Project description:Natural epigenetic variation provides a source for the generation of phenotypic diversity, but to understand its contribution to phenotypic diversity, its interaction with genetic variation requires further investigation. MethylC-seq from naturally-occurring Arabidopsis accessions
Project description:Anthropogenic nutrient inputs alter soil biodiversity; however, it remains largely unknown whether changes in soil microeukaryotes (fungi and protists) are primarily driven by direct effects, such as modifications in soil properties, or by indirect effects, such as plant diversity loss. To disentangle these mechanisms, we investigated the long-term effects (11 years) of fertilization and manipulated plant diversity (1, 2, or 4 plant species) on soil microeukaryote communities in a temperate grassland experiment using long-amplicon rRNA sequencing. Our results indicate that fertilization generally had a stronger influence on microeukaryote communities than plant species richness. Fertilization altered the community composition of fungi and protists, increased OTU richness by 20.8% and 52.7%, respectively, and shifted community dominance from fungi to protists. Regarding plant diversity, we observed an effect exclusively on the protist community. Changes were primarily explained by increased plant biomass (driven by both fertilization and plant diversity) and by higher soil phosphorus and lower soil pH levels (driven exclusively by fertilization). Regarding life strategies, we observed synergistic treatment effects: fertilization primarily enhanced fungal saprophytes (only richness), fungal animal pathogens, and protist consumers, whereas plant diversity affected phototrophic protists (reduction) and protist animal pathogens (enhancement). Notably, fertilization and plant diversity decline together led to a cumulative increase in fungal plant pathogens. In conclusion, we highlight that fertilisation alone has a significant effect on soil microeukaryotes, while the additional decline in plant diversity affects different soil groups that are not directly affected by fertilisation. This synergistic pattern indicates that fertilization can influence the entire microeukaryote community through direct and indirect mechanisms, with a cumulative enhancement on certain groups, such as plant pathogens.
Project description:Comparative genomic hybridisation of Streptococcus pneumoniae isolates from a single clonal complex, in order to determine genomic diversity. Isolates were selected from a range of tissue types and serotypes in order to cover the full diversity of the clone, and also in order to try and identify tissue-specific genes
Project description:The Global Diversity lines are a resource collection of 87 strains of Drosophila melanogaster (Grenier JK et al 2015. PMID 25673134). In this experiment, whole adult flies from the Global Diversity Lines (87 inbred lines derived from natural populations) were profiled using a spotted-oligo microarray to determine natural variation in gene expression patterns.
Project description:There are very few studies exploring the genetic diversity of tick-borne encephalitis complex viruses. Most of the viruses have been sequenced using capillary electrophoresis, however, very few viruses have been analyzed using deep sequencing to look at the genotypes in each virus population. In this study, different viruses and strains belonging to the tick-borne encephalitis complex were sequenced and genetic diversity was analyzed. Shannon entropy and single nucleotide variants were used to compare the viruses. Then genetic diversity was compared to the phylogenetic relationship of the viruses.
Project description:ZIKV strains belong to three phylogenetic lineages: East African, West African, and Asian/American. RNA virus genomes exist as populations of genetically-related sequences whose heterogeneity may impact viral fitness, evolution, and virulence. The genetic diversity of representative ZIKVs (N=7) from each lineage was examined using next generation sequencing (NGS) paired with downstream Shannon entropy calculation and single nucleotide variant (SNV) analysis. This comprehensive analysis of ZIKV genetic diversity provides insight into the genetic diversity of ZKIV and repository of SNV positions across lineages.
Project description:DNA duplication is intimately connected to setting up post-replicative chromosome structures and events, but molecular details of this coordination are not well understood. A striking example occurs during yeast meiosis, where replication locally influences timing of the DNA double-strand breaks (DSBs) that initiate recombination. We show here that replication-DSB coordination is eliminated by overexpressing Dbf4-dependent Cdc7 kinase (DDK) or removing Tof1 or Csm3, components of the replication fork protection complex (FPC). DDK physically associates with Tof1, and Tof1 is dispensable for replication-DSB coordination if DDK is artificially tethered to replisomes. Furthermore, DDK phosphorylation of the DSB-promoting factor Mer2 is locally coordinated with replication, dependent on Tof1. These findings indicate that DDK recruited by FPC to replisomes phosphorylates chromatin-bound Mer2 in the wake of the replication fork, thus synchronizing replication with an early prerequisite for DSB formation. This may be a general mechanism to ensure spatial and temporal coordination of replication with other chromosomal processes. Ninety-six samples total: 12 time points (each time points contains ChIP and input samples) from Rec114-myc ARS+, Rec114-myc arsM-bM-^HM-^F strains, Rec114-myc tof1M-bM-^HM-^FARS+ and Rec114-myc tof1M-bM-^HM-^F arsM-bM-^HM-^F strains