TY - JOUR A1 - Beer, Katharina A1 - Steffan-Dewenter, Ingolf A1 - Härtel, Stephan A1 - Helfrich-Förster, Charlotte T1 - A new device for monitoring individual activity rhythms of honey bees reveals critical effects of the social environment on behavior JF - Journal of Comparative Physiology A N2 - Chronobiological studies of individual activity rhythms in social insects can be constrained by the artificial isolation of individuals from their social context. We present a new experimental set-up that simultaneously measures the temperature rhythm in a queen-less but brood raising mini colony and the walking activity rhythms of singly kept honey bees that have indirect social contact with it. Our approach enables monitoring of individual bees in the social context of a mini colony under controlled laboratory conditions. In a pilot experiment, we show that social contact with the mini colony improves the survival of monitored young individuals and affects locomotor activity patterns of young and old bees. When exposed to conflicting Zeitgebers consisting of a light-dark (LD) cycle that is phase-delayed with respect to the mini colony rhythm, rhythms of young and old bees are socially synchronized with the mini colony rhythm, whereas isolated bees synchronize to the LD cycle. We conclude that the social environment is a stronger Zeitgeber than the LD cycle and that our new experimental set-up is well suited for studying the mechanisms of social entrainment in honey bees. KW - Social entrainment KW - Foragers KW - Nurses KW - Locomotor activity KW - Temperature rhythms Y1 - 2016 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-188030 VL - 202 IS - 8 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Xu, Li A1 - He, Jianzheng A1 - Kaiser, Andrea A1 - Gräber, Nikolas A1 - Schläger, Laura A1 - Ritze, Yvonne A1 - Scholz, Henrike T1 - A Single Pair of Serotonergic Neurons Counteracts Serotonergic Inhibition of Ethanol Attraction in Drosophila JF - PLoS ONE N2 - Attraction to ethanol is common in both flies and humans, but the neuromodulatory mechanisms underlying this innate attraction are not well understood. Here, we dissect the function of the key regulator of serotonin signaling—the serotonin transporter–in innate olfactory attraction to ethanol in Drosophila melanogaster. We generated a mutated version of the serotonin transporter that prolongs serotonin signaling in the synaptic cleft and is targeted via the Gal4 system to different sets of serotonergic neurons. We identified four serotonergic neurons that inhibit the olfactory attraction to ethanol and two additional neurons that counteract this inhibition by strengthening olfactory information. Our results reveal that compensation can occur on the circuit level and that serotonin has a bidirectional function in modulating the innate attraction to ethanol. Given the evolutionarily conserved nature of the serotonin transporter and serotonin, the bidirectional serotonergic mechanisms delineate a basic principle for how random behavior is switched into targeted approach behavior. KW - attraction KW - ethanol KW - Drosophila melanogaster KW - serotonin transporter Y1 - 2016 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-166762 VL - 11 IS - 12 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Rosenbaum, Corinna A1 - Schick, Martin Alexander A1 - Wollborn, Jakob A1 - Heider, Andreas A1 - Scholz, Claus-Jürgen A1 - Cecil, Alexander A1 - Niesler, Beate A1 - Hirrlinger, Johannes A1 - Walles, Heike A1 - Metzger, Marco T1 - Activation of Myenteric Glia during Acute Inflammation In Vitro and In Vivo JF - PLoS One N2 - Background Enteric glial cells (EGCs) are the main constituent of the enteric nervous system and share similarities with astrocytes from the central nervous system including their reactivity to an inflammatory microenvironment. Previous studies on EGC pathophysiology have specifically focused on mucosal glia activation and its contribution to mucosal inflammatory processes observed in the gut of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) patients. In contrast knowledge is scarce on intestinal inflammation not locally restricted to the mucosa but systemically affecting the intestine and its effect on the overall EGC network. Methods and Results In this study, we analyzed the biological effects of a systemic LPS-induced hyperinflammatory insult on overall EGCs in a rat model in vivo, mimicking the clinical situation of systemic inflammation response syndrome (SIRS). Tissues from small and large intestine were removed 4 hours after systemic LPS-injection and analyzed on transcript and protein level. Laser capture