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Climate change assessment in Southeast Asia and implications for agricultural production in Vietnam
(2011)
For many years, the study of climatic changes and variations has become the main objective of climatic research, as has been appreciated in the IPCC's reports and several publications regarding climatic evolution on different space-time scales. Since the 80's, many research groups have generated the extensive database from which the analysis of temperature, precipitation and other climatic parameters has been performed on a global scale (Jones et al., 1986; Hansen and Lebedeff, 1987, 1988; Vinnikov et al., 1987, 1990). The most important result of these research projects is the evidence of global warming during the 20th century, especially in the last two decades. However, numerous challenges still exist about the structure and dimension of the climatic change on a considerable scale. Therefore, it is necessary to carry out studies on a local and regional scale that allow for a more precise evaluation of the global warming phenomenon. A statistical analysis approach was developed to identify systematic differences between large-scale climatic variable from the General Circulation Models (GCM), NCEP, CRU re-analysis data set and climatic parameters (temperature and precipitation data). Models are able to satisfactorily reproduce the spatial patterns of the regional temperature and precipitation field. The response of the climate system to various emission scenario simulated by the GCM was used to analyze and predict the local climate change. The main objective of this study is to analysis the time evolution of the annual and seasonal temperature and precipitation during the 21st century and in order to contribute to our knowledge of temperature and precipitation trends over the century on a regional scale, not only in Southeast Asia but also in Vietnam; the study focuses to develop a dynamical – statistical model describing the relationship between the major climate variation and agricultural production in Vietnam. This study will be an important contribution to the present-day assessment of climate change impacts in the low latitudes. Regional scenarios of climate change, including both rainfall and mean temperature were then used to assess the impact of climate change on crop production in the region in order to evaluate the vulnerability of the system to global warming. Climate change has adverse impacts on the socio - economic development of all nations. But the degree of the impact will vary across nations. It is expected that changes in the earth's climate will impact on developing countries like Vietnam, in particular, hardest because their economies are strongly dependent on crude forms of natural resources and their economic structure is less flexible to adjust to such drastic changes. In Chapter 1: Introduction and background I describe in general terms climate, climate change, climate change model with benefits and problems. Chapter 2: methodology discusses the methods including interpolation, validation, clustering, correlation and regression which were applied in the study. Chapter 3 and chapter 4 describe the database and study area. The most important is chapter 5 Results. The last is chapter 6 Conclusion and outlook followed by the reference list and an appendix.
In this work, the trap states in the conjugated polymer P3HT, often used as electron donor in organic bulk heterojunction solar cells, three commonly used fullerene based electron acceptors and P3HT:PC61BM blends were investigated. Furthermore, the trap states in the blend were compared with these of the pure materials. Concerning the lifetime of organic solar cells the influence of oxygen on P3HT and P3HT:PC61BM blends was studied. The experimental techniques used to investigate the trap states in the organic semiconductors were (fractional) thermally stimulated current (TSC) and current based deep level transient spectroscopy (Q-DLTS). Fractional TSC measurements on P3HT diodes revealed a quasi-continuous trap distribution. The distribution suggested two different traps