Environmental DNA (eDNA) for monitoring marine mammals: Challenges and opportunities

Monitoring marine mammal populations is essential to permit assessment of population status as required by both national and international legislation. Traditional monitoring methods often rely on visual and/or acoustic detections from vessels and aircraft, but limitations including cost, errors in the detection of some species and dependence on taxonomic expertise, as well as good weather and visibility conditions often limit the temporal and spatial scale of effective, long-term monitoring programs. In recent years, environmental DNA (eDNA) has emerged as a revolutionary tool for cost-effective, sensitive, noninvasive species monitoring in both terrestrial and aquatic realms. eDNA is a rapidly developing field and a growing number of studies have successfully implemented this approach for the detection and identification of marine mammals. Here, we review 21 studies published between 2012 and 2021 that employed eDNA for marine mammal monitoring including single species detection, biodiversity assessment and genetic characterization. eDNA has successfully been used to infer species presence (especially useful for rare, elusive or threatened species) and to characterize the population genetic structure, although additional research is needed to support the interpretation of non-detections. Finally, we discuss the challenges and the opportunities that eDNA could bring to marine mammal monitoring as a complementary tool to support visual and acoustic methods

Dysregulated protocadherin-pathway activity as an intrinsic defect in induced pluripotent stem cell-derived cortical interneurons from subjects with schizophrenia.

We generated cortical interneurons (cINs) from induced pluripotent stem cells derived from 14 healthy controls and 14 subjects with schizophrenia. Both healthy control cINs and schizophrenia cINs were authentic, fired spontaneously, received functional excitatory inputs from host neurons, and induced GABA-mediated inhibition in host neurons in vivo. However, schizophrenia cINs had dysregulated expression of protocadherin genes, which lie within documented schizophrenia loci. Mice lacking protocadherin-α showed defective arborization and synaptic density of prefrontal cortex cINs and behavioral abnormalities. Schizophrenia cINs similarly showed defects in synaptic density and arborization that were reversed by inhibitors of protein kinase C, a downstream kinase in the protocadherin pathway. These findings reveal an intrinsic abnormality in schizophrenia cINs in the absence of any circuit-driven pathology. They also demonstrate the utility of homogenous and functional populations of a relevant neuronal subtype for probing pathogenesis mechanisms during development

CAR Co-Operates With Integrins to Promote Lung Cancer Cell Adhesion and Invasion.

The coxsackie and adenovirus receptor (CAR) is a member of the junctional adhesion molecule (JAM) family of adhesion receptors and is localised to epithelial cell tight and adherens junctions. CAR has been shown to be highly expressed in lung cancer where it is proposed to promote tumor growth and regulate epithelial mesenchymal transition (EMT), however the potential role of CAR in lung cancer metastasis remains poorly understood. To better understand the role of this receptor in tumor progression, we manipulated CAR expression in both epithelial-like and mesenchymal-like lung cancer cells. In both cases, CAR overexpression promoted tumor growth in vivo in immunocompetent mice and increased cell adhesion in the lung after intravenous injection without altering the EMT properties of each cell line. Overexpression of WTCAR resulted in increased invasion in 3D models and enhanced β1 integrin activity in both cell lines, and this was dependent on phosphorylation of the CAR cytoplasmic tail. Furthermore, phosphorylation of CAR was enhanced by substrate stiffness in vitro, and CAR expression increased at the boundary of solid tumors in vivo. Moreover, CAR formed a complex with the focal adhesion proteins Src, Focal Adhesion Kinase (FAK) and paxillin and promoted activation of the Guanine Triphosphate (GTP)-ase Ras-related Protein 1 (Rap1), which in turn mediated enhanced integrin activation. Taken together, our data demonstrate that CAR contributes to lung cancer metastasis via promotion of cell-matrix adhesion, providing new insight into co-operation between cell-cell and cell-matrix proteins that regulate different steps of tumorigenesis

Characterization of dense Planck clumps observed with Herschel and SCUBA-2

Context. Although the basic processes of star formation (SF) are known, more research is needed on SF across multiple scales and environments. The Planck all-sky survey provided a large catalog of Galactic cold clouds and clumps that have been the target of several follow-up surveys. Aims. We aim to characterize a diverse selection of dense, potentially star-forming cores, clumps, and clouds within the Milky Way in terms of their dust emission and SF activity. Methods. We studied 53 fields that have been observed in the JCMT SCUBA-2 continuum survey SCOPE and have been mapped with Herschel. We estimated dust properties by fitting Herschel observations with modified blackbody functions, studied the relationship between dust temperature and dust opacity spectral index beta, and estimated column densities. We extracted clumps from the SCUBA-2 850 mu m maps with the FellWalker algorithm and examined their masses and sizes. Clumps are associated with young stellar objects found in several catalogs. We estimated the gravitational stability of the clumps with virial analysis. The clumps are categorized as unbound starless, prestellar, or protostellar. Results. We find 529 dense clumps, typically with high column densities from (0.3-4.8) x 10(22) cm(-2), with a mean of (1.5 +/- 0.04) x10(22) cm(-2), low temperatures (T similar to 10-20 K), and estimated submillimeter beta = 1.7 +/- 0.1. We detect a slight increase in opacity spectral index toward millimeter wavelengths. Masses of the sources range from 0.04 M-circle dot to 4259 M-circle dot. Mass, linear size, and temperature are correlated with distance. Furthermore, the estimated gravitational stability is dependent on distance, and more distant clumps appear more virially bound. Finally, we present a catalog of properties of the clumps. Conclusions. Our sources present a large array of SF regions, from high-latitude, nearby diffuse clouds to large SF complexes near the Galactic center. Analysis of these regions will continue with the addition of molecular line data, which will allow us to study the densest regions of the clumps in more detail.Peer reviewe

