA-binding surface. Furthermore, we demonstrate that Nb139 does not disturb the functional architecture of the p53 DNA-binding domain using conformation-specific p53 antibody immunoprecipitations, glutaraldehyde crosslinking assays and chromatin immunoprecipitation. Functionally, the binding of Nb139 to p53 allows us to perturb the transactivation of p53 target genes. We propose that reduced recruitment of transcriptional co-activators or modulation of selected post-transcriptional modifications account for these observations

A comprehensive inventory of TLX1 controlled long non-coding RNAs in T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia through polyA+ and total RNA sequencing

Graft-versus-host disease (GvHD) assessment has been shown to be a challenge for healthcare professionals, leading to the development of the eGVHD App (www.uzleuven.be/egvhd). In this study, we formally evaluated the accuracy of using the App compared to traditional assessment methods to assess GvHD. Our national multicenter randomized controlled trial involved seven Belgian transplantation centers and 78 healthcare professionals selected using a 2-stage convenience sampling approach between January and April 2017. Using a 1:1 randomization stratified by profession, healthcare professionals were assigned to use either the App ("APP") or their usual GvHD assessment aids ("No APP") to assess the diagnosis and severity score of 10 expert-validated clinical vignettes. Our main outcome measure was the difference in accuracy for GvHD severity scoring between both groups. The odds of being correct were 6.14 (95% CI: 2.83-13.34) and 6.29 (95% CI: 4.32-9.15) times higher in favor of the "APP" group for diagnosis and scoring, respectively (P<0.001). Appassisted GvHD severity scoring was significantly superior for both acute and chronic GvHD, with an Odds Ratio of 17.89 and 4.34 respectively (P<0.001) and showed a significantly increased inter-observer agreement compared to standard practice. Despite a mean increase of 24 minutes (95% CI: 20.45-26.97) in the time needed to score the whole GvHD test package in the "APP" group (P<0.001), usability feedback was positive. The eGVHD App shows superior GvHD assessment accuracy compared to standard practice and has the potential to improve the quality of outcome data registration in allogeneic stem cell transplantation

TBX2 is a neuroblastoma core regulatory circuitry component enhancing MYCN/FOXM1 reactivation of DREAM targets

Chromosome 17q gains are almost invariably present in high-risk neuroblastoma cases. Here, we perform an integrative epigenomics search for dosage-sensitive transcription factors on 17q marked by H3K27ac defined super-enhancers and identify TBX2 as top candidate gene. We show that TBX2 is a constituent of the recently established core regulatory circuitry in neuroblastoma with features of a cell identity transcription factor, driving proliferation through activation of p21-DREAM repressed FOXM1 target genes. Combined MYCN/TBX2 knockdown enforces cell growth arrest suggesting that TBX2 enhances MYCN sustained activation of FOXM1 targets. Targeting transcriptional addiction by combined CDK7 and BET bromodomain inhibition shows synergistic effects on cell viability with strong repressive effects on CRC gene expression and p53 pathway response as well as several genes implicated in transcriptional regulation. In conclusion, we provide insight into the role of the TBX2 CRC gene in transcriptional dependency of neuroblastoma cells warranting clinical trials using BET and CDK7 inhibitors

Gene Expression in Chicken Reveals Correlation with Structural Genomic Features and Conserved Patterns of Transcription in the Terrestrial Vertebrates

Background - The chicken is an important agricultural and avian-model species. A survey of gene expression in a range of different tissues will provide a benchmark for understanding expression levels under normal physiological conditions in birds. With expression data for birds being very scant, this benchmark is of particular interest for comparative expression analysis among various terrestrial vertebrates. Methodology/Principal Findings - We carried out a gene expression survey in eight major chicken tissues using whole genome microarrays. A global picture of gene expression is presented for the eight tissues, and tissue specific as well as common gene expression were identified. A Gene Ontology (GO) term enrichment analysis showed that tissue-specific genes are enriched with GO terms reflecting the physiological functions of the specific tissue, and housekeeping genes are enriched with GO terms related to essential biological functions. Comparisons of structural genomic features between tissue-specific genes and housekeeping genes show that housekeeping genes are more compact. Specifically, coding sequence and particularly introns are shorter than genes that display more variation in expression between tissues, and in addition intergenic space was also shorter. Meanwhile, housekeeping genes are more likely to co-localize with other abundantly or highly expressed genes on the same chromosomal regions. Furthermore, comparisons of gene expression in a panel of five common tissues between birds, mammals and amphibians showed that the expression patterns across tissues are highly similar for orthologuous genes compared to random gene pairs within each pair-wise comparison, indicating a high degree of functional conservation in gene expression among terrestrial vertebrates. Conclusions - The housekeeping genes identified in this study have shorter gene length, shorter coding sequence length, shorter introns, and shorter intergenic regions, there seems to be selection pressure on economy in genes with a wide tissue distribution, i.e. these genes are more compact. A comparative analysis showed that the expression patterns of orthologous genes are conserved in the terrestrial vertebrates during evolutio

