Microplastics, Macro-Problems: Abundance of Man-Made Materials in the Waters and Sediments of Florida State Parks

Man-made materials (MMM) are pollutants introduced to the environment by human activity. Microplastics (MP) are a type of MMM that threaten living organisms through bioaccumulation. The term MMM also encompasses pollutants produced from natural materials, such as rayon and microfibrillated cellulose, which are used in food packaging. This study aims to determine the extent of MMM pollution within estuaries in two of Florida’s state parks, as well as the effectiveness of using restored vegetation on shorelines to reduce MMM pollution. Tomoka State Park and Gamble Rogers State Park were selected at the request of the Florida Department of Environmental Protection. At each park, we compared MMM in sediments of replicate intertidal areas with bare sand (control) vs. sites with restored vegetation (mangroves, marshgrass). Additionally, MMM in estuarine water directly seaward of control and vegetated areas were compared. Restoration occurred two years prior to this study. MMM were extracted from sediments and water samples and then examined by microscopy. A total of 341 MMM were found; 120 were collected from water samples and 221 from sediments. More MMM (58%) of the total were found in Tomoka State Park samples. Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) revealed 15% of collected samples were plastic polymers (e.g., polysulfone and polystyrene). More MMM (78) were found in Tomoka State Park water samples than in Gamble Rogers State Park water samples (42) (Kruskal-Wallis: p = 0.05). MMM abundance within sediments was not different between parks, or between control and restored sites (Kruskal-Wallis, all comparisons: p \u3e 0.26). Our research provides the first documentation of MMM pollution, including MP pollution, in these state parks, thereby giving park managers insight on the resources they manage and the impact of human activity on conserved land

Determining the Extent of Pioneer Mangrove Acidification on Intertidal Oyster Reefs

The Indian River Lagoon (IRL) stretches 251 kilometers along Florida’s east coast and is one of the most biodiverse estuaries in North America. Mosquito Lagoon, the northernmost portion of the IRL, is home to mangroves and intertidal oyster reefs that provide numerous ecosystem services. These two habitats are overlapping as climate change drives mangroves poleward. Scientists have documented mangrove expansion and the transition of oyster reef habitat to mangrove islands. Past studies have shown large, adult mangrove stands drive soil acidification. The goal of this study was to understand if stand-alone, or pioneer, Rhizophora mangle (red mangroves) and Avicennia germinans (black mangroves) acidify intertidal Crassostrea virginica (eastern oyster) reef sediment. We collected porewater (i.e., water within sediment) and measured pH with a portable pH meter. Porewater pH was sampled from 0 to 1 meter away from pioneer mangroves in 20 cm increments. Closest to the mangrove trunk, reef sediment pH was significantly more acidic (mean pH of 7.18 for R. mangle and 7.02 for A. germinans) compared to oyster reef-only control areas with a mean pH of 7.44 (p-value \u3c 0.001 for both mangrove species). By 1 meter away from the mangrove trunk, the pH for both mangrove species was no longer significantly different from the control areas (p-value = 1.0), indicating mangrove-driven acidification has a localized effect on oyster reef sediments. Acidification weakens oyster shells, and by understanding the extent of mangroves’ acidic effects on oyster reefs, resource managers can use this information to protect declining oyster reef habitat

Perspective for Aquaponic Systems: (Omic) Technologies for Microbial Community Analysis

Aquaponics is the combined production of aquaculture and hydroponics, connected by a water recirculation system. In this productive system, the microbial community is responsible for carrying out the nutrient dynamics between the components. The nutrimental transformations mainly consist in the transformation of chemical species from toxic compounds into available nutrients. In this particular field, the microbial research, the "Omic" technologies will allow a broader scope of studies about a current microbial profile inside aquaponics community, even in those species that currently are unculturable. This approach can also be useful to understand complex interactions of living components in the system. Until now, the analog studies were made to set up the microbial characterization on recirculation aquaculture systems (RAS). However, microbial community composition of aquaponics is still unknown. "Omic" technologies like metagenomic can help to reveal taxonomic diversity. The perspectives are also to begin the first attempts to sketch the functional diversity inside aquaponic systems and its ecological relationships. The knowledge of the emergent properties inside the microbial community, as well as the understanding of the biosynthesis pathways, can derive in future biotechnological applications. Thus, the aim of this review is to show potential applications of current "Omic" tools to characterize the microbial community in aquaponic systems

Perspective for Aquaponic Systems: “Omic” Technologies for Microbial Community Analysis

Aquaponics is the combined production of aquaculture and hydroponics, connected by a water recirculation system. In this productive system, the microbial community is responsible for carrying out the nutrient dynamics between the components. The nutrimental transformations mainly consist in the transformation of chemical species from toxic compounds into available nutrients. In this particular field, the microbial research, the “Omic” technologies will allow a broader scope of studies about a current microbial profile inside aquaponics community, even in those species that currently are unculturable. This approach can also be useful to understand complex interactions of living components in the system. Until now, the analog studies were made to set up the microbial characterization on recirculation aquaculture systems (RAS). However, microbial community composition of aquaponics is still unknown. “Omic” technologies like metagenomic can help to reveal taxonomic diversity. The perspectives are also to begin the first attempts to sketch the functional diversity inside aquaponic systems and its ecological relationships. The knowledge of the emergent properties inside the microbial community, as well as the understanding of the biosynthesis pathways, can derive in future biotechnological applications. Thus, the aim of this review is to show potential applications of current “Omic” tools to characterize the microbial community in aquaponic systems

