RNAi of AGAMOUS genes in sweetgum alters reproductive organ identity and decreases fruit persistence.

Sweetgums (), members of the family Altingiaceae (Altingiales), have inflorescences and floral organs that are distinctive in structure compared with other angiosperms in which the roles of floral homeotic genes have been studied. To begin to understand the role of AGAMOUS (AG)-a floral homeotic gene that has a major role in stamen and carpel development-in development of the monosexual flowers of sweetgum, we used RNAi to reduce the expression of two members of the subfamily. Because suppression should induce floral sterility, RNAi might also provide a tool to mitigate the risks of invasiveness-and to reduce the production of its nuisance fruits or allergenic pollen-when sweetgum is used as an exotic shade or forest tree.

After 157 years, a second specimen and species of the phylogenetically enigmatic and previously monobasic genus Gemminger & Harold, 1868 (Coleoptera, Carabidae, Nototylini).

The enigmatic beetle tribe Nototylini (Carabidae) is revised and a key to species is provided. Two species from South America are included in the genus. One species, (Schaum), is reviewed and a second, Erwin & Kavanaugh, , is described as new.

Sitticine jumping spiders: phylogeny, classification, and chromosomes (Araneae, Salticidae, Sitticini).

The systematics of sitticine jumping spiders is reviewed, with a focus on the Palearctic and Nearctic regions, in order to revise their generic classification, clarify the species of one region (Canada), and study their chromosomes. A genome-wide molecular phylogeny of 23 sitticine species, using more than 700 loci from the arachnid Ultra-Conserved Element (UCE) probeset, confirms the Neotropical origins of sitticines, whose basal divergence separates the Aillutticina (a group of five Neotropical genera) from the subtribe Sitticina (five genera of Eurasia and the Americas). The phylogeny shows that most Eurasian sitticines form a relatively recent and rapid radiation, which we unite into the genus Simon, 1868, consisting of the subgenera Simon, 1901 (seven described species), (41 described species), and Prószyński, 2017 (one species).

A phylogenetically distinct lineage of associated with chlorotic leaf spot of Brassicaceae in North America.

Light leaf spot, caused by the ascomycete , is an established disease of Brassicaceae in the United Kingdom (UK), continental Europe, and Oceania (OC, including New Zealand and Australia). The disease was reported in North America (NA) for the first time in 2014 on spp. in the Willamette Valley of western Oregon, followed by detection in cover crops and on weeds in northwestern Washington in 2016.

Community-based wildlife management area supports similar mammal species richness and densities compared to a national park.

Community-based conservation models have been widely implemented across Africa to improve wildlife conservation and livelihoods of rural communities. In Tanzania, communities can set aside land and formally register it as Wildlife Management Area (WMA), which allows them to generate revenue via consumptive or nonconsumptive utilization of wildlife. The key, yet often untested, assumption of this model is that economic benefits accrued from wildlife motivate sustainable management of wildlife.

Elucidating cryptic dynamics of communities in African buffalo using a high-throughput sequencing informatics approach.

Increasing access to next-generation sequencing (NGS) technologies is revolutionizing the life sciences. In disease ecology, NGS-based methods have the potential to provide higher-resolution data on communities of parasites found in individual hosts as well as host populations.Here, we demonstrate how a novel analytical method, utilizing high-throughput sequencing of PCR amplicons, can be used to explore variation in blood-borne parasite (-Apicomplexa: Piroplasmida) communities of African buffalo at higher resolutions than has been obtained with conventional molecular tools.

Nest attendance by tropical and temperate passerine birds: Same constancy, different strategy.

Parental care in birds varies among species and geographic regions. Incubation behavior influences embryonic development rate and varies substantially among species.We studied attendance at the nest by videoing nests or collecting data from the literature for 112 species in north temperate and lowland tropical sites, then associated patterns of incubation on- and off-bouts with species and environmental traits.

Short-term reservoir draining to streambed for juvenile salmon passage and non-native fish removal.

Fish passage out of reservoirs is a critical issue for downstream movement of juvenile salmonids and other migratory species. Reservoirs can delay downstream migrations by juvenile salmon for months or years. Here, we examine whether a novel management activity implementing annual short-term draining of a reservoir to streambed improves timely downstream migration of juvenile salmonids.

