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Abstract: Studies in tropical and temperate regions and in the laboratory have shown that the addition of biochar into agricultural soils has potential to mitigate climate change by increasing crop yield per area, decreasing nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions and increasing soil carbon (C) storage. The impacts of biochar on plant productivity and soil processes are, however, highly variable depending on the properties of the biochar and the soil, plant species and environmental conditions. We studied the effects of biochar addition on soil moisture, yield of Phleum pratense (timothy), respiration and N2O emissions in mesocosms with a bare mineral soil or P. pratense stand. Biochar was made from spruce chips under rather low temperatures (400–450 °C) and was mixed into the whole soil layer of 45 cm during the preparation of the mesocosms. The mesocosms were fertilized with ammonium nitrate (NH4NO3;100 kg N ha−1) at the beginning of the experiment and after each harvest. Air temperature was maintained at 20 °C during the daytime and at 15 °C at night. Soil temperature was kept at a constant 15 °C. Biochar increased soil moisture increasing soil respiration and N2O emissions in the bare soil mesocosms, and yield, nitrogen (N) content and N uptake in P. pratense decreasing N2O efflux in the vegetated mesocosms under dry conditions (surface soil moisture 20–30%). Under wet conditions (surface soil moisture 40–50%), N2O emissions increased in the vegetated mesocosms simultaneously with the decreased N uptake in P. pratense harvest. Biochar could thus benefit agriculture, especially during the dry periods of the growing season, but might also increase N2O emissions. Biochar affected N2O efflux indirectly via soil moisture and plant N uptake. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Increases in the supply of atmospheric CO2 and N are expected to alter the carbon cycle, including CH4 emissions, in boreal peatlands. These effects were studied in a glasshouse experiment with peat monoliths cored from an oligotrophic pine fen. The cores with living plants were kept in 720 ppmv and 360 ppmv CO2 atmospheres for about 6 months under imitated natural temperature cycle. Fertilisation with NH4NO3 (3 g m−2 for 25 weeks) was applied to 18 of the 36 monoliths. The rate of CH4 flux was non-linearly dependent on the number of Eriophorum vaginatum shoots growing in the monoliths, probably due to the gas transport properties of the aerenchyma. The average CH4 efflux rate, standardised by the number of shoots, was increased by a maximum of 10–20% in response to the raised CO2 level. In the raised-NH4NO3 treatment, the increase in CH4 release was lower. The effect of combined CO2+NH4NO3 on CH4 release was negligible and even lower than in the single treatments. Both potential CH4 production and oxidation rates at 5, 15 and 25°C were higher near the surface than at the bottom of the core. As expected, the rates clearly depended on the incubation temperature, but the different treatments did not cause any consistent differences in either CH4 production or oxidation. The determination of potential CH4 production and oxidation in the laboratory is evidently too crude a method of differentiating substrate-induced differences in CH4 production and oxidation in vivo. These results indicate that an increase in atmospheric CO2 or N supply alone, at least in the short term, slightly enhances CH4 effluxes from boreal peatlands; but together their effect may even be restrictive. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Temporal and spatial variation in CH4 emissions was studied at hummock, Eriophorum lawn, flark and Carex lawn microsites in an oligotrophic pine fen over the growing season using a static chamber method, and CH4 production and oxidation potentials in peat profiles from hummock and flark were determined in laboratory incubation experiments. Emissions were lowest in the hummocks, and decreased with increasing hummock height, while in the lawns and flarks they increased with increasing sedge cover. Statistical response functions with water table and peat temperature as independent variables were calculated in order to reconstruct seasonal CH4 emissions by reference to the time series for peat temperature and water table specific to each microsite type. Mean CH4 emissions in the whole area in the snow-free period of 1993, weighted in terms of the proportions of the microsites, were 1.7 mol CH4 m–2. Potential CH4 production and oxidation rates were very low in the hummocks rising above the groundwater table, but were relatively similar when expressed per dry weight of peat both in the hummocks and flarks below the water table. The CH4 production potential increased in autumn at both microsites and CH4 oxidation potential seemed to decrease. The decrease in temperature in autumn certainly reduced in situ decomposition processes, possibly leaving unused substrates in the peat, which would explain the increase in CH4 production potential. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Programmed cell death is regulated by the balance between activating and inhibitory signals. Here, we have identified RECS1 (responsive to centrifugal force and shear stress 1) [also known as TMBIM1 (transmembrane BAX inhibitor motif containing 1)] as a proapoptotic member of the TMBIM family. In contrast to other proteins of the TMBIM family, RECS1 expression induces cell death through the canonical mitochondrial apoptosis pathway. Unbiased screening indicated that RECS1 sensitizes cells to lysosomal perturbations. RECS1 localizes to lysosomes, where it regulates their acidification and calcium content, triggering lysosomal membrane permeabilization. Structural modeling and electrophysiological studies indicated that RECS1 is a pH-regulated calcium channel, an activity that is essential to trigger cell death. RECS1 also sensitizes whole animals to stress in vivo in Drosophila melanogaster and zebrafish models. Our results unveil an unanticipated function for RECS1 as a proapoptotic component of the TMBIM family that ignites cell death programs at lysosomes.

