Showing 171 - 180 of 722 Items
C-terminal methylation of truncated neuropeptides: An enzyme- assistedextraction artifact involving methanol
Date: 2013-01-01
Creator: Elizabeth A. Stemmler
Elizabeth E. Barton
Onyinyechi K. Esonu
Daniel A. Polasky
Laura L., Onderko
Audrey B. Bergeron
Andrew E. Christie
Patsy S. Dickinson
Access: Open access
- Neuropeptides are the largest class of signaling molecules used by nervous systems. Today, neuropeptidediscovery commonly involves chemical extraction from a tissue source followed by mass spectrometriccharacterization. Ideally, the extraction procedure accurately preserves the sequence and any inher-ent modifications of the native peptides. Here, we present data showing that this is not always true.Specifically, we present evidence showing that, in the lobster Homarus americanus, the orcokinin fam-ily members, NFDEIDRSGFG-OMe and SSEDMDRLGFG-OMe, are non-native peptides generated fromfull-length orcokinin precursors as the result of a highly selective peptide modification (peptide trun-cation with C-terminal methylation) that occurs during extraction. These peptides were observed byMALDI-FTMS and LC-Q-TOFMS analyses when eyestalk ganglia were extracted in a methanolic solvent,but not when tissues were dissected, co-crystallized with matrix, and analyzed directly with methanolexcluded from the sample preparation. The identity of NFDEIDRSGFG-OMe was established using MALDI-FTMS/SORI-CID, LC-Q-TOFMS/MS, and comparison with a peptide standard. Extraction substitutingdeuterated methanol for methanol confirmed that the latter is the source of the C-terminal methyl group,and MS/MS confirmed the C-terminal localization of the added CD3. Surprisingly, NFDEIDRSGFG-OMe isnot produced via a chemical acid-catalyzed esterification. Instead, the methylated peptide appears toresult from proteolytic truncation in the presence of methanol, as evidenced by a reduction in conver-sion with the addition of a protease-inhibitor cocktail; heat effectively eliminated the conversion. Thisunusual and highly specific extraction-derived peptide conversion exemplifies the need to consider bothchemical and biochemical processes that may modify the structure of endogenous neuropeptides. © 2013 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
The quantitative genetics of incipient speciation: Heritability and genetic correlations of skeletal traits in populations of diverging favia fragum ecomorphs
Date: 2011-12-01
Creator: David B. Carlon
Ann F. Budd
Catherine Lippé
Rose L. Andrew
Access: Open access
- Recent speciation events provide potential opportunities to understand the microevolution of reproductive isolation. We used a marker-based approach and a common garden to estimate the additive genetic variation in skeletal traits in a system of two ecomorphs within the coral species Favia fragum: a Tall ecomorph that is a seagrass specialist, and a Short ecomorph that is most abundant on coral reefs. Considering both ecomorphs, we found significant narrow-sense heritability (h 2) in a suite of measurements that define corallite architecture, and could partition additive and nonadditive variation for some traits. We found positive genetic correlations for homologous height and length measurements among different types of vertical plates (costosepta) within corallites, but negative correlations between height and length within, as well as between costosepta. Within ecomorphs, h 2 estimates were generally lower, compared to the combined ecomorph analysis. Marker-based estimates of h 2 were comparable to broad-sense heritability (H) obtained from parent-offspring regressions in a common garden for most traits, and similar genetic co-variance matrices for common garden and wild populations may indicate relatively small G × E interactions. The patterns of additive genetic variation in this system invite hypotheses of divergent selection or genetic drift as potential evolutionary drivers of reproductive isolation. © 2011 The Author(s). Evolution© 2011 The Society for the Study of Evolution.
