Adaptive phenotypic plasticity in response to climate change in a wild bird population

Rapid climate change has been implicated as a cause of evolution in poorly adapted populations. However, phenotypic plasticity provides the potential for organisms to respond rapidly and effectively to environmental change. Using a 47-year population study of the great tit (Parus major) in the United Kingdom, we show that individual adjustment of behavior in response to the environment has enabled the population to track a rapidly changing environment very closely. Individuals were markedly invariant in their response to environmental variation, suggesting that the current response may be fixed in this population. Phenotypic plasticity can thus play a central role in tracking environmental change; understanding the limits of plasticity is an important goal for future research.     

The effect of algal symbionts on the accuracy of Sr/Ca paleotemperatures from coral

The strontium-to-calcium ratio (Sr/Ca) of reef coral skeleton is commonly used as a paleothermometer to estimate sea surface temperatures (SSTs) at crucial times in Earth's climate history. However, these estimates are disputed, because uptake of Sr into coral skeleton is thought to be affected by algal symbionts (zooxanthellae) living in the host tissue. Here, we show that significant distortion of the Sr/Ca temperature record in coral skeleton occurs in the presence of algal symbionts. Seasonally resolved Sr/Ca in coral without symbionts reflects local SSTs with a temperature sensitivity equivalent to that of laboratory aragonite precipitated at equilibrium and the nighttime skeletal deposits of symbiotic reef corals. However, up to 65% of the Sr/Ca variability in symbiotic skeleton is related to symbiont activity and does not reflect water temperature.     

The class of 2005. Norway: a neuroscientist making connections

A clinician by training, Farrukh A. Chaudhry's passion for basic science has taken him across the Atlantic, where he discovered a new family of neurological amino acid transporters. Last August, he just started his first faculty position at the Biotechnology Centre in Oslo.     

Sirtuin 2 inhibitors rescue alpha-synuclein-mediated toxicity in models of Parkinson's disease

The sirtuins are members of the histone deacetylase family of proteins that participate in a variety of cellular functions and play a role in aging. We identified a potent inhibitor of sirtuin 2 (SIRT2) and found that inhibition of SIRT2 rescued alpha-synuclein toxicity and modified inclusion morphology in a cellular model of Parkinson's disease. Genetic inhibition of SIRT2 via small interfering RNA similarly rescued alpha-synuclein toxicity. Furthermore, the inhibitors protected against dopaminergic cell death both in vitro and in a Drosophila model of Parkinson's disease. The results suggest a link between neurodegeneration and aging.     

The global circulation of seasonal influenza A (H3N2) viruses

Antigenic and genetic analysis of the hemagglutinin of approximately 13,000 human influenza A (H3N2) viruses from six continents during 2002-2007 revealed that there was continuous circulation in east and Southeast Asia (E-SE Asia) via a region-wide network of temporally overlapping epidemics and that epidemics in the temperate regions were seeded from this network each year. Seed strains generally first reached Oceania, North America, and Europe, and later South America. This evidence suggests that once A (H3N2) viruses leave E-SE Asia, they are unlikely to contribute to long-term viral evolution. If the trends observed during this period are an accurate representation of overall patterns of spread, then the antigenic characteristics of A (H3N2) viruses outside E-SE Asia may be forecast each year based on surveillance within E-SE Asia, with consequent improvements to vaccine strain selection.     

Long-range correlations in the diffuse seismic coda

The late seismic coda may contain coherent information about the elastic response of Earth. We computed the correlations of the seismic codas of 101 distant earthquakes recorded at stations that were tens of kilometers apart. By stacking cross-correlation functions of codas, we found a low-frequency coherent part in the diffuse field. The extracted pulses have the polarization characteristics and group velocities expected for Rayleigh and Love waves. The set of cross-correlations has the symmetries of the surface-wave part of the Green tensor. This seismological example shows that diffuse waves produced by distant sources are sufficient to retrieve direct waves between two perfectly located points of observation. Because it relies on general properties of diffuse waves, this result has potential applications in other fields.     

Views From the Trenches

Making the transition from postdoc to independent investigator is tough. Scientists who received prestigious fellowships or grants relate their experiences-and offer some advice.     

Ice core evidence for Antarctic sea ice decline since the 1950s

The instrumental record of Antarctic sea ice in recent decades does not reveal a clear signature of warming despite observational evidence from coastal Antarctica. Here we report a significant correlation (P < 0.002) between methanesulphonic acid (MSA) concentrations from a Law Dome ice core and 22 years of satellite-derived sea ice extent (SIE) for the 80 degrees E to 140 degrees E sector. Applying this instrumental calibration to longer term MSA data (1841 to 1995 A.D.) suggests that there has been a 20% decline in SIE since about 1950. The decline is not uniform, showing large cyclical variations, with periods of about 11 years, that confuse trend detection over the relatively short satellite era.