in P3HT with approximately Gaussian energy distributions and maxima at about 50 meV and 105 meV. Thereby, the former was attributed to the tail states within the regular Gaussian density of states due to the low activation energy. The latter, deeper traps, however, exhibited a strong dependence on oxygen. Exposure of the P3HT diodes to oxygen, ambient air and synthetic (dry) air all revealed an increase of the deeper traps density with exposure time in the same manner. While the lower limit of the trap density in non aged P3HT samples was in the range of (1.0 − 1.2)×10^22 m^−3, it was more than doubled after an exposure of 50 h to air. An increase of the trap density with oxygen exposure time was also seen in the Q-DLTS measurements accompanied with an increase of the temperature dependence of the emission rates, indicating an enhanced formation of deeper traps. Due to the raise in density of the deeper traps, the charge carrier mobility in P3HT significantly decreased, as revealed by photo-CELIV measurements, resulting in a loss in mobility of about two orders of magnitude after 100 h exposure to synthetic air. The increased trap density was attributed to p-doping of P3HT by the transfer of an electron to adsorbed oxygen. This effect was partially reversible by applying vacuum to the sample for several hours or, more significantly, by a thermal treatment of the devices in nitrogen atmosphere. The trap states in the methanofullerenes PC61BM, bisPC61BM and PC71BM were investigated by TSC measurements. PC61BM yielded a broad quasi-continuous trap distribution with the maximum of the distribution at about 75 meV. The comparison of the TSC spectra of the three methanofullerenes exhibited significant differences in the trap states with higher activation energies of the most prominent traps in bisPC61BM and PC71BM compared to PC61BM. This probably originates from the different isomers bisPC61BM and PC71BM consist of. Each of the isomers yields different LUMO energies, where the lower ones can act as traps. The lower limit of the trap density of all of the three investigated fullerene derivatives exhibited values in the order of 10^22 m^−3, with the highest for bisPC61BM and the lowest for PC61BM. By applying fractional TSC measurements on P3HT:PC61BM solar cells, it was shown that the trap distribution in the blend is a superposition of the traps in pure P3HT and PC61BM and additional deeper traps in the range of about 250 meV to 400 meV. The origin of these additional traps, which can not be related to the pure materials, was attributed to a higher disorder in the blend and P3HT/PC61BM interfaces. This conclusion was supported by standard TSC and Q-DLTS measurements performed on pristine and annealed P3HT:PC61BM blends, exhibiting a higher ratio of the deep traps in the pristine samples. The lower limit of the trap density of the investigated annealed solar cells was in the range of (6−8)×10^22 m^−3, which was considerably higher than in the pure materials. The influence of oxygen on P3HT:PC61BM solar cells was investigated by exposure of the devices to synthetic air under specific conditions. Exposure of the solar cells to oxygen in the dark resulted in a strong decrease in the power conversion efficiency of 60 % within 120 h, which was only caused by a loss in short-circuit current. Simultaneous illumination of the solar cells during oxygen exposure strongly accelerated the degradation, resulting in an efficiency loss of 30 % within only 3 h. Thereby, short-circuit current, open-circuit voltage and fill factor all decreased in the same manner. TSC measurements revealed an increase of the density of deeper traps for both degradation conditions, which resulted in a decrease of the mobility, as investigated by CELIV measurements. However, these effects were less pronounced than in pure P3HT. Furthermore, an increase of the equilibrium charge carrier density with degradation time was observed, which was attributed to oxygen doping of P3HT. With the aid of macroscopic simulations, it was shown that the doping of the solar cells is the origin of the loss in short-circuit current for both degradation conditions.
