Cobalt, manganese, and iron near the Hawaiian Islands : a potential concentrating mechanism for cobalt within a cyclonic eddy and implications for the hybrid-type trace metals

Author Posting. © Elsevier B.V., 2008. This is the author's version of the work. It is posted here by permission of Elsevier B.V. for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Deep Sea Research Part II: Topical Studies in Oceanography 55 (2008): 1473-1490, doi:10.1016/j.dsr2.2008.02.010.The vertical distributions of cobalt, iron, and manganese in the water column were studied during the E-Flux Program (E-Flux II and III), which focused on the biogeochemistry of cold-core cyclonic eddies that form in the lee of the Hawaiian Islands. During E-Flux II (January 2005) and E-Flux III (March 2005), 17 stations were sampled for cobalt (n =147), all of which demonstrated nutrient-like depletion in surface waters. During E-Flux III, two depth profiles collected from within a mesoscale coldcore eddy, Cyclone Opal, revealed small distinct maxima in cobalt at ~100m depth and a larger inventory of cobalt within the eddy. We hypothesize that this was due to a cobalt concentrating effect within the eddy, where upwelled cobalt was subsequently associated with sinking particulate organic carbon (POC) via biological activity and was released at a depth coincident with nearly complete POC remineralization (Benitez-Nelson et al. 2007). There is also evidence for the formation of a correlation between cobalt and soluble reactive phosphorus during E-Flux III relative to the E-Flux II cruise that we suggest is due to increased productivity, implying a minimum threshold of primary production below which cobalt-phosphate coupling does not occur. Dissolved iron was measured in E-Flux II and found in somewhat elevated concentrations (~0.5nM) in surface waters relative to the iron depleted waters of the surrounding Pacific (Fitzwater et al. 1996), possibly due to island effects associated with the iron-rich volcanic soil from the Hawaiian Islands and/or anthropogenic inputs. Distinct depth maxima in total dissolved cobalt were observed at 400 to 600m depth, suggestive of the release of metals from the shelf area of comparable depth that surrounds these islands.This research was supported by NSF Grants OCE-0327225, OCE-0452883, OPP-0440840, the Office of Naval Research, the Center for Environmental Bioinorganic Chemistry at Princeton, and the Center for Microbial Oceanography and Education

Rare predicted loss-of-function variants of type I IFN immunity genes are associated with life-threatening COVID-19

Background: We previously reported that impaired type I IFN activity, due to inborn errors of TLR3- and TLR7-dependent type I interferon (IFN) immunity or to autoantibodies against type I IFN, account for 15–20% of cases of life-threatening COVID-19 in unvaccinated patients. Therefore, the determinants of life-threatening COVID-19 remain to be identified in ~ 80% of cases. Methods: We report here a genome-wide rare variant burden association analysis in 3269 unvaccinated patients with life-threatening COVID-19, and 1373 unvaccinated SARS-CoV-2-infected individuals without pneumonia. Among the 928 patients tested for autoantibodies against type I IFN, a quarter (234) were positive and were excluded. Results: No gene reached genome-wide significance. Under a recessive model, the most significant gene with at-risk variants was TLR7, with an OR of 27.68 (95%CI 1.5–528.7, P = 1.1 × 10−4) for biochemically loss-of-function (bLOF) variants. We replicated the enrichment in rare predicted LOF (pLOF) variants at 13 influenza susceptibility loci involved in TLR3-dependent type I IFN immunity (OR = 3.70[95%CI 1.3–8.2], P = 2.1 × 10−4). This enrichment was further strengthened by (1) adding the recently reported TYK2 and TLR7 COVID-19 loci, particularly under a recessive model (OR = 19.65[95%CI 2.1–2635.4], P = 3.4 × 10−3), and (2) considering as pLOF branchpoint variants with potentially strong impacts on splicing among the 15 loci (OR = 4.40[9%CI 2.3–8.4], P = 7.7 × 10−8). Finally, the patients with pLOF/bLOF variants at these 15 loci were significantly younger (mean age [SD] = 43.3 [20.3] years) than the other patients (56.0 [17.3] years; P = 1.68 × 10−5). Conclusions: Rare variants of TLR3- and TLR7-dependent type I IFN immunity genes can underlie life-threatening COVID-19, particularly with recessive inheritance, in patients under 60 years old

Copper phytoextraction using Phyllostachys pubescens

The Phyllostachys pubescens macrophyte, known also as Moso Bamboo, was evaluated in laboratory conditions for its potential to renovate copper-polluted soil. Pot experiments were conducted to determine Phyllostachys pubescens’ growth, tolerance and phytoextraction potential capacity to restore copper-contaminated soil in Mediterranean conditions. Data collected evidenced that the Phyllostachys pubescens evolution rate was 0.47 cm/day on average, with a 1.644 mm/d irrigation flow. Moso Bamboo tolerance was tested over a twelve-week irrigation period, while adding copper-polluted water. Copper removal from soil was 51.4% and the quantity of copper per gram of root/rhizome was equal to 1.18 mg Cu/g, while the amount of copper per gram of stem/leaves was 0.50 mg Cu/g, after 12 weeks. The conducted laboratory experiments show that environmental restoration using the phytoextraction technique, and using Phyllostachys pubescens, should be considered for the restoration of copper-contaminated soils