Article
Physics, Multidisciplinary
Solange Flatt, Daniel Maria Busiello, Stefano Zamuner, Paolo de los Rios
Summary: ATP-binding cassette (ABC) transporters are biological machines that perform crucial import or export of substrates across membranes, driven by ATP hydrolysis. We propose a model that shows ABC transporters are molecular realizations of autonomous Maxwell Demons, which use information to drive systems out of equilibrium. Our framework provides a bridge between the molecular-level description and the language of information theory for ABC transporters.
COMMUNICATIONS PHYSICS
(2023)
Article
Ecology
Gerhard Franz, Vladimir Khomenko, Peter Lyckberg, Vsevolod Chournousenko, Ulrich Struck, Ulrich Gernert, Jorg Nissen
Summary: The Volyn biota, fossilized organisms with a minimum age of 1.5 Ga, were found in cavities in granitic pegmatites from the Korosten Pluton, NW Ukrainian shield. Fossilization was due to an influx of hydrothermal fluorine-rich waters, which silicified the outermost part of the organisms, thus preserving the 3D morphology. The morphology of the specimens reveals filamentous structures with branching, ball-shaped outgrowths, and dented surfaces, indicating the presence of fungi-like organisms.
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
K. Paul Strother, D. Martin Brasier, David Wacey, Leslie Timpe, Martin Saunders, H. Charles Wellman
Summary: The sediments of the Torridonian sequence in the Northwest Scottish Highlands contain a variety of microfossils that document life from a billion years ago. Phosphate nodules from the Diabaig Formation at Loch Torridon preserve microorganisms, allowing for the reconstruction of the developmental stages of a new organism, Bicellum brasieri gen. et sp. nov.
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Barbara Cavalazzi, Laurence Lemelle, Alexandre Simionovici, Sherry L. Cady, Michael J. Russell, Elena Bailo, Roberto Canteri, Emanuele Enrico, Alain Manceau, Assimo Maris, Murielle Salome, Emilie Thomassot, Nordine Bouden, Remi Tucoulou, Axel Hofmann
Summary: This study presents the discovery of well-preserved putative filamentous microfossils dating back to approximately 3.42 billion years ago in a paleo-subseafloor hydrothermal vein system of the Barberton greenstone belt in South Africa. These filaments, colonizing the walls of conduits created by low-temperature hydrothermal fluid, are considered to be the oldest methanogens and/or methanotrophs thriving in an ultramafic volcanic substrate.
Article
Biology
Jose Gabriel Nino Barreat, Aris Katzourakis
Summary: Bamford viruses are a diverse group of viruses that infect eukaryotes. There are two main hypotheses regarding their origins, and experimental tests provide evidence that supports alternative evolutionary scenarios and challenges the traditional nuclear-escape scenario.
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Yaakov Weiss, Yael Kiro, Cornelia Class, Gisela Winckler, Jeff W. Harris, Steven L. Goldstein
Summary: This study uses U-Th-He geochronology of fluid-bearing diamonds to reveal three alteration events in the southwest Kaapvaal lithosphere, and constrains the diffusivity of helium, providing both upper and lower age limits for these events. The youngest event, occurring in the Cretaceous period, involved highly saline fluids and is related to late-Mesozoic kimberlite eruptions; while remnants of two earlier events formed by a Paleozoic silicic fluid and a Proterozoic carbonatitic fluid are also encapsulated in diamonds and likely coeval with major tectonic events.
NATURE COMMUNICATIONS
(2021)
Review
Multidisciplinary Sciences
H. Damon Matthews, Seth Wynes
Summary: Human activities have led to a global temperature increase, and current trends suggest that we will exceed 1.5 degrees Celsius in less than 10 years. Overcoming inertia in political and technological systems is the primary obstacle to achieving the 1.5 degrees Celsius goal. Political and corporate leadership, along with increased societal recognition, are necessary for system-level and individual lifestyle changes.
Article
Meteorology & Atmospheric Sciences
Peihua Qin
Summary: This study investigates changes in population exposure to precipitation and temperature extremes under 1.5 and 2.0 degrees C warming levels. The results show that population exposure to wet, dry, and heat extremes generally increases over certain regions, while exposure decreases in eastern Asia due to a reduction in population. The study highlights the importance of addressing possible climate risks under global warming.
