In multicellular organisms with specialized cells, the most significant distinction among cell types is between reproductive (germ) cells and non-reproductive/somatic cells (soma). Although soma ...contributed to the marked increase in complexity of many multicellular lineages, little is known about its evolutionary origins. We have previously suggested that the evolution of genes responsible for the differentiation of somatic cells involved the co-option of life history trade-off genes that in unicellular organisms enhanced survival at a cost to immediate reproduction. In the multicellular green alga,
, cell fate is established early in development by the differential expression of a master regulatory gene known as
. A closely related
-Like Sequence (
) is present in its single-celled relative,
.
is expressed in response to stress, and we proposed that an environmentally induced
-like gene was co-opted into a developmental pathway in the lineage leading to
. However, the exact evolutionary scenario responsible for the postulated co-option event remains to be determined. Here, we show that in addition to being developmentally regulated,
can also be induced by environmental cues, indicating that
has maintained its ancestral regulation. We also found that the absence of a functional RegA protein confers increased sensitivity to stress, consistent with RegA having a direct or indirect role in stress responses. Overall, this study (i) provides mechanistic evidence for the co-option of an environmentally induced gene into a major developmental regulator, (ii) supports the view that major morphological innovations can evolve via regulatory changes and (iii) argues for the role of stress in the evolution of multicellular complexity.
This study presents Mo isotope data for arc lavas from different subduction zones that range between δ98/95Mo=−0.72 and +0.07‰. Heaviest isotope values are observed for the most slab fluid dominated ...samples. Isotopically lighter signatures are related to increasing relevance of terrigenous sediment subduction and sediment melt components. Our observation complements previous conclusions that an isotopically heavy Mo fluid flux likely mirrors selective incorporation of isotopically light Mo in secondary minerals within the subducting slab. Analogue to this interpretation, low δ98/95Mo flux that coincides with terrigenous sediment subduction and sediment melting cannot be simply related to a recycled input signature. Instead, breakdown of the controlling secondary minerals during sediment melting may release the light component and lead to decreasing δ98/95Mo influx into subarc mantle sources. The natural range between slab dehydration and hydrous sediment melting may thus cause a large spread of δ98/95Mo in global subduction zone magmas.
•We report δ98/95Mo between −0.72 and +0.07‰ in different subduction zone lavas.•Slab fluids lead to arc lavas with high δ98/95Mo compared to the mantle.•Melts from subducted sediments lead to arc lavas with lower δ98/95Mo.•The nature of the slab component controls δ98/95Mo in arc lavas.
Submarine hydrothermal venting leads to the formation of black smoker chimneys with complex internal zoning. These emerge through mineral precipitation under changing fluid conditions caused by ...variable degrees of fluid-seawater mixing. This study explores the potential of selenium (Se) isotopes as a novel tool to understand the enrichment processes and identify the sources of chalcophile elements in seafloor hydrothermal systems. In-situ trace element analysis of hydrothermal sulfides combined with high-precision Se and S isotope analysis of micro-domains through the wall of black smoker chimneys from the Nifonea vent field (New Hebrides back-arc, SW Pacific) revealed variations in sulfide chemistry at small spatial resolution. The δ82/76Se values (deviation of 82Se/76Se relative to NIST SRM 3149) of the sulfide micro-domains range from +0.6 to −3.7 ‰ ± 0.2 ‰ (2 s.d.) with a general decrease from the inner chalcopyrite lining towards the outer chimney wall. The highest δ82/76Se values overlap with the mean value of fresh basaltic glass from Nifonea caldera (+0.6 ± 0.4 ‰, n = 4), indicating that Se is primarily leached from the surrounding back-arc basalts. The trace element contents of sulfides revealed systematic variations between vent sites, linked to differences in fluid vapor content induced by sub-seafloor boiling, which did not cause any Se isotope fractionation. Instead, decreasing Se/Tl ratios of pyrite together with decreasing δ82/76Se values of sulfide micro-domains and calculated δ34SH2S fluid values towards the outer chimney wall are indicative of temperature-dependent Se and S isotope fractionation at 370 to <200 °C during fluid-seawater mixing within the chimney wall. This study presents Se isotopes as a new robust instrument to unravel the sources of chalcophile elements and related fluid processes in seawater-diluted hydrothermal systems, enhancing our understanding of their geochemical complexities.