microdissection was performed to study plexus-specific gene expression alterations. Upon systemic LPS-injection in vivo we observed a rapid and dramatic activation of Glial Fibrillary Acidic Protein (GFAP)-expressing glia on mRNA level, locally restricted to the myenteric plexus. To study the specific role of the GFAP subpopulation, we established flow cytometry-purified primary glial cell cultures from GFAP promotor-driven EGFP reporter mice. After LPS stimulation, we analyzed cytokine secretion and global gene expression profiles, which were finally implemented in a bioinformatic comparative transcriptome analysis. Enriched GFAP+ glial cells cultured as gliospheres secreted increased levels of prominent inflammatory cytokines upon LPS stimulation. Additionally, a shift in myenteric glial gene expression profile was induced that predominantly affected genes associated with immune response. Conclusion and Significance Our findings identify the myenteric GFAP-expressing glial subpopulation as particularly susceptible and responsive to acute systemic inflammation of the gut wall and complement knowledge on glial involvement in mucosal inflammation of the intestine. KW - gene expression KW - gastrointestinal tract KW - inflammatory bowel disease KW - central nervous system KW - systemic inflammatory response syndrome KW - inflammation KW - astrocytes KW - cytokines Y1 - 2016 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-146544 VL - 11 IS - 3 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Becker, Nils A1 - Kucharski, Robert A1 - Rössler, Wolfgang A1 - Maleszka, Ryszard T1 - Age‐dependent transcriptional and epigenomic responses to light exposure in the honey bee brain JF - FEBS Open Bio N2 - Light is a powerful environmental stimulus of special importance in social honey bees that undergo a behavioral transition from in-hive to outdoor foraging duties. Our previous work has shown that light exposure induces structural neuronal plasticity in the mushroom bodies (MBs), a brain center implicated in processing inputs from sensory modalities. Here, we extended these analyses to the molecular level to unravel light-induced transcriptomic and epigenomic changes in the honey bee brain. We have compared gene expression in brain compartments of 1- and 7-day-old light-exposed honey bees with age-matched dark-kept individuals. We have found a number of differentially expressed genes (DEGs), both novel and conserved, including several genes with reported roles in neuronal plasticity. Most of the DEGs show age-related changes in the amplitude of light-induced expression and are likely to be both developmentally and environmentally regulated. Some of the DEGs are either known to be methylated or are implicated in epigenetic processes suggesting that responses to light exposure are at least partly regulated at the epigenome level. Consistent with this idea light alters the DNA methylation pattern of bgm, one of the DEGs affected by light exposure, and the expression of microRNA miR-932. This confirms the usefulness of our approach to identify candidate genes for neuronal plasticity and provides evidence for the role of epigenetic processes in driving the molecular responses to visual stimulation. KW - DNA methylation KW - insect brain KW - light-induced gene expression KW - microRNA KW - neuronal plasticity Y1 - 2016 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-147080 VL - 6 IS - 7 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Chen, Jiangtian A1 - Reiher, Wencke A1 - Hermann-Luibl, Christiane A1 - Sellami, Azza A1 - Cognigni, Paola A1 - Kondo, Shu A1 - Helfrich-Förster, Charlotte A1 - Veenstra, Jan A. A1 - Wegener, Christian T1 - Allatostatin A Signalling in Drosophila Regulates Feeding and Sleep and Is Modulated by PDF JF - PLoS Genetics N2 - Feeding and sleep are fundamental behaviours with significant interconnections and cross-modulations. The circadian system and peptidergic signals are important components of this modulation, but still little is known about the mechanisms and networks by which they interact to regulate feeding and sleep. We show that specific thermogenetic activation of peptidergic Allatostatin A (AstA)-expressing PLP neurons and enteroendocrine cells reduces feeding and promotes sleep in the fruit fly Drosophila. The effects of AstA cell activation are mediated by AstA peptides with receptors homolog to galanin receptors subserving similar and apparently conserved functions in vertebrates. We further identify the PLP neurons as a downstream target of the neuropeptide pigment-dispersing factor (PDF), an output factor of the circadian clock. PLP neurons are contacted