Global distribution and conservation of rare and threatened vertebrates

Global conservation strategies commonly assume that different taxonomic groups show congruent geographical patterns of diversity, and that the distribution of extinction-prone species in one group can therefore act as a surrogate for vulnerable species in other groups when conservation decisions are being made. The validity of these assumptions remains unclear, however, because previous tests have been limited in both geographical and taxonomic extent. Here we use a database on the global distribution of 19,349 living bird, mammal and amphibian species to show that, although the distribution of overall species richness is very similar among these groups, congruence in the distribution of rare and threatened species is markedly lower. Congruence is especially low among the very rarest species. Cross-taxon congruence is also highly scale dependent, being particularly low at the finer spatial resolutions relevant to real protected areas. 'Hotspots' of rarity and threat are therefore largely non-overlapping across groups, as are areas chosen to maximize species complementarity. Overall, our results indicate that 'silver-bullet' conservation strategies alone will not deliver efficient conservation solutions. Instead, priority areas for biodiversity conservation must be based on high-resolution data from multiple taxa.     

Overview of the Alliance for Cellular Signaling

The Alliance for Cellular Signaling is a large-scale collaboration designed to answer global questions about signalling networks. Pathways will be studied intensively in two cells--B lymphocytes (the cells of the immune system) and cardiac myocytes--to facilitate quantitative modelling. One goal is to catalyse complementary research in individual laboratories; to facilitate this, all alliance data are freely available for use by the entire research community.     

Magmatic events can produce rapid changes in hydrothermal vent chemistry

The Endeavour segment of the Juan de Fuca ridge is host to one of the most vigorous hydrothermal areas found on the global mid-ocean-ridge system, with five separate vent fields located within 15 km along the top of the ridge segment. Over the past decade, the largest of these vent fields, the 'Main Endeavour Field', has exhibited a constant spatial gradient in temperature and chloride concentration in its vent fluids, apparently driven by differences in the nature and extent of subsurface phase separation. This stable situation was disturbed on 8 June 1999 by an earthquake swarm. Owing to the nature of the seismic signals and the lack of new lava flows observed in the area during subsequent dives of the Alvin and Jason submersibles (August-September 1999), the event was interpreted to be tectonic in nature. Here we show that chemical data from hydrothermal fluid samples collected in September 1999 and June 2000 strongly suggest that the event was instead volcanic in origin. Volatile data from this event and an earlier one at 9 degrees N on the East Pacific Rise show that such magmatic events can have profound and rapid effects on fluid-mineral equilibria, phase separation, 3He/heat ratios and fluxes of volatiles from submarine hydrothermal systems.     

Global tests of biodiversity concordance and the importance of endemism

Understanding patterns of biodiversity distribution is essential to conservation strategies, but severe data constraints make surrogate measures necessary. For this reason, many studies have tested the performance of terrestrial vertebrates as surrogates for overall species diversity, but these tests have typically been limited to a single taxon or region. Here we show that global patterns of richness are highly correlated among amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals, as are endemism patterns. Furthermore, we demonstrate that although the correlation between global richness and endemism is low, aggregate regions selected for high levels of endemism capture significantly more species than expected by chance. Although areas high in endemism have long been targeted for the protection of narrow-ranging species, our findings provide evidence that endemism is also a useful surrogate for the conservation of all terrestrial vertebrates.     

Direct measurement of intra-cochlear pressure waves

The cochlear travelling wave is fundamental to the ability of the mammalian auditory system to resolve frequency. The seashell-shaped outer bone of the cochlea (the auditory inner ear) contains a spiral of cochlear fluid and the sensory tissue known as the cochlear partition. Sound travels down the ear canal to the eardrum, causing its flexible tympanic membrane to vibrate. This vibration is transmitted to the cochlea via the ossides. Motion of the stapes (the stirrup ossicle) sets the cochlear fluid in motion, which in turn sets the cochlear partition near the states in motion. The motion of the cochlear partition ripples down the cochlear spiral as a travelling wave, stimulating the cochlea's sensory hair cells. The wave peaks near the base (the stapes end) of the cochlea for high frequency tones and near the apex for low frequencies. The fundamental elements of the cochlear travelling wave are fluid pressure and motion and partition forces and motion. However, the wave's direct experimental study has to date relied almost solely on measurements of the partition motion. Here I report finely spaced measurements of intracochlear pressure close to the partition, which reveal the fluid component of the cochlear wave. The penetration depth of the wave is very limited, approximately 15 microm. Over a range of frequencies at least an octave wide, the depth is independent of frequency.     

