The Draft Genome of the Invasive Walking Stick, Medauroidea extradendata, Reveals Extensive Lineage-Specific Gene Family Expansions of Cell Wall Degrading Enzymes in Phasmatodea.

Plant cell wall components are the most abundant macromolecules on Earth. The study of the breakdown of these molecules is thus a central question in biology. Surprisingly, plant cell wall breakdown by herbivores is relatively poorly understood, as nearly all early work focused on the mechanisms used by symbiotic microbes to breakdown plant cell walls in insects such as termites. Recently, however, it has been shown that many organisms make endogenous cellulases. Insects, and other arthropods, in particular have been shown to express a variety of plant cell wall degrading enzymes in many gene families with the ability to break down all the major components of the plant cell wall. Here we report the genome of a walking stick, Medauroidea extradentata, an obligate herbivore that makes uses of endogenously produced plant cell wall degrading enzymes. We present a draft of the 3.3Gbp genome along with an official gene set that contains a diversity of plant cell wall degrading enzymes. We show that at least one of the major families of plant cell wall degrading enzymes, the pectinases, have undergone a striking lineage-specific gene family expansion in the Phasmatodea. This genome will be a useful resource for comparative evolutionary studies with herbivores in many other clades and will help elucidate the mechanisms by which metazoans breakdown plant cell wall components

Gene content evolution in the arthropods

Arthropods comprise the largest and most diverse phylum on Earth and play vital roles in nearly every ecosystem. Their diversity stems in part from variations on a conserved body plan, resulting from and recorded in adaptive changes in the genome. Dissection of the genomic record of sequence change enables broad questions regarding genome evolution to be addressed, even across hyper-diverse taxa within arthropods. Using 76 whole genome sequences representing 21 orders spanning more than 500 million years of arthropod evolution, we document changes in gene and protein domain content and provide temporal and phylogenetic context for interpreting these innovations. We identify many novel gene families that arose early in the evolution of arthropods and during the diversification of insects into modern orders. We reveal unexpected variation in patterns of DNA methylation across arthropods and examples of gene family and protein domain evolution coincident with the appearance of notable phenotypic and physiological adaptations such as flight, metamorphosis, sociality, and chemoperception. These analyses demonstrate how large-scale comparative genomics can provide broad new insights into the genotype to phenotype map and generate testable hypotheses about the evolution of animal diversity

Barrierer mot kollisjoner mellom fartøy og innretninger. Identifisering, vurderinger og mulige forbedringstiltak

-Denne rapporten omhandler Statoil Marine Operasjoner sin logistikk-kjede og er en evaluering av eksisterende barrierer mot kollisjon mellom forsyningsfartøy og innretning. Rapporten er et resultat av en studie gjennomført på oppdrag fra Statoil Marine Operasjoner. Hovedmålsettingen for studien var tredelt. Vi ønsket å kartlegge hvordan kollisjoner mellom fartøy og innretning kan oppstå, hvilke barrierer som eksisterer og hvor gode disse barrierene er. Totalt 47 personer fra logistikk-kjeden er blitt intervjuet. I tillegg er det blitt gjennomført en fareidentifikasjon (HAZID) med en håndplukket ekspertgruppe som representerte de sentrale leddene i logistikk-kjeden. Dette materialet dannet bakgrunnen for en oversikt og godhetsvurdering av 32 sentrale primær- og sekundærbarrierer som er identifisert, da knyttet til følgende aktiviteter: fartøyanskaffelser, baseaktiviteter, seiling, entring av sikkerhetssonen, lossing/lasting, og avgang fra innretning. Hovedinntrykket er at det er mange, godt fungerende barrierer som reduserer sannsynligheten for sammenstøt mellom fartøy og innretning. Likevel peker denne rapporten på noen områder der barrierene kan styrkes ytterligere. I prioritert rekkefølge vi vil spesielt fremheve fire slike områder: 1.Fartøymannskapet bør tilbys mer trening på manuell manøvrering av fartøy for å styrke håndteringen av eventuelt bortfall av Dynamisk posisjonering (DP), framdriftsproblemer og nødsituasjoner under losse- og lasteoperasjoner. 2.Vi viser til mangler ved DP-referansesystemer (Radius, Fanbeam) ved en rekke innretninger som svekker redundansen. Her er vår anbefaling at redundansen styrkes ved å sørge for at referansesystemer blir montert på samtlige installasjoner. 3.Det bør legges til rette for en større involvering av personell fra innretningene i utarbeidelsen av laste- og seilingsplaner. Dette vil redusere risikoen for sammenstøt mellom fartøy og innretning ved at liggetid ved innretninger reduseres. 4.En bedre logistikkplanlegging knyttet til rigger kan også redusere liggetiden

