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Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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At least 289 records · Page 16
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2023

Search for new physics in the τ lepton plus missing transverse momentum final state in proton-proton collisions at $ \sqrt{s}$ = 13 TeV

A search for physics beyond the standard model (SM) in the final state with a hadronically decaying tau lepton and a neutrino is presented. This analysis is based on data recorded by the CMS experiment from proton-proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV at the LHC, corresponding to a total integrated luminosity of 138 fb$^{–1}$. The transverse mass spectrum is analyzed for the presence of new physics. No significant deviation from the SM prediction is observed. Limits are set on the production cross section of a W' boson decaying into a tau lepton and a neutrino. Lower limits are set on the mass of the sequential SM-like heavy charged vector boson and the mass of a quantum black hole. Upper limits are placed on the couplings of a new boson to the SM fermions. Constraints are put on a nonuniversal gauge interaction model and an effective field theory model. For the first time, upper limits on the cross section of t-channel leptoquark (LQ) exchange are presented. These limits are translated into exclusion limits on the LQ mass and on its coupling in the t-channel. The sensitivity of this analysis extends into the parameter space of LQ models that attempt to explain the anomalies observed in B meson decays. The limits presented for the various interpretations are the most stringent to date. Additionally, a model-independent limit is provided.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2025

Investigating the Relative Roles of INPs and CCN in a Simulated Thunderstorm Using a New Immersion Freezing Algorithm

Microphysical processes in deep convective clouds are sensitive to the number concentrations of cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) and ice nucleating particles (INPs), but the effects of INPs are less studied. Modeling studies investigating the effects of INPs and/or CCN on deep convection typically retain a volume‐dependent raindrop freezing relation. The resulting neglect of aerosol accumulation in raindrops via drop collisions has likely produced unrealistic storm responses to INPs in past studies. To address this deficiency, a new immersion freezing algorithm was developed and embedded in a bulk microphysics scheme that freezes both cloud drops and raindrops using the same immersion freezing INP (IF‐INP) activity spectrum based on measurements. Multiple idealized simulations of a single case of deep convection observed during the Clouds, Aerosols, and Complex Terrain Interactions (CACTI) field campaign were conducted, with microphysical differences produced by independently altering IF‐INP temperature dependencies and CCN number concentrations from their observed values. Surface precipitation in all simulations resulted almost exclusively from riming graupel that melted upon descending to the surface. Rainfall and cold pools were substantially and systematically weakened with increased CCN due to decreased graupel riming rates but were relatively insensitive to variations in the magnitude and slope of IF‐INP spectra due to compensating depletion of supercooled liquid water. These compensating processes were a consequence of the accumulation of IF‐INPs in raindrops, encouraging caution in studying IF‐INP effects upon thunderstorms using traditional volume‐dependent drop freezing relationships.

CCN↗
DOE OSTI2025

Long-Lived Population Inversion in Resonantly Driven Excitonic Antiferromagnet

Van der Waals magnets are an emerging material family for investigating light-matter interactions and spin-correlated excitations. Here, we report the discovery of a photo-induced state with a lifetime of 17 ps in the van der Waals antiferromagnet NiPS 3 , which appears exclusively with resonant pumping at 1.476 eV in the antiferromagnetic state. Furthermore, the long-lived state comes with a negative photoconductivity, a characteristic optical response of population inversion. Our findings demonstrate a promising pathway to potentially achieve long-lived lasing at terahertz frequencies in reduced dimensions.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2020

Selecting Charged Current Muon Neutrino Interactions on Argon with the Short-Baseline Near Detector