•A significant long-term link exists between Twitter sentiment and financial markets.•Experts are the main driver behind the link between Twitter and stock markets.•Compared to past prices Twitter ...sentiment changes are effective in predicting short term stock trends.•Continuous Twitter sentiment streams can support trend-following strategies for stock indices.
We examine the long-term relationship between signals derived from nine years of unstructured social media microblog text data and financial market developments in five major economic regions. Employing statistical language modeling techniques we construct directional sentiment metrics and link these to aggregate stock index returns. To address the noise in finance-related Twitter messages we identify expert users whose tweets predominantly focus on finance topics. We document that expert users are the main drivers behind an interdependence between Twitter sentiment and financial markets. The direct prediction value of expert sentiment metrics for stock index returns, however, is found to be elusive and short-lived. Yet, we detect significant predictive gains over benchmark models in times of negative market returns. In consequence, the relation between expert sentiment metrics and stock indices is sufficient to devise hypothetically profitable cross-sectional as well as time series momentum investment strategies for futures based on Twitter signals that survive basic transaction cost assumptions. In this context, our results show that expert sentiment signals can yield higher risk-adjusted returns than classical price-based signals.
We live in an increasingly data-driven world, where high-throughput sequencing and mass spectrometry platforms are transforming biology into an information science. This has shifted major challenges ...in biological research from data generation and processing to interpretation and knowledge translation. However, postsecondary training in bioinformatics, or more generally data science for life scientists, lags behind current demand. In particular, development of accessible, undergraduate data science curricula has the potential to improve research and learning outcomes as well as better prepare students in the life sciences to thrive in public and private sector careers. Here, we describe the Experiential Data science for Undergraduate Cross-Disciplinary Education (EDUCE) initiative, which aims to progressively build data science competency across several years of integrated practice. Through EDUCE, students complete data science modules integrated into required and elective courses augmented with coordinated cocurricular activities. The EDUCE initiative draws on a community of practice consisting of teaching assistants (TAs), postdocs, instructors, and research faculty from multiple disciplines to overcome several reported barriers to data science for life scientists, including instructor capacity, student prior knowledge, and relevance to discipline-specific problems. Preliminary survey results indicate that even a single module improves student self-reported interest and/or experience in bioinformatics and computer science. Thus, EDUCE provides a flexible and extensible active learning framework for integration of data science curriculum into undergraduate courses and programs across the life sciences.
•Submarine basaltic glasses from Pitcairn Island are uniformly high in δ98/95Mo.•Proterozoic pelagic sediments can explain radiogenic EM-1 and heavy Mo signatures.•Enriched “anoxic” signature found ...in both large low shear velocity provinces (LLSVPs).•Anoxic sediments buffer Precambrian subduction zone fluids to reducing conditions.•Subduction cycling of some redox sensitive metals to the mantle wedge was limited.
Subduction redistributes elements between Earth's principal geochemical reservoirs, modifying the chemical composition of Earth's mantle, crust, atmosphere, and hydrosphere, and consequently having an impact on the evolution of life itself. Subduction of surface material that has been geochemically modified by low-temperature processes leads to mineralogical and chemical heterogeneities in mantle reservoirs over time and is recorded in modern ocean island basalts. One of the principal geochemical end members of the heterogeneous deep mantle, the enriched mantle 1 (EM-1) source of Pitcairn Island, has been attributed to the contribution of crustal material with vastly different chemical compositions and ages. The Mo isotope composition of lavas from Pitcairn Island constrains the nature of this recycled crustal component. Pitcairn lavas have elevated δ98/95Mo relative to the depleted mantle. The high δ98/95Mo is associated with high time-integrated 232Th/238U and 87Rb/86Sr, and low time-integrated 147Sm/144Nd and 238U/204Pb. These characteristics can be attributed to the recycling of nearly pristine pelagic sediments that were deposited in a Proterozoic anoxic deep-ocean into the sources of the Pitcairn Island lavas. The isotope composition of these lavas is similar to that of EM-1 hotspots from the South Atlantic, indicating the addition of reduced sediments in both of Earth's large low shear wave velocity provinces (LLSVPs). Consistent data from both locations imply that the subduction cycling of sedimentary redox-sensitive elements such as Mo, S, Se, and U into arc magmas was in these cases inefficient in the Precambrian and the chemical and isotopic signature of reduced sediments is preserved in the source of ocean island basalts bearing the EM-1 characteristics.
