Category: Papers by CGEB labs

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Whole-of-society approach for public health policymaking: a case study of polycentric governance from Quebec, Canada.

Ann N Y Acad Sci. 2014 Dec;1331:216-29

Authors: Addy NA, Poirier A, Blouin C, Drager N, Dubé L

Abstract
In adopting a whole-of-society (WoS) approach that engages multiple stakeholders in public health policies across contexts, the authors propose that effective governance presents a challenge. The purpose of this paper is to highlight a case for how polycentric governance underlying the WoS approach is already functioning, while outlining an agenda to enable adaptive learning for improving such governance processes. Drawing upon a case study from Quebec, Canada, we employ empirically developed concepts from extensive, decades-long work of the 2009 Nobel laureate Elinor Ostrom in the governance of policy in nonhealth domains to analyze early efforts at polycentric governance in policies around overnutrition, highlighting interactions between international, domestic, state and nonstate actors and processes. Using information from primary and secondary sources, we analyze the emergence of the broader policy context of Quebec’s public health system in the 20th century. We present a microsituational analysis of the WoS approach for Quebec’s 21st century policies on healthy lifestyles, emphasizing the role of governance at the community level. We argue for rethinking prescriptive policy analysis of the 20th century, proposing an agenda for diagnostic policy analysis, which explicates the multiple sets of actors and interacting variables shaping polycentric governance for operationalizing the WoS approach to policymaking in specific contexts.

PMID: 25118135 [PubMed – indexed for MEDLINE]

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From policy coherence to 21st century convergence: a whole-of-society paradigm of human and economic development.

Ann N Y Acad Sci. 2014 Dec;1331:201-15

Authors: Dubé L, Addy NA, Blouin C, Drager N

Abstract
The 20th century saw accelerated human and economic development, with increased convergence in income, wealth, and living standards around the world. For a large part, owing to the well-entrenched Western-centric linear and siloed industrialization pattern, this positive transformation has also been associated with complex societal challenges at the nexus of agricultural, industrial, and health sectors. Efforts at cross-sectoral policy coherence have been deployed with limited success. To go beyond what has been possible thus far, the whole-of-society (WoS) paradigm for human and economic development proposes a 21st century convergence where, instead of the rest (of the world) converging with the West, sectoral and cross-sectoral efforts converge in their single and collective policy and action on a common target of human and economic development. In this paper, we first review and discuss contributions and limitations of policy coherence approaches. We then elaborate the institutional foundation of the WoS paradigm, taking as an anchor the well-established model of polycentric governance that views individuals, and state, market, and community, forming society as part of the same complex adaptive system. Actors within such systems self-organize into nested hierarchies that operate at multiple scales and move toward 21st century convergence of human and economic development.

PMID: 25146105 [PubMed – indexed for MEDLINE]

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Large-scale phylogenomic analysis reveals the phylogenetic position of the problematic taxon Protocruzia and unravels the deep phylogenetic affinities of the ciliate lineages.
Mol Phylogenet Evol. 2014 Sep;…

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Nucleomorph and plastid genome sequences of the chlorarachniophyte Lotharella oceanica: convergent reductive evolution and frequent recombination in nucleomorph-bearing algae.

BMC Genomics. 2014;15:374

Authors: Tanifuji G, Onodera NT, Brown MW, Curtis BA, Roger AJ, Ka-Shu Wong G, Melkonian M, Archibald JM

Abstract
BACKGROUND: Nucleomorphs are residual nuclei derived from eukaryotic endosymbionts in chlorarachniophyte and cryptophyte algae. The endosymbionts that gave rise to nucleomorphs and plastids in these two algal groups were green and red algae, respectively. Despite their independent origin, the chlorarachniophyte and cryptophyte nucleomorph genomes share similar genomic features such as extreme size reduction and a three-chromosome architecture. This suggests that similar reductive evolutionary forces have acted to shape the nucleomorph genomes in the two groups. Thus far, however, only a single chlorarachniophyte nucleomorph and plastid genome has been sequenced, making broad evolutionary inferences within the chlorarachniophytes and between chlorarachniophytes and cryptophytes difficult. We have sequenced the nucleomorph and plastid genomes of the chlorarachniophyte Lotharella oceanica in order to gain insight into nucleomorph and plastid genome diversity and evolution.
RESULTS: The L. oceanica nucleomorph genome was found to consist of three linear chromosomes totaling ~610 kilobase pairs (kbp), much larger than the 373 kbp nucleomorph genome of the model chlorarachniophyte Bigelowiella natans. The L. oceanica plastid genome is 71 kbp in size, similar to that of B. natans. Unexpectedly long (~35 kbp) sub-telomeric repeat regions were identified in the L. oceanica nucleomorph genome; internal multi-copy regions were also detected. Gene content analyses revealed that nucleomorph house-keeping genes and spliceosomal intron positions are well conserved between the L. oceanica and B. natans nucleomorph genomes. More broadly, gene retention patterns were found to be similar between nucleomorph genomes in chlorarachniophytes and cryptophytes. Chlorarachniophyte plastid genomes showed near identical protein coding gene complements as well as a high level of synteny.
CONCLUSIONS: We have provided insight into the process of nucleomorph genome evolution by elucidating the fine-scale dynamics of sub-telomeric repeat regions. Homologous recombination at the chromosome ends appears to be frequent, serving to expand and contract nucleomorph genome size. The main factor influencing nucleomorph genome size variation between different chlorarachniophyte species appears to be expansion-contraction of these telomere-associated repeats rather than changes in the number of unique protein coding genes. The dynamic nature of chlorarachniophyte nucleomorph genomes lies in stark contrast to their plastid genomes, which appear to be highly stable in terms of gene content and synteny.

PMID: 24885563 [PubMed – indexed for MEDLINE]

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Overexpression of molecular chaperone genes in nucleomorph genomes.
Mol Biol Evol. 2014 Jun;31(6):1437-43
Authors: Hirakawa Y, Suzuki S, Archibald JM, Keeling PJ, Ishida K
Abstract
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How natural a kind is “eukaryote?”.
Cold Spring Harb Perspect Biol. 2014 Jun;6(6)
Authors: Doolittle WF
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