13 research outputs found

    Photogrammetry of blue whales with an unmanned hexacopter

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    Author Posting. © Society for Marine Mammalogy, 2016. This article is posted here by permission of Society for Marine Mammalogy for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Marine Mammal Science 32 (2016):1510–1515, doi:10.1111/mms.12328.Baleen whales are the largest animals ever to live on earth, and many populations were hunted close to extinction in the 20th century (Clapham et al. 1999). Their recovery is now a key international conservation goal, and they are important in marine ecosystems as massive consumers that can promote primary production through nutrient cycling (Roman et al. 2014). However, although abundance has been assessed to monitor the recovery of some large whale populations (e.g., Barlow et al. 2011, Laake et al. 2012) many populations are wide-ranging and pelagic, and this inaccessibility has generally impeded quantitative assessments of recovery (Peel et al. 2015). To augment traditional abundance monitoring, we suggest that photogrammetric measures of individual growth and body condition can also inform about population status, enabling assessment of individual health as well as population numbers. Photogrammetry from manned aircraft has used photographs taken from directly above whales to estimate individual lengths (Gilpatrick and Perryman 2008) and monitor growth trends (Fearnbach et al. 2011), and shape profiles can be measured to assess body condition to infer reproductive and nutritional status (e.g., Perryman and Lynn 2002, Miller et al. 2012). Recently, Durban et al. (2015) demonstrated the utility of an unmanned hexacopter for collecting aerial photogrammetry images of killer whales (Orcinus orca); this provided a noninvasive, cost-effective, and safe platform that could be deployed from a boat to obtain vertical images of whales. Here we describe the use of this small, unmanned aerial system (UAS) to measure length and condition of blue whales (Balaenoptera musculus), the largest of all whales.María Francisca Cortés Solari; Rafaela Landea Briones; MERI Foundation; Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Acces

    Reprogramming of Polycomb-Mediated Gene Silencing in Embryonic Stem Cells by the miR-290 Family and the Methyltransferase Ash1l

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    SummaryMembers of the miR-290 family are the most abundantly expressed microRNAs (miRNAs) in mouse embryonic stem cells (ESCs). They regulate aspects of differentiation, pluripotency, and proliferation of ESCs, but the molecular program that they control has not been fully delineated. In the absence of Dicer, ESCs fail to express mature miR-290 miRNAs and have selective aberrant overexpression of Hoxa, Hoxb, Hoxc, and Hoxd genes essential for body plan patterning during embryogenesis, but they do not undergo a full differentiation program. Introduction of mature miR-291 into DCR−/− ESCs restores Hox gene silencing. This was attributed to the unexpected regulation of Polycomb-mediated gene targeting by miR-291. We identified the methyltransferase Ash1l as a pivotal target of miR-291 mediating this effect. Collectively, our data shed light on the role of Dicer in ESC homeostasis by revealing a facet of molecular regulation by the miR-290 family

    Methylation and accessibility profiling of GM12878, MCF-10A, MCF-7, and MDA-MB-231 using nanopore sequencing

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    Probing epigenetic features on long molecules of DNA has tremendous potential to advance our understanding of the phased epigenome. In this study, we evaluate CpG methylation and chromatin accessibility simultaneously on long strands of DNA using GpC methyltransferase to exogenously label open chromatin, coupled with nanopore sequencing technology. We performed nanopore sequencing of Nucleosome Occupancy and Methylome (nanoNOMe) on four human cell lines (GM12878, MCF-10A, MCF-7, MDA-MB-231), and demonstrate the ability to directly measure methylation and chromatin accessibility in genomic features such as structural variations and repetitive elements. The long single-molecule resolution allows footprinting of protein and nucleosome binding and determining the combinatorial promoter epigenetic state on individual molecules. Long-read sequencing makes it possible to robustly assign reads to haplotypes, enabling allele-specific epigenetic analysis across the genome. We use existing SNV data on GM12878 to present the first fully phased human Probing epigenetic features on long molecules of DNA has tremendous potential to advance our understanding of the phased epigenome. We evaluate CpG methylation and chromatin accessibility simultaneously on long strands of DNA using GpC methyltransferase to exogenously label open chromatin, coupled with nanopore sequencing technology. We performed nanopore sequencing of Nucleosome Occupancy and Methylome (nanoNOMe) on four human cell lines (GM12878, MCF-10A, MCF-7, MDA-MB-231), and demonstrate the ability to directly measure methylation and chromatin accessibility in genomic features such as structural variations and repetitive elements. The long single-molecule resolution allows footprinting of protein and nucleosome binding and determining the combinatorial promoter epigenetic state on individual molecules. Long-read sequencing makes it possible to robustly assign reads to haplotypes, enabling allele-specific epigenetic analysis across the genome. We use existing SNV data on GM12878 to present the first fully phased human epigenome, consisting of chromosome-level allele-specific profiles of CpG methylation and chromatin accessibility.mosome-level allele-specific profiles of CpG methylation and chromatin accessibility
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