Extension of the Late Holocene Sea-Level Record In North Carolina, USA

Future sea-level rise will dramatically affect coastal landscapes and populations. The coast of North Carolina (USA) is particularly vulnerable to sea-level rise because its low-lying coastal plain is expansive, has a low gradient, provides significant ecosystem services and is economically important. In order to understand how future sea-level rise may affect the coast, it is necessary to study past sea-level rise. Widespread salt-marshes compose much of North Carolina's coastal system, providing an excellent environment from which to produce relative sea-level reconstructions using salt-marsh foraminifera, whose distribution is controlled by tidal elevation. Distinctive assemblage zones related to different tidal ranges can be recognized in salt-marsh foraminiferal assemblages, allowing them to be used as a proxy for reconstructing sea level as sea-level indicators. Foraminiferal assemblages from surface samples along two transects at Sand Hill Point on Cedar Island, North Carolina added to an existing modern training set of paired observations of foraminiferal assemblages and tidal elevation; these data provide local analogues for interpreting fossil assemblages using a locally weighted-weighted average (LWWA) regression model. Foraminiferal assemblages preserved in a radiocarbon-dated core of salt-marsh peat from Sand Hill Point were used to produce a continuous, high-resolution late Holocene relative sea-level reconstruction. The existing late Holocene RSL reconstruction from North Carolina is based on two sites: Sand Point on Roanoke Island and Tump Point on Cedar Island. The Sand Point record spans the last ~2200 years, but the Tump Point record spans only the last ~1000 years. Therefore, the sea-level history described from 200 BC to 1000 AD is based on only one site. The new sea-level reconstruction from Sand Hill Point extends the existing record from nearby Tump Point, NC by 1400 years, producing a high resolution, continuous record of sea-level change spanning 1500 BC – 1915 AD. This new record tests whether patterns and rates of late Holocene sea-level changes reconstructed elsewhere in North Carolina are consistent throughout the region. The calculated average rate of relative sea-level rise for Sand Hill Point of 0.7 mm/year is consistent with patterns of regional rates along the US Atlantic coast, which may be partly attributed to isostatic response to deglaciation of the Laurentide Ice Sheet.M.S

The combined effects of coping and pain interference on army readiness

IntroductionChronic pain and associated interference with daily activities are common in the military and impact Force readiness. Chronic pain affects one-third of service members and is a leading cause of medical non-readiness (MNR) in the military. Research suggests that underlying psychological mechanisms related to trait coping styles and pain interference (PI) affect functional outcomes, but little research exists examining this relationship within an Army population. The purpose of this study was to examine the combined effects of PI and coping on U.S. Army soldier readiness by using annual well-being data from the Global Assessment Tool (GAT) and medical non-readiness (MNR) based on duty restriction records.MethodsThe sample comprised 866,379 soldiers who completed the GAT between 2014 and 2017 with no duty restrictions at the time of baseline GAT completion; subjects were observed through 2018 for duty restrictions. Parametric survival regression models with a Weibull distribution predicted demographic-adjusted hazards of MNR by dichotomized PI (no PI/PI) and beneficial/non-beneficial use of GAT coping components (good coping, bad coping, catastrophizing-flexibility, and catastrophizing-hopelessness). Incident MNR was evaluated for all duty restrictions, and stratified by selected body systems (upper extremity, lower extremity, psychiatric).ResultsAmong soldiers with PI, hazards were higher in those reporting non-beneficial coping styles (bad coping, hopelessness) and lower in those reporting beneficial coping styles (good coping, flexibility). Across all coping styles, PI/coping interactions were particularly strong for catastrophizing-hopelessness and when examining MNR from psychiatric conditions.DiscussionThese findings suggest some synergistic associations between pain and coping that may impact pain-related occupational disability. Coping skills may be an effective interventional target for chronic pain reduction/prevention within military programs, such as the Master Resilience Training Course offered to soldiers in the Army. Further research should assess whether early coping style interventions can reduce pain-related outcomes

The Wnt Receptor Ryk Reduces Neuronal and Cell Survival Capacity by Repressing FOXO Activity During the Early Phases of Mutant Huntingtin Pathogenicity