Cell fusion is the principal source of bone-marrow-derived hepatocytes

Evidence suggests that haematopoietic stem cells might have unexpected developmental plasticity, highlighting therapeutic potential. For example, bone-marrow-derived hepatocytes can repopulate the liver of mice with fumarylacetoacetate hydrolase deficiency and correct their liver disease. To determine the underlying mechanism in this murine model, we performed serial transplantation of bone-marrow-derived hepatocytes. Here we show by Southern blot analysis that the repopulating hepatocytes in the liver were heterozygous for alleles unique to the donor marrow, in contrast to the original homozygous donor cells. Furthermore, cytogenetic analysis of hepatocytes transplanted from female donor mice into male recipients demonstrated 80,XXXY (diploid to diploid fusion) and 120,XXXXYY (diploid to tetraploid fusion) karyotypes, indicative of fusion between donor and host cells. We conclude that hepatocytes derived form bone marrow arise from cell fusion and not by differentiation of haematopoietic stem cells.     

Functional metagenomic profiling of nine biomes

Microbial activities shape the biogeochemistry of the planet and macroorganism health. Determining the metabolic processes performed by microbes is important both for understanding and for manipulating ecosystems (for example, disruption of key processes that lead to disease, conservation of environmental services, and so on). Describing microbial function is hampered by the inability to culture most microbes and by high levels of genomic plasticity. Metagenomic approaches analyse microbial communities to determine the metabolic processes that are important for growth and survival in any given environment. Here we conduct a metagenomic comparison of almost 15 million sequences from 45 distinct microbiomes and, for the first time, 42 distinct viromes and show that there are strongly discriminatory metabolic profiles across environments. Most of the functional diversity was maintained in all of the communities, but the relative occurrence of metabolisms varied, and the differences between metagenomes predicted the biogeochemical conditions of each environment. The magnitude of the microbial metabolic capabilities encoded by the viromes was extensive, suggesting that they serve as a repository for storing and sharing genes among their microbial hosts and influence global evolutionary and metabolic processes.     

The role of the distal histidine in myoglobin and haemoglobin

The distal E7 histidine in vertebrate myoglobins and haemoglobins has been strongly conserved during evolution and is thought to be important in fine-tuning the ligand affinities of these proteins. A hydrogen bond between the N epsilon proton of the distal histidine and the second oxygen atom may stabilize O2 bound to the haem iron. The proximity of the imidazole side chain to the sixth coordination position, which is required for efficient hydrogen bonding, has been postulated to inhibit sterically the binding of CO and alkyl isocyanides. To test these ideas, engineered mutants of sperm whale myoglobin and the alpha- and beta-subunits of human haemoglobin were prepared in which E7 histidine was replaced by glycine. Removal of the distal imidazole in myoglobin and the alpha-subunits of intact, R-state haemoglobin caused significant changes in the affinity for oxygen, carbon monoxide and methyl isocyanide; in contrast, the His-E7 to Gly substitution produced little or no effect on the rates and extents of O2, CO and methyl isocyanide binding to beta-chains within R-state haemoglobin. In the beta-subunit the distal histidine seems to be less significant in regulating the binding of ligands to the haem iron in the high affinity quaternary conformation. Structural differences in the oxygen binding pockets shown by X-ray crystallographic studies account for the functional differences of these proteins.     

Caenorhabditis elegans early embryogenesis and vulval morphogenesis require chondroitin biosynthesis

Defects in glycosaminoglycan biosynthesis disrupt animal development and can cause human disease. So far much of the focus on glycosaminoglycans has been on heparan sulphate. Mutations in eight squashed vulva (sqv) genes in Caenorhabditis elegans cause defects in cytokinesis during embryogenesis and in vulval morphogenesis during postembryonic development. Seven of the eight sqv genes have been shown to control the biosynthesis of the glycosaminoglycans chondroitin and heparan sulphate. Here we present the molecular identification and characterization of the eighth gene, sqv-5. This gene encodes a bifunctional glycosyltransferase that is probably localized to the Golgi apparatus and is responsible for the biosynthesis of chondroitin but not heparan sulphate. Our findings show that chondroitin is crucial for both cytokinesis and morphogenesis during C. elegans development.