Cryptochrome 2 (Cry2) is a core clock gene important for circadian regulation. It has also been associated with anxiety and depressive-like behaviors in mice, but the previous findings have been conflicting in terms of the direction of the effect. To begin to elucidate the molecular mechanisms of this association, we carried out behavioral testing, PET imaging, and gene expression analysis of Cry2 -/- and Cry2 +/+ mice. Compared to Cry2 +/+ mice, we found that Cry2 -/- mice spent less time immobile in the forced swim test, suggesting reduced despair-like behavior. Moreover, Cry2 -/- mice had lower saccharin preference, indicative of increased anhedonia. In contrast, we observed no group differences in anxiety-like behavior. The behavioral changes were accompanied by lower metabolic activity of the ventro-medial hypothalamus, suprachiasmatic nuclei, ventral tegmental area, anterior and medial striatum, substantia nigra, and habenula after cold stress as measured by PET imaging with a glucose analog. Although the expression of many depression-associated and metabolic genes was upregulated or downregulated by cold stress, we observed no differences between Cry2 -/- and Cry2 +/+ mice. These findings are consistent with other studies showing that Cry2 is required for normal emotional behavior. Our findings confirm previous roles of Cry2 in behavior and extend them by showing that the effects on behavior may be mediated by changes in brain metabolism., (© 2020 International Behavioural and Neural Genetics Society and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

NETO2 is an auxiliary subunit for kainate-type glutamate receptors that mediate normal cued fear expression and extinction. Since the amygdala is critical for these functions, we asked whether Neto2 -/- mice have compromised amygdala function. We measured the abundance of molecular markers of neuronal maturation and plasticity, parvalbumin-positive (PV + ), perineuronal net-positive (PNN + ), and double positive (PV + PNN + ) cells in the Neto2 -/- amygdala. We found that Neto2 -/- adult, but not postnatal day (P)23, mice had 7.5% reduction in the fraction of PV + PNN + cells within the total PNN + population, and 23.1% reduction in PV staining intensity compared with Neto2 +/+ mice, suggesting that PV interneurons in the adult Neto2 -/- amygdala remain in an immature state. An immature PV inhibitory network would be predicted to lead to stronger amygdalar excitation. In the amygdala of adult Neto2 -/- mice, we identified increased glutamatergic and reduced GABAergic transmission using whole-cell patch-clamp recordings. This was accompanied by increased spine density of thin dendrites in the basal amygdala (BA) compared with Neto2 +/+ mice, indicating stronger glutamatergic synapses. Moreover, after fear acquisition Neto2 -/- mice had a higher number of c-Fos-positive cells than Neto2 +/+ mice in the lateral amygdala (LA), BA, and central amygdala (CE). Altogether, our findings indicate that Neto2 is involved in the maturation of the amygdala PV interneuron network. Our data suggest that this defect, together with other processes influencing amygdala principal neurons, contribute to increased amygdalar excitability, higher fear expression, and delayed extinction in cued fear conditioning, phenotypes that are common in fear-related disorders, including the posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD)., (Copyright © 2020 Mennesson et al.)

Pharmacological research in mice and human genetic analyses suggest that the kallikrein-kinin system (KKS) may regulate anxiety. We examined the role of the KKS in anxiety and stress in both species. In human genetic association analysis, variants in genes for the bradykinin precursor (KNG1) and the bradykinin receptors (BDKRB1 and BDKRB2) were associated with anxiety disorders (p < 0.05). In mice, however, neither acute nor chronic stress affected B1 receptor gene or protein expression, and B1 receptor antagonists had no effect on anxiety tests measuring approach-avoidance conflict. We thus focused on the B2 receptor and found that mice injected with the B2 antagonist WIN 64338 had lowered levels of a physiological anxiety measure, the stress-induced hyperthermia (SIH), vs controls. In the brown adipose tissue, a major thermoregulator, WIN 64338 increased expression of the mitochondrial regulator Pgc1a and the bradykinin precursor gene Kng2 was upregulated after cold stress. Our data suggests that the bradykinin system modulates a variety of stress responses through B2 receptor-mediated effects, but systemic antagonists of the B2 receptor were not anxiolytic in mice. Genetic variants in the bradykinin receptor genes may predispose to anxiety disorders in humans by affecting their function.