The Wnt receptor Ryk is an evolutionary-conserved protein important during neuronal differentiation through several mechanisms, including γ-secretase cleavage and nuclear translocation of its intracellular domain (Ryk-ICD). Although the Wnt pathway may be neuroprotective, the role of Ryk in neurodegenerative disease remains unknown. We found that Ryk is up-regulated in neurons expressing mutant huntingtin (HTT) in several models of Huntington's disease (HD). Further investigation in Caenorhabditis elegans and mouse striatal cell models of HD provided a model in which the early-stage increase of Ryk promotes neuronal dysfunction by repressing the neuroprotective activity of the longevity-promoting factor FOXO through a noncanonical mechanism that implicates the Ryk-ICD fragment and its binding to the FOXO co-factor β-catenin. The Ryk-ICD fragment suppressed neuroprotection by lin-18/Ryk loss-of-function in expanded-polyQ nematodes, repressed FOXO transcriptional activity, and abolished β-catenin protection of mutant htt striatal cells against cell death vulnerability. Additionally, Ryk-ICD was increased in the nucleus of mutant htt cells, and reducing γ-secretase PS1 levels compensated for the cytotoxicity of full-length Ryk in these cells. These findings reveal that the Ryk-ICD pathway may impair FOXO protective activity in mutant polyglutamine neurons, suggesting that neurons are unable to efficiently maintain function and resist disease from the earliest phases of the pathogenic process in HD. © 2014 Tourette et al

Elucidating genetic variation and mechanism of viral infection of Emiliania huxleyi via genomic approaches

This thesis aimed at the identification of genes involved in the host-virus interaction of the coccolithophore Emiliania huxleyi and the virus EhV-86 by taking advantage of EST libraries and DNA microarrays. Microarray-based comparative genomic hybridization (CGH) was used to investigate the genetic variation of several E. huxleyi strains and to identify genes with respect to virus susceptibility and morphology, e.g. formation of coccoliths.Analysis of expressed sequence tags (ESTs) was performed to gain insights into the host-virus interaction of E. huxleyi. Three complementary DNA (cDNA) libraries generated 6, 12 and 24 h post viral infection were compared to a library from an uninfected culture by sequencing, clustering and manual annotation of randomly selected ESTs. At first, a preliminary set of 60-90 ESTs from each library were annotated to get an overview of gene expression changes that occur during viral infection of E. huxleyi. BLAST-searches of the sequenced genome of the virus (EhV-86) were used to identify viral genes. Results of this small sample probe show already a trend towards down-regulation of genes involved in photosynthesis of E. huxleyi for the benefit of an increased transcription and translation for viral replication. At 6 (T6) and 12 (T12) hours post viral infection the algal transcriptome changed significantly although only 3-4 viral transcripts were present. In addition, at 24 hours (T24) post infection only 10% of the mRNA was of host origin. Viral transcripts identified at T24 encode proteins involved in protein degradation, nucleic acid degradation, transcription and replication.As a next step, 1100-1500 ESTs per library were sequenced and annotated. Results confirmed the previous tendencies and discovered more genes involved in the host's response to viral infection. Furthermore, two-colour oligonucleotide microarrays were used to verify the gene expression results of the ESTs. A total of 4480 ESTs were assembled into 1871 clusters of which 223 clusters were of viral origin. A putative function could be assigned to 35% of the host clusters and to 20% of the viral clusters.In addition, microarray expression analysis indicated that 231 out of 565 oligonucleotides of E. huxleyi changed their expression level in at least one time point. Results suggest that viral infection affects the transcriptional machinery of E. huxleyi within a few hours by decreasing the expression of genes involved in photosynthesis and protein degradation at the benefit of fatty acid metabolism, glycolysis, and transcription and translation. The expression of E. huxleyi and EhV-86 genes changed significantly between 12 and 24 hours after infection.The results provide insights into the infection mechanisms of the virus EhV-86 in E. huxleyi and demonstrate the power of EST libraries and DNA microarrays to obtain data on gene expression and regulation during viral infection.Microarray-based comparative genomic hybridization (CGH) was applied to investigate genomic diversity of 16 E. huxleyi strains of different geographic origin and to identify genes related to virus susceptibility and morphology. The microarray consisted of 565 genes derived from the former EST study of E. huxleyi strain CCMP1516 and 37880 genes from the ongoing genome project of the same strain. Gephyrocapsa oceanica and Isochrysis galbana were taken as out-groups. A total of 32395 gene transcripts showed significant hybridization patterns and were used to elucidate genetic diversity. Hybridization intensities were compared to determine the relative copy number of each gene transcript. Comparisons with the sequenced E. huxleyi strain CCMP1516 revealed that 27% (8740 genes) to 57% (18581 genes) of the genes showed a pattern of hybridization concordant with deletion, nucleotide divergence or gene duplication within the species and up to 83% (26881 genes) between the genera. The largest variation was observed among the species for E. huxleyi strain 92F. Regarding variation with respect to virus susceptibility and morphology the most abundant genes with known function were associated with metabolism, transport, and transcription and translation. In addition, two membrane receptors and two proteins related to ubiquitin were identified which show significant differences between virus susceptible and resistant strains.The results obtained by using CGH demonstrate that this method is appropriate to compare the gene content of different E. huxleyi strains. CGH was successfully applied to identify genes related to virus susceptibility and morphology. Among others, the membrane receptors and the ubiquitin-related proteins that possibly play a role in virus infection deserve further attention