Recent studies report a large Mo isotope variability of up to 1‰ (expressed in δ98/95MoNIST3134) in convergent margin lavas. These isotopic variations have been associated with subduction zone ...processes and ultimately may account for heavy and variable isotope signatures in evolved continental crust. Arc lavas show both lighter and heavier Mo isotopic values when compared to the chondritic average (δ98/95MoNIST3134 −0.16 ± 0.02‰), with a concentration weighted mean isotopic composition (δ98/95MoNIST3134 +0.03‰) distinctly heavier than that of the mantle (δ98/95MoNIST3134~−0.21 to −0.16‰). The absence of isotopic fractionation during tholeiitic igneous differentiation indicates that heavy Mo isotope signatures in convergent margin rocks are intrinsic to subduction zone processes, caused either by recycling of subducted components, by Mo isotope fractionation during magmatic differentiation, or by a combination thereof. In order to gain a more detailed understanding of the Mo isotope variability in arc lavas, we have studied Mo isotopes and concentrations in calc-alkaline lavas sampled along the Banda Arc in Indonesia, an intra-oceanic subduction zone well known for variable contributions of subducting continental meterial.
Banda Arc lavas exhibit Mo isotopic compositions covering a large range from −0.48 to +0.24‰ in δ98/95MoNIST3134. We find that, combined with published data from other subduction zones, the majority of arc data are isotopically heavier compared to its presumed mantle wedge source or mid-ocean-ridge basalts. Furthermore, arc lava Mo isotope signatures show an apparent covariation between indices of amphibole-clinopyroxene fractionation from the melt. Generally, heavier Mo isotopic signatures are associated with higher degrees of REE fractionation expressed as λ1, λ2, and Dy*/Dy, high Ca/Al, and higher Sc contents. These observations can be best explained with an open system magma reservoir where fractional crystallisation, recharge and eruption are tightly linked. Notable exceptions in the Banda region are four samples with isotopically light Mo. Three of these isotopically light lavas indicate the assimilation of an isotopically light Mo reservoir with heavy δ18O and radiogenic 87Sr/86Sr-206Pb/204Pb, tentatively identified as lower arc crust. Together, our data demonstrate, in line with previous findings, that magmatic processes modify the Mo isotopic composition in arc lavas, thus adding complexity to the Mo isotope systematics inherent to subduction zones.
How the number of genome copies modifies the effect of random mutations remains poorly known. In yeast, researchers have investigated these effects for knock-out or other large-effect mutations, but ...have not accounted for differences at the mating-type locus. We set out to compare fitness differences among strains that differ in ploidy and/or zygosity using a panel of spontaneously arising mutations acquired in haploid yeast from a previous study. To ensure no genetic differences, even at the mating-type locus, we embarked on a series of transformations, which first sterilized and then temporarily introduced plasmid-borne mating types. Despite these attempts to equalize the haplotypes, fitness variation introduced during transformation swamped the differences among the original mutation-accumulation lines. While colony size looked normal, we observed a bi-modality in the maximum growth rate of our transformed yeast and determined that many of the slow growing lines were respiratory deficient ("petite"). Not previously reported, we found that yeast that were
knockouts were less likely to become petite. Even for lines with the same petite status, however, we found no correlation in fitness between the two replicate transformations performed. These results pose a challenge for any study using transformation to measure the fitness effect of genetic differences among strains. By attempting to hold haplotypes constant, we introduced more mutations that overwhelmed our ability to measure fitness differences between the genetic states. In this study, we transformed over one hundred different lines of yeast, using two independent transformations, and found that this common laboratory procedure can cause large changes to the microbe studied. Our study provides a cautionary tale of the need to use multiple transformants in fitness assays.
