Institution
University of Lausanne
Education•Lausanne, Switzerland•
About: University of Lausanne is a education organization based out in Lausanne, Switzerland. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Medicine. The organization has 20508 authors who have published 46458 publications receiving 1996655 citations. The organization is also known as: Université de Lausanne & UNIL.
Topics: Population, Medicine, Context (language use), Gene, Immune system
Papers published on a yearly basis
Papers
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TL;DR: This work redefined the traditional concept of assembly rules in a more general framework where the co‐occurrence of species is a product of chance, historical patterns of speciation and migration, dispersal, abiotic environmental factors, and biotic interactions, with none of these processes being mutually exclusive.
Abstract: Understanding how communities of living organisms assemble has been a central question in ecology since the early days of the discipline. Disentangling the different processes involved in community assembly is not only interesting in itself but also crucial for an understanding of how communities will behave under future environmental scenarios. The traditional concept of assembly rules reflects the notion that species do not co-occur randomly but are restricted in their co-occurrence by interspecific competition. This concept can be redefined in a more general framework where the co-occurrence of species is a product of chance, historical patterns of speciation and migration, dispersal, abiotic environmental factors, and biotic interactions, with none of these processes being mutually exclusive. Here we present a survey and meta-analyses of 59 papers that compare observed patterns in plant communities with null models simulating random patterns of species assembly. According to the type of data under study and the different methods that are applied to detect community assembly, we distinguish four main types of approach in the published literature: species co-occurrence, niche limitation, guild proportionality and limiting similarity. Results from our meta-analyses suggest that non-random co-occurrence of plant species is not a widespread phenomenon. However, whether this finding reflects the individualistic nature of plant communities or is caused by methodological shortcomings associated with the studies considered cannot be discerned from the available metadata. We advocate that more thorough surveys be conducted using a set of standardized methods to test for the existence of assembly rules in data sets spanning larger biological and geographical scales than have been considered until now. We underpin this general advice with guidelines that should be considered in future assembly rules research. This will enable us to draw more accurate and general conclusions about the non-random aspect of assembly in plant communities.
719 citations
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TL;DR: The members of the extended GLUT family exhibit a surprisingly diverse substrate specificity, and the definition of sequence elements determining this substrate specificity will require a full functional characterization of all members.
Abstract: During the last 2 years, several novel genes that encode glucose transporter-like proteins have been identified and characterized. Because of their sequence similarity with GLUT1, these genes appear to belong to the family of solute carriers 2A ( SLC2A, protein symbol GLUT). Sequence comparisons of all 13 family members allow the definition of characteristic sugar/polyol transporter signatures: (1) the presence of 12 membrane-spanning helices, (2) seven conserved glycine residues in the helices, (3) several basic and acidic residues at the intracellular surface of the proteins, (4) two conserved tryptophan residues, and (5) two conserved tyrosine residues. On the basis of sequence similarities and characteristic elements, the extended GLUTfamily can be divided intothree subfamilies, namely class I (the previously known glucose transporters GLUT1-4), class II (the previously known fructose transporter GLUT5, the GLUT7, GLUT9 and GLUT11), and class III (GLUT6, 8, 10, 12, and the myoinositol transporter HMIT...
716 citations
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Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics1, Medical Research Council2, Broad Institute3, Harvard University4, Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute5, King's College London6, deCODE genetics7, Boston University8, University of Michigan9, Erasmus University Rotterdam10, National Institutes of Health11, VU University Amsterdam12, University of Oulu13, Lund University14, University of Virginia15, University of Lausanne16, University Hospital of Lausanne17, University of Southern California18, Imperial College London19, Ninewells Hospital20, University of California, Los Angeles21, University of Düsseldorf22, Novartis23, Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics24, European Bioinformatics Institute25, University of Eastern Finland26, GlaxoSmithKline27, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill28, Oulu University Hospital29, University Medical Center Groningen30, University of Helsinki31, Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich32, University of Cambridge33, VU University Medical Center34, Leiden University Medical Center35, Brigham and Women's Hospital36, Massachusetts Institute of Technology37, University of Iceland38, University of Oxford39
TL;DR: Variants in the gene encoding melatonin receptor 1B (MTNR1B) were consistently associated with fasting glucose across all ten genome-wide association scans, and previous associations of fasting glucose with variants at the G6PC2 and GCK loci are confirmed.
