Nicolas Mouquet

Oct 18, 2024 | nature.com | David Mouillot |Laure Velez |Camille Albouy |Nicolas Casajus |Joachim Claudet |Vincent Delbar | +14 more

The global network of protected areas has rapidly expanded in the past decade and is expected to cover at least 30% of land and sea by 2030 to halt biodiversity erosion. Yet, the distribution of protected areas is highly heterogeneous on Earth and the social-environmental preconditions enabling or hindering protected area establishment remain poorly understood. Here, using fourteen socioeconomic and environmental factors, we characterize the multidimensional niche of terrestrial and marine protected areas, which we use to accurately establish, at the global scale, whether a particular location has preconditions favourable for paestablishment. We reveal that protected areas, particularly the most restrictive ones, over-aggregate where human development and the number of non-governmental organizations are high. Based on the spatial distribution of vertebrates and the likelihood to convert non-protected areas into strictly protected areas, we identify ‘potential’ versus ‘unrealistic’ conservation gains on land and sea, which we define as areas of high vertebrate diversity that are, respectively, favourable and unfavourable to protected area establishment. Where protected areas are unrealistic, alternative strategies such as other effective area-based conservation measures or privately protected areas, could deliver conservation outcomes. In this study, the authors show that the placement of protected areas is globally highly heterogenous but can be accurately predicted from a reduced set of socioeconomic and environmental factors. These predictions highlight that most unprotected areas critical for the conservation of vertebrates are located in unfavourable conditions to establish future protected areas.

Jul 17, 2024 | science.org | Mahim Lele |Nicolas Mouquet |Dan Wu |Rafal Zdanowicz

AbstractThe pyruvate dehydrogenase complex (PDHc) is a key megaenzyme linking glycolysis with the citric acid cycle. In mammalian PDHc, dihydrolipoamide acetyltransferase (E2) and the dihydrolipoamide dehydrogenase-binding protein (E3BP) form a 60-subunit core that associates with the peripheral subunits pyruvate dehydrogenase (E1) and dihydrolipoamide dehydrogenase (E3). The structure and stoichiometry of the fully assembled, mammalian PDHc or its core remained elusive.

Jul 17, 2024 | science.org | Mahim Lele |Nicolas Mouquet |Dan Wu |Dong-Liang Huang

AbstractChemical ligation of peptides is increasingly used to generate proteins not readily accessible by recombinant approaches. However, a robust method to ligate “difficult” peptides remains to be developed. Here, we report an enhanced native chemical ligation strategy mediated by peptide conjugation in trifluoroacetic acid (TFA).

Jul 17, 2024 | science.org | Mahim Lele |Nicolas Mouquet |Dan Wu |Xiaomin Jiang

AbstractThe low success rate of cancer nanomedicines has raised debate on the role of the enhanced permeability and retention (EPR) effect on tumor deposition of nanotherapeutics. Here, we report a bifunctional nanoscale coordination polymer (NCP), oxaliplatin (OX)/2′,3′-cyclic guanosine monophosphate–adenosine monophosphate (GA), to overcome the EPR limitation through stimulator of interferon genes (STING) activation and enhance chemotherapeutic and STING agonist delivery for tumor eradication.

Jul 17, 2024 | science.org | Mahim Lele |Nicolas Mouquet |Dan Wu |Manish Kumar

AbstractDiatoms are major players in the global carbon cycle, and their metabolism is affected by ocean conditions. Understanding the impact of changing inorganic nutrients in the oceans on diatoms is crucial, given the changes in global carbon dioxide levels. Here, we present a genome-scale metabolic model (iMK1961) for Cylindrotheca closterium, an in silico resource to understand uncharacterized metabolic functions in this ubiquitous diatom.