17 research outputs found
Characterization of Geographically Distinct Bacterial Communities Associated with Coral Mucus Produced by Acropora spp. and Porites spp
ABSTRACT
Acropora
and
Porites
corals are important reef builders in the Indo-Pacific and Caribbean. Bacteria associated with mucus produced by
Porites
spp. and
Acropora
spp. from Caribbean (Punta Maroma, Mexico) and Indo-Pacific (Hoga and Sampela, Indonesia) reefs were determined. Analysis of pyrosequencing libraries showed that bacterial communities from Caribbean corals were significantly more diverse (H′, 3.18 to 4.25) than their Indonesian counterparts (H′, 2.54 to 3.25). Dominant taxa were
Gammaproteobacteria
,
Alphaproteobacteria
,
Firmicutes
, and
Cyanobacteria
, which varied in relative abundance between coral genera and region. Distinct coral host-specific communities were also found; for example,
Clostridiales
were dominant on
Acropora
spp. (at Hoga and the Mexican Caribbean) compared to
Porites
spp. and seawater. Within the
Gammproteobacteria
,
Halomonas
spp. dominated sequence libraries from
Porites
spp. (49%) and
Acropora
spp. (5.6%) from the Mexican Caribbean, compared to the corresponding Indonesian coral libraries (<2%). Interestingly, with the exception of
Porites
spp. from the Mexican Caribbean, there was also a ubiquity of
Psychrobacter
spp., which dominated
Acropora
and
Porites
libraries from Indonesia and
Acropora
libraries from the Caribbean. In conclusion, there was a dominance of
Halomonas
spp. (associated with
Acropora
and
Porites
[Mexican Caribbean]),
Firmicutes
(associated with
Acropora
[Mexican Caribbean] and with
Acropora
and
Porites
[Hoga]), and
Cyanobacteria
(associated with
Acropora
and
Porites
[Hoga] and
Porites
[Sampela]). This is also the first report describing geographically distinct
Psychrobacter
spp. associated with coral mucus. In addition, the predominance of
Clostridiales
associated with
Acropora
spp. provided additional evidence for coral host-specific microorganisms.
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Antiarrhythmic and antioxidant activity of novel pyrrolidin-2-one derivatives with adrenolytic properties
A series of novel pyrrolidin-2-one derivatives (17 compounds) with adrenolytic properties was evaluated for antiarrhythmic, electrocardiographic and antioxidant activity. Some of them displayed antiarrhythmic activity in barium chloride-induced arrhythmia and in the rat coronary artery ligation-reperfusion model, and slightly decreased the heart rate, prolonged P–Q, Q–T intervals and QRS complex. Among them, compound EP-40 (1-[2-hydroxy-3-[4-[(2-hydroxyphenyl)piperazin-1-yl]propyl]pyrrolidin-2-one showed excellent antiarrhythmic activity. This compound had significantly antioxidant effect, too. The present results suggest that the antiarrhythmic effect of compound EP-40 is related to their adrenolytic and antioxidant properties. A biological activity prediction using the PASS software shows that compound EP-35 and EP-40 can be characterized by antiischemic activity; whereas, compound EP-68, EP-70, EP-71 could be good tachycardia agents
Climate Change, Coral Reef Ecosystems, and Management Options for Marine Protected Areas
Marine protected areas (MPAs) provide place-based management of marine ecosystems through various degrees and types of protective actions. Habitats such as coral reefs are especially susceptible to degradation resulting from climate change, as evidenced by mass bleaching events over the past two decades. Marine ecosystems are being altered by direct effects of climate change including ocean warming, ocean acidification, rising sea level, changing circulation patterns, increasing severity of storms, and changing freshwater influxes. As impacts of climate change strengthen they may exacerbate effects of existing stressors and require new or modified management approaches; MPA networks are generally accepted as an improvement over individual MPAs to address multiple threats to the marine environment. While MPA networks are considered a potentially effective management approach for conserving marine biodiversity, they should be established in conjunction with other management strategies, such as fisheries regulations and reductions of nutrients and other forms of land-based pollution. Information about interactions between climate change and more “traditional” stressors is limited. MPA managers are faced with high levels of uncertainty about likely outcomes of management actions because climate change impacts have strong interactions with existing stressors, such as land-based sources of pollution, overfishing and destructive fishing practices, invasive species, and diseases. Management options include ameliorating existing stressors, protecting potentially resilient areas, developing networks of MPAs, and integrating climate change into MPA planning, management, and evaluation
