Article
Microbiology
Janina C. Vogt, Jana L. Olefeld, Christina Bock, Jens Boenigk, Dirk C. Albach
Summary: The study in Europe investigated protist freshwater communities in 256 lakes, comparing alpine and lowland lakes and finding gradients of diversity with decreasing richness and diversity at higher altitudes. Alpine specialists and generalists show differences in richness and diversity, indicating potential separate glacial refugia or post-glacial diversification within mountain ranges. Generalists with wide distribution ranges are identified as main drivers of protist diversification in alpine lakes.
Article
Fisheries
Tolga Sahin, Sevdan Yilmaz, Irfan Selcuk Yazici, Selcuk Berber
Summary: The present study showed that dietary supplementation of PHB did not affect the growth parameters of rainbow trout fingerlings, but significantly reduced total coliform counts and increased intestinal villus length and width. This suggests that PHB can be used as an alternative microbial control agent for improving intestinal health in rainbow trout.
JOURNAL OF THE WORLD AQUACULTURE SOCIETY
(2021)
Article
Plant Sciences
Goncalo Silva, Moritz Bomer, Aliyu A. Turaki, Chukwuemeka K. Nkere, P. Lava Kumar, Susan E. Seal
Summary: Badnaviruses are serious pathogens of global crops, and their endogenous sequences pose challenges to nucleic acid-based diagnostic methods and international germplasm movement. Yam is a major affected food security crop, and this study developed a PCR-DGGE method to detect and analyze endogenous badnaviral sequences in yam.
FRONTIERS IN PLANT SCIENCE
(2022)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Jia Li, Xia Wang, Jin Hong Wu, Yu Xin Sun, Yuan Ye Zhang, Yun Fei Zhao, Zheng Huang, Wen Hui Duan
Summary: Fungi play a key role in plant growth, soil improvement, and fertility in ecosystems. This study analyzed the soil fungal diversity and ecological processes in alpine grasslands at different altitudinal gradients on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. The results showed that the diversity of soil fungal communities varied significantly with altitude, and dispersal limitation was a major ecological control process. The study also identified soil geochemical factors and climatic factors as key drivers for the composition of the fungal community in different altitude regions.
SCIENCE OF THE TOTAL ENVIRONMENT
(2023)
Article
Agronomy
John Farmer, Patrick A. Sawyerr, Jingkuan Wang
Summary: Agronomic practices such as long-term plastic film mulching and fertilization significantly influence soil microbial communities. Ammonia-oxidizing archaea dominate in areas where these practices are employed, especially in non-fertilized treatments, leading to increased bacterial richness.
ARCHIVES OF AGRONOMY AND SOIL SCIENCE
(2022)
Article
Engineering, Environmental
Shuai Liu, Jiaxin Cheng, Hairong You, Wei Chong, Minggang Zheng, Qinsheng Wei, Weijian Liu, Hui Chen, Xuan Li, Huan Liu
Summary: This study characterized the abundance, microbial composition, and diversity of ammonia-oxidizing archaea (AOA) and ammonia-oxidizing bacteria (AOB) in marine sediments from the Bohai Sea, Yellow Sea, and East China Sea. The results showed higher abundances of AOA genes compared to AOB genes, indicating a greater contribution of AOA to nitrification. Distinct distribution patterns of AOA and AOB communities were observed in sediments from the three seas, which were influenced by ammonia and nitrate content. These findings provide important insights into the nitrogen transformation in the marine ecosystem and the factors shaping the assembly of aerobic ammonium oxidizers.
JOURNAL OF WATER PROCESS ENGINEERING
(2023)
Article
Energy & Fuels
Jun Wang, Xiaopeng Cao, Zhigang Sun, Hongxin Zhang
Summary: The feasibility of using biogas to enhance oil recovery in the hypersaline Qinghai oil field was studied. The use of molasses as a carbon source effectively promoted gas production. Addition of nitrate eliminated sulfate-reducing bacteria, which had a significant impact on the application of MEOR.
PETROLEUM SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
(2023)
Article
Soil Science
Sara Peixoto, Jacinta M. M. Oliveira, Isabel Henriques, Rui G. Morgado, Amadeu M. V. M. Soares, Susana Loureiro
Summary: The study found that AgNPs affected the structure and tolerance of SBC, but did not increase tolerance on a second exposure. AgNO3 was more effective in inhibiting SBC growth than AgNPs, both in a dose-dependent manner.
