Monthly mean large-scale analyses of upper-tropospheric humidity and wind field divergence derived from three geostationary satellites

This paper describes the results from a collaborative study between the European Space Operations Center, the European Organization for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and the Cooperative Institute for Meteorological Satellite Studies investigating the relationship between satellite-derived monthly mean fields of wind and humidity in the upper troposphere for March 1994. Three geostationary meteorological satellites GOES-7, Meteosat-3, and Meteosat-5 are used to cover an area from roughly 160 deg W to 50 deg E. The wind fields are derived from tracking features in successive images of upper-tropospheric water vapor (WV) as depicted in the 6.5-micron absorption band. The upper-tropospheric relative humidity (UTH) is inferred from measured water vapor radiances with a physical retrieval scheme based on radiative forward calculations. Quantitative information on large-scale circulation patterns in the upper-troposphere is possible with the dense spatial coverage of the WV wind vectors. The monthly mean wind field is used to estimate the large-scale divergence; values range between about-5 x 10(exp -6) and 5 x 10(exp 6)/s when averaged over a scale length of about 1000-2000 km. The spatial patterns of the UTH field and the divergence of the wind field closely resemble one another, suggesting that UTH patterns are principally determined by the large-scale circulation. Since the upper-tropospheric humidity absorbs upwelling radiation from lower-tropospheric levels and therefore contributes significantly to the atmospheric greenhouse effect, this work implies that studies on the climate relevance of water vapor should include three-dimensional modeling of the atmospheric dynamics. The fields of UTH and WV winds are useful parameters for a climate-monitoring system based on satellite data. The results from this 1-month analysis suggest the desirability of further GOES and Meteosat studies to characterize the changes in the upper-tropospheric moisture sources and sinks over the past decade

Genome of the marsupial Monodelphis domestica reveals innovation in non-coding sequences

We report a high-quality draft of the genome sequence of the grey, short-tailed opossum (Monodelphis domestica). As the first metatherian (‘marsupial’) species to be sequenced, the opossum provides a unique perspective on the organization and evolution of mammalian genomes. Distinctive features of the opossum chromosomes provide support for recent theories about genome evolution and function, including a strong influence of biased gene conversion on nucleotide sequence composition, and a relationship between chromosomal characteristics and X chromosome inactivation. Comparison of opossum and eutherian genomes also reveals a sharp difference in evolutionary innovation between protein-coding and non-coding functional elements. True innovation in protein-coding genes seems to be relatively rare, with lineage-specific differences being largely due to diversification and rapid turnover in gene families involved in environmental interactions. In contrast, about 20% of eutherian conserved non-coding elements (CNEs) are recent inventions that postdate the divergence of Eutheria and Metatheria. A substantial proportion of these eutherian-specific CNEs arose from sequence inserted by transposable elements, pointing to transposons as a major creative force in the evolution of mammalian gene regulation

Genome of the marsupial Monodelphis domestica reveals innovation in non-coding sequences

We report a high-quality draft of the genome sequence of the grey, short-tailed opossum (Monodelphis domestica). As the first metatherian ('marsupial') species to be sequenced, the opossum provides a unique perspective on the organization and evolution of mammalian genomes. Distinctive features of the opossum chromosomes provide support for recent theories about genome evolution and function, including a strong influence of biased gene conversion on nucleotide sequence composition, and a relationship between chromosomal characteristics and X chromosome inactivation. Comparison of opossum and eutherian genomes also reveals a sharp difference in evolutionary innovation between protein-coding and non-coding functional elements. True innovation in protein-coding genes seems to be relatively rare, with lineage-specific differences being largely due to diversification and rapid turnover in gene families involved in environmental interactions. In contrast, about 20% of eutherian conserved non-coding elements (CNEs) are recent inventions that postdate the divergence of Eutheria and Metatheria. A substantial proportion of these eutherian-specific CNEs arose from sequence inserted by transposable elements, pointing to transposons as a major creative force in the evolution of mammalian gene regulation

Genome of the marsupial Monodelphis domestica reveals innovation in non-coding sequences

We report a high-quality draft of the genome sequence of the grey, short-tailed opossum (Monodelphis domestica). As the first metatherian ('marsupial') species to be sequenced, the opossum provides a unique perspective on the organization and evolution of mammalian genomes. Distinctive features of the opossum chromosomes provide support for recent theories about genome evolution and function, including a strong influence of biased gene conversion on nucleotide sequence composition, and a relationship between chromosomal characteristics and X chromosome inactivation. Comparison of opossum and eutherian genomes also reveals a sharp difference in evolutionary innovation between protein-coding and non-coding functional elements. True innovation in protein-coding genes seems to be relatively rare, with lineage-specific differences being largely due to diversification and rapid turnover in gene families involved in environmental interactions. In contrast, about 20% of eutherian conserved non-coding elements (CNEs) are recent inventions that postdate the divergence of Eutheria and Metatheria. A substantial proportion of these eutherian-specific CNEs arose from sequence inserted by transposable elements, pointing to transposons as a major creative force in the evolution of mammalian gene regulation

Genome of the marsupial Monodelphis domestica reveals innovation in non-coding sequences

We report a high-quality draft of the genome sequence of the grey, short-tailed opossum (Monodelphis domestica). As the first metatherian ('marsupial') species to be sequenced, the opossum provides a unique perspective on the organization and evolution of mammalian genomes. Distinctive features of the opossum chromosomes provide support for recent theories about genome evolution and function, including a strong influence of biased gene conversion on nucleotide sequence composition, and a relationship between chromosomal characteristics and X chromosome inactivation. Comparison of opossum and eutherian genomes also reveals a sharp difference in evolutionary innovation between protein-coding and non-coding functional elements. True innovation in protein-coding genes seems to be relatively rare, with lineage-specific differences being largely due to diversification and rapid turnover in gene families involved in environmental interactions. In contrast, about 20% of eutherian conserved non-coding elements (CNEs) are recent inventions that postdate the divergence of Eutheria and Metatheria. A substantial proportion of these eutherian-specific CNEs arose from sequence inserted by transposable elements, pointing to transposons as a major creative force in the evolution of mammalian gene regulation

Genome of the marsupial Monodelphis domestica reveals innovation in non-coding sequences

We report a high-quality draft of the genome sequence of the grey, short-tailed opossum (Monodelphis domestica). As the first metatherian (‘marsupial’) species to be sequenced, the opossum provides a unique perspective on the organization and evolution of mammalian genomes. Distinctive features of the opossum chromosomes provide support for recent theories about genome evolution and function, including a strong influence of biased gene conversion on nucleotide sequence composition, and a relationship between chromosomal characteristics and X chromosome inactivation. Comparison of opossum and eutherian genomes also reveals a sharp difference in evolutionary innovation between protein-coding and non-coding functional elements. True innovation in protein-coding genes seems to be relatively rare, with lineage-specific differences being largely due to diversification and rapid turnover in gene families involved in environmental interactions. In contrast, about 20% of eutherian conserved non-coding elements (CNEs) are recent inventions that postdate the divergence of Eutheria and Metatheria. A substantial proportion of these eutherian-specific CNEs arose from sequence inserted by transposable elements, pointing to transposons as a major creative force in the evolution of mammalian gene regulation