High star formation rates as the origin of turbulence in early and modern disk galaxies

High spatial and spectral resolution observations of star formation and kinematics in early galaxies have shown that two-thirds are massive rotating disk galaxies with the remainder being less massive non-rotating objects. The line of sight averaged velocity dispersions are typically five times higher than in today's disk galaxies. This has suggested that gravitationally-unstable, gas-rich disks in the early Universe are fuelled by cold, dense accreting gas flowing along cosmic filaments and penetrating hot galactic gas halos. However these accreting flows have not been observed, and cosmic accretion cannot power the observed level of turbulence. Here we report on a new sample of rare high-velocity-dispersion disk galaxies we have discovered in the nearby Universe where cold accretion is unlikely to drive their high star-formation rates. We find that the velocity dispersion is most fundamentally correlated with their star-formation rates, and not their mass nor gas fraction, which leads to a new picture where star formation itself is the energetic driver of galaxy disk turbulence at all cosmic epochs.Comment: 9 pages, 2 figures, Supplimentary Info available at: http://pulsar.swin.edu.au/~agreen/nature/sigma_mean_arXiv.pdf. Accepted for publication in Natur

Ecosystem heterogeneity and diversity mitigate Amazon forest resilience to frequent extreme droughts

© 2018 The Authors. New Phytologist © 2018 New Phytologist Trust The impact of increases in drought frequency on the Amazon forest's composition, structure and functioning remain uncertain. We used a process- and individual-based ecosystem model (ED2) to quantify the forest's vulnerability to increased drought recurrence. We generated meteorologically realistic, drier-than-observed rainfall scenarios for two Amazon forest sites, Paracou (wetter) and Tapajós (drier), to evaluate the impacts of more frequent droughts on forest biomass, structure and composition. The wet site was insensitive to the tested scenarios, whereas at the dry site biomass declined when average rainfall reduction exceeded 15%, due to high mortality of large-sized evergreen trees. Biomass losses persisted when year-long drought recurrence was shorter than 2–7 yr, depending upon soil texture and leaf phenology. From the site-level scenario results, we developed regionally applicable metrics to quantify the Amazon forest's climatological proximity to rainfall regimes likely to cause biomass loss > 20% in 50 yr according to ED2 predictions. Nearly 25% (1.8 million km2) of the Amazon forests could experience frequent droughts and biomass loss if mean annual rainfall or interannual variability changed by 2σ. At least 10% of the high-emission climate projections (CMIP5/RCP8.5 models) predict critically dry regimes over 25% of the Amazon forest area by 2100

Insertional mutagenesis screening identifies the zinc finger homeodomain 2 (zfh2) gene as a novel factor required for embryonic leg development in Tribolium castaneum

The genetic control of leg development is well characterized in the fly Drosophila melanogaster. These control mechanisms, however, must differ to some degree between different insect species to account for the morphological diversity of thoracic legs in the insects. The legs of the flour beetle Tribolium castaneum differ from the Drosophila legs in their developmental mode as well as in their specific morphology especially at the larval stage. In order to identify genes involved in the morphogenesis of the Tribolium larval legs, we have analyzed EGFP enhancer trap lines of Tribolium. We have identified the zfh2 gene as a novel factor required for normal leg development in Tribolium. RNA interference with zfh2 function leads to two alternative classes of leg phenotype. The loss of a leg segment boundary and the generation of ectopic outgrowths in one class of phenotype suggest a role in leg segmentation and segment growth. The malformation of the pretarsal claw in the second class of phenotype suggests a role in distal development and the morphogenesis of the claw-shaped morphology of the pretarsus. This suggests that zfh2 is involved in the regulation of an unidentified target gene in a concentration-dependent manner. Our results demonstrate that enhancer trap screens in T. castaneum have the potential to identify novel gene functions regulating specific developmental processes

Use of KikGR a photoconvertible green-to-red fluorescent protein for cell labeling and lineage analysis in ES cells and mouse embryos

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The use of genetically-encoded fluorescent proteins has revolutionized the fields of cell and developmental biology and in doing so redefined our understanding of the dynamic morphogenetic processes that shape the embryo. With the advent of more accessible and sophisticated imaging technologies as well as an abundance of fluorescent proteins with different spectral characteristics, the dynamic processes taking place <it>in situ </it>in living cells and tissues can now be probed. Photomodulatable fluorescent proteins are one of the emerging classes of genetically-encoded fluorescent proteins.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We have compared PA-GFP, PS-CFP2, Kaede and KikGR four readily available and commonly used photomodulatable fluorescent proteins for use in ES cells and mice. Our results suggest that the green-to-red photoconvertible fluorescent protein, Kikume Green-Red (KikGR), is most suitable for cell labeling and lineage studies in ES cells and mice because it is developmentally neutral, bright and undergoes rapid and complete photoconversion. We have generated transgenic ES cell lines and strains of mice exhibiting robust widespread expression of KikGR. By efficient photoconversion of KikGR we labeled subpopulations of ES cells in culture, and groups of cells within <it>ex utero </it>cultured mouse embryos. Red fluorescent photoconverted cells and their progeny could be followed for extended periods of time.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Transgenic ES cells and mice exhibiting widespread readily detectable expression of KikGR are indistinguishable from their wild type counterparts and are amenable to efficient photoconversion. They represent novel tools for non-invasive selective labeling specific cell populations and live imaging cell dynamics and cell fate. Genetically-encoded photomodulatable proteins such as KikGR represent emergent attractive alternatives to commonly used vital dyes, tissue grafts and genetic methods for investigating dynamic behaviors of individual cells, collective cell dynamics and fate mapping applications.</p

