Granting Nature Legal Rights: A Shift Towards an Ecocentric Conception of Nature in Germany?

This interdisciplinary research paper is centred around the concept of environmental personhood as a means of tackling the impending climate crisis. More specifically, it focuses on how the implementation of legal personhood as a juridical tool could lead to a shift towards a more ecocentric conception of nature. A philosophical approach will highlight the underlying discussion of the worth we grant nature and its correlated socio-cultural tradition. A legal approach will set this into the context of the German constitution and examine this issue by proposing constitutional amendments. Keywords: Environmental Personhood, Legal Personhood, Ecocentrism, German Constitution, Socio-Cultural Traditio

Theoretical vs. observational uncertainties: composition of giant exoplanets

In order to characterize giant exoplanets and better understand their origin, knowledge of how the planet's composition depends on its mass and stellar environment is required. In this work, we simulate the thermal evolution of gaseous planets and explore how various common model assumptions such as different equations of state, opacities, and heavy-element distributions affect the inferred radius and metallicity. We examine how the theoretical uncertainties translate into uncertainties in the inferred planetary radius and bulk metallicity. While we confirm the mass-metallicity trend previously reported in the literature, this correlation disappears when removing a 20 $M_{\oplus}$ heavy-element core from all the planets. We also show that using an updated hydrogen-helium equation of state leads to more compact planets. As a result, we present six planets that should be classified as inflated warm Jupiters. We next demonstrate that including the opacity-enhancement due to metal-rich envelopes of irradiated planets changes the planetary radius significantly, which can have large effects on the inferred metallicity. Even though there are other model assumptions that have not been considered in this work, we could show that the calculated theoretical uncertainties can already be comparable or even larger than the observational ones. Therefore, theoretical uncertainties are likely to be even larger. We therefore conclude that progress in theoretical models of giant planets is essential in order to take full advantage of current and future exoplanetary data.Comment: 25 pages, 9 figures, 2 tables, accepted for publication in Ap

Cooperative Assembly of Hsp70 Subdomain Clusters.

Many molecular chaperones exist as oligomeric complexes in their functional states, yet the physical determinants underlying such self-assembly behavior, as well as the role of oligomerization in the activity of molecular chaperones in inhibiting protein aggregation, have proven to be difficult to define. Here, we demonstrate direct measurements under native conditions of the changes in the average oligomer populations of a chaperone system as a function of concentration and time and thus determine the thermodynamic and kinetic parameters governing the self-assembly process. We access this self-assembly behavior in real time under native-like conditions by monitoring the changes in the micrometer-scale diffusion of the different complexes in time and space using a microfluidic platform. Using this approach, we find that the oligomerization mechanism of the Hsp70 subdomain occurs in a cooperative manner and involves structural constraints that limit the size of the species formed beyond the limits imposed by mass balance. These results illustrate the ability of microfluidic methods to probe polydisperse protein self-assembly in real time in solution and to shed light on the nature and dynamics of oligomerization processes.The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Research Council under the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) through the ERC grant PhysProt (agreement no 337969) (T.P.J.K., M.A.W., and T.C.T.M.). In addition, we are grateful for financial support from the Frances and Augustus Newman Foundation (T.P.J.K. and M.A.W.), the Marie Curie Fellowship scheme (P.A.), the Cambridge Commonwealth, European and International Trust (M.M.J.B.), the NIH-Oxford Cambridge Scholars Programme (M.M.J.B.), St John’s College Cambridge (T.C.T.M.), the Swiss National Science Foundation (T.C.T.M.), and the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (T.M.). F. A. A. is supported by a Senior Research Fellowship award from the Alzheimer’s Society, UK (grant number 317, AS-SF-16-003). This work was in part supported by the Intramural Research Program of the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases at the National Institutes of Health (M.M.J.B.) and the Centre for Misfolding Diseases, Cambridge, UK

Transcriptional Reprogramming of Arabidopsis thaliana Defence Pathways by the Entomopathogen Beauveria bassiana Correlates With Resistance Against a Fungal Pathogen but Not Against Insects

The entomopathogenic fungus Beauveria bassiana can adopt an endophytic lifestyle by colonising a wide array of plant species. Beauveria-colonised plants can show enhanced resistance against insects and plant pathogens alike. However, little is known about the molecular and physiological mechanisms that govern such interactions. Here, we assessed the effects of two B. bassiana strains (BG11, FRh2) on the growth of Arabidopsis thaliana and its resistance against two herbivore species and a phytopathogen. Plant responses were studied on the transcriptomic and metabolic level using microarrays and by measuring changes in defence-related phytohormones and glucosinolates (GLSs). Root inoculation with B. bassiana BG11 significantly increased plant growth, while FRh2 had no such effect. Both Beauveria strains decreased leaf lesion area caused by the phytopathogen Sclerotinia sclerotiorum but did not affect population growth of the aphid Myzus persicae or the growth of Plutella xylostella caterpillars. Microarray analyses of leaves from endophyte-inoculated A. thaliana provided evidence for transcriptional reprogramming of plant defence pathways, with strain-specific changes in the expression of genes related to pathogenesis, phytoalexin, jasmonic (JA), and salicylic acid (SA) signalling pathways. However, B. bassiana colonisation did not result in higher concentrations of JA and SA or major changes in leaf GLS profiles. We conclude that the endophyte B. bassiana induces plant defence responses and hypothesise that these contribute to enhanced resistance against S. sclerotiorum