Fungi are prominent drivers of ecological processes in soils, so that fungal communities across different soil ecosystems have been well investigated. However, for arable soils taxonomically resolved ...fine-scale studies including vertical itemization of fungal communities are still missing. Here, we combined a cloning/Sanger sequencing approach of the ITS/LSU region as marker for general fungi and of the partial SSU region for arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) to characterize the microbiome in different maize soil habitats. Four compartments were analyzed over two annual cycles 2009 and 2010: a) ploughed soil in 0-10 cm, b) rooted soil in 40-50 cm, c) root-free soil in 60-70 cm soil depth and d) maize roots. Ascomycota was the most dominant phylum across all compartments. Fungal communities including yeasts and AMF differed strongly between compartments. Inter alia, Tetracladium, the overall largest MOTU (molecular operational taxonomic unit), occurred in all compartments, whereas Trichosporon dominated all soil compartments. Sequences belonging to unclassified Helotiales were forming the most abundant MOTUs exclusively present in roots. This study gives new insights on spatial distribution of fungi and helps to link fungal communities to specific ecological properties such as varying resources, which characterize particular niches of the heterogeneous soil environment.
Niobium–tantalum systematics of slab-derived melts are powerful tracers that discriminate residual high-pressure rutile-bearing eclogite from low-pressure garnet-bearing amphibolite in subducting ...plates. Previously reported low Nb–Ta ratios in modern slab melts suggested a predominance of shallow melting in the presence of residual amphibole and that deep melting of rutile-bearing eclogitic slabs, devoid of residual amphibole, is volumetrically insignificant. This study evaluates Nb/Ta in combination with other trace element systematics of modern intra-oceanic and slab melt-related arc lavas from the south-western volcanic chain of the Solomon Islands that cover over 1000km of the SW Pacific plate border. After a change of subduction polarity, an old subducted Pacific slab and a recently subducting Indian–Australian slab are both present beneath the arc. Solomon arc lavas show sub- to superchondritic Nb–Ta ratios (ca. 10 to 27) which is the largest range ever reported in modern island arc lavas. The large range of Nb/Ta likely results from enrichment of the depleted sub-arc mantle by two distinct slab-derived melts in addition to fluids. One minor slab melt component is derived from the shallow and recent subducting Indian–Australian plate where amphibole is still a significant residual phase. The second slab melt component is predominant in Solomon arc lavas and can be attributed to deep rutile–eclogite-controlled melting of old subducted Jurassic Pacific oceanic crust where residual amphibole is entirely absent or insignificant. The deep Pacific slab melt component is the most likely origin of the extremely high and superchondritic Nb/Ta signatures that produce the upper half of the observed range of Nb/Ta in Solomon arc lavas. The slab melt component that enriched the sub-arc mantle with an unusually high Nb/Ta signature is derived from an initially intact Pacific plate that was probably subject to a slab break-off event and subsequent melting at depths exceeding 100km. The geochemical evidence presented here shows that old and cold subducted oceanic crust, which is initially not torn, may resist shallow melting but can melt at greater depths instead. The resulting slab melts are generated in the presence of residual rutile-bearing eclogite and significantly fractionate Nb–Ta ratios which may be of relevance at a global scale.
► Nb/Ta of 10 to 27 in Solomon arc rocks. ► Largest range of Nb-Ta ratios ever reported in modern subduction zone lavas. ► Superchondritic Nb/Ta result from influx of deep melts from a residual rutile-bearing slab. ► Evidence for deep melting of old subducted oceanic crust.
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