Altered expression of gap junction connexin proteins may partly underlie heart rhythm disturbances in the streptozotocin-induced diabetic rat heart
Steady-State and Dynamic Behavior of Ventricular Repolarization and Refractoriness in the Dog: The Effect of Multiple Cycle Length Changes and d-Sotalol Administration
Frequency-Dependent Electrophysiologic Effects of d,1-Sotalol and Quinidine and Modulation by Beta-Adrenergic Stimulation
Genetic Susceptibility, Colony Size, and Water Temperature Drive White-Pox Disease on the Coral Acropora palmata
Relationships between temperature, bleaching and white syndrome on the Great Barrier Reef
Coral bleaching and disease have often been hypothesized to be mutually reinforcing or co-occurring, but much of the research supporting this has only drawn an implicit connection through common environmental predictors. In this study, we examine whether an explicit relationship between white syndrome and bleaching exists using assemblage-level monitoring data from up to 112 sites on reef slopes spread throughout the Great Barrier Reef over 11 years of monitoring. None of the temperature metrics commonly used to predict mass bleaching performed strongly when applied to these data. Furthermore, the inclusion of bleaching as a predictor did not improve model skill over baseline models for predicting white syndrome. Similarly, the inclusion of white syndrome as a predictor did not improve models of bleaching. Evidence for spatial co-occurrence of bleaching and white syndrome at the assemblage level in this data set was also very weak. These results suggest the hypothesized relationship between bleaching and disease events may be weaker than previously thought, and more likely to be driven by common responses to environmental stressors, rather than directly facilitating one another
Spatiotemporal patterns of coral disease prevalence on Heron\ud Island, Great Barrier Reef, Australia
Despite increasing research effort on coral diseases, little is known about factors driving disease dynamics on the Great Barrier Reef (GBR). This is the first study to investigate the temporal patterns of coral disease prevalence and potential drivers of disease around Heron Island, in the southern Capricorn Bunker sector of the GBR. Surveys were conducted in two austral summers and three winters between November 2007 and August 2009 on six sites around the island. Six diseases were detected: brown band syndrome (BrB), growth anomalies (GA), ulcerative white spots (UWS), white syndrome (WS), skeletal eroding band disease (SEB) and black band disease (BBD). The lowest overall mean disease prevalence was 1.87 ± 0.75% (mean ± SE) in November 2007 and the highest 4.22 ± 1.72% in August 2008. There was evidence of seasonality for two diseases: BrB and UWS. This is the first study to report a higher prevalence of BrB in the winter. BrB had a prevalence of 3.29 ± 0.58% in August 2008 and 1.53 ± 0.28% in August 2009, while UWS was the most common syndrome in the summer with a prevalence of 1.12 ± 0.31% in November 2007 and 2.67 ± 0.52% prevalence in January 2008. The prevalence of GAs and SEB did not depend on the season, although the prevalence of GAs increased throughout the study period. WS had a slightly higher prevalence in the summer, but its overall prevalence was low (<0.5%). Sites with high abundance of staghorn Acropora and Montipora were characterised by the highest disease prevalence (12% of Acropora and 3.3% of Montipora species were diseased respectively). These results highlight the correlations between coral disease prevalence, seasonally varying environmental parameters and coral community composition. Given that diseases are likely to reduce the resilience of corals, seasonal patterns in disease prevalence deserve further research