Depleting neuronal PrP in prion infection prevents disease and reverses spongiosis

The mechanisms involved in prion neurotoxicity are unclear, and therapies preventing accumulation of PrPSc, the disease-associated form of prion protein (PrP), do not significantly prolong survival in mice with central nervous system prion infection. We found that depleting endogenous neuronal PrPc in mice with established neuroinvasive prion infection reversed early spongiform change and prevented neuronal loss and progression to clinical disease. This occurred despite the accumulation of extraneuronal PrPSc to levels seen in terminally ill wild-type animals. Thus, the propagation of nonneuronal PrPSc is not pathogenic, but arresting the continued conversion of PrPc to PrPSc within neurons during scrapie infection prevents prion neurotoxicity.     

Cattle trampling alters soil properties and changes soil microbial communities in a Swiss sub-alpine pasture

Stock farming plays an important role in the agriculture of alpine regions although deleterious effects on the soils are most pronounced here. We investigated the effects of cattle trampling on soil physical, chemical and microbial properties in a Swiss sub-alpine pasture. About 10% of the study site was bare of vegetation as a result of repeated cattle trampling and the bulk density of these bare steps was 20% higher than of the soils unaffected by trampling. In the upper 25 cm, soil organic carbon (SOC) concentrations and total SOC stocks were 35% and 20% respectively lower than on the vegetated slope. As compared with the vegetated slope, topsoils of the bare steps featured narrower C:N-ratios and were more enriched in the ¹⁵N isotope, with typical values of deeper soil layers. This indicates that bare soils primarily evolved by erosion and not by a compaction, which might, together with the reduced litter input, explain the lower SOC contents. The abundances of soil microbes, estimated by the concentrations of phospholipid fatty acid (PLFA), were 30% smaller in the bare soils than in the vegetated areas. This depletion was most pronounced for fungi as expressed in the lower concentrations of the fatty acid 18:2ω6.9 (45%) and ergosterol (50%). The lower fungal abundance very likely has negative consequences for the stability of the bare soils, since fungi play an important role in the formation of soil aggregates. In summary, our results show that cattle trampling decreases soil carbon storage and alters soil microbial community structure.     

Eco1-dependent cohesin acetylation during establishment of sister chromatid cohesion

Replicated chromosomes are held together by the chromosomal cohesin complex from the time of their synthesis in S phase onward. This requires the replication fork-associated acetyl transferase Eco1, but Eco1's mechanism of action is not known. We identified spontaneous suppressors of the thermosensitive eco1-1 allele in budding yeast. An acetylation-mimicking mutation of a conserved lysine in cohesin's Smc3 subunit makes Eco1 dispensable for cell growth, and we show that Smc3 is acetylated in an Eco1-dependent manner during DNA replication to promote sister chromatid cohesion. A second set of eco1-1 suppressors inactivate the budding yeast ortholog of the cohesin destabilizer Wapl. Our results indicate that Eco1 modifies cohesin to stabilize sister chromatid cohesion in parallel with a cohesion establishment reaction that is in principle Eco1-independent.     

Concepts and methods for landscape multifunctionality and a unifying framework based on ecosystem services

The potential of landscapes to supply multiple benefits to society beyond commodities production has received increasing research and policy attention. Linking the concept of multifunctionality with the ecosystem services (ES) approach offers a promising avenue for producing scientific evidence to inform landscape planning, e.g., about the relative utility of land-sharing and land-sparing. However, the value for decision-making of ES-based multifunctionality assessments has been constrained by a significant conceptual and methodological dispersion. To contribute towards a cohesive framework for landscape multifunctionality, we analyse case studies of joint ES supply regarding ten criteria designed to ultimately answer four aspects: (i) the multifunctionality of what (e.g., landscapes), (ii) the type of multifunctionality (e.g., based on ES synergies), (iii) the procedure of multifunctionality assessments, and (iv) the purpose of multifunctionality. We constructed a typology of methodological approaches based on scores for criteria describing the evaluation method and the level of stakeholder participation in assessments of joint ES supply. Surveyed studies and underlying types of methodological approaches (spatial, socio-spatial, functional, spatio-functional) differed in most criteria. We illustrate the influence of methodological divergence on planning recommendations by comparing two studies employing contrasting approaches (spatial and functional) to assess the joint supply of wildlife habitat and agricultural production in the Argentine Chaco. We distinguish between a pattern-based and process-based multifunctionality, where the latter can only be detected through approaches considering the ecological processes (e.g., ES complementarities) supporting the supply of multiple ES (functional and spatio-functional). Finally, we propose an integrated approach for assessing a socially-relevant process-based multifunctionality.     