APPLIED SOIL ECOLOGY
(2022)
Article
Environmental Sciences
J. J. Gonzalez-Cortes, A. Valle, M. Ramirez, D. Cantero
Summary: Nitrification-denitrification is an environmentally friendly and cost-effective method for treating landfill leachates. This study found that the nitritation rates of nitrifying biomass were reduced after adaptation to landfill leachates with heavy metals and high salt concentrations. The analysis of biomass samples revealed the presence of specific bacterial genera and families involved in nitritation and denitrification processes.
WASTE AND BIOMASS VALORIZATION
(2022)
Article
Biodiversity Conservation
Jennifer Auld, Susan E. Everingham, Frank A. Hemmings, Angela T. Moles
Summary: The study reveals that Australian alpine plant species are shifting rapidly to higher elevations in response to climate change. This could potentially help the species to adapt and persist, but if current warming trends continue, several species within the Australian alpine zone may lose suitable habitat in the future.
DIVERSITY AND DISTRIBUTIONS
(2022)
Review
Food Science & Technology
Aly Farag El Sheikha
Summary: Edible bird's nest is a valuable food product with high nutritional and medicinal value, attracting global attention. The nutritional components and medicinal functions of edible bird's nest vary depending on geographical origin. PCR-DGGE technique is an effective and universal tool for geo-tracing edible bird's nest quality and safety.
FOOD RESEARCH INTERNATIONAL
(2021)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Anne Bartels, Ulrike G. Berninger, Florian Hohenberger, Stephen Wickham, Jana S. Petermann
Summary: The study demonstrates that habitat parameters (lake size, habitat type) have a major influence on the structure of benthic macroinvertebrate communities in alpine lakes, while elevation itself does not have significant effects on the communities. However, under climate change scenarios, habitat parameters are likely to change and this may impact alpine lake macroinvertebrates.
Article
Engineering, Geological
Hao Wang, Peng Cui, Liqin Zhou, Weiming Liu, Anna Yang, Shunyu Yao, Zhenni Jiang
Summary: This study examines the reconstruction of prehistoric extreme events in the Eastern Himalayan Syntaxis region and its surrounding areas, focusing on analyzing the ages and magnitudes recorded in landforms and sediments to estimate the expected time for the repetition of catastrophic events. The research identified sedimentary evidence and glacier-dammed lakes in the valley, providing insights into the formation processes of these lakes. Most of the identified landslide-dammed lakes occurred during deglaciation, and climate factors along with river incision rates played important roles in preconditioning the landslides.
ENGINEERING GEOLOGY
(2022)
Article
Microbiology
Junpeng Rui, Yuwei Zhao, Nan Cong, Fuxin Wang, Chao Li, Xiang Liu, Jingjing Hu, Ning Ling, Xin Jing
Summary: Studying the changes in soil prokaryotic biodiversity in the alpine grassland ecosystem of the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau is important for understanding temporal and spatial variations in climate change-sensitive regions.
FRONTIERS IN MICROBIOLOGY
(2023)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Ying Wen, Gaosen Zhang, Wei Zhang, Guangxiu Liu
Summary: Deserts are extreme environments with multiple environmental stresses. Bacteria in desert ecosystems have diverse functions and play important roles.
SCIENCE OF THE TOTAL ENVIRONMENT
(2023)
Article
Ecology
Nadine Werner, Maria Orfanoudaki, Anja Hartmann, Markus Ganzera, Ruben Sommaruga
Summary: Cyanobacteria, one of the oldest organisms on Earth, have developed adaptations to avoid the damaging effects of solar UV radiation, including the synthesis of sunscreen substances like mycosporine-like amino acids (MAAs). This study investigated the temporal dynamics of MAAs in a benthic algal community dominated by cyanobacteria in a clear alpine lake. Results showed that benthic cyanobacteria exhibited less pronounced temporal changes in MAAs concentration in response to changes in solar UV exposure compared to phytoplankton.