Elucidating Genetic Variation and Mechanism of Virus Infection of Emiliania huxleyi via Genomic Approaches

This thesis aimed at the identification of genes involved in the host-virus interaction of the coccolithophore Emiliania huxleyi and the virus EhV-86 by taking advantage of EST libraries and DNA microarrays. Microarray-based comparative genomic hybridization (CGH) was used to investigate the genetic variation of several E. huxleyi strains and to identify genes with respect to virus susceptibility and morphology, e.g. formation of coccoliths.Analysis of expressed sequence tags (ESTs) was performed to gain insights into the host-virus interaction of E. huxleyi. Three complementary DNA (cDNA) libraries generated 6, 12 and 24 h post viral infection were compared to a library from an uninfected culture by sequencing, clustering and manual annotation of randomly selected ESTs. At first, a preliminary set of 60-90 ESTs from each library were annotated to get an overview of gene expression changes that occur during viral infection of E. huxleyi. BLAST-searches of the sequenced genome of the virus (EhV-86) were used to identify viral genes. Results of this small sample probe show already a trend towards down-regulation of genes involved in photosynthesis of E. huxleyi for the benefit of an increased transcription and translation for viral replication. At 6 (T6) and 12 (T12) hours post viral infection the algal transcriptome changed significantly although only 3-4 viral transcripts were present. In addition, at 24 hours (T24) post infection only 10% of the mRNA was of host origin. Viral transcripts identified at T24 encode proteins involved in protein degradation, nucleic acid degradation, transcription and replication.As a next step, 1100-1500 ESTs per library were sequenced and annotated. Results confirmed the previous tendencies and discovered more genes involved in the host's response to viral infection. Furthermore, two-colour oligonucleotide microarrays were used to verify the gene expression results of the ESTs. A total of 4480 ESTs were assembled into 1871 clusters of which 223 clusters were of viral origin. A putative function could be assigned to 35% of the host clusters and to 20% of the viral clusters.In addition, microarray expression analysis indicated that 231 out of 565 oligonucleotides of E. huxleyi changed their expression level in at least one time point. Results suggest that viral infection affects the transcriptional machinery of E. huxleyi within a few hours by decreasing the expression of genes involved in photosynthesis and protein degradation at the benefit of fatty acid metabolism, glycolysis, and transcription and translation. The expression of E. huxleyi and EhV-86 genes changed significantly between 12 and 24 hours after infection.The results provide insights into the infection mechanisms of the virus EhV-86 in E. huxleyi and demonstrate the power of EST libraries and DNA microarrays to obtain data on gene expression and regulation during viral infection.Microarray-based comparative genomic hybridization (CGH) was applied to investigate genomic diversity of 16 E. huxleyi strains of different geographic origin and to identify genes related to virus susceptibility and morphology. The microarray consisted of 565 genes derived from the former EST study of E. huxleyi strain CCMP1516 and 37880 genes from the ongoing genome project of the same strain. Gephyrocapsa oceanica and Isochrysis galbana were taken as out-groups. A total of 32395 gene transcripts showed significant hybridization patterns and were used to elucidate genetic diversity. Hybridization intensities were compared to determine the relative copy number of each gene transcript. Comparisons with the sequenced E. huxleyi strain CCMP1516 revealed that 27% (8740 genes) to 57% (18581 genes) of the genes showed a pattern of hybridization concordant with deletion, nucleotide divergence or gene duplication within the species and up to 83% (26881 genes) between the genera. The largest variation was observed among the species for E. huxleyi strain 92F. Regarding variation with respect to virus susceptibility and morphology the most abundant genes with known function were associated with metabolism, transport, and transcription and translation. In addition, two membrane receptors and two proteins related to ubiquitin were identified which show significant differences between virus susceptible and resistant strains.The results obtained by using CGH demonstrate that this method is appropriate to compare the gene content of different E. huxleyi strains. CGH was successfully applied to identify genes related to virus susceptibility and morphology. Among others, the membrane receptors and the ubiquitin-related proteins that possibly play a role in virus infection deserve further attention

