Tibetan terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems collapsed with cryosphere loss inferred from sedimentary ancient metagenomics.

Glacier and permafrost shrinkage and land-use intensification threaten mountain wildlife and affect nature conservation strategies. Here, we present paleometagenomic records of terrestrial and aquatic taxa from the southeastern Tibetan Plateau covering the last 18,000 years to help understand the complex alpine ecosystem dynamics. We infer that steppe-meadow became woodland at 14 ka (cal BP) controlled by cryosphere loss, further driving a herbivore change from wild yak to deer.

Simulating long-term wildfire impacts on boreal forest structure in Central Yakutia, Siberia, since the Last Glacial Maximum.

Background: Wildfires are recognized as an important ecological component of larch-dominated boreal forests in eastern Siberia. However, long-term fire-vegetation dynamics in this unique environment are poorly understood. Recent paleoecological research suggests that intensifying fire regimes may induce millennial-scale shifts in forest structure and composition.

Evolutionary adaptation of trees and modelled future larch forest extent in Siberia.

With changing climate, the boreal forest could potentially migrate north and become threatened by droughts in the south. However, whether larches, the dominant tree species in eastern Siberia, can adapt to novel situations is largely unknown but is crucial for predicting future population dynamics. Exploring variable traits and trait adaptation through inheritance in an individual-based model can improve our understanding and help future projections.

Regional opportunities for tundra conservation in the next 1000 years.

The biodiversity of tundra areas in northern high latitudes is threatened by invasion of forests under global warming. However, poorly understood nonlinear responses of the treeline ecotone mean the timing and extent of tundra losses are unclear, but policymakers need such information to optimize conservation efforts. Our individual-based model LAVESI, developed for the Siberian tundra-taiga ecotone, can help improve our understanding.

Sedimentary ancient DNA reveals a threat of warming-induced alpine habitat loss to Tibetan Plateau plant diversity.

Studies along elevational gradients worldwide usually find the highest plant taxa richness in mid-elevation forest belts. Hence, an increase in upper elevation diversity is expected in the course of warming-related treeline rise. Here, we use a time-series approach to infer past taxa richness from sedimentary ancient DNA from the south-eastern Tibetan Plateau over the last ~18,000 years.

Interspecies metabolite transfer and aggregate formation in a co-culture of Dehalococcoides and Sulfurospirillum dehalogenating tetrachloroethene to ethene.

Microbial communities involving dehalogenating bacteria assist in bioremediation of areas contaminated with halocarbons. To understand molecular interactions between dehalogenating bacteria, we co-cultured Sulfurospirillum multivorans, dechlorinating tetrachloroethene (PCE) to cis-1,2-dichloroethene (cDCE), and Dehalococcoides mccartyi strains BTF08 or 195, dehalogenating PCE to ethene. The co-cultures were cultivated with lactate as electron donor.

Long-lived larch clones may conserve adaptations that could restrict treeline migration in northern Siberia.

The occurrence of refugia beyond the arctic treeline and genetic adaptation therein play a crucial role of largely unknown effect size. While refugia have potential for rapidly colonizing the tundra under global warming, the taxa may be maladapted to the new environmental conditions. Understanding the genetic composition and age of refugia is thus crucial for predicting any migration response.

[Usability and Efficiency of a Digital Communication Assistance Tool to Obtain Medical History from Non-German-Speaking Patients].

Aim: In the DICTUM-Friedland study, a medical history-taking app was implemented in an initial reception facility for refugees and asylum seekers. This app can be used to obtain from patients information about the most frequent general medical complaints and risk factors in 13 different languages or dialects. A report (synopsis) is generated, based on each patient's given data, in the German language.

A Digital Communication Assistance Tool (DCAT) toObtain Medical History from Foreign-LanguagePatients: Development and Pilot Testing in a PrimaryHealth Care Center for Refugees.

Language barriers play a critical role in the treatment of migrant and refugeepatients. In Germany, primary care interpreters are often not available especially in rural areas or ifpatients demand spontaneous or urgent consultations. : In order to enable patients and theirphysicians to communicate effectively about the current illness history, we developed a digitalcommunication assistance tool (DCAT) for 19 different languages and dialects.

Guided cobamide biosynthesis for heterologous production of reductive dehalogenases.

Cobamides (Cbas) are essential cofactors of reductive dehalogenases (RDases) in organohalide-respiring bacteria (OHRB). Changes in the Cba structure can influence RDase function. Here, we report on the cofactor versatility or selectivity of Desulfitobacterium RDases produced either in the native organism or heterologously.

Temporal and spatial patterns of mitochondrial haplotype and species distributions in Siberian larches inferred from ancient environmental DNA and modeling.

Changes in species' distributions are classically projected based on their climate envelopes. For Siberian forests, which have a tremendous significance for vegetation-climate feedbacks, this implies future shifts of each of the forest-forming larch (Larix) species to the north-east. However, in addition to abiotic factors, reliable projections must assess the role of historical biogeography and biotic interactions.

Hydrogen production by Sulfurospirillum species enables syntrophic interactions of Epsilonproteobacteria.

Hydrogen-producing bacteria are of environmental importance, since hydrogen is a major electron donor for prokaryotes in anoxic ecosystems. Epsilonproteobacteria are currently considered to be hydrogen-oxidizing bacteria exclusively. Here, we report hydrogen production upon pyruvate fermentation for free-living Epsilonproteobacteria, Sulfurospirillum spp.

Dissimilar responses of larch stands in northern Siberia to increasing temperatures-a field and simulation based study.

Arctic and alpine treelines worldwide differ in their reactions to climate change. A northward advance of or densification within the treeline ecotone will likely influence climate-vegetation feedback mechanisms. In our study, which was conducted in the Taimyr Depression in the North Siberian Lowlands, w present a combined field- and model-based approach helping us to better understand the population processes involved in the responses of the whole treeline ecotone, spanning from closed forest to single-tree tundra, to climate warming.

The NiFe Hydrogenases of the Tetrachloroethene-Respiring Epsilonproteobacterium : Biochemical Studies and Transcription Analysis.

The organohalide-respiring Epsilonproteobacterium is able to grow with hydrogen as electron donor and with tetrachloroethene (PCE) as electron acceptor; PCE is reductively dechlorinated to -1,2-dichloroethene. Recently, a genomic survey revealed the presence of four gene clusters encoding NiFe hydrogenases in its genome, one of which is presumably periplasmic and membrane-bound (MBH), whereas the remaining three are cytoplasmic. To explore the role and regulation of the four hydrogenases, quantitative real-time PCR and biochemical studies were performed with cells grown under different growth conditions.

A high-resolution anatomical atlas of the transcriptome in the mouse embryo.

Ascertaining when and where genes are expressed is of crucial importance to understanding or predicting the physiological role of genes and proteins and how they interact to form the complex networks that underlie organ development and function. It is, therefore, crucial to determine on a genome-wide level, the spatio-temporal gene expression profiles at cellular resolution. This information is provided by colorimetric RNA in situ hybridization that can elucidate expression of genes in their native context and does so at cellular resolution.