Furan was recently found to be present in a variety of food items that undergo heat treatment. It is known to act as a potent hepatotoxin and liver carcinogen in rodents. In a 2-year bioassay, chronic furan administration to rats was shown to cause hepatocellular adenomas and carcinomas and very high incidences of cholangiocarcinomas even at the lowest furan dose tested (2.0 mg/kg bw). However, the mechanisms of furan-induced tumor formation are poorly understood. Furan is metabolized by cytochrome P450 (CYP) enzymes, predominantly CYP2E1, to its major metabolite cis-2-butene-1,4-dial (BDA). BDA is thought to be the key mediator of furan toxicity and carcinogenicity and was shown to react with cellular nucleophiles such as nucleosides and amino acid residues in vitro. It is well known that covalent protein binding may lead to cytotoxicity, but the cellular mechanisms involved remain to be elucidated. Since covalent binding of reactive intermediates to a target protein may result in loss of protein function and subsequent damage to the cell, the aim of this study was to identify furan target proteins to establish their role in the pathogenesis of furan-associated liver toxicity and carcinogenicity. In order to identify target proteins of furan reactive metabolites, male F344/N rats were administered [3,4-14C]-furan. Liquid scintillation counting of protein extracts revealed a dose-dependent increase of radioactivity covalently bound to liver proteins. After separation of the liver protein extracts by two-dimensional gel electrophoresis and subsequent detection of radioactive spots by fluorography, target proteins of reactive furan intermediates were identified by mass spectrometry and database search via Mascot. A total of 61 putative target proteins were consistently found to be adducted in 3 furan-treated rats. The identified proteins represent - among others - enzymes, transport proteins, structural proteins and chaperones. Pathway mapping tools revealed that target proteins are predominantly located in the cytosol and mitochondria and participate in glucose metabolism, mitochondrial β-oxidation of fatty acids, and amino acid degradation. These findings together with the fact that ATP synthase β subunit was also identified as a putative target protein strongly suggest that binding of furan reactive metabolites to proteins may result in mitochondrial injury, impaired cellular energy production, and altered redox state, which may contribute to cell death. Moreover, several proteins involved in the regulation of redox homeostasis represent putative furan target proteins. Loss of function of these proteins by covalent binding of furan reactive metabolites may impair cellular defense mechanisms against oxidative stress, which may also result in cell death. Besides the potential malfunction of whole pathways due to loss of functions of several participating proteins, loss of function of individual proteins which are involved in various cellular processes such as transport processes across the mitochondrial membranes, cell signaling, DNA methylation, blood coagulation, and bile acid transport may also contribute to furan-induced cytotoxicity and carcinogenicity. Covalent binding of reactive metabolites to cellular proteins may result in accumulation of high amounts of unfolded or damaged proteins in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER). In response to this ER stress, the cell can activate the unfolded protein response (UPR) to repair or degrade damaged proteins. To address whether binding of furan reactive metabolites to cellular proteins triggers activation of the UPR, semiquantitative PCR and TaqMan® real-time PCR were performed. In the case of UPR activation, semiquantitative PCR should show enhanced splicing of X-box binding protein-1 (XBP1) mRNA (transcription factor and key regulator of the UPR) and TaqMan® real-time PCR should determine an increased expression of UPR target genes. However, our data showed no evidence for activation of the UPR in the livers of rats treated either with a single hepatotoxic dose or with a known carcinogenic dose for 4 weeks. This suggests either that furan administration does not induce ER stress through accumulation of damaged proteins or that activation of the UPR is disrupted. Consistent with the latter, glucose-regulated protein 78 (GRP78), identified as a target protein in our study, represents an important mediator involved in activation of the UPR whose inhibition was shown to impair induction of the UPR. Thus, adduct formation and inactivation of GRP78 by furan metabolites may disturb activation of the UPR. In addition to impaired activation of UPR, protein repair and degradation functions may be altered, because several proteins involved in these processes also represent target proteins of furan and thus may show impaired functionality. Taken together...
Given a collection of diverging documents about some lost original text, any person interested in the text would try reconstructing it from the diverging documents. Whether it is eclecticism, stemmatics, or copy-text, one is expected to explicitly or indirectly select one of the documents as a starting point or as a base text, which could be emended through comparison with remaining documents, so that a text that could be designated as the original document is generated. Unfortunately the process of giving priority to one of the documents also known as witnesses is a subjective approach. In fact even Cladistics, which could be considered as a computer-based approach of implementing stemmatics, does not present or recommend users to select a certain witness as a starting point for the process of reconstructing the original document. In this study, a computational method using a rule-based Bayesian classifier is used, to assist text scholars in their attempts of reconstructing a non-existing document from some available witnesses. The method developed in this study consists of selecting a base text successively and collating it with remaining documents. Each completed collation cycle stores the selected base text and its closest witness, along with a weighted score of their similarities and differences. At the end of the collation process, a witness selected more often by majority of base texts is considered as the probable base text of the collection. Witnesses’ scores are weighted using a weighting system, based on effects of types of textual modifications on the process of reconstructing original documents. Users have the possibility to select between baseless and base text collation. If a base text is selected, the task is reduced to ranking the witnesses with respect to the base text, otherwise a base text as well as ranking of the witnesses with respect to the base text are computed and displayed on a histogram.
