Project description:Three-day metatranscriptome of surface gravel plain soils from the Central Namib Desert. Samples were collected at four times (6:00, 12:00, 18:00 and 24:00h) on each day (n=12). rRNA-depleted RNA was used to construct stranded libraries with the ScriptSeq v2 complete kit (Epicentre) adding unique barcodes in TruSeq adapters (ScriptSeq Index PCR primers, set 1, Epicentre). Libraries were single-end sequenced in a NextSeq 500 v2 sequencer, with read length of 75bp.
Project description:Desert microbial communities live in a pulsed ecosystem shaped by isolated and rare precipitation events. The Namib desert is one of the oldest continuously hyperarid ecosystems on Earth. In this study, surface microbial communities of open soils (without sheltering features like rocks, vegetation or biological soil crusts) are analysed. We designed an artificial rainfall experiment where a 7x7 (3.5 x 3.5 m) plot remained dry while an adjacent one received a 30 mm simulated rain. Samples were taken randomly in parallel from both plots at 10 min, 1 h, 3 h, 7 h, 24 h and 7 days after the watering moment. Duplicate libraries were generated from total (rRNA depleted) RNA and sequenced 2x150 bp in an Illumina Hiseq 4000 instrument.
Project description:Each strain was grown overnight then diluted in fresh rich media. After three hours strains were again rediluted into either rich media or rich media supplemented with copper sulfate. After another three hours cultures were sampled, cells lysed and flash frozen using liquid nitrogen. RNA was extrated using hot phenol-chloroform, reverse transcripbed using amino-allyle dUTP and labelled with either Cy3 or Cy5 flourescent dye. Each hybridization is of a single sample compared to a reference pool contructed from all the strains with the same treatment. Labelled probe were hybridized to DNA microarrays spotted with 6144 70 bp oligonucleotides obtained from Qiagen-Operon. After an overnight hybridization, microarrays were scanned using a GenePix 4000A scanner and spot intensities extracted using GenePix 4.0 software. Bad spots were flagged based on the image. Keywords: other
Project description:The populations of the Angolan Namib Desert have been largely neglected in previous surveys of the genomic landscape of southern Africa. Although at present, the Namib is culturally dominated by Southwest Bantu-speaking cattle-herders, the region exhibits an extraordinary ethnographic diversity which includes an array of semi-nomadic peoples whose subsistence strategies fall outside the traditional division between foraging and food production and can thus be referred to as “peripateticâ€Â. Among these small-scale populations are the last speakers of the Kwadi branch of the Khoe-Kwadi language family associated with the introduction of pastoralism into southern Africa (Kwepe), as well as a range of groups whose origins remain enigmatic (Kwisi, Twa and Tjimba). Using genome-wide data from 208 individuals belonging to nine ethnically diverse groups from the Angolan Namib and adjacent areas (Kwepe, Kwisi, Twa, Tjimba, !Xun, Kuvale, Himba, Nyaneka, Ovimbundu) in combination with published data from other regions of Africa, we reconstruct in detail the histories of contact emerging from pre-historic migrations to southern Africa and show that peripatetic groups from southwestern Angola stand out for exhibiting elevated levels of an unique, regionally-specific and highly divergent Pre-Bantu ancestry. These findings highlight the importance of the Namib for understanding the deep genetic structure of Africa.
Project description:A 3 x 2 factorial design was used to elucidate the genome-wide transcriptional response to the deletion of yeast ortholog of Wilson and Menkes disease causing gene; CCC2, at changing copper levels. Homozygous deletion mutant of CCC2, which encodes Cu+2 transporting P-type ATPase required to export copper from the cytosol into the extracytosolic compartment, and the reference strain were cultivated in fully controlled fermenters in duplicates in glucose-rich defined medium containing three different levels of copper. The three different copper concentrations were selected such that; copper deficient condition, which was prepared by excluding the CuSO4.7H2O from the defined medium, low copper or adequate copper concentration, which is the standard amount of copper in defined medium (0.04 ?M) and high copper concentration (0.5 mM), which was able to restore respiration deficiency in ccc2?/ccc2? strain.
Project description:Zebrafish exposed to 2 waterborne copper concentrations (8 & 15 ug/L) in softwater for 21 days. Fish were terminally sampled and livers extracted for RNA extraction and hybridization to micorarrays
Project description:cDNA macroarray expression profiling was carried out in poplar roots in order to identify genes regulated in response to exposition to copper stress. For this purpose, plants of a Populus deltoides clone grown in a hydroponic system during four weeks were incubated in a nutrient solution (Hoagland's modiefied salt, ¼ strength) supplemented with copper (0 µM (control), 30 µM and 60 µM). Roots were sampled at 12 and 24 h after exposition in a time-course experiment.