Pelagibacter metabolism of diatom-derived volatile organic compounds imposes an energetic tax on photosynthetic carbon fixation.

Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) produced by phytoplankton are molecules with high vapor pressures that can diffuse across cell membranes into the environment, where they become public goods. VOCs likely comprise a significant component of the marine dissolved organic carbon (DOC) pool utilized by microorganisms, but they are often overlooked as growth substrates because their diffusivity imposes analytical challenges. The roles of VOCs in the growth of the photoautotrophic diatom Thalassiosira pseudonana and heterotrophic bacterium Pelagibacter sp.

Environmental variables associated with population structure and Swiss needle cast severity in Western Oregon and Washington.

The environment has a strong influence on the abundance and distribution of plant pathogenic organisms and plays a major role in plant disease. Climatological factors may also alter the dynamics of the interactions between plant pathogens and their hosts. (=) , the causal agent of Swiss needle cast (SNC) of Douglas-fir, is endemic to western North America where it exists as two sympatric, reproductively isolated lineages.

Tuning the Electronic Structure of LaNiO through Alloying with Strontium to Enhance Oxygen Evolution Activity.

The perovskite oxide LaNiO is a promising oxygen electrocatalyst for renewable energy storage and conversion technologies. Here, it is shown that strontium substitution for lanthanum in coherently strained, epitaxial LaNiO films (La Sr NiO) significantly enhances the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) activity, resulting in performance at = 0.5 comparable to the state-of-the-art catalyst BaSrCoFeO .

The role of molecular modelling and simulation in the discovery and deployment of metal-organic frameworks for gas storage and separation.

Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) are highly tuneable, extended-network, crystalline, nanoporous materials with applications in gas storage, separations, and sensing. We review how molecular models and simulations of gas adsorption in MOFs have informed the discovery of performant MOFs for methane, hydrogen, and oxygen storage, xenon, carbon dioxide, and chemical warfare agent capture, and xylene enrichment. Particularly, we highlight how large, open databases of MOF crystal structures, post-processed to enable molecular simulations, are a platform for computational materials discovery.

Study of Toxic Elements in River Water and Wetland Using Water Hyacinth ( as Pollution Monitor.

The concentration of toxic elements present in surface water of Sutlej River and Harike wetland besides , commonly known as water hyacinth, is estimated employing inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). Toxic elements such as cadmium (Cd), chromium (Cr), copper (Cu), manganese (Mn), nickel (Ni), lead (Pb), uranium (U), and zinc (Zn) are identified in the river as well as in Harike wetland catchment. Accumulation of elements in different parts of the water hyacinth plant is observed with the roots exhibiting maximum affinity followed by stem and then leaves.

Tissue-Specific Metabolic Profiles After Prolonged Cardiac Arrest Reveal Brain Metabolome Dysfunction Predominantly After Resuscitation.

Background Cardiac arrest (CA) has been a leading cause of death for many decades. Despite years of research, we still do not understand how each organ responds to the reintroduction of blood flow after prolonged CA. Following changes in metabolites of individual organs after CA and resuscitation gives context to the efficiency and limitations of current resuscitation protocols.

Sequestration of trivalent americium and lanthanide nitrates with bis-lactam-1,10-phenanthroline ligand in a hydrocarbon solvent.

Efficient separation of minor actinides and lanthanides from used nuclear fuel could potentially lead to the development of sustainable nuclear fuel cycles. Herein, we report an in-depth study on selectivity and speciation in the extraction of the trivalent minor actinide Am and rare earth metal ions with a pre-organized phenanthroline-based ligand in a hydrocarbon solvent system relevant to nuclear fuel reprocessing. The 1 : 1 and 2 : 1 ligand-to-metal complexes dominate the speciation in the organic solvent over a range of ligand-to-metal concentrations, as evidenced by experimental data and supported by modeling.

Contingency rules for pathogen competition and antagonism in a genetically based, plant defense hierarchy.

Plant defense against pathogens includes a range of mechanisms, including, but not limited to, genetic resistance, pathogen-antagonizing endophytes, and pathogen competitors. The relative importance of each mechanism can be expressed in a hierarchical view of defense. Several recent studies have shown that pathogen antagonism is inconsistently expressed within the plant defense hierarchy.

Ultraconserved element (UCE) probe set design: Base genome and initial design parameters critical for optimization.

