Tag Archives: max planck institute

Neanderthal lineages excavated from modern human genomes

By Guest PostFebruary 8, 2014Sciencearchaic dna sequences, benjamin vernot, clare mclean, croatia, DNA, east asia, Europe, evolutionary anthropology, fossil free, genomes project, Germany, human evolution, human populations, joshua akey, joshua m akey, max planck institute, modern human genomes, neanderthal dna, neanderthal lineages, neanderthal museum, non african descent, paleogenetics laboratory, population geneticists, scientist, sequencing data, svante pääbo, university of washington

A substantial fraction of the Neanderthal genome persists in modern human populations. A new approach applied to analyzing whole-genome sequencing data from 665 people from Europe and East Asia shows that more than 20 percent of the Neanderthal genome survives in the DNA of this contemporary group, whose genetic information is part of the 1,000 Genomes Project.

Previous research proposes that someone of non-African descent may have inherited approximately 1 percent to 3 percent of his or her genome from Neanderthal ancestors. These archaic DNA sequences can vary from one person to another and were aggregated in the present study to determine the extent of the Neanderthal genome remaining in the study group as a whole. The findings are a start to identifying the location of specific pieces of Neanderthal DNA in modern humans and a beginning to creating a collection of Neanderthal lineages surviving in present-day human populations. (more…)

Model Suggests Ocean Currents Shape Europa’s Icy Shell in Ways Critical for Potential Habitats

By Guest PostDecember 11, 2013Scienceaustin, biological life, britney schmidt, chaos terrains, circulation patterns, current patterns model, europa, galileo spacecraft, georgia institute, icy shell, juice mission, jupiter, krista soderlund, magnetometer readings, max planck institute, model, moon europa, ocean currents, potential habitats, solar system, solar system research, subsurface ocean, Technology, three dimensional convection, university of texas

AUSTIN, Texas — In a finding of relevance to the search for life in our solar system, researchers at The University of Texas at Austin’s Institute for Geophysics, the Georgia Institute of Technology, and the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research have shown that the subsurface ocean on Jupiter’s moon Europa may have deep currents and circulation patterns with heat and energy transfers capable of sustaining biological life.

Scientists believe Europa is one of the planetary bodies in our solar system most likely to have conditions that could sustain life, an idea reinforced by magnetometer readings from the Galileo spacecraft detecting signs of a salty, global ocean below the moon’s icy shell. (more…)

‘Freakish’ asteroid discovered, resembles rotating lawn sprinkler

By Guest PostNovember 12, 2013Scienceasteroid belt, asteroid rotation rate, astrophysical journal letters, comet like tails, common phenomenon, david jewitt, dust radiating, episodic eruptions, freakish asteroid, Germany, harold weaver, hubble, jessica agarwal, jupiter, lindau, mars, massive, max mutchler, max planck institute, nucleus, pan starrs, rotational breakup, solar system research, stephen larson, ucla

Astronomers have discovered a “weird and freakish object” resembling a rotating lawn sprinkler in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. The find, reported online in the Nov. 7 issue of the Astrophysical Journal Letters, has left them scratching their heads and searching for an explanation for the strange asteroid’s out-of-this-world appearance.

Normal asteroids appear simply as tiny points of light. This bizarre asteroid has six comet-like tails of dust radiating from it like spokes on a wheel. (more…)

Powerful Animal Tracking System Helps Research Take Flight

By Guest PostJuly 21, 2013Naturealaska, animal tracking system, big data approach, birds eye view, east coast, env data, galapagos albatross, Germany, gil bohrer, gps tracking, gps tracking data, individual birds, lafayette college, max planck institute, migration, migration patterns, north Carolina, ohio state university, ornithology, project, roland kays, satellite, scientific users, state university, U.S. Geological Survey, university of Illinois, university of konstanz, urbana-champaign, youtube video

Call it a bird’s eye view of migration. Scientists are taking a fresh look at animal movement with a big data approach that combines GPS tracking data with satellite weather and terrain information.

The new Environmental-Data Automated Track Annotation (Env-DATA) system, featured in the journal Movement Ecology, can handle millions of data points and serve a hundred scientists simultaneously, said co-founder Dr. Roland Kays, a zoologist with North Carolina State University and the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences. (more…)

Self-fertilizing plants contribute to their own demise

By Guest PostJune 16, 2013Naturebeautiful flowers, capsella grandiflora, capsella rubella, detlef weigel, DNA, extinction, genomic data, Germany, harmful mutations, max planck institute, mutations, own demise, protein sequence, red shepherds purse, self fertilizing plants, selfing, stephen wright, structure, tanja slotte, tuebigen, university of toronto

TORONTO, ON – Many plants are self-fertilizing, meaning they act as both mother and father to their own seeds. This strategy – known as selfing – guarantees reproduction but, over time, leads to reduced diversity and the accumulation of harmful mutations. A new study published in the scientific journal Nature Genetics shows that these negative consequences are apparent across a selfing plant’s genome, and can arise more rapidly than previously thought.