FAD binding, cobinamide binding and active site communication in the corrin reductase (CobR)

Adenosylcobalamin, the coenzyme form of vitamin B12, is one Nature's most complex coenzyme whose de novo biogenesis proceeds along either an anaerobic or aerobic metabolic pathway. The aerobic synthesis involves reduction of the centrally chelated cobalt metal ion of the corrin ring from Co(II) to Co(I) before adenosylation can take place. A corrin reductase (CobR) enzyme has been identified as the likely agent to catalyse this reduction of the metal ion. Herein, we reveal how Brucella melitensis CobR binds its coenzyme FAD (flavin dinucleotide) and we also show that the enzyme can bind a corrin substrate consistent with its role in reduction of the cobalt of the corrin ring. Stopped-flow kinetics and EPR reveal a mechanistic asymmetry in CobR dimer that provides a potential link between the two electron reduction by NADH to the single electron reduction of Co(II) to Co(I)

Cell type-specific differences in β-glucan recognition and signalling in porcine innate immune cells

β-glucans exert receptor-mediated immunomodulating activities, including oxidative burst activity and cytokine secretion. The role of the β-glucan receptors dectin-1 and complement receptor 3 (CR3) in the response of immune cells towards β-glucans is still unresolved. Dectin-1 is considered as the main β-glucan receptor in mice, while recent studies in man show that CR3 is more important in β-glucan-mediated responses. This incited us to elucidate which receptor contributes to the response of innate immune cells towards particulate β-glucans in pigs as the latter might serve as a better model for man. Our results show an important role of CR3 in β-glucan recognition, as blocking this receptor strongly reduced the phagocytosis of β-glucans and the β-glucan-induced ROS production by porcine neutrophils. Conversely, dectin-1 does not seem to play a major role in β-glucan recognition in neutrophils. However, recognition of β-glucans appeared cell type-specific as both dectin-1 and CR3 are involved in the β-glucan-mediated responses in pig macrophages. Moreover, CR3 signalling through focal adhesion kinase (FAK) was indispensable for β-glucan-mediated ROS production and cytokine (TNFα, IL-1β, IL-8) production in neutrophils and macrophages, while the Syk-dependent pathway was only partly involved in these responses. We may conclude that as for man, CR3 plays a cardinal role in β-glucan signalling in porcine neutrophils, while macrophages use a more diverse receptor array to detect and respond towards β-glucans. Nonetheless, FAK acts as a master switch that regulates β-glucan-mediated responses in neutrophils as well as macrophages

The Effect of Galaxy Interactions on Molecular Gas Properties

© 2018. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved.Galaxy interactions are often accompanied by an enhanced star formation rate (SFR). Since molecular gas is essential for star formation, it is vital to establish whether and by how much galaxy interactions affect the molecular gas properties. We investigate the effect of interactions on global molecular gas properties by studying a sample of 58 galaxies in pairs and 154 control galaxies. Molecular gas properties are determined from observations with the JCMT, PMO, and CSO telescopes and supplemented with data from the xCOLD GASS and JINGLE surveys at 12CO(1-0) and 12CO(2-1). The SFR, gas mass (), and gas fraction (f gas) are all enhanced in galaxies in pairs by ∼2.5 times compared to the controls matched in redshift, mass, and effective radius, while the enhancement of star formation efficiency (SFE ≡SFR/) is less than a factor of 2. We also find that the enhancements in SFR, and f gas, increase with decreasing pair separation and are larger in systems with smaller stellar mass ratio. Conversely, the SFE is only enhanced in close pairs (separation <20 kpc) and equal-mass systems; therefore, most galaxies in pairs lie in the same parameter space on the SFR- plane as controls. This is the first time that the dependence of molecular gas properties on merger configurations is probed statistically with a relatively large sample and a carefully selected control sample for individual galaxies. We conclude that galaxy interactions do modify the molecular gas properties, although the strength of the effect is dependent on merger configuration.Peer reviewedFinal Accepted Versio