by PDF-expressing clock neurons, and express a functional PDF receptor demonstrated by cAMP imaging. Silencing of AstA signalling and continuous input to AstA cells by tethered PDF changes the sleep/activity ratio in opposite directions but does not affect rhythmicity. Taken together, our results suggest that pleiotropic AstA signalling by a distinct neuronal and enteroendocrine AstA cell subset adapts the fly to a digestive energy-saving state which can be modulated by PDF. KW - neurons KW - neuroimaging KW - circadian rhythms KW - food consumption KW - sleep KW - biological locomotion KW - Drosophila melanogaster KW - signal peptides Y1 - 2016 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-178170 VL - 12 IS - 9 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Schwarz, Roland F. A1 - Tamuri, Asif U. A1 - Kultys, Marek A1 - King, James A1 - Godwin, James A1 - Florescu, Ana M. A1 - Schultz, Jörg A1 - Goldman, Nick T1 - ALVIS: interactive non-aggregative visualization and explorative analysis of multiple sequence alignments JF - Nucleic Acids Research N2 - Sequence Logos and its variants are the most commonly used method for visualization of multiple sequence alignments (MSAs) and sequence motifs. They provide consensus-based summaries of the sequences in the alignment. Consequently, individual sequences cannot be identified in the visualization and covariant sites are not easily discernible. We recently proposed Sequence Bundles, a motif visualization technique that maintains a one-to-one relationship between sequences and their graphical representation and visualizes covariant sites. We here present Alvis, an open-source platform for the joint explorative analysis of MSAs and phylogenetic trees, employing Sequence Bundles as its main visualization method. Alvis combines the power of the visualization method with an interactive toolkit allowing detection of covariant sites, annotation of trees with synapomorphies and homoplasies, and motif detection. It also offers numerical analysis functionality, such as dimension reduction and classification. Alvis is user-friendly, highly customizable and can export results in publication-quality figures. It is available as a full-featured standalone version (http://www.bitbucket.org/rfs/alvis) and its Sequence Bundles visualization module is further available as a web application (http://science-practice.com/projects/sequence-bundles). KW - visualization KW - multiple sequence alignments KW - phylogenetic trees KW - Alvis Y1 - 2016 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-166374 VL - 44 IS - 8 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Otto, Christoph A1 - Hahlbrock, Theresa A1 - Eich, Kilian A1 - Karaaslan, Ferdi A1 - Jürgens, Constantin A1 - Germer, Christoph-Thomas A1 - Wiegering, Armin A1 - Kämmerer, Ulrike T1 - Antiproliferative and antimetabolic effects behind the anticancer property of fermented wheat germ extract JF - BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine N2 - Background Fermented wheat germ extract (FWGE) sold under the trade name Avemar exhibits anticancer activity in vitro and in vivo. Its mechanisms of action are divided into antiproliferative and antimetabolic effects. Its influcence on cancer cell metabolism needs further investigation. One objective of this study, therefore, was to further elucidate the antimetabolic action of FWGE. The anticancer compound 2,6-dimethoxy-1,4-benzoquinone (DMBQ) is the major bioactive compound in FWGE and is probably responsible for its anticancer activity. The second objective of this study was to compare the antiproliferative properties in vitro of FWGE and the DMBQ compound. Methods The IC\(_{50}\) values of FWGE were determined for nine human cancer cell lines after 24 h of culture. The DMBQ compound was used at a concentration of 24 μmol/l, which is equal to the molar concentration of DMBQ in FWGE. Cell viability, cell cycle, cellular redox state, glucose consumption, lactic acid production, cellular ATP levels, and the NADH/NAD\(^+\) ratio were measured. Results The mean IC\(_{50}\) value of FWGE for the nine human cancer cell lines tested was 10 mg/ml. Both FWGE (10 mg/ml) and the DMBQ compound (24 μmol/l) induced massive cell damage within 24 h after starting treatment, with changes in the cellular redox state secondary to formation of intracellular reactive oxygen species. Unlike the DMBQ compound, which was only cytotoxic, FWGE exhibited cytostatic and growth delay effects in addition to cytotoxicity. Both cytostatic and growth delay effects were linked to impaired glucose utilization which influenced the cell cycle, cellular ATP levels, and