Evidence of widespread degradation of gene control regions in hominid genomes

Although sequences containing regulatory elements located close to protein-coding genes are often only weakly conserved during evolution, comparisons of rodent genomes have implied that these sequences are subject to some selective constraints. Evolutionary conservation is particularly apparent upstream of coding sequences and in first introns, regions that are enriched for regulatory elements. By comparing the human and chimpanzee genomes, we show here that there is almost no evidence for conservation in these regions in hominids. Furthermore, we show that gene expression is diverging more rapidly in hominids than in murids per unit of neutral sequence divergence. By combining data on polymorphism levels in human noncoding DNA and the corresponding human¿chimpanzee divergence, we show that the proportion of adaptive substitutions in these regions in hominids is very low. It therefore seems likely that the lack of conservation and increased rate of gene expression divergence are caused by a reduction in the effectiveness of natural selection against deleterious mutations because of the low effective population sizes of hominids. This has resulted in the accumulation of a large number of deleterious mutations in sequences containing gene control elements and hence a widespread degradation of the genome during the evolution of humans and chimpanzees

A physically motivated toy model for the BH-spheroid coevolution

We present a summary of the results obtained with a time-dependent, one-zone toy model aimed at exploring the importance of radiative feedback on the co-evolution of massive black holes (MBHs) at the center of stellar spheroids and their stellar and gaseous components. We consider cosmological infall of gas as well as the mass and energy return for the evolving stellar population. The AGN radiative heating and cooling are described by assuming photoionization equilibrium of a plasma interacting with the average quasar SED. Our results nicely support a new scenario in which the AGN accretion phase characterized by a very short duty-cycle (and now common in the Universe) is due to radiative feedback. The establishment of this phase is recorded as a fossil in the Magorrian and Mbh-sigma relations.Comment: 2 pages. Proceedings of the MPA/MPE/ESO/USM Conference "Growing Black Holes: accretion in a cosmological context", ESO Astrophysics Symposia, A. Merloni, S. Nayakshin and R. Sunyaev ed

Topology of Large-Scale Structure by Galaxy Type: Hydrodynamic Simulations

The topology of large scale structure is studied as a function of galaxy type using the genus statistic. In hydrodynamical cosmological CDM simulations, galaxies form on caustic surfaces (Zeldovich pancakes) then slowly drain onto filaments and clusters. The earliest forming galaxies in the simulations (defined as ``ellipticals") are thus seen at the present epoch preferentially in clusters (tending toward a meatball topology), while the latest forming galaxies (defined as ``spirals") are seen currently in a spongelike topology. The topology is measured by the genus (= number of ``donut" holes - number of isolated regions) of the smoothed density-contour surfaces. The measured genus curve for all galaxies as a function of density obeys approximately the theoretical curve expected for random-phase initial conditions, but the early forming elliptical galaxies show a shift toward a meatball topology relative to the late forming spirals. Simulations using standard biasing schemes fail to show such an effect. Large observational samples separated by galaxy type could be used to test for this effect.Comment: Princeton University Observatory, submitted to The Astrophysical Journal, figures can be ftp'ed from ftp://astro.princeton.edu/cen/TOP

Radiative Transfer and Radiative driving of Outflows in AGN and Starbursts

To facilitate the study of black hole fueling, star formation, and feedback in galaxies, we outline a method for treating the radial forces on interstellar gas due to absorption of photons by dust grains. The method gives the correct behavior in all of the relevant limits (dominated by the central point source; dominated by the distributed isotropic source; optically thin; optically thick to UV/optical; optically thick to IR) and reasonably interpolates between the limits when necessary. The method is explicitly energy conserving so that UV/optical photons that are absorbed are not lost, but are rather redistributed to the IR where they may scatter out of the galaxy. We implement the radiative transfer algorithm in a two-dimensional hydrodynamical code designed to study feedback processes in the context of early-type galaxies. We find that the dynamics and final state of simulations are measurably but only moderately affected by radiative forces on dust, even when assumptions about the dust-to-gas ratio are varied from zero to a value appropriate for the Milky Way. In simulations with high gas densities designed to mimic ULIRGs with a star formation rate of several hundred solar masses per year, dust makes a more substantial contribution to the dynamics and outcome of the simulation. We find that, despite the large opacity of dust to UV radiation, the momentum input to the flow from radiation very rarely exceeds L/c due to two factors: the low opacity of dust to the re-radiated IR and the tendency for dust to be destroyed by sputtering in hot gas environments. We also develop a simplification of our radiative transfer algorithm that respects the essential physics but is much easier to implement and requires a fraction of the computational cost.Comment: 25 pages, 17 figures, submitted to MNRA