The uncertainties associated with neutrino-nucleus cross section modelling need to be reduced in order to measure neutrino oscillation parameters, the mass hierarchy and CP violation to a high degree of precision. SBND, a 112 ton liquid argon time projection chamber, will be the near detector of the short-baseline neutrino program at Fermilab. Once data taking begins in 2022, it will provide flux constraints for sterile neutrino searches and produce world leading neutrino-argon cross sections with up to seven million neutrino events in three years. This thesis describes the simulation, calibration and reconstruction tools developed to measure charged current muon neutrino interactions.Backgrounds from cosmic ray muons, neutrino interactions outside of the detector and different neutrino interaction channels were identified and removed as part of this process.The signal events were selected with purity of 90% and an efficiency of 67%, providing a strong starting point for meas urements of exclusive channels. The expected statistical and systematic uncertainties on rate predictions and cross section measurements at the full 6.6×10$^{20}$ proton on target exposure were evaluated.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
NASA NTRS1990

Knowledge base rule partitioning design for CLIPS

This describes a knowledge base (KB) partitioning approach to solve the problem of real-time performance using the CLIPS AI shell when containing large numbers of rules and facts. This work is funded under the joint USAF/NASA Advanced Launch System (ALS) Program as applied research in expert systems to perform vehicle checkout for real-time controller and diagnostic monitoring tasks. The Expert System advanced development project (ADP-2302) main objective is to provide robust systems responding to new data frames of 0.1 to 1.0 second intervals. The intelligent system control must be performed within the specified real-time window, in order to meet the demands of the given application. Partitioning the KB reduces the complexity of the inferencing Rete net at any given time. This reduced complexity improves performance but without undo impacts during load and unload cycles. The second objective is to produce highly reliable intelligent systems. This requires simple and automated approaches to the KB verification & validation task. Partitioning the KB reduces rule interaction complexity overall. Reduced interaction simplifies the V&V testing necessary by focusing attention only on individual areas of interest. Many systems require a robustness that involves a large number of rules, most of which are mutually exclusive under different phases or conditions. The ideal solution is to control the knowledge base by loading rules that directly apply for that condition, while stripping out all rules and facts that are not used during that cycle. The practical approach is to cluster rules and facts into associated 'blocks'. A simple approach has been designed to control the addition and deletion of 'blocks' of rules and facts, while allowing real-time operations to run freely. Timing tests for real-time performance for specific machines under R/T operating systems have not been completed but are planned as part of the analysis process to validate the design.

Mainardi, Joseph D.↗
DOE OSTI2023

Uncovering the dominant role of root metabolism in shaping rhizosphere metabolome under drought in tropical rainforest plants

Plant-soil-microbe interactions are crucial for driving rhizosphere processes that contribute to metabolite turnover and nutrient cycling. With the increasing frequency and severity of water scarcity due to climate warming, understanding how plant-mediated processes, such as root exudation, influence soil organic matter turnover in the rhizosphere is essential. In this study, we used 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing, rhizosphere metabolomics, and position-specific 13 C-pyruvate labeling to examine the effects of three different plant species (Piper auritum, Hibiscus rosa sinensis, and Clitoria fairchildiana) and their associated microbial communities on soil organic carbon turnover in the rhizosphere. Here, our findings indicate that in these tropical plants, the rhizosphere metabolome is primarily shaped by the response of roots to drought rather than direct shifts in the rhizosphere bacterial community composition. Specifically, the reduced exudation of plant roots had a notable effect on the metabolome of the rhizosphere of P. auritum, with less reliance on neighboring microbes. Contrary to P. auritum, H. rosa sinensis and C. fairchildiana experienced changes in their exudate composition during drought, causing alterations to the bacterial communities in the rhizosphere. This, in turn, had a collective impact on the rhizosphere's metabolome. Furthermore, the exclusion of phylogenetically distant microbes from the rhizosphere led to shifts in its metabolome. Additionally, C. fairchildiana appeared to be associated with only a subset of symbiotic bacteria under drought conditions. These results indicate that plant species-specific microbial interactions systematically change with the root metabolome. As roots respond to drought, their associated microbial communities adapt, potentially reinforcing the drought tolerance strategies of plant roots. These findings have significant implications for maintaining plant health and preference during drought stress and improving plant performance under climate change.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
NASA NTRS2006