Over the past decades, awareness has increased of multiple health-promoting effects of diets rich in anthocyanins and proanthocyanidins and, specifically, of these compounds’ potential for conferring neuroprotection. The present study compiles evidence obtained in vitro that expands our understanding of anthocyanin and proanthocyanidin functionalities at multiple levels. Firstly, anthocyanin and anthocyanidin bioavailability was addressed using a combination of ATPase assays, dye extrusion assays and vesicular transport assays. This approach highlights the contribution made by efflux transporters MDR1 and BCRP to the absorption of berry polyphenols and to their distribution to target tissues including the central nervous system. All test compounds interacted with the BCRP transporter in vitro, seven emerged as potential BCRP substrates and 12 as potential inhibitors of BCRP. Two anthocyanidins, malvidin and petunidin, exhibited bimodal activities, serving as BCRP substrates at low micromolar concentrations and, at higher concentrations, as BCRP inhibitors. Effects on MDR1, in contrast, were weak, as only aglycones exerted mild inhibitory activity in the high micromolar range. Distinct affinities of several anthocyanins and the respective aglycones for BCRP suggest that they may be actively transported out of endothelia. Agents that interfere with BCRP activity are therefore likely to facilitate crossing of the intestinal and blood-brain barriers and to augment anthocyanin bioavailability. Secondly, novel modes of action were sought to rationalize berry polyphenols’ direct modulation of neuronal transmission as opposed to their non-specific antioxidant activities. The candidate effectors include cellular monoamine oxidases (MAO) A and B, hypoxia inducible factor (HIF), the proteasome, and phospholipase A2 (PLA2). Elevated MAO activity has long been implicated in the etiology of depression, anxiety and neurodegenerative illness. MAO inhibiting compounds may thus hold promise in the prevention of behavioral symptoms and cognitive decline. For both MAO isoforms, inhibitory effects of anthocyanins and anthocyanidins are illustrated by IC50 values in the low micromolar range whereas proanthocyanidins and phenolic metabolites were less effective inhibitors. Kinetic analyses, performed with cyanidin and cyanidin-3-glucoside, indicated a competitive interaction of cyanidin in terms of MAO A, plus a mixed competitive and non-competitive mode of interaction of cyanidin in terms of MAO B as well as of cyanidin-3-glucoside with respect to both enzyme isoforms. Thus MAO inhibition by anthocyanins and their aglycones in vitro lends support to central nervous functionalities of diets rich in berry polyphenols and opens new opportunities in the prevention of neuronal pathologies. Effects on HIF expression were examined to assess candidate compounds’ role in enhancing cellular resistance to oxidative stress. By inducing a dose-dependent increase in HIF expression, delphinidin may initiate a variety of cellular survival processes that are inhibited by free iron. This finding argues in favor of iron-chelating properties as a further means of mediating neuroprotection. Other inducers of HIF expression in neuroblastoma cells included gallic acid, cyanidin and bilberry extract, all of which may modulate HIF-dependent transcription of downstream genes.