Targeted capture and enrichment approaches have proven effective for phylogenetic study. Ultraconserved elements (UCEs) in particular have exhibited great utility for phylogenomic analyses, with the software package phyluce being among the most utilized pipelines for UCE phylogenomics, including probe design. Despite the success of UCEs, it is becoming increasing apparent that diverse lineages require probe sets tailored to focal taxa in order to improve locus recovery.

Invasive species removal increases species and phylogenetic diversity of wetland plant communities.

Plant invasions result in biodiversity losses and altered ecological functions, though quantifying loss of multiple ecosystem functions presents a research challenge. Plant phylogenetic diversity correlates with a range of ecosystem functions and can be used as a proxy for ecosystem multifunctionality. Laurentian Great Lakes coastal wetlands are ideal systems for testing invasive species management effects because they support diverse biological communities, provide numerous ecosystem services, and are increasingly dominated by invasive macrophytes.

Why did the buffalo cross the park? Resource shortages, but not infections, drive dispersal in female African buffalo ().

Dispersal facilitates population health and maintains resilience in species via gene flow. Adult dispersal occurs in some species, is often facultative, and is poorly understood, but has important management implications, particularly with respect to disease spread. Although the role of adult dispersal in spreading disease has been documented, the potential influence of disease on dispersal has received little attention.

Whose Global, Which Health? Unsettling Collaboration with Careful Equivocation.

The recent push for multidisciplinary collaboration confronts anthropologists with a long-standing ethnographic problem. The terms we have to talk about what we do are very often the same as the terms used by those with whom we work, and yet we are often doing very different things with these terms. I draw on over a decade of "awkward collaboration" with scientists working in highland Guatemala to explore how challenges of equivocation play out in research focused on improving maternal/child nutrition.

Changes in genetic diversity and differentiation in Red-cockaded woodpeckers () over the past century.

Red-cockaded woodpeckers (RCW; ) declined after human activities reduced their fire-maintained pine ecosystem to <3% of its historical range in the southeastern United States and degraded remaining habitat. An estimated 1.6 million RCW cooperative breeding groups declined to about 3,500 groups with no more than 10,000 birds by 1978.

Interactions among morphotype, nutrition, and temperature impact fitness of an invasive fly.

Invasive animals depend on finding a balanced nutritional intake to colonize, survive, and reproduce in new environments. This can be especially challenging during situations of fluctuating cold temperatures and food scarcity, but phenotypic plasticity may offer an adaptive advantage during these periods. We examined how lifespan, fecundity, pre-oviposition periods, and body nutrient contents were affected by dietary protein and carbohydrate (P:C) ratios at variable low temperatures in two morphs (winter morphs WM and summer morphs SM) of an invasive fly, The experimental conditions simulated early spring after overwintering and autumn, crucial periods for survival.

Southern Ocean Biogeochemical Float Deployment Strategy, With Example From the Greenwich Meridian Line (GO-SHIP A12).

Biogeochemical Argo floats, profiling to 2,000-m depth, are being deployed throughout the Southern Ocean by the Southern Ocean Carbon and Climate Observations and Modeling program (SOCCOM). The goal is 200 floats by 2020, to provide the first full set of annual cycles of carbon, oxygen, nitrate, and optical properties across multiple oceanographic regimes. Building from no prior coverage to a sparse array, deployments are based on prior knowledge of water mass properties, mean frontal locations, mean circulation and eddy variability, winds, air-sea heat/freshwater/carbon exchange, prior Argo trajectories, and float simulations in the Southern Ocean State Estimate and Hybrid Coordinate Ocean Model (HYCOM).

Recycled Components in Mantle Plumes Deduced From Variations in Halogens (Cl, Br, and I), Trace Elements, and He/He Along the Hawaiian-Emperor Seamount Chain.

Halogens are primarily located within surface reservoirs of the Earth; as such they have proven to be effective tracers for the identification of subducted volatiles within the mantle. Subducting lithologies exhibit a wide variety of halogen compositions, yet the mantle maintains a fairly uniform signature, suggesting halogens may be homogenized during subduction to the mantle or during eruption. Here we present halogen (Cl, Br, and I), K, noble gas, and major and trace element data on olivines from three seamounts along the Hawaiian-Emperor seamount chain to determine if the deep mantle source has retained evidence of halogen heterogeneities introduced through subduction.