Successful side-viewing endoscopic hemoclipping for Dieulafoy-like lesion at the brim of a periampullary diverticulum

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Duodenal Dieulafoy's lesions are rare and only several cases were reported so far. Their characteristic appearance and location make it difficult to be diagnosed in the clinical practice. Massive bleeding often results from these lesions and can impede the accurate early treatment.</p> <p>Case presentation</p> <p>67 years old male patient suffered a fatal bleeding from Dieulafoy-like lesion located at the mouth of the periampullary diverticulum. Inintial endoscopic therapy and radiologic embolization failed to stop the bleeding, while direct observation and hemoclipping by the side viewing endoscopy successfully established correct diagnosis and permanent cure of the lesion.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Aggressive endoscopic examinations combined with the accurate endoscopic threatment should be adopted when Dieulafoy-like lesion is suspected as a possible cause of the proximal small bowel hemorrahge. Verification of the diagnosis and definitive treatment often needed repeated examination by side-viewing endoscope as well as stabilization of the patient.</p

Debris Disks: Probing Planet Formation

Debris disks are the dust disks found around ~20% of nearby main sequence stars in far-IR surveys. They can be considered as descendants of protoplanetary disks or components of planetary systems, providing valuable information on circumstellar disk evolution and the outcome of planet formation. The debris disk population can be explained by the steady collisional erosion of planetesimal belts; population models constrain where (10-100au) and in what quantity (>1Mearth) planetesimals (>10km in size) typically form in protoplanetary disks. Gas is now seen long into the debris disk phase. Some of this is secondary implying planetesimals have a Solar System comet-like composition, but some systems may retain primordial gas. Ongoing planet formation processes are invoked for some debris disks, such as the continued growth of dwarf planets in an unstirred disk, or the growth of terrestrial planets through giant impacts. Planets imprint structure on debris disks in many ways; images of gaps, clumps, warps, eccentricities and other disk asymmetries, are readily explained by planets at >>5au. Hot dust in the region planets are commonly found (<5au) is seen for a growing number of stars. This dust usually originates in an outer belt (e.g., from exocomets), although an asteroid belt or recent collision is sometimes inferred.Comment: Invited review, accepted for publication in the 'Handbook of Exoplanets', eds. H.J. Deeg and J.A. Belmonte, Springer (2018

An orally available, small-molecule interferon inhibits viral replication

Most acute hepatitis C virus (HCV) infections become chronic and some progress to liver cirrhosis or hepatocellular carcinoma. Standard therapy involves an interferon (IFN)-α-based regimen, and efficacy of therapy has been significantly improved by the development of protease inhibitors. However, several issues remain concerning the injectable form and the side effects of IFN. Here, we report an orally available, small-molecule type I IFN receptor agonist that directly transduces the IFN signal cascade and stimulates antiviral gene expression. Like type I IFN, the small-molecule compound induces IFN-stimulated gene (ISG) expression for antiviral activity in vitro and in vivo in mice, and the ISG induction mechanism is attributed to a direct interaction between the compound and IFN-α receptor 2, a key molecule of IFN-signaling on the cell surface. Our study highlights the importance of an orally active IFN-like agent, both as a therapy for antiviral infections and as a potential IFN substitute

Fault Tolerance in Protein Interaction Networks: Stable Bipartite Subgraphs and Redundant Pathways

As increasing amounts of high-throughput data for the yeast interactome become available, more system-wide properties are uncovered. One interesting question concerns the fault tolerance of protein interaction networks: whether there exist alternative pathways that can perform some required function if a gene essential to the main mechanism is defective, absent or suppressed. A signature pattern for redundant pathways is the BPM (between-pathway model) motif, introduced by Kelley and Ideker. Past methods proposed to search the yeast interactome for BPM motifs have had several important limitations. First, they have been driven heuristically by local greedy searches, which can lead to the inclusion of extra genes that may not belong in the motif; second, they have been validated solely by functional coherence of the putative pathways using GO enrichment, making it difficult to evaluate putative BPMs in the absence of already known biological annotation. We introduce stable bipartite subgraphs, and show they form a clean and efficient way of generating meaningful BPMs which naturally discard extra genes included by local greedy methods. We show by GO enrichment measures that our BPM set outperforms previous work, covering more known complexes and functional pathways. Perhaps most importantly, since our BPMs are initially generated by examining the genetic-interaction network only, the location of edges in the protein-protein physical interaction network can then be used to statistically validate each candidate BPM, even with sparse GO annotation (or none at all). We uncover some interesting biological examples of previously unknown putative redundant pathways in such areas as vesicle-mediated transport and DNA repair