Ion-Exclusion Chromatography for Analyzing Organics in Water

A liquid-chromatography technique has been developed for use in the quantitative analysis of urea (and of other nonvolatile organic compounds typically found with urea) dissolved in water. The technique involves the use of a column that contains an ion-exclusion resin; heretofore, this column has been sold for use in analyzing monosaccharides and food softeners, but not for analyzing water supplies. The prior technique commonly used to analyze water for urea content has been one of high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), with reliance on hydrophobic interactions between analytes in a water sample and long-chain alkyl groups bonded to an HPLC column. The prior technique has proven inadequate because of a strong tendency toward co-elution of urea with other compounds. Co-elution often causes the urea and other compounds to be crowded into a narrow region of the chromatogram (see left part of figure), thereby giving rise to low chromatographic resolution and misidentification of compounds. It is possible to quantitate urea or another analyte via ultraviolet- and visible-light absorbance measurements, but in order to perform such measurements, it is necessary to dilute the sample, causing a significant loss of sensitivity. The ion-exclusion resin used in the improved technique is sulfonated polystyrene in the calcium form. Whereas the alkyl-chain column used in the prior technique separates compounds on the basis of polarity only, the ion-exclusion-resin column used in the improved technique separates compounds on the basis of both molecular size and electric charge. As a result, the degree of separation is increased: instead of being crowded together into a single chromatographic peak only about 1 to 2 minutes wide as in the prior technique, the chromatographic peaks of different compounds are now separated from each other and spread out over a range about 33 minutes wide (see right part of figure), and the urea peak can readily be distinguished from the other peaks. Although the analysis takes more time in the improved technique, this disadvantage is offset by two important advantages: Sensitivity is increased. The minimum concentration of urea that can be measured is reduced (to between 1/5 and 1/3 of that of the prior technique) because it is not necessary to dilute the sample. The separation of peaks facilitates the identification and quantitation of the various compounds. The resolution of the compounds other than urea makes it possible to identify those compounds by use of mass spectrometry.

Sauer, Richard↗
DOE OSTI2017

Crystal structures reveal a new and novel FoxO1 binding site within the human glucose-6-phosphatase catalytic subunit 1 gene promoter

Human glucose-6-phosphatase plays a vital role in blood glucose homeostasis and holds promise as a therapeutic target for diabetes. Expression of its catalytic subunit gene 1 (G6PC1) is tightly regulated by metabolic-response transcription factors such as FoxO1 and CREB. Although at least three potential FoxO1 binding sites (insulin response elements, IREs) and one CREB binding site (cAMP response element, CRE) within the proximal region of the G6PC1 promoter have been identified, the interplay between FoxO1 and CREB and between FoxO1 bound at multiple IREs has not been well characterized. Here we present the crystal structures of the FoxO1 DNA binding domain in complex with the G6PC1 promoter. Here, these complexes reveal the presence of a new non-consensus FoxO1 binding site that overlaps the CRE, suggesting a mutual exclusion mechanism for FoxO1 and CREB binding at the G6PC1 promoter. Additional findings include (i) non-canonical FoxO1 recognition sites, (ii) incomplete FoxO1 occupancies at the available IRE sites, and (iii) FoxO1 dimeric interactions that may play a role in stabilizing DNA looping. These findings provide insight into the regulation of G6PC1 gene transcription by FoxO1, and demonstrate a high versatility of target gene recognition by FoxO1 that correlates with its diverse roles in biology.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2020

Constructing auxiliary dynamics for nonequilibrium stationary states by variance minimization