the NADH/NAD\(^+\) ratio. The growth delay effect in response to FWGE treatment led to induction of autophagy. Conclusions FWGE and the DMBQ compound both induced oxidative stress-promoted cytotoxicity. In addition, FWGE exhibited cytostatic and growth delay effects associated with impaired glucose utilization which led to autophagy, a possible previously unknown mechanism behind the influence of FWGE on cancer cell metabolism. KW - cytostatic KW - FWGE KW - benzoquinone KW - cancer cells KW - reactive oxygen species KW - autophagy KW - cytotoxicity Y1 - 2016 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-146013 VL - 16 IS - 160 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Seren, Ümit A1 - Grimm, Dominik A1 - Fitz, Joffrey A1 - Weigel, Detlef A1 - Nordborg, Magnus A1 - Borgwardt, Karsten A1 - Korte, Arthur T1 - AraPheno: a public database for Arabidopsis thaliana phenotypes JF - Nucleic Acids Research N2 - Natural genetic variation makes it possible to discover evolutionary changes that have been maintained in a population because they are advantageous. To understand genotype–phenotype relationships and to investigate trait architecture, the existence of both high-resolution genotypic and phenotypic data is necessary. Arabidopsis thaliana is a prime model for these purposes. This herb naturally occurs across much of the Eurasian continent and North America. Thus, it is exposed to a wide range of environmental factors and has been subject to natural selection under distinct conditions. Full genome sequencing data for more than 1000 different natural inbred lines are available, and this has encouraged the distributed generation of many types of phenotypic data. To leverage these data for meta analyses, AraPheno (https://arapheno.1001genomes.org) provide a central repository of population-scale phenotypes for A. thaliana inbred lines. AraPheno includes various features to easily access, download and visualize the phenotypic data. This will facilitate a comparative analysis of the many different types of phenotypic data, which is the base to further enhance our understanding of the genotype–phenotype map. KW - phenotype KW - arabidopsis KW - genotype Y1 - 2016 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-147909 VL - 45 IS - D1 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Aurast, Anna A1 - Gradl, Tobias A1 - Pernes, Stefan A1 - Pielström, Steffen T1 - Big Data und Smart Data in den Geisteswissenschaften JF - Bibliothek Forschung und Praxis N2 - Kein Abstract verfügbar. KW - Textanalyse KW - unstrukturierte Daten KW - Natural Language Processing KW - Text analysis KW - unstructured data KW - natural language processing Y1 - 2016 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-195237 SN - 1865-7648 SN - 0341-4183 N1 - Dieser Beitrag ist mit Zustimmung des Rechteinhabers aufgrund einer (DFG-geförderten) Allianz- bzw. Nationallizenz frei zugänglich. VL - 40 IS - 2 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Goméz-H, Laura A1 - Felipe-Medina, Natalia A1 - Sánchez-Martín, Manuel A1 - Davies, Owen R. A1 - Ramos, Isabel A1 - García-Tuñón, Ignacio A1 - de Rooij, Dirk G. A1 - Dereli, Ihsan A1 - Tóth, Attila A1 - Barbero, José Luis A1 - Benavente, Ricardo A1 - Llano, Elena A1 - Pendas, Alberto M. T1 - C14ORF39/SIX6OS1 is a constituent of the synaptonemal complex and is essential for mouse fertility JF - Nature Communications N2 - Meiotic recombination generates crossovers between homologous chromosomes that are essential for genome haploidization. The synaptonemal complex is a ‘zipper’-like protein assembly that synapses homologue pairs together and provides the structural framework for processing recombination sites into crossovers. Humans show individual differences in the number of crossovers generated across the genome. Recently, an anonymous gene variant in C14ORF39/SIX6OS1 was identified that influences the recombination rate in humans. Here we show that C14ORF39/SIX6OS1 encodes a component of the central element of the synaptonemal complex. Yeast two-hybrid analysis reveals that SIX6OS1 interacts with the well-established protein synaptonemal complex central element 1 (SYCE1). Mice lacking SIX6OS1 are defective in chromosome synapsis at meiotic prophase I, which provokes an arrest at the pachytene-like stage and results in infertility. In accordance with its role as a modifier of the human recombination rate, SIX6OS1 is essential for the appropriate processing of intermediate recombination nodules before crossover formation. KW - Chromosomes KW - Meiosis KW - Spermatogenesis Y1 - 2016 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-165907 VL - 7 ER -