A nanobody modulates the p53 transcriptional program without perturbing its functional architecture

The p53 transcription factor plays an important role in genome integrity. To perform this task, p53 regulates the transcription of genes promoting various cellular outcomes including cell cycle arrest, apoptosis or senescence. The precise regulation of this activity remains elusive as numerous mechanisms, e.g. posttranslational modifications of p53 and (non-)covalent p53 binding partners, influence the p53 transcriptional program. We developed a novel, non-invasive tool to manipulate endogenous p53. Nanobodies (Nb), raised against the DNA-binding domain of p53, allow us to distinctively target both wild type and mutant p53 with great specificity. Nb3 preferentially binds ‘structural’ mutant p53, i.e. R175H and R282W, while a second but distinct nanobody, Nb139, binds both mutant and wild type p53. The co-crystal structure of the p53 DNA-binding domain in complex with Nb139 (1.9 Å resolution) reveals that Nb139 binds opposite the DNA-binding surface. Furthermore, we demonstrate that Nb139 does not disturb the functional architecture of the p53 DNA-binding domain using conformation-specific p53 antibody immunoprecipitations, glutaraldehyde crosslinking assays and chromatin immunoprecipitation. Functionally, the binding of Nb139 to p53 allows us to perturb the transactivation of p53 target genes. We propose that reduced recruitment of transcriptional co-activators or modulation of selected post-transcriptional modifications account for these observations

Genome-Wide Gene Expression Analysis in Response to Organophosphorus Pesticide Chlorpyrifos and Diazinon in C. elegans

Organophosphorus pesticides (OPs) were originally designed to affect the nervous system by inhibiting the enzyme acetylcholinesterase, an important regulator of the neurotransmitter acetylcholine. Over the past years evidence is mounting that these compounds affect many other processes. Little is known, however, about gene expression responses against OPs in the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans. This is surprising because C. elegans is extensively used as a model species in toxicity studies. To address this question we performed a microarray study in C. elegans which was exposed for 72 hrs to two widely used Ops, chlorpyrifos and diazinon, and a low dose mixture of these two compounds. Our analysis revealed transcriptional responses related to detoxification, stress, innate immunity, and transport and metabolism of lipids in all treatments. We found that for both compounds as well as in the mixture, these processes were regulated by different gene transcripts. Our results illustrate intense, and unexpected crosstalk between gene pathways in response to chlorpyrifos and diazinon in C. elegans

RRM2 enhances MYCN-driven neuroblastoma formation and acts as a synergistic target with CHK1 inhibition

High-risk neuroblastoma, a pediatric tumor originating from the sympathetic nervous system, has a low mutation load but highly recurrent somatic DNA copy number variants. Previously, segmental gains and/or amplifications allowed identification of drivers for neuroblastoma development. Using this approach, combined with gene dosage impact on expression and survival, we identified ribonucleotide reductase subunit M2 (RRM2) as a candidate dependency factor further supported by growth inhibition upon in vitro knockdown and accelerated tumor formation in a neuroblastoma zebrafish model coexpressing human RRM2 with MYCN. Forced RRM2 induction alleviates excessive replicative stress induced by CHK1 inhibition, while high RRM2 expression in human neuroblastomas correlates with high CHK1 activity. MYCN-driven zebrafish tumors with RRM2 co-overexpression exhibit differentially expressed DNA repair genes in keeping with enhanced ATR-CHK1 signaling activity. In vitro, RRM2 inhibition enhances intrinsic replication stress checkpoint addiction. Last, combinatorial RRM2-CHK1 inhibition acts synergistic in high-risk neuroblastoma cell lines and patient-derived xenograft models, illustrating the therapeutic potential

The distribution and abundance of seabirds off southwestern Greenland in autumn and winter 1988–1989

Ship-based surveys of seabirds were carried out off southwestern Greenland in the autumn of 1988 and winter of 1989. The results provide the first quantitative information on seabird distribution and numbers for single seasons and estimates for one particular area in winter. Some oceanographic habitat characteristics important for seabird distribution are described. In winter, high numbers of king eiders Somaleriaspectabilis, Brünnich's guillemots Urialomvia, glaucous gulls Larushyperboreus, Iceland gulls Larusglaucoides, great black-backed gulls Larusmarinus and black guillemots Cepphusgrylle were found in offshore habitats with heavy ice cover. An estimated 280,000 king eiders, 170,000 Brünnich's guillemots, 2,500 glaucous gulls, 7,000 Iceland gulls, 9,500 great black-backed gulls and 25,000 black guillemots were found in winter in an area west of Nuuk