Enhanced Activity of Meprin-α, a Pro-Migratory and Pro-Angiogenic Protease, in Colorectal Cancer

Meprin-α is a metalloprotease overexpressed in cancer cells, leading to the accumulation of this protease in a subset of colorectal tumors. The impact of increased meprin-α levels on tumor progression is not known. We investigated the effect of this protease on cell migration and angiogenesis in vitro and studied the expression of meprin-α mRNA, protein and proteolytic activity in primary tumors at progressive stages and in liver metastases of patients with colorectal cancer, as well as inhibitory activity towards meprin-α in sera of cancer patient as compared to healthy controls. We found that the hepatocyte growth factor (HGF)- induced migratory response of meprin-transfected epithelial cells was increased compared to wild-type cells in the presence of plasminogen, and that the angiogenic response in organ-cultured rat aortic explants was enhanced in the presence of exogenous human meprin-α. In patients, meprin-α mRNA was expressed in colonic adenomas, primary tumors UICC (International Union Against Cancer) stage I, II, III and IV, as well as in liver metastases. In contrast, the corresponding protein accumulated only in primary tumors and liver metastases, but not in adenomas. However, liver metastases lacked meprin-α activity despite increased expression of the corresponding protein, which correlated with inefficient zymogen activation. Sera from cancer patients exhibited reduced meprin-α inhibition compared to healthy controls. In conclusion, meprin-α activity is regulated differently in primary tumors and metastases, leading to high proteolytic activity in primary tumors and low activity in liver metastases. By virtue of its pro-migratory and pro-angiogenic activity, meprin-α may promote tumor progression in colorectal cancer

Importance of the immunodominant CD8+ T cell epitope of Plasmodium berghei circumsporozoite protein in parasite- and vaccine-induced protection

The circumsporozoite protein (CSP) builds up the surface coat of sporozoites and is the leading malaria pre-erythrocytic-stage vaccine candidate. CSP has been shown to induce robust CD8+ T cell responses that are capable of eliminating developing parasites in hepatocytes, resulting in protective immunity. In this study, we characterized the importance of the immunodominant CSP-derived epitope SYIPSAEKI of Plasmodium berghei in both sporozoite- and vaccine-induced protection in murine infection models. In BALB/c mice, where SYIPSAEKI is efficiently presented in the context of the major histocompatibility complex class I (MHC-I) molecule H-2-Kd, we established that epitope-specific CD8+ T cell responses contribute to parasite killing following sporozoite immunization. Yet, sterile protection was achieved in the absence of this epitope, substantiating the concept that other antigens can be sufficient for parasite-induced protective immunity. Furthermore, we demonstrated that SYIPSAEKI-specific CD8+ T cell responses elicited by viral-vectored CSP-expressing vaccines effectively targeted parasites in hepatocytes. The resulting sterile protection strictly relied on the expression of SYIPSAEKI. In C57BL/6 mice, which are unable to present the immunodominant epitope, CSP-based vaccines did not confer complete protection, despite the induction of high levels of CSP-specific antibodies. These findings underscore the significance of CSP in protection against malaria pre-erythrocytic stages and demonstrate that a significant proportion of the protection against the parasite is mediated by CD8+ T cells specific for the immunodominant CSP-derived epitope

Large-Scale Model-Based Assessment of Deer-Vehicle Collision Risk

Ungulates, in particular the Central European roe deer Capreolus capreolus and the North American white-tailed deer Odocoileus virginianus, are economically and ecologically important. The two species are risk factors for deer–vehicle collisions and as browsers of palatable trees have implications for forest regeneration. However, no large-scale management systems for ungulates have been implemented, mainly because of the high efforts and costs associated with attempts to estimate population sizes of free-living ungulates living in a complex landscape. Attempts to directly estimate population sizes of deer are problematic owing to poor data quality and lack of spatial representation on larger scales. We used data on 74,000 deer–vehicle collisions observed in 2006 and 2009 in Bavaria, Germany, to model the local risk of deer–vehicle collisions and to investigate the relationship between deer–vehicle collisions and both environmental conditions and browsing intensities. An innovative modelling approach for the number of deer–vehicle collisions, which allows nonlinear environment–deer relationships and assessment of spatial heterogeneity, was the basis for estimating the local risk of collisions for specific road types on the scale of Bavarian municipalities. Based on this risk model, we propose a new “deer–vehicle collision index” for deer management. We show that the risk of deer–vehicle collisions is positively correlated to browsing intensity and to harvest numbers. Overall, our results demonstrate that the number of deer–vehicle collisions can be predicted with high precision on the scale of municipalities. In the densely populated and intensively used landscapes of Central Europe and North America, a model-based risk assessment for deer–vehicle collisions provides a cost-efficient instrument for deer management on the landscape scale. The measures derived from our model provide valuable information for planning road protection and defining hunting quota. Open-source software implementing the model can be used to transfer our modelling approach to wildlife–vehicle collisions elsewhere