Gravity darkening and brightening in binaries
Date: 2012-01-01
Creator: H.E. White
T.W. Baumgarte
S.L. Shapiro
Access: Open access
The peptide hormone pQDLDHVFLRFamide (crustacean myosuppressin) modulates the Homarus americanus cardiac neuromuscular system at multiple sites
Date: 2009-12-15
Creator: J. S. Stevens
C. R. Cashman
C. M. Smith
K. M. Beale
D. W., Towle
A. E. Christie
P. S. Dickinson
Access: Open access
- pQDLDHVFLRFamide is a highly conserved crustacean neuropeptide with a structure that places it within the myosuppressin subfamily of the FMRFamide-like peptides. Despite its apparent ubiquitous conservation in decapod crustaceans, the paracrine and/or endocrine roles played by pQDLDHVFLRFamide remain largely unknown. We have examined the actions of this peptide on the cardiac neuromuscular system of the American lobster Homarus americanus using four preparations: the intact animal, the heart in vitro, the isolated cardiac ganglion (CG), and a stimulated heart muscle preparation. In the intact animal, injection of myosuppressin caused a decrease in heartbeat frequency. Perfusion of the in vitro heart with pQDLDHVFLRFamide elicited a decrease in the frequency and an increase in the amplitude of heart contractions. In the isolated CG, myosuppressin induced a hyperpolarization of the resting membrane potential of cardiac motor neurons and a decrease in the cycle frequency of their bursting. In the stimulated heart muscle preparation, pQDLDHVFLRFamide increased the amplitude of the induced contractions, suggesting that myosuppressin modulates not only the CG, but also peripheral sites. For at least the in vitro heart and the isolated CG, the effects of myosuppressin were dose-dependent (10 -9 to 10-6mol l-1 tested), with threshold concentrations (10-8-10-7 mol l-1) consistent with the peptide serving as a circulating hormone. Although cycle frequency, a parameter directly determined by the CG, consistently decreased when pQDLDHVFLRFamide was applied to all preparation types, the magnitudes of this decrease differed, suggesting the possibility that, because myosuppressin modulates the CG and the periphery, it also alters peripheral feedback to the CG.
Controls on the movement and composition of firn air at the West Antarctic Ice Sheet Divide
Date: 2011-11-14
Creator: M. O. Battle
J. P. Severinghaus
E. D. Sofen
D. Plotkin
A. J., Orsi
M. Aydin
S. A. Montzka
T. Sowers
P. P. Tans
Access: Open access
- We sampled interstitial air from the perennial snowpack (firn) at a site near the West Antarctic Ice Sheet Divide (WAIS-D) and analyzed the air samples for a wide variety of gas species and their isotopes. We find limited convective influence (1.4-5.2 m, depending on detection method) in the shallow firn, gravitational enrichment of heavy species throughout the diffusive column in general agreement with theoretical expectations, a ∼10 m thick lock-in zone beginning at ∼67 m, and a total firn thickness consistent with predictions of Kaspers et al. (2004). Our modeling work shows that the air has an age spread (spectral width) of 4.8 yr for CO2 at the firn-ice transition. We also find that advection of firn air due to the 22 cm yr-1 ice-equivalent accumulation rate has a minor impact on firn air composition, causing changes that are comparable to other modeling uncertainties and intrinsic sample variability. Furthermore, estimates of Δage (the gas age/ice age difference) at WAIS-D appear to be largely unaffected by bubble closure above the lock-in zone. Within the lock-in zone, small gas species and their isotopes show evidence of size-dependent fractionation due to permeation through the ice lattice with a size threshold of 0.36 nm, as at other sites. We also see an unequivocal and unprecedented signal of oxygen isotope fractionation within the lock-in zone, which we interpret as the mass-dependent expression of a size-dependent fractionation process. © 2011 Author(s).