We present a strategy to construct guiding distribution functions (GDFs) based on variance minimization. Auxiliary dynamics via GDFs mitigates the exponential growth of variance as a function of bias in Monte Carlo estimators of large deviation functions. The variance minimization technique exploits the exact properties of eigenstates of the tilted operator that defines the biased dynamics in the nonequilibrium system. We demonstrate our techniques in two classes of problems. In the continuum, we show that GDFs can be optimized to study the interacting driven diffusive systems where the efficiency is systematically improved by incorporating higher correlations into the GDF. On the lattice, we use a correlator product state ansatz to study the 1D weakly asymmetric simple exclusion process. We show that with modest resources, we can capture the features of the susceptibility in large systems that mark the phase transition from uniform transport to a traveling wave state. Our work extends the repertoire of tools available to study nonequilibrium properties in realistic systems.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2015

The pMSSM10 after LHC run 1

We present a frequentist analysis of the parameter space of the pMSSM10, in which the following ten soft SUSY-breaking parameters are specified independently at the mean scalar top mass scale M SUSY ≡ √m $\tilde{t}$ 1 m $\tilde{t}$ 2 : the gaugino masses M 1,2,3 , the first-and second-generation squark masses m $\tilde{q}$ 1 = m $\tilde{q}$ 2 , the third-generation squark mass m $\tilde{q}$ 3 , a common slepton mass m $\tilde{ℓ}$ and a common trilinear mixing parameter A , as well as the Higgs mixing parameter μ , the pseudoscalar Higgs mass M A and tanβ , the ratio of the two Higgs vacuum expectation values. We use the MultiNest sampling algorithm with ~ 1.2 ×10 9 points to sample the pMSSM10 parameter space. A dedicated study shows that the sensitivities to strongly interacting sparticle masses of ATLAS and CMS searches for jets, leptons + E-slash T signals depend only weakly on many of the other pMSSM10 parameters. With the aid of the Atom and Scorpion codes, we also implement the LHC searches for electroweakly interacting sparticles and light stops, so as to confront the pMSSM10 parameter space with all relevant SUSY searches. In addition, our analysis includes Higgs mass and rate measurements using the HiggsSignals code, SUSY Higgs exclusion bounds, the measurements of BR(B s →μ + μ - ) by LHCb and CMS, other B -physics observables, electroweak precision observables, the cold dark matter density and the XENON100 and LUX searches for spin-independent dark matter scattering, assuming that the cold dark matter is mainly provided by the lightest neutralino χ-tilde 1 0 . We show that the pMSSM10 is able to provide a supersymmetric interpretation of (g-2) μ , unlike the CMSSM, NUHM1 and NUHM2. As a result, we find (omitting Higgs rates) that the minimum χ2=20.5 with 18 degrees of freedom (d.o.f.) in the pMSSM10, corresponding to a χ2 probability of 30.8 %, to be compared with χ2/d.o.f.=32.8/24(31.1/23)(30.3/22) in the CMSSM (NUHM1) (NUHM2). We display the one-dimensional likelihood functions for sparticle masses, and we show that they may be significantly lighter in the pMSSM10 than in the other models, e.g., the gluino may be as light as ~ 1250 GeV at the 68 % CL, and squarks, stops, electroweak gauginos and sleptons may be much lighter than in the CMSSM, NUHM1 and NUHM2. We discuss the discovery potential of future LHC runs, e + e - colliders and direct detection experiments.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2026

