The Integration of Multiple Nuclear-Encoded Transgenes in the Green Alga Results in Higher Transcription Levels.

The integration of genes into the nuclear genome of is mediated by Non-Homologous-End-Joining, thus resulting in unpredicted insertion locations. This phenomenon defines 'the position-effect', which is used to explain the variation of expression levels between different clones transformed with the same DNA fragment. Likewise, nuclear transgenes often undergo epigenetic silencing that reduces their expression; hence, nuclear transformations require high-throughput screening methods to isolate clones that express the foreign gene at a desirable level.

Re-routing photosynthetic energy for continuous hydrogen production in vivo.

Background: Hydrogen is considered a promising energy vector that can be produced from sustainable resources such as sunlight and water. In green algae, such as , photoproduction of hydrogen is catalyzed by the enzyme [FeFe]-hydrogenase (HydA). Although highly efficient, this process is transitory and thought to serve as a release valve for excess reducing power.

Image-Processing Software for High-Throughput Quantification of Colony Luminescence.

Many microbiological assays include colonies that produce a luminescent or fluorescent (here generalized as "luminescent") signal, often in the form of luminescent halos around the colonies. These signals are used as reporters for a trait of interest; therefore, exact measurements of the luminescence are often desired. However, there is currently a lack of high-throughput methods for analyzing these assays, as common automatic image analysis tools are unsuitable for identifying these halos in the presence of the inherent biological noise.

Whiteflies stabilize their take-off with closed wings.

The transition from ground to air in flying animals is often assisted by the legs pushing against the ground as the wings start to flap. Here, we show that when tiny whiteflies (Bemisia tabaci, body length ca. 1 mm) perform take-off jumps with closed wings, the abrupt push against the ground sends the insect into the air rotating forward in the sagittal (pitch) plane.

Kinematic compensation for wing loss in flying damselflies.

Flying insects can tolerate substantial wing wear before their ability to fly is entirely compromised. In order to keep flying with damaged wings, the entire flight apparatus needs to adjust its action to compensate for the reduced aerodynamic force and to balance the asymmetries in area and shape of the damaged wings. While several studies have shown that damaged wings change their flapping kinematics in response to partial loss of wing area, it is unclear how, in insects with four separate wings, the remaining three wings compensate for the loss of a fourth wing.