In the study, an international consortium led by Stephen Wright in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Toronto and Detlef Weigel at the Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology sequenced the genome of the plant species Capsella rubella, commonly known as Red Shepherd’s Purse. They found clear evidence that harmful mutations were accumulating over the species’ relatively short existence. (more…)

Revealing the Secrets of Motility in Archaea

By Guest PostFebruary 24, 2013Scienceabrahjyoti ghosh, adenosine triphosphate, archaea, assembling archaella, atomic resolution, atp, atp in solution, atpase, bacterial flagellum, bacterial type, berkeley lab, c terminal domain, crystallography, ctd, domain of life, dynamic play, e coli, energy, enzyme, established model systems, filamentary grappling hook, flab filament, flah eye, flai, flai genes, flai protein structure, gareth williams, generate energy, Germany, glue, human cells, human gut, hyper flagellated, hyper motile mutants, iv pilus, john tainer, max planck institute, microbiota, microorganisms, motility, motor, mpi, n terminal domain, ntd, phosphate, protein structure, release, saxs, secretion of proteins, sonja verena albers, sulfolobus acidocaldarius, terrestrial microbiology, xray diffraction

Scientists from Berkeley Lab and the Max Planck Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology analyze a unique microbial motor

The protein structure of the motor that propels archaea has been characterized for the first time by a team of scientists from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and Germany’s Max Planck Institute (MPI) for Terrestrial Microbiology.

The motility structure of this third domain of life has long been called a flagellum, a whip-like filament that, like the well-studied bacterial flagellum, rotates like a propeller. But although the archaeal structure has a similar function, it is so profoundly different in structure, genetics, and evolution that the researchers argue it deserves its own name: archaellum. (more…)

New Research Will Help Shed Light on Role of Amazon Forests in Global Carbon Cycle

By Guest PostFebruary 1, 2013Environmentabsorbing, alan di vittorio, Amazon, amazon basin, amazon forest landscape, analytical method, annual carbon accumulation, atmosphere, berkeley lab, biogeochemical process, biogeochemistry, brazil, carbon cycle, carbon cycling, carbon dioxide pollution, carbon sequestration, central amazon, climate change, climatic warming, co2 concentration, CO2 emissions, daniel marra, dar roberts, earth, forest carbon budgets, forest mortality patterns, gabriel ribeiro, Germany, global climate system, global warming effect, human activities, hurricane katrina, impact, jeffrey chambers, joerg tews, manaus, max planck institute, mortality map, natural disturbances, old growth forests, pixel, planet, plot based analyses, positive feedback mechanism, robinson negron juarez, satellite images, simulation modeling, spatial scale, superstorm sandy, terrestrial ecosystems, tree mortality patterns, trends, tropical, tulane university

Berkeley Lab scientists devise new tools for detecting previously unknown tree mortality.

The Earth’s forests perform a well-known service to the planet, absorbing a great deal of the carbon dioxide pollution emitted into the atmosphere from human activities. But when trees are killed by natural disturbances, such as fire, drought or wind, their decay also releases carbon back into the atmosphere, making it critical to quantify tree mortality in order to understand the role of forests in the global climate system. Tropical old-growth forests may play a large role in this absorption service, yet tree mortality patterns for these forests are not well understood.

Now scientist Jeffrey Chambers and colleagues at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) have devised an analytical method that combines satellite images, simulation modeling and painstaking fieldwork to help researchers detect forest mortality patterns and trends. This new tool will enhance understanding of the role of forests in carbon sequestration and the impact of climate change on such disturbances. (more…)

Male Sandpipers That Sleep Less Have More Sex

By Guest PostAugust 14, 2012Nature, Scienceamanda watson, arctic circle, electroencephalogram, electromyogram datalogger, female, Germany, hypothesis, male sandpipers, mating, mating season, max planck institute, more sex, offspring, seewiesen, sleep deprivation, sleep less, stress

A study conducted by scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Ornithology in Seewiesen, Germany has shown that the male members of a sandpiper population who spend less time sleeping are more successful at mating with females and have more offspring.

The sandpiper mating season takes place during the summer in the Arctic Circle, when the sun practically never goes down. Males of the species compete to impress females by fighting with each other, defending territory, and flying over the females while making a hooting sound. (more…)