406 research outputs found
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Fermentative Approaches to Hydrogen Production
A PowerPoint presentation given as part of the 2005 Hydrogen Program Review, May 23-26, 2005, in Washington, D.C
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Hydrogen from Water in a Novel Recombinant Oxygen-Tolerant Cyanobacterial System
The objective of this report is to develop an O{sub 2}-tolerant cyanobacterial system for continuous light-driven H{sub 2} production from water. The overall goal is to produce a cyanobacterial recombinant to produce H{sub 2} continuously
CO\u3csub\u3e2\u3c/sub\u3e-Fixing One-Carbon Metabolism in a Cellulose-Degrading Bacterium \u3cem\u3eClostridium thermocellum\u3c/em\u3e
Clostridium thermocellum can ferment cellulosic biomass to formate and other end products, including CO2. This organism lacks formate dehydrogenase (Fdh), which catalyzes the reduction of CO2 to formate. However, feeding the bacterium 13C-bicarbonate and cellobiose followed by NMR analysis showed the production of 13C-formate in C. thermocellum culture, indicating the presence of an uncharacterized pathway capable of converting CO2 to formate. Combining genomic and experimental data, we demonstrated that the conversion of CO2 to formate serves as a CO2 entry point into the reductive one-carbon (C1) metabolism, and internalizes CO2 via two biochemical reactions: the reversed pyruvate: ferredoxin oxidoreductase (rPFOR), which incorporates CO2 using acetyl-CoA as a substrate and generates pyruvate, and pyruvate- formate lyase (PFL) converting pyruvate to formate and acetyl-CoA. We analyzed the labeling patterns of proteinogenic amino acids in individual deletions of all five putative PFOR mutants and in a PFL deletion mutant. We identified two enzymes acting as rPFOR, confirmed the dual activities of rPFOR and PFL crucial for CO2 uptake, and provided physical evidence of a distinct in vivo “rPFOR-PFL shunt” to reduce CO2 to formate while circumventing the lack of Fdh. Such a pathway precedes CO2 fixation via the reductive C1 metabolic pathway in C. thermocellum. These findings demonstrated the metabolic versatility of C. thermocellum, which is thought of as primarily a cellulosic heterotroph but is shown here to be endowed with the ability to fix CO2 as well
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Biological Systems for Hydrogen Photoproduction
Presentation on Biological Systems for Hydrogen Photoproduction for the 2005 Hydrogen, Fuel Cells & Infrastructure Technologies Program Annual Review held in Arlington, Virginia, May 23-26, 2005
The M Dwarf GJ 436 and its Neptune-Mass Planet
We determine stellar parameters for the M dwarf GJ 436 that hosts a
Neptune-mass planet. We employ primarily spectral modeling at low and high
resolution, examining the agreement between model and observed optical spectra
of five comparison stars of type, M0-M3. Modeling high resolution optical
spectra suffers from uncertainties in TiO transitions, affecting the predicted
strengths of both atomic and molecular lines in M dwarfs. The determination of
Teff, gravity, and metallicity from optical spectra remains at ~10%. As
molecules provide opacity both in lines and as an effective continuum,
determing molecular transition parameters remains a challenge facing models
such as the PHOENIX series, best verified with high resolution and
spectrophotometric spectra. Our analysis of GJ 436 yields an effective
temperature of Teff = 3350 +/- 300 K and a mass of 0.44 Msun. New Doppler
measurements for GJ 436 with a precision of 3 m/s taken during 6 years improve
the Keplerian model of the planet, giving a minimum mass, M sin i = 0.0713 Mjup
= 22.6 Mearth, period, P = 2.6439 d, and e = 0.16 +/- 0.02. The noncircular
orbit contrasts with the tidally circularized orbits of all close-in
exoplanets, implying either ongoing pumping of eccentricity by a more distant
companion, or a higher Q value for this low-mass planet. The velocities indeed
reveal a long term trend, indicating a possible distant companion.Comment: 27 pages, 7 figures, accepted to PAS
L1 Interaction with Ankyrin Regulates Mediolateral Topography in the Retinocollicular Projection
Dynamic modulation of adhesion provided by anchorage of axonal receptors with the cytoskeleton contributes to attractant or repellent responses that guide axons to topographic targets in the brain. The neural cell adhesion molecule L1 engages the spectrin-actin cytoskeleton through reversible linkage of its cytoplasmic domain to ankyrin. To investigate a role for L1 association with the cytoskeleton in topographic guidance of retinal axons to the superior colliculus, a novel mouse strain was generated by genetic knock-in that expresses an L1 point mutation (Tyr1229His) abolishing ankyrin binding. Axon tracing revealed a striking mistargeting of mutant ganglion cell axons from the ventral retina, which express high levels of ephrinB receptors, to abnormally lateral sites in the contralateral superior colliculus, where they formed multiple ectopic arborizations. These axons were compromised in extending interstitial branches in the medial direction, a normal response to the high medial to low lateral SC gradient of ephrinB1. Furthermore, ventral but not dorsal L1(Y1229H) retinal cells were impaired for ephrinB1-stimulated adhesion through beta1 integrins in culture. The retinocollicular phenotype of the L1(Tyr1229His) mutant provides the first evidence that L1 regulates topographic mapping of retinal axons through adhesion mediated by linkage to the actin cytoskeleton and functional interaction with the ephrinB/EphB targeting system
Evidence for a Long-Standing Top-Heavy IMF in the Central Parsec of the Galaxy
We classify 329 late-type giants within 1 parsec of Sgr A*, using the
adaptive optics integral field spectrometer SINFONI on the VLT. These
observations represent the deepest spectroscopic data set so far obtained for
the Galactic Center, reaching a 50% completeness threshold at the approximate
magnitude of the helium-burning red clump (Ks ~ 15.5 mag.). Combining our
spectroscopic results with NaCo H and Ks photometry, we construct an observed
Hertzsprung-Russell diagram, which we quantitatively compare to theoretical
distributions of various star formation histories of the inner Galaxy, using a
chi-squared analysis. Our best-fit model corresponds to continuous star
formation over the last 12 Gyr with a top-heavy initial mass function (IMF).