FRESHWATER BIOLOGY
(2021)
Article
Microbiology
Christopher M. Bellas, Ruben Sommaruga
Summary: Analysis of metaviromes from an alpine lake revealed abundant Polinton-like virus genome sequences, leading to the identification of 82 new Polinton-like viruses and the discovery of five major new groups of eukaryotic viruses linked to diverse eukaryotic hosts. The study suggests that Polintons in unicellular eukaryotes are viruses, supported by the presence of viral major capsid proteins in eukaryotic host transcriptomes. The findings highlight the diverse assemblage of globally distributed viruses associated with a wide range of unicellular eukaryotic hosts, and provide a foundation for continued discovery and analysis of these viral groups.
Article
Ecology
Mateu Menendez-Serra, Xavier Triado-Margarit, Emilio O. Casamayor
Summary: In the ephemeral inland lakes of the Monegros Desert, a study found a higher diversity of bacterial and fungal microbiomes in high salinity environments, with no dominance of a few salt-in organisms. The dynamic nature of these lakes may have provided a competitive advantage for more versatile organisms, compared to those adapted to stable high salinities typically found in solar salterns.
Article
Ecology
Rebecca Oester, Ryan Greenway, Marvin Moosmann, Ruben Sommaruga, Barbara Tartarotti, Jakob Brodersen, Blake Matthews
Summary: This study investigated the effect of Arctic charr and threespine stickleback on the photoprotective phenotype of the copepod Leptodiaptomus minutus in lake ecosystems in southern Greenland. The results showed that lakes with stickleback had the lowest average content of astaxanthin and mycosporine-like amino acids (MAAs), and these compounds were not affected by the presence of charr. Furthermore, there was a higher variance in astaxanthin among copepods in the presence of stickleback, and the content of astaxanthin was negatively correlated with increasing stickleback density.
ECOLOGY AND EVOLUTION
(2022)
Article
Biology
Chiara Vanni, Matthew S. Schechter, Silvia G. Acinas, Albert Barberan, Pier Luigi Buttigieg, Emilio O. Casamayor, Tom O. Delmont, Carlos M. Duarte, A. Murat Eren, Robert D. Finn, Renzo Kottmann, Alex Mitchell, Pablo Sanchez, Kimmo Siren, Martin Steinegger, Frank Oliver Gloeckner, Antonio Fernandez-Guerra
Summary: Genes of unknown function pose a major challenge in molecular biology, especially in microbial systems. This study presents a computational framework to bridge the gap between known and unknown genes, and provides valuable insights into the diversity and relevance of the unknown fraction. The findings highlight the importance of investigating unknown genes and their potential implications in various organisms and environments.
Article
Microbiology
Vicente J. Ontiveros, Rudiger Ortiz-Alvarez, Jose A. Capitan, Albert Barberan, David Alonso, Emilio O. Casamayor
Summary: A fundamental question in biology is why certain species tend to coexist in the same locations, while others do not. This question is particularly relevant for microorganisms in high mountain lakes, as biotic interactions might be crucial for survival in extreme environments. Through cooccurrence network analysis, this study identified and quantified potential biotic interactions among microbial communities in alpine lakes, shedding light on the importance of environmental variables and spatial distribution. The findings suggest that the interacting microbial assemblages are influenced by habitat sources and functional strategies, and that bacterial guilds may be more related to habitat and microdispersal processes, while trophic roles could play a major role in microeukaryotes. The study provides valuable insights for understanding microbial interactions in situ.
Article
Ecology
Mateu Menendez-Serra, Vicente J. Ontiveros, Albert Barberan, Emilio O. Casamayor
Summary: Increasing saline stress in ephemeral saline lakes reduces microbial co-exclusions while co-occurrences remain stable, suggesting a decrease in competition and lack of stress-gradient promoted facilitation in the microbiome.
Article
Ecology
Barbara Tartarotti, Ruben Sommaruga, Nadine Saul
Summary: This study investigates the phenotypic and molecular responses of copepods to different environmental conditions and UV radiation in alpine lakes. The researchers found variations in photoprotective compounds and antioxidant capacities between copepod populations from different lakes, as well as seasonal changes in copepod gene expression. The expression patterns of heat shock protein genes were influenced by phenotypic traits, particularly the hsp70 gene. These findings suggest that copepods have adaptive responses to environmental stressors, which may be crucial for their survival in alpine lakes.
