The CERV protein of Cer1, a C. elegans LTR retrotransposon, is required for nuclear export of viral genomic RNA and can form giant nuclear rods.

Retroviruses and closely related LTR retrotransposons export full-length, unspliced genomic RNA (gRNA) for packaging into virions and to serve as the mRNA encoding GAG and POL polyproteins. Because gRNA often includes splice acceptor and donor sequences used to splice viral mRNAs, retroelements must overcome host mechanisms that retain intron-containing RNAs in the nucleus. Here we examine gRNA expression in Cer1, an LTR retrotransposon in C.

Reinforcing nature-based solutions through tools providing social-ecological-technological integration.

While held to be a means for climate change adaptation and mitigation, nature-based solutions (NbS) themselves are vulnerable to climate change. To find ways of compensating for this vulnerability we combine a focused literature review on how information technology has been used to strengthen positive social-ecological-technological feedback, with the development of a prototype decision-support tool. Guided by the literature review, the tool integrates recent advances in using globally available remote sensing data to elicit information on functional diversity and ecosystem service provisioning with information on human service demand and population vulnerability.

Nuclear lipid droplets and nuclear damage in Caenorhabditis elegans.

Fat stored in the form of lipid droplets has long been considered a defining characteristic of cytoplasm. However, recent studies have shown that nuclear lipid droplets occur in multiple cells and tissues, including in human patients with fatty liver disease. The function(s) of stored fat in the nucleus has not been determined, and it is possible that nuclear fat is beneficial in some situations.

Shared Socio-economic Pathways for European agriculture and food systems: The Eur-Agri-SSPs.

Scenarios describe plausible and internally consistent views of the future. They can be used by scientists, policymakers and entrepreneurs to explore the challenges of global environmental change given an appropriate level of spatial and sectoral detail and systematic development. We followed a nine-step protocol to extend and enrich a set of global scenarios - the Shared Socio-economic Pathways (SSPs) - providing regional and sectoral detail for European agriculture and food systems using a one-to-one nesting participatory approach.

Assumptions in ecosystem service assessments: Increasing transparency for conservation.

Conservation efforts are increasingly supported by ecosystem service assessments. These assessments depend on complex multi-disciplinary methods, and rely on a number of assumptions which reduce complexity. If assumptions are ambiguous or inadequate, misconceptions and misinterpretations may arise when interpreting results of assessments.

A protocol to develop Shared Socio-economic Pathways for European agriculture.

Moving towards a more sustainable future requires concerted actions, particularly in the context of global climate change. Integrated assessments of agricultural systems (IAAS) are considered valuable tools to provide sound information for policy and decision-making. IAAS use storylines to define socio-economic and environmental framework assumptions.

Binucleate germ cells in Caenorhabditis elegans are removed by physiological apoptosis.

Cell death plays a major role during C. elegans oogenesis, where over half of the oogenic germ cells die in a process termed physiological apoptosis. How germ cells are selected for physiological apoptosis, or instead become oocytes, is not understood.

Practical application of spatial ecosystem service models to aid decision support.

Ecosystem service (ES) spatial modelling is a key component of the integrated assessments designed to support policies and management practices aiming at environmental sustainability. ESTIMAP ("Ecosystem Service Mapping Tool") is a collection of spatially explicit models, originally developed to support policies at a European scale. We based our analysis on 10 case studies, and 3 ES models.

Centriolar SAS-7 acts upstream of SPD-2 to regulate centriole assembly and pericentriolar material formation.

The centriole/basal body is a eukaryotic organelle that plays essential roles in cell division and signaling. Among five known core centriole proteins, SPD-2/Cep192 is the first recruited to the site of daughter centriole formation and regulates the centriolar localization of the other components in and in humans. However, the molecular basis for SPD-2 centriolar localization remains unknown.

Correction: Morphogenesis of the C. elegans Intestine Involves Axon Guidance Genes.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1371/journal.pgen.

Assessing Regional-Scale Impacts of Short Rotation Coppices on Ecosystem Services by Modeling Land-Use Decisions.

Meeting the world's growing energy demand through bioenergy production involves extensive land-use change which could have severe environmental and social impacts. Second generation bioenergy feedstocks offer a possible solution to this problem. They have the potential to reduce land-use conflicts between food and bioenergy production as they can be grown on low quality land not suitable for food production.

Morphogenesis of the C. elegans Intestine Involves Axon Guidance Genes.

Genetic and molecular studies have provided considerable insight into how various tissue progenitors are specified in early embryogenesis, but much less is known about how those progenitors create three-dimensional tissues and organs. The C. elegans intestine provides a simple system for studying how a single progenitor, the E blastomere, builds an epithelial tube of 20 cells.

Comparing bioenergy production sites in the Southeastern US regarding ecosystem service supply and demand.