ATMOSPHERIC RESEARCH
(2022)
Article
Astronomy & Astrophysics
Hugo Pfister, Jane Lixin Dai, Marta Volonteri, Katie Auchettl, Maxime Trebitsch, Enrico Ramirez-Ruiz
Summary: This study introduces a new model to investigate the accretion of stars on massive black holes and tidal disruption events in cosmological simulations. It finds that tidal disruption events may be a natural mechanism for growing light black hole seeds in the early universe, and galaxy mergers significantly enhance the global tidal disruption event rate in galaxies.
MONTHLY NOTICES OF THE ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY
(2021)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Shiwu Zhang, Zheng Cai, Dandan Xu, Rhythm Shimakawa, Fabrizio Arrigoni Battaia, Jason Xavier Prochaska, Renyue Cen, Zheng Zheng, Yunjing Wu, Qiong Li, Liming Dou, Jianfeng Wu, Ann Zabludoff, Xiaohui Fan, Yanli Ai, Emmet Gabriel Golden-Marx, Miao Li, Youjun Lu, Xiangcheng Ma, Sen Wang, Ran Wang, Feng Yuan
Summary: Stars are formed by gas accretion from the intergalactic medium in galaxies. Recycling of gas, specifically the reaccretion of previously ejected gas, has been observed to sustain star formation in the early Universe. Through observations, we found emission lines from neutral hydrogen, helium, and ionized carbon that extend 100 kiloparsecs from a massive galaxy at redshift 2.3. The kinematics of the surrounding gas match that of an inspiraling stream, indicating gas recycling during high-redshift galaxy assembly.
Article
Astronomy & Astrophysics
Jonathan Biteau
Summary: By utilizing the 2MASS survey, a near-infrared flux-limited sample has been established to map the distribution of stellar mass and SFR over the full sky. The study reveals that within a range of 350 Mpc, the densities of stellar mass and SFR align with deep-field observations, providing new foundations for cosmology and astroparticle physics.
ASTROPHYSICAL JOURNAL SUPPLEMENT SERIES
(2021)
Article
Geosciences, Multidisciplinary
Richard K. Bono, Greig A. Paterson, Andrew J. Biggin
Summary: Understanding the evolution of Earth's magnetic field is important for understanding core processes, constraining plate tectonics, and atmospheric shielding. The PINT database provides curated records of site mean estimates of magnetic field strength. In this study, a minor update to the PINT database was made by adding 295 records from 34 studies. The updated database was then used to define a continuous model of the dipole field, and three dipole field strength models were presented.
GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH LETTERS
(2022)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
O. Warr, C. J. Ballentine, T. C. Onstott, D. M. Nisson, T. L. Kieft, D. J. Hillegonds, B. Sherwood Lollar
Summary: Ancient groundwater preserved in the deep continental crust on billion-year timescales has been discovered, which has implications for geological storage and resource exploration. These findings also shed light on the potential existence of long-term subsurface water on planets like Mars.
NATURE COMMUNICATIONS
(2022)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Federico Lelli, Enrico M. Di Teodoro, Filippo Fraternali, Allison W. S. Man, Zhi-Yu Zhang, Carlos De Breuck, Timothy A. Davis, Roberto Maiolino
Summary: Cosmological models predict that early Universe galaxies experience chaotic gas accretion and star formation, followed by gas ejection from feedback processes. However, submillimeter observations of a starburst galaxy at redshift z. 5, ALESS 073.1, suggest that massive bulges and regularly rotating disks may form more rapidly than expected in the early Universe.
Article
Geochemistry & Geophysics
C-T Liu, Y-S He
Summary: From 3.0 to 2.7 billion years ago, the chemical composition of globally continental mafic volcanic rocks gradually decreased, indicating the gradual rise of major subaerial landmasses. This process was controlled by a dynamic balance of mountain building processes dominantly driven by plate tectonics and subsidence due to weathering erosion and thermal relaxation.