FRESHWATER BIOLOGY
(2022)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Maria Vila-Costa, Daniel Lundin, Emilio O. Casamayor, Sandra N. Meijer, Pilar Fernandez, Jordi Dachs
Summary: This study demonstrates the significance of microbial degradation in the environmental fate of PAHs in high altitude deep lakes, as shown by the presence of PAH degrading genes and the accurate prediction of PAH concentrations in sediment when degradation is included in the model.
ENVIRONMENTAL POLLUTION
(2022)
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Mateu Menendez-Serra, Vicente J. Ontiveros, Joan Caliz, David Alonso, Emilio O. Casamayor
Summary: This study examines the assembly processes of bacterial and microeukaryotic communities along a salinity gradient and reveals that increasing salinity leads to a dominant role of selection over dispersal, resulting in decreased community turnover. The richness of microeukaryotes decreases with increasing salinity, suggesting that the net effect of selection and dispersal is determined by environmental conditions and microbial ecologies.
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Karel Kopejtka, Jurgen Tomasch, David Kaftan, Alastair T. Gardiner, David Bina, Zdenko Gardian, Christopher Bellas, Astrid Droge, Robert Geffers, Ruben Sommaruga, Michal Koblizek
Summary: Bacterium Sphingomonas glacialis AAP5 isolated from an alpine lake has the ability to use both bacteriochlorophyll-based photosystems and proton-pumping rhodopsins to harvest light energy, depending on temperature and light conditions. This allows the bacteria to adapt to changing environmental conditions and optimize their light-harvesting machinery accordingly.
PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
(2022)
Review
Biochemical Research Methods
Emilio O. Casamayor, Joan Caliz, Xavier Triado-Margarit, Stephen B. Pointing
Summary: The atmosphere plays a significant role in the intercontinental dispersal of harmful microorganisms, antibiotic resistance genes, and allergens, with implications for ecosystem functioning and global health. Long-distance dispersal is influenced by air movement at higher altitudes and is affected by human activities, climate change, and atmospheric circulation. However, there is limited data on the survival of microorganisms during atmospheric transport and their invasive potential. This paper highlights the importance of understanding intercontinental microbial dispersal and offers a roadmap for further research in this area.
CURRENT OPINION IN BIOTECHNOLOGY
(2023)
Article
Marine & Freshwater Biology
Erik Jeppesen, Thomas A. Davidson, Mariana Meerhoff, Luc De Meester, Ivan Gonzalez-Bergonzoni, Nicolas Vidal, Hartmut Arndt, Klaus Juergens, Ruben Sommaruga, Korhan Ozkan, Torben L. Lauridsen, Sh Tserenpil
Summary: With the retreat of glaciers, new ponds and lakes are formed, which become more productive as vegetation develops. Our study in West Greenland found that older lakes had higher nutrient concentrations and organic matter content, as well as higher biomass and richness of certain aquatic organisms. The food web in the older lakes was more complex, with a longer food chain and higher taxonomic diversity, suggesting a succession process following glacial retreat.
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Christopher Bellas, Thomas Hackl, Marie-Sophie Plakolb, Anna Koslova, Matthias G. Fischer, Ruben Sommaruga
Summary: Eukaryotic genomes contain endogenous viral elements (EVEs) derived from RNA and ssDNA viruses, which are considered genomic fossils. However, the study of EVEs has focused mostly on animals and plants, neglecting protists. This study reveals that protist genomes contain diverse dsDNA viruses, including virophages and Polinton-like viruses, which were hidden due to their repetitive nature. The study suggests that many protist EVEs are intact, actively colonizing hosts across the eukaryotic tree, and may be functional viruses.
PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
(2023)
Article
Biology
Vicente J. Ontiveros, Jose A. Capitan, Emilio O. Casamayor, David Alonso
Summary: Fitness equalizing mechanisms, such as trade-offs, play an important role in promoting species coexistence in bacterial communities. Through studying diverse bacterial communities in different systems, it was found that these mechanisms exist and are driven by different subsets of species. Rare taxa are the drivers in aquatic communities, while the core sub-community is the driver in soils. This study suggests that the importance of fitness equalization mechanisms in bacterial communities may have been underestimated.
PROCEEDINGS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY B-BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
(2023)