Previous studies suggest immunological alterations in patients with first-episode psychosis (FEP). Some studies show that antipsychotic compounds may cause immunomodulatory effects. To evaluate the immunological changes and the possible immunomodulatory effects in FEP, we recruited patients with FEP (n = 67) and matched controls (n = 38), aged 18-40 years, from the catchment area of the Helsinki University Hospital and the City of Helsinki, Finland. Fasting peripheral blood samples were collected between 8 and 10 a.m. in 10 ml PAXgene tubes. We applied the NanoString nCounter in-solution hybridization technology to determine gene expression levels of 147 candidate genes reflecting activation of the immune system. Cases had higher gene expression levels of BDKRB1 and SPP1/osteopontin compared with controls. Of the individual medications used as monotherapy, risperidone was associated with a statistically significant upregulation of 11 immune system genes, including cytokines and cytokine receptors (SPP1, IL1R1, IL1R2), pattern recognition molecules (TLR1, TLR2 and TLR6, dectin-1/CLEC7A), molecules involved in apoptosis (FAS), and some other molecules with functions in immune activation (BDKRB1, IGF1R, CR1). In conclusion, risperidone possessed strong immunomodulatory properties affecting mainly innate immune response in FEP patients, whereas the observed effects of quetiapine and olanzapine were only marginal. Our results further emphasize the importance of understanding the immunomodulatory mechanisms of antipsychotic treatment, especially in terms of specific compounds, doses and duration of medication in patients with severe mental illness. Future studies should evaluate the response pre- and post-treatment, and the possible role of this inflammatory activation for the progression of psychiatric and metabolic symptoms., (Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Anxiety disorders often manifest in genetically susceptible individuals after psychosocial stress, but the mechanisms underlying these gene-environment interactions are largely unknown. We used the chronic social defeat stress (CSDS) mouse model to study resilience and susceptibility to chronic psychosocial stress. We identified a strong genetic background effect in CSDS-induced social avoidance (SA) using four inbred mouse strains: 69% of C57BL/6NCrl (B6), 23% of BALB/cAnNCrl, 19% of 129S2/SvPasCrl, and 5% of DBA/2NCrl (D2) mice were stress resilient. Furthermore, different inbred mouse strains responded differently to stress, suggesting they use distinct coping strategies. To identify biological pathways affected by CSDS, we used RNA-sequencing (RNA-seq) of three brain regions of two strains, B6 and D2: medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), ventral hippocampus (vHPC), and bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BNST). We discovered overrepresentation of oligodendrocyte (OLG)-related genes in the differentially expressed gene population. Because OLGs myelinate axons, we measured myelin thickness and found significant region and strain-specific differences. For example, in resilient D2 mice, mPFC axons had thinner myelin than controls, whereas susceptible B6 mice had thinner myelin than controls in the vHPC. Neither myelin-related gene expression in several other regions nor corpus callosum thickness differed between stressed and control animals. Our unbiased gene expression experiment suggests that myelin plasticity is a substantial response to chronic psychosocial stress, varies across brain regions, and is genetically controlled. Identification of genetic regulators of the myelin response will provide mechanistic insight into the molecular basis of stress-related diseases, such as anxiety disorders, a critical step in developing targeted therapy.

We characterize allelic and gene expression variation between populations of the Glanville fritillary butterfly (Melitaea cinxia) from two fragmented and two continuous landscapes in northern Europe. The populations exhibit significant differences in their life history traits, e.g. butterflies from fragmented landscapes have higher flight metabolic rate and dispersal rate in the field, and higher larval growth rate, than butterflies from continuous landscapes. In fragmented landscapes, local populations are small and have a high risk of local extinction, and hence the long-term persistence at the landscape level is based on frequent re-colonization of vacant habitat patches, which is predicted to select for increased dispersal rate. Using RNA-seq data and a common garden experiment, we found that a large number of genes (1,841) were differentially expressed between the landscape types. Hexamerin genes, the expression of which has previously been shown to have high heritability and which correlate strongly with larval development time in the Glanville fritillary, had higher expression in fragmented than continuous landscapes. Genes that were more highly expressed in butterflies from newly-established than old local populations within a fragmented landscape were also more highly expressed, at the landscape level, in fragmented than continuous landscapes. This result suggests that recurrent extinctions and re-colonizations in fragmented landscapes select a for specific expression profile. Genes that were significantly up-regulated following an experimental flight treatment had higher basal expression in fragmented landscapes, indicating that these butterflies are genetically primed for frequent flight. Active flight causes oxidative stress, but butterflies from fragmented landscapes were more tolerant of hypoxia. We conclude that differences in gene expression between the landscape types reflect genomic adaptations to landscape fragmentation.