The similarity of this IMF to the IMF observed for the most recent epoch of
star formation is intriguing and perhaps suggests a connection between recent
star formation and the stars formed throughout the history of the Galactic
Center.Comment: 18 pages, 10 figures, Accepted to ApJ: 15 July 200
The nuclear star cluster of the Milky Way
The nuclear star cluster of the Milky Way is a unique target in the Universe.
Contrary to extragalactic nuclear star clusters, using current technology it
can be resolved into tens of thousands of individual stars. This allows us to
study in detail its spatial and velocity structure as well as the different
stellar populations that make up the cluster. Moreover, the Milky Way is one of
the very few cases where we have firm evidence for the co-existence of a
nuclear star cluster with a central supermassive black hole, Sagittarius A*.
The number density of stars in the Galactic center nuclear star cluster can be
well described, at distances pc from Sagittarius A*, by a power-law
of the form with an index of .
In the central parsec the index of the power-law becomes much flatter and
decreases to . We present proper motions for more than 6000
stars within 1 pc in projection from the central black hole. The cluster
appears isotropic at projected distances pc from Sagittarius A*.
Outside of 0.5 pc and out to 1.0 pc the velocity dispersion appears to stay
constant. A robust result of our Jeans modeling of the data is the required
presence of of extended (stellar) mass in the
central parsec of the Galaxy.Comment: To appear in the proceedings of "The Universe under the Microscope -
Astrophysics at High Angular Resolution", Journal of Physics:Conference
Series (IOP; http://www.iop.org/EJ/conf) This version has been slightly
modified (e.g. double-log plot in right hand panel of Figure 5
Possible thermochemical disequilibrium in the atmosphere of the exoplanet GJ 436b
The nearby extrasolar planet GJ 436b--which has been labelled as a 'hot
Neptune'--reveals itself by the dimming of light as it crosses in front of and
behind its parent star as seen from Earth. Respectively known as the primary
transit and secondary eclipse, the former constrains the planet's radius and
mass, and the latter constrains the planet's temperature and, with measurements
at multiple wavelengths, its atmospheric composition. Previous work using
transmission spectroscopy failed to detect the 1.4-\mu m water vapour band,
leaving the planet's atmospheric composition poorly constrained. Here we report
the detection of planetary thermal emission from the dayside of GJ 436b at
multiple infrared wavelengths during the secondary eclipse. The best-fit
compositional models contain a high CO abundance and a substantial methane
(CH4) deficiency relative to thermochemical equilibrium models for the
predicted hydrogen-dominated atmosphere. Moreover, we report the presence of
some H2O and traces of CO2. Because CH4 is expected to be the dominant
carbon-bearing species, disequilibrium processes such as vertical mixing and
polymerization of methane into substances such as ethylene may be required to
explain the hot Neptune's small CH4-to-CO ratio, which is at least 10^5 times
smaller than predicted
Simultaneous Multi-Wavelength Observations of Sgr A* during 2007 April 1-11
We report the detection of variable emission from Sgr A* in almost all
wavelength bands (i.e. centimeter, millimeter, submillimeter, near-IR and
X-rays) during a multi-wavelength observing campaign. Three new moderate flares
are detected simultaneously in both near-IR and X-ray bands. The ratio of X-ray
to near-IR flux in the flares is consistent with inverse Compton scattering of
near-IR photons by submillimeter emitting relativistic particles which follow
scaling relations obtained from size measurements of Sgr A*. We also find that
the flare statistics in near-IR wavelengths is consistent with the probability
of flare emission being inversely proportional to the flux. At millimeter
wavelengths, the presence of flare emission at 43 GHz (7mm) using VLBA with
milli-arcsecond spatial resolution indicates the first direct evidence that
hourly time scale flares are localized within the inner 3070
Schwarzschild radii of Sgr A*. We also show several cross correlation plots
between near-IR, millimeter and submillimeter light curves that collectively
demonstrate the presence of time delays between the peaks of emission up to
three hours. The evidence for time delays at millimeter and submillimeter
wavelengths are consistent with the source of emission being optically thick
initially followed by a transition to an optically thin regime. In particular,
there is an intriguing correlation between the optically thin near-IR and X-ray
flare and optically thick radio flare at 43 GHz that occurred on 2007 April 4.
This would be the first evidence of a radio flare emission at 43 GHz delayed
with respect to the near-IR and X-ray flare emission.Comment: replaced with revised version 57 pages, 28 figures, ApJ (in press
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