GEOCHEMICAL PERSPECTIVES LETTERS
(2021)
Article
Ecology
Ulf S. Johansson, Stephan Nylinder, Jan I. Ohlson, Dieter Thomas Tietze
JOURNAL OF BIOGEOGRAPHY
(2018)
Article
Evolutionary Biology
Ulf Swenson, J. Havran, Jerome Munzinger, Stephen McLoughlin, Stephan Nylinder
SYSTEMATIC BIOLOGY
(2019)
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Luiz Jardim de Queiroz, Yamila Cardoso, Cecile Jacot-des-Combes, Ilham Anne Bahechar, Carlos Alberto Lucena, Lucia Rapp Py-Daniel, Luisa Maria Sarmento Soares, Stephan Nylinder, Claudio Oliveira, Thiago Estevam Parente, Gislene Torrente-Vilara, Raphael Covain, Paulo Buckup, Juan Montoya-Burgos
MOLECULAR PHYLOGENETICS AND EVOLUTION
(2020)
Article
Plant Sciences
Ulf Swenson, Porter P. Lowry, Bodil Cronholm, Stephan Nylinder
Article
Plant Sciences
Ulf Swenson, Jennifer Kearey
Article
Plant Sciences
Peter W. Fritsch, Lu Lu, Catherine M. Bush, Steven J. Wagstaff, Kathleen A. Kron
Summary: Through analyzing the evolution of gender dimorphism in the Wintergreen Clade in a phylogenetic framework, it was found that the origin of gender dimorphism in New Zealand Gaultheria species is likely allochthonous, possibly originating from a male-sterile South American lineage, with reversals to cosexuality in Australian lineages. The results support an allochthonous origin of gynodioecy in New Zealand Gaultheria and suggest over-water dispersal as the likely means of arrival for the ancestral ancestor.
NEW ZEALAND JOURNAL OF BOTANY
(2021)
Article
Plant Sciences
J. Christopher Havran, Stephan Nylinder, Ulf Swenson
Summary: The Planchonella species in Hawaii are divided into two clades based on fruit color, purple for P. sandwicensis and yellow for P. spathulata, with the former being more adapted to wetter forests and higher altitudes, while the latter prefers lower elevations in mesic to dry forests. Both species exhibit large morphological variation and can occur sympatrically.
Article
Plant Sciences
Patricio Saldivia, Steven J. Wagstaff, Ilse Breitwieser, David A. Orlovich, Janice M. Lord
Summary: Pleurophyllum lade is a major clade within the subtribe Celmisiinae (tribe Asteraceae), primarily found in New Zealand and surrounding islands. This clade is characterized by its purple to dark red disc corollas, distinguishing it from other members of Celmisiinae. The paper presents a new generic taxonomy for this clade, discussing the morphological differences and providing taxonomic keys for genera and species.
Article
Plant Sciences
Ulf Swenson, Stephan Nylinder, Alicia Marticorena, Mats Thulin, Brendan Lepschi
Summary: Pouteria splendens is the only native species of Sapotaceae in Chile. Through Bayesian inference and molecular clock analysis, its closest relative was identified as Van-royena from Australia, and the age of the disjunction between Australasia and South America was estimated. Based on morphological features and evolutionary relationships, the reinstatement of Gayella genus and the protection of this species are recommended.
Article
Plant Sciences
Ulf Swenson, Brendan Lepschi, Porter P. Lowry II, Mario Henrique Terra-Araujo, Karin Santos, Stephan Nylinder, Anderson Alves-Araujo
Summary: Classifications of the pantropical plant family Sapotaceae have historically recognized between 125 and 53 genera based on morphology. However, molecular data have shown that the broad concepts of the genera Chrysophyllum and Pouteria are untenable, and several new genera have been proposed. A recent study tested this classification using expanded sampling and supported the proposed changes.
Article
Plant Sciences
Ulf Swenson, Jerome Munzinger, Stephan Nylinder, Gildas Gateble
Summary: Pycnandra Benth., a large endemic genus in New Caledonia, is subdivided into six subgenera and contains 59 known species, with three new species described in this study. Two of the new species are assessed as Critically Endangered due to habitat destruction.
AUSTRALIAN SYSTEMATIC BOTANY
(2021)