SEARCHING FOR MESONIC DARK MATTER WITH THE HEAVY PHOTON SEARCH EXPERIMENT

Several highly-sensitive astrophysical experiments over the past couple of decades have demonstrated that the current abundance of visible Standard Model matter cannot explain galactic rotation curves, the expansion history of the Universe, or the apparent warping of light in empty space. Instead, one finds strong agreement with this body of experimental results upon positing the existence of an invisible particulate field, dark matter. Namely, a cold, weakly interacting dark matter component can explain all these phenomena. A number of accelerator-based experiments have been developed to search for the weak couplings/interactions of these particles, many of them concentrating on particle models with masses of tens to thousands of GeV. A relatively new, well-motivated model is a dark sector coupled to the Standard Model via a dark photon. The current abundance of dark matter can be obtained if one assumes that dark matter is coupled to light by a MeV to GeV particle with a U(1) symmetry. The parameter space of these models remains largely unexplored because they are difficult to probe experimentally. In this thesis, I analyze data from the Heavy Photon Search (HPS) detector, whose two detector halves closely surround the electron beam, providing acceptance to far-forward boosted interactions. This forward acceptance to highly boosted particles yields unprecedented sensitivity to MeV-scale invariant masses. I exhaustively optimize the offline reconstruction of the HPS detector. Each reconstruction object, from Silicon Vertex Tracker hits to tracks, is studied to maximize acceptance of dark matter events. I then use the 2021 run data to search for one model of dark-photon-mediated matter, the Strongly Interacting Massive Particle (SIMP). SIMP models provide self-interacting dark matter candidates that can form bound states resembling dark mesons. HPS can detect SIMPs through the decay of a dark vector boson (either a dark ¿ or ¿) into e+e- pairs. I obtain exclusion contours for SIMPs using both an optimized cuts-based selection and a machine-learning-based selection, advancing our knowledge of the nature of dark matter.

O'Dwyer, Rory [Stanford Univ., CA (United States).↗
DOE OSTI2019

Roots Mediate the Effects of Snowpack Decline on Soil Bacteria, Fungi, and Nitrogen Cycling in a Northern Hardwood Forest

Rising winter air temperature will reduce snow depth and duration over the next century in northern hardwood forests. Reductions in snow depth may affect soil bacteria and fungi directly, but also affect soil microbes indirectly through effects of snowpack loss on plant roots. We incubated root exclusion and root ingrowth cores across a winter climate-elevation gradient in a northern hardwood forest for 29 months to identify direct (i.e., winter snow-mediated) and indirect (i.e., root-mediated) effects of winter snowpack decline on soil bacterial and fungal communities, as well as on potential nitrification and net N mineralization rates. Both winter snowpack decline and root exclusion increased bacterial richness and phylogenetic diversity. Variation in bacterial community composition was best explained by differences in winter snow depth or soil frost across elevation. Root ingrowth had a positive effect on the relative abundance of several bacterial taxonomic orders (e.g., Acidobacterales and Actinomycetales). Nominally saprotrophic (e.g., Saccharomycetales and Mucorales) or mycorrhizal (e.g., Helotiales, Russalales, Thelephorales) fungal taxonomic orders were also affected by both root ingrowth and snow depth variation. However, when grouped together, the relative abundance of saprotrophic fungi, arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi, and ectomycorrhizal fungi were not affected by root ingrowth or snow depth, suggesting that traits in addition to trophic mode will mediate fungal community responses to snowpack decline in northern hardwood forests. Potential soil nitrification rates were positively related to ammonia-oxidizing bacteria and archaea abundance (e.g., Nitrospirales, Nitrosomondales, Nitrosphaerales). Rates of N mineralization were positively and negatively correlated with ectomycorrhizal and saprotrophic fungi, respectively, and these relationships were mediated by root exclusion. The results from this study suggest that a declining winter snowpack and its effect on plant roots each have direct effects on the diversity and abundance of soil bacteria and fungal communities that interact to determine rates of soil N cycling in northern hardwood forests.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2019

Photoproduction of J /ψ in non-single-diffractive p+p collisions

Significant enhancements of $ J/\psi $ production at very low transverse momenta were recently observed by the ALICE and STAR collaborations in peripheral hadronic A+A collisions. The anomalous excess points to coherent photon-nucleus interactions in violent hadronic heavy-ion collisions, which were conventionally studied only in ultra-peripheral collisions. Assuming that the coherent photoproduction is the underlying mechanism responsible for the excess observed in peripheral A+A collisions, its contribution in p+p collisions with nuclear overlap, i.e. non-single-diffractive collisions, is of particular interest. In this paper, we perform a calculation of exclusive $ J/\psi $ photoproduction in non-single-diffractive p+p collisions at the RHIC and LHC energies based on the pQCD motivated parametrization using the world-wide experimental data, which could be further employed to improve the precision of the phenomenological calculations for photoproduction in A+A collisions. The differential rapidity and transverse momentum distributions of $ J/\psi $ from photoproduction are presented. In comparison with the $ J/\psi $ production from hadronic interactions, we find that the contribution of photoproduction is negligible.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2024