Spontaneous neural activity has been shown to regulate crucial events in neurite growth including axonal branching and path finding. In animal models of spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) cultured embryonic mouse motoneurons show distinct defect in axon elongation and neural activity. This defect is governed by abnormal clustering of Ca2+ channels in the axonal regions and the protruding growth cone area. The mechanisms that regulate the opening of calcium channels in developing motoneurons are not yet clear. The question was addressed by blocking neural activity in embryonic cultured motoneurons by pharmacological inhibition of voltage-gated sodium channels (VGSC) by saxitoxin (STX) and tetrodotoxin (TTX). Low dosages of STX resulted in significant reduction of axon growth and neural activity in cultured motoneurons. This pharmacological treatment did not affect survival of motoneurons in comparison to control motoneurons that was grown in the presence of survival neurotrophic factors BDNF and CNTF. It was also found that STX was 10 times more potent than TTX a common inhibitor of VGSC with a reduced activity on the TTX-insensitive sodium channels NaV1.5, NaV1.8 and NaV1.9. Reverse Transcriptase-PCR experiments revealed the presence of NaV1.9 as the likely candidate that begins to express from embryonic stage sixteen in the mouse spinal cord. Immunolabelling experiments showed that the channel is expressed in the axonal compartments and axonal growth cones in cultured motoneurons. Suppression of NaV1.9 in cultured motoneurons by lentivirus mediated short hairpin-RNA (shRNA) resulted in shorter axon length in comparison with uninfected and scrambled constructs. Further, embryonic motoneurons cultured from NaV1.9 knockout mice also showed a significant reduction in neural activity and axon growth. The findings of this work highlight the role of NaV1.9 as an important contender in regulating activity dependent axon growth in embryonic cultured motoneurons. NaV1.9 could therefore be considered as a prospective molecule that could play an important role in regulating axon growth in motoneuron disease models like spinal muscular atrophy (SMA).
Structural and functional modifications of synaptic connections (“synaptic plasticity”) are believed to mediate learning and memory processes. Thus, molecular mechanisms of how synapses assemble in both structural and functional terms are relevant for our understanding of neuronal development as well as the processes of learning and memory. Synapses form by an asymmetric association of highly specialized membrane domains: at the presynaptic active zone transmitter filled vesicles fuse, while transmitter receptors at the opposite postsynaptic density sense this signal. By genetic analysis, matrix proteins of active zones from various families have been shown to be important for fast vesicle fusion, and were suggested to contribute to synapse stability and assembly. The Sigrist lab in collaboration with the Buchner lab previously had shown that the large scaffold protein Bruchpilot (Brp) is essential for both the structural and functional integrity of active zones and for synaptic plasticity in Drosophila melanogaster. The work described in this thesis investigated several candidate proteins which appear to be involved in preand postsynaptic function, as summarized in the following: (1) DREP-2 (DEF45 related protein-2) had been found by co-immunoprecipitations with anti-Brp antibodies by Dr. Manuela Schmidt (unpublished data). Mutants and antibodies for the further study of DREP- 2 were generated in this thesis. Yeast two hybrid results suggest that DREP-2 might interact with dynein light chain 2, while in vivo imaging indicates that DREP-2 might be involved in bidirectional axonal transport. (2) Coimmunoprecipitation and pull down experiments suggested that the ARFGAP [ADP-ribosylation factor (ARF)-directed GTPase activating protein (GAP)] protein GIT (G-protein coupled receptor kinase interacting protein) could interact with the endocytosis associated molecule Stoned B (StnB). Mutants in the dgit gene showed an accumulation of large size vesicles, membrane intermediates and decreased vesicle density at the 3rd instar larval neuromuscular junction (NMJ) by electron microscopy (EM). The phenotypes accumulation of large size vesicles and membrane intermediates could be rescued partially by expression of Drosophila GIT (DGIT) or human GIT in dgit mutant background. Furthermore, by immunofluorescence the dgit mutant shows specifically decreased levels of StnB, which could be restored partially by the expression of DGIT. These results strongly support the suggestion that DGIT interacts with StnB, which is involved in the regulation of vesicle size, endocytosis or recycling of synaptic vesicles (SVs). Furthermore, the dgit mutants also showed signs of a mislocalization of the presynaptic protein Brp relative to the postsynaptic protein GluRIID, which could be rescued by expression of DGIT or human GIT in the dgit mutant background, but not by StnB. These results suggest that GIT on one hand executes roles in the regulation of synaptic vesicle endocytosis, but potentially also has structural roles for synapse assembly (3) Djm-1 is a candidate locus to mediate mental retardation in human patients when it is mutated. As a first step towards an understanding of the mechanistic role of DJM-1, Drosophila genetics were used to address DJM-1 function. So far, however, the djm-1 mutant generated in this thesis did not show a nervous system phenotype.