Wetlands are the largest natural source of atmospheric methane. Here, we assess controls on methane flux using a database of approximately 19 000 instantaneous measurements from 71 wetland sites located across subtropical, temperate, and northern high latitude regions. Our analyses confirm general controls on wetland methane emissions from soil temperature, water table, and vegetation, but also show that these relationships are modified depending on wetland type (bog, fen, or swamp), region (subarctic to temperate), and disturbance. Fen methane flux was more sensitive to vegetation and less sensitive to temperature than bog or swamp fluxes. The optimal water table for methane flux was consistently below the peat surface in bogs, close to the peat surface in poor fens, and above the peat surface in rich fens. However, the largest flux in bogs occurred when dry 30-day averaged antecedent conditions were followed by wet conditions, while in fens and swamps, the largest flux occurred when both 30-day averaged antecedent and current conditions were wet. Drained wetlands exhibited distinct characteristics, e.g. the absence of large flux following wet and warm conditions, suggesting that the same functional relationships between methane flux and environmental conditions cannot be used across pristine and disturbed wetlands. Together, our results suggest that water table and temperature are dominant controls on methane flux in pristine bogs and swamps, while other processes, such as vascular transport in pristine fens, have the potential to partially override the effect of these controls in other wetland types. Because wetland types vary in methane emissions and have distinct controls, these ecosystems need to be considered separately to yield reliable estimates of global wetland methane release., (© 2014 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

The depletion of stratospheric ozone above the Arctic regions may increase the amount of UV-B radiation to which the northern ecosystems are exposed. In this paper, we examine the hypothesis that supplemental UV-B radiation may affect the growth rate and photosynthesis of boreal peatland plants and could thereby affect the carbon uptake of these ecosystems. In this study, we report the effects of 3-year exposure to elevated UV-B radiation (46% above ambient) on the photosynthetic performance and ultrastructure of a boreal sedge Eriophorum russeolum and a moss Warnstorfia exannulata. The experiment was conducted on a natural fen ecosystem at Sodankylä in northern Finland. The effects of UV-B radiation on the light response of E. russeolum CO(2) assimilation and the maximal photochemical efficiency of photosystem II in a dark-adapted state (F(v)/F(m)) were measured in the field. In addition, the effect of supplemental UV-B radiation on organelles of photosynthetic cells was studied by electron microscopy. The UV-B treatment had no effect on the CO(2) assimilation rate of either species, nor did it affect the structure of the cell organelles. On chlorophyll fluorescence, the UV-B exposure had only a temporary effect during the third exposure year. Our results suggested that in a natural ecosystem, even long-term exposure to reasonably elevated UV-B radiation levels does not affect the photosynthesis of peatland plants., (Copyright © 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

The annual rate of CH4 release and potential CH4 production has recently been studied in the Salmisuo fen in eastern Finland but the microbiota responsible for the CH4 production has not been examined. The diversity of the methane producing Archaea was analysed, at different depths, in the most representative microsite (Eriophorum lawn) of the fen. Methanogen populations were studied using primers amplifying a region of the methyl-coenzyme M reductase gene. PCR products were analysed by denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis and restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) analysis of clone libraries. A representative of each RFLP group was sequenced. The study revealed a change of the methanogen populations with depth. Sequences from the upper layers of the fen grouped in a novel 'Fen cluster' and were related to Methanomicrobiales. Sequences retrieved from the deeper layers of the fen were related to Methanosarcinales via the Rice Cluster-I.

Carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) exchange was studied at flark (minerotrophic hollow), lawn and hummock microsites in an oligotrophic boreal pine fen. Statistical response functions were constructed for the microsites in order to reconstruct the annual CO 2 exchange balance from climate data. Carbon accumulation was estimated from the annual net CO 2 exchange, methane (CH 4 ) emissions and leaching of carbon. Due to high water tables in the year 1993, the average carbon accumulation at the flark, Eriophorum lawn, Carex lawn and hummock microsites was high, 2.91, 6.08, 2.83 and 2.66 mol C m -2 , respectively, and for the whole peatland it was 5.66 mol m -2 year -1 . During the maximum primary production period in midsummer, hummocks with low water tables emitted less methane than predicted from the average net ecosystem exchange (NEE), while the Carex lawns emitted slightly more. CH 4 release during that period corresponded to 16% of the contemporary NEE. Annual C accumulation rate did not correlate with annual CH 4 release in the microsites studied, but the total community CO 2 release seemed to be related to CH 4 emissions in the wet microsites, again excluding the hummocks. The dependence of CO 2 exchange dynamics on weather events suggests that daily balances in C accumulation are labile and can change from net carbon uptake to net release, primarily in high hummocks on fens under warmer, drier climatic conditions.