The crystal structure of bacteriophage λ RexA provides novel insights into the DNA binding properties of Rex-like phage exclusion proteins

Abstract RexA and RexB function as an exclusion system that prevents bacteriophage T4rII mutants from growing on Escherichia coli λ phage lysogens. Recent data established that RexA is a non-specific DNA binding protein that can act independently of RexB to bias the λ bistable switch toward the lytic state, preventing conversion back to lysogeny. The molecular interactions underlying these activities are unknown, owing in part to a dearth of structural information. Here, we present the 2.05-Å crystal structure of the λ RexA dimer, which reveals a two-domain architecture with unexpected structural homology to the recombination-associated protein RdgC. Modelling suggests that our structure adopts a closed conformation and would require significant domain rearrangements to facilitate DNA binding. Mutagenesis coupled with electromobility shift assays, limited proteolysis, and double electron–electron spin resonance spectroscopy support a DNA-dependent conformational change. In vivo phenotypes of RexA mutants suggest that DNA binding is not a strict requirement for phage exclusion but may directly contribute to modulation of the bistable switch. We further demonstrate that RexA homologs from other temperate phages also dimerize and bind DNA in vitro. Collectively, these findings advance our mechanistic understanding of Rex functions and provide new evolutionary insights into different aspects of phage biology.

Biochemistry & Molecular Biology↗
DOE OSTI2021

Increasing temperatures reduce invertebrate abundance and slow decomposition

Decomposition is an essential ecosystem service driven by interacting biotic and abiotic factors. Increasing temperatures due to climate change can affect soil moisture, soil fauna, and subsequently, decomposition. Understanding how projected climate change scenarios will affect decomposition is of vital importance for predicting nutrient cycling and ecosystem health. In this study, we experimentally addressed the question of how the early stages of decomposition would vary along a gradient of projected climate change scenarios. Given the importance of biodiversity for ecosystem service provisioning, we measured the effect of invertebrate exclusion on red maple ( Acer rubrum ) leaf litter breakdown along a temperature gradient using litterbags in warming chambers over a period of five weeks. Leaf litter decomposed more slowly in the warmer chambers and in the litterbag treatment that minimized invertebrate access. Moreover, increasing air temperature reduced invertebrate abundance and richness, and altered the community composition, independent of exclusion treatment. Using structural equation models, we were able to disentangle the effects of average air temperature on leaf litter loss, finding a direct negative effect of warming on the early stages of decomposition, independent of invertebrate abundance. This result indicates that not only can climate change affect the invertebrate community, but may also directly influence how the remaining organisms interact with their environment and their effectiveness at provisioning ecosystem services. Overall, our study highlights the role of biodiversity in maintaining ecosystem services and contributes to our understanding of how climate change could disrupt nutrient cycling.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2019

Meson Photo-Production in GEANT4 for $E_\gamma = 0.225$ E γ = 0 . 225 -3.0 GeV using the $\gamma + p \rightarrow p + \pi^{0}$ reaction