Stroke, after myocardial infarction and cancer is the third most common cause of death worldwide and 1/6th of all human beings will suffer at least one stroke in their lives. Furthermore, it is the leading cause for adult disability with approximately one third of patients who survive for the next 6 months are dependent on others. Because of its huge socioeconomic burden absorbing 6% of all health care budgets and with the fact that life expectancy increases globally, one can assume that stroke is already, and will continue to be, the most challenging disease. Ischemic stroke accounts for approximately 80% of all strokes and results from a thrombotic or embolic occlusion of a major cerebral artery (most often the middle cerebral artery, MCA) or its branches Following acute ischemic stroke, the most worrisome outcome is the rapidly increasing intra-cranial pressure due to the formation of space-occupying vasogenic oedema which can have lethal consequences. Permeability changes at the Blood-Brain Barrier (BBB) usually accompanies the oedematous development and their time course can provide invaluable insight into the nature of the insult, activation of compensatory mechanisms followed by long term repair. Rodent models of focal cerebral ischemia have been developed and optimized to mimic human stroke conditions and serve as indispensable tools in the field of stroke research. The presented work constituting of three separate but complete works by themselves are sequential, where, the first part was dedicated to the establishment of non-invasive small animal imaging strategies on a 3 tesla clinical magnetic resonance scanner. This facilitated the longitudinal monitoring of pathological outcomes following stroke where identical animals can serve as its own control. Tissue relaxometric estimations were carried out initially to derive the transverse (T2), longitudinal (T1) and the transverse relaxation time due to magnetic susceptibility effects (T2*) at the cortical and striatal regions of the rodent brain. Statistically significant differences in T2*-values could be found between the cortex and striatal regions of the rodent brain. The derived tissue relaxation values were considered to modify the existing imaging protocols to facilitate the study of the rodent model of ischemic stroke. The modified sequence protocols adequately characterized all the clinically relevant sequels following acute ischemic stroke, like, the altered perfusion and diffusion characteristics. Subsequent to this, serial magnetic resonance imaging was performed to investigate the temporal and spatial relationship between the biphasic nature of BBB opening and, in parallel, the oedema formation after I/R injury in rats. T2-relaxometry for oedema assessment was performed at 1 h after ischemia, immediately following reperfusion, and at 4, 24 and 48 hours post reperfusion. Post-contrast T1-weighted imaging was performed at the last three time points to assess BBB integrity. The biphasic course of BBB opening with significant reduction in BBB permeability at 24 hours after reperfusion was associated with a progressive expansion of leaky BBB volume, accompanied by a peak ipsilateral oedema formation. At 48 hours, the reduction in T2-value indicated oedema resorption accompanied by a second phase of BBB opening. In addition, at 4 hours after reperfusion, oedema formation could also be detected at the contralateral striatum which persisted to varying degrees throughout the study, indicative of widespread effects of I/R injury. The observations of this study may indicate a dynamic temporal shift in the mechanisms responsible for biphasic BBB permeability changes, with non-linear relations to oedema formation. Two growth factor peptides namely pigment epithelium derived factor (PEDF) and epidermal growth factor (EGF) with widely different trophic properties were considered for their beneficial effects, if any, in the established rodent model of I/R injury and studied up to one week employing magnetic resonance imaging. Both the selected, trophic factors demonstrated significant neuroprotection as demonstrated by a reduction in infarct volume, even though PEDF was found to be the most potent one. PEDF also demonstrated significant attenuation of oedema formation in comparison to both the control and EGF groups, even though EGF could also demonstrate oedema suppression. In the present work, we noticed that interventions with macromolecule protein/peptides by itself could mediate remote oedema at distant sites even though the significance of such an observation is not clear at present. Susceptibility (T2*) weighted tissue relaxometric estimations were considered at the infarct region to detect any metabolic changes arising out of any neuroprotection and/or cellular proliferation / neurogenesis. PEDF group demonstrated a striking reduction of the T2*-values, which is indicative of an increased metabolic activity. Moreover, all the groups (Control, EGF and PEDF) demonstrated significantly elevated T2*-values at the contralateral striatum, which is indicative of widespread metabolic suppression usually associated with a variety of traumatic brain conditions. Moreover, as expected from the properties of PEDF, it demonstrated an extended BBB permeability suppression throughout the duration of the study. This study underlines the merits of considering non-invasive imaging strategies without which it was not possible to study the required parameters in a longitudinal fashion. All the observations are adequately supported by reasonably well defined mechanisms and needs to be further verified and confirmed by an immunohistochemical study. These results also need to be complemented by a functional study to evaluate the behavioural outcome of animals following these treatments. These studies are progressing at our laboratory and the results will be duly published afterwards.
