Abstract: Our definition of the word ‘animal’ centers on vertebrates, yet 99% of the animals on the planet are invertebrates, about which we know little. In addition, although the Census of Marine Life (COML.org) has recently conducted an extensive audit of marine ecosystems, we still do not understand much about the animals of the seas. Surveys of the best-known ecosystems, in which invertebrate populations often play a key role, show that the invertebrate populations are affected by human impact. Coral animals are the foundation of coral reef systems, which are estimated to contain 30% of the species in the ocean. Physical impact and chemical changes on the water severely damage these reefs, and may lead to the removal of these important habitats. Tiny pteropod molluscs live in huge numbers in the polar seas, and their fragile shells are particularly vulnerable to ocean acidification. Their removal would mean that fishes on which we depend would have a hugely diminished food supply. In the North Sea, warming is leading to replacement of colder water copepods by warmer water species which contain less fat. This is having an effect on the birds which eat them, who enrich the otherwise poor land on which they nest. Conversely, the warming of the water and the loss of top predators such as whales and sharks has led to an explosion of the jumbo squid of the Pacific coast of North America. This is positive in the development of a squid fishery, yet negative because the squid eat fish that have been the mainstay of the fishery along that coast. These examples show how invertebrates are key in the oceans, and what might happen when global changes impact them.
Abstract: Escherichia coli colonizes the human intestine shortly after birth, with most strains engaging in a commensal relationship. However, some E. coli strains have evolved toward acquiring genetic traits associated with virulence. Currently, five categories of enteroadherent E. coli strains are well-recognized, and are classified in regard to expressed adhesins and the strategy used during the colonization. The high morbidity associated with diarrhea has motivated investigations focusing on E. coli adhesins, as well on factors that inhibit bacterial adherence. Breastfeeding has proved to be the most effective strategy for preventing diarrhea in children. Aside from the immunoglobulin content, glycocompounds and oligosaccharides in breast milk play a critical role in the innate immunity against diarrheagenic E. coli strains. This review summarizes the colonization factors and virulence strategies exploited by diarrheagenic E. coli strains, addressing the inhibitory effects that oligosaccharides and glycocompounds, such as lactoferrin and free secretory components, exert on the adherence and virulence of these strains. This review thus provides an overview of experimental data indicating that human milk glycocompounds are responsible for the universal protective effect of breastfeeding against diarrheagenic E. coli pathotypes.
Abstract: Fumarolic Ice caves on Antarctica’s Mt. Erebus contain a dark oligotrophic volcanic ecosystem (DOVE) and represent a deep biosphere habitat that can provide insight into microbial communities that utilize energy sources other than photosynthesis. The community assembly and role of fungi in these environments remains largely unknown. However, these habitats could be relatively easily contaminated during human visits. Sixty-one species of fungi were identified from soil clone libraries originating from Warren Cave, a DOVE on Mt. Erebus. The species diversity was greater than has been found in the nearby McMurdo Dry Valleys oligotrophic soil. A relatively large proportion of the clones represented Malassezia species (37% of Basidomycota identified). These fungi are associated with skin surfaces of animals and require high lipid content for growth, indicating that contamination may have occurred through the few and episodic human visits in this particular cave. These findings highlight the importance of fungi to DOVE environments as well as their potential use for identifying contamination by humans. The latter offers compelling evidence suggesting more strict management of these valuable research areas.
Abstract: Sixteen epilithic lichen samples (13 species), collected from seven locations in Northern and Southern Victoria Land in Antarctica, were investigated for the presence of black fungi. Thirteen fungal strains isolated were studied by both morphological and molecular methods. Nuclear ribosomal 18S gene sequences were used together with the most similar published and unpublished sequences of fungi from other sources, to reconstruct an ML tree. Most of the studied fungi could be grouped together with described or still unnamed rock-inhabiting species in lichen dominated Antarctic cryptoendolithic communities. At the edge of life, epilithic lichens withdraw inside the airspaces of rocks to find conditions still compatible with life; this study provides evidence, for the first time, that the same microbes associated to epilithic thalli also have the same fate and chose endolithic life. These results support the concept of lichens being complex symbiotic systems, which offer attractive and sheltered habitats for other microbes.
Abstract: The bulk of Earth’s biosphere is cold (<5 °C) and inhabited by psychrophiles. Biocatalysts from psychrophilic organisms (psychrozymes) have attracted attention because of their application in the ongoing efforts to decrease energy consumption. Proteinases as a class represent the largest category of industrial enzymes. There has been an emphasis on employing cold-active proteases in detergents because this allows laundry operations at ambient temperatures. Proteases have been used in environmental bioremediation, food industry and molecular biology. In view of the present limited understanding and availability of cold-active proteases with diverse characteristics, it is essential to explore Earth’s surface more in search of an ideal cold-active protease. The understanding of molecular and mechanistic details of these proteases will open up new avenues to tailor proteases with the desired properties. A detailed account of the developments in the production and applications of cold-active proteases is presented in this review.
Abstract: Using an 18-year dataset of arrival dates of 65 species of Maine migratory breeding birds, I take a deeper view of the data to ask questions about the shapes of the distribution. For each year, most species show a consistent right-skewed pattern of distribution, suggesting that selection is stronger against individuals that arrive too early compared to those that arrive later. Distributions are consistently leptokurtic, indicating a narrow window of optimal arrival dates. Species that arrive earlier in the spring show higher skewness and kurtosis values. Nectarivorous species showed more pronounced skewness. Wintering area did not explain patterns of skewness or kurtosis. Deviations from average temperatures and the North Atlantic Oscillation index explained little variation in skewness and kurtosis. When arrival date distributions are broken down into different medians (e.g., 5% median and 75% median), stronger correlations emerge for portions of the distribution that are adjacent, suggesting species fine-tune the progress of their migration. Interspecific correlations for birds arriving around the same time are stronger for earliest migrants (the 25% median) compared to the true median and the 75% median.
