65 research outputs found
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Gut Microbiota Uniqueness Is Associated with Lake Size, a Proxy for Diet Diversity, in Stickleback Fish.
AbstractOrganismal divergence can be driven by differential resource use and adaptation to different trophic niches. Variation in diet is a major factor shaping the gut microbiota, which is crucial for many aspects of their hosts' biology. However, it remains largely unknown how host diet diversity affects the gut microbiota, and it could be hypothesized that trophic niche width is positively associated with gut microbiota diversity. To test this idea, we sequenced the 16S ribosomal RNA gene from intestinal tissue of 14 threespine stickleback populations from lakes of varying size on Vancouver Island, Canada, that have been shown to differ in trophic niche width. Using lake size as a proxy for trophic ecology, we found evidence for higher gut microbiota uniqueness among individuals from populations with broader trophic niches. While these results suggest that diet diversity might promote gut microbiota diversity, additional work investigating diet and gut microbiota variation of the same host organisms will be necessary. Yet our results motivate the question of how host population diversity (e.g., ecological, morphological, genetic) might interact with the gut microbiota during the adaptation to ecological niches
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Host ecotype and rearing environment are the main drivers of threespine stickleback gut microbiota diversity in a naturalistic experiment
Host–microbiota interactions play a critical role in the hosts’ biology, and thus, it is crucial to elucidate the mechanisms that shape gut microbial communities. We leveraged threespine stickleback fish (
Gasterosteus aculeatus
) as a model system to investigate the contribution of host and environmental factors to gut microbiota variation. These fish offer a unique opportunity for experiments in naturalistic conditions; we reared benthic and limnetic ecotypes from three different lakes in experimental ponds, allowing us to assess the relative effects of shared environment (pond), geographic origin (lake-of-origin), trophic ecology and genetics (ecotype) and biological sex on gut microbiota α- and β-diversity. Host ecotype had the strongest influence on α-diversity, with benthic fish exhibiting higher diversity than limnetic fish, followed by the rearing environment. β-diversity was primarily shaped by rearing environment, followed by host ecotype, indicating that environmental factors play a crucial role in determining gut microbiota composition. Furthermore, numerous bacterial orders were differentially abundant across ponds, underlining the substantial contribution of environmental factors to gut microbiota variation. Our study illustrates the complex interplay between environmental and host ecological or genetic factors in shaping the stickleback gut microbiota and highlights the value of experiments conducted under naturalistic conditions for understanding gut microbiota dynamics
Dynamic Aperture Studies for the Transfer Line From FLUTE to cSTART
The compact STorage ring for Accelerator Research and Technology cSTART project will deliver a new KIT accelerator test facility for the application of novel acceleration techniques and diagnostics. The goal is to demonstrate storing an electron beam of a Laser Plasma Accelerator (LPA) in a compact circular accelerator for the first time. Before installing an LPA, the Far-Infrared Linac and Test Experiment (FLUTE) will serve as a full energy injector for the compact storage ring, providing stable bunches with a length down to a few femtoseconds. The transport of the bunches from FLUTE to the cSTART storage ring requires a transfer line which includes horizontal, vertical and coupled deflections which leads to coupling of the dynamics in the two transverse planes. In order to realize ultra-short bunch lengths at the end of the transport line, it relies on special optics which invokes high and negative dispersion. This contribution presents dynamic aperture studies based on six-dimensional tracking through the lattice of the transfer line
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Gut microbiota parallelism and divergence associated with colonisation of novel habitats
An organism's gut microbiota can change in response to novel environmental conditions, in particular when colonisation of new habitats is accompanied by shifts in the host species' ecology. Here, we investigated the gut microbiota of three lizard species (A. inornata, H. maculata and S. cowlesi) from their ancestral-like habitat in the Chihuahuan desert and two colonised habitats with contrasting geological and ecological compositions: the White Sands and Carrizozo lava flow. The host species and the lizards' environment both shape gut microbiota composition, but host effects were overall stronger. Further, we found evidence that colonisation of the same environment by independent host species led to parallel changes of the gut microbiota, whereas the colonisation of two distinct environments by the same host species led to gut microbiota divergence. Some of the gut microbiota changes that accompanied the colonisation of the White Sands were associated with shifts in diet (based on diet information from previous studies), which is congruent with the general observation that trophic ecology has a strong effect on gut microbiota composition. Our study provides insights into how shifts in host ecology accompanying colonisation of novel environments can affect gut microbiota composition and diversity
Flexible Features of the Compact Storage Ring in the cSTART Project at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology
Within the cSTART project (compact storage ring for accelerator research and technology), a Very Large Acceptance compact Storage Ring (VLA-cSR) will be realized at the Institute for Beam Physics and Technology (IBPT) of the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology. (KIT). A modified geometry of a compact storage ring operating at 50 MeV energy range has been studied and main features of the new model are described here. The new design, based on 45° bending magnets, is suitable to store a wide momentum spread beam as well as ultra-short electron bunches in the sub-ps range injected from the plasma cell as well as from the Ferninfrarot Linac- Und Test Experiment (FLUTE). The DBA lattice of the VLA-cSR with different settings and relaxed parameters, split elements and higher order optics of tolerable strength allows to improve the dynamic aperture and momentum acceptance to an acceptable level. This contribution discusses the lattice features in detail, expected lifetime, injection, tolerances and different possible operation schemes of the ring
Split Ring Resonator Experiment - Simulation Results
FLUTE (Ferninfrarot Linac- Und Test-Experiment) is a compact linac-based test facility for accelerator and diagnostics R&D. An example for a new accelerator diagnostics tool currently studied at FLUTE is the split-ring-resonator (SRR) experiment, which aims to measure the longitudinal bunch profile of fs-scale electron bunches. Laser-generated THz radiation is used to excite a high frequency oscillating electromagnetic field in the SRR. Particles passing through the SRR gap are time-dependently deflected in the vertical plane, which allows a vertical streaking of an electron bunch. This principle allows a diagnosis of the longitudinal bunch profile in the femtosecond time domain and will be tested at FLUTE. This contribution presents an overview of the SRR experiment and the results of various tracking simulations for different scenarios as a function of laser pulse length and bunch charge. Based on these results possible working points for the experiments at FLUTE will be proposed
Longitudinal Beam Dynamics and Coherent Synchrotron Radiation at cSTART
The compact STorage ring for Accelerator Research and Technology (cSTART) project aims to store electron bunches of LWFA-like beams in a very large momentum acceptance storage ring. The project will be realized at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT, Germany). Initially, the Ferninfrarot Linac- Und Test-Experiment (FLUTE), a source of ultra-short bunches, will serve as an injector for cSTART to benchmark and emulate laser-wakefield accelerator-like beams. In a second stage a laser-plasma accelerator will be used as an injector, which is being developed as part of the ATHENA project in collaboration with DESY and Helmholtz Institute Jena (HIJ). With an energy of 50 MeV and damping times of several seconds, the electron beam does not reach equilibrium emittance. Furthermore, the critical frequency of synchrotron radiation is 50 THz and in the same order as the bunch spectrum, which implies that the entire bunch radiates coherently. We perform longitudinal particle tracking simulations to investigate the evolution of the bunch length and spectrum as well as the emitted coherent synchrotron radiation. Finally, different options for the RF system are discussed
X-ray emission from magnetized neutron star atmospheres at low mass accretion rates. I. Phase-averaged spectrum
Recent observations of X-ray pulsars at low luminosities allow, for the first
time, to compare theoretical models for the emission from highly magnetized
neutron star atmospheres at low mass accretion rates ( g s) with the broadband X-ray data. The purpose of this paper
is to investigate the spectral formation in the neutron star atmosphere at low
and to conduct a parameter study of physical properties of the
emitting region. We obtain the structure of the static atmosphere, assuming
that Coulomb collisions are the dominant deceleration process. The upper part
of the atmosphere is strongly heated by the braking plasma, reaching
temperatures of 30-40 keV, while its denser isothermal interior is much cooler
(~2 keV). We numerically solve the polarized radiative transfer in the
atmosphere with magnetic Compton scattering, free-free processes, and
non-thermal cyclotron emission due to possible collisional excitations of
electrons. The strongly polarized emitted spectrum has a double-hump shape that
is observed in low-luminosity X-ray pulsars. A low-energy "thermal" component
is dominated by extraordinary photons that can leave the atmosphere from deeper
layers due to their long mean free path at soft energies. We find that a
high-energy component is formed due to resonant Comptonization in the heated
non-isothermal part of the atmosphere even in the absence of collisional
excitations. The latter, however, affect the ratio of the two components. A
strong cyclotron line originates from the optically thin, uppermost zone. A fit
of the model to NuSTAR and Swift/XRT observations of GX 304-1 provides an
accurate description of the data with reasonable parameters. The model can thus
reproduce the characteristic double-hump spectrum observed in low-luminosity
X-ray pulsars and provides insights into spectral formation.Comment: 18 pages, 10 figures, A&A accepte
Development of a Transfer Line for LPA-Generated Electron Bunches to a Compact Storage Ring
The injection of LPA-generated beams into a storage ring is considered to be one of the most prominent applications of laser plasma accelerators (LPAs). In a combined endeavour between Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) and Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron (DESY) the key challenges will be addressed with the aim to successfully demonstrate injection of LPA-generated beams into a compact storage ring with large energy acceptance and dynamic aperture. Such a storage ring and the corresponding transfer line are currently being designed within the cSTART project at KIT and will be ideally suited to accept bunches from a 50 MeV LPA prototype developed at DESY. This contribution presents the foreseen layout of the transfer line from the LPA to the injection point of the storage ring and discusses the status of beams optics calculations
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