Search results for "NCT"

The current and future state of animal coloration research

2017

Animal colour patterns are a model system for understanding evolution because they are unusually accessible for study and experimental manipulation. This is possible because their functions are readily identifiable. In this final paper of the symposium we provide a diagram of the processes affecting colour patterns and use this to summarize their functions and put the other papers in a broad context. This allows us to identify significant ‘holes’ in the field that only become obvious when we see the processes affecting colour patterns, and their interactions, as a whole. We make suggestions about new directions of research that will enhance our understanding of both the evolution of colour …

Arabidopsis RCD1 coordinates chloroplast and mitochondrial functions through interaction with ANAC transcription factors

2019

Reactive oxygen species (ROS)-dependent signaling pathways from chloroplasts and mitochondria merge at the nuclear protein RADICAL-INDUCED CELL DEATH1 (RCD1). RCD1 interacts in vivo and suppresses the activity of the transcription factors ANAC013 and ANAC017, which mediate a ROS-related retrograde signal originating from mitochondrial complex III. Inactivation of RCD1 leads to increased expression of mitochondrial dysfunction stimulon (MDS) genes regulated by ANAC013 and ANAC017. Accumulating MDS gene products, including alternative oxidases (AOXs), affect redox status of the chloroplasts, leading to changes in chloroplast ROS processing and increased protection of photosynthetic apparatus.…

Dendritic cell metabolism: moving beyond in vitro-culture-generated paradigms

2021

Dendritic cells (DCs) are key orchestrators of immunity and tolerance. It has become evident that DC function can be influenced by cellular metabolic programs. However, conclusions from early metabolic studies using in vitro GM-CSF DC cultures fail to correlate with bona fide DC populations. Here, we discuss the existing paradigms in the DC metabolism field, focusing on the limitations of the models utilized. Furthermore, we introduce alternative models to generate DCs in vitro that better emulate DCs found in vivo. Finally, we highlight new techniques to evaluate DC metabolism at the single-cell level. The combination of these two strategies could help advance the DC metabolism field towar…

Reply from m. Heino, j.a.j. Metz and v. Kaitala.

1998

Eva Kisdi clarifies the relationships between frequency dependence, optimization and ESSs. We basically agree with all her comments. However, some further clarification may be useful.In the first paragraph of Kisdi's letter, ESSs and optimal strategies are seemingly opposed by saying that `finding an optimal strategy is a considerably stronger result than finding an ESS'. Although this statement is factually correct, it might engender a suggestion that is slightly wrong. Conceptually, ESSs are always primary: only ESSs matter from the viewpoint of long-term evolution. Optimization is secondary only, and must be justified by an ESS argument that explicitly accounts for the ecology in which t…

European Red List of Lycopods and Ferns

2017

In recent years, awareness has risen surrounding the crucial role of plants in providing ecosystem services and on their decline – they are one of the essential foundations of healthy ecosystems that we depend on. However, significant gaps in knowledge still remain. In this context, the European Red List of lycopods and ferns provides the first ever comprehensive assessment of the extinction risk of all native lycopod and fern species to Europe. With 194 species assessed, this assessment highlights that 19.9% of lycopod and fern species are threatened with extinction in Europe. This is mainly due to urban and infrastructure development, human intrusions and disturbance, pollution, and water…

Plant genes involved in arbuscular mycorrhiza formation and functioning

2002

Knowledge about that part of the plant genome involved in the establishment and functioning of the arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) symbiosis is important for the basic understanding of this symbiosis. It is also essential for a ‘genes to the field’ approach based on the identification and exploitation of genes that could be central to developing sustainable plant production systems in the future.

2021

Abstract Despite islands contributing only 6.7% of land surface area, they harbor ~20% of the Earth’s biodiversity, but unfortunately also ~50% of the threatened species and 75% of the known extinctions since the European expansion around the globe. Due to their geological and geographic history and characteristics, islands act simultaneously as cradles of evolutionary diversity and museums of formerly widespread lineages—elements that permit islands to achieve an outstanding endemicity. Nevertheless, the majority of these endemic species are inherently vulnerable due to genetic and demographic factors linked with the way islands are colonized. Here, we stress the great variation of islands…

Extinction risk under coloured environmental noise

2000

Positively autocorrelated red environmental noise is characterized by a strong dependence of expected sample variance on sample length. This dependence has to be taken into account when assessing extinction risk under red and white uncorrelated environmental noise. To facilitate a comparison between red and white noise, their expected variances can be scaled to be equal, but only at a chosen time scale. We show with a simple one-dimensional population dynamics model that the different but equally reasonable choices of the time scale yield qualitatively different results on the dependence of extinction risk on the colour of environmental noise: extinction risk might increase as well as decre…

Biomechanics and functional morphology of a climbing monocot.

2015

Climbing monocots can develop into large bodied plants despite being confined by primary growth. In our study on Flagellaria indica we measured surprisingly high stem biomechanical properties (in bending and torsion) and we show that the lack of secondary growth is overcome by a combination of tissue maturation processes and attachment mode. This leads to higher densities of mechanically relevant tissues in the periphery of the stem and to the transition from self-supporting to climbing growth. The development of specialised attachment structures has probably underpinned the evolution of numerous other large bodied climbing monocot taxa.

Population Persistence and Offspring Fitness in the Rare Bellflower Campanula Cervicaria in Relation to Population Size and Habitat Quality

2000

Data from several animal species and a few plant species indicate that small populations face an elevated risk of extinction. Plants are still underrepresented in these studies concerning the relation between population size and persistence. We studied the effect of population size on persistence among natural popu- lations of the rare bellflower Campanula cervicaria in Finland. We monitored 52 bellflower populations for 8 years and found that the mean population size decreased from 24 to 14 during this period. Small popula- tions with # 5 individuals were more prone to losing all fertile plants than were larger ones. Reduction in population size was nevertheless unrelated to the degree of …