The slow rise of technology: Computer vision techniques in fish population connectivity

1. Technological advancements in data collection and analysis are producing a new generation of ecological data. Among these, computer vision (CV) has received increased attention for its robust capabilities for rapidly processing large volumes of digital imagery.
2. In marine ecosystems, the study of fish connectivity provides fundamental information for assessing fisheries stocks, designing and implementing protected areas and understanding the impact of habitat loss. While the field of fish connectivity has benefited from technological advancements, the extent to which novel techniques, such as CV, have been utilized has not been assessed. To inform future directions and developments, this study reviewed the current use of CV in fish connectivity research, quantified how the implementation of such technology in fish connectivity research compared with other areas of marine research and described how this field could benefit from CV.
3. The review found that the use of remote camera systems in fish connectivity research is increasing, but the implementation of automated analysis of digital imagery has been slow. Successful implementation and expansion of CV frameworks in aquaculture and coral reef ecology suggest that CV techniques could greatly benefit fish connectivity research.
4. A case study of potential use of CV in fish connectivity research, scaling up optimal foraging models to predict marine population connectivity, highlights how beneficial it could be.
5. The capacity for CV techniques to be adopted alongside traditional approaches, the unparalleled speed, accuracy and reliability of these approaches and the benefits of being able to study ecosystems along multiple spatial–temporal scales, all make CV a valuable tool for assessing connectivity. Ultimately, these technologies can assist data-driven decisions that directly influence the health and productivity of marine ecosystems.

     

Patches with links: a unified system for processing faces in the macaque temporal lobe

The brain processes objects through a series of regions along the ventral visual pathway, but the circuitry subserving the analysis of specific complex forms remains unknown. One complex form category, faces, selectively activates six patches of cortex in the macaque ventral pathway. To identify the connectivity of these face patches, we used electrical microstimulation combined with simultaneous functional magnetic resonance imaging. Stimulation of each of four targeted face patches produced strong activation, specifically within a subset of the other face patches. Stimulation outside the face patches produced an activation pattern that spared the face patches. These results suggest that the face patches form a strongly and specifically interconnected hierarchical network.     

Neighbourhood character affects the spatial extent and magnitude of the functional footprint of urban green infrastructure

Landscape Ecology - Urban densification has been argued to increase the contrast between built up and open green space. This contrast may offer a starting point for assessing the extent and...     

Genetic diversity in the parental lines and heterosis of the tropical rice hybrids

Genetic diversity within and between the maintainer (B) and restorer (R) lines used in hybrid breeding programs of the Philippine was investigated with information from analysis of pedigree record, quantitative traits and SSR assays. Mean coefficients of coancestry were calculated as 0.11 within R lines, 0.27 within B lines, and 0.04 between R and B lines, indicating greater diversity among R lines than among B lines, and the significant divergence between B and R lines. These results are consistent with those obtained from quantitative trait analysis and SSR marker assays. Relative gene diversity for 37 random SSR markers averaged 0.20 within B lines,0.28 within R lines, and 0.52 between two groups of lines. There were no consistent associations among various genetic diversity measures. Random sets of SSR marker and pedigree based diversity measures had no significant correlation with mid-parent heterosis for grain yield and biomass, indicating that prediction of heterosis for complex traits based on these two genetic diversity estimates is difficult. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Plant species richness and composition in managed grasslands: The relative importance of field management and environmental factors

Decline of grassland diversity throughout Europe within the last decades is threatening biological diversity and is a major conservation problem. There is an urgent need to determine the underlying factors that control vascular plant species richness and composition in managed grasslands. In this study, 117 grasslands were sampled using standardised methods. Explanatory variables were recorded for each grassland site, reflecting the local field management, site-specific environmental conditions and large-scale spatial trends. Using variation partitioning methods, we determined the pure and shared effects of these three sets of explanatory variables on the plant species richness and composition in grasslands. Most of the explained variation in plant species richness was related to the joint effect of local field management and environmental variables. However, the applied variation partitioning approach revealed that the pure effect of spatial variables contributed relatively little to explaining variation in both the plant species richness and species composition. The largest fractions of explained variation in plant species composition were accounted for by the pure effects of environmental and local field management variables. Moreover, the results revealed that the main mechanisms by which these sets of explanatory variables affect plant species vary according to the type of management regime under study. From our findings we could conclude that particularly a reduction of nitrogen fertilisation on meadows and grazing at a low stocking rate on pastures can help to conserve biodiversity.     

Microfluidic large-scale integration

We developed high-density microfluidic chips that contain plumbing networks with thousands of micromechanical valves and hundreds of individually addressable chambers. These fluidic devices are analogous to electronic integrated circuits fabricated using large-scale integration. A key component of these networks is the fluidic multiplexor, which is a combinatorial array of binary valve patterns that exponentially increases the processing power of a network by allowing complex fluid manipulations with a minimal number of inputs. We used these integrated microfluidic networks to construct the microfluidic analog of a comparator array and a microfluidic memory storage device whose behavior resembles random-access memory.