Evolution of a relationship: how Ostreococcus tauri viruses circumvent host resistance

Marine microeukaryotes battle every day with environmental pressures, predators and viruses to survive. To escape and survive certain threats they often have to change their life cycle stage for the cost of a lower growth rate. Marine viruses are ubiquitous in the oceans but they are unable to replicate without infecting host cells. Therefore they have to evolve as quickly as their host and change their infection strategy. Spontaneous resistance of the green microalgae Ostreococcus tauri occurs in culture once it is infected with the virus OtV5. Two newly isolated viruses were able to lyse these OtV5-resistant O. tauri cells. While o could only lyse OtV5-resistant cells, OtV15 was able to lyse both OtV5-susceptible and –resistant cells. Similar as the O. lucimarinus viruses, their genomes have a high level of synteny with 182 orthologous genes, reduced to 173 when including OtV1 and OtV2. We will discuss potential infection strategies based upon their specific genes. High-throughput sequencing projects like the Ocean Sampling Day and Tara Oceans Expedition enable us to monitor O. tauri and its viruses around the world

Extension of the Late Holocene Sea-Level Record In North Carolina, USA

Future sea-level rise will dramatically affect coastal landscapes and populations. The coast of North Carolina (USA) is particularly vulnerable to sea-level rise because its low-lying coastal plain is expansive, has a low gradient, provides significant ecosystem services and is economically important. In order to understand how future sea-level rise may affect the coast, it is necessary to study past sea-level rise. Widespread salt-marshes compose much of North Carolina's coastal system, providing an excellent environment from which to produce relative sea-level reconstructions using salt-marsh foraminifera, whose distribution is controlled by tidal elevation. Distinctive assemblage zones related to different tidal ranges can be recognized in salt-marsh foraminiferal assemblages, allowing them to be used as a proxy for reconstructing sea level as sea-level indicators.\r\n Foraminiferal assemblages from surface samples along two transects at Sand Hill Point on Cedar Island, North Carolina added to an existing modern training set of paired observations of foraminiferal assemblages and tidal elevation\; these data provide local analogues for interpreting fossil assemblages using a locally weighted-weighted average (LWWA) regression model. Foraminiferal assemblages preserved in a radiocarbon-dated core of salt-marsh peat from Sand Hill Point were used to produce a continuous, high-resolution late Holocene relative sea-level reconstruction.\r\n The existing late Holocene RSL reconstruction from North Carolina is based on two sites: Sand Point on Roanoke Island and Tump Point on Cedar Island. The Sand Point record spans the last ~2200 years, but the Tump Point record spans only the last ~1000 years. Therefore, the sea-level history described from 200 BC to 1000 AD is based on only one site. The new sea-level reconstruction from Sand Hill Point extends the existing record from nearby Tump Point, NC by 1400 years, producing a high resolution, continuous record of sea-level change spanning 1500 BC – 1915 AD. This new record tests whether patterns and rates of late Holocene sea-level changes reconstructed elsewhere in North Carolina are consistent throughout the region. The calculated average rate of relative sea-level rise for Sand Hill Point of 0.7 mm/year is consistent with patterns of regional rates along the US Atlantic coast, which may be partly attributed to isostatic response to deglaciation of the Laurentide Ice Sheet

Testing a Microarray to Detect and Monitor Toxic Microalgae in Arcachon Bay in France

Harmful algal blooms (HABs) occur worldwide, causing health problems and economic damages to fisheries and tourism. Monitoring agencies are therefore essential, yet monitoring is based only on time-consuming light microscopy, a level at which a correct identification can be limited by insufficient morphological characters. The project MIDTAL (Microarray Detection of Toxic Algae)—an FP7-funded EU project—used rRNA genes (SSU and LSU) as a target on microarrays to identify toxic species. Furthermore, toxins were detected with a newly developed multiplex optical Surface Plasmon Resonance biosensor (Multi SPR) and compared with an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). In this study, we demonstrate the latest generation of MIDTAL microarrays (version 3) and show the correlation between cell counts, detected toxin and microarray signals from field samples taken in Arcachon Bay in France in 2011. The MIDTAL microarray always detected more potentially toxic species than those detected by microscopic counts. The toxin detection was even more sensitive than both methods. Because of the universal nature of both toxin and species microarrays, they can be used to detect invasive species. Nevertheless, the MIDTAL microarray is not completely universal: first, because not all toxic species are on the chip, and second, because invasive species, such as Ostreopsis, already influence European coasts