Abstract: To identify previously unknown genetic loci associated with fasting glucose concentrations, we examined the leading association signals in ten genome-wide association scans involving a total of 36,610 individuals of European descent. Variants in the gene encoding melatonin receptor 1B (MTNR1B) were consistently associated with fasting glucose across all ten studies. The strongest signal was observed at rs10830963, where each G allele (frequency 0.30 in HapMap CEU) was associated with an increase of 0.07 (95% CI = 0.06-0.08) mmol/l in fasting glucose levels (P = 3.2 x 10(-50)) and reduced beta-cell function as measured by homeostasis model assessment (HOMA-B, P = 1.1 x 10(-15)). The same allele was associated with an increased risk of type 2 diabetes (odds ratio = 1.09 (1.05-1.12), per G allele P = 3.3 x 10(-7)) in a meta-analysis of 13 case-control studies totaling 18,236 cases and 64,453 controls. Our analyses also confirm previous associations of fasting glucose with variants at the G6PC2 (rs560887, P = 1.1 x 10(-57)) and GCK (rs4607517, P = 1.0 x 10(-25)) loci.
716 citations
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TL;DR: The various epistatic effects observed here for common, distinct KIR3DL1 and HLA-B Bw4 combinations are unprecedented with regard to any pair of genetic loci in human disease, and indicate that NK cells may have a critical role in the natural history of HIV infection.
Abstract: Allotypes of the natural killer (NK) cell receptor KIR3DL1 vary in both NK cell expression patterns and inhibitory capacity upon binding to their ligands, HLA-B Bw4 molecules, present on target cells. Using a sample size of over 1,500 human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)+ individuals, we show that various distinct allelic combinations of the KIR3DL1 and HLA-B loci significantly and strongly influence both AIDS progression and plasma HIV RNA abundance in a consistent manner. These genetic data correlate very well with previously defined functional differences that distinguish KIR3DL1 allotypes. The various epistatic effects observed here for common, distinct KIR3DL1 and HLA-B Bw4 combinations are unprecedented with regard to any pair of genetic loci in human disease, and indicate that NK cells may have a critical role in the natural history of HIV infection.
712 citations
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TL;DR: It is predicted that darker wild vertebrates are more aggressive, sexually active and resistant to stress than lighter individuals, and pleiotropic effects of the melanocortins might account for the widespread covariance between melanin-based coloration and other phenotypic traits in vertebrates.
Abstract: In vertebrates, melanin-based coloration is often associated with variation in physiological and behavioural traits. We propose that this association stems from pleiotropic effects of the genes regulating the synthesis of brown to black eumelanin. The most important regulators are the melanocortin 1 receptor and its ligands, the melanocortin agonists and the agouti-signalling protein antagonist. On the basis of the physiological and behavioural functions of the melanocortins, we predict five categories of traits correlated with melanin-based coloration. A review of the literature indeed reveals that, as predicted, darker wild vertebrates are more aggressive, sexually active and resistant to stress than lighter individuals. Pleiotropic effects of the melanocortins might thus account for the widespread covariance between melanin-based coloration and other phenotypic traits in vertebrates.
709 citations
Authors
Showing all 20911 results
Name | H-index | Papers | Citations |
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Peer Bork | 206 | 697 | 245427 |
Aaron R. Folsom | 181 | 1118 | 134044 |
Kari Alitalo | 174 | 817 | 114231 |
Ralph A. DeFronzo | 160 | 759 | 132993 |
Johan Auwerx | 158 | 653 | 95779 |
Silvia Franceschi | 155 | 1340 | 112504 |
Matthias Egger | 152 | 901 | 184176 |
Bart Staels | 152 | 824 | 86638 |
Fernando Rivadeneira | 146 | 628 | 86582 |
Christopher George Tully | 142 | 1843 | 111669 |
Richard S. J. Frackowiak | 142 | 309 | 100726 |
Peter Timothy Cox | 140 | 1267 | 95584 |
Jürg Tschopp | 140 | 328 | 86900 |
Stylianos E. Antonarakis | 138 | 746 | 93605 |
Michael Weller | 134 | 1105 | 91874 |