The draft genome sequence of the rice weevil Sitophilus oryzae as a model to explore the host-symbiont interactions in a nascent stage of endosymbiosis

International audienceOrganisms across the tree of life are associated with diverse microbial partners that impact host adaptive traits and exhibit phenotypes ranging from parasitism to mutualism. For example, insects thriving on nutritionally unbalanced habitats are prone to house mutualistic intracellular bacteria (endosymbionts) that complement their diet, thus greatly improving their ecological performances. Within insects, endosymbiosis is very common in the Curculionoidea weevils superfamily, which constitutes a group with considerable worldwide biodiversity. Weevils include some of the most invasive insects and cause huge crop damages. Recent phylogenetic and molecular studies have shown that endosymbiosis history has been marked by several symbiotic displacements within this insect group. The most recent event may have occurred less than one million year ago within the cereal weevil Sitophilus clade resulting in the replacement of an ancestral symbiont Candidatus Nardonella by Sodalis pierantonius symbiont. S. pierantonius genome exhibits peculiar molecular features associated with a massive pseudogenization and the occurrence of a huge amount of repeated elements. Whether these phenomena are adaptive, and whether they impact host genome reshaping are puzzling questions that will be addressed thanks to the genome level investigation of the Sitophilus-Sodalis recent association.Here, we present the draft genome sequence of the rice weevil Sitophilus oryzae. The full genome sequence has been obtained through a combination of short-read (Illumina HiSeq and Roche/454 GS FLX) and long-read (Pacific Biosciences PacBio RS) sequencing methods. After error correction, the data were assembled using the Platanus algorithm for an initial scaffolding and gap-filling. These scaffolds were then re-scaffolded several times using PacBio data. The final assembly consisted in 17,365 scaffolds of a total length of 652 Mbp (the S. oryzae genome size was estimated to be about 650 Mbp using flow cytometry), a N50 value of 110 kbp, a coverage of 101X and a GC content of 38.4%. Intriguingly, transposable elements (TE) analysis using both automated tools (dnaPipeTE, RepeatModeler and MITEhunter) and manual annotations revealed an unexpected high amount of repeated DNA (>50%) in this weevil genome. Gene prediction was then performed using a combination of MAKER, GeneMark, Augustus and SNAP algorithms and taking advantage of the available transcriptomic data (EST and RNA-seq data) on S. oryzae to build more accurate gene models. Finally, the official gene set contained 17,026 protein-coding genes. Based on this gene set, the complete catalogue of gene phylogenies (phylome) was predicted through the PhylomeDB pipeline and will be publicly available in this database (www.phylomedb.org). The weevil metabolic and signalling networks were also reconstructed using the CycADS pipeline in order to generate the SitorCyc database (a BioCyc interface of the S. oryzae metabolism). These metabolic pathways were integrated in the ArthropodaCyc database collection dedicated to comparative metabolic analyses among arthropods (http://arthropodacyc.cycadsys.org/). The interdependence of the metabolic networks of S. oryzae and its endosymbiont S. pierantonius will then be characterized thanks to their integration into the ArtSymbioCyc database that is being developed and will be dedicated to arthropod symbioses. All these annotations (TE, phylome and metabolic networks) will be integrated in a comprehensive genome database providing a genome browser with crosslinks to available resources.Altogether, these results are expected to unravel basic molecular mechanisms and evolutionary features associated with the establishment and the maintenance of endosymbiosis in animals, and to permit identifying potential gene targets useful for the development of new ecologically-friendly strategies for pest insects control and management

Mapping the differences in care for 5,000 Spinal Muscular Atrophy patients, a survey of 24 national registries in North America, Australasia and Europe

Spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) is an autosomal recessive genetic disorder characterised by the degeneration of motor neurons and progressive muscle weakness. It is caused by homozygous deletions in the survival motor neuron gene on chromosome 5. SMA shows a wide range of clinical severity, with SMA type I patients often dying before 2\ua0years of age, whereas type III patients experience less severe clinical manifestations and can have a normal life span. Here, we describe the design, setup and utilisation of the TREAT-NMD national SMA patient registries characterised by a small, but fully standardised set of registry items and by genetic confirmation in all patients. We analyse a selection of clinical items from the SMA registries in order to provide a snapshot of the clinical data stratified by SMA subtype, and compare these results with published recommendations on standards of care. Our study included 5,068 SMA patients in 25 countries. A total of 615 patients were ventilated, either invasively (178) or non-invasively (437), 439 received tube feeding and 455 had had scoliosis surgery. Some of these interventions were not available to patients in all countries, but differences were also noted among high-income countries with comparable wealth and health care systems. This study provides the basis for further research, such as quality of life in ventilated SMA patients, and will inform clinical trial planning