Biomass for bioenergy is debated for its potential synergies or tradeoffs with other provisioning and regulating ecosystem services (ESS). This biomass may originate from different production systems and may be purposefully grown or obtained from residues. Increased concerns globally about the sustainable production of biomass for bioenergy has resulted in numerous certification schemes focusing on best management practices, mostly operating at the plot/field scale.

Cell interactions and patterned intercalations shape and link epithelial tubes in C. elegans.

Many animal organs are composed largely or entirely of polarized epithelial tubes, and the formation of complex organ systems, such as the digestive or vascular systems, requires that separate tubes link with a common polarity. The Caenorhabditis elegans digestive tract consists primarily of three interconnected tubes-the pharynx, valve, and intestine-and provides a simple model for understanding the cellular and molecular mechanisms used to form and connect epithelial tubes. Here, we use live imaging and 3D reconstructions of developing cells to examine tube formation.

Laminin is required to orient epithelial polarity in the C. elegans pharynx.

The development of many animal organs involves a mesenchymal to epithelial transition, in which cells develop and coordinate polarity through largely unknown mechanisms. The C. elegans pharynx, which is an epithelial tube in which cells polarize around a central lumen, provides a simple system with which to understand the coordination of epithelial polarity.

C. elegans germ cells show temperature and age-dependent expression of Cer1, a Gypsy/Ty3-related retrotransposon.

Virus-like particles (VLPs) have not been observed in Caenorhabditis germ cells, although nematode genomes contain low numbers of retrotransposon and retroviral sequences. We used electron microscopy to search for VLPs in various wild strains of Caenorhabditis, and observed very rare candidate VLPs in some strains, including the standard laboratory strain of C. elegans, N2.

A role for the centrosome and PAR-3 in the hand-off of MTOC function during epithelial polarization.

Background: The centrosome is the major microtubule organizing center (MTOC) in dividing cells and in many postmitotic, differentiated cells. In other cell types, however, MTOC function is reassigned from the centrosome to noncentrosomal sites. Here, we analyze how MTOC function is reassigned to the apical membrane of C.

Perinuclear P granules are the principal sites of mRNA export in adult C. elegans germ cells.

Germline-specific granules of unknown function are found in a wide variety of organisms, including C. elegans, where they are called P granules. P granules are cytoplasmic bodies in oocytes and early embryos.

Indirect land-use changes can overcome carbon savings from biofuels in Brazil.

The planned expansion of biofuel plantations in Brazil could potentially cause both direct and indirect land-use changes (e.g., biofuel plantations replace rangelands, which replace forests).

MEX-5 asymmetry in one-cell C. elegans embryos requires PAR-4- and PAR-1-dependent phosphorylation.

Anteroposterior polarity in early C. elegans embryos is required for the specification of somatic and germline lineages, and is initiated by a sperm-induced reorganization of the cortical cytoskeleton and PAR polarity proteins. Through mechanisms that are not understood, the kinases PAR-1 and PAR-4, and other PAR proteins cause the cytoplasmic zinc finger protein MEX-5 to accumulate asymmetrically in the anterior half of the one-cell embryo.

Notch signaling and morphogenesis of single-cell tubes in the C. elegans digestive tract.

During organogenesis of the C. elegans digestive system, epithelial cells within a cyst-like primordium develop diverse shapes through largely unknown mechanisms. We here analyze two adjacent, dorsal epithelial cells, called pm8 and vpi1, that remodel their shapes and apical junctions to become donut-shaped, or toroidal, single-cell tubes.

Notch signaling in the C. elegans embryo.

Cell-cell interactions mediated by the Notch signaling pathway occur throughout C. elegans embryogenesis. These interactions have major roles in specifying cell fates and in tissue morphogenesis.

Notch-GATA synergy promotes endoderm-specific expression of ref-1 in C. elegans.

The Notch signaling pathway is involved in a wide variety of cell-fate decisions during development. The diverse behavior of Notch-activated cells is thought to depend on tissue- or cell-type-specific transcription factors, yet the identities of such factors and the mechanism of cooperation with the Notch pathway are largely unknown. We identify here an enhancer in the promoter of ref-1, a C.

Actin-dependent cytoplasmic streaming in C. elegans oogenesis.

Oocytes in the C. elegans gonad enlarge rapidly. During the stage of enlargement, they are transcriptionally quiescent, and it is not understood how they acquire large quantities of materials such as mRNA and protein.

Linking deforestation scenarios to pollination services and economic returns in coffee agroforestry systems.

The ecological and economic consequences of rain forest conversion and fragmentation for biodiversity, ecosystem functioning, and ecosystem services like protection of soils, water retention, pollination, or biocontrol are poorly understood. In human-dominated tropical landscapes, forest remnants may provide ecosystem services and act as a source for beneficial organisms immigrating into adjacent annual and perennial agro-ecosystems. In this study, we use empirical data on the negative effects of increasing forest distance on both pollinator diversity and fruit set of coffee to estimate future changes in pollination services for different land use scenarios in Sulawesi, Indonesia.