The study of nuclear resonances in the intermediate energy regime requires accurate modeling of the experimental physics background. The cross sections in the GEANT4 toolkit do not adequately treat meson photo-production. The purpose of this study is to compare experimental data and theoretical models implemented in version 9.6.p02 of the GEANT4 Monte Carlo simulation toolkit for the exclusive and differential cross sections of $\pi^0$ photo-production. Two models were studied: the Chiral Invariant Phase Space (CHIPS) and Bertini Cascade (BERT). The cross section data from the models were compared to the experimental data from the CEBAF Large Acceptance Spectrometer (CLAS) of Jefferson Lab and the phenomenological Scattering Analysis Interactive Dial-in (SAID) model. Relativistic Breit-Wigner fits were used to compare the $\Delta(1232)$, N*(1520), N*(1650) and N*(1875) resonances from SAID, CLAS and CHIPS, giving agreements to within 3% for the mass of each resonance. The limited tabulated data set of BERT does not allow for an accurate description of the energy distribution, even following its improvement in version 10p02. The angular distributions of the cross sections show significant differences between CHIPS and both CLAS and SAID data, the latter being the most accurate model to describe the $\gamma p\rightarrow p\pi ^0$ exclusive cross section. Finally, the physics in CHIPS appears to be correct but it needs further development for the individual resonances contributions that could be useful since it is also the only model able to treat electromagnetically induced meson production for $A>1$.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2022

Nutrient supply controls the linkage between species abundance and ecological interactions in marine bacterial communities

Nutrient scarcity is pervasive for natural microbial communities, affecting species reproduction and co-existence. However, it remains unclear whether there are general rules of how microbial species abundances are shaped by biotic and abiotic factors. Here we show that the ribosomal RNA gene operon (rrn) copy number, a genomic trait related to bacterial growth rate and nutrient demand, decreases from the abundant to the rare biosphere in the nutrient-rich coastal sediment but exhibits the opposite pattern in the nutrient-scarce pelagic zone of the global ocean. Both patterns are underlain by positive correlations between community-level rrn copy number and nutrients. Furthermore, inter-species co-exclusion inferred by negative network associations is observed more in coastal sediment than in ocean water samples. Nutrient manipulation experiments yield effects of nutrient availability on rrn copy numbers and network associations that are consistent with our field observations. Based on these results, we propose a “hunger games” hypothesis to define microbial species abundance rules using the rrn copy number, ecological interaction, and nutrient availability.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2018

Identification and characterization of a novel calmodulin binding site in Drosophila TRP C-terminus

Highlights: • Drosophila TRP 783–862 is a novel calmodulin binding site. • The shortest Ca{sup 2+}-CaM interaction region and core CaM binding sequences in TRP 783–862 were dissected. • Ca{sup 2+}-CaM binding induces helical structure formation of Drosophila TRP 783–862. Transient receptor potential (TRP) channels are a group of essential cation channels involved in many important sensory signal transduction processes, such as light, temperature, tastes and pressure sensing. Drosophila TRP channel is the first discovered family member and plays important roles in photo-transduction in Drosophila. Calmodulin (CaM), an important downstream effector of Ca{sup 2+} signal, was considered as a vital regulator of TRP activities. In this study, we discovered a novel Ca{sup 2+} dependent CaM binding site (TRP 783–862) in between the previously reported two calmodulin binding sites (CBSs). The isothermal titration calorimetry (ITC) and the size exclusion chromatography coupled with multi-angle static light scattering (SEC-MALS) results showed that the dissociation constant (Kd) between TRP 783–862 and Ca{sup 2+}-CaM is 0.10 ± 0.04 μM and their binding stoichiometry is 1:1. In addition, the shortest Ca{sup 2+}-CaM interaction region and core CaM binding sequences in TRP 783–862 were dissected by the boundary mapping and mutagenesis experiments. More interestingly, by comparing the circular dichroism (CD) spectra before and after Ca{sup 2+}-CaM binding, the TRP 783–862 fragment showed Ca{sup 2+}-CaM binding dependent secondary structure changes, indicating that the interaction between CaM and Drosophila TRP channel may have a conformational impact on TRP structure. In summary, by identifying and characterizing a novel CaM binding site in TRP C-terminus, our findings provided a biochemical and structural basis for further in vivo functional studies of Ca{sup 2+}-mediated TRP channel regulation through CaM/TRP interaction.

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