Identification, physiological actions, and distribution of TPSGFLGMRamide: A novel tachykinin-related peptide from the midgut and stomatogastric nervous system of Cancer crabs
Date: 2007-06-01
Creator: Elizabeth A. Stemmler
Braulio Peguero
Emily A. Bruns
Patsy S. Dickinson
Andrew E., Christie
Access: Open access
- In most invertebrates, multiple species-specific isoforms of tachykinin-related peptide (TRP) are common. In contrast, only a single conserved TRP isoform, APSGFLGMRamide, has been documented in decapod crustaceans, leading to the hypothesis that it is the sole TRP present in this arthropod order. Previous studies of crustacean TRPs have focused on neuronal tissue, but the recent demonstration of TRPs in midgut epithelial cells in Cancer species led us to question whether other TRPs are present in the gut, as is the case in insects. Using direct tissue matrix assisted laser desorption/ionization Fourier transform mass spectrometry, in combination with sustained off-resonance irradiation collision-induced dissociation, we found that at least one additional TRP is present in Cancer irroratus, Cancer borealis, Cancer magister, and Cancer productus. The novel TRP isoform, TPSGFLGMRamide, was present not only in the midgut, but also in the stomatogastric nervous system (STNS). In addition, we identified an unprocessed TRP precursor APSGFLGMRG, which was detected in midgut tissues only. TRP immunohistochemistry, in combination with preadsorption studies, suggests that APSGFLGMRamide and TPSGFLGMRamide are co-localized in the stomatogastric ganglion (STG), which is contained within the STNS. Exogenous application of TPSGFLGMRamide to the STG elicited a pyloric motor pattern that was identical to that elicited by APSGFLGMRamide, whereas APSGFLGMRG did not alter the pyloric motor pattern. © 2007 The Authors.
Collapse of a rotating supermassive star to a supermassive black hole: Post-Newtonian simulations
Date: 2002-01-01
Creator: M. Saijo
T.W. Baumgarte
S.L. Shapiro
M. Shibata
Access: Open access
A simple family of analytical trumpet slices of the Schwarzschild spacetime
Date: 2014-06-07
Creator: Kenneth A. Dennison
Thomas W. Baumgarte
Access: Open access
- We describe a simple family of analytical coordinate systems for the Schwarzschild spacetime. The coordinates penetrate the horizon smoothly and are spatially isotropic. Spatial slices of constant coordinate time t feature a trumpet geometry with an asymptotically cylindrical end inside the horizon at a prescribed areal radius R0 (with 0 < R0 M) that serves as the free parameter for the family. The slices also have an asymptotically flat end at spatial infinity. In the limit R0 = 0 the spatial slices lose their trumpet geometry and become flat - in this limit, our coordinates reduce to Painlevé- Gullstrand coordinates. © 2014 IOP Publishing Ltd.
Invariants for tendex and vortex fields
Date: 2012-11-08
Creator: Kenneth A. Dennison
Thomas W. Baumgarte
Access: Open access
- Tendex and vortex fields, defined by the eigenvectors and eigenvalues of the electric and magnetic parts of the Weyl curvature tensor, form the basis of a recently developed approach to visualizing spacetime curvature. In analogy to electric and magnetic fields, these fields are coordinate-dependent. However, in a further analogy, we can form invariants from the tendex and vortex fields that are invariant under coordinate transformations, just as certain combinations of the electric and magnetic fields are invariant under coordinate transformations. We derive these invariants, and provide a simple, analytical demonstration for nonspherically symmetric slices of a Schwarzschild spacetime. © 2012 American Physical Society.
A new global ethic»: A history of the United Nations International Environmental Education Program, 1975-1995
Date: 2020-12-01
Creator: Charles Dorn
Access: Open access
- In 1975, the United Nations, under the auspices of its Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and Environment Program (UNEP), established the International Environmental Education Program (IEEP). For two decades, IEEP aimed to accomplish goals ascribed to it by UNESCO member states and fostered communication across the international community through Connect, the UNESCO-UNEP environmental education newsletter. After reviewing UNESCO’s early involvement with the environment, this study examines IEEP’s development, beginning with its conceptual grounding in the 1968 UNESCO Biosphere Conference. It examines the 1972 United Nations Conference on the Human Environment held in Stockholm, moves on to the UNESCO-UNEP 1975 Belgrade Workshop, and continues with the world’s first intergovernmental conference dedicated to environmental education held in Tbilisi in 1977. The paper then uses Connect to trace changes in the form and content of environmental education. Across two decades, environmental education shifted from providing instruction about nature protection and natural resource conservation to fostering an environmental ethic through a problems-based, interdisciplinary study of the ecology of the total environment to adopting the concept of sustainable development. IEEP ultimately met with mixed success. Yet it was the primary United Nations program assigned the task of creating and implementing environmental education globally and thus offers a particularly useful lens through which to analyze changes in the international community’s understanding of the concept of the environment over time.