The Ecology and Population structure of the invasive Yelllow Crazy Ant Anoplolepis gracilipes
(2011)
The invasive Yellow Crazy Ant Anoplolepis gracilipes is a widespread tropical ant species which is particularly common in anthropogenically disturbed habitats in South-East Asia and the Indopacific region. Its native range is unknown, and there is little information concerning its social structure as a potential mechanism facilitating invasion as well as its ecology in one of the putative native ranges, South-East Asia. Using mitochondrial DNA sequences, I demonstrated that the majority of the current Indopacific colonies were likely introduced from South-East Asian populations, which in turn may have been introduced much earlier from a yet unidentified native range. By conducting behavioral, genetic and chemical analyses, I found that A. gracilipes supercolonies contain closely related individuals, thus resembling enlarged versions of monogynous, polydomous colonies of other ant species. Furthermore, mutually aggressive A. gracilipes supercolonies were highly differentiated both genetically and chemically, suggesting limited or even absent gene flow between supercolonies. Intranidal mating and colony-budding are most likely the predominant, if not the exclusive mode of reproduction and dispersal strategy of A. gracilipes. Consequently, a positive feedback between genetic, chemical and behavioral traits may further enhance supercolony differentiation though genetic drift and neutral evolution. This potential scenario led to the hypothesis that absent gene flow between different A. gracilipes supercolonies may drive them towards different evolutionary pathways, possibly including speciation. Thus, I examined one potential way by which gene flow between supercolonies of an ant species without nuptial flights may be maintained, i.e. the immigration of sexuals into foreign supercolonies. The results suggest that this option of maintaining gene flow between different supercolonies is likely impaired by severe aggression of workers towards allocolonial sexuals. Moreover, breeding experiments involving males and queens from different supercolonies suggest that A. gracilipes supercolonies may already be on the verge of reproductive isolation, which might lead to the diversification of A. gracilipes into different species. Regarding the ecological consequences of its potential introduction to NE-Borneo, I could show that A. gracilipes supercolonies may affect the local ant fauna. The ant community within supercolonies was less diverse and differed in species composition from areas outside supercolonies. My data suggest that the ecological dominance of A. gracilipes within local ant communities was facilitated by monopolization of food sources within its supercolony territory, achieved by a combination of rapid recruitment, numerical dominance and pronounced interspecific aggression. A. gracilipes’ distribution is almost exclusively limited to anthropogenically altered habitat, such as residential and agricultural areas. The rate at which habitat conversion takes place in NE-Borneo will provide A. gracilipes with a rapidly increasing abundance of suitable habitats, thus potentially entailing significant population growth. An potentially increasing population size and ecological dominance, however, are not features that are limited to invasive alien species, but may also occur in native species that become ‘pests’ in an increasing abundance of anthropogenically altered habitat. Lastly, I detected several ant guests in supercolonies of A. gracilipes. I subsequently describe the relationship between one of them (the cricket Myrmecophilus pallidithorax) and its ant host. By conducting behavioral bioassays and analyses of cuticular hydrocarbon (CHC) profiles, I revealed that although M. pallidithorax is attacked and consumed by A. gracilipes whenever possible, it may evade aggression from its host by a combination of supreme agility and, possibly, chemical deception. This thesis adds to our general understanding of biological invasions by contributing species-specific data on a previously understudied invasive organism, the Yellow Crazy Ant Anoplolepis gracilipes. Introductions which may have occurred a long time ago may make it difficult to determine whether a given species is an introduced invader or a native pest species, as both may have pronounced ecological effects in native species communities. Furthermore, this thesis suggests that supercolonialism in invasive ants may not be an evolutionary dead end, but that it may possibly give rise to new species due to reproductive boundaries between supercolonies evoked by peculiar mating and dispersal strategies.