Comparative genomics of Meloidogyne haplanaria

Root-knot nematodes are a scientifically and agriculturally importantgroup of plant parasites. Genomic investigations into this group have proven difficult due to a complex genomic arrangement and recent inter-species hybridisations. Here we design and employ novel bioinformatic workflows to assemble the genomes of Meloidogyne species and perform phylogenomic analyses on them. We use Meloidogyne haplanaria -an emerging crop pest recently shown to be capable of breaking cultivated resistance -as a test organism. We assemble and annotate its genome for the first time andinfer itsposition in the Meloidogynephylogeny. This will inform future investigations into diagnostic and control methods, as well as investigations into the evolutionary history of the genus. The workflows themselves will provide accessible bioinformatic tools for the reproducible assembly and phylogenomic analysis of Meloidogynegenomes to the wider scientific community. Greater elucidation of the complex genomics of the Meloidogyne genus can grant insight into many biological processes, including hybridisation,parasitic adaptation and evolution in the absence of recombination, and the effect that different parthenogenetic sexual systems can have on genomic architecture

Complément aux Scymnus et Nephus de Nouvelle-Guinée et des archipels voisins (Col. Coccinellidae)

Chazeau Jean. Complément aux Scymnus et Nephus de Nouvelle-Guinée et des archipels voisins [Col. Coccinellidae]. In: Bulletin de la Société entomologique de France, volume 92 (1-2), novembre 1987. pp. 23-28

Restrukturering av norsk VA-bransje og konsekvenser for samfunnssikkerhet

-Rapport fra Samrisk prosjektet case på vannforsyningen

Risikovurdering av AMS. Kartlegging av informasjonssikkerhetsmessige sårbarheter i AMS

-Denne rapporten presenterer en overordnet risikovurdering av Avaserte Måle- og Styringssystemer (AMS) knyttet til hvilke konsekvenser det kan ha for kraftforsyningen at AMS utsettes for informasjonssikkerhetbrudd. Vurderingen er hovedsaklig gjort for AMS basisfunksjoner, som er å registrere måledata hos kunde og overføre disse til nettselskapet, samt bryting/struping av effektuttaket i det enkelte målepunkt

The survey and reference assisted assembly of the Octopus vulgaris genome

The common octopus, Octopus vulgaris, is an active marine predator known for the richness and plasticity of its behavioral repertoire, and remarkable learning and memory capabilities. Octopus and other coleoid cephalopods, cuttlefish and squid, possess the largest nervous system among invertebrates, both for cell counts and body to brain size. O. vulgaris has been at the center of a long-tradition of research into diverse aspects of its biology. To leverage research in this iconic species, we generated 270\u2009Gb of genomic sequencing data, complementing those available for the only other sequenced congeneric octopus, Octopus bimaculoides. We show that both genomes are similar in size, but display different levels of heterozygosity and repeats. Our data give a first quantitative glimpse into the rate of coding and non-coding regions and support the view that hundreds of novel genes may have arisen independently despite the close phylogenetic distance. We furthermore describe a reference-guided assembly and an open genomic resource (CephRes-gdatabase), opening new avenues in the study of genomic novelties in cephalopods and their biology