Oregon State University

About: Oregon State University is a education organization based out in Corvallis, Oregon, United States. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Gene. The organization has 28192 authors who have published 64044 publications receiving 2634108 citations. The organization is also known as: Oregon Agricultural College & OSU.

Implications of streamlining theory for microbial ecology

Abstract: Whether a small cell, a small genome or a minimal set of chemical reactions with self-replicating properties, simplicity is beguiling As Leonardo da Vinci reportedly said, 'simplicity is the ultimate sophistication' Two diverging views of simplicity have emerged in accounts of symbiotic and commensal bacteria and cosmopolitan free-living bacteria with small genomes The small genomes of obligate insect endosymbionts have been attributed to genetic drift caused by small effective population sizes (Ne) In contrast, streamlining theory attributes small cells and genomes to selection for efficient use of nutrients in populations where Ne is large and nutrients limit growth Regardless of the cause of genome reduction, lost coding potential eventually dictates loss of function Consequences of reductive evolution in streamlined organisms include atypical patterns of prototrophy and the absence of common regulatory systems, which have been linked to difficulty in culturing these cells Recent evidence from metagenomics suggests that streamlining is commonplace, may broadly explain the phenomenon of the uncultured microbial majority, and might also explain the highly interdependent (connected) behavior of many microbial ecosystems Streamlining theory is belied by the observation that many successful bacteria are large cells with complex genomes To fully appreciate streamlining, we must look to the life histories and adaptive strategies of cells, which impose minimum requirements for complexity that vary with niche

Freshwater Forcing of Abrupt Climate Change During the Last Glaciation

Abstract: Large millennial-scale fluctuations of the southern margin of the North American Laurentide Ice Sheet occurred during the last deglaciation, when the margin was located between about 43° and 49°N. Fluctuations of the ice margin triggered episodic increases in the flux of freshwater to the North Atlantic by rerouting continental runoff from the Mississippi River drainage to the Hudson or St. Lawrence Rivers. We found that periods of increased freshwater flow to the North Atlantic occurred at the same time as reductions in the formation of North Atlantic Deep Water, thus providing a mechanism for observed climate variability that may be generally characteristic of times of intermediate global ice volume.

Validating internal controls for quantitative plant gene expression studies

Abstract: Background Real-time reverse transcription PCR (RT-PCR) has greatly improved the ease and sensitivity of quantitative gene expression studies. However, accurate measurement of gene expression with this method relies on the choice of a valid reference for data normalization. Studies rarely verify that gene expression levels for reference genes are adequately consistent among the samples used, nor compare alternative genes to assess which are most reliable for the experimental conditions analyzed.