Reduction of soil carbon formation by tropospheric ozone under increased carbon dioxide levels

In the Northern Hemisphere, ozone levels in the troposphere have increased by 35 per cent over the past century, with detrimental impacts on forest and agricultural productivity, even when forest productivity has been stimulated by increased carbon dioxide levels. In addition to reducing productivity, increased tropospheric ozone levels could alter terrestrial carbon cycling by lowering the quantity and quality of carbon inputs to soils. However, the influence of elevated ozone levels on soil carbon formation and decomposition are unknown. Here we examine the effects of elevated ozone levels on the formation rates of total and decay-resistant acid-insoluble soil carbon under conditions of elevated carbon dioxide levels in experimental aspen (Populus tremuloides) stands and mixed aspen-birch (Betula papyrifera) stands. With ambient concentrations of ozone and carbon dioxide both raised by 50 per cent, we find that the formation rates of total and acid-insoluble soil carbon are reduced by 50 per cent relative to the amounts entering the soil when the forests were exposed to increased carbon dioxide alone. Our results suggest that, in a world with elevated atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations, global-scale reductions in plant productivity due to elevated ozone levels will also lower soil carbon formation rates significantly.     

The evolutionary inheritance of elemental stoichiometry in marine phytoplankton

Phytoplankton is a nineteenth century ecological construct for a biologically diverse group of pelagic photoautotrophs that share common metabolic functions but not evolutionary histories. In contrast to terrestrial plants, a major schism occurred in the evolution of the eukaryotic phytoplankton that gave rise to two major plastid superfamilies. The green superfamily appropriated chlorophyll b, whereas the red superfamily uses chlorophyll c as an accessory photosynthetic pigment. Fossil evidence suggests that the green superfamily dominated Palaeozoic oceans. However, after the end-Permian extinction, members of the red superfamily rose to ecological prominence. The processes responsible for this shift are obscure. Here we present an analysis of major nutrients and trace elements in 15 species of marine phytoplankton from the two superfamilies. Our results indicate that there are systematic phylogenetic differences in the two plastid types where macronutrient (carbon:nitrogen:phosphorus) stoichiometries primarily reflect ancestral pre-symbiotic host cell phenotypes, but trace element composition reflects differences in the acquired plastids. The compositional differences between the two plastid superfamilies suggest that changes in ocean redox state strongly influenced the evolution and selection of eukaryotic phytoplankton since the Proterozoic era.     

A high-affinity conformation of Hsp90 confers tumour selectivity on Hsp90 inhibitors

Heat shock protein 90 (Hsp90) is a molecular chaperone that plays a key role in the conformational maturation of oncogenic signalling proteins, including HER-2/ErbB2, Akt, Raf-1, Bcr-Abl and mutated p53. Hsp90 inhibitors bind to Hsp90, and induce the proteasomal degradation of Hsp90 client proteins. Although Hsp90 is highly expressed in most cells, Hsp90 inhibitors selectively kill cancer cells compared to normal cells, and the Hsp90 inhibitor 17-allylaminogeldanamycin (17-AAG) is currently in phase I clinical trials. However, the molecular basis of the tumour selectivity of Hsp90 inhibitors is unknown. Here we report that Hsp90 derived from tumour cells has a 100-fold higher binding affinity for 17-AAG than does Hsp90 from normal cells. Tumour Hsp90 is present entirely in multi-chaperone complexes with high ATPase activity, whereas Hsp90 from normal tissues is in a latent, uncomplexed state. In vitro reconstitution of chaperone complexes with Hsp90 resulted in increased binding affinity to 17-AAG, and increased ATPase activity. These results suggest that tumour cells contain Hsp90 complexes in an activated, high-affinity conformation that facilitates malignant progression, and that may represent a unique target for cancer therapeutics.     

Intense equatorial flux spots on the surface of the Earth's core

A large number of high-accuracy vector measurements of the Earth's magnetic field have recently become available from the satellite Oersted, complementing previous vector data from the satellite Magsat, which operated in 1979/80. These data can be used to infer the morphology of the magnetic field at the surface of the fluid core, approximately 2,900 km below the Earth's surface. Here I apply a new methodology to these data to calculate maps of the magnetic field at the core surface which show intense flux spots in equatorial regions. The intensity of these features is unusually large--some have intensities comparable to high-latitude flux patches near the poles, previously identified as the major component of the dynamo field. The tendency for pairing of some of these spots to the north and south of the geographical equator suggests they might be associated with the tops of equatorially symmetric columnar structures in the fluid, or their antisymmetric equivalents. The drift of the equatorial features may represent material flow or could represent wave motion; discrimination of these two effects based on future data could provide new information on the strength of the hidden toroidal magnetic field of the Earth.