The Nuclear Factors of Activated T cells (NFATs) are critical transcription factors playing major roles in the control of the cell cycle, apoptosis and, probably, also cancerogenesis. Of all the four genuine NFATc family members, NFATc1 has the unique induction property which appears to be essential for T and B cell development, along with its considerable role in cytokine gene expression and function in non-lymphoid tissues and during organ development (such as in the development of muscle and heart cells). A number of studies have proved the potential role of NFATc1 protein in development of lymphomas and leukemias and provided evidence of differential expression of the same gene in different tumours (Suppression in classical Hodgkin lymphomas but overexpression in T-ALLs). Although the most commonly accepted pathway is the dephosphorylation of NFAT by calcineurin upon a rise in intracellular Ca++ leading to nuclear translocation followed by transcription of Il2 gene and related cytokines, it is quite possible that signaling mechanisms other than (or in addition to) calcineurin activation lead to NFATc1 induction as well. One of the major isoforms of NFATc1, NFATc1/αA, is the short inducible factor, produced upon full T and B cell activation. Here we used two different conditional knock-out mice as our study model. Inactivation of the murine Nfatc1 gene in bone marrow (of Cd79a/mb-1-cre x Nfatc1flx/flx mice) and spleen (of Cd23-cre x Nfatc1flx/flx mice) resulted in complete ablation of NFATc1 expression in splenic B cells. Although no severe developmental defects were found for the generation of ‘conventional’ B2 cells, NFATc1 inactivation in bone marrow B-cells led to a strong decrease in the peritoneal B1a cell population. In-vitro studies showed a clear-cut decrease in proliferation and an increase in Activation Induced Cell Death (AICD) of NFATc1-/- splenic B cells upon BCR stimulation. While NFATc1 appears to control directly the AICD of peripheral B cells, further studies revealed an effect of NFATc1 on proliferation by a sustained differentiation program controlling Ca++ flux and calcineurin activity which are needed to maintain transcription and proliferation of primary B cells. Re-expression of NFATc1 at a low dose could protect cells against AICD, whereas at a higher dose it initiated AICD. These data suggest an important dual role of NFATc1 in controlling proliferation and apoptosis of peripheral B lymphocytes. NFATc1 ablation also impaired the Ig class switch to IgG3 by T cell-independent (TI) type II antigens and impaired IgG3+ plasmablast formation when studied in-vivo by NP-Ficoll immunization or in-vitro using an in-vitro class-switch model. Contrary to the immunizations with TI-type II antigen, no significant differences were documented in Ig class switch upon immunization with NP-KLH, a T-cell dependent (TD) antigen. Taken together, the data indicate NFATc1/αA as a crucial player in the activation and function of splenic B cells upon BCR stimulation. Missing or incomplete NFATc1/αA induction appears to be one reason for the generation of B cell unresponsiveness, whereas uncontrolled NFATc1/αA expression could lead to unbalanced immune reactions and autoimmune diseases.